The Colors of Weekend

It's been a colorful weekend. But I'll be honest, I didn't like ALL of the colors. Like above. Yes I realize we often consider Labor Day weekend as the end of summer, but dang, I wish the leaves would pay attention to the real calendar! Not quite ready for fall, that's for sure.

Saturday was a very laid back day on Blue Jay Drive. Finally got a little bonding time with Mr. Deck Chair!

In the evening, I shot pictures of the last waterski show of the season. It got dark pretty quickly so i didn't have a ton of stellar shots. I love how they twist and turn off the jump and I never know which way is up, but they more often than not "stick the landing." 

Today we tried to hold onto summer green.

Since our golf scramble for Royals Football got rained out 2 weeks ago, we got together with the other half of our foursome and golfed 18 at Bullseye this afternoon. Always a fun time with Mark and Trisha.

Saw plenty of wildlife – well mainly deer – who were trying to distract us on this very uphill par 3.

You can barely see the green from down below but look where I landed! Bring on my birdie dance!! Nevermind that I had an 8 on the hole prior. No one can take away my legit, non-Mulligan birdie!

After our round, we caught dinner at Ida's. Always yummy.

Speaking of yummy... I was just thinking of yummy chocolate...

As in the color of our new neighbor's nose! Yup, don't tell my hubby, but I am in love with the new guy next door. Meet Moose! A mini Bernedoodle, but a BIG cutie!

Hope you had some color or at least a bright spot or two to your weekend. Yay for no alarms tomorrow! Happy Labor Day!

Back to School and Whatnot

My fault for a lack of memory, but I wasn't prepared that my first day back after a long holiday weekend was the first day back at school for a bunch of high schoolers who used the same roundabout as me to get to work.

So when I got off the interstate, I was immediately at a standstill while we all navigated that traffic circle together. Meanwhile, my big concrete office was in the "near" distance the whole time. Good thing I don't have a super strict work schedule. I do also remember from last year that it was pretty just the first day of school that was hectic. Crossing my fingers that is still the case.

Good thing I was rewarded for my slow work day start up with a relaxing golf league ending to it. We had our whole OG foursome so that was fun. Plus, since I woke up with crazy back pain, it forced me to swing slower and, therefore, more successfully. Not a bad evening at all!

Naturally, we hated seeing the sun sink so low during our round. I mean we all flipped the calendar to September, but we'd love some grace to embrace it and still get in our league rounds during daylight. Two more weeks. That's all we ask.

Side note: I'm playing my best rounds (finally), so don't blow it, Mother Nature.

Hope you had a nice return to reality – and whatnot!

Monday Funday Checkered Flag Day!

It's pretty much our Labor Day plans to head to Golden Sands for some racing. Naturally, it's always a bonus when our nephew Colin is racing.

This year, it just happened that he claimed the Track Championship a couple weeks ago. So it was fun to watch him at his peak of the season.

We sat with our usual racing friends and it was great to see them AND on a day when the temps were only in the mid-70s versus 90s at this time last year.

Colin qualified with the 5th fastest time so was eligible to compete in the Fast 5 Dash. He won that and earned that top photo. When the feature came around, it took awhile to figure out what was happening since the scoreboard didn't work – after being struck by lightning this summer.

Thankfully, we could watch him passing several cars in the feature and end up finishing 5th. Great job!

I love that his daughter – our great-niece Mya – was willing to help sign autographs.

Meanwhile Colin was eager to meet fans and sign his own autograph.

While son Eli was thrilled to get one from Dad! That just made for a pretty cool day off!

Happy Labor Day

All this time I thought May 1st was all about flowers, baskets (and usually better than 40-degree temperatures) for May Day. And here it's Labour Day. Well for me... Labor Day. 

Yup, 25 years ago today I was in labor for 13 hours and even though things were slow-going, I told the doctor, "I want a May Day baby." Not that I cared about the date so much as wanting relief!

But it's an easy date to remember. I just can't believe this little T-ball playing boy is a 25-year-old man now!

Mommy and Daddy agree this is one of our favorite pictures of all time. He wore out this Nike cap and the one after that!

And still looks so darn cute wearing his hat backward! Yes, I am a bit biased.

Jim and I tried video calling him with a "Happy Birthday" at noon, figuring he was on his lunch break, but he didn't answer. Assuming the positive, I figured he was on a work call. But then he called us back a few minutes later. 

He had just gotten up.

He took the day off to recover from the weekend and relax.

Oh boy! That's our boy! Just smile and giggle. And realize we probably would've done the same thing when we were turning 25. Or just about any age in our 20s! 

He's in Wisconsin for a wedding this weekend so we're hoping he'll come up and see us tomorrow. The house smells like fresh-out-of-the-oven Hornet's Cake (his request) and we might just have to give him a 24-hour time limit before we cut that first piece.

OK. Maybe 25 hours. One for each amazing and blessed year he's filled our hearts.

Happy birthday, Carter Joe! You were worth every second of labor! 

Non-Labor Day

Happy Labor Day! I had some work to do today but it was not in the office or anything resembling an office! Finally got out to golf on my "home" course! My neighbor Marigene and I enjoyed the views at TriCity and were satisfied with a hit or two, too! 

Been forever since we golfed together. Had fun catching up since it seems like summer flew and left us behind! So it was good to have a mutual day off. We did not labor at all – just worked on par putts. Didn't make them, but worked on them!

This afternoon, I relaxed in the sun and visited with another neighbor. My friend Cindy and I just chit-chatted and caught up. I guess the theme is that I've been gone (busy) and I had catching up to do!!

Spent the rest of the afternoon preparing to do just that – be gone.

Heading to Boston before the crack of dawn for a work conference so packed this afternoon and did my Saturday chores, which slipped my mind Saturday. And Sunday. 

Since I have to leave the house by 4:30 a.m. for an early flight, I'm actually gonna have to cut this day off short. Alarms are one thing. Stinkin' early alarms another!

Hope you found time to relax today! If you had to work, I thank you! 

Last Call

In case you didn't know, King Cone closes for the season tonight at 9 p.m. Our Wisconsin Rapids branch, not Plover. And yes, I'm serious. I never kid about ice cream.

Anyway, I had to stop by after date night pizza at Tri-City Golf Course. That was tasty and it just feels good to support small businesses, right? So really, it was my duty to swing by the Cone and stock up on 3 pints. Two Carrot Cake for me and one Pirates' Booty for hubby.

I'm still too full from the pizza to taste any, but I'm sure they all pass inspection! 

There were more highlights to this Labor Day – and not just cleaning my Scrap Cave and shooting senior pictures. But I'll share another time. I gotta publish this important public service announcement so you have time to get there!

Enjoy. Happy Labor Day to us all!

Learning from the Ladies

One thing I've learned from the ladies competing at the Solheim Cup is ... everyone has a bad day. And several of my fellow Americans fall into that category.

But not my friend Marigene and me. We always have a good day on the course! Because one, we're golfing and it's sort of free since it a Christmas present punch card of each of us. Two, the weather was absolutely gorgeous at sunny and 72. And three, when you don't keep score, you have nothing to stress about.

But I did keep score today because I had a halfway decent day. Maybe because I got pumped up watching the Solheim Cup before we headed out on the links today. Or maybe because I didn't have a single three-putt today. That's huge for me!

And we accomplished all that before noon. Then it was home and variety of projects intermixed with some golf watching – men's and women's – and some bonding with Mr. Deck Chair. Hubby was up in Marshfield visiting his aunt. And got home a little bit ago.

Now it's 7:45 p.m. and almost dark. Dang. Not ready for this transition! At least tomorrow is still the weekend.

Hope you all enjoy a day off!

Wait, We Still Have a Weekend Left

Our sunset view on the drive home tonight was reflective of the day. Mostly beautiful with some low-lying foggy parts.

Let's get the foggy parts out of the way first. What the heck, Badgers!? Sigh.

OK, now the good stuff...

My friend Cindy and I went down to Lake Arrowhead for their annual craft fair – every Labor Day weekend. Rain was done by midmorning so it was all good. We weren't there to buy anything. Just get ideas and say at least 38 times "I could make that." And we can!

Then we see signs like this and think, "You know, we should probably buy something to support these small businesses." We are nothing if not generous and big-hearted. But truthfully, we did get a lot of ideas for our Cricut Kingdom!

This afternoon after the Badgers stunk it up, I got a little sorting and organizing done in my Scrap Cave. I've got a scrapbooking weekend coming up next month so I better figure out what pictures I need printed for that. No rest for the wicked scrappers!

Didn't spend a ton of time in there since we were taking Cindy and Mike out to eat at Two Lakes for their anniversary. Well 2 months late, but better late than never. And it was soooooo tasty as always!

I swear for an incorporated area in the middle of Wisconsin, they have the best coconut shrimp on the planet! 

We were all so full. Then someone had to order dessert. And I had to help him. Obviously. I mean look at that! It was painful, but with my help, we powered through.

Cindy and I always get a picture at Two Lakes. For me, at least, it's the rare occasion I curl my hair. Ha.

And the anniversary couple! 44 years. Wow! Way to go, kids!

Now we're all in our houses and ready to fall asleep. Maybe there was tryptophan in that brownie. It seems like a post-Thanksgiving meal kind of feeling. Even my dessert compartment is full. And that doesn't happen often.

As a bonus to this beautiful day, we still have two days left of the weekend! Yay. Hopefully tomorrow is not quite as full. Unless we mean full of exercise. There's a potential I'll have some guilty feelings in the morning. When my tummy makes room for them, that is.

Keep enjoying this long weekend!

The Heat is On

Our night of "good sleeping weather" turned into a morning endurance competition of "how long can we hold out before turning on the heat?" We lasted until just shy of noon.

The temps seriously plunged everywhere. At least we didn't have snow accompanying our drop. Just your usual back-to-school, day after Labor Day reminder from Mother Nature: "When I say Labor Day is the end of summer, I mean it!"

So the house is a warm 69 degrees and it's time for homework.

Nope, not going back to school. Just realized that if our fantasy football draft is in an hour, I should probably do a little homework. Thank you, Internet. I obviously am not that concerned since 10 minutes ago, hubby says, "You have a draft tonight and you're sitting here knitting?!"

OK, one, it's crocheting, not knitting. And two, yup, I have a draft at 8 p.m. and I'm not prepared. For the record, it's the work "fun league" so I'm not going to be out any money if I do poorly. And I'm not going to have a windfall if my team does great. Still, I guess I have a little time to Google up something special so the Swedish Chef Mafia can win a game or two this year!

Vare der ferk do I start? Vish me luck!

The Lovely Long Weekend

Took advantage of the "extra day" between the weekend and the work week and went Up North Sunday to see my mom. And as a bonus, 4 sisters and a niece, too!

Got up to Grantsburg at noon and went out to lunch at T-Dawg's bar and grill. Met up with some other members of the Masked R Gang...

RoAnn and Romey...

Mona Lisa (aka Renell) and Raylene (and her daughter Ashley was there, too).

It was a nice visit. Hadn't seen Ro since last Christmas and the others –including Mom – I've only seen once since then. Even masked hugs feel so good!

After the crowd dispersed, Mom taught me a new-to-me card game called Hand and Foot. I guess it's sort of like Canasta or something, but I've never played that either. Thankfully my sister Nell stayed to play, too. She helped explain the rules since my mother is so competitive (that's where I get it) that I wasn't sure if she was making them up as we went along!

It honestly took all game for me to figure out what was going on. But I was having beginner's luck and leading somehow.

Until the last hand. When my sneaky mom came from behind to win! That's the story of our lives. And seriously – I told this to Mom, too – I was so impressed that an 88-year-old can have such a sharp mind that she can grasp all these rules and adding points, etc. We are so lucky to have her!

Since the game wrapped up around 8 p.m., I decided not to drive the 4-hour trek back to Rapids. Instead, I crashed at my sister Romey's house and came back today.

I got back too late to go see my nephew Colin race this afternoon. But, as it turned out, the races got rain delayed, then postponed to Sept. 18. So a Hallmark movie on the recliner for me, it is! 

I love those extra long weekends, don't you?

My Next Paid Holiday is Thanksgiving

I don't just think of Labor Day as the end of summer, I think of it as the last paid holiday until Thanksgiving. That's 86+ days or 12-ish weeks. And that's why I get everything I can out of this three-day weekend!

Today, I got a walk in, some de-cluttering/discarding done, visited my hair artist (because some people do work on Labor Day), then joined hubby and whole bunch of fans watching our nephew Colin race at Golden Sands Speedway.

Our weekend schedules didn't match up to well this summer so I'm glad we got to see him compete today in the last race for the Tundra Series. There were 28 cars in the marathon feature. It was 108 laps and took about an hour thanks to all the cautions. I was surprised no one ran out of gas. Or maybe they did since they only had 21 finish.

So proud of Colin. He had fast qualifying time today. Then during the feature, he started in 11th and worked his way up to finish 5th! That was a very good finish for a crazy race. So glad he and his car are in one piece and avoided all the "mishaps."

It was a glorious day so I did take a ton of pictures. Since I had time and all. I won't post one from each lap or anything! Just a few.

Now it's early to bed and back to reality tomorrow. Work for us and for Mr. College, it's back to school! Sleep tight, everyone!

Rainy With A Slight Chance of Labor

In my head, this was my vision of Labor Day. Hubby was going to get some relaxing golf in. I was going to take some senior pictures. And we both could bake in the hot sun with watching our nephew race.

So my visions were definitely cloudy. Rainy even.

While Jim did get some golf in. Both the stock car races and my photo shoot were called off for the day. The rain was just too unpredictable.

I did manage to squeeze in 10,000 steps mowing the front yard between rain clouds. So that was it for my labor. How did I reward myself? Well...

When rain cancels outdoor plans and laziness cancels indoor ones, you go to King Cone and try out their new Carrot Cake flavor. So worth the trip! As usual.

I was hoping it would give me some ambition to do some projects around the house. Still waiting on that one. Do I need to make another trip? I could probably handle that kind of labor on Labor Day.

Working it off, though... not so much.

Hope you found a way to relax and enjoy the long weekend!

Lattice Rejoice and Be Glad

This is the day that the Lord hath made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Remember all those times I said it would be nice to have a day between Saturday and Sunday? Today sort of felt like that. A bonus day to get things done. Thanks be to God and all the domestic goddesses.

I was on a mission. I got my "Saturday chores" of dusting, sweeping and vacuuming done. Went to the store. Came home and painted and painted, made an Apple-Snicker Salad, and painted some more.

No matter what, I had to bring that summer landscaping project closer to completion. The thing with painting pieces of lattice is that it's putzy. The top lay, the under layer and the sides of both layers all need to be painted. I had 3 normal pieces and one longer one to get done before we could leave and get together with our friends Mike and Christine and company.

Got it done right before 3 p.m. so I could shower and we could head to town. Had a yummy barbecue and great visit with the gang. I think there were 16 of us and we hadn't gotten together as a group this summer. Very nice.

Tonight, just Christine and my scrap sister Jenny and I headed down to the Trail's End Bar to listen to the Almost Famous band play awhile. If you recall, the lead singer, Kat, is a classmate of hubby's. Got to visit with her on break, so that was nice.

What a rockin' way to draw the summer to a close. And we still get tomorrow!

Tomorrow is pretty booked so I'll just rejoice in what I got done and what I got to do today!

Warmth of Friendship

It's sort of like Mother Nature flipped a switch on September 1 and made summer come to an end. Even though we know it technically lives on for 3 more weeks, it's tough to ignore temps in the 40s and 50s.

It was chilly last night and today, well, the precipitation definitely couldn't be classified as a warm summer rain!

Hubby left by 8 a.m. to go help some friends set up their deer stands on their land on the western edge of the county. While he labored in the rain showers, I enjoyed some hot coffee and "catching up" time with my BFF in town for the weekend.

Had a nice visit with Christine and went home to warm the house with laundry and baking. About 2 p.m., the other halves of the men on the land (aka Lunch Ladies) left town to take lunch to the hard workers. I should say, lunch and a dry change of clothes!

Spent the afternoon out there. Rain finally stopped by 5 p.m. Came home to drop off a few things and wash the muddy clothes, then rejoined the group just down the road for a campfire.

It's always fun to have a campfire. Tonight it served a dual purpose – center of a ring of friends and a much-needed heat source! Just like turning on the outdoor furnace.

Typical of Wisconsin weather, tomorrow is supposed to bounce back to summer-like weather with sun and temps in the 80s. We'll be sitting in a different ring of friends and still feeling the warmth.

Pretty cool, huh? And not in a "Mother Nature is bipolar" way.

Laboring Day

Even though most people think of Labor Day as the end of summer, I like to hang onto summer as long as I can. And technically, I have at least 17 more days of it!

So today, in honor of Labor Day and a paid holiday, we grabbed the nearest Union member we could find and went kayaking. Well, it's kind of just coincidence that Mike is a Union member but do sincerely thank all union members and hard-working folk who made this day possible!

The fearsome finless foursome took a new route today. We put in at Galecke Park between Rapids and Plover, then labored our way up the Wisconsin River over to Rusty's Backwater Saloon. All totaled, it was a 5.55-mile paddle.

Had a mix of sun and clouds (mostly clouds) but no rain. Yay.

Due to a very high amount of boat traffic, there was not much in the way of wildlife today. Tried to get close to my little winged friend here but he took off.

Saw some lily pads but got my fill of them last time so only slowed down when I saw this busy bee. Of course, he took off before I could snap another photo. Probably good since we don't need bees around my allergic hubby.

We got to paddle into a little inlet for lunch. I thought it was cool that we crossed through what used to be a bridge.

Wasn't really a shoreline at Rusty's so we all ungracefully stepped out of our kayaks onto a dock and pulled the vessels ashore. The bar and grill was packed but we all enjoyed a tasty lunch! Were just as graceful getting back into the water after, but still managed to stay dry!

Cindy and I decided summer ain't over 'til we say it's over. And it ain't over. There is still more 'yaking to do. Just gotta find the time and daylight!

The view of the old bridge as we leave the cove.

Between the boats and the wind, the water was crazy wavy today. So there was some laboring going on! We just hit a pocket of calm near this island so I had to record it. You can see how cloudy it was at this point.

Hubby heading home and back to the work week. Sad face.

On a happy note, we connected with college boy via text tonight. He had a busy and fun weekend and met lots of people. He even picked up his textbooks today. So he just has to set his alarm tonight and tomorrow the adventure begins!