Sticking to It

It was date night again with Mr. Zamboni. This time for a good cause. And well, I had to take a selfie with him because I got my hair de-tinseled on the way there and it's the only time it looks good!

Tonight was the Stick it to Cancer fundraiser for our friends' son Cale, who is an alum of the Assumption-Pacelli Co-op Hockey team (and Assumption) and currently victorious over Hodgkins Lymphoma. Good crowd and lots of people buying raffle tickets, baked goods, and rubber ducks (Yup, my first Chuck a Duck). I don't know the final total raised, but anything is good, right?

When I came home empty-handed except for a cupcake for each of us, hubby reminded me that's how it should be. You're supporting a cause, not worried about bringing home prizes. Still, had I known I actually had to chuck the rubber duck OVER the plexiglas wall, I would've warmed up my chucking shoulder. Not that I've chucked a softball or any ball in 25 years.

Back home, hubby was able to make it to the conference showdown between our Lady Royals and Auburndale. I believe it was for the expected conference title since their hoops records were tied at 11-2 going into what I thought was going to be a close one. But Jim said we won by 15 or so. And that brings our winning streak to 9! Love the that these girls are Sticking it to the Competition. (Another theme night!)

And now I gotta Stick a Fork into this Cupcake.

That's MY theme night. And one way to ensure SWEET dreams! 

 

Big City Scenes

Oh I forgot to share some of the scenes from the big cities – Milwaukee and Madison. The photo above was the nice sunset on our way to eat in the Third Ward Explorium on Saturday night. Not time to dawdle and look long because the temperatures bleepin' cold and it was windy.

On Sunday, when we made our way through Madison to drop off our friends' son and girlfriend – both students there – we saw a few unique scenes.

First was this dog actually wearing shoes and a jacket, just like his owners. Except the owner was wearing a certain brand and style of winter coat that retails for $1,500. Yup. Only in the big city.

And then there were these cute little R2-D2 type robots all over the place. They were delivering pizzas! Not kidding. I wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't seen them on several streets around campus. 

Guess we're finally getting to the kind of living we predicted the 2020s would be when we watched The Jetsons. I mean, I guess we are ... sort of...

More over, big town. We've even got most of these gadgets in our little sections of rural paradise! Still, it's fun to see an unusual thing or two in these strange lands that make us feel "normal," just the way we are.

A Weekend to Rave About

A few months ago, hubby was under the influence – of friends – and ordered tickets to a country music concert in Milwaukee. Disclaimer here: Jim is a big fan of classic country and I listened to some country in the '80s and '90s, but not since. When Jim told me about the concert, I asked, "Who the heck is Cody Johnson?" 

Well, now I know.

The influential friends are country (and every kind of) musicians he's come to know though the guitar choir he sings with at church. Turns out quite a few were going so we just sort of hopped along for the ride. All totaled, there was close to 25 of us hitting the big city yesterday afternoon. 

The concert was at The Rave (yes, a play on words in my title today) and that in itself is an experience. Carter's been to a few concerts there, but we hadn't. Pretty cool venue but not one I'd go to again if I wanted to really SEE a singer. 

It's mostly standing room only with some reserved seating on the balcony level – which we'd recommend. 

Here's the crowd last night and ...

And here's where we were! It didn't take long to see why the crowd was generally half our age. It's tough on the ol' knees and backs to stand on concrete for 4 hours!

Anyway, onto Cody Johnson. Very talented singer and he put on a good show. A good LOUD show. Again, we're 100% showing our age! We remembered our masks but not our ear plugs!

For the vertically challenged, it was tough to see him at all times and I could for enough of the time. Just really good music and a few songs I could sing along to, thanks to a crash course in Cody Johnson this week!

Here's a few photos from my view, which was just far enough for me to realize my smart phone camera sucks.

Anyway, I suggest you look him up. Google his song "Til you Can't" and watch/listen. Great message and one I belted out singing along to. And still had in my head when going to sleep after 1 a.m. Oh yes, this was a good time! 

Today, we're all tired, of course. Got back late afternoon. Did a few projects and now I'm ready for bed. Early. But I'm gonna have to catch up on some Olympics first. Apparently those kept right on going while the rest of us were tapping our toes.

Silly Goals

My new goal in life is to be as excited about eating my bowl of Fiber One cereal as Sylvester is waiting for me to finish – and leave her a few drops of milk in the bowl. You'll notice I threw in some Pumpkin Spice Cheerios in the bowl to add a bit of flavor to my cardboard.

It helps a bit. Healthy eating sucks sometimes.

My other new goal is to solve the Wordle puzzle each day. If you haven't heard of it yet, no worries. I apparently was living under a rock for the first few months it existed. 

Wordle is an online 5-letter word game that was invented by somebody in the U.K. It's actually only accessible by visiting the website here – it's not an app for your phone.

Each day a new word is released and you have six attempts to guess what the word of the day is. No clues, just guess a 5-letter word. If you're a Wheel of Fortune fan, you probably know the common letters to guess. After your guess, the tiles will change color to yellow if the letter is correct and green if the letter is correct AND in the right place in the word. Then you guess again and hope you get close enough you get the word in 6 tries. Word nerds like me love this.

And word nerds love getting it in 2 guesses and bragging about it! Yup. That won't happen again but it sure is fun to try! (Oh and the 230 is the puzzle number, not any type of score. You just get bragging rights.) My only advice for newbies is to pay attention to your "used letter board" so you don't waste guesses. 

Anyway, that's my random fun. Not like I'm setting Olympic goals here, people. Just normal middle-aged lady attainable ones!

Have a safe and fun weekend – whatever your version of fun is!

Sit and Spin

I didn't realize my favorite parts of the Olympics were starting tonight already BEFORE the opening ceremonies tomorrow. So this serves as your warning that blogs will be sporadic for the next 9 days – or whatever it is. 

Kitty and I are ready to virtually try the triple axles and the Salchow (which we call the Sow Cow) and the double toe and lutz thingy plus the sit and spin camel thingy, too. All without getting dizzy of course. Or heaven forbid, injured.

I did get into the spirit tonight before I got home and realized events were starting. Was at the girls hoops game against Athens. Both teams have similar records and for the first many, many minutes, our Lady Royals were down. We're talking 16-3 or something like that. I was too stressed to take pictures at that point.

But then like Olympians, they rallied for their country, er school, and worked as a team to come back and take the lead. They ended up winning by 64-38!

The lesson here and during these Olympics will be try your hardest and never give up. I mean if Sylvester can do the camel spin, anyone with two legs certainly can! 

Go team USA!

Funky Cold Groundhog

Who do you trust more to tell you the forecast – a grumpy rodent awakened from his winter slumber or an '80s rap artist? In this case, both indicate more winter. but I'll like that Tone Loc chimed in with Funky Cold winter!

Though, I'm not necessarily happy with either Tone or Punxsutawney Phil. Neither is Phil's ex...

That struck as very, very funny this morning. So I had to share. Everywhere.

After yesterday's 36 degrees, today's high of 11 was a return to the brutal winter we all know and love, er tolerate, here in Wisconsin. How did I cope? Nothing warms up the house like baking!

And banana bread? That warms up the tummy, too! 

Pretty productive evening indoors after venturing out briefly to the chiropractor. Got the raffle baskets done and out the door. Baked the banana bread. Got 3 design projects done. And my look at pictures I shot Monday that I completely forgot about.

Or may sit under a blanket and watch some steamy Hallmark movie. Hey, it's all about warmth for the next 6 weeks, thanks to Phil!

New Beginnings

It's fun when the Fed-Ex man can deliver a fresh start. This may look like an ordinary laptop box to you, but to someone in this house, it signifies the gateway (oops, wrong brand) to adulthood and a career.

Raise a cold one to Carter, who started his official first real, adult job today actually using his college degrees in business and German. Whoo-hoo!

When COVID hit the spring of 2020, he was just getting into an internship at the university study abroad office. He really enjoyed it and was bummed when it was basically canceled. Now, he's going to resume that line of work at a study abroad organization. He won't be focused just on German, but a variety of potential students going abroad or coming from abroad. I'll learn more as he gets into it.

It's a remote position – the headquarters are on Wall Street (true story) – so for now, he's working from the third home office in this house. No more nagging texts from Mom asking, "How's the job search going?"

That's a job perk right there! Wishing him the best as we all move forward in the journey called life! It can be pretty amazing.