Vacation: Day 3

Today was another family day. I went with Jaxon and his Mom to his ice skating lesson. I think that having me there was a bit too much pressure for a 3 1/2 year old. He'll be four in a couple of months. Even though I wore my hockey jersey too, it didn't help the cause. Grandma Janet was there too.

Then we went to McDonald's for breaky... lots more coffee today.

Then to Target with Mom and Culver's for a sundae. Then I took a stroll through Mayfair Mall. Malls are weird. Especially that mall. I will admit that there are a lot of things there that I just couldn't afford or understand spending money on. It's in a fancy suburb, so I was certainly out of my element.

Who cares?

Then I picked up the kids from school, drive through grub for everyone and Hailey to ballet. Sidney and Riley and I passed the time with ping pong and goofy talk. I like spending time with the kids. I wish that I could do that every week.

Vacation: Day 2

What will this day bring? I am going to see a house for the second time. I feel that my judgement was clouded and I could not see past colors and woodwork.

It is an overcast day here. So I won't feel bad if I spend the day inside getting some things done around here. We have already gone through two closets and I will work on another today. See, I am the type of person that will collect enough things to fill up all of the available space that I have. I remember thinking that I would never have enough stuff to fill up this place. I was wrong.

At any rate, I would like to accomplish as much as I can during this time. That way, when it is time to move, it can be relatively painless, I hope.

I also plan on drinking more coffee today than I did yesterday. I seem to always make too much. Hopefully today I got it right.

I wrote out the bills, but I can't find the stamps. I know that if I buy a whole new book of stamps that the book of stamps that I could not find will magically appear. Maybe I will just act like I will buy them...

Vacation: Day 1

This is day one. I have already dropped off clothes at Goodwill, shopping for some storage bins. Now it is toast and coffee time and in a few minutes off to Milwaukee. Should be a good day, I guess it is supposed to rain later, but for right now, the sun is out.

Thank You James Bond

I am lucky again! Here I have some time off, it hasn't even officially started and there is a James Bond Movie marathon on. Right now, it is "Goldfinger." Unfortunately it is on opposite of your Wisconsin Badgers in a now triple overtime matchup against Cornell for the last spot in the Frozen Four in Milwaukee. I even missed the best dialogue in the movie.

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

I know that I have seen these movies over and over again, but I really do love them. They are such a comfort to me. The music, the ridiculousness of the plots. Elvis movies too, although I don't see an Elvis movie on until later in April.

I am looking forward to Monday. Shopping and lunch with Grandma and Jimmy and Rosie will join us for lunch. I have some things to do in the morning and around here after that, but it should be all good. I also told Dan that I would have dinner ready for him when he got home. It will be a pork roast.

More on House Hunting

We spen the better part of the morning and early afternoon looking at houses. We thought we would find the place today. We thought that we had it worked out. We saw some very nice houses today but still haven't found our home. I know that we will. We just wish it would come along a bit sooner. When it is right, we will know it, right?

Big vacation plans starting to happen. Jaxon says that I can go ice skating with him and hold his hand. His Mom can tie his skates tight though.

The Beginning of Vacation

This is the beginning of my vacation. It came at just the right time, friend. I was just about to lose it. I need to relax. I need to re-charge. I need to find my energy and excitement again. I thin that I can find it again or it can find me again. I just need to let it channel through me.

Interesting thing - I have at least two cuts in my mouth right now. One must be from biting my cheek. The other may just be a freaky thing. I guess any cut in your mouth is freaky.

I better clean the bathroom or something. Dan is doing the dishes.

Five Things I Like...

1) Vacation (coming next week)
2) Pajamas
3) The Driving Range
4) Chocolate
5) Looking Forward to all of the Above

You may be asking yourself if there are five things that I don't like. Certainly there are just as sure as there are more than five things that I like. Why bother on that stuff? There is too much happening and life is too short. Sure I can, will and do try fix the things that I don't like. But I can't control everything. All I can do is all I can do. That's an easy one to say, isn't it?

Affirmation from St. Louis

Just as I suspected. There were no attempts from Brewers fans to get me to believe. Instead, I received affirmation from St. Louis today in the form of a brand new St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap.

It's been days, if not weeks since I asked out loud for some or any Brewers fan to convince me. Nothing. Either that means that there are no Brewers fans or none that would even believe it themselves once they saw it in writing.

Thanks to Uncle Joe.

So far, its Cardinals: 1, Brewers: 0.

And When You Wake Up, You Will Be in South Dakota

At least on Tuesday I will. That's right I am headed to South Dakota. I will only be in South Dakota for about 36 hours or so. I will spend a lot of time driving to South Dakota. I am kind of excited. I have never been to South Dakota. Now I will be able to check off a whole new state.

We went to the golf dome last night. It went pretty well. Now Dan and I each have golf shoes. We spent a great deal of the day "chasing" on Saturday. Lots of running around.

Today, we have a birthday party for Riley. That should be fun. Plus there will be cake.

St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

Here's how I will celebrate St. Patrick's Day

• Send cheesy St. Patrick's Day e-card to friend in Ireland
• Wear some sort of t-shirt that implies I am Irish (I am Irish, by the by) but only after work
• Be grateful that I am Irish
• Listen to the Pogues and Black 47
• Consider having corned beef and cabbage, but then decide against it because it is Lent

There won't be too much else to the celebrating, except perhaps wishing for a trip to Ireland one day.

Ann's Final Four Selections

Like I know anything about it, but here are my selections for the women's final four:
Tennessee vs. Baylor (winner is TENNESSEE)
Duke vs. DePaul (winner is DePaul)
TENNESSEE WINS IT ALL!

My selections for the men's final fou:
Syracuse vs. Gonzaga (winner is Syracuse)
Tennesse vs. Ohio Stat (winner is TENNESSE)
TENNESSEE WINS IT ALL!

Fear not, all of the WISCONSIN teams will do well... but just wait until next year.

Carnivore?

I will tell you that something has happened that has really thrown me for a loop. As you know, I give some things up for Lent each year, even though I don't have to. Apparently that tradition seems to be a Catholic one and one that I have held on to even though I probably didn't do it then.

I have chosen to give up soda, chocolate and red meat. That's what I do every year. No news flash there.

What happened even before Lent is that I started eating less meat in general... odd. It seems now that I mostly eat an herbivore diet for lunch and hold out until din-din for the meat. It is the strangest thing. Probably not so strange when I tell you that I have been fawning over washing machines and furniture lately too.

Swung the Clubs

Well, we swung the clubs yesterday. We also were lucky enough to take our niece Sidney to the golf dome. She had never been before and she had a blast. She wants to go again and said that golf clubs would make a great birthday present.

I was thrilled that she came with us. It was cool to spend a bit of time with her alone. I wish we could do that with each of the kids.

We also went to the Badger hockey game on Friday night. Way to go Bucky!

House hunting today. We may very well almost be there. A few questions to ask and if we like the answers then we are good to go.

Robin Yount is Back. How About Me?

Your Milwaukee Brewers have sent me a post card in the mail. It is from that new guy who owns the Brewers. Why am I getting a post card from him? See during the first year of the New County Stadium, D Banjo and I and our friends had a 20 game package. Six of us right in a row, the first row of the cheap seats on the upper level to be exact. They cost us $12 a piece. Not huge money, but money enough when the team really wasn't very good. Well, they started playing a bunch of games with us the next year. That's right the year of the "Exhibition" All Star Game. You can buy tickets, no you can't. Your ticket prices went up. Blah Blah Blah. We were not happy. So we didn't renew our tickets. They called. They wrote us letters. We never relented. Then Mr. Ulice Payne came to town. We went to games again. He was out of the concourse talking to fans, thanking them for coming. Then, no Mr. Payne. I hope that this new owner will run the organization like it should be. The Brewers can be good, they can get fans in the seats. I want to believe. I want to cheer for them. I want to be a Brewer fan. But, alas it is the Cardinals who have my heart. Compare the two teams, the two organizations. I know, but try. I triple dog dare you. Make me a believer.

The Oscars

So I watched the Oscars last night. It is fun but it is also funny to see how important the folks out in Hollywood believe they are. My pendulum swings on those folks. I love movies, I love seeing the acceptance speeches and all that. But really, they are movies. Just like a football game is just a football game. A concert is just a concert. But entertainment, no matter what form it takes plays an important part in our lives and in our culture. Escape, release, something to get into. I appreciate that. I embrace it. I take part in it. All award shows make me feel this way. As much as I enjoy it, I am sometimes repulsed by the smugness and self-importance that I see displayed. Or perhaps it is envy that I feel.

A Few Steps Closer

Home is a few steps closer... I can feel it. We'll see what happens over the next week. What I have to remember is not to forget all of the other things that are happening in our lives. Sure this is exciting for us, however life is still happening for us and around us.

It snowed today. Enough snow, thank you. We could use more degrees. We do not need more snow. We need more sunshine. It is true that the precipitation will help out for spring flowers, grass and vegetation. Enough is enough I tell you.

It will be a while before spring really gets here, but it is on its way. We know that it will happen, but it will just take a while.

This might be a long week for me... Monday will be challenging, but then it will be over. I will wake up and the new day will be Tuesday.

My New Golf Shoes are Here!

My golf shoes are here! I even got to try them on for about 10 minutes... and even had on the tassles. I can't wait for the season to get here. I think I have only golfed in warm weather once. The other times is was cold and windy or cold, windy and rainy.

We may go to the golf dome next weekend, but that will be on Saturday. Friday night we have tickets to the Badger hockey playoffs in Madison. It should be fun. Bonus, we are celebrating our sixth anniversary. A double hat trick.

Blog Block

I must be thinking about this too hard because I am having a difficult time finding things to write about. Certainly we have things happening. It's just that I am having a hard time writing about any of it. We are planning on house hunting again this Sunday. I think this time will be different from last time. It is pretty tiring though. Not that it is strenuous work, just that you see a lot of kitchens. That's a lot of kitchens. I am glad to be so tired from something like that. This is something that we have been looking forward to for quite some time and we are very fortunate that we are in a position to be looking for a house. Home isn't too far away.