Well we finally made it to the weekend.  A lot going on at work with some training this week and next,  so need the mind rest!  Some partly sunny this morning,  but winds going over 30 mph I think.    Put the pontoon boat in this week which feels good to have that done.   But I had put the posts in to tie off on and needed to finish them up this weekend.  They are taking a beating this morning.  I had to put a support in on to battle the northwest gusts.  It should let up tonight, and be less tomorrow.  But continue out of the northwest and cool, so there won’t be any boating.

We had the carpet cleaned this morning, so they are in and gone.   Chris is about to lift off from Alburquerque at 9:30 am our time.  She will get into Appleton at 2:30 pm.  Sounds like she had great weather in New Mexico, she won’t be acclimated for our freeze warnings tonight!

So one week from today and we will be waking up in Hayward. Hopefully much calmer and warmer.  I better take a winter jacket along for fishing, and hope to use shorts instead!

Have a good weekend.

The weekend was a little cool and wet.  But a pretty nice weekend overall.   Chris made it to Alburquerque,   with a slight plane problem.   We are 3 for 3 this month with plane problems when flying!   But she is there basking in warm weather.

And I spent some time with Mom on Mother’s day.  And Skip, Claire and Denise.   Claire had her Mothers Day with a trip to the zoo.  And we all met later at Mom’s, with Skip and Claire picking up supper.    Mom is doing well and we had a nice afternoon.

Before I went down I changed oil on a vehicle and cut the grass,  which badly needed it.  Lot’s of outdoor projects to do,  I’ll have to see how the weather holds,  more rain predicted this week.

I hope everyone had a good Mother’s Day!

So far this has been a good spring.  Some above average temperatures,  not too much rain.  The flowers and plants are coming back pretty well,  it does not seem like the very cold winter has done too much damage.   I don’t see life in a few plants and the roses yet,  but it is still early.  The apple trees are close to blossoming, so hopefully no cold snaps or heavy winds on the way.  Last year they froze off!

The dock is all in and the run about is on the lift.   Pontoon boat hopefully not too far from getting in.  Hopefully I will get out fishing these next couple of weeks.   The water is low though, so some more rain and the DNR keeping some dams closed would help.   But we will take what we can get and enjoy the good days.  Enjoy spring and look forward to a wonderful summer.

We finished our days in Florida last week.   We had a great time in Boynton Beach, visiting friends and enjoying the weather.   And we had another night to spend with Darren and Sheryl – Thanks!.   It was relaxing and enjoyable to catch up.   So we came back to work a day and then flew out Thursday night to Detroit.

That went well and we had another great time in Detroit.  We started out when we landed being taken to a brew pub that has 63 beers on tap,  unbelieveable!  A great selection and some food and we headed back to Mary Jane and John’s to get some rest.  Friday we headed to Ann Arbor to be tourists for a day.  Skip and Claire were doing a week tour of Michigan and joined us.  It was wonderful weather with sun and probably 80 degrees.  And we did not do well on the full tour of downtown Ann Arbor.   I kept it to 3 brew pubs, a bar and a chocolate shop – sorry Claire.   But we all had fun and had plenty of beer tasting and plenty of food.   We all ended up back at Mary Jane and John’s to end the night.

Saturday John and I did some fixes around the house.  Unfortunately what started out as perfect weather turned into some heavy rain in the evening,  which did some damage to the work we did on the driveway.  But hopefully that holds up for John!  And we went out to dinner with John’s parents and it was good to see them again,  it had been too long.

And Sunday we slept in and then went to church in Plymouth Michigan so we could attend mass with Father Lee, John’s cousin.   Then after a nice lunch in Plymouth we had to go to the airport.  We could have taken more time had we known that the plane was going to break down as we taxi’d to the runway,   but it did not take long to get a replacement!

So now we need to stop eating for a week, and get used to the Wisconsin cold weather again!  But plenty to do here to get ready for summer, which I hope is still coming.  Some flowers have blossomed, so that does make it feel better!

Warmer days coming, tulips and daffodils are pushing out of the ground.  Of course we need to keep the deer away from them.   And Saturday we head to Florida for just a few days.  We start out getting to see Darren and Sheryl Ender’s place and get to see the kids.   Then Sunday head to Boynton Beach.   And Tuesday already head back.  We will spend Tuesday night with them and fly out of Orlando Wednesday morning.  If things go well I will work Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, and then Thursday night we fly to Detroit to spend a few days with Mary Jane and John.  So it will be a fun week.

I hope everyone had a great Easter, and Spring comes to stay!

April may be here, but it does not feel like it yet.   We have wind chills in the 20’s right now.   And we won’t be getting close to normal anytime soon!    But we are keeping busy.  This last weekend we were in Minneapolis.  Chris had a convention and went along and visited some companies I work with.   A good time,  and I had a chance to visit with Nephew Craig.   I had a chance to see St Paul and Minneapolis.  We had some good food and great beers.  Craig has a very nice flat he rents,  reminded me a lot of the houses we lived in while in Milwaukee.  Built in hutch and wood work, the same bathroom tile!

It was good to spend some time with him, as we have not had that opportunity for a long time.  And he was a great host.

Sunday morning we headed home. Unfortunately it started snowing Saturday night.  But it was warm enough that the roads were clear and wet.  So no problems.  And just over half way back we got out of the snow and the roads were dry.  Even though they were predicting more snow it never made it to Omro, which we are thankful for.   And the ice broke up while we were gone,  likely in these heavy winds.   My boat lift was on blocks to keep it out of the ice, but it is no longer.  I am guessing the ice blocks driven by the wind took care of that.   But it doesn’t look like any damage, so I will just have to jack it up to get a boat underneath to move it again this spring.

So Easter coming up, so we will head to Milwaukee this upcoming weekend.  And then looking forward to Florida the weekend after that.  We only will be there a couple of days, but it will be nice!   It has been a long haul since we were there last.  But my assistant is back to work and this is our first chance.  Not sure if we will get back until fall then.

Have a good Easter!

Well it doesn’t sound like March will go out any easier than it came in.  So I am hoping for rain tomorrow, and not more sleet and snow.  We saw enough of that this weekend in Milwaukee.  That was messy!  But we spent a little time with Mom and got to spend an evening with good friends John and Mary.  So that was great even with the weather.

Sunday we took a nice ride over to Sparta, had a nice meal there and spent the night.  This morning we dropped off hunting applications at the Sparta Post Office for post mark today, and then drove home to work.

So we had a good weekend.  relaxing, now back to work but will get some relaxing in this week.   We are supposed to go out with some old friends in Green Bay tomorrow night, but will need to monitor the weather.   And Thursday night we are driving to Minneapolis.  Chris has a convention and I have some companies I work with to visit.  And possibly get to see my nephew while Chris is doing her thing.  And home on Sunday.

It was 18 degees driving back this morning, and we still have ice on the lake.  Although the river side is open and there has been some shifting.  So there is a little bit of water in front of us where it split.   So still hoping for spring, but I filled up the wood pile tonight just in case.

OK,  we have had much better weather and it has felt great.    And most of the snow in the driveway Was melted.   But this morning is a reminder this IS Wisconsin!  All White during the night.  But we are hoping for a quick melt.

Still lot’s of ice on the lake.   The pontoon poles that we tie off to have been bent over by the ice again this winter, so I started jacking those out this week and hope to complete that this weekend.  It is much easier to get them out with solid ice to work on than in the water.   And I think check the chimney cap for a cleaning today, and put the hitch in the truck.  That is a sign of Spring.  When I moved the trailers next to the garage in the fall I thought the ground where the water was hooked up and gotten solid.  Wrong, when my trailer sunk in a couple of feet!  So it is in rather awkward, and when the rest of the snow pile is gone in the driveway I will move the trailer and have a truck load of screenings delivered.   I can put down a couple of feet of screenings and then drive over that and compress it down.  Eventually I will have more room to park next to the garage since the well casing is gone now.

Life seems busy but good.  We continue to have jobs in a tough economy and are blessed to be able to go out to eat or cocktails when we want.  St Patricks day I went to a town board meeting instead of the pub – I am not sure that was mentally better for me,  but physically I probably survived better.  We hopefully are on track to get a new road in before July, which will be welcome.  But still are dealing with water issues on our road,  but progress is being made there.  We do have some upcoming trips planned to Florida Detroit and Chris to New Mexico.  And Sparta and Hayward on the list also.  So the next months will go quickly.   And weekends to see Mom in Milwaukee in between.

We hope your life is good!

And it does not seem to let up!  Officially over 7 inches yesterday,  and most of my driveway seemed like more.   We did have some melting today, but by Wednesday night it is supposed to be close to zero,  again.   This is March?

So we try to keep busy to think about having some fun.  Last week the Fox Valley celebrated the return of Schlitz and had a party at one of my favorite places,   which I made some time to attend.  I bowled that night and my bowling suffered after having several good nights!  Oh well.  And the last couple of Friday’s we have volunteered at ST Raphael’s fish fry.  They run all through lent.  They have had record breaking nights.  Usually the first night is the slowest, they served 725 last year on the first night.  This year we served over 900 and ran out of baked haddock, baked potato’s, french fries,  potato salad, macaroni and cheese, bread!  And last week they served over 1100, the food was better stocked but still were running out of things at the end of the night.

Saturday night I volunteered with my homebrew club at Hops and Props, a fund raiser at the EAA museum.  A great place to have an event.  And 5 bands and lot’s of great beers.  Needless to say I had a great time.   Chris picked me up at a local establishment after she reminded me that the clocks were moving ahead that night and we had to get up in the morning.

Sunday we went to 9 am mass and afterwards met a number of the neighbors at Robbins restaurant for brunch.  They have very good food and selection and it is nice to get to talk to some of the people who we don’t see much of during the winter!  It’s not like I stop outside to talk much in this weather!

And then of course came the snow.   We are hoping that Spring will really come this year.   We plan to visit MJ and John at the end of April.  No Florida trips currently on the calendar – although I sure would like to be there!

Another cold week goes by.   At least the sun is feeling warmer these days,  but the air is so cold today you need to sit in the window like Sassy.  This is waaaay too cold for March 1st.  And I hate cold.     I did go out ice fishing for a few hours yesterday afternoon.  With the sun on the shack it got very warm out there.  But there was very little wind yesterday.  Much windier out of the north today, and I think colder.  Only 10 degrees at 1 pm  They say the end of the week may be better, and of course snow or rain.  But I’ll take that rather than the cold.

Friday night Chris and I worked at the fish fry at St Rapheal’s.  They had more people than they have ever had for a first night of the season.  And we ran out of baked potatoes, baked haddock, macoroni and cheese, potato salad.   Have to have more next week!  They served over 900.

I did get Chris’s computer fully up and running.  Just finished with some network computers.  A friend (thanks Tom) reformatted the drive and installed Windows XP (instead of the Vista it came with.   And I bought a new upgrade of Lap Link PC mover software.  I had to clean up some registry issues to get it to install on the old computer.  But then everything transferred over to the new computer. Even the network settings so I did not need to redo those.   So I think we have her all set now, her work accounts seem to be working fine.  And I asked her to use FireFox more than Internet explorer, so she needs to reset her book marks.  But the Acer seems very fast.  And it helps all the garbage that comes installed on a new computer is no longer there and I tried not to transfer those from the old one.   Now the old one goes to Florida. The backlight of the notebook monitor is out, but we can use the auxilory monitor down there.

So now I think a project in the basement.  I wanted to go back out fishing but the cold may keep me inside.  Not that I am catching any fish – none.  But it is very relaxing.  And if I was serious about catching more fish I would move the shack out further, but I like it in close where I can keep an eye on it.  And it needs to come off for the season next Sunday.   The fish should be in our bay this time of year, but it should not be so cold this time of year.

So take care,