Misc

More snow yesterday, we finally have a nice layer of insulation and moisture across the yard.

The sun is out today and the birds are busy at the feeders.

Dark Eyed Junco

Goldfinch, starting to show his spring mating colors

Northern Cardinal

Male, Northern Cardinal

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀
Basketball season ended on Wednesday night for the Luck Cardinals & the Spring Valley Cardinals.  Both girls teams lost their first game of Regional tournament play.
I sent a message to Stella after the game and got this very sweet response. I was trying to cheer her up, but it ended up making me feel quite special.

I'm looking forward to attending a track meet and trying my hand at some action shots.

🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃

I finished up my commitment to help with the state level Academic Decathlon judging.  I read & judged many essays over the last week.  Last night, I helped conduct 9 interviews with student participants.  They were amazing.  I loved every minute.  We finished our last interview at almost 9pm.  

My judging partner was a very interesting man who had served in the military as a linguist expert.  He started out in Russian but later learned Arabic.  He was a nice man and we had some very interesting conversations between students.  It was a very enjoyable evening.  

The awards ceremony is taking place today.

I wish that they could all win.

 

Sunshine on new snow, it is a beautiful thing

Behold! The artistry of Mother Nature.

10 inches of new snow on a sunny morning.

Our stray Buddy showed up last night for a meal.

I really must redo the snack shack so that his tail can fit indoors.

(That will be a summer project.)

 

Middle School Boys Basketball

 Great nephew Owen was playing a couple of games at Cumberland on Saturday, so I met up with his Mom, & Dad and little brothers & Grandma Lois to watch him play.

Owen and his team have improved since the last time I saw them play.  It will be fun to watch these kids as they move on to JV and Varsity basketball

Basketball

 Wisconsin has published data showing significant drops in the positive Covid cases.  Finally.  I hope this is not another false alarm and that we really will start returning to normal activities.

I decided I would attend a few basketball games.  Most of the time I can maintain distance from the general public.  I even enjoyed the games without wearing a mask...right or wrong.  I'm still masking when I go to the grocery or Kwiktrip.  But it was blissful to sit at the game, visiting with family and friends again.

Stella plays both JV & Varsity for Luck.  The Varsity has had a dismal year with very few wins, the JV shows promise for next year's squad.

Stella plays with intensity.  It is fun to watch her play.

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

Great niece Ruby plays on the 7th grade team at Luck.  She plays so hard, I say she is a warrior.  Right now she has better skills than many of the other girls and she has conquered the tendency to be timid and is not afraid to fight for the ball and to go for the steal.

Ruby plays with a smile on her face.  After the game, I asked her two questions...Did you do your best?  Did you have fun?  She answered yes to both.  I told her that was the most important thing, the scoreboard is not as important.

This was Ruby's last game of the season.  She had a good fan club there with Great Aunt Lois, Great Aunt Wanda, Grandma Lois, and Mom & Dad.

Great Aunt Lois Skow, Great Aunt Wanda, Grandma Lois Johansen
Ruby Anna

💖💖💖

Ruby's little brothers were there too.  Jude had a friend along.  This prehistoric guy was spending the night with Jude.  If I understood correctly, each student gets to have the dino for a night at home.

Jude has gotten very tall.  Kids grow like weeds.

Wow.

Valentine Mission

 Took a batch my woven paper Danish heart ♥️ baskets with me to the clinic today,  planning to give them as valentines to every person who helped me in any way..  

Eye opening, I was about 5 short. 

One clinic visit and by the time you are greeted,  check in,  xray, checkin again,  assistant to MD, MD, make next appointment, volunteer who says goodbye, etc....a person has contact with a lot of staff. 

All front line workers & I am grateful.

I got big smiles as I gave them their Valentine. Made me smile too.

Mission accomplished. ♥️

Happy ♥️ Day

I got this very fun greeting in the mail this week.

Loveland, Colorado

The Sweetheart City.

The envelope had this fun stamp mark.

And a cool postmark too.

Everybody loves to get mail.

SuperBowl

 Barley is cheering for The Bengals. 

Cousins.

Everybody loves mail

 I got a very nice thank you note in the mail today. Great nephew Ivan made my day. 

What a fun surprise.

♥️♥️

As long as I'm showing off, I might as well add this text from my niece. 

It is nice to know that the kids like the birthday Danish hearts that I send. 

Life is good. 

♥️♥️

Pretty kitty

Right after Betty White passed on, I started seeing ads for tee-shirts commemorating her love of animals.  I fell for the marketing & ordered a shirt. Offered as an add-on 'deal' was a fine tooth brush for cats,  I suckered in on that as well. 

When my package arrived I was disappointed to find that the sizing on the shirt is WAY off on the small side. Boo.  But the design is cute.  

I'm noodling on what I can do with the shirt.

I love this, not only because of Betty White,
but also because it fits for my 'other mother' Betty R.

The rest of the purchase turned out to be a big hit. 

Much to my surprise!

Barley loves the brush, especially around her face & neck.

She really gets into it. 

I think she likes getting pretty.

You just never know,

with cats.

Road trip

 I have been sticking close to home with only a few exceptions.  Today I drove over to Luck to visit with my friend Bruce. He needed a little help with his cell phone.  It was nice to have a chat with him.  Our friend Deb stopped in too, I had not seen her since before covid.

I drove past the construction of the ice palace.

The palace will be ready for next weekend's Luck Winter Carnival.

I also stopped at SIL Lois's house to drop off a small birthday gift.  It worked out great for me as neice Angie was there with her son Owen.  We had a nice chat and I got to see a more grown up 'Mocha' kitty. 

She's beautiful but quick to claw and bite!  

Hopefully she will grow out of some of those bad habits.

It was nice to see everyone,  & I was home safely in time to watch The Olympics.

First cousins, once removed

 

Nancy & Jerry Rydberg, Roger Rydberg, Wanda, Glenn Johansen, Richard & Dorothy Rydberg

My cousin Richard organized us to all meet at the El Paso Bar & Grill for a late lunch.  We had a fun visit and a yummy lunch.  It was a nice sunny day, but only 2° when we left for home.

This bar has a real character as the proprietor.  

This sign was on the front door.

You just don't see that everywhere. 

I'm looking forward to the next time we gather up with my first cousins, once removed.  

Their Mom was a sister to my Mom's mother.