New(s)

11pm Friday night

Starting to pile up. 

New...more snow today,  4 inches of fluff and colder temps.  The winter gift that keeps on giving.  I did a little pushing of the snow away from the garage door at 11pm.  My plow-guy will get the rest. 

I'm not turning off the candles until DST.

News... the Luck Cardinals boys varsity beat the Wahburn Castleguards 64 to 30 in game 2 of Regional Tournament play. Regional finals Saturday night in Mellen, WI. A 2 hour drive for me, 3 hours for the Luck kids.

The Bee

This is my 4th year of 'pronouncing' at the Regional Spelling Bee.

The kids are aged from 4th to 8th grade, and have won in their school district.

This year we had 17 contestants.

The set up is for me to pronounce the words and two judges determine if the speller is accurate or not.

Everyone is on pins and needles; students, judges and the pronouncer!

It was a good bee.  

17 rounds and the students were successful in spelling some very difficult words.

The pronouncer made one big mistake, saying the word Noisy instead of Nosey, 

but once I said the sentence, that made no sense, I heard the judges questioning me.

So, it was corrected and luckily the student was successful.

Whew.

After the bee, I met some friends for Luck for live music and Lehman's.

It was a fun evening with a few beers and live music in the lounge.

There is a woman who plays the bassoon and she does Summertime like no other.

I have heard her once before and will look for this group again.

My friends from Luck are music fans and knew the people in this group, so that made it double fun.

Plus, we are already planning to meet up for more music.

February

It's really been a snowy February in Wisconsin! I think we've broken records or even set new records in many areas. It's a lot of snow now after this past weekend. The kids have another day off of school today because of the wind and drifting that happened overnight many roads are impassable.

Starting to clear the front deck.

  I feel so lucky to be able to stay home in a snuggly warm house on such a day. 

Ansgar's Lille Barn

I started trying to shovel off the front deck and intend to continue to work on that in small bits today and then will start on the back deck. I'm not as worried about the weight of the snow as I am just having escape routes and access to bird feeders.

Back deck

Meanwhile, the cats enjoy their fireplace and cozy beds.

Hops has to move away from the fire occasionally. 

Life is snowy, but good.

Another cribbage player in the family

I spent Sunday & Monday nights in Alma with Anders. He needed someone to hang out with on President's Day. 

I don't always know how to fill the time with Anders, he's a quiet boy. I thought it might be time that he could learn cribbage. Dad Kris found us a cribbage board and I set about teaching Anders the game.   Anders is a very quick learner.  He listens well and remembers.  After a short explanation of the rules, I dealt the first hand.  We played that hand face up on the table to get the idea of discarding to the crib.  He seemed to be catching on. 

We played the first half of the game and then took a break for supper.  I wasn't sure if he would want to finish the game,  but as soon as supper was cleaned up,  he was ready. 

I pretty much played like I would have against a seasoned player,  and he held his own.  Learning the nuances about discarding and about taking a chance on a good cut. 

Anders is quite competitive,  and loves to win. Really,  he does NOT like to lose,  so he was motivated to learn.  

After a good night of sleep, first thing Monday morning, Anders was ready for game 2. Again,  it was close, with me sneaking in a win by only a few holes.  He was right away ready for game 3. We were neck-in-neck again. I was trying to help him a little but kept getting good cards.  So,  game 3 was another loss for the new kid.  

We took a break for a visit to the National Eagle Center,  but when we got home,  Anders wanted to play again.  This time,  Anders beat me fair and square. 

He caught on quickly and seems to enjoy the game.  It was fun to teach him a new game that he will be able to play all his life. 

Heart to heart

I was checking my Wyze cam footage today and after the mail mistress had been here,  I saw these hearts in the driveway. 💜💚

Laila has moved to the rehab phase of her recovery now at an Acute Rehab facility.  We are hoping she'll be back into her routines within a week or two. 

Okay, that's enough

I used to hear that from Mom and Dad when my mouth was getting ahead of me.

  "Okay, that's enough!"  

Well, Mother Nature, listen up.  "Okay! That is enough!"

In the past 5 days, 20 inches of snow has fallen.  

Mixed in with some sleet for fun.  

We went from having almost bare lawns to

 not knowing where to pile the snow to clear walks and driveway. 

Crazy.

2019.02.03

2019.02.07

2019.02.12

2019.02.12 

2019.02.12

 Today, Wednesday, was better.

Bright sunshine did a fair amount of melting of roadways and my driveway.

I have spent many days at home during these big snows.  I finally got out today for tutoring, a haircut and lunch at Tokyo.

It was nice to be out and about again.

Laila is doing better, hoping to get transferred to an acute rehab location in the next day or two.

All in all, she is expected to make a full recovery.

Round 2

We are having a heavy snow, started this morning supposed to go all day.  We already have about 8 inches of snow. 

No travel for me today. Schools and many businesses are closed. Sure is pretty thought.