Whenever a difficult task is before me, I can still hear his voice:
“If you have a job to do, you do it.”
I miss him, but as long as I never forget him, I think everything will be okay.
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One year later
Happy Anniversnowry
To celebrate six years of nuptial bliss, Jenelle and I ventured north to Door County, for a one-night stay at The Blacksmith Inn on the Shore” in Baileys Harbor. It was a lovely bed & breakfast right on the “main drag” (Highway 57).
With the weather on the cold side and a lot of stores not opened for the peak tourist season, we spent most of our time relaxing in the room. They had free popcorn (which was really good) and a large selection of DVDs. We watched North by Northwest, an old Cary Grant film. I also found an edition of Groundhog Day with special features that my version at home doesn’t have, so we took in the deleted scenes and a couple of other things.
For dinner, we went a bit further north to The Inn at Kristofer’s in Sister Bay. Jenelle had the halibut, and I had chicken roulade. For dessert, we split a chocolate baked alaska with caramel topping. All quite delicious.
On Sunday morning, the actual date of our anniversary, we woke up to see snow covering the landscape, notably the pier leading out to the lake.
We would have liked to spend more time outside, especially on our private balcony, but it was too cold. After a breakfast that featured blueberries, muffins, cereal, juice, and milk, we traveled back to Kenosha. The roads weren’t too bad.
The toughest part was arriving at home and having to clear out several inches of wet, heavy snow. While it wasn’t the most exciting anniversary celebration, it was great to spend lots of quality time with my sweetie.
Getting it right, part 2
When covering a story for Milwaukee’s new Arena Football team (the “Iron”), channel 4 made a horrible error with the on-screen caption:
This next image isn’t exactly a mistake. It was taken at a hallway intersection at a church. If I was a newcomer looking for a restroom or a stairway, I might be a bit confused:
I’ve been there enough to know that there are multiple restrooms and stairways in the building, so you’ll soon find one no matter which way you go.
Coming soon — a post celebrating our sixth anniversary, which was yesterday.
CST vs. CDT
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve read four different announcements and web sites which state that a particular event in the near future is occuring at a certain time “CST”. The reference is most likely to Central Standard Time, since I live in the Central Time Zone.
There’s only one problem. Most of the Central Time Zone is not using CST right now. Since the “spring ahead” a few weeks ago, we are now on Central Daylight time (CDT), which is one hour ahead of CST.
For example, if an event starts at 7:00 p.m. CST, that’s the equivalent of 8:00 p.m. CDT. However, it would be silly for someone to use CST when everyone else is on CDT. The likely scenario is that the person writing the announcement means to say “CDT”, but he/she is used to always writing “CST”.
In my opinion, it’s perfectly acceptable to just say “Central time” or “local time”, and then it doesn’t matter if we’re currently on Daylight saving time or not.
Perhaps I’m the only one who notices these kinds of details. However, when making statements to the masses, I think it’s important to get it right.
And while I’m at it — it’s called “Daylight saving time”. There’s no “Savings”. If you can figure out how to keep extra daylight in a bank, I’ll reconsider my position. 🙂
Fun with Fondant
Jenelle is always adding new skills to her repetoire. She recently learned how to make cakes with fondant. For Valentine’s Day, she made me this tasty yellow cake with vanilla frosting, and it’s nicely decorated with pink and white fondant on top. Yum!
Coach Ben
I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while. Over the past few months, I served as an assistant coach of a 2nd grade girls basketball team. My uncle, Randy, was the head coach. I helped him out at practices once a week, and Jenelle and I both helped at games on Saturday mornings. There was one game when Randy couldn’t make it, so Jenelle and I handled the coaching duties ourselves.
There are things that make coaching at this level very easy. For example:
1) There are ten players on the team, and each plays for two quarters, so you don’t worry too much about substitutions.
2) Since the kids are still working on the basics of the game, it’s pretty easy to give direction and instruction. Even though I am far from a basketball expert, I have enough knowledge to be a decent coach.
On the flip side, there are things that make coaching at this level very difficult.
1) Sometimes the kids can whine and/or complain a bit more during practices and games. “Can I go get a drink?” “We’re taking a break in five minutes.” “But I’m thirsty now!”
2) For whatever reason, not all of the players are focused on the game. You sometimes have to remind them whether they are on offense or defense. I am pleased to report that our kids never took a shot at the wrong basket, like one of our opponents. Unfortunately for us, they missed.
All things considered, this was a great experience for me. Below is a picture from the warm-ups at the game where Jenelle and I were the only coaches, and also a picture of almost everyone on the team taken after one of our practices.
Extended Weekend in Minnesota
Andrew & Holly recently had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii and experience the Pro Bowl. This also became a blessing for us, as we went to Minnesota to watch our nieces, Ella & Lily, for a few days until they got back.
We arrived late Friday night. On Saturday morning, my parents, who had been watching the girls for a few days, went to the airport for their flight home, leaving Jenelle and me in charge. While we didn’t do everything perfectly on the first day, we managed pretty well. We got Ella to swim class on time. Jenelle watched Lily while I watched Ella swim. We played in the basement and did all kinds of activities in the afternoon. For dinner, we had Burger King with Dairy Queen for dessert (I call it the “Fast Food Royalty” combination). We didn’t have much trouble putting the kids to bed, but Jenelle seemed to be the popular one. Both girls really wanted her to read to them. I was thrown into the mix as a compromise – telling them, “I will read you one story, and then Aunt Jenelle will read one.” 🙂
On Sunday, we went to the Mall of America. Ella and I did several rides, including the swings and the Pepsi Orange Streak roller coaster (twice). Lily wasn’t as excited about the rides, but she did do the Blues Clues ride with Jenelle. We had lunch at the food court, and played a few carnival games after that. Everyone was very tired by mid-afternoon, so we headed home to relax. We took it easy for the rest of the day.
On Monday, we took Ella to school in the morning. All four of us made the trip, and then Jenelle, Lily, and I went to the grocery store. We got home, and Lily had some time to herself to watch TV and do some other activities. Before we knew it, Ella arrived home on the bus, and we had lunch. We played in the basement and did all kinds of fun stuff in the afternoon. After dinner, we had “movie night” and all watched The Great Muppet Caper. I hadn’t seen that one for quite a while.
On Tuesday, Andrew & Holly arrived early in the morning, a half hour or so before the girls woke up. Our flight didn’t leave until Tuesday evening, so the six of us had some time to enjoy each other’s company. Things seemed a lot easier with four adults instead of two. 🙂
All in all, it was a great trip and a wonderful experience. I put some PICTURES on Shutterfly. I should have taken a lot more pictures of the stuff we did around the house. I really enjoyed spending time with Ella and Lily, and I hope they liked spending time with Jenelle and me!
Refinancin’
The most exciting news of the day — we refinanced our mortgage. Exciting, right? We reduced our interest rate by a whopping 1.5%, and I estimate we’ll make up the closing costs in six months. We’re still using the same bank — I wouldn’t dare go anywhere else.
In other news, yes, it’s still cold, but it might hit 40 (gasp!) this weekend. That would be very nice indeed.
Still cold, but not as cold
It’s supposed to get above freezing today (before temperatures drop again over the weekend). I don’t think a lot of snow will melt, but it should help clear some of the stubborn ice off driveways and sidewalks.
Anyway, here’s some photos of icicles I saw when dropping by church this morning:
Snow snow snow snow SNOW!
I forget exactly which day the snow started falling, but I recall working most of the weekend (Jan. 9-11) to keep the driveway and sidewalks clear. It was interesting to watch the snow build up on the tables on our deck. Here’s what the dining room table looked like on January 11:
We got a bunch more snow during the week. I’m very thankful that we have a snowblower now. Piles got higher and higher as I ran out of places to put the snow. There was so much that it nearly covered the fire hydrant nearest our house:
Even though the temperatures were bitterly cold, I took the time to dig it out:
Another interesting sight is our mailbox. Every part of it is covered except the door!
Here’s the whole snow photo album on Shutterfly. Enjoy!
