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Showing posts from December, 2017

Guys On Ice 2018

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Mum and I went to see Guys On Ice last Saturday at The Barrymore in Madison and had a ball! I try to go see the play at least once a year when it's in Milwaukee or Madison. It's part of my Christmas tradition.  This year I made Packer Fish hats for each of the guys; Doug Mancheski, Dan Klarer and Steve Koehler. They (the hats) were goofy looking but I had so much fun making them, and the play gives me SO MUCH joy, I always want to give something in return. It never fails to bring me back to the ice shack on Pleasant Pond in Island Falls, Maine. Lloyd and Marvin become Daddy and Poppy sitting around shooting the breeze and telling jokes. Love it! Love it! Love it! Here are the hats. Here's Dan wearing his hat with the tail flipped rakishly forward. Steve is looking none to happy in this pic, but dapper none-the-less! You wouldn't be happy if a fish has biting your head either!  And here is Doug in his hat. I think his hat is a flounder since...

Christmas Cookie Central

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So the Christmas treats hit the fan this week at work. There is a gentleman in the company who makes huge bowls and platters for all of the buildings. I think I heard that at last count he and his wife bake 4,000+  of  all different kinds of cookies between Thanksgiving and Christmas! He arrived yesterday with two, huge bowls and a platter for our merry, little band here in the outlying building on Nobel Dr. (our new home). Sean's wife likes to bake so he brought some in too. The Sales folks have been sending generous gift baskets and boxes of sweets galore. It's been Sugarpalooza around here for over a week! We apparently hit max capacity yesterday.  By 2 PM, most of the pounds and pounds of treats were gone (within 5 hours), the sugar buzz had been enjoyed, and  by then everyone was walking around in a sugar-crash daze, rubbing their swollen tummies and moaning. Since my tummy hasn't been 'quite right' since I was so sick a couple of weeks ago, I have been stay...

Decking Them Halls, Y'Alls!

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My holiday spirit, which heretofore has been AWOL, showed up in full force last weekend, thus proving that each and every last, little piece of me is a just a wee bit slow on the uptake.  But when it kicked in.  Woo Doggies!!!! Better late than never I guess. I kicked off the season by putting up the Skeletree and lighting the outdoor lights. I put candles in all of my windows except for one.  There was one candle that I impaled my hand on and broke the bulb so I need to replace it. Lemme tell ya, that temporarily puts a twist in your tinsel! Those flickery-flame candle bulbs are made of the very, thinnest glass on the planet as it turns out.  It's very sharp. And makes you say very bad, and very un-Christmasy words. But I digress... I finished making presents, and made Christmas treats. I wrapped gifts and packed boxes to mail to friends and family far away. I stuck a bow to the dog's head and the cat's tail and then sat back and giggled while they struggled...

The Legend of the Skeletree

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In 2008, I had just moved out of an 18 year marriage. I was holed up in a one-bedroom apartment licking my wounds and feeling abandoned, abused, rejected, deceived, betrayed, lied to, cheated on and depressed.  I had only been in the apartment for about 4 months and had absolutely no interest in decorating for the holidays. It would be the first Christmas in 43 years that I wouldn't be celebrating with family; my first one all alone. Friends told me that I should at least decorate ...that it would cheer me up... that I should make new holiday traditions.  The absolute last thing I wanted was to buy a tree and haul it home. That was not going to happen, but for some unknown reason, while I sold the rest of my life in a yard sale, I did bring an outdoor Christmas tree decoration with me when I moved. Half as a joke to appease my friends and half seriously, I dug it out of my storage bin and installed it in my living room. The tree comes in three parts that hook together an...

Donut Delivery Day

Every year, our company has a record retention initiative in December and early January. On the first Monday in December, it kicks off with donuts for all of the employees first thing in the morning. It made sense when we first started it years ago. We only had a couple of buildings and a couple hundred employees.  Now we have 11 buildings and a gazillion employees and it's a bit more of a challenge. I've been 'in charge' of ordering and the distribution of the tasty treats for the last three years. This is my last year on duty as the process is shifting to another department in the company and I was anxious to go out in style.  We ordered 85 dozen donuts and prepared to meet at 7:30 on Monday morning to get boots on the ground and donuts out the door to the almost 1000 employees in the wider campus area. Oh the best laid plans. I was horribly sick Sunday night and considered calling my partner and telling her that I just couldn't make it, but I've done the ...

Carolin' In the Cave

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Friday night I maintained my Christmas tradition of going to Mt. Horeb to hear A Capella groups sing in the large cavern in the Cave of the Mounds. I almost didn't go. I'd been dealing with a headache all day and I hadn't been able to get tickets for the Saturday show that I usually go to when the Green Tones sing. I decided at the last minute to suck it up and go because I'd already bought the ticket and because I didn't want to ruin my 8-year streak. I'm so glad I did. The drive out kind of sucked because it was 7:30 and dark.  The heavy traffic and glare reignited the headache I'd worked so hard to stomp down, but once I got into the cave, which was lit only by candles, it was better. Two  groups performed; the main group was Deliberate Vibrations (8 men) and then there was another group, Mad Fusion (several men and 1 woman) which had some members in common with Deliberate Vibrations group. The first group did quite a few songs including a very funny ...