Last Post of 2023

 

This morning it was snowing, but Travalon and I drove to Mass in the gym. We came home and waited for the snow to abate, but it wasn't slowing down at all. Jilly Moose did make the drive to our house, and then she and I took a walk in the neighborhood and saw my neighbor with the cute little dog Lucy, who loved Jill and her scarf. Then Travalon, Jilly Moose, and I went black light bowling. Isn't it beautiful?

Travalon used to bowl in a league, and he wiped the floor with us during the first game. In fact, we were so bad that he had the bowling alley guy put up the bumpers, which maybe was a mistake because then I won the other two games. Here is the scoreboard during the second game.

And here you can see our stats for all three games. 

I like how we used our blog names, except for Travalon, who decided to call himself Fat Bear. After that, we had some time before the Packer game, so we drove around looking at nearby Christmas lights.

Check out the Christmas Dragon!

And the Christmas Palm Trees!

This is the same house a little zoomed out so that you can see the small Christmas tree on the left.

This is the same house zoomed out.

Then we went to Bierock to watch the Packers play the Vikings in Minneapolis. I didn't have high hopes going into the game, but the defense actually showed up to play, and the offense was firing on all cylinders. The only weak point was special teams - they missed an extra point and muffed a punt return, so the Vikings recovered it five yards from the goal. Other than that touchdown, the defense only allowed a field goal, so I am feeling a little less hostile toward Joe Barry, the defensive coordinator. Special Teams is still a mess, but maybe that will never change. It matters not for this game, because the Packers won 33-10, so it's a very Happy New Year for us Packer Backers! 

Now we are home, and we just watched the ball drop in New York City so we have switched over to the Nashville New Year's Eve party. In about forty minutes it will be 2024 here. Happy New Year, everyone!

Famous Hat 

Farewell to the Boat for the Winter

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I took advantage of the relatively good weather to go on a long hike on the relatively new Lower Yahara Trail. According to the signs, it was a mile-long boardwalk along the edge of Lake Waubesa, and then another mile to the Lussier Center. However, when we got done, my phone said we had walked seven miles. Where did the extra three miles come from?? We saw tons of coots on the lake. Then we went downtown and checked out the beautiful Historical Society Library. There was a Free Art Friday session at the Union, so Travalon and I made a little “animalito” that kind of looks like Rodney, and we each painted a railroad crossing scene. We ended the evening with dinner at Nick’s on State Street.

Saturday was more of a busy day than a fun one. It wasn’t so nice out, but Travalon and I had to get the boat off the water sometime, so we took it to the School Road landing, where Rich was waiting for us. Then we tried to take it to the place to get winterized, but they were not open, although Travalon had the impression they would be open until four that day. We had to replace the rope on the winch, and there is a flat tire on the trailer, so this all took some work. Then Rich kindly hung up the plant lights from my old setup of Plant World on the ceiling of our plant room. We thanked him by taking him to dinner at Banzo.

Yesterday Travalon and I went for a hike on another section of the Ice Age Trail, this one with a steep bluff at the beginning. I got up it with only minimal panic but figured I could never go back down that way. Luckily we found a road that went down in a much less scary manner. Then we went to Union South and bowled, an activity I have not participated in for decades. Travalon is a decent bowler and averages 120 a game. I generally really stink but wasn’t as bad this time, probably because they had bumpers along the edge so you couldn’t get a gutter ball. This was only the fourth time I’d ever bowled in my life, and Travalon says we will do more of it this winter, so we’ll see if maybe I improve and can even leave the bumpers off…

Famous Hat