Day Off

Yesterday morning as I was getting ready to leave for school, I got a text that there had been an accident across the street from our school that had knocked down the telephone poll and our school had no power.  

Our principal said she would be contacting the power company to get an estimated time of restoration so I waited for another text which said that power was predicted to be back on by 7:45.  

I immediately thought of texting something like, "well that means about 10:00" but then thought that sounded a bit too snarky so decided against it.  

To make a long story short...power was not turned on by 7:45 - or even by 10:00.  In the end, they had to replace the entire telephone pole and power was not restored until about 6:00 in the evening.  

This meant an unexpected day off of school.  I decided to take advantage of this and FINALLY take down the Christmas tree and clean. 

I also did about 6 loads of laundry...when someone would let me fold the clothes.

Sometime around 3:30, I got sidetracked for about an hour.

I'm telling you, she would lay there all day and night if you would let her.  

That Lightning Game We Went To

So, after starting the year with a vengeance and a 27-6 record that mirrored the talent they have on the team, the Lightning have been an underwhelming 17-15 since Christmas.  

Off course they've had a tough schedule with several games on the road, but in my opinion, they are severely underachieving once again in what has become a reoccurring theme with them.  

Saturday we headed to Tampa's Amalie Arena to witness first hand one of those 15 losses (but whatever, I still had a great time). 

The oddest thing about this loss is the Lightning were able to amass 50 shots on goal!   But, this makes little difference when only 3 of those shots found the back of the net for goals.  

In comparison, New Jersey ended up with about 28 shots but, thanks to some pretty sketchy defense, 4 of those ended in goals.  

I brought my "new (to me)" camera to try out the zoom lens and action shot ability and I was pretty pleased with it. 

Coming Home From the Frozen Tundra

I love, love, love spending time with my BFF and her family.  However, it's no secret that I don't love, love, love the weather there - or even like it.  So, while I was sadly disappointed that my time in Wisconsin was coming to an end, I was more than ready to get back to the land where 80* happen on the reg and you don't feel the need to ruuuunn  from car to building and building to car!  

This morning, before heading to the airport, I had my "physical."  As the doc pointed out, it's not really a physical but more of a "med check" appointment because every test and procedure that would normally be done at a yearly physical I will not do there because I pay out of pocket for this visit!  Anyway, everything went very well and I once again told him how amazing I felt and how, as time goes by, I think less often of my previous existence, but some times it still hits me how much difference the Tramadol has made in my life!  

We got to the airport very early and could not even check in yet so we went to grab some lunch at a pizza place until we could finally check the bags and go through security.  The thing about living in Orlando is that whenever you are flying home and back to work and reality, the majority of the people you are flying with are excitedly heading down there for their vacations - so that kind of sucks. BUT...then...in just a week's time, those same people will have to fly back to their frozen lives while we get to stay down here and enjoy!!! So - I guess it all evens out.  

Anyway, our flight left a tad bit late but we still landed on time (7:30) and then everything went pretty smoothly as we retrieved our luggage and took a taxi home.  

The sunset as we were starting to descent.  

Day Three in the Frozen Tundra

A wonderfully full day with friends.

We drove to Madison today to meet up with Bill and Carey's son, Matt.  He took us to the 11:15 service at his church, Black Hawk. 

The church is so huge that police were needed to direct traffic and aid people in exiting the parking lot.  

+++Pictures from google images

After the service, Matt took us to a nice place called the Heritage Tavern for brunch.  It was expensive but so, so good!

+++Pictures from google images

Once we got back to Oshkosh, Zack and I jumped right back in the car and headed off to the Krueger's for dinner and a visit.  Eric was there with his wife and three kids and Zack had a ball roughhousing with the Ethan and Ty.  

We got back to the Holtz's about 8 and watched some of the Olympics pairs skating.   

Day Two in the Frozen Tundra

And my goodness, it was cold out today!  

BUT - that did not stop the crazy northerners from Wisconsin take part in their beloved sturgeon spearing.  

The call came in about 10 that Emily's boyfriend had speared the largest sturgeon in the past 4 years!  A 6 ft 3 in, 155 pound monster, estimated to be about 100 years old!  

A once in a lifetime catch for sure that may net him $6,000.  And as a bonus, five full buckets of fish eggs (caviar) was taken out.  

Meanwhile, Carey and I ran to St. Vincent de Paul and the Dollar Tree.  Then, in the afternoon, we went to the newly beat arena to watch the Valley Christian basketball game.  The arena was just built to accommodate the farm team for the Milwaukee Bucks called "The Herd."

After the game, we meta couple of Zack's friends at West End for some pizza.  

Then, Zack went with his friends for a couple hours and we went to a bar to meet up with Ben and Emily to congratulate him on his catch.  It was PACKED with sturgeon spearing partiers!!!!  

We rounded out the day by watching the women's short program in the Olympics.

Yeah...We're Here

We few into into this this afternoon

Yep...back in Wisconsin for my yearly physical.  

I was so fortunate to find a $40.00 flight to Milwaukee today and another $40.00 flight back to Orlando on Monday.  I grabbed the deal and ran with it. The direct flight was supposed to leave out of Orlando at 12:30.  We live about 10 minutes from the airport,  so I called an Uber Driver about 10:00 thinking it would take somewhere around 15 minutes to arrive.  Imagine my shock when it said, "arrival in 3 minutes.  We were nowhere near ready to go so it was all out craziness to get out the door in just 3 minutes and then...I left my cell phone behind (because of course I did).  

The drive was smooth and check-in was a breeze. And even though I did not pay the price to reserve our seats, we still ended up sitting together - in row 6.  I think our flight actually left early and we landed in Milwaukee 1/2 hour early at 2:00.  Unfortunately, after that pleasant surprise, we ended up waiting nearly 45 minutes for our luggage.  

Carey picked us up and we arrived back at her place at about 5:00.  I took a quick shower, we had spaghetti for dinner, and then cozied up under a blanket to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.