Well, the 31st Annual Wild Game Dinner and Beer Tasting Contest is over. (Probably not totally over for some of the participants, but Jim, Michelle, Dick and I got home at about 7PM.) Michelle and I acting as serving wenches, Jim as combination dishwasher and photographer and Evan Thuemmler as busboy did a bang up job of supplying 22, count 'em, 22 beers to 18 participants in the annual event.

The winner with nine correct was Randy Deeley for the forth time, I think, maybe more. So we will be back on School Street next year. There were four runners up. Shawn, who is trying very hard to win so we all have to go down to Chicago for the event, Fred, Joey and Kathy, who has come in second more times that ANYBODY and deserves to win just on points. They all had 7.

The meal was super as usual. I had made Venison and Guiness, we had squirrel and rabbit, wild turkey and gravy, a curry noodle venison casserole, chili, beans , and potatoes ala Michelle that were to die for. We also had salads and bars for dessert. Altogether decadent. As Randy said we would not have done better at a five star restaurant.

Now for a story. The other day I was watching Antiques Road Show and they had a cupie doll for sale. It reminded me of Bret when he was little. My in laws, Vic and Lil had friends who lived Mexico, Mexican citizens. Ramon and Concha. They came up to the U. S. and to visit Vic and Lil one time. My ex and Bret and I went over to visit with them. They took one look at Bret with his blond hair that curled on the sides and the top of his head and his sparkling blue eyes and said. "Cupie Doll." And sure enough, that is exactly what he DID look like. I will have to find a picture of him at that age and post it for you that did not know him then.


Have a nice Sunday. We are going to be back in the deep freeze.

Mary

It is now light enough at 6:30AM that if it is not too slippery and if the snow goes down A LOT, Chelsea and I will be able to take our morning walks again.

This morning we did go around the Tallgrass cul de sac and then up the road and down Cattail. She was a very happy little girl. Between the snow the cold this is the worst winter that she and I have gone through together. Now it is supposed to drop down into single digits and below zero for the next couple of days again. EEEEWWWWW!!!!!

I cleaned the kitchen today and then went to have lunch with the girls at Dairy Queen. I am sure glad they have grilled cheese as it is lent and Fridays are meatless. They also have a fish sandwich or a dinner salad so there are choices. But since Dick and I had supper at St. John the Baptist tonight I did not want fish. I will not be able to join the ladies for several weeks as Dick will be starting his vein procedures next Friday.

I had several errands while I was out. Chelsea was almost out of one of her pills so I stopped at Kettle Moraine for that, then on to the Pig. I bought a couple of things we needed to take advantage of .99 eggs. The Pig Points are mounting. I now have .79 off on my next gasoline fillup.

We went for our supper at St. John's at about 4:30. Boy do they have a good fish fry. We will go every Friday that we can during Lent. They serve fish, potatoes or noodles, rye bread, cole slaw, applesauce and homemake desserts. It is the best fish in Plymouth. At least the best that we have found. We can get a senior plate which is two pieces of fish and MORE than enough as they are big and very meaty. It is so sweet. Groups of children take your order, lead you to your seats and then bring your your fish.

Then I drove out to Rhine and shot three targets for the league. I did not do badly at all. I got ALL 30 ON the targets. And two of the targets had all scoring shots. A long way to go but I AM improving.

I have my new schedule for next year at Rhine, at least through October. Doesn't look bad at all now that we are closed on Sundays except for the Lewis Shoots. I think that MIGHT increase our membership as people will no longer be committing such a big block of time. I am going out on Sunday to take a picture of Tom Lawonn. He laughed, but I told him that I want to name the wine made from HIS currants and put his picture on the label. He looked secretly pleased. I won't be able to shoot pistol and it is supposed to be REALLY cold so I won't want to shoot trap so it is strictly a "business" meeting.

Tomorrow is the 31st Annual Deeley Annual Wild Game and Beer Tasting Party. I think that most of you know that this event is always held at the home of the winner of the previous beer tasting contest. This year it is at Aunt Donna Deeley's (and Uncle Randy of course) house. She is PLANNING on winning again. Her daughter, Jessica, and niece, Sara, plus nephew's Shawn and John are seriously wanting to take away the crown, (actually a traveling trophy). Any of these challengers would take the trophy from the now "older" generation and put the "youngsters" in charge. Are they ready for the challenge? Only time will tell. It has been done before. I don't know what is happening to the "experienced" among us. I, myself along with my daughter in law, Michelle , being only a serving wenches, do not compete and have to rely on the expertise of my siblings and their spouses to keep these young whelps in line.


The results tomorrow.

love
Mary

Got up this morning to deep snow. The plows had been on the main road but the driveways were not plowed yet nor were the sidewalks shoveled. But before we had to leave for Dick's blood test the sidewalks were shoveled and when the guy with the plow saw that the door opened and I was taking stock of how to best get over the snowpile in the driveway he did ours first. I was SO grateful. I could have done it with the four wheel drive, but am just as glad not to have to test it.

Dick's blood test was MUCH better. It is down from 3.9 to 2.8. We have to get it to below 2.5 before the surgery next Friday. Sue will test it again on Tuesday. Then she will be able to fine tune it.

We did not go out again today. I was glad. I cleaned bathrooms and snipped on the denim quilt and worked on the desk stuff. I finally transcribed my notes from the retreat and am ready for the Cream City Writers in two weeks.

Some show on TV showed a woman who did not know how to hold little kid. She was holding him under his arms with his little legs dangling. It reminded me of a trip that I made to Wisconsin when Bret was just a baby, maybe nine months or something. Mother and I went out shopping and everybody was gone except Dolores and Jeff. So we left them in charge of Bret. He needed his diaper changed and they decided that the easiest way to do it was to have Jeff hold him up in the air while Dolores took the old one off and put the clean one on.

It worked, as I remember, because the diaper stayed on but it must have been quite an adventure for Bret. For the rest of the visit, whenever he set eyes on Dolores or Jeff he would start giggling.

Saturday is the annual Deeley Wild Game and Beer Tasting Party. I must remember to take the roast out in the morning.

Have a good Friday.

Love

Mary

Can you believe that is it Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent already. Easter is March 23. VERY early. I wonder if it is possible for it to be any earlier?

What a day. I had plans to take Mother to Church AND we were supposed to go to see The Miracle Worker in Sheboygan for our dinner/theater evening. However, since it started snowing last night shortly after dark and only stopped about an hour ago, (It is now 8PM) we went NOWHERE. I am sure glad that I decided to take her pills to her last night. Two or three days is way to long for her to be without them.

There have to be at least 10 inches out there and it is drifting. Mother laughs at the picture of me trying to get her with her walker and Dick with his cane anywhere with ice and drifting snow. I am really surprised that they did not cancel the play. They probably had two people in the audience.

We had good old Kraft Spaghetti for supper. Dick saw it in the store the last time we shopped and thought it sounded good. Since it IS the first day of Lent and I fasted and abstained from meat it was a perfect easy choice.

Tomorrow, we go to the anti coagulation clinic to have his blood thinness tested. We hope it is down between 2 and 3 again.

I finished a cancer hat today. Toni Nevicosi's Homemaker's group knit and crochet hats for patients to wear when they have lost their hair. I told her I was not joining anything else, but making hats is a good way to keep my hands busy of an evening when I am watching TV.

I am all done sewing the denim quilt together and have one side snipped.

Have a good Thursday. Pray that the snow goes away for a few days anyway.

Love

Mary

It's been a long long day.

Got up at six and walked Chelsea a little bit. I was careful with her today. Last night, after I went to bed and before Dick came in, Chelsea was on the bed with me. She woke up coughing and stood up as is her wont when she starts that. Suddenly she just kind of fainted and tumbled right off the bed. Scared me half to death. She landed on her back, I think and turned right over. By the time I got to her she was looking a little puzzled and seemed somewhat subdued. But she came alert pretty quickly after I held her for a bit. Poor Baby.

I finished the sewing on the denim quilt today. Now I have all the clipping of the seams and then a good washing to fuzz it up.

Dick had a dentist appointment today. His first with the new dentist. He decided to got to the same one I am going to and we will coordinate our visits from now on. Dick likes him because Dr. Joseph said his gums and teeth are in really good shape.

On the way out of the parking lot, I Looked both ways and then looked back to my left and backed out slowly right into Bill Cain. Should have kept my eyes to my right. Fortunately there seems to be little damage. The side of his van has a slight buckle and he is going to take it over to Burkhart to see if they can pop it out the rest of the way. There is no scratch and no break in the paint or the metal. At first we weren't sure there WAS anything, but Bill had heard it and knew there was contact. Bill hugged me and pointed out that noone was hurt and that is the important thing.

We are getting another winter storm. I do believe that this one will ruin any chance of taking Mother to the play and dinner tomorrow night. We certainly will not be able to go to church during the day. I took a run to her house this evening before the snow because she was out of her pills today and I did not want her to go any longer without them.

I also swung over to Kate's this afternoon to look at her newly painted kitchen and see what I thought about one spot of color and to take her the papers from the retreat. She really hated to miss that.

I guess that is all. It was all in all a mixed day. Some ups some downs. The trouble is that the downs were quite troubling.

Anyway. Tomorrow may be a day to stay in our cave. Take care and stay warm.

Mary

Monday, Monday. It snowed. Actually it both snowed and rained a bit and left the roads very slippery. It was just fine when I left for bible study at 9ish. But by the time I left Mother's at noon it was snowing and slippery. SO I decided to forego the Rhine Plymouth meeting tonight. Since it sleeted more this afternoon, I was afraid of icy roads.

Bible study was lively. There were eight of us. I shared a couple of things I learned at the retreat and Joe shared some poems that he had written at a retreat that he had attended in Oshkosh.

I stopped at Walgreens on the way home for prescriptions and OTC meds for Mom and Dick. Sure was glad to get home and be able to stay here.

I spent the afternoon cleaning my desk off and doing some of our accounting. I am getting things ready for Tax Preparation. I believe that we have everything now.

We had chicken enchailada stacks for supper. Boy were they good.

We are going to change our schedule a bit this week and do our grocery shopping tomorrow instead of Wednesday. Wednesday is getting rather busy with it being Ash Wednesday and the Sheboygan Theater with Mom in the evening.

Mom and I were talking about hospitality and how she never knew who would be there for supper. First Dad brought home friends or buddies then her kids did the same. Jeff had army buddies who came and stayed sometimes. I mentioned that when I was living in California in my previous marriage, I never knew who I would be feeding either. My ex worked on vehicles in the garage in back and those who were there just ate if it was dinner time. I remember one day making cookies and the first two sheets of 20 were gone before I finished baking up the batch just with people walking in and out of the house for whatever.

This is an early Irish verse welcoming the stranger that made us remember our "hospitality". I shared it with her and used it for our opening prayer at bible study this morning. I love the thought.

I saw a stranger yesterday,
I put food for him in the eating place
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place,
And in the holy name of the trinity,
He blessed me, my family and people,
And the lark said as she sang:
Often Often Often Christ comes in the form of a stranger.

I mentioned to her that Dick found that very odd that people just dropped in and stayed. We did not find it odd because it just happened. Sometimes I miss it.

Love

Mary

No weather report today. I hope you all missed me. I had a totally relaxing weekend away from EVERYTHING. I had never been to this Retreat Center and was very impressed. It is easy to get to (unless you miss the turnoff because you are not sure where your purse is). I had my own room. The food was excellent and the retreat was well planned and packed with many opportunities to learn and to pray and to meditate.

Padraigin Clancy was our leader. She lives on the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland. She says she is the second house nearest to the United States. She works six months for the tourist bureau and spends the other six teaching and conducting retreats ALL over the world. She joined us fresh from a sojourn in Australia where she learned a lot about the spirituality of the aboriginies. They have surprising parallels to the spirituality of the ancient Celts.

Anyway, joining the team was Dennis Doyle a harpist singer from Glendale California Who talked on Holy People and Places and Seosai Nie Rabhartaigh a poet/Irish language teacher speaker who spoke about Gaelic poetry through the early and contemporary eras. She also conducted a workshop later int he day which I naturally attended. The other workshops were the making of St. Brigit Crosses with reeds FROM Ireland and a slide show of the island of Iona where Colm Cille banished himself and established his monastery/university. It was not hard for me to choose with the chance to write and consort with a fellow poet. I figured that this was my serendiptity.

Seosai is charming and VERY knowledgeable. We had an hour session where we discussed poetry and ideas and methods of getting stuff on paper and were able to write for about half of the time. I have a very rough draft of the thoughts that were in my head this weekend that I will share with you. I will try to give you the final when I finish it.

THE TROUBLE WITH DOGS

They steal your heart
Then age so fast
That you fall behind.

When my brother died
We told my Dad
That loving has its price.
To have the joy
One must accept the pain.

Now I need to teach
This lesson to myself.
Again.

There is a labyrinth at the retreat center. It was, of course, covered in snow. However, during the hour of silence on Saturday afternoon, I bundled up and went outside and tried to walk the circles. I could see the circles but not the turn around points, so I decided to do the Celtic thing and walk seven times around the center. It may have been more than seven. I just walked until I got to the center stumps and sat down. Sue joined me as I was walking. She slipped into the circle ahead of me. Is started to catch up with her. God must have sent her to slow me down. You know me, hell bent for leather. But I paced myself to her and finished my rosary in the middle. So there is a reason and that is one of the lessons I must learn.

Take care and have a good week.

As Padraigin would say" An bhfuil Failte roimh Brid? ( Is Brigit Welcome)" You should then answer "Se Beatha, Se Beatha, a Bhrid. Bheannaithe. (It is life, it is life, O Blessed Brigit).

Mary