So it goes...

Awaiting the onslaught of snow they're calling for tomorrow and Wed. It's actually snowing now, as we're supposed to get 2-4 tonight, then 10-15 additional tomorrow night. We'll see. It could blow south and be a big nothing. Or, I could be optimistic and it could really stink. Whatever the case, I'm prepared. The blower is gassed up and ready to kick butt. Doesn't make me like it anymore, but maybe it'll get me out XC skiing for the first time this weekend. I know one thing, if I don't feel better by this weekend, I sure as heck won't be skiing. Why do that to myself? I'm already driving to work, because walking sounds like so much pain. I can't shake the congested head and cough, chills and aches. It sucks. In fact, just talking about it is making me want to go crawl into bed, which is what I think I'll do. I hope to be back to full strength soon with some longer posts, but we'll see how this crud manifests itself next. Right now I...

The 2011 Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon was a great time. I got through 5 poems and they came off without a hitch. From all I could tell were well received. There were about 30 people in the audience I would guess. The other presenters from AllWriters were Kathie Giorgio , and Alita Baker, and Marsha Roberts. Kathy Bram unfortunately wasn't given a chance to read. They all did great and it was nice to have some supporters in the audience. A hearty thank you to AllWriters Workplace and Workshop for sponsoring the hour we had. The rest of what I saw varied in quality from brilliant and entertaining to boring and unintelligible. A great variety. If I had felt better I would have stuck around longer. Perhaps next year. The most entertaining presenter I saw was Author Paul McComas . He sang a song from a father's perspective about dating his daughter that was hilarious. Very entertaining. The other memorable ones outside of the AllWriters group were James Roberts and his piece o...

I seem to be on the up-and-up after a 3 day battle with the flu. I'm nowhere near 100%, but am well enough to stay awake for more than two hours at a crack. I swear I have bed sores. It was horrible. I daresay the worst bout of flu I've ever had (have). Everything hurt. My eyes, my stomach, my head, my nose. Accompany all of this with a lung searing cough, and a ceaselessly runny nose, and you have a recipe for misery. Heck, I was even getting charlie horses in my calves for some reason. I'm guessing it was because I was in bed so much and not walking around. Oh it was (is) horrible. Ben still has it pretty bad though is at least able to stay awake a bit more today. That's ALL you want to do is sleep. Sleep until one or the other of your arms is numb from laying on it. No motivation to eat, watch TV, read or anything else. Those things I resorted to only out of complete, absolute boredom. My wife is a saint for having put up with us, as we were a motley couple of sickos...

Last night I got hit with the flu bug that Ben had. It is hard to quantify the pain and suffering of it. EVERYTHING hurts. Will post when I get in the flipside. Blogging off and going back to bed...

I stayed home with Ben today. He is feeling horrible, sniffling, fever and a sore throat. He started fading on Saturday night, and has gone downhill until today. He'll likely miss at least one more day of school, poor boy. It always pains me to see my kids sick. I know the feeling all too well, and it sucks. All you can think about is feeling better. Hopefully it's not strep throat and he'll be back on his feet in a couple of days. Well, the old Packers did not disappoint this weekend. It's almost too good to be true. If you'd have said at the beginning of the season that they would be in the super bowl, even without all the injuries they had this year, I would have called you crazy. I still thought they were a year or two, and a star player or two away from having a super bowl team. I think Rodgers carried much of the team this year, but really it was a team effort. Many guys contributed, even unknown names like John Kuhn, and Sam Shields. So we're going to get...

My laptop's temperature gadget's reading 2 below zero as I write this. Throw the 5 mph wind into the mix and you have a windchill of about 13 below. The furnace is pissed off. Now I've seen worse, much worse actually, as I'm sure many of you have. That doesn't mean I have to like it at all, which I don't. I keep trying to think of what good this weather is. What purpose does it serve? If the freezing point is 32 and that kills most everything living, why do we need any temps below that? Why did God make a wind chill index? I'm sure there's a reason for it. If you find it, be sure and clue me in. It was another week of loss for some friends of ours. A couple who lost a father a few weeks ago lost another father on the wife's side just yesterday. It has been a weird, eerie winter that way for a number of people in our lives. Throw into that the cruddy weather of late, and its enough to make anyone go fetal. My brother came home from the hospital today,...

So the NFC Championship is going to be Packers/Bears. What a great rivalry and a great match up. I think it will be a good game, but am really hoping for a Packer blowout like they had on Saturday versus Atlanta. Wow, what a fun time we had watching that game. We went over to some friends' house and had a little playoff party that was a blast. It's always more fun watching those games with someone else. Family is fine during the regular season, but those playoff games deserve better. I don't want to get too jazzed up about it until it is certain that we've won and are going to the super bowl. That would be so cool and as I said in my prior post, if we can knock off Atlanta, we can beat anyone, including the big, bad Jets and Steelers. This game in some ways is always a bit more of a nail biter than the actual super bowl. If you don't get into the big show, nobody remembers who lost the NFC Championship in {fill in the blank year}. You've got to at least MAKE it ...