Tom Petty Concert

I'm really looking forward to this Sunday night - February 3rd. That is the night of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's Concert surrounded by all those new commercials on TV.

Mona and I have been invited to watch the concert by some friend's house so that we can all enjoy it together. We've followed them since before he (Tom) was with the Traveling Wilburys. Should be a great concert.

Family of Swans #2 (P10)

This photo is a close-up of what appears to be a family of Swans taken on January 27, 2008. Notice the yellow band around the front older (white) swan. It appears to say P10 on the band so I guess thats what its name is.

Family of Swans #1

It took us a couple of weeks to do it but we finally found some of the Swans that hang around here all winter while we had the camera with us. This photo as the one above was taken today by the channel at the Shawano Airport. This area really has to be cold for a long period of time before it really freezes solid for any length of time.

This is a picture of a Blue Huron taken by John

last year while on vacation at the Chippewa

Flowage in the Hayward, WI. area. We were

staying at the Chippewa Pines Resort.

Click on photo to enlarge

Toilet Cleaning Instructions:

1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.
2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
3. In one smooth movement put the cat in the toilet and close both lids. You may need to stand on the lid.
4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a 'power-wash' and 'rinse'.
6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.
7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can,and quickly lift both lids.
8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.
9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.Sincerely,

The Dog

More Snow On Its Way!!!

The Weatherperson has announced that we have more snow on the way. We should be getting another 4-6 inches of the light fluffy stuff by tomorrow morning.

No Day for the Beach!!!

No day for the beach is right... I don't care what anybody says, that's cold.

Today is the big day for the NFC Championship Playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants at Lambeau Field at the original "Titletown USA".

Mona and I went out for breakfast this morning in Cecil and proceeded to Shawano later and found this sign by one of the area businesses. The picture was taken about an hour ago at 9:00 am. Three other signs in town had the same temperature on them. It appeared that all of the ice fishing shanties on the lake were abandoned as there were no vehicles to be seen on the lake. (Note: Shawano is about 30 miles west of Green Bay.)

Here's to hoping that all three Mannings will be watching the Super Bowl together in a few weeks while we're watching the Pack.

Go Pack Go!!!

(Click on photo to enlarge)

I'm Dreaming of a Silver Christmas...

Sung to the tune of Bing Crosby's (White Christmas!)

This Aluminum Christmas Tree brings back many memories. It belonged to my Grandparents on my Mother's side. They bought it when she (my Grandmother) worked at the Aluminum Factory in Chilton years ago. We've got pictures of my siblings and I along with cousins sitting in the living room next to the tree close to 50 years ago.

The stable in front of the tree was made by my Grandfather (as per my Mother) about 75 years ago. She remembers it being around when she was a little girl. I gave it some paint and a new roof 25-30 years ago. While I was working on it I saw that the wood on the inside of the stable came from an old wooden orange crate.

We don't put the tree up every year, but we've been putting the stable up as long as we've had it and that's about 35 years or so. There are a lot of memories under that tree each time we put it up.

2008 Mooseyard Winterfest

2008 Mooseyard Winterfest

The Mooseyard is about a couple mile stretch on the north side of Shawano Lake. As far as I know it's been going on for a number of years and involved most of the bars in that stretch on that side of the lake.

On Saturday, January 5th, was the 2008 Winterfest. John wanted to enter the chili contest being held at the Coachlight Bar & Grill so we got there at the required time to get entered and found we had about an hour to kill before the judging of the Chili.

We decided to go over to Captain Royals for a drink and almost got talked into get involved in the Butt Bowling contest before we found out what it was. They take 10 quarters and shove them up your butt and you have to walk backwards for about 12-15 feet and bend over and drop the quarters into a metal bucket. Your chances are set up in 3 frames like the frames in bowling. The best score would be 30. I can see that after a few drinks this game could get a little wild. There were two people tied at 30 when we left so I assume they had to have a bowl-off.

We went back to the Coachlight to find the results of the Chili contest. It looked like there were 11 entries in the contest with the top 4 Chili's placing. John didn't place in the top money but it was his first experience and now he knows alittle of what to expect for next time. We tried the top two award winners for $2.00 a bowl. The proceeds from selling the Chili went to fund the EMT Unit in the area. (A very worthy cause.)

Mully Erickson Ice Fishing Tourney

The Mully Erickson Ice Fishing Tourney was held today on Shawano Lake. After Mona and I took the 4-wheeler over to The Sandbar for lunch we decided to drive around the lake to see if we could find anyone we knew.
It wasn't long before we saw one of the guys from the Green Bay Great Lakes Fishing Club waving at us. At the time we met them there were 43 people registered and they had 13-15 Northern registered as well.

Brew says: "Happy New Year!"

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Brew was our designated driver on New Year’s Eve. (That's only because he's not old enough to drive.)

John's New Year's Resolution

Drinking...
I just read an article on the dangers of drinking...
Scared the shit out of me...
That's it, after today, no more reading...