The end of the month

February whizzed by in a blink. I guess that's what happens when you are incredibly busy. Thankfully, today is for cleaning the house and lying around. And working out and taking photos of the ice canoes on the lake. Well, until I have to play substitute baseball coach and help Beerman with the baseball draft tonight. So there you have it. Happy weekend!

Thursday Thirteen

1. Why, when you ask someone to take your picture, do they often cut off your feet and leave a huge amount of sky? Are they not looking at what they're photographing?
2. One week from today, Beasley arrives. I'm so excited.
3. C-man really wants him to sleep with him. We'll see what Beasley thinks of that plan.
4. C-man is still considering whether or not he wrestles at regionals. I just learned that it's held on his birthday. That may change his mind. Or maybe not.
5. I got my hair highlighted last night. It always amazes me how many compliments I get the next day. Either she does a great job, or every 8 weeks is way too long to cover up the gray hairs!
6. The bee posts from more southern states are really ramping up in the forums that I'm a part. It makes me really anxious to know what's happening in my hives.
7. No wrestling this weekend means I'm sleeping in and taking photos of non-wrestling things. That'll be nice.
8. I have been getting a lot of headaches lately. It's been unusual, and I'm trying to figure out what is causing them. A trip to the chiropractor helped, but hasn't solved things.
9. The urge to change the school wrestling Facebook page daily is ridiculous. I am only allowing myself to change it once a week.
10. It has improved my PhotoShop techniques, though, which is great.
11. I have an all-day work meeting tomorrow. I'm trying to be optimistic, but anything that goes all-day is hard for me.
12. C-man likes me to put in his contacts for him. When I got annoyed with this, he put them in with no problems. Stinker.
13. But it make me realize I need someone to do these types of things for me. Time to start buying lottery tickets.

Blah

It's only Tuesday, and I'm talking about the weekend. It says something for this time of year, I suppose. The ice canoes on Lake Michigan are supposed to be quite spectacular, so once the weather gets to where I can feel my face, I want to go explore them. (Then maybe you'll have some lake pictures to look at instead of only wrestling ones!) Speaking of which, I need to submit some photos to the USA Wrestling magazine. I'm going to win that contest!

Around the week goes again

• C-man woke up with his whole body quit sore, but he, at least much happier about his performance on the mat yesterday. Apparently sleep puts things into better perspective.
• I've put myself back on prednisone. I've got a ton of it, and I've been hurting so bad, I figured what the hell. Who needs doctors anyway?
• Baseball tryouts are this weekend. C-man doesn't need to try out since he's got a team, but Beerman is the coach this year and needs to go watch.
• I'm almost giddy baseball is almost here.
• I also am giddy about Beasley the dog's impending arrival. Fluffy belly!
• Spring ahead also means it's almost bee season. I'm on a bunch of forums with people further south already in their hives, and I'm so jealous.
• I hope my bees are still alive.
• Is it Friday yet?

One of those lessons learned kind of days

Today, C-man weighed in at 89.5 and was bracketed in the 90 - 98 pound weight class with 5th graders who were all much more experienced. And the results were a bit sad. He got pinned his first three matches.

In his first match, the kid got him into a half nelson and he didn't know quite how to get out. Because he was fighting so hard, he really hurt his shoulder, which made him sad and scared. And, of naturally, more timid for his second match.

By the third match, he was up against an incredibly good kid the other kids on his team all looked at and said, "I hope you don't have to wrestle HIM." He did. And there was just no chance. But true to form, the kid was incredibly nice to him after, and gave him a hug. It's such a funny sport that way - I am going to hurt you for three minutes and then hug you because I know how awful-hard that just was. There's something really impressive about learning that by 10 years old.

In the fourth round, he fought really hard. With just 10 seconds left, he threw a reversal and tied it at 4-4 to send the match into overtime. Unfortunately, he lost that one by getting taken down first.

There were tears and sadness. There was ice on the shoulder. And there were a lot of pep talks from the coaches. But when it was all said and done, he went to bed proud that he battled so hard and knew he really couldn't have done any better. A character building day, for sure.

Saturday stuff

It's a slow Saturday around here, which is pretty fabulous considering I'm still hurting so much that I consider moving around an optional activity. But at least the squirrels are happily visiting with me. Okay, they're eating my corn, but whatever, we can't be picky about these things. Hope you're enjoying your day, wherever you are.

Thank you, weekend. I really need you.

I'm back in Milwaukee. I'm in a lot of pain. It makes it hard to do anything right now. Yea for the weekend.

Another week ahead

• Beerman is home sick. I know - shocking.
• C-man left for school with a mat burn on his left cheek. (War wound, if you will.)
• And I'm packing and heading out to Orlando for a few days for work.
• Full steam ahead.

Winner winner chicken dinner

Today, we spent our day in Random Lake at yet another wrestling tournament. He still needs a lot of help on the technical side of things, but the improvement is no less than impressive each week.

He won his first round by major decision with it coming out at 12 -0.

Round 2 came out with another major decision at 10 - 2.

And Round 3 was the hardest match-up of the day, but still with the win at 6 - 1.

A pretty darned good day, and a great way to show off your stuff in front of your cousins.

Happy weekend

It's Valentines weekend. Beerman sent me roses to work. He's good about sending flowers, but I don't know the last time I got the official long stemmed roses in a vase treatment. Most importantly, they make everyone jealous who walks by. You know, because that's how I like to roll.

Happy weekend to you!

Thursday Thirteen

1. It's that bad time of year when everyone is cold and depressed. I really dislike this time of year.
2. I'll be in Orlando for work next week. All day in a cold conference room, but hopefully I'll be able to sneak in a little sunshine on my face. I really need sunshine on my face.
3. C-man is anxiously planning his birthday. His list of expensive gifts is long.
4. I can't believe I'm going to have a kid in double digits. Incredible how fast I got old.
5. My back hurts. Not even Tramdol helped me sleep last night. Major bummer.
6. Things have been weird lately. Totally off-kilter weird. I'm blaming Mercury in retrograde.
7. C-man's USA Wrestling magazine came this week. They have a photo contest. I'm totally going to rule that contest.
8. I'm waiting for this week's tournament to determine which photos I send in, though. So many possibilities.
9. Valentines Day is Saturday. I'm not a Valentines hater, but I've never loved it all that much either. The restaurants are always packed and service sucks, and the flowers are overpriced. Not to mention, I'm a terrible Valentines gift giver. The pressure is too much.
10. You know how people always post all these recipes to Facebook? What do you think the percentage of those ever get made? I don't actually know this answer, but I'm going to guess it's pretty low.
11. I don't think I've ever seen a recipe posted on Facebook and was then inspired to make it.
12. Who are we kidding though, I don't ever cook anymore.
13. All week, I've thought it was a day ahead of what it actually was. So disappointing.

Let's hope she's helping these two hives...

Saint Gobnait’s Day is Feb 11th

Gobnait (Gobnet, Gobhnet, Gobnaid, Gobnata, or Gobnatae), was born in County Clare, Ireland, sometime in the 5th or 6th century. Gobnait is Irish for Abigail (“Brings Joy”). As the patron saint of beekeepers, her name also has been anglicized as Deborah, meaning ‘Honey Bee’.

One of the miracles attributed to Saint Gobnait was that she protected a parish by unleashing a swarm of bees. She had a strong relationship with bees and used the properties of honey in the treatment of illness and healing of wounds.

Days until

• 23 days until Beasley joins us
• 9 days until I give up chocolate
• 56 days until Opening Day
• 5 days until Valentines
• 41 days until I have a kid in the double digits
• 85 days until my 30s exit year begins

Quietly

• I had a massage today. My middle and ring finger on my left hand have been going numb, and I had 6 sessions banked, so I figured it probably needed some work done.
• 24 days until the Beasley dog shows up. I can't wait. I hope he likes us.
• There was no wrestling tournament today. Well, there were tournaments, but the team didn't go to any. It was pretty nice to just have the whole weekend of quiet.
• I still need to clean up the remnants of the closet we pulled apart. Slowly, very slowly, I'm getting to it.
• Organization is not my thing. I just don't know where to put stuff I shouldn't probably throw away but don't really care about. Which is almost everything This means I should just throw it away, right?
• There are  3 giant bags of clothes in front of our door for Easter Seals to pick up tomorrow, though. So that's something.
• I've decided to start really writing again. I haven't for so long, and I think I have some stories inside me.
• With the closet organization, I also ran into my way, way too much yarn and projects I've started but not finished. I'm re-starting a sweater. The yarn is beautiful, and I really should finish the darned thing.
• Have you seen the 36 questions that lead to love? I like them a lot.
• Valentines Day is coming. I had a bunch of ideas for C-man's Valentines, and he picked a Bees theme with honey straws. So I ordered them from Patz's, of course. It's so awesome that he could have had Peeps or funny glasses, and chose honey.
• I've fallen in love with the HBO show Carnivale. It is on Amazon Prime Instant, too. It only went for 2 seasons, and I'm just starting season 2. It's very much like Night Circus. I'm glad I found it.
• C-man is disappointed he has a full week of school. You know he gets too much time off when that's a problem!

For the love of it all

May your weekend be filled with love and color.

Thursday Thirteen

1. There is no wrestling this weekend, and it feels strange. Odd how it so quickly became a part of our weekend routine.
2. The kids wrestled before the high school meet on Tuesday night. They were in their shirts and socks, so we decided to get a team photo. It took all of 5 minutes to get all those kids organized and the photos taken. Pretty impressive.
3. We get Beasley one month from today. It seems so far away.
4. I need to get him a new bed.
5. C-man thought it should go in his room. But then he realized he'd have to clean it and thought that wasn't such a good idea.
6. I got the medium coffee instead of the small. My ulcer hates me, but the rest of me is quite happy.
7. Beerman is at Cider Con today. I wanted to ask if he had to dress up like his favorite cider, but then figured that joke wasn't that funny. Except I'm still giggling about it.
8. I think I may take a University of Minnesota beekeeping class this year. Marla Spivak is the bee whisperer, and it would be really nice to take a class with her.
9. The problem is it is in Minnesota until 5 p.m. on a Sunday, which would mean taking a Monday off. Hmmmm... Decisions....
10. My taxes are done. I have to file Wisconsin by mail because we have private school tuition. Which means I'll get a paper check for the refund. Lame.
11. I'm torn about getting the private tuition tax deduction. It's dumb, but I'm not about to turn it down.
12. I've had some big shakeups at work this week with reporting structures. Funny thing though, is it's happened so much, it doesn't even phase me.
13. Valentines is coming up soon. Oh crap.

Dancing

So it's Wednesday. That middle of the week day when you decide if you're an optimist or a pessimist. I've decided today I will dance through my day. Literally. Arabesques and leaps through the hallway. Because really, what the hell's the difference? It's gray and snowy and cold and we are only halfway through the week. I'd might as well get my groove on.

Monday is not a fun day

• We got 12" of snow and are expecting 3" more tomorrow.
• The groundhog told us there'll be more winter. Um, duh.
• Can I be done talking about the weather now?
• The Patriots won the Superbowl, and no, I did not care.
• I have never liked Katy Perry, and my opinion of her has not changed.
• Can I be done talking about the Superbowl now?
• I have the dog walker all set up for Beasley's entrance into Rysewyk-hood.
• The grooming appointments are getting set up, too.
• Next weekend is wrestling-free. I am not even sure how we'll deal with that.
• Maybe by getting the 10 loads of laundry finally folded and put away.
• And my taxes. Oh, how I'd love to finish those off next weekend.
• C-man's school has sent us a letter telling us he should be vaccinated for measles. (He is vaccinated for it already. Twice. And the school has a record of that.) Oh, the hysteria we create sometimes.