Too many people! Too little patience!

Have you ever tried to quit smoking? I haven't. I've never really smoked, so it's obviously never been an issue. My husband says it's difficult. I'm inclined to believe him, since he's been quitting since 1991 (when I met him). He's going through another stint of really trying to quit these past couple of weeks. And, let me tell you....he's a joy to be around. But, I appreciate that he's attempting to quit, so most times when he gets serious about it I try to stay out of his way (it helps all of us).

This past weekend, Maranda had her first swim meet since we've moved to Wisconsin. There were over 400 swimmers at this meet. The same meet last year drew about half that number. So, it was a little crowded at the YMCA. Plus, we had to have Maranda there and ready to warm-up at 6:45 am. Maranda and I got up and went in the morning and let Mark sleep in since he had to work until midnight the night before. While she was in the pool, I set up a chair in the hallway where there are windows overlooking the pool. Lots of other people did the same thing. It's much more comfortable than sitting on the bleachers in the pool. So, I was sitting there reading a book and minding my own business. A gentleman with a swimmer on another team began talking to me and ended up asking if we could work out a deal so he could squeeze in front of me during his son's events. I agreed, because it seemed like it wasn't a big deal. Later, Mark got there and I told him about the deal I made. He was good with it, too. Anyway, a few hours later, I went downstairs to work with the concession stand and left Mark sitting in the chair with our coats, etc. About two hours later, he came downstairs with all of our coats and said that he packed up our stuff and moved it because he was about to kill someone. Apparently, the crowd in the hallway was pressing in on him more after I left and one guy was watching an event and tapping his fingers on Mark's shoulders while he watched. I'm going to assume that the guy figured he was tapping his fingers on the chair...but...still. Who does that? Rude. Well, Mark seriously looked pushed to the limit. I think the guy was lucky to walk away without some sort of injury. Mark ended up going home, because he decided that he really didn't have the patience to deal with so many people. Who knew a little swim meet would be that crazy!

So, my advice to rabid swim fans....don't annoy the man having a nicotine fit!

Packers mania

Oh. My. God. (Now, say that again with the voice of Janice from "Friends.") Oh. My. God. This is the only way to adequately describe how flippin' cold it was at the Packers game yesterday. I've just now thawed out enough to use a keyboard. Holy crap! So, I used to bitch about Husker mania in good ol' Lincoln, Nebraska. Although, I managed to never go to a Huskers game. I left that to Mark and Maranda. And, I would have been all right with doing the same with the Packers, but we managed to procure four tickets to Sunday's game against the Jets. So, we had Mark's cousin come up from OshKosh (about 40 minutes from us) and we all trooped off to the game. Okay...back to why I brought up the Huskers...that sea of red that you could see walking either to or from the stadium (depending on the time of day) is NOTHING compared to what we witnessed yesterday.

Luckily, our neighbor was parking cars at some establishment across the street from Lambeau Field and saved a parking spot for us. Bonus! And, they didn't make us pay to park. Double bonus! But, just driving up to the stadium and around the block to the parking place was an interesting experience. First of all, every business in at least a three block radius was allowing people to park for the game (and, charging them, of course)...this includes the gas stations. It would have been impossible to get gas there, but I guess if you weren't at the game you wouldn't have tried to go to those gas stations. Anyway...then, you got to the residential area which is also, basically, right across the street. And, everyone is charging people to park in their yards for between $10 and $20. Some people had signs up that you could use their bathroom! Of course, everyone was dressed in the obligatory green and yellow. A blonde woman had added green spray paint stuff to her hair, so she completely fit the theme. Everyone else had on hats, coats, gloves, scarves, cheeseheads and all kinds of other Packers gear. Although, since it was so cold there were a lot of people dressed in their hunting gear. So, if you were unsure of the Packers colors, you may have thought (momentarily) that they were Hunter Orange or camoflauge.

So, we made it into the game and found our seats on a corner of the end zone in Row 47. They were very good seats. We were surrounded by people of all ages and even though people were drinking, it wasn't overly crazy. Thankfully, we all own enough gear for snowmobiling that we were bundled up pretty well. Although, by the second quarter I realized that I need to invest in some thermal long underwear. All my layers of clothing worked....but not quite as well as I had hoped. So, I guess I'm adding long underwear to my Christmas list. :)

There were still idiots (men) down in the front couple of rows that remained shirtless for a majority of the game. That HAD to have been fueled by an excess of alcoholic beverages. I don't see how else they could have stayed that way for so long. We invested (and, I do mean invested) in a couple of cups of hot chocolate at $5.50 apiece! And, that helped. Maranda and I got up and wandered around in the Lambeau Field Atrium, which is actually indoors, for awhile during the second quarter. Then, armed with our hot chocolate we were able to tough out the game until the end of the third quarter. Coincidentally, that's when the Packers finally scored a touchdown. So, at least we got to see them score. Oh...I guess we saw a field goal earlier....but, you know what I mean.

The best thing I overheard at the game from some random guy behind us that kept trying to start the wave: "Get off your knees, ref...You're blowing the game!" That made me laugh.

Overall, I'm glad that I went, but I don't know that I'll need to come up with the money to do that too many more times in my life.

So, this morning it starts snowing again and, again, it's beautiful. But, I get to work, get out of the car and start walking to my office and I think...my legs feel really cold. Was I ever this cold in Nebraska? Now, the logical answer to this is yes. There's more wind there, so the wind chill should be worse and I know the temperatures have been similar so far. So, other than this being another argument for long underwear, what's my deal? Have I already forgotten the cold weather that I'm certain froze all the little hairs in my nostrils while I was walking from my car to the office? Or, is there just something about the fact that I'm in Wisconsin that makes it seem like it should be colder? Weird.

Well, I'm off to be productive and, hopefully, not snowed in on campus!

It's Snowing!

It started snowing this morning around 8 am, and although it's stopped we've got just enough snow on the ground to cover the grass. There might be an inch or so. It's beautiful! We had a little snow a couple of weeks ago, but it only lasted 24 hours. I think it's cold enough now that this will stick around for awhile. The little bit of sunlight we've got is reflecting off the snow and making it so bright out. That's one of the things I enjoy about this kind of weather....it makes you forget how short the days really are. It seems to maximize what daylight there is. I also enjoy how Christmas lights look when you can see their glow through the snow. I hope everyone's day is just this wonderful!