In which I catch up with relating my weekend activities.

Apologies for the delay. Unfortunately my memories have faded and I am having trouble remembering as far back as my last entry. I’ll just muddle through as best I can.

I visited my mom on the weekend of November 15th. The Clintonville High School was performing The Wizard of Oz. Shanah’s sister Jasmine was in it and her cousin Jolie played Dorothy! My mom and I went to see it on Sunday. Mark, Shanah, Hannah, Lisa, and Saryn met up with us and we caught the show together. I was able to get some pictures.

I had Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving. It was kind of nice to just have the full four days without having to travel back and forth between Wausau and Clintonville. Matt was also able to make it up for the whole four days. This is our second Thanksgiving without my Dad and it was a fairly low-key affair. We had Grandma and Don over to my mom’s house for dinner. (Yup, once again, I took pictures.) The rest of the weekend was spent talking with Matt and Mom, eating the leftovers of my mom’s wonderful meal, watching the Packers get blown out, watching other TV, and sleeping. Decadent, sure, but very relaxing.

Dale was performing in a play on Dec 6th. The play was The Ballerina and the Economist (a production of Broom Street Theatre). Dale played everyone’s love interest (and I mean everyone). The play was very avant garde and, well, let’s just say that I now have a standing rule that I must be warned before viewing any plays in which my friends get sodomized. The rest of the weekend was basically just a large number of us hanging out at Pat and Jamie’s parents’ house and doing some Christmas shopping in Madison. Hannah was the only kid there and managed to be in most of my pictures.

Travis’ birthday and JoAnn’s annual fabulous Christmas shindig were on Dec 13th. I went down on Friday to help her get ready. Travis’ birthday was the typical chaotic event that only a one-year-old’s birthday can be (especially when he has a jealous older sister and quite a few guests). He was happy with the sound effects hammer that I gave him and was wandering around hitting things with it, so my job was well done. JoAnn’s party had a modest turnout but I had a lot of fun. Good eats, good conversation, good times. On Sunday JoAnn and I went over to Mark & Shanah’s house to watch the Packers and feast on leftover chili. I ended up staying entirely too late, mostly due to the Simpsons and a Borders run. (Check out even more pictures.)

DataWave had the unofficial Christmas party on the 19th. Endo, rob, and Jess were there along with several people from work and even a few ex-employees of DataWave. We each brought a dish to pass and gathered at a local bar. (Yeah, a bar is an odd place to have a potluck but, like I said, this is the unofficial party.) Amanda had her graduation party on Dec 20th so I headed down to Stevens Point for that.

The Packers played on Monday. They have been in somewhat of a slump recently. They are just on the edge of making it into the playoffs and they haven’t been looking like a playoff team. This was a game that they had to win. Unfortunately, Brett Favre’s father died unexpectedly on Sunday, slightly 24 hours before kickoff. He was given the option to skip the game but he decided to play. The pre-game and game coverage talked about little besides the death of Favre’s father and how it would be affecting him. It was very strange to listen to after losing my own father a little more than a year ago. It started to grate on my nerves. But Favre played brilliantly, easily one of the best games of his career, and the rest of the team stepped up to match him. It was an amazing game to watch. After the game he spoke to a reporter and made the most fitting comments I had heard all night. “I do not wish this on anyone… I’m going to miss him.” Amen, Brett.

That gets me up-to-date in the weekend activities. There is still more I want to write, but that will have to wait.