Hello there,

A busy week here. Nothing too exciting.

Work has been really busy. The conference for beginning farmers had a good turnout (about 50-60 total) despite the bad weather that morning (fog/ice/rain/snow) last Saturday. Still a success and I don't think I sounded too bad (if I do say so myself). This week at work I've been busy with the 3 applications taken in last week and the one application taken in this week. I also got one application to the state office for approval which was good. Friday was a challenge with 6 farm visits in one day. That's a lot considering prep time and travel time. This coming week I'll be out of the office for 2 days as I've been asked to be part of an interview team for a farm loan officer position. That's been very interesting. I've only been an interviewee not an interviewer before so this is seeing things from a different perspective. The state office specialist will also be in our office one day this week so we'll be very busy.

Class continues to go as well as can be expected. It's a real challenge. I'm struggling with the concepts and computations surrounding bond values and other investment options. Today I had to calculate the weighted cost of capital for Harley-Davidson as part of a team project. I've actually been working on that calculation for the better part of a week and I'm still not sure that I've got everything right with it. I'm almost half done with the course so I'm happy with that.

I had a good time visiting Matt this weekend. He, Carmen, and I went to dinner at Qdoba (a Mexican grill) where I had a chicken burrito that was very filling and reasonably priced. Probably pretty healthy for me to with lots of veggies, beans, and rice. Then it was off to Best Buy so I could get a new ink tank for my printer and Matt could buy some software. After that, it was Woodman's for groceries. Then we stopped an an Indian (India) food grocery store on Odana Road. All the food is imported though I did see some Nestle and other mulit-national names that I recognized. It was interesting. There's an Indian restaurant next door to that that maybe we'll have to try some time. Just to be different.

Matt is doing his taxes this year using software that he's bought. As it's much cheaper than having H&R Block do it, I'm also thinking that might be the way for me to go. I think he's got his figured out already!

Christi seems quite busy. I'm jealous as she's learning and doing so much. Oh well - both Matt and Christi are more traveled than I am at this point. Bummers! I'll have to work on that.

Must remember to get the pets licensed in Dodgeville before 2/1. There are penalties for not doing it and after 2/1 it gets more expensive. As it is, a dog and cat license will be about $20.

Hope everyone has a great day! Take care!

Well, I've been very bad about posting so I thought I'd better do a bit of catch up.

I called Merle and Ev last week. Usually we do some family visits around the holidays but this year with everything going on (Christi leaving, flu, bad back, etc.) it just didn't work out. Ev makes the best fudge (real homemade!). Anyway, a package from them arrived in our mail last week - Ev mailed us some fudge. It was so nice of her. Not good for my diet but oh well! Really good stuff. A bit of family news:
Tim and Samantha are engaged. No wedding date set yet.
Deb and Pete's oldest daughter (sorry I forget her name) is going to a university about 2 1/2 hours from home.
Dan has returned to work part time (mornings) and must wear a face mask to avoid germs as his immune system is still low (chemo, radiation, etc.). Ev said things are going well for him.
Robin and Dan's baby is due in April. Definately a miracle child!
Seems like there were a lot of other things we talked about but I can't remember them right now. Otherwise things seem to be going well for everyone there. It was good to talk to Ev and visit for a bit.

Yesterday I went to Madison to visit Matt. Carmen went with us as well. It was a great day.

On the way there, I called Monnie on my cell phone. I know I shouldn't be driving and calling but it seemed an efficient use of time with the lack of traffic and the boreing drive. I feel bad that we didn't visit with Monnie as a part of our usual holiday thing but there were so many things (Christi leaving, flu, bad back, etc.) that kept us away. Monnie is doing well but has a hard time hearing so I had to talk really loud. Zil has been quite ill lately and as Monnie describes her has been "curled up in a ball" most of the time and "hasn't eaten solid food in 2 weeks". It's sad really. Zil is 96 now and Monnie did say that she talked to her last weekend but that Zil didn't seem too able to talk. Monnie also said that she went to the christmas program at Zil's nursing home a few weeks ago and that Zil didn't know her. It was sad really. Monnie said that Robin (Danny's wife) teaches 4th grade as an aide and that on Wednesday's the class (St. Rose's Catholic School in Cuba City) comes to the nursing home to participate in mass there so she sees Robin weekly. It was hard to get off the phone to Monnie as she sounded very lonely but she did mention enjoying Dad and Gloria's Christmas card and the Moss family Christmas newsletter before I had to let her go.

We ended up going to Rocky's Pizza for lunch which was good although they had a Pepperoni Motherlode pizza as the slice of the day and I'm not a huge fan of pepperoni. Oh well - I ended up with a sausage and pepperoni slice so that was still fine.

After the lunch, we went to the "King Kong" movie. It was over 3 hours long and followed the original story quite well. The computer work in the movie is great - the 'monkey' looked very real and was quite expressive. I enjoyed the story but there were definately parts that pushed the PG-13 rating in my opinion. I wouldn't want to take small children to the movie. The movie was also quite long and that was hard to sit through with my back (which I'd managed to 'put out' the weekend before). Anyway, it was a good movie but be prepared for a long sit if you go. Another thing to note is that the Point theater on the west side of town charges $4 for movies that start before 1PM so we got a bargain. (Big bonus - Matt and Carmen let me sit with them in the theater!).

After the movie, it was off to Woodman's to buy groceries for the week. I didn't have a lot on my list but I did stock up on a few things. Carrots are always on the list because they are cheaper there and Daisy loves them as treats. I also found a previously viewed copy of the Walt Disney movie "Sky High" on sale for $5.99 (stars Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston as super heroes with a son who's learning how to save the world - yes very cheesy and perfectly overblown and harmless - it is Disney afterall) that I bought for watching.

With that done, we filled the car up with gas ($2.32/gallon at Woodman's station) and stopped at Michaels Frozen Custard for their special on ice cream. Then it was dropping Carmen off at her dorm and Matt off at his dorm and heading home.

It was a great day.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day. I had the day off work.

The plan was that I would go to Darlington and take lunch to Gloria and Dad along with a belated birthday cake to Gloria (her birthday was yesterday). However, Dad has the stomach flu so that plan got benched (so to speak) for another time.

As it was - I got a lot of homework, housework, and work/work done. A good day overall but there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. Oh well.