Amaryliis

More time has passed than usual since my last post. Since the holidays, we haven't exactly been idle,  but there also have not been any special picture taking events, and I usually think to post something when I can include a picture or two. Kathie's amaryllis blossomed this past week, so I am using that occasion to prompt me to write some words here.

Kathie has been busy working on a summer reunion of her Alpha Phi sorority. This has involved lots of emails and phone calls and a few meetings, but she is having great fun reconnecting with friends and has succeeded in locating a number of individuals who had seemed to drop off the radar screen. She is working on a very interesting needlepoint piece that I believe she intends to make into a bag for future crocheting and other needlepoint supplies and projects, and she is active in her investment club. Of course, we enjoy occasional video chats with Maia and the other grandkids.

Meanwhile, I spent a bit of time in early January working out travel plans for later this year (September/October) when our friends from Australia will be here for a visit. They are coming for their first ever tour of the U.S., and we are going to meet them in Montana and then visit Yellowstone, the Black Hills, and other sites on our way back to Iowa. They will be with us here for a bit and also up at the lake before we take them further east and eventually say goodbye at Niagara Falls.

I've also been getting some woodworking projects started, including a luggage rack for our guests to use, a wine rack for our friends David and Donna, a bookcase for Rob, and a loft/bunk bed for Eleanor. I must admit that having had such fun with the electric trains during the holidays, I'm doing lots of studying and planning of alternative railroad layouts. My thinking now is that I may take my Lionel trains to the lake and create a setup there, leaving the HO trains here. That way, my grandkids and I can play wherever we happen to be.

I've read quite a few books already this year, including one called The State of Jones about a region of Mississippi during the Civil War that stayed more allied to the Union cause than that of the Confederacy. I finished another called The Last Stand about Custer and surrounding events. Others were The Art of Racing in the Rain and The Solitude of Prime Numbers. I just started The Bridge of Sighs.

We enjoyed watching some of the NFL playoff games in January, and last weekend, we had our own little private Superbowl party. Kathie made nachos and I fixed some brats and a fruit salad—all of this was way outside of our diet efforts, but it is fun to splurge once in awhile. I've been good about exercising for 40 minutes on my treadmill every morning, and with more careful attention to the food we eat, I've actually been losing some weight with the hope that when my annual physical rolls around in March, I may get some pats on the back from my doctor.

Last Friday, Kathie, her mom, and I went to see Guys on Ice, a local community theater production about three guys from Wisconsin and their love of ice fishing. Much of it is a musical, and the songs are funny. How about Fish is the Miracle Food or Leinies, It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore, a tune about Leinenkugel beer? We are heading back to Wisconsin for a two or three weeks later this month. If Iowa won't give us a real winter, we'll go north and look for one there!