Welcome to March

We have been home for a week from our vacation in the sun and are pretty much back into the routine.  Jo has been busy at work with a few new projects and I'm tackling the usual home repairs.  This week's challenge was repairing some scratches in the wood floors that were left by the previous owners.  This was a project I had put off for a few years as I fiddled around trying to find the best method for getting it to blend in by experimenting in places around the house where it wasn't obvious if my fixes weren't perfect.


For the weekend, we enjoyed a visit from Kathy and John.  The highlight was a visit to the local Sprecher's Brewery for their tour and beer tasting.  We were joined by Drew, Chris, and Angela (nephews and niece) and spent a lot of time sipping the multitude of beers available.  I find it amazing how many different types of beer are now produced since when I was a kid it seemed like all you could get was Budweiser and the like.  I guess it is like coffee, only used to have Folgers and now there is a designer coffee shop on every corner.  Anyway I'll stop showing my age and move on.  I love the Sprecher tour since you can sample all the their soft drinks for free which is more appealing to me since I'm not a big beer fan.  The cherry cola, cream soda, and root beer are phenomenal.

After the tour everyone gathered back at the house for dinner which was preceded by guava berry coladas (which Jo and I had to test out on Friday to be sure we could make them properly).  We were able to make ones that matched our experience in St. Maarten just without the warm tropical breezes blowing while you sipped them.  One note, drinking a frozen cocktail when it is 20 degrees outside isn't a recommended way to get warm.  Dinner was lasagna from a deli in Madison that Kathy brought.  It was one of the best lasagnas I have had although it might have been the ten pounds of cheese but into a seven pound lasagna.  We coupled this with some home made french bread and key lime pie or German chocolate cake for dessert.  Sunday morning we headed to a local coffee shop for a quick breakfast before Kathy and John headed back to Madison.  Afterwards, Jo and I got caught up around the house.

Just to remind us that winter still has some staying power even in March, we got another 3 inches of snow yesterday.  This added to what is already on the ground means we have about 18-24 inches of snow to melt before the grass will show again - probably May.  Also, according to the weather we are going to enjoy a few days of temperatures in the teens just to remind us how lovely winter can be.  Fortunately, the predictions are for temperatures to slowly rise into the mid-30's over the next seven days with the outside possibility of a 40.

I've included a few more photos from our vacation since I had room and wanted to be reminded of the sunny weather.