It's been a pretty interesting week here. Last Friday, Janet's basketball team beat Antigo, a team that was ranked #6 in the state. As a result of that game, her team was in first place in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. Tuesday, they lost to Marshfield, resulting in a four-way tie for first. Last night, they won over Wausau West in a very good game. Now there's a three-way tie, but there's still a lot of basketball to play. For some reason, the media loves Janet and she is almost always shown in the clips on the sports on TV. One of the local sports guys likes to make a little word play on her name--SCORESby! But this week, she has also been featured in several articles in the paper. She had an interview on Wednesday with a reporter from the paper. Then last night, after the game, she was interviewed by the two local TV stations and by the Wausau Daily Herald. She really doesn't like being interviewed--she says they ask stupid questions that she has no answer for. Oh well, I guess that's the price of fame. If you'd like to see some photos of the game, you can check out this site: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=U0&Dato=20080125&Kategori=WDH020502&Lopenr=801250820&Ref=PH

Janet is #13 in the green uniform.



Also this week, we went to a breakfast at one of the local Rotary clubs, where Janet received a youth merit award. Several of the people there were big honchos from West who were skeptical when Janet said that Everest would beat West. As we were driving home, I was thinking that we probably won't be going to many more of these kinds of things. We will have a few more graduations--Janet from high school; Shannon, Preston, Sarah and Janet from college; Ben and Preston from professional schools; maybe some more daughters or sons-in-law from graduate or professional schools. But for the most part, our days of going to awards events are pretty much over. From here on out, it'll be up to the next generation to attend those kinds of things. However, I will be available to go to fun little grandkid things!



In other news, we have been in the grip of a real cold snap for about a week. One day, the high was -3 degrees. It's warmer now, but the price we have to pay is snow. It snowed a couple of inches overnight and is still snowing. I'm definitely ready for some sun. This is our mailbox. All you can see is the box, no post or anything.

Since it's the dead of winter here in lovely central Wisconsin and we're basically prisoners of -20 degree temperatures and about 25 inches of snow, I thought I write about other places I'd like to go someday. These fall into two rough categories--places I've never been and places I've been but would love to visit again. This list is far from comprehensive. It's just a list of places that are on my mind right now.

*England--London, Yorkshire, Wales--Okay, pretty much anywhere in
England. My only concern is that there is so much I want to visit there that one 1 week trip will simply never suffice. We'll have to go again and again.
*China--I've always wanted to go there. Rene says that after visiting India, he's not sure about visiting China.
*Disneyworld or Disneyland--I know it's crazy, but as far as I know none of our immediate family have ever been to either one with the possible exceptions of Tracy, Shannon or Preston. I'd like to visit, just so I know what it's like.
*Spain--I may actually get there sometime in the foreseeable future. Rene will probably be going there this year for work, and I may be able to go, depending on timing, finances, etc.
*PEI--Rene has been there a couple of times, but of course, I haven't.
*Banff--Once again, somewhere I've always wanted to go, but never been.
*California--several places would suffice, but I definitely want to go to Humboldt county sometime. Northern California is higher on the list than southern, but as of right now, the only place I've ever been is Sacramento.
*Australia would be nice, but it's not at the top of my list right now.
*Las Vegas--just to see the sights.

In the places I've been, but would like to go back to category:

*New York City--My mom and several siblings and their spouses and I had a blast when we went there last year. I'd like to go again with Rene and Janet.
*The Washington, DC, area--We've been there so many times, but I like it there a lot. Good thing we have reason to visit. No offense intended to Memphis, which we also enjoyed, or Provo, which I love to visit because it feels like home.
*West Virginia and southern Ohio--Sarah and Janet may giggle at this choice, but I liked it's there.
*The eastern coast of the US, from the Delmarva peninsula to Florida--We've really enjoyed our visits to the ocean and would love to go more often. I imagine we'd also like beaches in the Florida panhandle or California. We have also been to the beach in Galveston and in Hawaii and liked those, too.

Perhaps I'll have to post a second list as I continue to ponder traveling. Or perhaps a list of places I don't want to go would be good. Right now, I can't think of many, but I haven't really considered it.

By the way, before any of you can comment on what I'm doing up to 1:52 am, I'd like you to know that it's Senior Ball night and I'm waiting up for Janet. I'm sure she'll post something about it and maybe even a picture.

In his April Conference address, Elder Holland said that one of his maxims is "no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse." I fully intended this entry to be a whole lot of whining, and I'll tell you why.
Yesterday, I had to drive to Milwaukee to pick Sarah up at the airport as she returned from her trip to Mount Vernon. It's a long drive--3 hours--and I had just taken her down on Thursday. As I got ready to leave, I called her to see if her plane was on time. She said that the waiting passengers had been told that the plane would be about 50 minutes late, but that there was severe weather in Milwaukee, so they wouldn't take off until the weather cleared. Now, it was about 42 degrees out, which is unusual for winter here, so I looked out the window. Yep, a little foggy, from all the evaporation of the snow in the "warm" weather. So, I didn't know what to do. If I waited until I knew that Sarah's plane had taken off, she'd be waiting for me for two hours and we'd get home very late. At the same time, I didn't want to get down there and have her flight cancelled and be stuck there overnight. I finally left about 2:30.
On the way down to Stevens Point, I pondered which way I should go. Between Stevens Point and Madison, there is pretty much nothing for 100 miles. And the freeway crosses an agricultural area that is very flat, where everything blows across the road. I was afraid that the fog would be worse that way. Going by way of Oshkosh and Fond du Lac is much more interesting, but you drive by a lot of water and that creates fog. I finally decided to go the Oshkosh route. This had one added advantage. I would be able to stop somewhere civilized and call Sarah to see if her plane was on time.
This is where the whining is supposed to come in. Gosh, it was bad! Between Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, there were some points where I couldn't even see 5 feet in front of me. Traffic, for the most part, was zipping along unconcernedly, but I was definitely cussing out myself, the weather, the stupid airline for being cheaper from Milwaukee, etc. It was very scary, but I didn't know what to do besides go on. I thought that there was no way Sarah's plane could land. After driving for 1 1/2 hours, I tried to call Sarah, but she didn't answer. I then called Janet, who looked online and said that the plane had apparently taken off. This is totally crazy, I thought to myself. But I persevered and about 40 miles out of Milwaukee, the fog suddenly evaporated. As I was turning off on the exit ramp to the airport, Sarah called and said that she had just landed.
After picking her up, we decided that we would try the other route home--to Madison, then turning north. Sarah drove and it was distinctly better--hardly any fog until we got to Madison. As we took the ramp north, we saw several police cars with their lights on. We passed one overturned car and could see a car on fire on the other side of the road. As we went north, we noticed that there was a long, long backup on cars and trucks going southbound. Wow, we thought, good thing we're headed north. There was a little fog, but nothing compared to what I'd driven through. We made it home safely, only 10 minutes later than we expected.
Imagine my chagrin this morning when I read this news:

MADISON, Wis. — Dozens of cars were involved Sunday in two separate pileups that killed two people on a foggy stretch of highway just east of the city.
The Wisconsin State Patrol shut down Interstate 90 in both directions, causing a traffic backup for miles.
Flares lining the interstate's lanes cut through the fog as traffic crawled north of the accident sites. Visibility was about 100 yards. Squad cars and tow trucks streamed toward the accidents as law enforcement agents directed drivers off the interstate.
The accidents happened on a stretch of eastbound Interstate 90 running south from the Badger Interchange with Interstate 94, Dane County sheriff's Lt. Dan Bolch said.
Around 2:30 p.m., cars began braking when they hit a wall of fog near Interstate 90's intersection with U.S. Highway 12/18, Wisconsin State Patrol Lt. Laurie Steeber said. A semi-truck came up behind them and began plowing into vehicles, she said. One person was killed.
A similar pileup happened three miles away when another group of vehicles on the interstate also began braking in fog, Steeber said. A second person was killed in that pileup.

Yep, that's right. I left here at 2:30, about when this all started to happen. Had I gone the other way, I would have been in the backup, which didn't really get clear until 11:30 pm. Instead, I just had a tense trip and we both arrived home safely at a good time.
Did I hear any little voice telling me to go the Oshkosh route? Nope. But I still believe that I was guided in which way to go and protected as I went that way. Isn't that the way we are sometimes? We complain about what happens, when it is really a blessing in disguise. So, no whining here today--despite that darn fog!