Brrrr!!!!!!!!

Hey, Casey--thanks for bringing me in from out in the cold. Our old laptop bit the dust and took with it the invitation to get signed up on the family blogspot. Thanks to you and Kevin, who also provided some assistance, I was able to get on and get going. I appreciate it.

I am sitting here watching the Badgers take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. It's been a real good game so far--just about when Wisconsin was gonna run away and hide Iowa came back to make it a 4-pt game at halftime. It's been so much fun watching Wisconsin basketball this year. It brings me back to the mid- to late-seventies when Marquette was so dominant. It's also great to know that the UW should continue to be a powerhouse and get even stronger in the years to come.

By now, hopefully everybody has recovered from our Christmas visits and the colds we likely passed back and forth from all the smooching and hugging we all did. It was just so great to see everyone (excepy David and Michele who were dearly missed), and to catch up with one and all, and the mere inconvenience of a minor respiratory hacking fit was worth the effort..

It's hard to believe that the Superbowl is already only a week away! We are planning to have a low-key Sunday next weekend; no parties, no fuss, no muss. It works for me!

We are all doing well. Steve is back into the swing of his graduate program; Maura has picked up about 30 new cases this month alone, which translates into about 3 to 4 months of added backlog; Alex has decided to not pursue culinary school after being disillusioned over the past several months by working in various kitchens from the Dells to Devil's Head Ski Resort; I have had a rough month as the weather continues to swing all over the map with warm to cold and clear to lots of snow. So I am hoping that Jimmy the groundhog comes out on a cloudy day so we can end this nonsense early this year. Maura and I are currently planning to take an extra-long weekend in late February to head down to Carbondale and spend some time with Steve. Hopefully it will be warmer there than here.

Well, halftime is over and I need to get back to the b'ball game. I hope all are well and making it through the winter in good shape. I am looking forward to making good use of this communication vehicle. A big thanks to Casey for setting this whole shee-bang up!

Love to all, per usual.

--Tim--