Getting Caught Up

I'm afraid this post is long overdue, but I've been so busy with everything that I just haven't had time to sit and do fun stuff.

First, thanks to all who sent me birthday greetings. I've always loved my birthday and I had a great day, filled with gifts and hugs from the kids at school and surprises from Mark and "the kids" as well. Mark took me out for a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant in the small town of Monticello where two of our very good friends were waiting for us. It takes about 40 minutes to get to this place from our house and the drive is really pretty with rolling farmland and lots of little streams along the way. We were supposed to just stop at a place for burgers, but Mark was sneaky and took me to The Dining Room...although I did figure out what he was doing by the time we drove past the 3rd road sign for Monticello.

Next, I would like to show a couple of pictures from a few weeks ago when Mark and I were up north. I spent the time in Rhinelander but he was in Tomahawk with his dad and brother for their annual fishing trip. The pictures were taken when I picked Mark up before heading back south to Cross Plains. One is a view of the lake from their cabin and the other shows the particular cabin they always rent (lots of people kind of come and go during this trip, so sometimes they need a lot of room because 8 or 9 guys might be up there). I tried to post these pictures on my last blog but they wouldn't go on for some reason...

Finally, Mark and I spent the day after Mother's Day driving around with our hounds, doing some errands on the east side that needed to be done (I probably go to Rhinelander more often than I do the eastside of Madison), visiting a dog park, and swinging around the Columbus area where brother Bob resides. It was a beautiful day and really nice to "relax" after serving over 675 people on Mother's Day. I hate to say it, but this was the first time I had been to the little city of Columbus, but as I mentioned earlier, we just don't get over to the east side. Columbus was really really beautiful with lots of red bud trees in bloom--hence the title "red bud city".

We also happened to go there on a day that they were filming a scene for the new Johnny Depp/Christian Bale movie "Public Enemy". I wanted to stop and gawk and look for Johnny (he's dreamy), but Mark was driving and put the kabosh on it. Although he loves "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Edward Scissorhands," Mark is not real fond of Johnny Depp the man and not because I think he's dreamy.

Well, I'm still behind in events, but as least this gets me a little caught up.