Meeting Patricia Polacco

I follow Patricia Polacco and a couple other authors on Facebook. I always see Patricia doing school and library visits and hoped one day she would come to Wisconsin. As I was browsing the area library websites, I saw that she indeed was coming to Wisconsin and to Menasha library. I re-arranged my work schedule so I could see her....

Then we got an ice storm....

Luckily, she is flexible and was able to move her visit to the next day and push the visits she had scheduled in Madison to Monday. Phew.

Since she was signing books before her presentation, I got there super early, expecting a crowd. There was no line when I got there and was able to get a couple books signed for myself. I wanted to get one signed for Heather but I forgot to ask ahead of time and the book already had my last name in it from my teaching days.

For those non-teacher friends, Patricia Polacco writes and illustrates children's books. I discovered her in college and loved her books ever since. The illustrations are amazing.

Patricia Polacco had a really relaxed fireside chat with us. She talked about her background for a bit (Russian Ukrainian/Irish) but really left the direction of the chat to the audience. Since it was really geared towards children, she had all the little kids sit on the floor in front of her.

She talked about how she became a writer and how she went to New York to find a publishing house with her portfolio. All of her stories were sold to one publishing house or another while on that trip. I guess petting those horses paid off.

We learned a bit of her writing and publishing process... from the rocking chair brainstorming to the pounding out the story on an electric typewriter and blowing up the illustrations at Office Max Patricia Polacco is an old school writer. She has it takes about two years for her to publish a book but she is really only involved for the first six months. The rest has to do with editing, printing, and shipping the completed books over here from Hong Kong literally on the slow book from China.

I knew she had a dyslexia which is the basis of Thank You, Mr. Falker but not to what extent or the other "dys-abilities" she encountered. It was fascinating to learn she reads the blank space around words instead of the word itself which why reading, number, and all the stuff is so difficult. If it wasn't for Mr. Falker, she said she probably wouldn't be here today. So I am sure many teachers and students are really thankful for Mr. Falker.

She also told us the story about meteor that landed in her backyard. We even got to see the meteor.

The hour spent listening to Patrica Polacco was amazing. It was a great way to start of my weekend. If you ever get a chance to hear one of your favorite authors, do it. You learn some much about them and their craft. I wonder who else I will meet this year....

975. Play Twiddlywinks

Back when I wrote this list, I thought playing Twiddlywinks would be something fun to add to the list not that I had a clue as to exactly what Twiddlywinks were. Dad would mention playing twiddlywinks in jest but that really didn't tell me much except I wanted to play.

When I was trying to figure my 12 bucket list adventures for the year, Danielle said she'd help me with some of the weird ones. I asked her if she knew how to play Twiddlywinks, Euchre, or Bridge and not surprisingly she knew how to play Twiddlywinks. Unfortunately she doesn't know Euchre or Bridge....

I picked up a set of Twiddlywinks on Amazon for $7 and couldn't wait to learn how to play. Apparently I picked up the English version of the game but that didn't stop us from having some fun.

Basically the object of the game is to get all your (and your partner's) winks (chips) into the pot (cup) before the other team by flipping them into the pot. The English version gives your a flipper coin called a squidger to help flip your winks into the cup.

We didn't really play by the rules (i.e. taking turns, etc). We just tried to flip our winks into the pot. I must have had some beginner luck because I managed to get all my winks into the pot. Gavin wasn't having much fun because he couldn't get his winks into the pot.

Now that I have my own set of Twiddlywinks, I have a feeling I'm going to be practicing flipping my winks into the pot whenever I'm bored. I want to play against the hubby but I have a feeling he will get frustrated if he can't flip his winks into the pot.  If you've never played Twiddlywinks, I've got a set and we can play sometime. It's quite fun and challenging at the same time.

Snowshoeing at Heckrodt

For years, I wanted to snowshoe at Heckrodt but either there was not even snow (needed 6+ inches on the ground) or too cold for me to venture out. I was luck this year. We just got dumped with a foot of snow and the temperatures were going to be in the 30s.

When I got to Heckrodt, I wasn't sure where the trail started or anything. I just knew it wasn't straight ahead since you couldn't snowshoe on the boardwalk. Well, apparently to assist people like me there was a nice sign that said to snowshoe trail head right by the nature center which was a great spot to put on snowshoes. After a few feeble attempts on putting on my snowshoes, I managed to get them nice and snug and headed out on the trail.

The trail is a great beginner trail but I definitely would recommend poles. There are a few tiny hills that the poles would help get down safely. The trail is clearly marked which made it easy (along with the snowshoe prints) to follow. It is a bout .5 miles or so yet it took me over 30 minutes to make one loop mainly because I was having snow shoe problems (which gerry-rigged to work).

It was a beautiful day and many people were out.. just not that many on the snowshoe trail. A group left ahead of me and turned around just a short ways in. I didn't see anyone else.

Next time, I'm going to plan on at least an hour so I can make multiple loops around the trail. Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and I am able to get out sooner rather than later.

Pucks and S'mores

I've been years since I've had a s'more and lately I've been craving one. Neenah was having their annual Washington Park Winter Festival today complete with hot chocolate and s'mores. I lured Danielle and Gavin out of the house with the promise of s'mores.. okay so Danielle was game, Gavin not so much. Luckily he was a good sport.

Winter Festival was advertised as a free event for the entire family. There was to be skating, sledding, hockey, games, and s'mores. It was sponsored by the Neenah Park and Rec department and one of the local credit unions. Based on the lack of snow, I was pretty sure sledding wasn't going to be an option but there was plenty of everything else.

The ice rink was flooded and frozen. None of us had skates but we still ventured out on the ice to shoot some hockey. If you made a 5 point shot, you got a blizzard coupon... if you made a 2 point shot, you might a dilly bar stick... if you were under the age of 5. Okay so I may not have gotten my free blizzard but I did get a two pointer and five pointer. Apparently hockey was my sport.

Inside there was free lunch of a (lukewarm) hot dog and a bag of chips. Free is free. It was nice they were offering lunch. You could get hot chocolate outside or an itty bitty cup of water inside to drink.

After lunch, Danielle and Gavin tried they luck at a few of the games.

The games were geared towards the younger kids but the volunteers let the us bigger kids play too. I would have joined in but there were little kids that wanted to play.

Once we were done playing games, we headed back outside to make s'mores. Yum. They set a fire pit with pre-packaged s'more kits. a baggie with 2 graham cracker halfs, a fun-sized Hershey bar, and a marshmallow. It was perfect. Just pick up a stick and roast away.

Even though the marshmallows were not very soft and the s'more not very good, it was quite delicious. I don't know if the lack of gooeyness or the smaller Hershey bar was the reason but it was not a sweet as normal which I was completely happy with.

It was a great way to spend an hour or so on a winter day. It got us outside and into the fresh air. It is definitely geared to the under six crowd but it was still a lot fun. If you have small children, I would highly recommend going to this next year. I may go just for the s'mores.

I am no Bob Ross

Kimberly-Little Chute Library was having a paint like Bob Ross night.I hemmed and hawed about if I wanted to spend the $10 to paint. At the end I decided that it was something to do and I had nothing better to do while the hubby was at basketball.

To help us to paint like Bob Ross, we were provided Bob Ross wigs if we wanted one.

We had step by step instructions from You Tube how to paint with shades of grey. The librarian would play a step of the painting a couple of times and we were supposed to paint what Bob told us to paint with the right color/brush. He took us from a white canvas to a beautiful mountain scene... or should have.

We had to mix blue and brown to make grey... apparently Bob used special paint to get his grey because initially mine was a lovely blue-green. However with enough paint, I managed to get a grey color. Why couldn't we just use black and white. Plus we had to have a dark and light grey.

We had to make clouds to start off.. well my clouds went light and fluffy but more stormy and angry. I couldn't get my clouds to look like clouds. I think I had too much paint on my brush.

The mountains were slightly easier... until we had to start shadowing. I can't shadow to save my life. Everything is very one-dimensional with me. It went from mountains to waves crashing on rocks.

We had to add trees then. I couldn't figure out how Bob was making his trees so I made my own.. itty bitty trees that blended into the background mainly because I was over this whole painting thing by then (we were there for over an hour already) and my painting looked nothing like Bob's. I pretty much gave up.

I tried to make it a little more like Bob's mountain scene but every time I tried to "fix" I just made it worse and I was completely done. While everyone was adding more trees and shadows, I was done.

The wig definitely did not help. It was fun to wear but I don't think even Bob Ross standing next to me guiding my hand could help my lack of art skills. Needless to say, painting scenery is not my thing. Maybe they could do some sort of pop art. I might be able to handle that. Or maybe a Picasso.

So next time the library offers painting night, someone remind me I am no Bob Ross and it might be better to stick with basket weaving and print making.

575. See the Harlem Globetrotters

I've been wanting to go to the Harlem Globetrotters for years. They come to Green Bay and now they are also in Oshkosh right around Christmas/New Years. The hubby promised me we would go last year. Unfortunately the Globetrotters were in Oshkosh on New Year's Day so technically I didn't get to go last year but it became the first bucket list adventure of this year.

Tickets were more expensive than I expected them to be but not completely outrageous. If you wanted to meet the team and participate in a pre-game skills clinic of sorts, it would have been an extra $20 a person or something ridiculous like that. I didn't think it was worth that. I could see $10 but not $20.

We saw the Harlem Globetrotters at the Menominee Nation Arena in Oshkosh. The venue had limited parking and we ended up walking a good four blocks. Parking was free even in the itty-bitty parking lot. Oshkosh really needs a parking garage down there.

The Globetrotters was everything I expected and more. I knew they were famous for trick shots and family friendly entertainment. However I didn't quite expect the comedy show that went with it. Fans in the front row would randomly be pulled on to the court to be assistance or one of players would go into the crowd for one reason or another.

The game would randomly stop and players would preform balls tricks. That was pretty good. There were even ball tricks in the middle of the game.

What I did not expect was that the players could barely make regular basketball shots. The actual shooting at times was pathetic. Maybe I just watch too much basketball and pick up on these things. Maybe it was just part of the show. Who knows.

I also did not expect there were going to be two teams. I thought the Globetrotters would play against each other. The Washington Generals were not very good and apparently the Globetrotters normal opponent. The Generals star player was the villain of the game. He would try to cause trouble and at one point near the end of the game pulled the plug to reset the scoreboard to zero so that the first team to 6 would win. Naturally the Globetrotters sunk a 4 point shot to win the game.

It was a great way to spend a few hours on New Years. Would I go again? I probably would. It would have to be the right opportunity as I don't think the show changes much. However if you are a basketball fan, played basketball, or have kids into sports, I would highly recommend seeing the Globetrotters at least once.

2019 Bucket List Goals

Looking ahead to 2019, I have a feeling it is going to be EPIC. Since I only need to cross 100 more items off my bucket list to reach my goal of completing half of my (original) bucket list, I thought I'd celebrate with trying for an "official" bucket list adventure every month this year.

January -- See the Harlem Globetrotters (already have tickets)
February -- Play Tiddlywinks
March -- See a NHL Game
April -- Make a bird house (Danielle has kits)
May -- Make a bird feeder (Danielle has kits)
June -- Go to Breakfast on the Farm
July -- Go to a Toga Party
August -- Go to Hershey, PA
September -- Go to the YMCA
October -- Go to a Porn Shop
November -- Go to Chuck E Cheese
December -- Kiss under a Mistletoe

There are definitely a few additional items that could and most likely will get crossed off the list especially in August.

Will I get everything done? Who knows but it will be fun trying. I'm always looking for bucket list partners in crime.

A couple other goals for the year

• Finish a 5K under 40 minutes
• Read at least 2 books off the (extended) bucket list