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Sunday afternoon I spent a good share of my time at the Don Q Inn motel where a documentary film was being made by filmmaker Frank Caruso of Oregon, WI. It will possibly be put into a contest. Frank is a friend of Ron Dentinger, who used to manage the Don Q Inn both motel and restaurant under the leadership of the flamboyant Don Quinn - even though Ron has been called the flamboyant owner of the Don Q Inn in periodicals!  
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Wow, what a first football game Sunday between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens. It was back and forth with New England scoring the go ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to lead 23-20 with about 11:30 left in the game. They proceeded to keep the Ravens out of the end zone even though it appeared they had six points when Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco hit former UW Badger Lee Evans with a pass. The ball was knocked out his hands as he was turning to make sure both feet were down in the end zone on a great defensive play. Then the Ravens missed a game tying field goal with 11 seconds on the clock on a bad snap from the center. So, the Patriots and Tom Brady are on their way to the Super Bowl!
Then the second game was almost as good. With the New York Giants winning 20-17 in overtime and Eli Manning going to the Super Bowl, it makes the Packers' loss to them look like not so much of a fluke. The hot teams win! The Giants were opportunisic the entire game and actually rook advantage of unusual San Francisco 49ers mistakes.
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Saturday and Sunday, the Dodgeville and Mineral Point Lions Clubs hosted a district bowling tournament at Dodger Bowl in Dodgeville. Being the fine member of the Dodgeville club that I am I signed up to work the 2:00 shift on Saturday. I arrived a little early (about 15 minutes) and received my orders of what I should do - that was to handle the ticket sales for the five large raffle prizes. I thought that was easy enough. Just as bowling was to begin, I was approached by Lion Bob Kratochwill (retired American Family Insurance Agent) to fill in as a bowler because someone had failed to show up. I had already told lion Dave Stone (Collins & Hying) to bowl with the McFarland team as they were one person short, so I was stuck. Not having bowled since I took on my son, Michael, at least seven years ago I was a little out of shape - and I didn't have my ball or shoes (which are long gone from my former bowling days). Anyway, I rented some shoes and with some help found a ball I could actually lift and kind of fit my fingers! Needles to say the first few balls I threw down the alley weren't very good. I hadn't even been given a chance to warm up - it was just get to the right lanes and bowl. I struggled the first two games and then after the first three frames of game three, I pulled a muscle in the back of my left leg - the final "plant "leg as you throw. From there on out I struck quite regularly until the 10th frame when I blew it! All in all, it was kind of fun and brought back a lot of memories when I used to bowl two nights a week. I wasn't very good then either!
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It was a "lot of fun" shoveling snow again on Friday and it even went into Sunday when some freezing rain and blowing snow left the back door of the Chronicle office almost impossible to open around noon! Temperatures were fairly mild on Sunday, but for the several days before. it was pretty cold with temperatures dropping below zero several times - but the winter still has been pretty mild overall and we're over halfway through January. February is a short month and that pretty much leaves March to end the winter season!
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Oh, on Sunday the sheriff's department and ambulance services were out with several mishaps on the highway from rollovers to slide-offs!