Along The Ad Routes

by Mike Reilly

The weather was so nice for most of last week I broke tradition. I usually wait until the actual first day of spring (March 20) to go from a long sleeve shirt to a short sleeve shirt. but on Wednesday, our day of mailing out our papers and delivering them around the area it was just too warm to do all of that in long sleeves. I wore my “green” St. Patrick’s Day shirt, maybe because with St. Patrick’s Day falling on a Sunday I may not have gotten a chance to wear a bright green shirt for anyone to see!

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Thursday was the coolest day, but we got some much needed rain. I heard anywhere from an inch to 1.6 inches. That should really help the moisture shortage we had due to no front in the ground!

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The Annual Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Championships will be here before you know it. They are held at Harris Park right here in Dodgeville on Saturday, April 20. We are really, really looking for people to compete and to volunteer so take a look at the Dodgeville Chamber of Commerce website to be a part of it! We really do need people to sign-up in both spots, especially as a competitor as the VIP tickets that are sold and given out depend on the number of competitors!

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Besides Saturday, April 20 being the date for the Grilled Cheese Championships, it’s the date for the annual Dodgeville City-Wide Garage Sales. Forms to fill out and be a part of it, especially be on the map, are in the Dodgeville Chronicle newspaper, Facebook and available at the Dodgeville Chronicle office. There will be maps placed at various businesses a few days prior to the 20th!

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I messed up last week in my column saying that we went to our 65th place when it was actually 64! This week, however, we did go to our 65th place. We have been planning for some time to go to Trader’s Bar & Grill. It’s just east of Spring Green, but with an Arena address. I go there every year for the Arena Kid’s Fisheree that the Wildlife Forever ATV Club sponsors. We found out they served breakfast on Saturday and Sunday so we put it on our radar! Bob, Terry, Tom and I left from Dodgeville and met Dewey and Dave there. Potsie had to head north for the weekend! We were the only ones having breakfast while we were there from 8:00 to 9:15 a.m. The service by Mandy was very good. She also smiles a lot! The food was very good. Eggs and bacon/sausage, French toast with sausage and plain were the main orders. I did a build your omelette that was very good as I had it loaded with veggies and ham! As we were leaving, a group of four came in.

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Congratulations to Dan Burreson and the Mineral Point Boys Basketball Team for winning the school’s first WIAA State Boys Basketball Championship. Both games were decided by one point and both had storybook endings - they couldn’t have been scripted any better!

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Another great basketball run came from the Wisconsin Badgers Men’s team in the Big 10 Tournament. They won their first two games  before beating an NCAA Playoff #1 team (and Big 10 champion) Purdue in overtime on Saturday! Unfortunately they dropped the championship game, but it was close.

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And the UW Women’s hockey Team is headed to the “Frozen Four” after their win Saturday. That’s like the “Final Four” in basketball!

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Today (Thursday) is National Common Courtesy Day. March 21st serves as a reminder of the behavior that keeps society from melting into a sea of madness. In addition, the day brings awareness to how crucial common courtesy is in our lives and provides examples to help us improve. I try to be courteous every day!