My Week that Was - November 29

8:49 am 11/23/2025 dwm

 My week started with a trip to Stoughton where we enjoyed breakfast at the Koffee Kup Kafe. In spite of just eating, afterwards we stopped at Starbucks where my wife ordered coffee and brought me a hot chocolate.

 Then we stopped at The Book Deal. It's a used bookstore in Madison at 3822 Mineral Point Road in a former office building that makes a very nice used bookstore. My wife sold a bunch of books she recently finished and was happy to take a store credit for her own future shopping.

 That evening, the Wisconsin Badgers played their last home football game against the 21st ranked Illini from the University of Illinois. It was the Badgers best game of the season. 

 The defense played well, forcing turn-overs and making it difficult for Illinois to move the ball. The offense took advantage of field position and moved the ball well, highlighted by an 84-yard run for a touchdown. It was the 5th win of the season with one game left, the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe with the University of Minnesota.

Sunday, Green Bay played the first of three straight games against rivals in the NFC North, starting with the Minnesota Vikings. The Packers held a 10 - 6 lead at the half and didn't allow Minnesota to do much of anything after halftime. Green Bay sacked the Viking's young quarterback five times and intercepted him twice, plus took advantage of a mishandled punt that set the Packers up at the five-yard line. 23 - 6 was the final with game two in a three game gauntlet coming on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit.

Also on Thanksgiving is the Birdie Derby. It's first year was in 2024 when it replaced the Berbee Derby as Madison's Thanksgiving Day charity run. It's unlikely that I'll set any personal record, I'd be pleasantly surprised if I finish the 3.1 mile run in less than 30-minutes. 

Swag for the '25 Derby. 11/25/25 dwm

Tuesday afternoon I visited the eye doctor for an annual checkc-up and to order a new pair of glasses and contact lenses for the coming year.

During 2025 I broke the glasses I wear when I don't have contacts in, and decided to replace them with an inexpensive pair I bought online. 

The replacement pair only lasted a few months before it broke. Thankfully I found an earlier pair I wasn't wearing anymore. The prescription wasn't current but the glasses did the job, however, three-year old glasses are not a solution, even as a back-up pair.

The new pair should be ready in a week or two and in the meantime, I'm test-driving some daily wear contact lenses and another set that's designed to wear for a week at a time. I'm curious to see how it goes.

I left Brandon Eyes with a small container of Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream which I finished before I reached the Birdie Derby race headquarters to confirm my registration and pick up all I need for the run on Thursday.

Wednesday was busy for the last day before a four-day weekend. We already had proofs to review for a mailing scheduled to go out next week and there was a second mailing that's close to completion. Over the last week our new office is looking and feeling good. As a finishing touch, I put the Drake Bulldog bobble-head on a shelf.

Waiting to run the Birdie, 11/27/25 dwm

 It wasn't as breezy Thanksgiving morning as it was the day before, but there was a chill in the wind, making the 28-degree temperature feel colder. My time of arrival was good, after walking to the start, the race was scheduled to start in a few minutes.

 The first wave of runners started at 8:50. That group was just for people who expected to run 3.1 miles in 21-minutes or less. That's a lot faster than my expected time.

 As I waited, it occurred to me that most of the people standing around me were probably walking instead of running 5 kilometers. That happens when you're in the slow group, so at the start you are trying to get around walkers and the runners who stopped running just past the starting line and either walked the rest of the way or ran and walked their way around the course. It was a good time, you can read more about it on Tuesday. 

The winning cap. 11/27/25 dwm

Thanksgiving dinner was a small affair with just the two of us. My wife smartly chose to get the holiday dinner deal from HyVee and making a couple of side dishes to go with it. The ham, honey-flake rolls, scalloped corn, and two types of mashed potatoes. We started eating as the Detroit Lions kicked off to the Green Bay Packers in the first of three NFL games. 

The Packers played their best game of the season, playing aggressively on offense and defense, converting fourth downs into touchdowns and stopping the Lions twice on fourth down. The 31-24 victory could put them back in first place of the NFC North depending on how the Bears did Friday. It was an exciting game. 

There were quite a few college football games to watch Friday afternoon and a single NFL game, plus several college basketball games, including games involving my alma mater, Drake, as well as Marquette and Wisconsin. It was a perfect day for channel surfing.

After getting out in the morning for a few things, when we got home I cleared our things off the deck and into the garage. Since there is a snowstorm expected to start the day this blog goes live, I added three marks to the deck to measure the snow. The past few years it seems like snow melted before the next snowstorm came along, if that's not the case this year, it will just let us know how deep it is.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your week!