January 25, 2002

Monday, July 15, 2002

It's the middle of summer in Wisconsin, and boy can you tell.  We've had day after day of 90 degree weather with almost no rain for a couple months. Not good when you have a wedding coming up in the field below your house and you're trying to get flowers to grow, not to mention blossom! As a result, we had a commercial water tanker come in to hose it down a few days ago so it at least resembles grass and plants, as opposed to straw.

My skating season ended with a pretty relaxing trip to Oslo, Norway and Inzell, Germany the first half of March. I didn't tear up the track, but the weather was nice and, at that point, that was the most important thing!

Since then things have been just a bit busy. A fun combination of "business appearances" and planning for our July 20th wedding, with a few days of fishing mixed in. 

From being on David Letterman and The Weakest Link to attending the Victor Awards and Sports Spectacular Awards I've gotten to do a lot of things, and meet a lot of people, I never thought I would. Being part of the Yankees Opening Day celebration, and getting a standing O at a bucks game were two more highlights.  Not to mention getting to be the honorary athlete who lit the torch at the Badger State Games. 

I did get up to my parents' cabin a couple times in May and June.  Spending time up there is always relaxing, but never lasts long enough….and I thought I was gonna be able to pretty much live up there this spring!  Guess not.  Well, we caught some fish and told some stories.  And the fishing around home was pretty good this spring too. All in all, I can't complain about the time I got to spend on the water catching up with friends and family; except to say it's temporarily over. But that leads me to the exciting event in my life…..

This coming Saturday Jennifer and I are tying the knot!  Everyone is asking me if I'm nervous….makes me think I should be. So we're taking care of the last minute stuff and counting down the hours 'til we are husband and wife.  (And 'til we get to see all our friends and family!) 

Our future looks like it will lead us back up to Calgary August 12th.  We've decided to look for a home up there for the next four years and set our sights (it's a team effort) on Italy in 2006!  It looks like Jen will be able to teach up there so she can be doing what she really enjoys, and we've got such a great group of people up there too. Mark my words though:  Four more years, then back to Wisconsin for good.

Hope you're enjoying summer and staying cool!

Casey