I have to admit that I’ve been a fair-weather football fan for several years, but now I've recommitted myself. This mostly has to do with the emergence of fantasy football and a certain fiancé of mine who has to watch every game all season long. This coupled with the fact that I often worked on Sundays gave him a welcome reprieve from my heavy sighs of dissatisfaction. However, the last month of watching the Packers persevere and ultimately win the Super Bowl has made watching football enjoyable again. Still, I don’t see myself rising to the same level of fandom the fiancé has. I won’t be …

Want headlines from Caledonia Patch delivered directly to your blog or Web site? Now, you can stream all the Caledonia news — or just certain categories — directly there for you and your visitors. It was one several changes made to the Caledonia Patch site this past week that also includes free classified ads and a news feed from nearby Patch sites. With a new widget feature, you can create a box that's easily insertable into blogs and Web pages. It's also customizable by topic, so if you just want sports, you can limit to sports or if you just want police and fire news, you get police and …

Doesn’t it feel good to root for the Packers? I mean, really good. At a time where we’ve all been affected by this rotten economy, which has started to feel like a long-term illness, it’s just good to hope for something other than a job or the bills to be paid. But as the Packers have become increasingly hope-worthy, I’ve noticed some things (an incurable problem my daughter loathes).  This NFC Championship seems like more than just a game, it's more like a unifying event. Our steps are a little lighter, our laughter a little louder, and our sense of community…well you get the picture. We …

Listening to the Republican rhetoric about BadgerCare is both personally and professionally concerning to me. It is no secret that the Republicans plan to change the scope of what services are covered under BadgerCare, which has seen a 170 percent increase in the number of people receiving the benefit in the past two years. Because of this, I feel compelled to ask the follow questions and offer my insight. I argue that the center of this debate is not spending versus savings, but rather is health care a right or a privilege? And if we believe it is a right, then how will we treat or not treat…

I know everyone is probably out rushing around getting ready for the New Year, but I thought I'd pitch a few ideas out to you. My goal, which is really Patch's goal, is to engage the community in a news conversation. What does that mean really? Well, let me give you an example. I recently went to a regional editors meeting (our region has launched six of 12 websites over the past three weeks), and I was asked how I was going to handle sports coverage. And my initial thought was, I don't know the answer to that. So, I'm going to ask you – the user – what sports do you want covered? Little …

So, my family and I headed over to my fiancés grandmother's house on Christmas day. We have a tradition of giving gag gifts, which has at times bordered on torture, but we all have a great deal of love for one another and we see fit to continue the tradition. These exchanges – at times – are not for the thin-skinned gift recipient. One year my daughter received a purple creamer cow, my fiancé dumped an old water ski suit and flippers, and a cousin served up 50 small wrenches. And there was a horse statue that had a hole in its head for toothpicks, which has made the rounds over the years. …