April 25, 2011

Well it is finally official, we are Wisconsin residents, once again, after driving out from CT over the weekend.  As you can see the blog is newly titled to "Words from Wisconsin" which keeps us in the W alliteration (I think that is the right term).  Anyway, the majority of the week was spent watching the house get packed up and then loaded onto a moving truck.  The one thing that really struck me was how much stuff (as in junk) we have.  We filled an entire moving truck with 330 packed boxes and another 400 some items of furniture or other miscellaneous items.  We obviously need to consider simplifying our life's dramatically - thankfully our new smaller home will help enforce some discipline there.  It was difficult to watch the rooms slowly empty out and listen to the echos in the house.  Jo and I both reminisced about the first time we walked into the house and how the view into the family room from the kitchen with the light streaming in the windows is what made us want to buy the house.

The last lobster roll for a while

Jo flew in on Thursday to help drive the second car out to Wisconsin and to say farewell to both lobster rolls and the house.  I'm not entirely sure which was she was more emotionally distraught to see go away.  We had an enjoyable lunch, on Friday, with several of Jo's HR friends at Captain Scott's - which we always felt had the best lobster rolls around.  Then spent the afternoon cleaning up the house for the new owners and packing our car for the trip.  We decided after a somewhat uncomfortable night sleeping on the floor Thursday to hit the road for WI on Friday instead of our original plans for leaving on Saturday.  Our last Friday night in CT was spent with our very good friends Sheri and Bruno - who should obviously move to WI as well (sorry, shameless use of the blog for a personal message).  We got to enjoy a dinner and show in Westerly, RI where we have spent many enjoyable nights together as a foursome.  So after dinner at 84 High Street, it was off to see a play at the Granite Theater.  We will need to find a new community theater to attend in Milwaukee.

Afterwards, we jumped in the Jeep and started the drive to our new state and new adventure.  We managed about about 3 hours on Friday night which got us to Fishkill, NY.  Then after a more refreshing night than sleeping on the floor, we got up bright and early on Saturday to finish the rest, pulling into Milwaukee around 11:30 local time. Needless to say, we were both exhausted and spent yesterday recuperating with long naps and a nice sunny walk over to the lake.  Next up, moving all our stuff out of the truck and into the new house - and then.....unpacking it all (ugh!).     

April 19, 2011

Quite a heavy blog week.  This note is to show that we are responsive to our dedicated followers.  There was a request for pictures of the crates described on Sunday.  So here they are along with some shots of our library all boxed up.  The house is a complete mess right now as the packing team moves around the house.  As you might imagine, I'm not dealing great with all the mess they are leaving behind as they don't tend to be as neat as I would be about where the boxes are stacked or the bits of tape and paper left laying around.

Words from Wisconsin

Hi - it's double blog week again!  As Eric mentioned, I am a few days from heading back to CT for one last lobster roll, Granite Theater visit and farewell to friends.  Then it's another drive cross country, during which I hope we do not hit snow like we did in late February.  Given our recent weather (we had snow on Saturday and again today...) it is definitely possible.  Of course, that could be better than the tornadoes the south/southeast have experienced lately.

I went to see the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit this weekend at the Milwaukee Art Museum since it is closing in a few weeks.  As Eric mentioned, it is a great art museum to visit, especially when it is dark and stormy outside as it was on Saturday (see picture on left.)  I was happy to see a Chihuly glass sculpture in the lobby - memories of the Chihuly exhibit we saw a few years ago at the Rhode Island School of Design with Sheri and Bruno.  After the museum, I had Chicago style deep dish pizza which, while not the same as a CT lobster roll, is a good midwestern substitute.  On the way to pizza, I snapped a picture of my office building, which looks much like a bank and, indeed, has no labs. 

A few more days of work this week (and some more snow, alas) before it's back to CT for a few days. Will be strange to see the house without any of our household goods.  Will be even stranger trying to figure out where to put all of our household goods in our new smaller house.  Stay tuned for pictures!

April 17, 2011

Well the last posting from Waterford is here.  The movers come tomorrow to begin the packing and loading process and by the end of the week we will be on the road to our next adventure in Wisconsin.  Since I didn't get around to posting something up last weekend, due to travel and being under the weather (probably from the plane ride), I'll go back two weeks.  Jo had a conference in Phoenix and for one of the first times, I was able to join her to enjoy the warmer temperatures in the Southwest - one big advantage of being "retired".  While she listened to exciting talks on "Diversity" and "Talent Retention", I lazed around the pool and hot tub, sitting in the sun and catching up on my reading.  I also enjoyed a nice 3 hour hike around the mountain/hill behind our hotel.  We then had the opportunity to spend the weekend with our niece, nephew, and their charming little girl (that's two out of three in the photo and me doing my best finger puppet act), who live just outside of Phoenix.  It was nice to catch up along with enjoying the antics of a 2 year old.  I certainly miss having that kind of energy and being able to fall asleep within 5 seconds.  I must admit, however, that I wasn't biggest hit, as there were many screams for "Jo, Jo, Jo".  I put it down to an easier name to say than Eric - at least that made my ego feel better.  There were only two downsides to our trip to Phoenix:  1) it turned cold and rained for most of the day on our Saturday with our niece and nephew (what is up with rain in Phoenix?), and 2) I managed to catch someone's cold on the trip out so was struggling with a sore throat for the weekend.

After flying back to Milwaukee, I had one more day with Jo before heading back to CT to continue readying ourselves and all our stuff for the move.  I feel that I'm finally on top of everything as I have gathered all of our outdoor items so they aren't forgotten and set aside the critical items we'll need before we are in our new house at the end of the month.  The rest of my week was fairly uneventful since I didn't do too much until Thursday as I nursed the last bit of the cold out of me.  The rest of the time was my usual exercise routine (albeit it was shortened to help recover from the cold), sorting through more of our junk for discard, and disconnecting all the computer, video, and stereo equipment to allow for easier packing.

With all the cold weather this winter, we seem to be finally turning the corner (although Jo did remark that it was snowing briefly yesterday in Milwaukee - yipee?) to some warmer temperatures.  I felt that this blog needed some signs of spring, hence the photos of our garden's daffodils and the magnolia getting ready to burst forward.  Jo is coming home on Thursday for a final round of lobster rolls and a play at the Granite Theater in Westerly with Sheri and Bruno.  Then it will be time to say goodbye to our estate here and hit the road out west (or I should say out Midwest).  One of the things I will have to look into is changing the name of the blog to "Words from Wisconsin".  Stay tuned for life in cheese country ....

April 3, 2011

Jo and I are finally together after being separated for 4 weeks.  I traveled, uneventfully for once, to Milwaukee to visit Jo in her temporary residence.  It was great to be back together for once and to catch up on what has been happening with each other.  On Tuesday, my sister joined us for a quick visit from Chicago for two days in which she tried out the Amtrak service from Chicago (it worked great).  Cheryl and I toured the Milwaukee Art museum enjoying their current Frank Lloyd Wright exposition and a really good lunch at their cafe.  It is a beautifully designed museum with really spectacular views of Lake Michigan along with nice art collection although a little too much contemporary art for my tastes.  I've never really understand or really enjoyed really abstract art.  Unfortunately due to work schedule, Sis could only stay the one day (not a problem I need to deal with presently!).  The following days consisted of Jo showing the parts of Milwaukee she has found including her newly developed running routes along with taking care of some of the chores associated with relocating.  I did squeeze in a visit to Jo's new office.  Quite different from our previous employers since there wasn't a lab in sight.  

We also scoped out possible gyms in the area of our new house and possible doctors.  Unfortunately the best gym isn't the closest one to the house, but we figure it also probably worth the extra drive for the better equipment and gym.  Friday night we enjoyed dinner with our Milwaukee realtor and her husband during which we caught up on the status of all the houses we looked at during our housing search here.  Saturday night we attended a show at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater,the "Bomb-itty of Errors", that was a rap take on Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.  It was a wonderful show with great energy and tremendous comedy timing.  It is highly recommended to attend.

Today it is all grey and drizzly outside - including a really impressive hail storm which coated the streets with "snow" - so we are spending the day catching up on some sleep and reading.