June 20, 2011

Just thought we should start out with evidence that Jo and I can dress up and look sharp, at least for one evening.  Saturday we had the opportunity to attend the Milwaukee Urban League's Black and White ball.  So I got to wear my new tuxedo for the first time in public and Jo pulled out all the stops with her gown (or dress, not sure when a dress crosses into gown territory).  After our champagne cocktail upon entering, we headed to the silent auction, where we were successful in bidding for a couple of items before the dinner.  After dinner and the speeches, we got to enjoy listening to the band "War".  Must admit that I only new about three of their songs - could be my limited musical repertoire.  It was a nice evening that supports a good cause in Milwaukee and as we attended with several of Jo' Northwestern Mutual colleagues gave me a chance to continue to getting to know them better.

Along the theme of meeting Jo's Northwestern co-workers, Friday evening we worked with several Northwestern folks helping at the Milwaukee Guest House serving dinner.  The Guest House helps homeless men get back on their feet, find jobs, and secure an apartment or home.  We had the opportunity to serve them dinner and see the hard work that the Guest House staff and members undertake to get folks back on their feet.  It certainly makes one appreciate the different paths lives can take and how fortunate many of us really are.

The rest of the week and weekend was taken up with the ongoing work on getting the garage organized and able to finally park the cars inside.  I spent most of the week installing storage cabinets on the back wall of the garage.  As the garage wall is brick this required a bit more work than just screwing the cabinets into the studs.  After some online research (the Internet is great!) I decided to bolt 2x4's to the wall and screw the cabinets into that.  Of course with an older home, I got to enjoy figuring out how to deal with my perfectly straight 2x4's and my crooked walls.  By the time I was done, I probably now have cabinets that will be standing long after the wall falls down, especially since I tend to over-engineer things.  Anyway you can see that we now have a nice row of cabinets as well as pegboard to get things off the floor. 

Then after a trip to Goodwill to donate the unsold garage sale items and clear the last bit of space, we can now park both cars inside.  Of course, we still have too much stuff in front of the cars - but we are hoping a shed outside will alleviate some of that problem. That was pretty much my week along with the usual mix of exercising and keeping the yard in shape.  Although, I did spend some time doing some consulting work so I can now feel I'm officially working as a consultant.  Jo's week was fairly quiet at work although it is apparently time to be preparing next year's budget - always a fun event. 

Our tomato plants are starting to grow, but that will be the subject of a future blog.  I need to space out the garden news this year, since it is just the 2 tomato plant.s