July 24, 2011

I didn't manage to get a post up earlier this week so this will have to cover the last two weeks.  So to catch up, last weekend on Friday we enjoyed one of the many fests that Milwaukee has during the summer - the weekend event was Bastille Day.  Yes folks, Milwaukee celebrates the July 14th storming of the Bastille.  Apparently, the largest US French festival - not there is that large of competition.  As the photo shows they erect a small version of the Eiffel Tower - I think mostly for the photo opportunities well that and would would Bastille Days be without an Eiffel Tower.  We biked to the party from home trying to enjoy our close proximity to the city.  We then spent the evening walking around the many boothes, although we didn't find anything to buy although Jo was tempted by several of the dresses. 

There were several buskers to enjoy although we never exactly figured out the point of the cardboard heads that were dancing around.  They didn't seem particularly French nor are they the mascots for any team in Milwaukee or Wisconsin that we are aware of.  That said, they did seem to be having a good time dancing to the music and made for a great photo op.  The bands were phenomenal and after some serious searching we did manage to find some french food - believe it or not, most of the food at Bastille Days is not themed to France, but rather other world cuisines, including the Wisconsin favorite - fried and grilled!  Our dinner was a delicious Croque Monsieur followed by a Crepe Nutella (crepe with nutella hazelnut chocolate sauce inside) both of which we have enjoyed many times on streets of Paris   Was delicious but not good for the old waistlines.  .  

Anyway, after our fun night living like the French, we got up Saturday to head over to Madison after our run and lift.  We spent the rest of the day with Jo's sister and son watching old Harry Potter movies.  We started with number 4 (Goblet of Fire) and watched all the way through to Number 7 part 1 (Deathly Hallow, Part 1).  One right after another with only small breaks between the movies to order pizza and stretch.  This was our lead into getting up Sunday morning and watching the final movie in the series at the local IMAX theater.  We had a great time, although we all agreed that watching four movies back to back was a little nutty.  Watching all the movies and knowing it is the end has put me in the mood to go back and re-read all the books again.  Which I plan to start as soon as I finish my current Tom Clancy novel. 

Hallway with the old paper
and cleaned wall

For the new week, my big chore was removing all the wall paper from our hallway.  After my experience in one of our bedrooms, I assumed the paper would just peel off in large sheets from the wall.  Boy was I wrong.  First of all, I think the hallway paper is a lot older and when I started on the first section I was removing it in about two inches square pieces.  I figured at that rate I might be done in about 3 months.  Fortunately, after a little trial and error I figured out how to get it to come off in large pieces - lots and I mean lots of soaking in water, but it still took four solid days to get it all removed.  Just think, I've only have four more rooms with wallpaper to go.  Why I was having this fun, Jo was off to work getting ready for Northwestern Mutual's big annual meeting.  We have several events to attend with the meeting this weekend and coming week, starting  with 5K/10K run this morning.  The weather somewhat cooperated by cooling down a little although the humidity is still a bit oppressive.  They had over 7,000 runners participating all of whom come from their sales force, the home office staff, and their families (that's me).  Quite an impressive turnout.  We chose the 10K run and had a pretty good time although Jo might disagree since she struggled with the heat more than I did today.  Later today the Milwaukee zoo is open just for Northwestern Mutual so we'll get to see the zoo for the first time and meet more of Jo's new colleagues.  Then it is home to ready ourselves for another week.  Jo at work and me.....wallpaper, two more rooms, hopefully!

Then to finish off, yesterday we spent the day in the pool at Jo's first cousin-once-removed (if I figured that out right) and her first cousin who was visiting.  It was a great day to spend in a pool and it was fun playing with all the kids.  Then for evening we had the realtor who found us our house in Milwaukee over with her husband for dinner and dessert.  The weather was cool enough to sit outside on the porch and catch up on all the real estate happenings for the last couple of months. 

Jully 14, 2011

This was our week of music. The Milwaukee Summerfest was the last two weeks and we hit the 'Fest (as us Milwaukeen's refer to it) for two of the big concerts. First up was Katy Perry's.  After enjoying some of the food and a couple of the bands on the other stages, we headed over to the big arena.  The stands were packed (20,000 was the number quoted) with teens and younger kids.  By our analysis, we were some of the oldest people in the crowd - hopefully not the oldest.  The concert was high energy with a lot of songs we both knew and we both had a great time. The only real blemish on the concert was the warm-up band, that in our opinion, left a lot to be desired. We were up late as the concert didn't end until 11:15 but fortunately it was on Thursday and we both managed to make it through Friday, although a bit sleepy. Of course, it is a lot easier for me to be sleepy at home than it is for Jo at work.

Next up was Sugarland on Sunday.  We attended with Kathy and John and after enjoying dinner and some of the other bands at the Fest we settled into our seats for the concert.  The crowd was much closer to our age demographic.  The opening band was enjoyable and really did warm us up for the main act.  Sugarland, like Katy, put on a wonderful concert although we didn't know as many of the songs since we don't tend to listen to country as much.  The band looked like they were having fun as was the crowd.  The one interesting thing about concerts is that you spend the entire concert standing up.  Even though there are nice comfortable seats right behind you.  This was a lot easier to take when I was in my 20's attending concerts than today.  We were somewhat hoping that the older Sugarland crowd might sit down now and then, but no such luck.

The rest of the week was spent working on projects around the house.  We are starting to repaint the house which will be some of the photos for the next post.  Jo continues to settle into her job and seems to be getting more and more comfortable.  On the exercise front, I bought a new bike to use to get back and forth to local stores and the bank. 

July 6, 2011

Hopefully everyone had a fun 4th of July and got to enjoy the fireworks somewhere.  We went just down the street to see the Shorewood, WI fireworks which was a nice display although not on the scale of the Groton/New London Sailfest extravaganza we were used to.  It was nice though to be able to walk to the fireworks and not have to hassle with driving.

We managed to stay awake until the fireworks as we had just returned the previous day from our 10 day vacation in Sweden.  We had wonderful weather the entire time and found the Swedish people to be incredibly friendly and helpful, along with speaking almost flawless English.  We started in Goteborg for four days and then took the train to Stockholm for the remainder of the time.  There were too many fun events to capture them all, but here are a few highlights.  We discovered that the Swedes love to have mashed potatoes on their hot dogs - yep there is a full hot dog and bun underneath all those potatoes.  We never figured out how to eat them by just picking them up, so we used a fork and knife, but at least we gave it a go.  Not too different from Bangers and Mash in England just using a hot dog instead of sausage

. 

Our visit coincided with their Midsummer festival which as we learned basically shut down the country.  Shopping is closed, museums are closed, and only a scattering of restaurants are open.  Plus the locals completely disappear, we had the city to ourselves and I mean to ourselves.  Almost no cars, buses, pedestrians, or anyone.  We finally found them either at a Midsummer celebration around the Midsummer pole (think Maypole and you get the idea) or out sunning on nearby islands.  The Midsummer pole celebrations consisted of traditional dancing although they are willing to go with the times and use microphones and speakers.

We toured around 20 museums during our visit and got to learn a lot of their history.  Especially that being a king in Sweden was a good way to have a short life.  They seemed to depose them via murder or loss in war about every 15 years or so.  Also, that they haven't been in a war since around 1840, which in today's times is a admirable feat.  We had purchased a 3 day museum pass in Stockholm which was a good deal, but also meant that since we are both so cheap we had to see how many museums where physically possible to see in 3 days - hence the high number of museums.  Needless to say we were worn out as a result.  So to rest up a bit we took a boat ride out to one of the islands in the Stockholm archipelago (in case you were curious, as we were, an archipelago is an expanse of water with many scattered islands) and after a short hike enjoyed the scenery and waterfront reading our books.

We finished our trip by spending our last day with Elinor and Per from Stockholm.  Elinor worked with Jo and graciously volunteered to show us Sweden from a natives viewpoint.  We went to a local small town and had a wonderful lunch where I tried the caviar, herring and schnapps.  Just so you don't think I was too adventurous, the herring was cooked, not pickled.  It was really great to be able to ask all the questions we had piled up during our trip - such as where everyone disappeared to at Midsummer and why everyone seemed to be outside in the sun at every opportunity (it is because the wonderful weather we had during our visit was apparently an aberration - so when the sun is out and it is warm, they like to get out and enjoy it).  And to finally learn how to pronounce some of the Swedish words we had been butchering during our trip. 

We came back home exhausted but we had a great time.  We would highly recommend Sweden for a vacation destination - although be warned, prices are somewhat steep especially food.  Also, Jo found out that our camera will take panorama photos - see the photo of Stockholm above.  So be prepared for lots and lots of those in the future.