Brewers, Mustangs, and Family

We had a very busy weekend with multiple sporting events and family visits.  It all started on Thursday with a visit from Jo's brother, Bill.  He was in Racine for work and drove up for a short visit and dinner.  We got caught up on his life and upcoming retirement plans along with what has been happening with his two sons.  Next up was a visit from Jo's sister Kathy and her son Drew on Friday for the weekend.  We had tickets to the Brewers for Friday night and got to enjoy an exciting game.  The Brewers won but it was a hitting contest on both sides with about 6 home runs including a grand slam in the eighth inning to put the Brewers ahead for good.  I enjoyed my favorite ballpark meal of a hot dog and a Pepsi (although I'm willing to substitute Coke if that is the soft drink of choice at a particular stadium).  I've included my favorite photo of the racing sausages just to keep that tradition alive on this blog. 

On Saturday, after our morning run we walked over to City Market for Kathy and my tradition of having a cinnamon roll when she visits.  Jo is usually going to work when Kathy and I walk over, so it was nice to include her for once and we also picked up a friend of Kathy's that lives nearby so we had quite the crowd by the time we got there.  The cinnamon roll was delicious, as usual, and fortunately the calories you burn walking there and back exactly match the amount of calories in the roll (that is my contention to help me not feel guilty for eating them).  We were then joined by Kathy's significant other, John who came down from Manitowoc after a week of boating.  To make sure we didn't sit still, we all headed over to John's aunt and uncle's place which is only about 4 blocks from our house.  There we enjoyed their pool, which was a really nice place to be in the 90 degree day, while hearing the latest news from John's aunt.  Afterwards, it was home to take some quick showers and get dinner together for everyone before heading downtown to see the Milwaukee Mustangs play.  The Mustangs are the local arena football team which none of us had seen before.  Arena football is 8 on 8 football, played inside on a 50 yard field.  It is a faster paced game  than regular football, focused primarily on passing.  While enjoyable,  I think I would stick with the outdoor variety as my sport of choice when a football is the ball being played with.  Amazingly, arena football has been around since the 90's, it just doesn't seem to be catching on - could be that it is mostly played during the summer indoors, when everyone tends to want to be outside more.

On Sunday we prepped the house for a visit from one of Jo and Kathy's 1st cousins and family.  This involved about 20 people coming over so we had quite the crowd including 8 or 9 kids.  The amount of kinetic energy represented by that many children is impressive, especially when you live with just two adults like Jo and I do.  Although the temperatures were hot, we managed to keep them mostly outside playing croquet.  After lunch, everyone started trickling out and after Jo and I cleaned up we pretty much collapsed.  Quite an exciting and busy weekend - although we both decided it might have been better to space all these events out a little bit more. 

Our work weeks were pretty routine.  I painted some more of the exterior doors and windows while Jo spent most of the week in meetings with her HR team.  Weather has been hot and dry, as is typical around much of the country this year.  It has made running a real pleasure as you might imagine although the cold showers after the run feel particularly good.  I realize I haven't uploaded any garden pictures in a while, so that will be the focus for next week.  We have enjoyed multiple harvests of lettuce and even have been giving some away since it has been growing so well.  The beans are starting to ripen and we picked our first tomato just yesterday.  Not sure what we will see in cucumbers or squash but both are growing.