I have been lazy this week and I'll blame the Olympics. I have been spending large amounts of time following the athletes, especially the women's soccer team. I am always amazed at the incredible devotion these athletes have to their sport along with the incredible shape they all get into. Sure wish I could devote myself to that level of physical fitness, but the lure of dessert is just too strong for me. I have been trying to follow some of the more arcane sports, e.g., today I watched the rapid fire handgun finals. The summer Olympics sure had more unusual sports than the winter games. As a side note, can you believe the athletes taking a dive in Badminton - come on, it's Badminton for goodness sake.
As I mentioned in my last posting, Jo and I spent a a few days attending various events associated with Northwestern Mutual's annual meeting. One of the very enjoyable events is their opening up of the Milwaukee Zoo for employees to visit without all the usual crowds. We wisely walked in the opposite direction from last year so saw some of the exhibits that we had missed last year. Always amazing to see the diversity of animal life that is on this planet. As usual, we had a great time seeing the animals and enjoying the great food, especially the Sprecher's root beer floats. I did limit myself to just 2.5 since while they are very delicious, they are also incredibly filling.
Then on Monday, we attended the opening session where one of the highlights was a band that created and played all their music using the IPad and various apps (one made it into a drum set, another a guitar, etc). It was really interesting to see where technology has taken us. The following evening, we got to see music made more the old fashioned way as Maroon 5 was the band this year at the annual concert. Adam Levine and his group put on a dynamic show that had the crowd dancing and screaming. Certainly seemed like a more engaged crowd this year than last. The rest of the week was quiet by comparison. I painted another couple of the exterior windows while doing the rest of the household chores. Jo dealt with the usual HR issues that any large company experiences.
Last weekend, we had Greg and Rhonda, friends from work, over for dinner on Friday night. The meal turned out to be excellent (so good we are putting it on the repeat list) which consisted of grilled salmon with fresh beans and a salad from the garden (you can see some of the harvest in the photo). We finished it with peach cobbler and homemade ice cream. It was great to just sit around and chat after both Greg and Jo had a busy week with the annual meeting. Saturday we had the day to ourselves so after our morning exercises, Jo headed out for a haircut and some shopping while I caught up on some reading and the Olympics. On Sunday, Jo had the Northwestern Mutual suite for the Brewer's game along with several members of her HR team. The game was exciting as the lead changed hands several times and clearly indicated the need for the Brewers to get some better relief pitchers. To keep my tradition alive, once again enjoy the pictures of our
racing sausages (the link will take you to the results for the year, for those too lazy to click - the Chorizo is leading for the year but only by one).
This week we had several radiator covers installed to cover the only three radiators that didn't already have covers and I spent time painting them and the last of the exterior windows for this year. I sure seem to spend a lot more of my time painting this house than any of the previous houses we have owned. The weather was warm and humid for much of the week which made our evening runs an experience in sweating, but we were still out there doing them. We are planning a quiet weekend since we don't have anything scheduled (but there is always the Olympics).
We are just back from an absolutely fascinating and enjoyable vacation in which we cruised around the Baltic Sea on Regent Seven Seas. We saw several new cities/countries which added nicely to our passport stamps (Jo is trying to collect all of them). We hit Denmark (Copenhagen and Bornholm), Sweden (Gotland), Germany (Rostock and Warnemunde), Latvia (Riga), Finland (Helsinki), Russia (St. Petersburg), and Estonia (Tallinin). The seas were calm and the food copious and delicious. We both came back several pounds heavier than when we left - I personally blame the scones and clotted cream at the afternoon tea. It could also have been eating 3 large, elaborate meals a day along with the occasional afternoon snacks as well. We really enjoyed getting a small understanding of the history of each of the countries we saw and certainly seeing the changes in post-Soviet countries was interesting. I could go on for pages, but I'll end with saying we had a blast.
Just before we left we enjoyed a visit from Sheri and Bruno for a weekend. We took them to a local beer garden that opened in a nearby park (only in Wisconsin can you get beer in a public park, unless of course you are in Europe). Then we visited the Wisconsin State Fair to enjoy the animals, fried food, and desserts. While Jo and I opted for whoppie pies instead of the famous fair cream puffs - Bruno enjoyed one. We finished the weekend off watching some of the air show down along the lake. As we quickly learned there is a limited number of things an airplane can actually do in the air and didn't stay too long (which was reinforced when we saw a bit of an airshow in Riga, Latvia where they did the exact same stunts as the Wisconsin version). After lunch it was, too quickly, time to take them back to the airport.
The following day our nephew, Drew, moved in for 4 or 5 months. He is finishing his student teaching in the Milwaukee area and staying with us to save on housing costs. Of course, it does mean he has to live with a bunch of 50 year olds instead of a younger, more energetic crowd. But our place does come with food, laundry, and a few nice accouterments not typically found in a 20 year olds apartment. The upside for me is he comes with an X-Box so in theory I could see if it is something that should be on a future Christmas list - that is if I can ever get him off of it.
My last piece of news was we came home to a bumper crop of cucumbers and beans. We harvested 24 lbs of cucumbers which we quickly turned into 17 jars of pickles and still had several left over to give to friends. We also got our first summer squash which went nicely into a pasta dinner. We need to spend some serious time harvesting and freezing beans - maybe this weekend with the extra day.
