The thrill of magic

Winter just won't let go of Wisconsin this year.  We spent another week with the temperatures struggling to get into the 40's.  That coupled with four days straight of rain and clouds left last week feeling a bit gloomy.  But hopefully all these April showers will bring lots of May flowers (one must remain optimistic in the midst of all these gray days).  Jo spent most of the week traveling for business.  First she hopped down to Phoenix for a couple of days and enjoyed the sunshine and significantly warmer temperatures.  Then it was over to Naples, again, for a conference and more time in the sun and walks along the beach.  I held down the home fort working on repairing some scratches in our hardwood floors.  While I can't say the repairs are perfect, they are at least less obvious.

Saturday we headed downtown to enjoy a great lunch at the Smokeshack in the "Historic 3rd Ward" (yes you must apparently always append the Historic when describing Milwaukee's 3rd ward).  They have a variety of barbecue dishes and this is our new favorite downtown restaurant - Jo found it about two months ago - say be prepared if you visit for a meal there.  Afterwards, we went to the Marcus Center to enjoy Bill Blagg's Magic show.  A great performance in an intimate venue so he was able to engage the crowd in several of his magic tricks - including me, I got to confirm that he was actually using chocolate milk in one of his tricks (nice treat to have a glass of chocolate milk in the afternoon!).  We thoroughly enjoyed the show and had absolutely no idea how he did some of his tricks - but I guess that is the point. 

Sunday we lazed around the house reading the newspaper and books although we did manage to get out for a nice long walk around the neighborhood.  Then all too soon it was time to get ready for another week of work.  As you can see from the photo of the week, our orchid is blooming again.  This is one of the orchids from our 25th anniversary party and it blooms, on some totally unknown cycle to us, every two or three years.