Warmth again - in LA

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this recently, but is really cold in WI.  Between the constant snowfalls and below normal temperatures, everyone is worn out on winter.  So we decided to take a break and enjoy somewhere warm for once.  Jo had a meeting in San Diego and we decided to make a week of it and go up to LA prior to the meeting.

Our first stop in LA was the La Brea tar pits.  I know most people go to LA to see celebrities, I wanted to see tar encrusted bones.  The tar pits were fascinating with a really good museum and displays of ongoing digs.  We both especially loved the fact that tar is still bubbling to the surface - of which we brought some home in the tip of one of Jo's crutches.  I'll digress from the trip to say that Jo is making excellent progress in her rehabilitation.  She got permission to begin to put weight on her surgically enhance leg and has rapidly moved to getting around with only one or no crutch.

Other fun sites during the week was touring Beverly Hills mostly to ogle the expensive houses and people watching the interesting LA folks around Grauman's theater.  We really enjoyed looking at the houses, especially with the Zillow app which allows you to see the houses for sale as you tool down the street along with the estimated value of the various houses.  Found an empty lot for $5 million in case anyone is interested.  And yes that is $5,000,000 for a lot with no house!  Our other tour stops included a lovely stroll up and down Venice Beach (again enjoying some of the more interesting folks living in LA - must be the sun or something), a visit to the Getty Villa (very cool museum, plus it must be nice to have oil money and not just some oil stuck in your crutch), driving around for a good picture of the Hollywood sign (harder than we thought it would be, we both thought you could see that anywhere you were), and shopping on Rodeo Drive (all right, we window shopped, seriously who would pay $1,600 for what was functionally a T-shirt).

One of the key highlights was we attended the taping of two TV shows - Last Man Standing and 2 Broke Girls.  What a fascinating process and a completely different work environment than what either of us had ever experienced.  The two studios did a great job making the experience interesting and enjoyable especially when you are on the fourth take of a scene.  We managed to get some swag from both - an autographed picture of Tim Allen and a Max's homemade cupcake.  If anyone is a major Tim Allen fan and wants the picture, just let us know.  Sorry the cupcake was promptly tasted (quite yummy).

Unfortunately our few days in LA came to a close way to fast and it was back to San Diego for Jo's meeting.  We were fortunate that our niece, nephew, and grand-niece happened to be vacationing near San Diego and we enjoyed a wonderful, sunny, warm (did I mention WARM) lunch at the Hotel Coronado followed by some delicious ice cream.   Then it was back to Milwaukee where the temperatures this week are predicted to be below zero overnight and at best in the teens during the day.  Gotta love winter!

Atlanta and some Warmth

Jo had another regional meeting to attend, this time in Atlanta, and since she hasn't figured out how to walk on crutches and drag a suitcase at the same time, I went along.  And yes, I am her personal Sherpa to haul suitcases, open doors, and fetch anything larger than a pen.

We both enjoyed not freezing for a couple of days although we had a relatively short time in Atlanta.  We left on Thursday and were back home on Friday evening.  The meeting was good although these hotels do mean a lot of distance for Jo to walk on her crutches which always wears out both her energy and sides where the crutches hit.  Also it is time for hotels to figure out the next evolution in conference food - it's getting old to have a salad, followed by a plate with a piece of meat and fish on it with some vegetables/potatoes, followed by a dessert plate with 3 various small desserts on it.  I get the fact that this menu solves the whole issue of having to figure out if people want fish or meat, but after 4 years of having this at every conference, it is time for some new creativity. 

The weather continues it fun and games, with last night hitting 8 below zero, which has made for some chilly starts to the day.  The news and papers are filled with fun winter facts - like we have been snow covered now for almost 70 days (record is about 120 days so keep you fingers crossed maybe we can set a new one).  As we flew to Atlanta we could see that a lot of Lake Michigan is frozen over, really amazing.

On the home front nothing too exciting unless you consider replacing the innards of a shower handle interesting.

Down to Chicago, again

Jo continues her recovery and is eagerly looking forward to her next doctor appointment next week to hopefully be told she can begin to put some weight on her right leg.  She is really tired of spending her days either keeping her leg in the air or crashed out on the couch.  There isn't that many interesting things you can do week after week sitting on a couch - apparently I don't have enough sterling conversations in me to keep her fascinated after four weeks (who would have guessed that?).

Our big event for the weekend was to attend the wedding of the daughter of our good friends, John and Linda in the Chicago area.   Mother Nature decided to show her appreciation for the happy couple by sending some lovely snow flowers to cover all of dirty roads and make the trees especially lovely.  Given the predicted 6 to 9 inches we headed down a day early while the roads were still passable and stayed overnight in a local hotel.  Worked out fine and Jo at least got to sit around in the morning in a different environment.  It was off to the church in the afternoon for the ceremony which had the bride and groom looking spectacular.  It was a Lutheran ceremony which was a nice change from the usual Catholic events we attend - what I really mean is it was nice length.  Although, I must admit I'm always amazed at how fast you can get married - especially given the lifelong commitment you are making.

After the wedding ceremony we hit the local Starbucks for a place to sit, talk, and read until the reception later that evening.  For the reception we had a great time meeting a lot of John and Linda's other friends and marveling at how much everyone loves the two of them and their kids (I guess I shouldn't be surprised since they are all so nice to us all the time and I should assume it isn't just us they wheel out the niceness).  The other interesting thing was how their friends share very similar behaviors - like an irreverent sense of humor for one.  The dinner was great, an open bar (although Jo had to tone it down since she can't get to wobbly on her crutches and I was the designated driver), and a dessert buffet that made me wish I was in my 20's again so I could have done some real damage.  Since dancing on crutches was out (Jo has no sense of adventure) we headed back home relatively early.

We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on some reading and shoveling snow - yes, we had another 3 inches here.  I shoveled, Jo provided moral support from, yes you guessed it, the couch.  I'm predicting we won't see the grass in the yard until April sometime.