Baseball and the Lake

Jo got the opportunity to accept the Brewer's thanks last week as our local baseball team thanked the corporations that donate to the Brewer's Foundation.  This meant we got to watch the game from the owner's suite and Jo was on the field (accompanied by her trusty photographer - me) at the beginning of the game.  She was also up on the big scoreboard and got to touch the grass on the field.  Unfortunately, the Brewer's lost that day, but that is pretty consistent whenever we attend - we must be bad luck for them for some reason.  The loss aside, we had a wonderful time enjoying the owner's suite perks of open bar, upgraded food (not just hot dogs and brats) and especially the free dessert cart.

Over the weekend we drove to Lake Geneva to be with our friends John and Linda.  This weekend is when they became empty nesters for the first time in over 25 years so we were there to provide moral support and to help them ease into the transition of a child-absent house.  At least that was our excuse for barging in on their hospitality.  While the weather wasn't spectacular, we did manage to get out on their boat everyday.  On Sunday the sun finally managed to peek out from the clouds so we cruised over to Bigfoot Beach to anchor and paddle around in the water.  Jo had purchased snorkeling equipment for me for my birthday so we tried out our new equipment and were delighted that it worked perfectly with no leaks.  We also ordered Jimmy John's from the boat and had it delivered for lunch which was kind of fun in a decadent, I'm too lazy to even go get myself food kind of way.

Due to the less than perfect weather we hit several local farm stands and picked up some delicious sweet corn that was a great add on to a dinner with brats. We also found some Michigan peaches that were turned into very tasty peach pancakes on Sunday morning.  In between, we caught up on all the various family doings which is a lot with all their kids now scattered around the country.  All too soon it was time to hit the road back to reality where we prepared to enjoy the last official week of summer.

Beer Garden - How Wisconsin is That

We hopped on the Amtrak train to Chicago last week to attend a charity affair in Chicago.  Alex's Lemonade Stand (charity dedicated to raising money to fight childhood cancer) held a special dinner where they had celebrity chefs cook dinners for individual tables along with an auction to raise money for this important cause.  This is one of the charities that Northwestern Mutual has chosen to focus on and they had several tables at the event.  Jo and I had nice evening enjoying the great food (our table was a Creole/Mexican mix prepared by John Besh) and talking with Jay and Liz Scott whose courageous daughter started the first Lemonade Stands.

For the weekend, Saturday morning dawned sunny, with bright blue skies, and almost perfect temperature and humidity.  While I headed out for a morning run, Jo hit the elliptical machine for her aerobic workout.  She is still coming to grips with not running any more and I'm still coming to grips with the wear and tear that almost thirty years of running has done to my joints.  In other words we are both fighting against the inevitable, but we always try to remember the key lesson from chemistry - entropy always wins.

On a cheerier note, after our morning aerobic blast we went to Lake Park to practice a little yoga with great views of a very blue Lake Michigan and then it was to the gym for a little lifting to round out our morning exercising.  Then it was home for a well earned lunch.  Later that afternoon we enjoyed a visit from Jo's sister and partner who were in town to celebrate her son's/our nephew's birthday.

To do this in true Wisconsin style we headed to Estabrook Park's beer garden to enjoy some suds and pretzels and the weather.  We had a great time catching up on everyone's latest adventures especially how Drew's new school year of teaching is going.  Then it was time to pick up some pizza, where we enjoyed a sizeable discount due to Kathy's AARP card (one of the few benefits of aging is retail establishments feel obligated to give you discounts on stuff), before eating dinner on our deck and talking into the wee hours of the night (understand that wee for most of us is around 11).  We were joined by our niece, Angela, who updated us on that side of the family.

Sunday brunch was in order to continue the birthday celebrations and then everyone headed back to their respective homes, Jo got a swim in, I did a few clean-up chores around the house, and we watched a movie to end our busy weekend.

Vegetables starting to Arrive

Things in the garden are finally picking up a bit since we actually enjoyed slightly warmer weather over the last several weeks.  Last week I picked a our first crop of beans and harvested a little lettuce.  The lettuce this year has lasted much longer than usual due to our very cool weather.  We still have a little leaf lettuce and spinach and our head and romaine lettuce is about ready.  For the beans we had enough to freeze eight bags for later this winter while still having a bin full in the fridge for the last week. 

Added to that we are seeing the first yellow squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes starting to ripen.  Yesterday, I was able to harvest another round of beans (only four freezer bags this time along with replenishing our fridge supplies) along with 1 raspberry and 5 blueberries (both crops are still new and establishing themselves). 

Brewer's Game - Part 2

To continue the celebration of my birthday we had tickets to see the Brewer's game on Sunday.  We were joined by our good friends, John and Linda.  It was a bobble head day so Jo was able to score another bobble head for her collection - it was the Chorizo racing sausage in case you are keeping count.  Once again the weather cooperated keeping the temperatures comfortable but unlike Tuesday's game the Brewer's weren't victorious.  The game wasn't a complete loss as Jo had arranged to have my birthday displayed on the scoreboard.  This also came with a backpack filled with a Bernie the Brewer bobble head and a baseball.  So Jo scored two bobble heads in one game and I scored my second baseball of the week.  This baseball came with happy birthday imprinted on it so I'll have to keep it.

Even with the loss, I enjoyed a ball park frank, had my name on the scoreboard, was with good friends, got a backpack, upped Jo's collection of bobble heads by two, saw the racing sausages, and received another baseball.  After the game the four of us headed to Kopp's for frozen custard because you should consume as much fat and sugar on your birthday as possible.  I had the root beer float custard which was custard flavored to taste just like a root beer float and it did - yum.

Visit to the State Fair

My sister managed to arrange for two days off over a weekend so came up to Milwaukee to escape the noise and bustle of downtown Chicago.  Because everyone knows that Milwaukee is so less noisy and bustly.  After arriving Friday morning we hit Café Hollander for lunch and then spent a couple of hours browsing books at Boswell's.  Fortunately for Boswell's my sister loves to keep independent bookstores in business and she purchased a couple of books.  Later that afternoon we met up with Jo downtown to take in the Kandisky exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum.  My view of Kandisky's work is that I loved his early work with has rich use of color, but once he went abstract he lost me.  I'm sure he knows what he is painting but it just looked like stuff people doodle during boring meetings at work.

Saturday we were up bright and early and headed to the WI State Fair.  We enjoy walking around the fair grounds taking in the animal judging (especially trying to figure out what exactly makes one animal better than another) and checking out the animal barns so Jo can get her fix of petting farm animals.  Why she loves petting farm animals is anyone's guess but I think it provides her flashbacks to her childhood when her Dad had cows on the back acres and that somehow relaxes her.  We took in the duck racing which, in my personal opinion, is not as exciting to watch as the pig racing, and then headed for the food stands to see what new food has been put on a stick - pork chops on a stick sort of stuck out for us this year.

After lunch we toured the dessert hall where Jo and I enjoyed a whoppie pie while Cheryl stuck with a cookie.  Then it was off to the exhibit hall to see all the fun gadgets being hyped.  I can't explain why, but I absolutely love to watch people promoting ginzu knifes and food choppers - I just love to listen to their spiel.  We finished the fair with visit to the flower and vegetable exhibits.  We had a great time although we did not we should move the exhibit hall to earlier in our tour route to lessen the crowds a bit.

That evening we enjoyed a light dinner after our fair food and watched a movie together - Oz, the Great and Powerful.  We gave it two thumbs up for excellent animation and colors but only so, so on the plot.  Sunday morning started with a small celebration of my latest birthday and I really like switching the standard birthday cake for a cronut and cupcake.  Of course you can't go wrong anytime sugar and frosting are involved - in my humble opinion.

Brewers Game - Part 1

Jo's work team had a evening team event at the Brewers stadium/game.  Fortunately, not enough people signed up so I was able to tag along.  They had rented out one of the pavilions for a tailgate before the game where we could enjoy some cold beers (okay, I had a soda), brats, and desserts while I worked on remembering more of the names of people that are on Jo's team.  Getting harder both with changes on her team and my ever advancing age.  It is really embarrassing to introduce yourself to someone who says that we met before and I have absolutely no recollection of it.

After the tailgate, it was off to the game where we sat in left field to watch our home town Brewers win over of the SF Giants.  I also managed for the first time in my life attending a few baseball games a year to score a baseball.  Unfortunately, it wasn't one hit into the stands but rather tossed by the left fielder after warming up between innings.  Regardless, it still was labeled as an official baseball even if it was a bit scuffed. After getting the requisite photo with it, I gave it to the son of Jo's administrative assistant since I was sure he would enjoy it more than I would (reportedly he slept with it that night, so yeah he did enjoy it more). 

Great evening, free food, perfect cool temperatures, a free baseball, racing sausages, and our team won - what more can one ask for in life?

Hiking the White Mountains

I'm far behind on my blog so I'll try to catch up all at once today.  Two weeks ago we spent a week in New Hampshire seeing our good friends from Connecticut, Sheri and Bruno.  We spent the week at their new vacation home in the White Mountains near North Conway.  It is a gorgeous place with phenomenal views over a valley with several peaks in the background.  They have been working hard since they purchased it to remodel and refurbish the place as it was built in the 80's and needed some TLC.  As the area mixes both summer and winter activities their new place is fully winterized although, four wheel drive might be recommended to tackle the road leading to the house during the snow season.

We enjoyed an incredibly relaxing week catching up with them even though we took a couple of exhausting hikes (although nothing like our Adirondacks escapade at Mt. Dix in 2009).  A quick list of all the fun activities that we squeezed in: zip lining, trip to the top of Mt. Washington (although we opted for the car route to the top versus the hiking route), mini-golf (Bruno was the champion based on several key hole-in-ones), puzzle building, card games, touring Jackson, NH, along with multiple great hikes.  The weather cooperated with cool temperatures most of the week and only a day of serious rain which gave us a reason to stay indoors at least one day.

For the hikes our two longest involved hiking to South Moat/Middle Moat and doing Frankenstein Cliffs both of which provided excellent vistas along with some good challenging terrain.  Fortunately, Jo's knee held up for the whole week and seems to be recovering fine.  Sheri and Bruno are still working on several home projects which meant almost daily trips to the local hardware store which became a bit of a running joke among us.  The good news was it was a really cool hardware store with a wide assortment of both hardware and home items so there was never a dull moment browsing through the store.

During the week, we did a mix of cooking in and eating out.  Sheri and Bruno are excellent cooks and their grilled pizza was worth the trip to the mountains all by itself.  As this a relatively popular tourist area there are lots of great restaurants to choose from and the places we tried provided some tasty grub - especially the Mexican restaurant although that could have been the loaded margaritas.  Wait times could have been long but somehow almost every restaurant we went to found some way of seating us in half the time promised on checking in. 

The seven days flew by all too soon.  We enjoyed our week in New Hampshire but we are really miss not having Sheri and Bruno in the same area as us.  Maybe someday we can convince them to move to WI - we know they already love snow!