Goodbye 2014

Note:  I finally figured out a way to insert pictures since the method I've been using for 4 years suddenly doesn't work anymore.  Gotta love technology.

This is my last post for 2014 and it has been quite the year.  Starting with Jo's knee surgery and ending with our trip to Peru it has been a interesting ride.  We had a great, although short, Christmas break.  We went to see the "Imagination Game" which we would highly recommend with great acting, interesting script and it is set during WW 2 (ok that last one is mostly my recommendation).  We also took the opportunity to see the latest exhibit at the Art Museum which was paintings from Scotland focused on Italian artists.  I always find it fascinating to see what paintings become famous - often simply because someone kept it intact all the years since it was painted, not because the artist was a phenomenally good painter.  Before touring the art exhibit we hit a local diner for lunch which happened to have a large cow outside of it - it is true part of the reason we went to it was due to the large cow.  It is worth noting that many Wisconsin eating establishments have large cows outside of them - feel free to infer whatever you would like from that.

We spent the days after Christmas working on a Christmas gift puzzle while watching the, seemingly, never ending bowl games.  Unfortunately our fighting Illini couldn't pull a win out, but they were close.  We also spent a little bit of time going through our clothes to see which ones should no longer be in the rotation for wearing.  As Jo bought me five new pairs of pants for Christmas I took the not so subtle hint and did a little reorganizing of my closet.



In a final note, one of our orchids has bloomed again (seems to happen every 3-4 years for some, as yet, undetermined reason) which seems to be a fitting way to ring out the old year and welcome the new one.

Merry Christmas

All the presents are open, the traditional turkey dinner consumed, and a long walk to discuss all our blessings is completed.  So all that is left is to wish a Merry Christmas to all.  Our best wishes for a phenomenal 2015.

A Nice Quiet Weekend at Home

We had a very peaceful weekend that didn't involve any travel or major events.  We did attend one holiday party on Saturday, but the rest of the time we snuggled in getting in the mood for Christmas.  Jo had a massage, we exercised a bit, read some books, tried egg nog for the first time since we were kids, made some great dinners, and got through some of our back log of taped shows.

Jo has a relatively quiet week at work and I'm suspending all crack repair/painting on the house until the new year.  We are all ready with the fixings for our Christmas turkey dinner and are eager to open our presents.  We'll then spend some time starting to plan out what 2015 holds for us - because that is what Myers-Briggs NTJ's do for fun.

Madison Trip

Jo and I headed over to Madison for the weekend to see Kathy and John for our Christmas celebration with them.  While there we also spent a morning do a little condo shopping and caught up with one of the people on our Peru tour.

On the condo front, we are realizing that Madison doesn't possess the exactly perfect condo for us.  Namely, a condo with views of one or both of the lakes, is downtown near the capitol, has an expansive terrace, minimum road noise, is the right size, and is cheap.  We have now viewed most of the condo developments around downtown and are trying to figure out what are the features we absolutely must have and which are just nice to haves.  As we have several years before we need the condo, we have plenty of time to determine the right combination and also to change our mind several times.

After condo shopping, we met with Anne and her husband, Steve for lunch.  Anne was on our Peru trip with us and lives in Madison (what are the odds?).  We traded photos so we can each have another couple hundred photos to show our friends and family (side note, it is amazing how often people take fundamentally the same photo of a spot - many of her photos matched ours).  We also got to meet Steve for the first time and learn a little bit more about them.  Later that afternoon, Kathy, John, Jo, and I headed to a local bar to watch the Badger's women volleyball team play in their semi-final match.  The Badger's were defeated by Penn State (might make one of my blog readers happy), afterwards it was home to a delicious Mexican dinner that Kathy prepared.  Then it was time for our first Christmas and I scored a new pair of Wisconsin sweatpants (why is one pant called a pair of pants?).  Christmas is always more fun when you get to have multiple present opening opportunities.

Sunday it was home and then over to a neighbors for a holiday party with the folks on the block.

Sports Weekend

I'm a week behind on posting as several people have pointed out, so I'll do my usual and post twice today and catch up.

 Two weekends ago, we spent Saturday on sports.  First up was the Marquette/Wisconsin basketball game at the Bradley Center.  It was our first time watching the Badger's basketball team play this year and while they have most of their players returning from the Final Four team last year, they didn't play particularly well.  Fortunately, the Marquette team didn't play any better and we were able to squeak out a win.  Jo was able to obtain two extra tickets to the game and we had Drew and Amy join us to balance out the people cheering for the two sides.

Later that day, Kathy and John came over from Madison and we went out for a drink with Drew and Amy to celebrate their engagement.  Then it was back to the Bradley Center, along with several of Jo's HR team, to watch the Admirals play.  Since the Badger's were playing Ohio State at the same time for the Big 10 championship we had that playing on the TV in the suite.  It turned out to be a pretty depressing night for all the teams.  The Admirals lost and as you probably know by now, the Badger's imploded.  Sunday morning we hiked over to City Market with Kathy and John to enjoy our traditional cinnamon roll.

The only other news worthy item for the week, besides the usual mix of working, working out, and puttering around the house, was we decorated the house for the holidays.  That means our little army of Danish figurines is once again inhabiting every room in the house.  We also baked the first batch of Christmas cookies which was my Grandmother's recipe this year.  Nothing better than frosted cookies with milk for dinner.

Thanksgiving in New Mexico

We spent a lovely week enjoying the views and warmer temperatures of New Mexico with my folks.  To top it all off all of our airline flights went without a hitch even though we took off in the middle of a snowstorm in Milwaukee.  Although we were a little late getting in to our first connection due to the need to de-ice the plane (one of the thrills living in the cold part of the country) we had left plenty of time for our next plane.  We were rewarded with beautiful sunny skies during our time in New Mexico, which we certainly don't always enjoy in Wisconsin come winter time.

The week with my folks was spent eating as much Mexican food as possible, while catching up on the happenings in everyone's life.  This was interspersed with some home cooking, a great Thanksgiving dinner, playing cards, and viewing photos from the trips that have occurred since we were last together.  We also took advantage of the great hiking trails right behind my parent's house to enjoy a daily hike through the rolling hills.  During one of the hikes one of the wild horses decided to hike with us following us for about 2 miles.  But, all too soon it was time to head home, back to snowy weather and frigid temperatures.  Our car was nicely encased in ice when we picked it up at the airport to help remind us of the joys of living in the frozen north.

We spent the weekend at home, for once, purchasing our Christmas tree, putting up the wreath on the front door, watching some exciting football as both the Badgers and Packers won, and getting mentally prepared for going back to work (well that was mostly Jo).

Peru and Machu Picchu

We spent the last twelve days exploring Peru including some hiking in the Andes.  This was the first trip for both of us to Peru and we started off in Lima, the capital.  With a population around 11 million it is like most big cities: lots to see, lots of traffic, and a lot of people.  Our first introduction was to the traffic where we learned quickly that traffic markings are more a suggestion and the pedestrians don't have the right-of-way.  But we soon learned to navigate our way around being especially careful anytime we needed to cross the street.  While in Lima we saw the Huaca Pucllana pyramid which predates the Inca influence and enjoyed a wonderful restaurant that overlooks it.  This was our first taste of guinea pig, which we had as an appetizer.  Guinea pig is a national dish in Peru and was fairly tasty. 

We also toured the historical center of Lima and the wonderful Larco museum during which we had the most entertaining curator describe the collection of pre-Columbian and Incan artifacts.  After a few days in Lima we started the hiking portion of our vacation heading up to 11,000 feet in Cusco, Peru.  Another lovely town although woefully short of oxygen for a town built onto the side of a steep (really steep) hillside.  This was our first look at the Andes and it certainly can claim beautiful mountain vistas as one after another mountain top stretched as far as the eye could see.

We did several hikes in the area around Cusco and the Sacred Valley during which we acclimated to the elevation, saw many Incan ruins, and got to understand Peruvian culture including how they have adapted to living at such a high elevation.  We also got to enjoy many of the local specialties, including multiple kinds of potatoes, beer made from a corn base (chicha) and, yes, more guinea pig (that's the dish that Jo is holding, along with the corn that contains the largest kernels that either of us had ever seen).

All the hiking was in preparation for our day long hike along the Inca trail leading to Machu Picchu.  We had great weather for the hike and since there are many impressive Incan ruins along the way there are lots of sites to take in before you reach the fabled Sun Gate at Machu Picchu.  Cresting the final hill and then seeing Machu Picchu laid out before us gave both Jo and I lumps in our throats.  We were really happy to be able to see this impressive site and managed to accomplish the hike without any blisters.  We spent the following day walking around Machu Picchu with a guide to explain the layout and use of the various buildings.

Then it was back to Cusco, on the train, to see Sacsayhuaman, another over the top Incan ruin and enjoy a wonderful picnic lunch on a meadow looking out over Cusco and the Andes.  Fortunately, we had only minor troubles with Pachacuti's revenge (what our tour group started naming intestinal distress using the most famous Incan king) during our trip and never had any problems with any of our hikes our tours.

We had a phenomenal trip and one that we will remember for a long time - especially since we took 750 pictures.  I can only include a small number of pictures here, but if anyone who visits is likely to get the full run (you are warned).

Let's Go Milwaukee Bucks

We had a quiet weekend, for once and spent it nesting at home as much as possible.  Friday night, Jo hosted some of her HR team at the Milwaukee Bucks game which was their home opener under the new management.  The team actually won, which is almost a first for us watching the Bucks, so maybe there is some hope for the team.  It was nice meeting some more of Jo's team along with their spouses and the pizza at the Bradley Center was as tasty as ever.


Saturday we started our morning with a long walk to enjoy the sun and cool temperatures.  Then it was off to the gym for a little biking and lifting before settling in to watch the Badger's play Rutgers.  The afternoon was spent tackling a few chores around the house and then Kathy and John joined us later in the evening (they were in town for a brunch with Drew and Amy and the "potential" in-laws, no rings yet, but signs are promising).  We got to enjoy their photos of their recent trip to Italy where they took in Rome, Florence, and Venice along with a few other stops along the way.  It was amazing how it brought back memories of our trip and even the ability to remember things we thought were long forgotten.  Really made us want to go back - maybe in 2015.


Jo was up early on Sunday for a business trip to Phoenix so we didn't really get to enjoy the extra hour of sleep.  She arrived safely and was able to get in a hike to the top of Camelback Mountain (for those not in the know, Jo is showing her school spirit, flashing a W - it's a Badger thing).  I spent the day goofing off and working hard at not accomplishing anything productive.  I was quite successful, but then practice makes perfect.  Rest of the week has been quiet if you ignore the leaking plumbing in the basement which has required multiple trips to the hardware store along with some serious cursing and bruised knuckles.  It was good that Jo was in Phoenix and didn't have to listen to everything coming out of the basement.  The fun thing with a 100 year old house's plumbing that relies on galvanized piping is that every time you take apart one joint, three others decide it is now time to leak.  But with my fingers and toes crossed, I think I have stopped all the leaks - for now.

Madison - Part 2

Jo had some business in Neenah, WI last Friday so I tagged along to spend a little time touring beautiful Neenah.  Turns out you can walk through the downtown in a fairly short time and there was really only one shop that I felt warranted me shopping in, so I kill some of the time until Jo was finished, I decided to stroll through a few neighborhoods to see what Neenah had to offer from a housing standpoint.  One highlight was finding a miniature Statue of Liberty that a local businessman donated to the city - don't ask me why, he just felt the need.  I had a great time admiring some of the larger houses in Neenah and strolling along the shores of Lake Winnebago.

 After her meeting finished up, we drove down to Madison to finally get to see a UW football game since we hadn't made it to one as yet.  Saturday was an absolutely perfect fall football day.  Not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid to high 50's, and a light breeze.  Plus the Badger's played great against our new Big Ten rivals, Maryland.  We stayed to enjoy the band during the fifth quarter before walking up State Street to see the old sites.  After a great dinner with Kathy, Drew, and Amy it was time to pack up the car to head home.  To cement the perfect football Saturday our other alma mater, Illinois, won against Minnesota.

Sunday morning we hiked for our daily exercise covering about 5 miles and then stopped for a cinnamon roll at City Market just to be sure we didn't waste away to nothing from all that exercising.  Sunday afternoon was trick and treat time in Milwaukee.  The city schedules tricking and treating for a weekend afternoon around Halloween.  While it is safer for all the kids running around the houses, some of the mystery of Halloween seems to be lost.  It was great fun to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes with princesses being a very popular theme among the young ladies.  We finished our weekend watching the Packer's lose - oh well, can't have everything.

I also finished pulling all the fall crops from the garden last week.  This meant the last of the acorn squash (which after roasting and combining with some gnocchi made a great pasta dish for Sunday), onions, leeks, and carrots.  We had pretty good carrot crop this year with less of the gargantuan, mutant carrots that we had last year.  Only parsnips and some mini-Brussels sprouts are left.
 

Madison - Part 1

We celebrated another birthday for Jo almost two weeks ago (I'm a little behind on my posting).  It was a pretty low key affair, with just the two of us.  We heated up some of our Papa Del's pizza since that seemed like the best taste treat and had birthday cake for dessert.  Then it was to the fun part, opening presents, with Jo picking up several new clothing items and a few things for the kitchen.  Then it was off for a nice quiet walk around the neighborhood to chat about all the changes since we starting celebrating birthdays together a long time ago.

Jo is on the University of Wisconsin Chemistry's board and since she had a meeting two Friday's ago, we headed over to Madison for a few days.  While Jo went off to help the Chemistry department solve its problems, I helped my sister-in-law by raking a few leaves.  Since she has most of Sherwood Forest in her yard and many of the trees hadn't decided to drop their leaves yet, my help on raking was pretty minor, even though I spent several hours out raking.  We had beautiful fall weather while we where there, the fall trees were in full color, and it was great to catch up on Kathy and John's recent trip.


Saturday night we headed over to the UW Field House to watch the women's volleyball team take on Minnesota.  UW won, which is always good, and it was a lot of fun to watch these athletes in action.  Did make Jo and I reminisce about when we were younger and could do more on a volleyball court - like move and jump.

Love those Lobster Rolls

Jo had a business trip to NY early this week, so we tacked on a visit to our old stomping ground in CT to see several of our friends along with all the changes in the area.  I flew into Providence, RI on Thursday and picked up the rental car for the drive to New Haven where I hoped to be able to find Jo at the Metro North train station.  Although they have changed the driving patterns around the New Haven train station, and several of the key landmarks I use to find the way to go are no long there, we managed to meet up without too much difficulty.  Then it was back to New London, CT to enjoy some tasty clam strips at Fred's Shanty with the Thames River in the background.

Afterwards, we stopped at Clyde's Mill to enjoy a few cider donuts and fresh squeezed apple cider even though we were pretty full with clam strips.  Even so, we made sure to buy enough to last us through the entire weekend.  After chasing away the bees long enough we headed over to Bruno and Sheri's.  They are both looking great and we spent the evening catching up on all that is happening in their lives.  Friday morning as they went off to work, we spent the day sightseeing.  This included driving by our old house and seeing any changes (not many that we could tell from the street), walking the boardwalk at Ocean Beach, and most importantly having lobster rolls for lunch.  Captain Scott's was our lobster roll destination where we enjoyed the delicious simplicity of the lobster rolls while talking with E, who Jo worked with at Pfizer.  Sure can't beat a lobster roll.  Next up on our nostalgia tour was a drive-by of the Pfizer sites we worked at.  Jo's building was sold to General Dynamics and there wasn't much we could see there.  At the research site, Pfizer is in the process of tearing a bunch of buildings down so there was a lot of change to be seen.  Dinner was with several couples that we did things with when we lived in CT.  It was fun hearing about everyone's busy lives since we last saw them.  After dinner and we were driving home we were both a bit sad that we don't get to see these friends more often and we didn't hold out much hope in convincing any of them to move to warm, sunny, Wisconsin.

Saturday dawned to rain and ominous clouds so we moved a movie into our plans.  Jo, Sheri, and I headed to a local cinema to watch "Gone Girl" while Bruno stayed home to putter around the house (which I totally understand since rainy days are perfect for house puttering).  A very good, although suspenseful movie - we all came out of it a bit stressed.  We finally managed to get a walk in before dinner as the rain had tapered off.  Then it was time for dinner in downtown Westerly before we went to the Granite Theater like old times.  The play was "South Pacific" and was well done with good singing and clever use of the small stage for all the locations the musical requires.

Sunday after enjoying brunch in the sun on their deck we took a quick tour of Sheri and Bruno's garden.  We continue to use their garden as a model for ours to try and make our garden as functional and varied as they have accomplished.  Then to continue to enjoy the beautiful weather we took a walk up to the dairy farm just up the street from their house.  The cows were close to the road so Jo could fulfill her periodic need of petting a cow - it has something to do with her childhood and raising cows, I personally have never understood her need to touch cows.  Then it was back to the house to pack up and head back home to ready ourselves for another week of work (well to be honest, Jo has to ready herself more than I do).

Go Illini

This last weekend, Jo and I joined our friends, John and Linda, for a trip to our alma mater, Illinois.  The main purpose was to see their youngest daughter who just started at Illinois and to see her play and march with the Marching Illini during the football game.  We drove down to Chicago on Thursday and then all piled into a car for a wild ride to Champaign-Urbana as it was raining cats, dogs, squirrels, chipmunks, and any other animals you can think of for most of the drive down.  The next morning had us up and taking a walk through the campus to see the good old quad, Illini Union, and Alma Mater statue.  Jo then headed off to do a bit of work meeting with some of the local Northwestern Mutual sales representatives while John, Linda, and I walked around the campus and got lunch at one of the restaurants that managed to survive through all the years since we were there last.  After Jo's meetings we all did some much needed replenishing of our Illini clothing and gear at the stores in campus town.

Saturday we were up and going early to watch the Marching Band march over to the football stadium before we settled into our seats to watch the game against Purdue.  We were joined by John and Linda's oldest daughter and significant other who came down for the day.  T
he weather certainly wasn't what we had expected to see in Champaign in early October with the temperatures struggling to get into the high 40's and every now and then a little sprinkle to keep you from really warming up.  But we were at Memorial Stadium again after almost 35 years so the weather didn't dampen our mood too much.  The first half went well although neither defense seemed particularly adept at stopping the other's offense.  Still high scoring games are at least fun to watch.  Unfortunately, Illinois came apart in the second half and we didn't get the chance to see an Illini win.  After the game we marched with the band back to the Education building where they played a short concert.


Then it was off to probably the real reason for the trip, dinner at Papa Del's pizza.  If you haven't realized that Papa Del's is the best pizza on the planet, then I'm sorry for you.  Even though the place was packed and it took almost 90 minutes to get a table (everyone at the game obviously realizes it is the best pizza) it was worth the wait for the delicious combination of thick tasty crust, sweet sauce, and just the right amount of too much cheese.  That evening we caught some more volleyball as we watched the Illinois women's volleyball team take on our other alma mater - Madison.  The Badgers won the game and since we rooted for both teams - although much quieter for the Badgers - we were guaranteed a win.


Sunday after brunch with John and Linda's daughter it was back to Papa Del's to pick up 3 extra large pizzas (30 pieces of future deliciousness) to stock our freezer at home.  The weekend flew by, but we had a really fun trip:  we were amazed again at how much the campus has changed from our college days, it was fascinating to listen to John and Linda's daughter talk about her college experiences and realize how similar they were to ours, we got to see and sit in the Illini Union where Jo and I first met, and we came home with lots of pizza - what's not to love.  Already thinking about our trip for next year.

Jury Duty

Earlier in September I got the dreaded mail notice summoning me to jury duty for the last Monday and Tuesday in September.  So last Monday I dutifully transported myself to the Milwaukee County courthouse to spend my days hoping and hoping my number would never be picked.  I had almost got through the first day when just at the end of the day 30 of us were selected to be voir dired (if you can use it that way).  The short message is that I was selected to sit on the jury and get an more inside snapshot of our legal system in action - because who wouldn't want a retired chemist on their panel.

I won't describe the actual trial but let me just say being on a jury involves sitting around a lot waiting to actually go into the court room and hear the trial.  There seemed to be a lot of discussion happening just between the lawyers and judge that we weren't allowed to hear which meant hours for us jurors trying to stay occupied in the jury room.  The trial we heard was relatively short and seemed pretty straight forward and we finished everything up on Wednesday.  I must admit I'm fairly happy I won't be summoned at least for another four years.  On the plus side, I now know where the Recorder of  Deeds is located - in case I should ever have a deed that I should need recorded.

Walk around Lake Geneva

 After enjoying boating around Lake Geneva multiple times with our friends, John and Linda, Jo and I decided it would be fun once to hike the path that circles the entire lake.  So two Saturday's ago, we packed our hiking bags with some food and water and set out early in the day to tackle the 21 mile loop.  It was beautiful day for the hike with sunny weather in the high 60's to low 70's.  It is a particularly enjoyable hike since you are trekking past all the mansions that line the lake since they are all required to provide deeded access to the hiking path.  It was interesting to see these homes a bit more up close and personal and to marvel at the size of the homes, which for the most part are second (or third/fourth) homes for people.  We enjoyed our hike although we had started to feel it with about 3 miles to go and were very happy to get back to the car and rest our weary tootsies.  A stop at Dairy Queen for some blizzards on the way home helped us to ease our aches and pains and replace some of the calories we burned off.  Once home, we got to assess the damage and besides a few truly impressive blisters the only other challenge was a few sore leg muscles and a bit too much sun for me on my neck and face.  We are already talking about whether we should try it again next year.


The night before our hike, we headed over to the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee to enjoy watching the Panther women's volleyball team take on the University of Illinois - Chicago.  We were able to get great seats since it was pretty sparsely attended.  It was a lot of fun to watch and got us both reminiscing about when we were younger and we could quickly move around the court - although never quite as well as these young women did.

Off to Washington DC

Jo had a business trip to Washington DC scheduled for Monday and Tuesday this week and I was looking for some special trip to surprise her with for her upcoming birthday.  So we decided to take a long weekend in DC since I couldn't make a four day trip to Paris work out time wise or financially.  We spent the time while she wasn't working trying to tour memorials and museums that we hadn't seen in our previous trips.  It is amazing how many new places have opened since I was last there in the early 90's.  We especially enjoyed our visits to the Postal Museum and the Newseum, both of which surprised us with the breadth of their collections and the interesting way they were displayed.  Along the way, we also managed to take in the Botanic Gardens, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Castle, White House visitor center, Capitol visitor center, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Holocaust Museum, American History Museum, and the Spy Museum.  I also got to see the WWII memorial for the first time and we both finally made it all the way out to the Jefferson memorial.  We also saw the Korean War memorial, Lincoln memorial, Roosevelt memorial, MLK memorial, and the Navy memorial.  We spent most of one morning doing memorial tours.  

Since Jo had to work on Monday and Tuesday, I spent some of the time taking tours of the Capitol building and the White House.  Unfortunately, Barack and family weren't there to greet us.  It was my first back to Washington since the early 90's and it was interesting to see how much access has been restricted since all the terror incidents over the last decade.  The last time we toured the Capitol we could pretty much wander anywhere on the first floor, now you have to take a tour and it shows you much less.  Same is true at the White House.  It is somewhat sad that the world has become a scarier place requiring all this extra security to keep people and buildings safe.

The final highlight was getting to see the Capitol Steps perform.  This is a comedy group that makes fun of our politicians for all the funny things they manage to do.  Also, they routinely skewer both parties so it isn't one sided.  We were laughing so hard at one point, we were crying.  If they are ever playing near you, we would recommend taking in the show.

To quickly summarize, we had a really great five days in Washington, with perfect weather, lots of cool museums to see and information to take in, and delicious food to enjoy.  But we both came home foot sore and a bit tired from all the walking and standing in museums we did. 

Oh, a few last thoughts, we decided that to make the visits to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing especially exciting, that they should randomly give out one of the sheets of 32 one hundred dollar bills to one of the visitors (say once or twice a month).  Would really boost the popularity of the tour, wouldn't cost much given the size of our deficit, and how much more intriguing the tour would be!  Other fun fact, I found out that the president has to pay for the food that the first family's food eats (state dinners and the like are picked up by the government).  It seems to me kind of cheap on our part to elect the president, give him this really nice house to live in, require him to be on call 24 hours a day, and then stick him or her with the bill for his food.  Seriously, can't this country afford to feed a family of four or five at the White House for four years?  Buy one less cruise missile and we probably could cover all the president's food since Hoover was in the White House.  Enough ranting for one blog.

Busy Weekend with the Brewers and the Zoo

Friday night we started our weekend with dinner and a show.  Along with our friends, Tim and Rosalie, we headed downtown to the Rumpus Room for a tasty dinner along with two excellent desserts (sticky toffee pudding and caramel bread pudding, for the table not just for me).  Then it was a short walk in the cold rain to the Rep Theater to see the Doyle and Debbie show.  This was a very funny comedy that had the entire audience almost rolling on the floor with laughter.  The two main performers did a wonderful job handling the comedic timing as well as all the singing in the performance.  The performance really made up for the very cold and rainy weather outside.

While I'm on the weather, winter had decided to give us a little early taste over the last few days.  We have struggled to get into the high 50's or low 60's and the evenings are down in the 40's.  We haven't had any snow like some parts of the country, but it certainly feels like it isn't far away.  I am resisting putting on the heat in the house, but there have been some really cold nights with the temperature in the house dipping to around 60-62 degrees.  I'm not sure how much longer Jo is going to let me hold out on turning on the furnace.

Saturday morning after our exercising, Jo decided to get blonder during her haircut and came home almost as blond as when we first met (maybe even blonder, but who remembers that far back).  Then it was off to a massage for each of us before we headed to the ballpark to see the Brewers play along with our neighbors, Audrey and John.  Unfortunately, we once again brought the Brewers bad luck as they lost, but it was Hank the dog bobble head day so Jo got to add to her bobble head collection (see below for more details).


Sunday dawned a bright and sunny day although still cold.  Just to repeat the fun from Saturday, we had tickets to the Brewers again - these were sudden spur of the moment tickets that Northwestern Mutual had and couldn't find anyone to use.  It was another bobble head day - this time it was Robin Yount - so Jo's collection grew to eleven.  She has been collecting them since our Connecticut days but has made the most progress since our move to Wisconsin.  The Brewers managed to win this game so we don't always jinx them.  After the game we went to the Milwaukee Zoo for a Northwestern Mutual event.  They had rented out the zoo for all the home office employees so we walked around meeting some of the people that Jo works with while seeing a few new animal exhibits.  We especially enjoyed seeing the tree kangaroos.  I never new that tree kangaroos existed and one of them had a baby which was too cute for words. 

Then it was home to collapse into bed to rest up for the work week - well Jo's work week.  Oh, for anyone wondering why there wasn't a post last week.  Jo and I spent a quiet weekend at home just taking easy.  The only noteworthy activity was we biked downtown to enjoy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Smoke Shack, where we enjoyed the pulled pork sandwiches (notice the significantly less blond hair color as compared to the pictures above).

Labor Day Fun in Madison

Our work week was fairly standard - I cleaned, Jo went downtown to work.  The evenings were spent exercising including one evening playing volleyball on Bradford beach with some friends.  I still prefer indoor volleyball but it was a nice evening so being outside wasn't all bad.  For the long weekend we packed up and headed to Madison where we visited with Jo's sister, one niece, one grand niece (yes we are now old enough to have grand nieces and nephews), and two nephews along with all their respective spouses, significant others.  The weather cooperated since a rainy weekend was predicted but it turned out to only rain briefly one of the days.

Our niece and nephew, Christine and Dan, drove out from Omaha and our Milwaukee nephews (Chris and Angela, Drew and Amy) came with their significant others to make for a mini-family reunion.  On Saturday to take advantage of the sunshine when rain was predicted we went over to the University of Wisconsin terrace to enjoy a beer (or two) - where Jo and I spent a few afternoons during our grad school days (very  few since we naturally busy in our labs at all hours of the day).  Their daughter enjoyed feeding the ducks while the rest of us just enjoyed the beautiful weather, the refreshing breeze off the lake and the youth of all the college kids around us.  This was especially true for our niece who is celebrating 40 years in 2014.  Not sure how the flower girl in our wedding got to be 40, we must have passed through a multi-dimensional wormhole somewhere without knowing it.  We held the birthday celebration Saturday evening with a excellent home-made, decorated chocolate chip cookie.

We did watch the Badger's first game of the season Saturday night and let's just leave it at, it was a disappointing evening.  Sunday morning involved a trip to the free-to-visit, Vilas zoo to ride the carousal for some and for all to enjoy seeing the animals, for me the red pandas were a special highlight.  I continue to marvel at the wide variety of creatures this planet has and has had on it.  Later that day, we made sure to enjoy a brewery tour in Middleton, WI since what is a weekend in WI if you don't have at least one brewery tour.  But all too soon, it was Monday and time for everyone to head back home, but we got to enjoy some of Dan's famous, home-made, blueberry pancakes before we left.  We came home with a bag full of grape tomatoes from Kathy's community garden which we have been furiously sun drying (ok, really oven drying, since how much sun do we really get and then there is the humidity to discuss).

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).