Snow, Snow, Snow

Winter is certainly making a dramatic statement this year, so far.  After getting 8 inches of snow last weekend, the temperatures plummeted for the week to end the week in another large snowfall - probably around 9 inches.  We spent Friday and Saturday repeatedly shoveling out the driveway and sidewalk trying to stay ahead of the white stuff.  We are only in December and we are already running out of places to put the snow.  We are hoping for some warmer temperatures just to compress the snow banks a little so we have a place to put any new snow.  You certainly don't usually have to worry about having a white Christmas in Wisconsin.

We did manage to get out and enjoy some the reason to have all this snow.  Saturday, after shoveling out the driveway, we got out our cross country skis and headed to Lake Park for an hour of skiing through fluffy white powder.  We were the first to make tracks which is always fun and the sun poked out of the clouds for the majority of the time we were out.  We spent the afternoon doing some cooking for our brunch on Sunday and making a couple of batches of Christmas cookies.  Later that evening we tramped on out to tackle another round of snow clearing as the snow started really coming down again starting around 4:00 PM.

Sunday we had our now annual Christmas brunch with our nieces, nephews, and Kathy and John.  The weather cooperated in that the snow finally had stopped, but the temperatures were in the low single digits, so gathering by the fire for our white elephant gift swap was certainly welcome.  All the dishes worked out and we managed to have everything done at the same time without significantly undercooking or overcooking any of them.   Since a couple of the dishes were experimental, we were relieved it all worked.  It was great catching up with everyone and to find out their holiday plans plus everyone got to go home with an exciting white elephant gift.  Later, the Packers were on and as the Packers are almost a religion in Wisconsin, we just had to watch and enjoy the game.

This is Cold, Even for Wisconsin

Just to keep us on our toes and burning lots of calories just to stay semi-warm - the temperatures have plummeted today.  We are struggling to get above zero - it is currently about -1 deg. F. (that is -18 deg. C, everything always sound so much colder in Celsius).  Fortunately it will warm up tomorrow just in time to dump another 8 inches of snow Friday night into Saturday.  We are definitely not easing into winter this year.  Good time to have some hot chocolate and snuggle up with someone (although preferably someone without ice cold feet, and yes I mean Jo).

Go Pack Go

I took a few days to visit my folks in Albuquerque last week and to enjoy some slightly warmer weather.  While I was hoping for something in the 60's, it was more like in the 40's.  Still a little better than what Wisconsin was having, but not a lot better.  We had a great time putting up their Christmas tree and enjoying some excellent Mexican food - more restaurants around the country should be serving sopaipillas!  I lucked out with good travel connections on both legs which is always a bit of a miracle this time of year.

Over last weekend, we had our first real snowfall, 8-9 inches.  Now I live in Wisconsin and snow in the winter is just part of the bargain, but the first snowfall should be more like a half an inch.  We should certainly get a training snow to ease into the winter shoveling season.  Get our muscles trained up, remember the best way and direction to be shoveling the snow, and make sure all the equipment is working.  We should not be hammered with a major dumping right out the gate.

Saturday night we took in the Foreigner at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater with our friends, Greg and Rhonda.  This is by far our favorite play ever since we first saw it in CT with Sheri and Bruno.  We are almost always in tears in the middle of the second act from laughing so hard.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Lake Park Bistro as the snow slowly tumbled down.

Sunday morning it was up to shovel the afore mentioned snow before heading up to Green Bay to watch our Packers demolish the Seattle Seahawks.  This was a work event for Jo as we were joined by some of the west coast sales representatives for Northwestern Mutual.  We had a lot of fun cheering on the home and, of course, it helped that Green Bay won the game.

Temperatures for the week look to remind us of what can happen in Wisconsin in the winter as the high tomorrow is supposed to stay in the single digits - the low single digits.

Thanksgiving in Madison

We made our annual trek to Madison to spend the majority of the Thanksgiving week there.  We filled the days with starting our Christmas shopping as well as starting to figure out exactly what what changes to our condo we might make.  We had a lot of fun appliance shopping as appliances are way more complicated than they used to be with lots of manufacturers and lots of option to choose from.  Same could be said for gas fireplaces - who knew you needed so many shapes, sizes, and interior choices.  It was mostly fun, but a bit exhausting as well, since we realized we still have to choose tiles, carpeting, lights, and paint colors (I'm still holding out for just two - one wall, one trim, preferably in some shade of off-white - big surprise isn't that).

 Before Thanksgiving all the visitors in town cheered the Badgers women's volleyball team on to a win over Iowa.  Always makes Jo and I miss our volleyball playing days although our knees and wrists are glad to be in the stands instead of on the floor.  I do wonder how many photos we have of Jo making the Wisconsin W - we might have to come up with something new for her to do with her hands in photos.  We also spent a good bit of time catching up with family as Kathy and John hosted Thanksgiving dinner for everyone again.  The turkey dinner was perfect as usual and we got to see our Wisconsin nephews/nieces and our brother-in-law, Mike, who drove in from Omaha.

Finally on Saturday we took in the final regular season football game with Minnesota.  The game put an exciting end to our weekend as we looked to be losing for a good portion of the game before coming back in the late second half to win.  Gave us lots to talk about on the way back home especially as we plotted Wisconsin post-season bowl possibilities.  Sunday we took the time to begin decking out our home for Christmas as we selected our Christmas tree and begin the process of bringing down from the attic all the decorations.

Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy the turkey dinner and time with family and friends.

And so the Snow Starts

I was mowing the grass in a t-shirt on Thursday to waking up to snow this morning.  Granted not a lot of snow, but it means the temperatures have fallen 30-35 degrees in two days.  Here we go......snow shoveling anyone.  Really hard when you figure it might not be 60 degrees again until May 2017.

Chicago Trip

As mentioned in the previous post, Jo was in Phoenix for a couple of days before flying to Chicago for her board work.  This involved a couple of dinners where spouses were invited, so I headed down on the train to join Jo.  While Jo was in meetings I had some time to catch up with my sister and visit another Chicago museum - we are slowly working our way through all of them (might take another 5-6 years to hit them all, by which time there will probably be a whole new set of them).

We took in Chicago's Radio and TV museum.  Fun museum with interesting displays on Chicago TV that both of us remember from our childhoods.  Not sure what it says when things you grew up with are now deemed museum worthy - can't be that we are getting old.  We really enjoyed watching some of the clips from Johnny Carson's show.  It was a nice visit and the weather couldn't have been better as it in the mid 60's each day - always a treat in November.

As for the photo, just had to have a picture of the giant Lincoln encouraging us to vote.

Go Illini, Go Badgers

Last weekend was our two schools playing each other in football at Madison.  So since we were guaranteed a win for one of our schools we headed over to enjoy some college football.  We drove over on Friday and picked up dinner at Teddy Wedgers - a meat filled pastry that is sold around the corner from our condo.  Very tasty and quite filling, we will definitely be trying it again.  Then we headed over to the Kohl Center to try and score some last minute tickets to one of the early games for the Badger basketball team.  Since they were playing Western Arkansas we figured that we wouldn't have any problem buying them either on the street or the ticket booth at the last minute.  Oops on our part - we could only find single seat tickets, even from the ticket brokers/scalpers on the street.  So instead we headed over to the Union and caught a movie - Captain Fantastic.  Fun flick, but a bit weird.  On the way home we picked up some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and milk to finish the night off on a sweet note.

Saturday morning we tried out another of the local diners, Lazy Jane's, for breakfast. Then it was time for the game along with Kathy and John.  Everyone was all bundled up since although the day was sunny it was a bit on the chilly side.  Wisconsin pretty much dominated Illinois so the game wasn't exactly a cliffhanger.  But since the home town team won, most of the local folks were happy.  Afterwards, it was back to the condo for pizza and exciting games of Tenzi (a dice game).

We headed back home on Sunday since Jo had to fly to Phoenix in the afternoon for work.

The Real Reason We Went to the Admirals Game

I figured we should come clean on the real reason we decided to attend the Admirals hockey game last Saturday.  There was a bobble head give-away and as you may know Jo has a major collection of bobble heads.  The real bonus was that the bobble heads in question were Donald and Hillary bobble heads dressed in an Admirals uniform.  Some day these will be major collector items - or at least that is what Jo keeps telling me.

What a View

We originally were planning a nice quiet weekend hanging around the house, instead we landed up filling up Saturday with events around the city.  We started off with getting a tour of the new office tower that Northwestern Mutual is constructing.  This was a great tour as we got to see everything from floors that are still under major construction to some of the spaces that are almost finished - just needed the cubicles to be added.  One highlight was riding up to the 32 floor using the skip hoist (that's the construction elevator that rides on the outside of the building; no one seemed to know why it is termed a skip hoist).  Our tour guide was the project manager so we got to hear about the technology that is built into modern office spaces - such as the large number of white noise generators to make the open concept spaces quiet and workable to the raised flooring the office spaces rest on to allow air conditioning, electrical, and the ever important technology wiring to run underneath.  It will be quite the building once completed with magnificent views across the lake and around town from the 32nd floor.  I would recommend anyone visiting to insist that Jo give you a tour of the building after it finishes next year.

Afterwards we headed over to the Art Museum to take in the newest exhibit - an overview of German Expressionism in Cinema in the 1930's.  Kind of a weird exhibit for my tastes, but then I've realized that I don't really get anything that doesn't reflect actual things/events.  Same reason that abstract art doesn't usually interest me that much.  With this exhibit I wasn't entirely sure that the directors and writers of these movies just didn't need some strong psychotropic drugs to tame the unusual thoughts bouncing around in their heads.  But if the point of all art is to make you think and discuss it - then I guess this exhibit worked since Jo and I spent dinner trying to figure it out.  Needing some drinks and food after that exhibit we hit Buca Di Peppo for dinner.  Great Italian food and their Old Fashioned was very tasty and really hit the spot.

We finished up our day downtown by attending the Admirals hockey game at the Panther arena.  This is a new venue for the Admirals since they left the Bradley center (due to the Milwaukee Bucks building a new arena that won't be conducive to hockey).  Very different feel in the Panther arena since you are much closer to the ice and can really get a new appreciation for the speed of the game along with the collisions that happen regularly.  It was an exciting game with a total of 8 goals scored and the Admirals coming out on top.

We spent Sunday just lazing around the house reading our backlog of newspapers and otherwise recharging our batteries.

At Least the Weather was Nice

It is fall and that means trying to see as many college football games as we can squeeze in.  So, we traveled to Champaign, IL this last weekend to watch our Illini take on Minnesota.  We joined John and Linda and had a lovely trip down from the Chicago area as traffic was actually manageable for once in Chicago.  Friday afternoon, Jo spent some time at the local Champaign Northwestern Mutual office visiting and getting to know some of the representatives working from there.  Afterwards, we joined a few of them for cocktails and got an update on all the changes happening around the campus area.  Most of which seemed to building a large number of apartment buildings or planning to build more.  We couldn't figure out where all the students were coming from to fill all these new buildings.

After cocktails we headed over to the homecoming parade.  John and Linda's youngest daughter is in the Marching Illini so we walked along with the band for a while before heading over to the pep rally on the Quad.  I use the term pep rally loosely since it wasn't really all that peppy or interesting.  We quickly decided that dinner seemed a better use of our time and headed to Papa Del's for our fix of our favorite pizza for this trip.  The pizza didn't disappoint although the Cub's game playing on the TV's in the restaurant certainly did.

Saturday morning we headed over to Memorial stadium for an early game.  When we planned this trip earlier this year, we were a bit concerned about a late October game and staying warm in the stands.  However, the football gods brought out temperatures in the mid-70's so there were no concerns about having enough layers, but rather would we all be sun burnt.  Unfortunately, the only nice thing about the afternoon was the sun and temperatures as our team didn't look to good on the field.  But we still had a positive buzz from the pizza the night before and how can you not enjoy an afternoon watching college football catching all the energy the students bring.  A quick afternoon nap after the game got us all refreshed for a excellent dinner before we got to see the newly renovated Assembly Hall (sorry, State Farm center - but the Assembly Hall to all of old timers) for a concert by Pentatonix, an acapella group.  It was an enjoyable concert and the revamped Assembly Hall looks ready for a season of Illini basketball.

Sunday after brunch to make sure John and Linda's daughter had a good meal before we left, we headed back home and a 20 degree change in temperature.

Fear the Deer

Yes that is one of the sayings for the Milwaukee Bucks (and yes that is a giant inflatable deer, not a moose).  We attended our first game (well pre-season game) last week.  As always we enjoyed the pizza and cookies at the game while marveling at the athletic abilities of these athletes.  What I find amazing is how often these 6'9" players (or larger) go crashing to the floor and immediately pop back up and continue playing.  Having fallen both running and playing basketball, I found that I didn't usually pop back up like that - especially when they are often crashing into the backboard support as well.  Some of Jo's HR team joined us for the game and it was nice getting to know a few more of them as well.

For the weekend we headed to Madison since Jo had a Chemistry board meeting.  While she was providing deep insights to the Chemistry professors, I had our furnace serviced.  Yes, I do lead an exciting life.  I then spent the afternoon catching up on some sleep along with a bit of reading and planning renovations around the condo.  One of which is the IR sauna (see below for more).  We then went over to Kathy and John's for delicious squash pasta dinner and a few rousing games of Euchre.

Saturday morning was a bright and crisp day, so after getting our cinnamon roll and apple cider from the Farmer's Market we did a nice long walk around Monona Bay before heading to Kathy's for lunch and watching the Badger's play Iowa.  Afterwards we drove home stopping at the hot tub and sauna show at the State Fair grounds to check out Infrared Saunas.  We are considering getting one since they are rumored to be good for arthritis - apparently heating you up from the inside out helps your joints - and one of us is trying hard to get arthritis in every single joint in her joints.  I'm not telling who that is.

Sunday after a long bike ride we settled down to catch up on several days of newspapers and plan out our upcoming week.  Little side venting on biking versus running.  When it is 40 degrees outside, it is superb running weather, but is is freaking cold on a bike.  I obviously don't have enough wind repellent gear to make biking in the cold fun - while the gear I have made running enjoyable down into the teens.  I really miss running.....

Guess Who is a Year Older

Jo crossed that key date in the year, that we all have, last Friday and got a year older.  We celebrated with a trip to Madison for a dinner and a Badger football game.  Friday night we went to the Old Fashioned with Kathy and John for a joint birthday celebration - John's was earlier in October.  While there we ran into an acquaintance of Jo's who let us know that the Capital Steps were playing at the Overture Center.  So after a delicious dinner (I highly recommend the bacon mac and cheese) and a few too many of cocktails (as the name of the restaurant says, I enjoyed a couple of Old Fashioned's) we made an impromptu stop at the Overture Center.  We were able to get seats to the Capital Steps and enjoyed their good nature ribbing of our political system and politicians.  Which as you might imagine in this election year has quite a bit of material to work with.

After the show we headed back to the condo to enjoy the traditional birthday cake.  I attempted a chocolate layer cake and while a bit crumbly and requiring a lot of icing to smooth over the imperfections caused by the cake sticking to the pie pans, I must say it was quite tasty.  Of course, that could be the chocolate, butter cream frosting that I used to glue everything together talking for me.

Saturday morning we toured the farmer's market to pick up some fresh apple cider before heading down to campus to find an "official" Wisconsin poncho since the weather predictions for the game were stormy.  While walking around campus we found that ESPN was broadcasting their Game Day show from the quad so we enjoyed watching the boisterous crowd for a while.  Then it was back to the condo for a little rest before Kathy and John joined us for a pizza dinner (Rocky's sausage pizza - a rival, not an equal to Papa Del's) before walking over to the stadium.

The game was a nail biter and provided the crowd with quite a few highs along with quite a few lows.  But we were lucky in that the predicted torrential downpours didn't happen until after we were back safe and sound in the condo and it wasn't a blow out by Ohio State.  This was our first Badger football game this season and I must say that I enjoy the afternoon games in the bright sunshine and crisp air better.  Night games aren't as enjoyable of an atmosphere - in my opinion.

Sunday we hit a local diner for breakfast on our way out of town.  This was a true diner - it used to be a gas station - with a pancake as big as a large dinner plate.  We each only ordered one pancake and didn't finish them.  Tasty pancake, but still doesn't beat a fluffy Perkins pancake.

Our Old Stomping Ground - Philadelphia

Jo managed to sponsor a conference in Philadelphia and I joined her last week to enjoy seeing where we spent the first 16 years of our life after graduate school.  We caught up with lots of our Philly friends and saw our two houses - both of which looked to be in great shape, although one now has a pool in the back yard.  While Jo was doing her conference stuff, I played tourist and did the Independence Hall tour, which we had done somewhere around 10 times while living there as each new guest would visit.  Remarkably very close to the same information was provided by the park ranger as before.  One new thing is that Independence Hall is now roped off and everyone has to clear security before hand.  Not surprising given the state of the world today, but kind of sad as well.  I also checked out the Liberty Bell before heading down to South street for the real highlight - a cheesesteak from Jim's Steaks.  It certainly didn't disappoint, but if I'm honest, lobster rolls from Captain Scott's in CT rank above a Philly cheesesteak - at least for me.

Hard to not see it say Rohm and Haas

To walk off more meat than I've eaten in a month, I checked out the Philadelphia mint and watched some coins being cranked out and then hit the visitor center to watch a couple of shows on our founding fathers.  Before catching dinner at a local diner and heading back to meet up with Jo after her meeting ended for the day.  Yes, I won for having the most fun that day mostly because of the cheesesteak.

The following day, Jo joined me her meeting concluded around lunch and after a stop at Jim's for a second round of cheesesteaks for me and Jo's first we visited our favorite historic site - Ben Franklin's court.  This was completely redone from when we last visited in 2000 and always enjoyable since Ben was quite the inventor and ladies man.  Next up was the Chemical Heritage museum which opened since we left and celebrates all things chemistry - Yeah!  Fun little museum but it was somewhat eye-opening to see equipment in a museum that we both had used.  Not sure I'm quite ready for my life to be museum aged.  Afterwards, we met up with our friends Jean and Jon for dinner to catch up on the exciting changes in their life since we last saw them.

Friday, we headed out of the city to see our old houses, drive around the area, and have lunch with Holly with whom we spent many a night and weekend playing volleyball.  Next up was a stop in Doylestown to see friends from the old Rohm and Haas days (side note, while in Philadelphia we noticed that Dow has installed two beer gardens on grounds of the old Rohm and Haas home office - which they now own - I'm not sure Otto Haas would have approved).  We had a fun time finding out what everyone has been up to since we left PA and seeing all the changes in Doylestown (the town we have lived in the longest so far).  All too soon it was time to head back to the airport and back home.

Hiking the Lake

Just Starting Out

Little Guy Hiking the Trail with Us

Two weekends ago, Jo and I decided to do our biennial hike around Lake Geneva (and yes I looked up biennial which means once every other year since apparently biannual and semiannual mean the same thing).  The hike circles the entire lake for 21 miles (or 22 or 19 depending on what source you look at).  We were going to head out on Saturday but rain showers kept us inside watching the Badgers lose to Michigan.  While Sunday wasn't a bright, sunny day the rain held off and we had a relatively nice walk.  We naturally admired and critiqued the mansions that line the lake - some of the architecture and siding choices just didn't seem quite right, at least to us.  It also gave us a lot of time to catch up on everything going on with each other along with solving most of the world's problems - you've got to do something for 7 hours.  We came back with only a few minor blisters and some really sore legs.

Exploring Milwaukee

We had a weekend at home to enjoy a bit of our hometown.  Friday night after enjoying a couple of cosmopolitans while debriefing Jo's day at work we heated up some of the Papa Del's pizza to kick our weekend off.

Saturday morning dawned cool and partly sunny so we got out the bikes and headed to the Oak Leaf trail for a two hour bike ride.  Besides the gale force winds that managed to always be in our face, we had a nice ride although it left both of us a bit sore.  We then enjoyed watching the Badgers win against Michigan State - always a good start to the weekend when the team you are rooting for wins.  Later that evening we joined several couples for dinner and a show at the Milwaukee Repertory theater - the musical "The Man from La Mancha".   Neither of us had seen it before, even though it first came around sometime in the 60's.  It was a great performance and interesting set design given the size of the theater.  The only downside was that it was performed without an intermission and two hours sitting in a theater seat isn't great on the joints.

Sunday we laced up our hiking shoes and walked for two hours around town.  Our path, fortuitously took us past Peter Sciortino's Bakery which, at least according to Jo, we have been meaning to visit.  A cinnamon twist and apple fritter accompanied us for a short portion of the hike afterwards.  We spent the rest of the day working on some chores before enjoying homemade carrot soup, made with ingredients from the garden, hot from the oven french bread, and homemade vanilla ice cream.

On the garden front, we harvested all of the acorn squash to stop the birds from continuing to peck holes in them.  If you read the squash attack blog you know we had a bumper crop this year (total harvest was 10 acorn squash -so for the next few weeks dinner is going to be acorn squash themed).  Everything else in the garden is done except for the carrots, parsnips, and brussel sprouts.  Although, as usual, the brussel sprouts look a bit undersized - it might be the last year for attempting them.

Off to Canada

Jo and I spent last week visiting our neighbors to the north.  Our main stops were in Quebec City and Montreal with a lovely drive in between.  We were experimenting with taking a more relaxed approach to our vacations by not packing every daylight hour with something.  My analysis, we were moderately successful.  We did manage some down time but we still seemed to be on the go a lot.



In Quebec we stayed at the iconic Frontenac hotel which really dominates the skyline - as evidenced by the countless pictures Jo had to shoot of it - and provided a really convenient location to explore Quebec.  We enjoyed visiting the old town and we found the food both delicious and quite speedily prepared (always a plus for me).  We learned a lot about the history of the area, especially their problems with the English during the early 1700's, and found the tour of their provincial parliament especially informative.  The boat cruise up the St. Lawrence river was fun and the Museum of Civilization ranked number one as our favorite museum stop.

After several days in Quebec we rented a car and headed to the Ile d'Orleans (an island just down river from Quebec) for a couple of nights at a bed and breakfast.  We spent one of the days hiking in the Laurentian mountains nearby - Jacque Cartier National Park specifically.  We had time for two hikes - one tough and one easy - that provided some spectacular vistas, although only a couple of squirrels to hold up the fauna department.  We also got soaked touring the Montmercy falls which rival Niagara for the height from top to bottom.

Next on our itinerary was a drive down to Montreal stopping in Trois Riviers on the way - small sleepy town on the St. Lawrence, although with a really nice park.  We braved Montreal traffic and turned the car in before heading to our hotel in the old town.  We then had a few days to explore Montreal.  The highlight of which was taking a jet boat cruise on the Lachine Rapids on the river.  I had done this 20-25 years ago while in Montreal for an ACS conference and it was just as exciting this time as last.  Our last day we hit some of the food spots, that had been recommended to us by Bruno and Sheri (Bruno lived in Montreal before his Pfizer days) and hiked to the top of Mont Royal to enjoy the views of the city.

We had a wonderful trip and would recommend either city for anyone thinking of visiting.

Go Badgers

We headed over to Madison on Friday for a portion of our Labor Day weekend festivities.  After dinner with Kathy and John we all took in the women's volleyball team's game against San Diego State.  Besides it being sweltering hot in the UW Fieldhouse, the home team won in three straight sets.  Lots of fun to watch volleyball being played at this level and wishing we were still playing the game.  But we have enough invested in Jo's wrists without her blowing them out setting a volleyball.

Saturday morning we were up early to stroll the farmer's market and pick up our breakfast (morning roll and cinnamon roll) and some fresh cider (both for breakfast and for home).  We then spent most of the remainder of the morning discussing how we might lay out our condo - which led to a complete redesign of one of the rooms.  Then it was off to Kathy's for lunch and an afternoon cheering on our Badger football team as they won a squeaker against LSU.  Lots of tense moments and screaming during the game.  Later, we headed to the Union to enjoy some Spotted Cow while enjoying VO5 (local disco cover band) and a beautiful sunset.

Sunday morning after brunch with Kathy and John in Verona and a quick stop at Target it was time to head home and catch up on a few chores around the house.  Jo spent the afternoon preparing tomato glut from tomatoes from our garden and Kathy's (why is it tomato glut?, not a clue it looks a lot like spaghetti sauce to me).  We enjoyed the freshly prepared glut on some pasta later that night (see why I think it looks like spaghetti sauce).  Our actual Labor Day was spent lazing around until we joined John and Linda for some Kopps frozen custard in the afternoon.  They were in town to catch the Brewers/Cubs game.

Weekend at Home

We spent the weekend hanging around at home for a change.  We started off with cocktails on the porch (cosmos, in case you are curious) and chatting about the week along with a little people watching of our neighbors and the random strangers walking down our street.  Then to get the weekend going right, we had a couple of slices of Papa Del's pizza.  After all that, we thought a walk would be in order to try to limit feeling bad about consuming around a 1,000 calories of pizza.  On our way back our neighbors across the street invited us over to watch a movie with them - Mother's Day - which was a fun way to cap off our Friday evening.

Saturday it was off to the Apple store to replace our laptop which had a hard drive failure this week.  We opted to move back to the Apple world after spending 25 years on PC's.  It has taken some getting used to as nothing is in the same spot (for instance, Apple decided to put the icons to close an application in the upper left hand corner instead of Windows using the upper right hand - really, seriously, these two behemoths couldn't agree to use the same corner???).  Of course, with any change like this you find out all sort of other interesting things - like our wireless router no longer accepts any new devices for some unknown reason.  So I'm off to find a new wireless router after multiple attempts to fix the current one.

Later that afternoon, it was time for our annual eye check-ups where I finally decided it was time for bifocals.  My distance vision has declined and I was tired of always having to rely on Jo to read distant street signs.  I'm not happy about this latest change in my vision - but I'm doing it, grudgingly (very grudgingly).  On a side note, we had no idea that lenses were so frigging expensive.  My condolences to all of you who have had to wear glasses for years.

Sunday, we biked over to the Brewer's stadium for a baseball game on a bright, sunshiny day.  Northwestern Mutual had an employee appreciation day and provided free tickets.  So we munched on some burgers and watched the Brewer's lose another game - been kind of a theme for them this year.  But it was a beautiful day and we had a nice bike ride.

Farmer's Market

While Jo jetted off to Guadalajara for business last week, I held down the home fort tending to the garden, removing weeds from the flower beds, and mostly, watching the Olympics.  I'm fascinated by dedication some people can put to their sports and their ability to reach a level of physical fitness that is quite amazing.  I'm quite disappointed that the Olympics only last a couple of weeks and are only every four years.  I'm also fascinated by the varied sports that people engage in and the sets of arcane rules that evolve for any sport after time (e.g., check out rugby and field hockey).

On a more social note - my sister visited on Friday and Saturday.  We started out on Friday, with a light lunch of tacos before hitting Boswell's bookstore (it is a theme for the weekend).  This is almost a ritual for Cheryl's visits and she is actually member of their book club - where the person who actually lives a mile from the store isn't.  Afterwards, we picked up Jo and headed over to Madison for Cheryl's first visit to our condo there.  After a dinner at Paisan's, where I enjoyed a graduate school favorite of a porta salad, we hit Kilwan's for a some excellent ice cream to top off dinner while we sat on State Street and people watched.  Afterwards, we caught up with each other while we enjoying a lightening storm from our balcony.

Saturday morning we were up early to hit the Farmer's market.  The weather cooperated by holding off on the rain as we picked up some fresh corn, vegetables, herbs and, of course, a cinnamon-apple pull apart loaf for us all to enjoy (although I was talked out of an additional delicious looking long john by my in-house nutritionist).  Then we shopped our way down State Street to the Memorial Union again fortunately missing all the major rain storms as we progressed.  We met Kathy, John, and our great niece Maggie at the Union where we enjoyed lunch and Babcock ice cream (pick up the dessert theme yet).  Then it was time to shop our way up State Street this time hitting all the bookstores - UW, Paul's, Browzer, and A Room of One's Own.  I must admit I certainly enjoyed the up State shopping more than the down State.

Then it was time to head back to Milwaukee for a quick dinner of squash, beans, and rice before sis caught the train back to Chicago.  Sunday morning, Jo and I biked out to the State Fair grounds for our bit of aerobic exercise, hit the gym for a bit of lifting and then watched the last little bit of the Olympics.

Squash Attack

What is the hobby farmer to do?  Last year, I planted four squash plants and we only managed to get a two or three squash to eat.  Trying to learn from my past mistakes I upped the number of seeds I put in this year to increase my squash yields.  Sounds like a wise plan doesn't it?  While we have enjoyed an increased number of squash to enjoy (up to six so far) - the plants have taken over most of my square foot beds.  I have squash plants invading every corner and growing another couple of feet a day - they have completely cut off access to two of the beds.  I know I should just get out the trimmers and cut them back, but I just can't get myself to do it since they worked so hard to grow.  The good news is that we have several excellent acorn squashes growing for upcoming fall meals in addition to the yellow squashes.  While global warming is causing, and going to cause, all sort of problems around the world, it has helped our vegetable beds in chilly Wisconsin - we have had a very warm summer which I'm thinking is a major cause for my squash plant invasion.

Last Friday, we traveled to our Alma Mater, Illinois.  The professor that Jo did undergraduate research with, many moons ago - think around 455 moons, retired (on a side note, the professor I did undergraduate research with didn't get tenure and left - difference between having Jo work for you versus me?  I'll leave that up to you to decide).  They held a symposium for his retirement and Jo was asked to present a short talk.  This was after copious warnings on her part that she isn't a card-carrying, practicing chemist anymore.  Jo gave a nice talk about what she learned as a senior in his group that helped her throughout her career.  It was interesting to see where all of his former graduate and undergraduate students landed up (like HR) and what they are now doing since they all started from a common point of interest in inorganic chemistry. For me the highlights, besides seeing Jo in action giving her talk (of course), was staying at the Illini Union (although staying on the side facing Altgeld Hall was a mixed blessing depending on your feelings about bells chiming out the time all through the night) and munching some Papa Del's pizza (the dinner following the symposium was at Papa Del's).  As you might guess, if you have followed this blog for any time, two pizzas found their way back to Wisconsin to be frozen for future dinners.

After getting back late Saturday night from Champaign, we lazed around a bit Sunday morning before heading over to the Brewer's stadium to watch the home team win over the Cincinnati Reds.  I know everyone has been missing ongoing pictures of the sausage race, so I've included Sunday's shot for your enjoyment.