Badger Basketball

We decided we wanted an easy weekend with the long Martin Luther King weekend and since we hadn't been over to our Madison home since early December we headed on over.  Our condo appeared to be in good working order and we enjoyed the benefits of forced air heating to quickly bring it up to a nice temperature (we are radiator heated in Milwaukee, and while relatively clean and quiet, it doesn't quickly move the temperature up if you have it set low - think an hour to move one or two degrees).  We used Saturday to do some post-holiday shopping and we were extremely efficient, as I bought a winter coat (so I finally have a winter coat that look like what someone should wear when living in Wisconsin).  Jo picked up a new pair of shoes and a new headband and exchanged a pair of sweatpants at the UW bookstore since I bought the wrong size.  Then we headed to the movies to enjoy a bucket of popcorn while watching the new Star Wars movie in IMAX/3D.  Quite the experience and a very entertaining movie.

Then it was over to Kathy's for dinner and watching the Packer's game which provided enough highs and lows for an entire season.  We had fun playing a new game, Machi Koro, that John had received for Christmas.  Sunday, after sleeping in for once, we headed out to brunch in 5 degree weather.  Not a lot of fun walking around town when it is that cold, but it does make you feel virtuous.  We met Michael and Sherrell - Michael works with Jo and had gotten us tickets to the Badger basketball game.  After a great brunch at the Shortstack, we headed over to the game where we got to an enjoy a nail biter that came down to the last 20 seconds of the game for the Badgers to pull out a win.

After the game we headed home to enjoy Monday lazing around the house.  This last week we were in Chicago for one of Jo's regional meetings and didn't get home until late Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday we enjoyed brunch with our Chris and Angela (nephew and niece) who had our sister-in-law, Pat, visiting.  Kathy and John came over from Madison so we spent an enjoyable day catching up with everyone.  Although the highlight of the day, at least for me, had to be the chocolate/peanut butter creation by Angela.  It looked like a giant Reese's peanut butter cup, but with a filling that was about ten times tastier.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures during the brunch - so sorry for that.  Afterwards, it was home to catch the football playoff games.

Holiday and the Rose Bowl

Jo had a newly sprung wrist/hand for the holidays so we celebrated by taking a trip to visit my parents in New Mexico.  We were treated to sunshine (for at least part of the trip) along with several great Mexican meals, always a favorite of our visits.  Then we got to enjoy a couple of days of being snowed in which was perfect for me since it provided lots of time for reading.  We played several rousing games of cards and enjoyed a few movies to while away the hours.  It was a great relaxing trip even if Jo had to battle a bit of a head cold during the visit.

We then moved to Pasadena to spend several days partaking in the Rose Bowl/Parade festivities as part of Northwestern Mutual's sponsorship of the Rose Bowl game.  We met up with some of the top representatives from several of the offices around the country and got behind the scenes tours of the stadium, float construction, and the Tournament of Roses house.  Watching the floats being crafted was very cool.  It was fascinating watching them glue on berries one at a time after sorting them by hand to ensure even colored berries.  I would have just thrown them at a glue patch and let whatever stuck work for me - must be why no one took me up on the offer to help.  The warehouse smelled terrific with all the flowers and the creativity to find appropriately colored vegetable matter to create the different displays was phenomenal.

We had several evening events including a small New Year's Eve celebration which we celebrated using the eastern time zone.  This was primarily to ensure everyone was in bed early, because we had to leave the hotel by 6:30 AM to get in our seats for the Rose parade.  The Rose parade was fun to watch, although a wee bit chilly sitting on metal stands early in the morning.  But the entire town turned out and the floats, bands, and horses were all spectacular.  Afterwards the actual football game was a bit of a let down - since Iowa didn't have a stellar game.  The good news for us was that since we didn't have one of our teams in the game we could just enjoy watching the game without the usual stress of worrying about who won.  The real highlight for the game was probably just enjoying being in Pasadena in 60 degree weather at the beginning of January while it was cold and snowy at home - so all was good.

After the game, we took the red-eye to Chicago to attend the wedding of John and Linda's oldest daughter before finally making it home on Sunday - tired but thrilled with everything we managed to see and do over the last two weeks.

Now it is time to get ready for another year.