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.

Starting Up Again

Turns out that I miss writing my blog.  I don't miss the writing so much, but more the discipline of thinking about my week and what I should be capturing in pictures.  Without doing the blog, I'm not taking as many pictures of the things that Jo and I have done.  So I'll be writing a bit more often.




We recently are back from a wonderful trip to New Hampshire to visit with Sheri and Bruno at their mountain retreat.  We spent a week eating great food (Sheri and Bruno make dining an experience - in the preparation, the presentation, and the taste), hiking the nearby White Mountains, and catching up on what we all have been doing while watching the stars come out at night.  We hiked five days, two which of consisted of hiking up to Mt. Washington (highest peak in the eastern part of the country), staying overnight with 90 of our closest friends at the Lake of the Clouds hut, and then hiking back down the next day.  We had great weather throughout as even Mt. Washington cooperated with sunny, warm temps.  We also squeezed in a day of zip lining at Bretton Woods and enjoyed attending some local theater (we saw Das Barbecu which is a hilarious rendition of Wagner's ring cycle set in Texas and performed by 5 actors playing over 40 roles - it is something to be experienced, once!).  Overall, we had a great week with two of our best friends and we were very sad to have to leave.

On the home front, our garden is cranking out vegetables faster than two people can eat them.