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.