A Weekend of Sports

The temperatures have moved back to normal so our ten days of 40-50 degree weather is over - probably until April.  While we are above average for precipitation we are below our usual snow amounts since most of what fell in January was rain.  It would be nice to get a couple of nice snow falls so we could get in a little more cross country skiing.

We spent most of the weekend at various sports arenas around town.  Friday night we headed to the UW Panther's arena to watch our minor league hockey team, the Admirals.  Fortunately this time we didn't have a puck come wizzing by our heads and it was a great game with the home town team winning.  After the game we got to enjoy a concert by Daya - interesting what accompanies minor league sports to draw in a crowd.  Daya gave a good performance and we amazingly knew three of her songs.  I'm probably not going to rush out and buy her album but the songs we knew, we liked.

Saturday it was back downtown to watch the Milwaukee Bucks take on the Boston Celtics.  Exciting game as the Bucks managed to tie the game up with seconds to go to send the game into overtime.  They ultimately lost in overtime, but we still enjoyed the evening eating pizza and chatting with some of Jo's HR team.

The rest of the weekend was given over to a few chores and mostly just catching up on some reading and, of course, a nap.  I can't seem to read without my eyes closing anymore - it's great to get a little more sleep, but does make it hard to get to the end of a book.

Big Sky Really Lives Up to Its Name

We enjoyed a long weekend hitting the slopes in Big Sky, Montana.  A friend of Jo's from work, Beth and Scott (Beth is the work connection), had invited us to stay with them at their get-away in Big Sky.  So we scoured the calendar to find a long weekend where we could make it squeezed between Jo's early year travel and headed there last weekend.  We started out on Wednesday but hit a snag in getting out of Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Bozeman - our plane had maintenance issues coming in to Milwaukee and didn't make it until well after our connection left for Bozeman.  So after 3 hours at the airport we headed home to try it all again the following day.  We did get to enjoy an extra day at the gym and Jo decided to take the day of vacation anyway so we had a nice morning together before heading back to the airport for round two.  Fortunately, this time worked and we made into Big Sky around 11:30 at night.


We woke to beautiful, sunny skies although temperatures hovering around five to ten degrees.  Regardless, we bundled on the layers (and I'm talking layers - I started with four and landed up with five on later days) and headed out with Beth and Scott to ski a new mountain - at least for us.  We had a great day skiing and Jo and I were both amazed at how fast we remembered how to ski since it had been almost 10 years since we last hit the slope.  Big Sky is a really large ski area and there were lots of nice intermediate runs for us to wear our legs out on.  On the following days we explored the various runs on our own so Beth and Scott could tackle some of the more challenging Big Sky terrain - and there is some really challenging terrain there.  We found a few runs that Jo fell in love with since they mixed a few challenging parts with some wide open, flatter areas that she felt perfectly matched her skiing skill level.  By the end, we felt we had covered the mountain fairly well, but there wasn't anyway in three days that we could have hit just all the easy and intermediate runs - not to mention the hard and really hard areas that we avoid like the plague.

On the keeping warm front, I never managed to find a solution to my cold fingers.  Glove warmers kept my hands warm, but my fingers still froze.  So I spent most of the time on the lifts with my fingers pulled inside of my gloves while trying to manage not to have my gloves go flying off into some inhospitable terrain below the lift.  My toes were always cold in the morning, but fine in the afternoon - never figured out what happens after lunch that suddenly starts blood flowing to my feet.  I finally broke down and put in foot warmers which kept my lower digits nice and toasty.  Fortunately, Jo doesn't suffer from poor extremity circulation - yet.

Each evening after coming in from the mountain we hit the hot tub to restore some feeling to our limbs and then enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal that Beth graciously prepared - we offered to help, really.  All to soon, it was time to pack up and head home but it felt good to spend the days flying down the slopes under crystal blue skies and breathing fresh mountain air.

Quite the Chilly Week

The high today was double yesterday's and it still didn't get out of the low teens.  Meaning that yesterday was really cold - but the fun fact, Thursday was the coldest day of the week.  This new polar vortex thing is really a lot of fun, if you're an ice cube.

And yes, I know we live in Wisconsin and should just deal with the weather.  But what fun is the weather if you can't complain about it.

Rose Bowl and another Big Ten Oops

Once again we were invited to attend the Rose Bowl with Northwestern Mutual.  They are the presenting sponsor for the Rose Bowl game and invite several of their top sales agents to the game along with their significant others.  It is really well done and while you have to travel and do some business over the New Year's break, it balances out in the end with the interesting events you get to attend.  We flew into not quite sunny and warm Pasadena on Friday before New Year's.  California was getting some much needed rain and the temps were only in the 50's.  We were hoping for it to be closer to 70, but since it was only in the teens to 20's back home, it was still a major improvement.  We had a great buffet dinner that night as we got to meet all the people there for the event and try mightily to remember everyone's name.

Saturday we were up early to tour the Rose Bowl stadium before heading to the Rose Bowl house and the float barn.  The float barn was amazing again this year.  It is fascinating to see all the effort and design that goes into making one of the floats for the parade.  We watched two people painstakingly gluing on dried banana chips for the robe of a statue and they estimated it would take the two of them 6-8 hours to finish.  

Saturday night was the New Year's eve bash with dinner, dancing, and champagne.  Although we celebrated on New York time which meant we could all head for our rooms way before midnight- yeah for that since everyone knows I melt after 10:30.  The parade and game this year were held on Monday, since there is a local agreement to not hold the parade on Sunday.

We were up really early to get to the parade stands where we got to watch two hours of amazing floats and marching bands.  The parade starts with a flyover of a B-2 bomber which doesn't look like it should be able to stay up in the air at all.  One advantage of the stands we sit in is free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and hot chocolate.  Since I wasn't feeling good last year I didn't get to enjoy the doughnuts.  Lets just say that I made up for it this year!  After the parade it was off to the stadium grounds for a tailgate party prior to the game.  By tailgate, I mean a tent with bar, TV's, and couches.  But we did have hot dogs and hamburgers to eat - so it counts as a tailgate.

I won't go into the game since the Big Ten lost but it was a really exciting game to watch and cheer for no matter what team you were rooting for.  All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel and home the next day.

P.S.  The float picture is the Northwestern Mutual entry.  On it is Edie who battled childhood cancer and is winning so far.   She is joined by her family and the doctor who tried a Pfizer drug to help her beat her cancer (shout out to our Pfizer connections).  We had the opportunity to chat with her doctor and what led her to try the Pfizer compound - it felt good to be talking science once again.   For those that don't know, Northwestern Mutual is a supporter of childhood cancer research (primarily through Alex's Lemonade Stand) and have used their float entry to highlight one of these courageous kids for the last few years.

Christmas

Although we didn't get any actual snow falling on Christmas day (just the Friday before), we did have enough left over from the previous storms to have white stuff all over the ground.  We started our Christmas celebrations in Madison.  After a work holiday party on the Thursday before Christmas, we drove over to Madison and inflated our new air mattress - mine had sprung a leak the last time we were there (nothing like waking up on a partially deflated bed).  Friday we checked out California C
losets and designed new closet installations for our condo - not sure if that is the direction we will go, but it was good to see the options.  We spent the rest of the day with Kathy.  That evening we enjoyed pre-dinner cocktails while waiting for John to finish up working (some people still have to do that) and then dinner at Lilliana's.  After dinner it was time for a gift exchange and to enjoy some of the white stuff that had been falling off and on throughout the day.

Saturday before coming home, we hit the Shortstack restaurant with Kathy and John to fill up on pancakes and eggs Benedict (the Shortstack version comes with asparagus which makes for a nice change).  We spent the afternoon wrapping gifts before picking up my sister at the train station after she finished her shift at Macy's (see my previous comment about some people still having to work).  After catching up a bit, we all headed for bed because everyone knows that Santa doesn't come until everyone in the house is asleep.  Of course, it also could be we were all tired from our various activities for the day and we are all getting older.

Sunday we were up bright and early to get Christmas dinner going before starting round two of present opening (I found that you really can't have too many rounds of present openings).  Dinner was the traditional turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and vegetable courses with an baked apple dessert.  Although we did try to mix it up a bit this year with roasted brussel sprouts, the last from the garden, for the veggie.  Then everyone hit the sofas for post-turkey naps.  It helped that the day was extremely overcast and grey and the only good option was napping.  We all woke up in time for a light turkey sandwich dinner before sis had to head back to the train station to be ready for the day after Christmas rush to return everything at Macy's.

For the rest of the week after Christmas we took in an Admiral's game (where we almost got hit by a flying puck - it went whizzing right between us and landed up in the seat behind us), went to Kohler to see the Kohler Design Center along with the Kohler Art Museum, and packed up all the Christmas decorations.