Another Weekend, Another Beer Garden

To get a bit of culture, for once, we took in the new exhibit at the Art Museum this week.  It is by Rashid Johnson who apparently has something for Shea Butter.  It featured prominently in many of the artworks - as in really big chunks of it just sitting somewhere in the piece of art.  Didn't really speak to me or I just didn't get the symbolism of shea butter chunks, but I did like his giant plant display (technically it was called "Antoine's Organ" - there was an organist buried inside playing music, but I liked the name giant plant display).

Friday we took advantage of the wonderful weather we have been having and took a nice stroll before settling into a pancake dinner.  Figured we walked off about 1/3 of 1 pancake with our walk.  Saturday after our morning exercising, we biked over to another beer garden to meet with our friends Sandy and Scott to enjoy some shnitzel (just ok), spatzel (better), and a beer (good).  We decided that the only thing that would cap this perfect lunch was some frozen custard from Kopps - which was just around the corner.  Needless to say the bike home was a bit tougher than the bike ride there since we were both fighting full stomachs.

Sunday we felt we needed to make up for our dietary sins and headed out for a 8 mile hike around town.  We managed not to stop at any local bakeries, diners, or donut shops, just a couple of hours of walking and talking resolving all the problems in the world.  Afterwards, we sorted through a few boxes of stuff that moved from Connecticut but hadn't ever been opened and took the obligatory naps that 8 miles of hiking makes you feel entitled to.

Fish Fry at the Beer Garden

We found out last week that our favorite beer garden has a fish fry on Fridays.  We certainly couldn't let that go without checking it out.  So Friday night after Jo's week of work we saddled up our bikes, got our beer mug out of the cabinet, and headed to Estabrook Park for dinner.  We sampled the fish fry which didn't disappoint along with a pretzel and a couple of beers.  The fish fry didn't disappoint; nothing spectacular but tasty fish with fries, cole slaw, and the obligatory piece of rye bread with butter.  Of course, our opinion of the dinner could have been influenced by the liter of beer we consumed with it.  Either way, it was a nice night to eat outside and enjoy a bike ride.  We topped the dinner off with a stop at Culver's for some frozen custard.

We enjoyed another weekend at home catching up on a few chores around the house, exercising, and enjoying a BBQ rib dinner with our friends, Beth and Scott.  Lots of fascinating conversation and the ribs were great since I managed not to burn them too badly on the grill and they had the meat falling off the bone once we were done cooking them.

We splurged Sunday morning and after a long walk spent some time making a fun breakfast.  We whipped up some home made cinnamon donuts and then to be sure we had maxed out our carbs, followed that with buttermilk pancakes.  Needless to say with that much sugar in our system, naps were in order later that day.

Checking out the UW Terrace

We trekked over to Madison last weekend to make sure our condo was still standing and to meet with a couple of contractors to discuss some changes we are pondering.  While there we checked out the newly renovated and opened terrace at the Memorial Union.  It is nice although we both miss the trees that used to be more prevalent.  There is certainly more seating and food options, but with that comes a lot more concrete.  As always, we had to capture a picture of us in the big terrace chair (we have almost as many of that as we do the racing sausages).

We also had a great evening with Kathy and John enjoying Rocky Rococo's pizza and watching the new Wonder Woman movie.  We really enjoyed the movie, but it certainly had some plot lines I don't remember from reading Wonder Woman comics as a kid.  Saturday morning after walking the farmer's market and picking up some fresh veggies and tenderloins for dinner we hit the Sunshine Cafe for breakfast and then headed home.  Fortunately, we decided to take a afternoon walk since the weather was relatively nice - warm and not too, too humid - as we found that the Shorewood Men's club was holding their annual chicken dinner at Atwater Park.  So we changed up our dinner plans and had some delicious roasted chicken for dinner.

Sunday started out hot and humid so that called for lazing around the house, reading newspapers, catching a nap, and discussing our meetings with the contractors.

The Railings are DONE!!!!

After a month of sawing, sanding, painting, and the occasional swearing, I finished the second floor deck railing project this week.  While it isn't quite as straight in places or joined up quite as square in others that I would like, the new railings at least aren't rotted through.  I do believe no one runs the risk of falling through a railing any longer or snapping off a piece in their hands which seems to be a plus even if I couldn't get every post absolutely level.  As in any project of this scale there is a fair amount of satisfaction that comes with the completion.  Now if there just wasn't another five projects lined up behind this one.

We had a very enjoyable weekend managing to get in a nice bike ride in which we found a very large turtle on the bike path (leading naturally to a why the turtle crossed the bike path joke).  I think it might be a snapping turtle, but I didn't get close enough to be snapped at and my turtle identification skills leave a lot to be desired (although, I can correctly identify it as a turtle so they aren't completely absent).  We also took advantage of the sunshine late in the day on Saturday to make our first trip to the Estabrook beer garden for our favorite HofBrau House beer and soft pretzel.  Since we decided to make that our dinner we followed it up with our first Dairy Queen blizzards of the year for dessert.  As we biked to the beer garden and for ice cream we figured managed to stay calorie neutral (30 minutes of biking for about 100 calories offsetting a beer, half a pretzel with cheese dip, and a medium blizzard for about 1,000 calories - seems about neutral).

Friday night after a long, busy week for Jo we enjoyed some cocktails and snacks on our front porch for the first time since the weather finally turned a little warmer and afterwards we tucked into some home made sausage and mushroom pizza as we binge watched This Is Us that everyone has been talking about.  We also managed to get the majority of garden finally planted and even have some initial sprouts from our potatoes, cucumbers, and spinach - so there hope for something to come after our cool May.