Christmas Brunch

We had all the local relatives over for a Christmas brunch on Saturday.  The definition of local has expanded to include Illinois since more of our relatives continue to move there from Wisconsin.  We made our usual mix of egg based brunch dishes but included a vegan option this year for our niece.  This was the first time we ever cooked with tofu and after finally finding it in the grocery store - I needed to ask, since it wasn't where I would have expected it to be - the dish turned out pretty good.  At least in our humble opinion.  As you might imagine, desserts figured heavily into the meal planning with monkey bread making its annual appearance.  You just can't go wrong with bread slathered in butter, sugar, cinnamon, and a touch of nutmeg.

Sunday was spent recuperating and cleaning up the house after the party along with enjoying the beautiful and warm weather with a couple of nice long walks.  Just want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season since this is probably the last post before St. Nick makes his trek down everyone's chimney's.

And the Stockings were Hung by the Chimney with Care

We stayed in town for the weekend, for once, and decided to get a jump on our Christmas season.  First up was picking out our tree, which involves the usual debate about how big of tree to get.  We usually start out saying we should just get a 6 footer.  Then we promptly start pulling out 8-9 foot trees that we think look great - which leads to the realization that our ceilings aren't going to move upwards suddenly - before we finally settle in on a 7 foot tree that usually just (and we mean just) fits.  After that, we launch into a similar discussion on what size wreath to purchase as if this is the year that our front door is going to grow (it's growth is apparently tied to the ceilings).  Anyway we found a great tree and wreath that made the short trip home without falling off the roof of the car - always a good sign.

Saturday we spent most of the day unboxing Christmas decorations and then semi-randomly distributing them around the house.  It is semi-random, since some items go to the exact same spot every year while others enjoy the freedom to placed wherever they hit our fancy that year.  It is always an interesting balance between keeping traditions alive versus doing something new and novel.  We didn't quite finished in one day as we were also splitting our time with watching the college football conference championship games and Jo needed a tension relieving massage (work has been tough recently).  We did get a start on getting the ornaments on the tree and, as always, most of the fun was reminiscing about where we got them from.  Although, we have decided to start writing the locations on the actual ornaments, since our memories aren't quite 100% anymore - we had a really fun debate on one ornament that teetered back and forth between Sweden and Finland.  What was particularly fun was that we each had a clear memory of where we purchased it, including the location and store, we just didn't  have the same memory (and since I write this blog, it was Sweden - Jo was wrong)!

Sunday morning we felt the need to get some outdoor exposure, so we headed out for a 2 hour walk around the neighborhood, before buckling down and finishing the Christmas tree and the last few decorations.  Then it was finally time to just sit back and enjoy our pine-fraganced house and decorated tree.

Relaxing Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent a wonderful, long weekend in Madison over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We had lots of time, for once, to take a couple of really long walks around town - including a 6-7 mile trek one day along with another nice, long walk to a local diner (we firmly believe you should always be hiking toward food).  We figured we needed to get some long walks in before winter really closes in and our desire to be out walking plummets due to our dislike of have our faces freeze.  We also had time to do some organizing around the place as we continue to try to determine where everything should ultimately land up and to see if there are any other furniture or decorating needs.  And when we weren't being so active, we nestled in and caught up on a backlog of newspapers and watched some football games on TV.

Kathy and John hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year and, as usual, the food was delicious and everyone needed stretchy pants afterwards.  Friday night we moved the leftover turkey dinner to our condo to host our first official dinner party.  We do finally have plates, silverware, and glasses along with an actual table with chairs, so it is almost civilized.  Of course, we don't really have any cookware as yet, so Kathy needed to bring everything over.  Not a bad way to host a party, make someone else bring all the food - you just supply something to eat it with and on.

For the rest of the weekend, we attended the last football game - which didn't end well for the Badgers - and a show at the Overture Center.  We saw "School of Rock" which was very enjoyable and the kids performing in it were just amazing.  They had about ten, 8 to 10 year old kids who did a great job singing, dancing, and remembering all their lines.  Sure wish I had that kind of poise and guts when I was that age - or as Jo rebutted to that comment, sure wish I had that kind of poise now.

All too soon it was time to head home and start preparing for the upcoming holiday season.

And It Just Keeps Snowing

We are apparently going to have a snowy winter this year.  While all the predictions are for a warmer winter season, the weather folks haven't mentioned the amount of snow we might expect.  We have already had several snow falls and another piled in this last week.  We aren't even to December as yet for goodness sake.  We have also realized that while they are predicting a warmer winter that could mean that our average high will be around 25 degrees instead of around 20 degrees (or 20 and 15 degrees not sure where to put the starting point).  Sure it is warmer, but will you really notice and will my fingers and face be any less frozen?

We had a lovely weekend in Madison.  We spent most of Saturday getting a jump on some of our holiday shopping and we were fairly successful.  While, we didn't get everything done, but we made a nice dent before the stores get really hectic.  Still need to brainstorm some gift ideas for a few people on our list.  In the afternoon, we watched some football, including a cliffhanger for the Wisconsin team with a thrilling come from behind effort to tie the game at the end of regulation play and then they would go on to win in the third overtime.

We also got our first glimpse of Santa for the holiday season as we headed over to the official holiday lighting ceremony on the capitol square - one nice thing of living right next to the square.  Afterwards, we walked through the night market being held on State Street on our way to the Kohl's center for a men's basketball team (they won, just in case you are keeping track).

On Sunday we headed home early so we could get to the gym for once on the weekend.  We need to burn some extra calories before heading into the Thanksgiving weekend and all the good food.  Time to pack on a few pounds with turkey, Christmas cookies, and holiday parties.

There Should be a Law

Winter in Wisconsin is usually a long drawn out affair.  Starting in mid December and often going into late April.  Where the temperatures are at or below the 30's.  Living here, we know this and try our best to not complain - too, too much - about it.  But snow at the beginning of November is just wrong.  As I said, I realize we live in the snowier part of the country, but can't we at least slowly ease into winter with slowly (as in very slowly) dropping temperatures throughout November - for example, starting in the 50's at the beginning of the month and then maybe getting to the low 40's at the end.  Not below freezing temperatures in the first week.  Anyway, long winded complaint about the fact that we got several inches of snow last Friday that actually required me to shovel the front porch so that the newspaper and mail could arrive safely.  I will at least add, it was a really pretty snow clinging to all the trees and bushes.

With that fun under our belt, we saddled up the car with another load of books and misc. items from one house and headed to Madison to load up another house.  We had volleyball tickets for Friday and Saturday nights and the games did not disappoint with a nail biter Friday night in which the Badgers were able to stage a come from behind win after losing the first two games.  For Saturday night's game we were joined by John and Kathy and afterwards celebrated the last home game of the season with some drinks at a local bar.  The picture of John is to deliver on my promise to post a photo of his "cute pink" drink (it actually contained bourbon but it came out looking quite pretty). 

For the rest of the weekend in Madison, we did a little shopping and picked up the last of our furniture we had ordered.  Our condo now has coffee and end tables in front of all the new sofas and chairs we had bought.  We think we are finally done with all the major furniture purchases with the remaining furniture to fill the place sitting in our other house.  We also enjoyed a Geno's lasagna dinner with Kathy and John before the game.  Anytime you visit us in Madison, you should feel free to insist that we feed you Geno's lasagna.  It is the best lasagna around and Jo has even agreed it isn't worth her making her lasagna when we can just buy Geno's.

We came home early Sunday and enjoyed a morning brunch (as opposed to an afternoon brunch?) in downtown Milwaukee with our friends John and Linda.  They were in town visiting their daughter who moved here this year.  It was great catching up with them and enjoying the "bacon flight" at brunch.

Time to Add Basketball to the Mix

A pretty quiet week on the home front.  The weather has started to threaten that winter is around the corner and I spent some time getting the leaves off the yard as our maple in the front of the house finally started shedding its leaves.  Not too many yard chores left for the season besides picking the parsnips out of the garden - probably next week - and then waiting for the Bradford pear trees in the back to finally drop their leaves, which is usually some time in mid to late December often it has already dropped the first snowfall (or two).  With the yard chores winding down, I have moved to starting to do my annual crack repair throughout the house which since I took last year off is a little more intense this season.  While the plaster walls add to the charm of the house, they certainly create a lot of cracks.

We spent the weekend over in Madison again, as we had our first basketball game.  We have new seats this year, as we managed to move from our last season seats in the third tier (second row from the top) to ones in the second tier.  It is nicer to be closer to the court and much warmer as well (our seats were close to an external wall last year).  It was fun to see the new team and how the players from last year had grown - both in their play and physical size.  Long season ahead and who knows if there is an NCAA berth at the end.

Saturday before the football game against Rutgers - in which we won, but not looking particularly pretty doing so - we hit a local diner for a great omelet (the best in town in our humble opinion) and some french toast.  It was good to be all loaded up with food before sitting outside at the game.  Kept our insides warm even as our fingers slowly froze as the temperatures where in the low 40's (we managed to keep our tootsie's warm though with toe warmers - yeah).  After the game, we were able to pick up our living room coffee tables which when combined with the armchair, bar stools, and rug that was delivered on Friday means we are almost fully decorated with everything except what is coming from our Milwaukee home.  Starting to be pretty comfortable to stay there.  We especially like not having to sleep on our inflatable mattress - especially as we move into the colder months (the air mattress was never warm).

Sunday we got up really early and were home by 8, partly due to the time change and partly due to Jo's travel schedule.  Jo finished some packing, had a quick lunch, and then headed to Phoenix to get a bit of warmth while attending a work conference.  I had an equally exciting day catching up on a backlog of newspapers - living on the edge, I am.

Forty Years Later

Fleetwood Mac was in town for a concert and at the last minute we were able to get tickets to go on Sunday.  This was our first visit to the new arena in town, no named the Fiserv Forum, along with checking out the new Northwestern Mutual suite.  Nice arena that appears much larger than the old Bradley Center at least as you are standing looking up at it.  We did find it a bit difficult to figure out how to get inside and then getting to the suite required an elevator ride - never our preference, always like to get a workout.  Not sure if there are stairs to connect the ground level to the suite level - if so we never found them.  I guess that will leave us a challenge for our next visit.  The new suite isn't quite as large or luxurious (no couch or easy chairs) as the old one in the Bradley arena, but the food is a bit fancier.  Either way, we can't complain since we get to use it, usually, compliments of Northwestern Mutual.

Back to the concert the main reason we were there - Jo was enjoying a trip down memory lane since her first college concert in 1977 was to see Fleetwood Mac.  The concert was very enjoyable and we had the advantage of knowing most of the songs.  While the singers voices aren't quite as strong as they were at Jo's first concert they still could belt out the tunes and Mick Fleetwood went all out on the drums.  Sure hope I can be that active in 10 to 15 years.  The other plus for the concert was the absence of a cover band and so the concert started right off with a bang.  We got home late, for us, but we both had a good time remembering songs from our college days.

Pretty Wild Weather

We started our weekend with a little baseball.  We were able to go to Game 6 of the National League playoffs to watch our hometown Brewers fight to stay alive against the LA Dodgers (they were down 3 games to 2 in a best of 7 playoff).  Fortunately, the baseball gods were shining on Milwaukee and after a rocky first inning where the first batter up homered, the Brewer's bats came alive with solid hitting throughout the game.  It was exciting to be in the crowd and to cheer on the team.  After the game we piled into the car for the drive over to Madison arriving there just after midnight, tired but happy for the win.  Unfortunately, the game on Saturday night which we chose not to attend - we gave our tickets to some friends - didn't end quite as well with the Dodgers defeating the Brewers to head to the World Series.  We were glad we decided to stay in Madison as we we had contemplated driving back to see the game.

Saturday was the day that provided the title to this week's post.  We woke up to bright blue skies and headed over to the Farmer's Market to pickup Jo's favorite apple cider, some honey, a favorite cheese, some vegetables, and most importantly, a couple of sweets (cinnamon roll and a morning bun) to augment our breakfast.  We got back inside just as the skies opened up and it poured down rain for 45 minutes - great timing on our part.  As we were getting ready to head to the football stadium for the morning game, the shift in the weather led to a change in our planned outer wear.  We pulled out our rain gear and headed to the stadium in cloudy but now dry weather.  Wisconsin was playing Illinois so one of Alma Mater's was going to win, which is always nice.  As we snuggled together with 45,000 of our closest friends to stay warm in the cold and windy day we started to feel a few rain drops.  Out came our rain gear just in time to keep from getting buried in a snow storm - yes, you read that right - it started snowing during the first half.  And not just a few light flakes, it almost achieved white out conditions briefly and the yard markings were completely covered up.  Add the snow to 30 mph winds and you can see what fun watching college football in the fall is all about.

We braved the conditions and by the the second half we were sitting in bright sun with a few wispy clouds.  It was a very weird weather day.  Anyway, Wisconsin won although it wasn't a well played game on either side of the ball - of course, the snow, rain, wind, and cold might have played a factor.  After the game we climbed into our new sauna to warm up the extremities which felt really, really good since our toes were a bit frozen.  Then we spent the evening watching the above mentioned baseball game on TV - where it was warm and toasty!

Sunday we lazed around in the morning, before taking a nice long walk over to Vilas Park before joining Kathy for the UW women's volleyball game against Iowa.  Kathy and Jo hung out at the game with their good friend Bucky and helped cheer on Wisconsin for the win in three straight sets.  Then it was home to unpack from the weekend and mentally prepare for the week ahead.

Insert a Little Culture

To try and diversify away from attending only sporting events - which as you'll see below we still did a pretty good job of this week - we did attend two more culturally enriching events this week.  On Wednesday we were able to attend the dress rehearsal for a modern opera, "Prince of Players", at the Marcus Theater downtown.  While the opera is modern (it was written in 2010), it was set in medieval England and revolved around the transition from having men perform all the roles in operas and plays to starting to have women perform the female roles.  Interesting that this took a decree from the king to have happen, but then no one ever said history or life had to make sense.  Anyway I digress, the play examines the impact on male actors who specialized in playing females and the issues with them figuring out what they were going to do in the future as well as the impact on women now having to learn how to be stage actors.  Interesting plot line, however, the musical score was a bit discordant for our tastes.  With the choppy score it was a bit hard for us to determine if the singing was good or just average - but it did get a favorable review in the local newspaper.

Our next big cultural outing was to the Overture Center in Madison where we took in the first of our Broadway series shows, Something Rotten.  It was a well staged musical with a funny plot that made the time fly by.  The songs were enjoyable but aren't likely to catch on quite like the Hamilton score.  Still it was a fun way to spend the afternoon and we certainly enjoyed the short walk from our condo to the theater.  Afterwards, we picked up some pizza on the way home to eat quickly before we headed over to the UW Field House to enjoy our second volleyball match of the weekend - we had also gone watched a game on Friday night against Northwester.  The Badgers played Illinois on Saturday and since we could cheer on either team we came out a winner - the Badgers lost in case you wanted the actual result.  They did win on Friday night so it wasn't all bad news for the home town team. 

The other big event for the weekend was celebrating someone's last birthday with a five as the first number.  We had cake, opened some presents, and she took a deep breath to get ready for the year starting with a six. 

Go Brewers

As you can tell from posts since September we go to a fair number of sporting events.  To keep that trend going, Jo was able to get tickets to the Milwaukee Brewers post season playoff games.  The Brewers had a great September and went down to the wire with Chicago Cubs beating them to secure the National League Central division title.  Then it was time for the multiple playoff games to get to the World Series.  First up was the National League Divisional series which had our Brewers playing the Colorado Rockies.  We got to go to the first two games of the series at Miller Park on Thursday and Friday last week.  Very exciting to be there along with 44,000 fans and it helped that both games were exciting - especially Thursday's which went into to extra innings.  Unfortunately, the National League Championship series which begins Friday between the Brewers and LA Dodgers conflicts with other sporting events for which we have tickets - what is a poor fan to do.  We are hoping they make it all the way to the World Series and we can get tickets to that, we haven't ever been to a World Series game.

After the baseball game Friday we hopped into to our car and headed to Madison for our next round of sports.  As usual we had the car packed with various items for our condo as we slowly begin to decorate the place.  It is starting to look a bit lived in.  Saturday morning we were up for a walk in the misty/drizzly weather before picking up a few items at the Farmers Market - Jo had to get her apple cider.  Then we spent the rest of the day catching up on a backlog of unread newspapers until our friends Greg and Rhonda from Milwaukee joined us.  We had invited them to join us for the Badger football game against Nebraska.  It was a evening game at 6:30 and fortunately the weather cleared a bit so we didn't have to sit in the rain (short side not -college football should be played on Saturday mornings or afternoons, night games just don't feel right).  We had dinner just before the game with everyone enjoying a burger and milk shake and then it was off for a 30 minute walk to the game to burn off some of those milk shake calories.  The game was exciting although the crowd was a bit subdued - could have been the after effects of starting to tailgate at noon for an evening game.  Anyway, we managed a win even with a somewhat leaky secondary.  We finished the evening sitting around discussing world events, Northwestern Mutual, and life with Greg and Rhonda (Greg worked with Jo at NM until his recent retirement).

Sunday morning after a short stop at the coffee shop downstairs for a hot chocolate we bid farewell to Greg and Rhonda and decided to head home early as well.  Spent the rest of Sunday watching the Packers - not good news there, doing a little cooking, and getting ready for another week.

Home Sweet Home

We spent an entire weekend in Milwaukee for once.  It was nice not having to make the drive over to Madison on Friday and therefore we could enjoy some home made pizza (pepperoni in case anyone cares) for once.  It made for a very relaxing weekend as we tried out a few new things around town.  Saturday morning after getting in a hard workout we headed over to our first (and probably only) Kopp's custard for the summer.  Hard to believe that it took us until the end of September for our first Kopp's but to make up for it we decided to try the Kopp's burger.  Their burger regularly wins the best burger in town award, so we figured it was finally time (after seven years of eating just their custard) to try it out.  It didn't disappoint - great burger, lots of topping to choose from, and most importantly to the neat eating crowd a bun that could stand up to the juicy burger and ingredients.  We topped it off with some Turtle Pecan custard to make it a perfect meal.  Now if it just hadn't been 55 degrees outside while we were eating the ice cream it might have been ideal.

Jo got a massage Saturday afternoon while I perused the college football games - bye week for the Badgers - and caught up on some fun reading.  We capped off our diet extravaganza with cauliflower macaroni and cheese.  Nothing makes a Wisconsinite feel better on a cold Saturday night than a bowlful of melted cheese.  We figured some exercise would be valuable after that so we braved the cool temperatures for a nice walk before watching the hometown Brewer's advance their way to a tie for the NL Central.

Sunday's weather was rainy and overcast but we braved the elements to take in the Harvest Fair and Maker's Faire (their spelling of Fair, not mine) at the WI State Fair grounds.  The Harvest Fair was mostly an opportunity for all you can eat pancakes from the Lion's club - I only managed five  and Jo four though, so all you can eat is rarely economically viable for us any more.  Then we toured the Expo (everything you might need to groom or feed your horses/cattle - not a market segment we need a lot of stuff for) and the cattle judging.  Jo always seems to really like cow judging although we are both a bit mystified at what makes one cow better than the other.  Afterwards we toured the Maker's Faire which is pretty much exactly as it sounds.  People displaying various things they have made.  Some really interesting hobbies out there especially one person who had managed to jury rig up the equivalent of a 3-D printer using clay to make pottery.  Did make us both feel a bit sluggish being around all these people finding time in their lives to make some interesting stuff.

Then it was home to some cooking.  We made a batch of bread and butter pickles using the last cucumbers of the year, Jo cranked out a tray of cinnamon rolls for a work event, and we (that's the royal we, since it was mostly Jo) finished it all off with a batch of meatballs meaning that beyond the spaghetti and meatball dinner that night there are some great lunches of meatball sandwiches coming in the future.

It Might Be Fall

The weather took a turn towards fall this last week.  Our temperatures late in the week fell into the comfortable low 70's and leaves have started to fall from the trees.  Now wether that is due to the fall temperatures or our lack of rain this summer, I sure don't know.  But regardless of the cause, it is time to pull out the rakes and start moving the leaves around the yard.

As you might guess, we were in Madison again this weekend.  Jo had a board meeting for the chemistry department and I spent the day working on projects around the condo.  This meant getting up a new drying rack in the laundry room, installing some shelves in the closets, and doing a general overall cleaning to get rid of the last of the construction dust.  Fortunately on this visit we didn't have any of our appliances squirting water everywhere, but I realized we haven't tried out our new grill - so maybe we have a chance at a fireball in our future.  Kathy and John came over for dinner - bringing my favorite Rocky's sausage pizza - and to enjoy eating at our new dining room table that came that day.  So in case you are keeping track, we now have living room, dining room, and family room furniture - almost becoming a real house.

Saturday morning dawned bright blue and comfortably cool.  After hitting the Farmer's market for Jo's weekly gallon of apple cider and a few ears of sweet corn, we headed out for a lovely stroll along the lakefront to Picnic Point.  Great walk, but it did us leave us a bit sore later since it was about six miles - and that doesn't count the three miles we walked later in the day.  We also had tickets to a volleyball game, since we wouldn't want a weekend to pass without attending some sporting event.  It was a great game with the Badger women defeating the Rutger Scarlet Knights in three sets.  We decided then to come home early so we could spend a weekend day at home.

Sunday we decided on a bike ride in the morning, mostly to justify heading to Culver's for a concrete mixer (their version of a DQ blizzard) for our lunch time treat.  We then spent some time catching up on reading the numerous newspapers that have accumulated and preparing BBQ ribs with mashed potatoes and our farmer market's sweet corn for dinner.  Great way to end the week. 

Trip Back Memory Lane

It was another weekend of Wisconsin sports, although not a very cheery one.  We packed up the car with another load of books and other odds and ends for the condo and headed over early Friday afternoon.  We went over early to see the ground breaking ceremony for the new Chemistry building.  The Chemistry department is building a new (as if you could build an old), nine story building to house teaching labs and classrooms.  Turns out that 60% of students graduating now need to take a chemistry course - who knew that chemistry had gotten so popular.  The department had been struggling to provide enough course options when crammed in to their current facilities.  What this means is that the main entrance, old teaching labs, and lecture halls where we spent many an hour will be torn down.  We reminisced about the seminars we had to present in the lecture halls, the fun of teaching undergraduates in the labs, and caught up with a few professors.  Fun times especially finding the chart of all the graduates where our names are listed (you can now find us displayed in two buildings in the US - quite the stars).

Saturday we got up early and took a nice long walk to see some of the flooding that occurred on the east side of Madison and to pretend we got a little exercise.  That helped us justify picking up a cinnamon roll at the Farmer's Market to add to our breakfast.  We tried to be good by not getting the morning bun we usually add - we're sure we were calorie neutral between all that walking and the one cinnamon roll.  We then headed out to do a little more furniture shopping - coffee tables where on our list this weekend - before the football game.  Afterwards, it was back home for a quick lunch before lathering on the sun screen and spending three hours baking in the hot sunshine watching the Badgers lose to Brigham Young.  Great way to lose about 15 pounds of body weight through sweating as the day was very warm and very humid.  Wisconsin is supposed to be cool and dry this time of year.  But, even though we lost and had completely sweated through our clothes, we had a great time cheering on our team, watching the band, and spending the day outside.  We also tried to keep reminding ourselves that we will miss this heat come the November football games.

We headed home early on Sunday so that we could finally get to the gym on a weekend and also so that we could catch the Packer's game.  Another not so great game and coupling that with the Brewer's losing to the Pirates, you can see why it wasn't a very cheery weekend for Wisconsin sports.  Nothing too exciting planned for the week, the usual mix of work, exercise, and home chores.  Oh that and packing up another load of boxes to continue the transfer of stuff from one house to the other.

More Sports

As mentioned before, we are now heavily into our fall sports schedule, so expect a lot of retelling of games and arena pictures.  We spent the weekend in Madison to attend our first football game of the season.  We got to check out our new seats which are at the 35-40 yard line so pretty good views.  It was an absolutely lovely day with temperatures in the low 70's and just enough clouds to give us a break from the sun now and then.  We were playing my parents home town team, the New Mexico Lobos.  It was an exciting game as the Badgers started out a bit sluggish and didn't really get going until the third quarter leading to the win.  Afterwards, we celebrated the win with dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and a few too many margaritas.  We weren't really celebrating the win, we were just hungry and wanted to find a place that wouldn't be crammed with Badger fans.  The margaritas were because we weren't driving - it's nice living downtown.

The other thrill for the weekend was we decided we should make sure all of the various new appliances were working which led to our first minor flood when we found that our new dishwasher's drain line wasn't hooked up correctly.  So we spent a bit of our Friday night sopping up the water as it trickled out from under our cabinets while trying to troubleshoot the source of the flood.  We got everything handled and our contractor will be back out this week to try and get the drain line connected using the right parts.  The good news is that the tub and all the showers don't leak.  So that should be everything.

Otherwise, we got a couple of nice long hikes in around town - mostly hiking towards food - and enjoyed watching the beginning of the Madison Ironman Triathlon on Sunday before heading back home (just to note, watching people do an Ironman really makes you feel like a slug).  We did do a little furniture shopping on the way home finding a bench for the end of our new bed at Ethan Allen.  Almost have all the new furniture selected - just need a couple of end tables yet.  The picture above is of a moth I found sitting on the house.  Very pretty - probably comes from a voracious caterpillar though that munched its way through my garden.  Used it this week mostly to break up the Badger photos.

Time for College Sports - Again

I headed over to Madison on Thursday to do the final close out on our condo renovations.  While not everything is 100% complete, we are close enough to consider it done.  So after nine months we can finally sleep in our unit and enjoy it on weekends.  To help in our enjoyment, we also received our new living room and some of the dining room furniture.  So not only do we have an actual bed to sleep in, there is furniture to sit on the living room besides folding chairs.  Quite the improvement.  And though we now have dining room chairs our table is still in progress so we are still using our kitchen island for dinners.

I spent the the rest of Thursday and Friday taking care of several chores around the place - installing blinds, cleaning the floors, doing the first bake out of the fireplaces and ovens (which also gave me the opportunity to find out the smoke detectors are operational), and doing the first load of laundry.  Jo joined me later that evening where we used our newly baked out oven to make our first actual meal since we owned the place.  Granted it was frozen pizza, but still we are counting it since it did involve turning the oven on - something we hadn't done before.  We then spent the evening watching the Badger football game.

Saturday we hit the Farmer's market for our favorite apple cider before getting our tape measure and notes together for another day of furniture shopping.  We are now trying to fill out some of the smaller items, like bar stools, rugs, and a few easy chairs.  It always amazes us that one: furniture shopping takes a really long time, and two: it is absolutely exhausting.  We got home in time for a bit of a rest before joining John for dinner at Mooyah (great shakes!!) and our first Badger volleyball game of the season.  Exciting game as the home town team beat the number two Texans.  I know it isn't a great picture - I still haven't figured out how to take a good photo when it is really light in the background.

Sunday we had a nice long walk around town before joining our friends, Jim and Judy, for brunch and we then spent the afternoon working on a jigsaw puzzle.  After a light dinner (brunch was an all you can eat buffet) it was over to the UW Fieldhouse again, for another volleyball game.  Afterward the game, we headed back to Milwaukee while enjoying a 90 minute drive in the pouring rain.  What fun.  Monday we got some exercise in along with a few chores around the house so we are prepared for the work week ahead.

Hard to Beat Beer in the Park

It has taken us almost all summer, but we finally made it to Estabrook Park to enjoy the beer garden.  Saturday, while a bit hot and humid, was a lovely day to dig into a pretzel and German brew while enjoying the sounds of the Milwaukee river flowing nearby.  Plus since, as mentioned, it was a bit humid it gave us the perfect excuse to stop by Dairy Queen for a blizzard on the bike ride home. 

We started the day with a two hour bike ride which when combined with biking to the beer garden made us feel we could enjoy both the pretzel/beer and blizzard without feeling too bad.  But the combination of the vigorous (at least that is what we are claiming) exercise and sugar shock meant the afternoon came with some serious napping - which is pretty much a theme for many of our weekend afternoons.  After our naps we did get a few things done around the house and later once the temperatures had cooled a bit, a nice walk around the neighborhood.

Sunday we headed over to Miller Park to watch some baseball.  We were in the Legends club with several of Jo's team from work which was nice since it had some air conditioned parts where you could escape the day's warm/humid weather.  The hometown team won which combined with the usual sausage races made for a great  day.  And I opted to save everyone reading this from another sausage race picture.

A Quiet Week

Jo spent the week in Malaysia for work and my parents left on Wednesday so I had some time to relax and contemplate my next decade.  I would love to say that I came up with all the necessary plans and ideas for those ten years, but mostly I just landed up taking a nap.  That's what happens when I think too hard these days. 

Jo returned on Friday from her trip, healthy but very tired from her 24 hours flying home.  So we had a low key weekend.  Saturday morning after an early bike ride and quick trip to the gym we lazed around reading and Jo catching up on some backlogged sleep.  Sunday we decided to get in a long walk on the way to a local diner that we hadn't tried.  It was a beautiful day for a walk even if a little bit humid.  Later, I got to enjoy a roast beef dinner as a somewhat delayed birthday celebration and we topped it off with rhubarb cobbler, fresh from the garden (well the rhubarb was fresh, we haven't figured out as yet how to make cobblers grow in the garden) topped with homemade vanilla ice cream.  Great way to end the week.

Another Life Milestone

Or is that millstone.  Last Friday, I entered my next decade.  As with most decade transitions it feels pretty significant, especially since in this decade I qualify for Medicare and Social Security.  I got to celebrate the event with my parents as they flew out from New Mexico to welcome me into my sixties.  Just to maximize the enjoyment (?) of the day we decided to celebrate my birthday across the state and in style with a stop at one of my favorite Madison restaurants, Paisan's, for a Porta salad and then back home to Milwaukee for home made pepperoni pizza and a cupcake birthday cake.  It was a fun day even if were celebrating a challenging change.

While my folks were in town we toured Northwestern Mutual's new office tower and Jo's office.  We enjoyed the views over the city from the top of the tower, well most of us did as it turns out my Mom has a bit of vertigo.  The all glass outer walls were making her a bit queasy and there was no thought of taking in the views from the outside balcony.  Afterwards. we headed over to Madison to show off our condo renovations.  The rest of the time was spent taking it easy around the house - you know us old people need our rest - and enjoying a few of the museums/restaurants in Milwaukee.

Our Love, Set in Stone

Last year for Jo's birthday I decided to purchase a paver to be installed at the Memorial Union at the university in Madison.  It was finally installed in late May this year and we finally had a chance to go find it this last weekend.  So it is official, we have to stay together since you can't change the stone.

Next time you are at the Union in the afternoon with nothing else to do, feel free to spend an hour or two looking for it among the hundreds of others.  Gives you a great excuse to drink a lot of beer.

Our Renovation is so, so close

We spent a wonderful weekend in Madison.  Our niece and grand-niece (which makes her sound so much cooler than her mom, just the niece) from Omaha were staying with Kathy so we went over on Thursday and stayed through the weekend.

First the renovations, all the major construction work has been completed - well almost, more on that below.  All that is really left is installing towel rods, hanging mirrors, and a few hundred other small items.  We were able to stay in our condo this weekend for the first time in almost 9 months, since we finally have working toilets and showers - well, sort of.  We decided to shower in our guest bath shower mainly to make sure everything was working.  And we found that we got a foot bath at the same time as our shower.  Turns out the bottom of the shower wasn't pitched correctly to effectively drain the water.  So back will come the tile guy to rip the bottom of the shower out and try again.  Other than that, everything else seemed to work as expected.  The refrigerator and freezer units made ice and got cold, the air conditioner kept the place pleasant in the heat and humidity, and all the lights went on and stayed on.  We still haven't fired up the ovens or microwaves yet, but soon.

The other exciting news is that we got our first furniture deliveries.  We now have an official bed to sleep in, so no more air mattresses on the floor.  We also have something besides folding chairs to sit on in the family room, as we got our couch delivered.  The one downside, all these changes are starting to make us eager to live there full time now.  But that time is coming.

When we weren't waiting around for furniture to be delivered, hanging blinds, or trying out all our new stuff we had a great time visiting with all the family that gathered.  We managed two nieces (Nebraska and Illinois), two nephews (Illinois and Indiana), and two grand-nieces.  Not counting Kathy and John who hosted the hordes and kept everyone entertained and well fed.  We also took the opportunity to celebrate a couple of recent or soon to come birthdays - yes, one of them was mine, although I am still in my current decade for several more days.  There were also visits to the Madison zoo and games of Yardzee (it is yahtzee played outdoors with giant wooden dice). 

We came home Sunday around noon and promptly crashed on the sofas for a nap - it was a busy weekend, especially for this almost old geezer.

We can always count on beans

Northwestern Mutual's annual meeting was this week so we have been on the cocktail and dinner circuit since last Friday.  The weather cooperated this year since it wasn't blazing hot and humid nor pouring down rain so it wasn't as bad being in a suit and tie for the week.  It is a pretty standard set of events from year to year, but even so we had a nice time at the Summerfest grounds for the garden party along with the talks on Monday at the actual meeting and the closing concert on Tuesday - which was the Zac Brown band this year.  A nice highlight this year was having one of the cocktail hours/dinner on top of the new Northwestern Mutual tower which has a balcony on the 32nd floor overlooking the city.  It is always fun to see cities from up on high.  If you look really close you can see our house in the picture below (not really, but it is fun to pretend).

The garden is chugging along especially since we ignored it for almost three weeks while traveling.  Fortunately, we planted a lot of beans this year and they seem to be the most forgiving vegetable to plant.  We harvested both yellow and green wax beans this week and have enough to enjoy fresh as well as freeze some for the upcoming winter.  Our squash and cucumbers are also starting to produce so we will be frying the squash up for dinner this weekend.  We still haven't figured a great use for cucumbers beyond cutting one or two onto salads and making pickles.  I certainly don't like cold cucumber salads or soups and making fried cucumber doesn't seem particularly appealing.  At least Jo's assistant likes to juice them so we always have a good way of taking care of the excess.

Sometimes you just have to be a kid

Our condo renovations are finally moving close to completion.  We visited last weekend and just decided to have a little fun.  We couldn't figure out how to film Jo being scooted around in the bin, so we settled for the starting shot.  The bin is on wheels and we (as in I) had a bit of fun wheeling Jo around the condo.  It was a lot of fun and that bin really turned on a dime.  And yes, the carpet was installed in one of the bedrooms.  Won't be long now.

It is Cold up North

We recently cruised from New York City up the East coast to Newfoundland, Novia Scotia, Greenland, and Iceland (for those that want all the stops - Martha's Vineyard, Boston, Bar Harbor, Halifax, Corner Brook, Nuuk, Isafjordur, and Reykjavik).  While we expected cool temperatures in Greenland and Iceland - almost our entire trip was way below seasonal temps.  Fortunately, we had packed multiple layers and a pair of gloves which we used way more than we expected.  We also seemed to be dragging rain clouds along with us since we had more overcast days than sunny days.  The problem is overcast skies always seems to make it difficult for a city to show it's best side.

The weather aside it was a great trip with exquisite landscapes, some interesting wildlife sightings, and new cities/cultures to explore. We also had several days at sea cruising the Labrador sea and the Denmark Strait which provided us downtime to rest and recharge.  We used the sea days to get massages, watch a couple of the 2018 Oscar nominated films, read and, most importantly, nap.  The big hits for the trip for me were seeing Greenland and Iceland for the first time.  Greenland was amazing, and much more mountainous than I was expecting, and the icebergs floating by the ship contained all sorts of shades of blue ice.  We had the opportunity to speak with a native Greenlander in her home and found out that you've got to love winter.  It starts snowing in September and continues to May.  This means that the snow piles up past the windows on the house and the sun is out for a whopping 3 to 4 hours.  And I thought Wisconsin could be a bit tough in the winter.

Iceland did not disappoint and it is easy to see why it has become a popular tourist destination.  From seeing puffins and seals, to the geysers and hot springs that seem to be all over the landscape, to the multiple waterfalls and glaciers.  We thought it would be interesting to go back and spend a couple of weeks hiking around the various parts of the island since we only had a limited amount time to explore.  One of the highlights was hitting the local swimming pool to partake in the hot tubs that are at the public pools - although we did find that the hot tub at 44 degree C was a bit over the top, unless you are cooking a lobster.

The easiest summary is that it was a great trip and we could certainly do it again - although a bit warmer temperatures and more sunshine next time would be nice.  Of course, as with any vacation these days we have hundreds of photos to bore you with should you ever make the mistake of asking to see our vacation photos!!