The Start of Summer

Memorial Day weekend certainly let us know that summer is here.  Temperatures soared through the week such that we started the week in sweatshirts and long pants and ended it in shorts and T-shirts.  It was nice to know that it can get warm in Wisconsin, but it would have been nice to have it warm up a bit more gradually.  Anyway, we had a nice three day weekend that included firing up the grill for the first time this year by grilling up some brats (how Wisconsin is that) on Friday while enjoying cocktails on our back porch.

Saturday morning we headed out for a day of furniture shopping for our place in Madison.  As the work is in the final stages we figured we could start thinking about what how we might like to decorate the place.  We spent about 9 hours hitting the local furniture stores working through all the options for the pieces we need (and we need a lot) and we were successful in finding a few pieces that we think will work in our new place - although we still need to confirm sizes for our space and of course, getting the furniture piece inside the elevator.  We will admit that when you are in your fifth or so store looking at yet another sets of sofas, that all sofas begin to look alike.  We had a lot of fun and we were both surprised that we found several items that are likely to make the final cut - we had both figured we would just spend the day looking.  The one piece of great news was that Jo was able to find a sectional with recliners built in that I'm probably ok with.  The reclining sectional versus standard sectional had been shaping up as the big furniture battle between us - also led to the philosphical discussion of when do you pick function over style (you have a lot of discussion time you need to fill when shopping for 9 hours).

After a nice long walk Sunday morning, where we spent a lot of time discussing the furniture from Saturday, we got out our bikes and headed down to the Third Ward for brunch at our favorite BBQ place in Milwaukee - the Smoke Shack.  Jo enjoyed some sweet potato pancakes while I had Eggs Benedict with smoked brisket as the meat filler, instead of the usual ham slice.  Quite tasty for both and the complimentary cinnamon roll certainly didn't hurt.  Afterwards we hit a few boutique furniture places in the Third Ward and then headed home for some naps as we hadn't fully recovered from our shopping extravaganza the day before.  Monday morning we tended to some chores around the old homestead before hopping back on our bikes to ride over to the Brewer's game.  Beautiful day for a ball game and the home town team continued it's recent winning streak.  Unfortunately, we came out to a flat tire on Jo's bike that necessitated a tire change on the way home - we had a spare inner tube so not a major catastrophe.   All in all, a fun filled weekend - oh, and did I mention Jo found a reclining sectional she liked?