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.