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.