Sara, Joe, and I took a bike ride down to the Monona Terrace on Sunday, September 11th to see the Ironman racers come in from their 112 mile bike ride and start out on their full marathon. They started the morning off with a nice, easy 2.4 mile swim in Lake Monona in front of the Monona Terrace. Biking there made us feel semi-deserving or at least less guilty watching mega-athletes do this ultimate triathalon in the blazing sun. Joe and I had just finished off a fun weekend with Don and Anne in Madison. Next year, perhaps I'll get up to see the beginning of the swimming leg of the race--2000 people starting off a race at once in the water...it's supposed to be amazing to see. However, this year we spent the early morning eating bacon and cinnamon-apple kringle from Lane's Bakery before sending Don and Anne off on their drive back to Michigan. I think the winner of the men's race finished in around 9 hours? That's a full days work, unpaid lunch, plus overtime!
Unfortunately, there was not a cloud in the sky for the competitors. It was bad enough while on the city bike trails going to and from downtown, let alone being one of the athletes biking out into the country and then taking a couple of LONG laps around areas in Madison on hot asphalt. Absolutely amazing. Needless to say, many of the atheletes were unable to complete the race this year and some ended up in the hospital. It was also fun to see how well coordinated the volunteers were in getting the athletes through the staging areas and back out. Hundreds of volunteers were trained to help during the event. We took a walk down around the Capitol and to State St. to see some of the racers (plus Sara convinced us to stop in for some Babcock icecream).
The rest of the weekend was fun too. We spent my birthday on that Friday hanging out at our house with Joe's folks and then having a fantastic meal at Quivey's Grove (yummy Wisconsin fare...not beer & brats like some might think). The next day, we took Don and Anne down to State St and spent a couple of hours at the Farmers Market around the Capitol Square, got them some yummy hot & spicy cheese bread from Stella's, introduced them to cheese curds (squeaky, of course), tried some fantastic corn on the cob (raw), found some cranberry-flower honey, and also some anisette biscotti. Anne and I also learned about the difference between mums and asters from a very friendly flower vendor. I took them on a semi-grand tour of the Capitol building and then Monona Terrace (which was already over run with vendors and competitors for the following day's Ironman). We then traveled up State St, relaxed on the terrace for a bit, and were ready to head back when Don's motorized scooter began to lose its juice. Luckily, we were rescued by my parents Isuzu truck. The whole gang, including Sara & Luna met at our place for a nice, little barbecue. A birthday weekend well spent.
Friday, September 16, 2005
The Big Easy
The French Quarter
After almost TWO years, I finally (with inspiration) organized and uploaded our digital photos from our New Year's trip to New Orleans on our Flickr site. If in the slideshow format, you can click on the photo to see a title and description of the photo.
For those of you who don't know (or don't remember), Joe and I drove down to New Orleans after Christmas in December 2003. Aside from a day of rain, the city treated us extremely well. Joe proposed to me under a beautiful tree in Audubon Park on December 30th and we had a fantastic time everyday that we were there. It's extremely sad to see all of the destruction to such an amazing city. I'm not in a very good position to go down south to help with the recovery process at this point. However, I have had the honor of working with one of the Mississippi survivors of the hurricane while he's been a patient on my unit at the hospital. He was lucky enough to survive complete destruction of his neighborhood, home, and personal belongings and get flown to family in Madison--at least temporarily. He is very optimistic and hopes to re-build, move back to his hometown, and continue is retirement in the city where he grew up. Hopefully we're doing everything we can to help him get started on his wish.
If you haven't already, please donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, The Humane Society (who are leading in the relief effort to rescue pets that had to be left behind, as well as assist their owners), or some other disaster relief organization.
After almost TWO years, I finally (with inspiration) organized and uploaded our digital photos from our New Year's trip to New Orleans on our Flickr site. If in the slideshow format, you can click on the photo to see a title and description of the photo.
For those of you who don't know (or don't remember), Joe and I drove down to New Orleans after Christmas in December 2003. Aside from a day of rain, the city treated us extremely well. Joe proposed to me under a beautiful tree in Audubon Park on December 30th and we had a fantastic time everyday that we were there. It's extremely sad to see all of the destruction to such an amazing city. I'm not in a very good position to go down south to help with the recovery process at this point. However, I have had the honor of working with one of the Mississippi survivors of the hurricane while he's been a patient on my unit at the hospital. He was lucky enough to survive complete destruction of his neighborhood, home, and personal belongings and get flown to family in Madison--at least temporarily. He is very optimistic and hopes to re-build, move back to his hometown, and continue is retirement in the city where he grew up. Hopefully we're doing everything we can to help him get started on his wish.
If you haven't already, please donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, The Humane Society (who are leading in the relief effort to rescue pets that had to be left behind, as well as assist their owners), or some other disaster relief organization.
Doofus, RN
I've been trying to get used to this night shift still, now that I have finished my "official" nursing orientation and I am now technically all on my lonesome as a nurse. Eek! On the job, I'm feeling more and more confident as the days progress--and the night nursing staff is fantastic in asking me if I need an extra hand and answering all of my silly questions.
Unfortunately in the process of becoming a night nurse, I've also become a complete dimwit when it comes to normal day to day things. Yesterday, I demonstrated this by coming home from a shift, leaving a light on inside my car and completely draining my car battery. After finally having a decent nights sleep, going out for a nice meal with Joe (driving in his car), watching Rock Star INXS (Sara's fault that I got suckered in to the show), and then letting Joe get to bed early (since he had to be up at 5:30am for an early day at work), I walked out to my car at 10:30pm to see the light still on inside my car. Damn! I dropped my bag and sprinted to the car, like I could make it in time to still have any sort of battery left to start an engine. I had to wake up poor Joe to drive me to work...and luckily my Dad was still awake so I could ask for the ride home in the morning. This is just one demonstration of the silly little things that I feel like I've been doing that I wouldn't have done before. Oh well. I got a lesson in how to recharge a battery from my Dad, so at least I learned something in the process.
In August, Joe and I traveled up north to the UP for a relaxing weekend in the Sylvania Wilderness. It's a fantastic place to get away. Most campsites you have to paddle into and some you have to portage one or two times to reach. We borrowed my parents' canoe for the trip. Joe convinced me to visit a lake I'd never been to before, which meant a longer paddle into a campsite. The extra haul in and out was definitely worth it. And despite a bit of rain, which we get whenever we camp together, it was fairly pleasant weather. I actually caught fish--two Northern Pikes! I haven't caught a fish bigger than my lure since I was about three. One of the Northerns was possibly 2 feet long. The other was about half that size. I highly recommend the employees at the Sylvania Outfitters--they gave us the big tip on the lure that caught those fish. You can check out photos of the big fish and our other Sylvania photos.
Calm after the Storm at Sylvania
Also in August, our region had a tremendous storm that brought more tornadoes to the area than in the last 20 years. Fortunately, Madison was spared this year. However, a tornado did hit a couple blocks from my parents' house a little over a year ago. An F3 tornado hit Stoughton, which is just south of Madison, and wiped out a neighborhood north of Main St. The clouds from the storm were amazing--nothing I've ever seen before. Sara, Joe, and I couldn't resist going out after the storm had passed our area to take a look. I took some storm cloud photos. The clouds you see in the photos are south of Madison and over Stoughton. We started at Lake Monona and then ended up over at the terrace on Lake Mendota, where we sat on a picnic table, ate popcorn, drank a beer, and watched nightfall over the lake.
Storm Clouds Beyond Downtown Madison, WI
Unfortunately in the process of becoming a night nurse, I've also become a complete dimwit when it comes to normal day to day things. Yesterday, I demonstrated this by coming home from a shift, leaving a light on inside my car and completely draining my car battery. After finally having a decent nights sleep, going out for a nice meal with Joe (driving in his car), watching Rock Star INXS (Sara's fault that I got suckered in to the show), and then letting Joe get to bed early (since he had to be up at 5:30am for an early day at work), I walked out to my car at 10:30pm to see the light still on inside my car. Damn! I dropped my bag and sprinted to the car, like I could make it in time to still have any sort of battery left to start an engine. I had to wake up poor Joe to drive me to work...and luckily my Dad was still awake so I could ask for the ride home in the morning. This is just one demonstration of the silly little things that I feel like I've been doing that I wouldn't have done before. Oh well. I got a lesson in how to recharge a battery from my Dad, so at least I learned something in the process.
In August, Joe and I traveled up north to the UP for a relaxing weekend in the Sylvania Wilderness. It's a fantastic place to get away. Most campsites you have to paddle into and some you have to portage one or two times to reach. We borrowed my parents' canoe for the trip. Joe convinced me to visit a lake I'd never been to before, which meant a longer paddle into a campsite. The extra haul in and out was definitely worth it. And despite a bit of rain, which we get whenever we camp together, it was fairly pleasant weather. I actually caught fish--two Northern Pikes! I haven't caught a fish bigger than my lure since I was about three. One of the Northerns was possibly 2 feet long. The other was about half that size. I highly recommend the employees at the Sylvania Outfitters--they gave us the big tip on the lure that caught those fish. You can check out photos of the big fish and our other Sylvania photos.
Calm after the Storm at SylvaniaAlso in August, our region had a tremendous storm that brought more tornadoes to the area than in the last 20 years. Fortunately, Madison was spared this year. However, a tornado did hit a couple blocks from my parents' house a little over a year ago. An F3 tornado hit Stoughton, which is just south of Madison, and wiped out a neighborhood north of Main St. The clouds from the storm were amazing--nothing I've ever seen before. Sara, Joe, and I couldn't resist going out after the storm had passed our area to take a look. I took some storm cloud photos. The clouds you see in the photos are south of Madison and over Stoughton. We started at Lake Monona and then ended up over at the terrace on Lake Mendota, where we sat on a picnic table, ate popcorn, drank a beer, and watched nightfall over the lake.
Storm Clouds Beyond Downtown Madison, WI
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