April: Visited Joe & Bret in Atlanta at their wonderfully renovated house in the "outskirts" of Atlanta. We then went to a beautiful wedding on a farm outside of equally beautiful Athens, GA for my cousin Lewis and Sabrina. While waiting for Josh's plane to arrive in Atlanta, Joe W., Sara, and I ate at a restaurant called "Six Feet Under". It sits across from...you guessed it...a cemetery. Fantastic menu, including seafood (to make it punny), great view from the balcony...great recommendation from Joe & Bret.
May: Joe & I signed up for sailing through the UW's Hoofer's Sailing Club. We took a two day lesson and have our first rating on one of their boats. We need to find more time to go out on the lake more.
We also went to wedding #2 of the summer on May 20th. John and Liz (Herald) had a beautiful wedding and reception in Plymouth, Michigan.
Dale, Kathy, and Jeanne at Kathy's son's wedding
June: Middle of May, we headed up around the UP (that's 'Upper Peninsula' for non-Michigan folk) and spent a long weekend at one of our favorite places--Walloon Lake. We rented Gio's (old college "buddy" of Don Walts') cabin as a holiday present for Mark. Chris, Mark, and Buddy (big crazy black lab) met Joe, Oscar, and me up there. Joe, Oscar, and I had a bit of car engine temperature trouble with the good, ol', reliable Dodge Stratus. Joe got his first glimpse of lovely Green Bay while spending a couple of hours at a service gas station off of the highway. The car behaved the rest of the weekend, until we headed back to Madison at the end of the weekend, when the temperature light went on again. By turning off the A/C and blasting the heater toward the ground we made it safe and sound back to the Mad City. Our only casualty was poor Oscar. At one point, past Escanaba, I think the turning the heat on and off got to him. We thought the car was behaving and had the heater turned off. We then saw the temp indicator go up, said "Oh, $%&#", turned on the heat again, and suddenly heard a "Bleah!!" as Oscar vomited on Joe's backseat. Yeah...despite the car trouble, we still had a fun weekend. While the boys went out on the boat one of the days, Oscar and I played fetch in the water (yes, I did have to fetch sometimes when Oscar was too wimpy) and I got to watch my World Cup games. Anyone up for going to South Africa in four years for the next Cup?
In June, Joe and I also took Fly Fishing lessons from my dad's friend (Jeff Smith). We started by practicing with several rods out on the grass near his condo in Middleton. We then moved onto practicing at Salmo Pond out in Cross Plains. When we graduated the pond, we headed out to Black Earth Creek, put on the waders and headed out into the stream. We didn't catch anything, but it was a beautiful, sunny day, it was fun to be out in the water, and I didn't fall in the waders. A very successful outing, I would have to say. Fly casting is much more difficult, but I like it more than regular rod & reel casting. We still have a lot of work to do on our technique, but both Joe and I enjoyed it. Hopefully we'll find time to get out in the streams again this year.
July: We headed back to Michigan (again) in July for Joe's family reunion (Mom's side). Not only was it a family reunion, but also a celebration of Joe's grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary. Pretty amazing. Short, but enjoyable weekend with his family. We were able to also fit in a quick visit with Don and Anne on our way out. On our way to Michigan, we made it as far as Janesville (about 30-45 minutes) before Joe's temperature gauge went up again. Let's just say that after many expletives, we headed back to Madison, regrouped, drank a beer, got a good night of sleep, and headed out the next morning in my (actual) reliable 1989 Toyota Camry. Although it was wonderful and fun to spend time with Joe's family, I think we're glad to have a little break from traveling the rest of this month. Joe's car is now fixed (knock on wood) and we've a had couple weekends at home to enjoy the summer in Madison. On the 5th of July, we went to see the Shakespeare Play "Measure for Measure" at Spring Green's American Player's Theatre. We joined Sara's gang that goes out there annually. It's a lot of fun. You head out early to picnic in the park area. After dinner, you head up a winding path through the woods to get to the outdoor theatre grounds. It's a very neat experience. By the time the play is over, it's dark outside and you follow the lightly lit path back to the car. As Sara will tell you, the nice thing is that if you don't like the play, you can stay amused by watching the bats fly around as they pick off mosquitos and other bugs. However, the play was very good and we also got hooked-up with some free beer from one of the brewers of Furthermore. Joe knows the brewer, Aran, because JT Whitney's did some contract brewing for them. Aran's sister is also one of the core actors with APT.
Mid-month we celebrated Sara's birthday at yummy Lulu's (best Middle Eastern restaurant in Madison). That weekend, we biked downtown on one of the hottest weekends of the year to meet up with Sara downtown at the Farmer's Market (as well as the annual Paddle & Portage race) and treated her to Cafe Soleil's beyond delicious croissants and pastries. We later headed over to La Fête de Marquette (Bastille Day) celebration which also raised money for Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center and Urban Open Space Foundation. The festival was on the grounds of the area that will hopefully be Madison's very own "Central Park" in the not too distant future. We heard some incredible African and French Caribbean bands, as well as ate some fried catfish, shrimp, and alligator from a vendor that had travelled up from New Orleans. Another yum! The follow day, which was even hotter, Joe and I got up early to bike to breakfast and then headed downtown to visit Madison's Maxwell Street Days. Joe bought his very first Wisconsin t-shirt for $2. This means that Joe now has more Wisconsin than Michigan paraphernalia. No, he's not a traitor. He just needs something "Wisconsin" to wear to blend in when we go to UW Hockey games this year--the only way Joe gets to see Hockey in person (aside from the games he plays in at the local arenas).
This last week, we had a HUGE storm with winds the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane. We lucked out on not having tree limbs fall on or into our house like some people, but we did have our phonebox almost yanked off of our house. A tree limb must have fallen on the phone line, which yanked it off of our house and pulled the box with it.
Destroyed Phone Box
As for future events...Our next big event is our trip to Alaska! We're going on a 7 day cruise with Don (& Anne) and some of his family. We're very excited. I'm sure we'll have lots of photos to show when we come back. The day after we get back is the Great Taste of the Midwest. It's sponsored by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild that Joe is a part of. However, WE will be serving for JT Whitney's this year. I got a taste of serving for JT Whitney's this last weekend when I met up with Joe at "Cheers to a Cure", a beer, wine, and gourmet food tasting at Capital Brewery to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Just like at the hospital, I attract very strange (but very nice) people who talk to me forever about absolutely nothing. Nursing has helped hone my skills of talking about nothing. It was more fun than I thought and I'm looking forward to putting on my lederhosen and serving at the Great Taste. When people ask me what I do for JT Whitney's, I'm getting used to saying "Oh, I don't work there, I'm just a brewer's wife". All these new "titles" I have to get used to.... Only within the last year or so, I got used to saying that I am a "wife". Now I'm getting used to being "the nurse" and "the brewer's wife".
More events up and coming too, but we'll get to them another time. However, a quick congratulations to our former Ann Arbor roomies and one of my best buds: Congrats to Lizz and Scott on their engagement! They survived living with Joe and me for two years, they can survive anything together!
Michigan Brewing Festival: July 2004
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