Milwaukee Art Museum

On Monday, Josh and I embarked on a road trip to Milwaukee to take a stroll around the Milwaukee Art Museum. We spent a couple hours walking through the entire museum. The glass work and paintings in the Mrs. Harry L. Bradley collection were my favs. Josh had never been before, and I've been too many times to count in my lifetime. We, of course, used a Bucky Book coupon and got in for half price, which made the whole thing a little sweeter :) Overall, it was a fun adventure on a winter afternoon.

Parfrey's Glen

On Tuesday, Josh took off work, the sweetie that he is, so we could go on an adventure. We decided on an afternoon hike at Parfrey's Glen, or Parfley's Glen according to Josh. Located about 5 miles from Devil's Lake State Park, it took us less than an hour to get there. The parking area and the start of the trail were a little hard to find, so of course we got lost, but we got to check out the town of Merrimac, upon which we discovered where the rich people that work in Madison are able to own sweet houses with a lake view.

Parfrey's Glen has an easy walking trail that follows a stream tumbling over rocks down the glen. I guess the area flooded pretty badly in 2008 and was closed to the public for a while. We're glad to see it back open, because it was fantastic. You literally follow the stream the entire length of the trail until you reach a point where the water and rocks prevent much of a foot trail. At one point, we reached the "end" of the marked trail (maybe because of flood damage?), and we continued to hike and climb our way as far as we could go along the glen. As we started to move into restricted territory, we ran into a man coming in our direction carrying what turned out to be some drawings. His name was Steve Hovel and he has been working on a series of drawings that he is getting ready to publish soon. Check out his website http://www.shovelartpress.com/ to see his stuff! After we parted ways, Josh and I kept hiking and climbing up, over, and around rocks until we reached a point where we could go no further. This was by far the coolest part of the hike. We saw the greatest rock formations and scenery at this point and were thoroughly impressed. Parfrey's is definitely a place we will check out in the summer. Go to this link to see the rest of the photos from our adventure.

Berbee Derby 2009

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran a 10K - the Berbee Derby in Fitchburg. I haven't done a lot of running lately, so it...was...rough! I'm honestly just glad that I finished the race without passing out.

My time was 55:39, almost 10 minutes more than my last run. Nevertheless, it was fun and I can see doing this run every Thanksgiving. It's really a great way to start the holiday weekend. Now if I can only get Amanda to run it next year...

Packers vs. 49ers

On Sunday, Zach, Shawsy, Jerry (Shawsy's brother-in-law) and I went to the Packers-Niners game. When we got to Shawsy's, he gave me a Punch in the Face, but he made up for it with a cinnamon role from Windsor Breads. Oh baby!

The game was entertaining and the weather was unseasonably beautiful. Green Bay played well for the most part - although they almost blew it - and won 30-24. Check out the highlights here.

Even more entertaining than the action on the field were the people in the seats around us. They spouted an abundance of cliched coach speak, and at the same time provided us with more "that's what she said-able" material than you could possibly choke down...

Before heading home, we stopped at Stuc's in Appleton for calzones - big freaking yum!

New Mexico

In late October, my staff and I went to Albuquerque for a conference. While we were there, we saw a bunch of cool stuff, ate a lot of good food and had a ton of fun. For photos and videos from the trip, check out my Facebook page.

Pumpkin Carving

While some people celebrate Halloween by dressing extra slutty and parading their bums around State Street, we decided to participate in something a little more wholesome - performing full lobotomies on innocent, unsuspecting pumpkins.

Amanda's pumpkin (pictured) was by far the superior pumpkin. We roasted the pumpkin seeds and they were big yummy. As of Thanksgiving, Amanda was half-way done with hers.

MSO - Peter Serkin

Well, last weekend, I coaxed Josh into joining me for a Madison Symphony Orchestra performance featuring Peter Serkin, a well-known pianist, performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1. I personally had a great time at MSO's opening weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself - I am a huge sucker for music events :) Other works on the program included Beethoven's incidental overture "Consecration of the House" and Richard Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration." For program notes, check out this link.

Another exciting part of the night - there was a silent auction on the 2nd floor of the Overture Center. Josh, always on the lookout for unique artwork, spotted something he liked. After a little encouragement (I had to physically force his hand to write his name and contact information on the bid sheet - just kidding), he put down a low bid and received a phone call the next day informing him that his bid won the piece - how cool is that?? Check back later and we'll post a picture of the artwork...