Music Activities

We went to see some great musicians over the winter and spring. In March, we heard Christopher Taylor on the piano at Mills Hall. He gave a concert featuring 2 Chopin sonatas in honor of the 200th birthday of Chopin. In May, we listened to the Rhapsodie String Quartet at the Overture Playhouse. Both concerts were outstanding and we both hope to see performances by these artists in the future. I love Madison for all of the great music that fills the city year-round! :) For more info on Taylor, visit this link and for more info on the string quartet, click here.

Mother's Day/High Cliff

On Sunday, we made the drive up to the Fox Valley to celebrate Mother's Day with my family. The house was packed and we all ate way too much (good!) food. The french toast-bake thingy was silly good. Oh, yes, I almost forgot - big yum!

After the festivities at my parents' house, we yondered over to High Cliff State Park to do a little hiking. Some of the views of Lake Winnebago were impressive and rock formations were interesting. The effigy mounds - no disrespect - were a little blah. The hiking was decent, though, and I think we'll put it on our list of 'maybes.'

Wisconsin Film Festival 2010

Josh and I were delighted to go to many films at the 2010 Wisconsin Film Festival. Together we saw a variety of films, including:

Father and Guns (Canadian/French, Comedy)

Harmony and Me (Indie)

Seventeen (Documentary)

Everyone Else (German)

Shorts (Collection of 5 Shorts, United Kingdom)

Overall, we both recommend Father and Guns and Harmony and Me. Both of these movies were really fun! Unfortunately, Seventeen was one of the most terrible documentaries ever (OK...Josh didnt hate it AS much as I did...) and the UK Shorts weren't the greatest.

Josh also saw The Lottery (Documentary) and A Town Called Panic (Stop Motion Animation), both of which he liked very much.

We're both excited for next year, and we hope to Netflix a lot of the films from this year's fest that we didn't get a chance to see. For more info on this year's fest, visit this link.

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!