Mom's Second Visit West!

I've been pretty busy lately, mostly tying up loose ends at work, but I wanted to post about the really fun visit from Mom a mere week ago. This week has seemed so long, it feels like at least two weeks ago. Anyway, Arlo at work, cats and dog quiet, seems like a good time to turn off the trashy television shows and reflect. Speaking of reflecting, I had a bizarre dream and it's made me really paranoid that I don't reflect on my actions, how they affect others, and what's been happening, nearly enough. Hopefully with my time off in a week (!) I will be doing more of that. Onto the visit!

Thursday night Mom arrived, mostly so that she didn't have to travel on Friday the 13th. Picked her up after working all day, and Arlo was awesome and made an incredible squash soup with biscuits. We relaxed and I think went to bed really early. Mom stayed in Marley's room and Marley stayed with the sitter.

Friday morning, lazy morning, got a late start. We hung out, ate kringle, played with the accordian (yes, that is my mother playing Arlo's toy accordian). I took Mom to Cedar Valley Cheese Store, where we ate our weight in cheese samples. They had a paltry display by Cedar Valley standards... only a mere 12 varieties to sample. It was delicious! After that we headed to Cedarburg, a place that, upon first glance, I was certain my mother would love. It did not disappoint. We ate lunch at a restaurant in a restored barn, called Anvil Pub, and then drank wine samples from Cedar Creek Winery. After that, we went through three FLOORS of boutique shops. I think my mom could have actually stayed there all day, and the only thing that made her want to leave was the prospect of more shopping out on the main street. We spent the rest of the day shopping until we headed back home in time for a fish fry. That night, Arlo, Mom, and I met up with Jerry, Arlo's dad, at Lakefront Brewery, which has a Friday night fish fry and live polka music. It was a lot of fun, and it gave Mom the polar opposite of the first fish fry at Cliff's, a restaurant that has about 8 tables, in that it probably had 50 family-style tables, was crazy busy and really loud. Now, she's had both ends of the spectrum.

Saturday, Arlo, Mom, and me went to tea at Watt's Tearoom. Arlo's first experience with tea, and it was a pretty good one. It's funny, it feels like everything is bigger in Wisconsin. Here, the tea sandwiches are huge, like actual sandwiches, and on the dessert tray, there was an entire slice of cake. For anyone who has been to tea, you would know that that's strange to see. From there, we went to Miller Brewing Company, where we went on a tour of the brewery and then had free samples. As you can see from the pictures, the samples too were huge, at least for samples. We had a good time and Mom enjoyed looking around the gift shop. We went home for a bit to hang out and relax our bellies before heading out again to eat, this time to Mader's. Last time Mom was here with Marylou, we took them to Carl Ratsches, so this time it was Mader's, the other really well-know Milwaukee German restaurant. We had some of the best food I have had in a long time, and everyone had a nice time talking and eating off of eachother's plates. Afterwards, we hung out at home, watching t.v. and relaxing.

Sunday, Mom and I went to go shopping yet again. This time, she took me to Stein Mart, a place that I've never been to, but where I found at least a few Christmas presents. Finally, shopping bug satiated, we returned home to relax a bit before the flight. For dinner, we took Mom to Jalapeno Loco, a local (and loco!) Mexican restaurant. I mean, why not round out her ethnic experience, right? After another awesome meal, we dropped Mom off at the airport for her flight.

It was a really fun weekend and a nice break for all of us. I don't want to rush time, but I am looking forward to this next week being over so that I can be blissfully unemployed. I hope everyone is doing well on the East coast (and uber East coast). Take care, y'all.

Home For Christmas

Well, it's official...I am coming home for Christmas. I was on the fence about it, for many reasons great and small, but in the end, I decided it would be just too sad to not be home for the holiday. Arlo is staying here to be with his family and hold down the fort (and the pets). I will be heading in on December 23 and staying until December 28. This should give me just enough time to visit all of my family and friends, give and receive presents, eat way too much, and talk way too much about the wedding.

My last day of work is official as well...on November 30, I will be leaving the clinic. I can't believe that there is only two and a half weeks left. For the last month, time has flown by. I have a lot to wrap up in the end, and the nice thing is that there is a new therapist who will be working with most of my clients, so I am not leaving them feeling completely abandoned. She's a great therapist and I feel very comfortable having her continue the work with them. Whether or not one of my clients actually attacks her out of anger for taking my place is another question. I'm not sure what I'm going to do (if anything) for money for the remaining time in Wisconsin, but I'm not going to worry about it now, at least not for the month of December. Because, check out what I have to look forward to! My mom is visiting us this weekend to enjoy Wisconsin goodness one more time. In early December, Arlo and I are going to be heading to Florida to visit my dad, and the day after we get back we are going to my first Packers game. After that, we are heading to Chicago for the weekend and staying at the Wyndham for our Christmas present to ourselves, and then home for Christmas. Happy December!!!! I am so excited, I can hardly stand it, there's so much to look forward to!

Alright, peeps, what do you have going on in December? Also, what are your thoughts on presents this year? Love them? Hate them? Not sure how I feel about homemade presents this year, but I'm not entirely opposed or planning on it. We'll see how those three weeks in December go, with everything else.

I hope all is going well with everyone on the East Side. Take care, y'all!

A Whole Lotta Stuff

Hey Y'all, it's been ages since I posted all over you (icky visual inserted here), and tonight I am shirking work, exercise, and the chance at an early night's sleep to blog about what has been happening. I am going to go in reverse order, telling you what happened today and going backwards from there. This is going to be so exciting! Oh, and I'm going to try to type it up in as short of a description as possible.

Today- Okay day, lots of talking and listening, late night at work.

Yesterday- The cats contemplated trying to get through the foot-wide opening left uncovered of our doorway at around seven feet off of the ground, at 10:30 at night. These cats are insane.

This past weekend- Andrew Bird, awesome, yet unfortunately sleepy (for me) show at The Pabst, professional massage, going to the gym and errands galore, including covering the windows with plastic, while the weather is still tolerable.

Last week- Still exhausted from the trip home, just tried to catch up at work, but was not as productive as I would have liked. Nothing really notable about the week, other than Arlo and I watched a buttload of tv because we had so much DVRed. Oh, and the battle between the cats and the humans in our house continued with the cats knocking over a pot of chili onto the kitchen floor. The next day, the humans responded by getting plywood and hardware. Ideally, I wouldn't have gone with three separate pieces, but with the wood coming only in __ x 2 dimensions, I did what I had to do.

Visit to Maryland- Prior to last week, Arlo and I visiting Maryland. After a harrowing flight... no really, it wasn't bad, we got right to sleep, b/c we got in so late. The next morning we were up with my mom to take her to work and do our first meeting with a caterer. That day we did three meetings, the next day one (should have been two, but we were all tasted out), and a visit to Fiore. We pretty much decided unanimously to go with Dean and Brown Catering, but have not signed a contract, why, because we haven't had time. The Baptism of Eleanor Blackford was lovely, and I got to stand up there with Bill and Amanda as they welcomed her into the Catholic church. All joking aside, it was very cool to be standing with them for such an important event, and to be in the same church as their wedding six years ago was pretty awesome. Other highlights of the trip included seeing my cousins, grandparents, brother and his family, sister-in-law, and the Holler family. I am bummed that I did not get to see friends and family that I missed, and, at present, I am not sure when I am going to be heading home for the next visit.

Visit with Wendy- The weekend before the Maryland visit was Wendy's visit to Milwaukee! She arrived on Friday (after I gave my notice of resignation at work, thank you very much!) and we headed up to Madison, where we stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking Lake Monona. After a yummy Mexican meal, we went to a German bar, where we had drinks and danced the polka. The next day, the best thrifting ever, along with shopping on State St. and going to the farmer's market. We drove back to Milwaukee and crashed for the night. The next day, Wendy was off. It was a whirlwind trip, but definitely awesome and just what I needed after a stressful couple of weeks. It was quality lady-time, with lots of talking and bonding.

Gays Mills Apple Festival- The weekend before that, we headed up to Gays Mills for their annual Apple Festival. It was a fun-filled weekend with a Fun Walk, pancake breakfast, craft fair, flea market and, of course, apples! We spent the weekend with Arlo's family, and on Sunday, celebrated his niece's and Mary's birthday. It was a great time, although both of us were fighting off an icky sicknesss. After that weekend, I actually felt so bad I stayed home from work for a day.

I honestly can't remember before that, but I know we were busy then, too. The upcoming weeks are less packed with stuff. My mom is visiting in mid-November, so I am excited about that. Then, in December, we are visiting my dad in Florida. More about that later.

Alright, y'alls, I'm off to bed. New dad or Japan resident, or sneak-attack Mom of a toddler, who will it be?!?!?

I Have Been Cheating...

I am so sorry, dear blogger readers, for my lack of postings. I have to admit that I have been cheating on this blog with another one...The Knot. I have become somewhat obsessed with wedding planning of late, and a side effect of that is way too much time spent on sites like The Knot. Seeing as how I was spending a lot of time there, I decided to start a blog. Check it out if you have time, though it doesn't have too much information yet, and there's no opportunity for snarky or silly comments or beating people to the comment section, which is a drawback. Anyway, here's the address:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JenniferReiter&ArloHorton

Basically, it has that the wedding will be on June 12, 2010, at Fiore Winery, and the reception will be there as well. Nothing else has been planned and we are not even sure about a start time or anything like that. I have asked Wendy and Amanda to be my Maid of Honor and Matron of Honor, respectively. I believe each are equally important and therefore they are both of honor to me. Arlo has not yet chosen his wedding party, so I didn't fill out that section. Obviously we haven't registered yet, booked a hotel for out-of-towners, or really anything else other than book the site. I think we are doing pretty well though, considering the planning is happening from out-of-state. Ah, the wedding...I could go on, but will show constraint.

Let's see..other, non-wedding, but equally important, things going on right now...

Arlo and I went and visited his mother and Mary in Sparta, Wisconsin. We had a great time and even got a chance to see his niece and nephew. The first night there, we had a fish fry at The Oasis and celebrated our engagement with the family. The next day, we took Garrick and Lauren to Chucky Cheese, which Arlo deemed a casino for children. The kids played their tokens as quickly as humanly possible and there was fun for all with only one tantrum when Lauren wanted to put in the long strip of tickets into the ticket counter machine. That night we had dinner at Debbie and Mary's house and a campfire afterwards. Sunday we hung out and then had a yummy dinner at Sally and Jamie's house Sunday night. In between all of these eating events, we took the kids to the park, Arlo and Jamie played tennis, and we played a lot of Wii sports and Wii fit. I found out that I am terrible at baseball, but I'm a kickass ski jumper. It was difficult to go back to work after that, especially because I think I caught a little bug at the germ-factory that is Chucky Cheese.

This weekend Arlo and I had a yardsale to get rid of extra stuff that we schleped here and didn't want to schlep back. We actually did pretty well, mostly due to Arlo's and Arlo's dad's cds. Arlo was scheduled to work every night this weekend, so I went down to Racine to have dinner with him before work and then hang out at the bar and knit so that we could spent just a little more time together. Now it's Sunday night and I am not at all motivated to go to work tomorrow, but I guess I have to get motivated really quickly, since tomorrow's a pretty big day, with five clients, two of whom are new, and one of whom may possibly attack me violently. Yay social work!

As much as I am not looking forward to tomorrow, I am looking forward to the next several weekends. Check it out....this weekend we have Brew Fest in Racine, with over 250 beers, music, and food; the following weekend is Apple Festival in Gays Mills, WI, the weeken after that, Wendy is visiting and the weekend after that we are coming home for a visit!!! While in Baltimore, we will go to Eleanor Blackford's baptism, where I will promise, as Officially Awesome God Mother, to raise her in the Catholic faith should Amanda and Bill perish (God forbid). The rest of the time will be spent meeting with caterers, tasting food and cake, and going to Fiore to check out the site of our future wedding, which brings us full circle, back to The Knot and my obsession with the wedding.

Let the comments commence....

Arlo's Proposal Post, Punctuality a Plus!

It may have taken him a while, but he finished his post today! Check it out here at http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/ I have to say, it's awesome! It goes into a fair amount more detail than mine, but it really is his story to tell, so this makes sense. I highly recommend checking it out for some he said/she said comparison, and a view into the incredible effort and thought Arlo put into creating a wonderful proposal (ooohh, and the pictures!). Not only that, but stick around for Arlo's reviews of movies, music, and all things pop culture. Take care, y'all and talk to you soon!

The End of Summer in Wisconsin

Hello, it's like, 50 degrees outside right now. It's August! This has supposedly been the coldest weather in Wisconsin in something like 10 years, and I am here for it. My tomatoes finally started growing, and because they are heirloom, they can take 90 days to mature, so that means, November? We'll have several feet of snow by then. Alas, it is still August, and I am really hoping that the warm(ish) weather sticks around for at least a bit longer. Arlo and I have some fun activities coming up, and after being alone pretty much the last three weeks, I could use some enjoyable times with him. We get engaged and I don't see him anymore! Wait, I hope that doesn't mean something...

Anyway, this next weekend we will be heading up to Spring Green to see an outdoor play at the American Players Theater. The play is on Sunday and so we are either going to be camping or checking out a local bed and breakfast to make a weekend of it. That decision will be made once we have a better idea of what is happening with our crazy weather, so that we are not camping in the 40's. The weekend after that is Labor Day weekend, and we are heading to his mom's and his sister's places in Lacrosse. Hmmm...what else are we looking forward to? Well, in September we have Brewfest in Racine with Arlo's dad, Jerry, where we will drink lots of beer and eat awesomely bad for you but delicious midwest food. Then, we have Apple Festival in Gaysmills, Wisconsin (Bill, insert jokes here). This is an annual Horton tradition, complete with flea market, loads of apples, and a pancake breakfast! I actually feel sorry for people on the East Coast who do not to get have Honeycrisp apples, which are so good that Arlo used to get them shipped to him when he lived in Maryland.

October has Wendy visiting for the first weekend, with a Ladies Weekend in Madison. It will be fun exploring an area I'm not really familiar with, with the lovely lady, Wendy. The next weekend is Andrew Bird in concert, and I think the third weekend may be a trip to the East Coast, though I haven't shared this possibility with Arlo yet. I really think we need to come back to Maryland before Thanksgiving, because I don't want to choose a caterer without trying their food, and I am thinking that we could come and check out caterers and other vendors who need to be booked SOON! Speaking of vendors, I think we may have a location. I still need to check out a few more places, but Fiore, which is definitely in the budget and way cool, is available on June 12, so that could be the place and the date. If this works out, then we can start planning around that, and send out Save the Date cards (STD cards if you're nasty). Anyway, as has been happening lately, I have completely digressed and started off on a tangent about the wedding. This has been happening A LOT. I have determined that all of the books, magazines, and websites have become wedding porn for me. I'm completely addicted.

Back to the immediate future plans! November, we are going to visit my dad in Florida, which will be awesome! Arlo's never met my dad, and I am super excited for the two of them to connect and get to know each other. No other plans for November at this point, but sometime in the October/November region my mom will be visiting. I keep telling her that sooner is better than later, as she has already experienced Wisconsin in the winter, but she maintains that this is when she wants to visit. She has been warned! December I will be home for Christmas, probably for an extended vacation.

So, that's the plan for the next few months. The summer has definitely been fun-filled and busy. I have not quite made the progress on Christmas gifts that I had wanted, but I am slowly knitting my way forward. I started to re-think things when Amanda suggested that perhaps I not do home-made Christmas gifts this year, and I think that perhaps not everyone will be getting something home-made (Kevin, of course will, as he demands it). I figure I will be making plenty for the wedding, so it may be better not to stress about Christmas.

This post has been way longer than I intended, and it's getting late, so I should be going. After all, I still need to clean the kitchen, do the dishes, and take M dawg out for a W-A-L-K. I hope you are all well, and talk to you soon!!!!! Oh, and for those of you who say, Jen, you have posted twice, and Arlo STILL hasn't posted about the engagement, what gives?...I rationalize this by saying that Arlo just got home from Spring Green with his dad yesterday, worked last night, tonight, and will work tomorrow, so he probably won't post until Monday. However, check back then!

The Proposal! (Not The Movie)

I was completely going to wait until Arlo could post his blog about the proposal first, but then I went and got really excited and am doing it now. After all, he's at Lollapalooza and I don't really feel well, so I don't feel like doing anything, and therefore it seems the perfect time to post. I highly recommend all of you read Arlo's post as well, when he writes it, so you can get the whole, his and hers perspectives of it all. Plus, he will definitely be able to describe more the premise behind it, planning, etc. I was just the lucky recipient. :)

As most of you know, he's had the ring for a while, which has caused some (mostly my mom) people consternation. Arlo kept telling me he needed a whole day, and I really didn't know why, but I figured that if he said that, it must be true. Looking at our upcoming few weeks, I realized that there was no way we were going to get a complete day to ourselves with nothing else, so I suggested that perhaps I take a day off, thinking he totally wouldn't go for it, because then it wouldn't be expected. He loved the idea! We decided on Wednesday, because Thursday he would be getting ready for Lollapalooza.

Tuesday night I was so excited it was hard to sleep. Wednesday morning, we woke up, had a quick breakfast and got ready for the day. Arlo wanted to dress up, so he donned a button-down and a tie. I decided on a dress, the same one I wore for the going-away party. Arlo had me sit on the couch so he could explain what was going to happen. I apologize if you were one of the people who heard this already and now must read it again, so, you can skip to the section starting with, "Lo and behold " for the amended version.

Arlo informed me that we would be going to a variety of places that day. He had created a list of 30 to be exact, 15 places, 15 bars/restaurants, all within the Milwaukee area, and all having to do with us in some way. Each place had 3 trivia questions and a challenge. There were point values, etc, and I will let you consult Arlo's blog for the details on that. I earned points for correct answers and achieving the challenge. The goal: To reach 135 points (the number of weeks we've been together). Wherever that happened, he would propose.

I'm guessing many of you are saying, "Well, that's interesting..." and some may even be saying, "That's mean..." to make me work so hard for the ring. Why not take me to some nice, expensive meal and let me get all dressed up, and then take a ride on a horse-drawn carriage? Because that's so not Arlo's style. Like pretty much everything else in our relationship, he wanted to make this fun, creative, and memorable. He did add a clause that if at any time I had ceased having fun, we would stop and I would be declared a victor and he would propose. Good idea, because I almost used it on the second challenge when I was sweaty, out of breath, and holding a broken kite, but I digress. Anyway, he achieved his purpose. It was creative, fun, and memorable. The event took about 5 hours, so basically we did need a whole day. And it was nice knowing that he didn't have to run off to work, so we could celebrate with margaritas and tacos. Alas, I have not spoken about the actual proposal!

Throughout the day, I changed my facebook status, found a cookie, flew a kite, beat him at pool, tried to find a beer he hadn't tried, tried to find out which artists are coming to Shank Hall in October (notice the two "tried"s, didn't accomplish those), and answered numerous trivia questions correctly. I nearly lost it (again) at the end, when I realized that unless I played it perfectly, I wouldn't get to 135 points at the location that I wanted, Bradford Beach. I am, after all, a stickler for rules, so if it was 134 points, despite Arlo already saying that it wouldn't matter, I was convinced I'd end up getting proposed to a the Downer Theater.

Lo and behold, we were a mere 8 points away (I think) from the 135, and we pulled up to the beach. It was packed! Not what I had been expecting when I pictured his romantic proposal. We parked and Arlo suggested we walk a bit away from the beach. We chose a spot on the rocks, sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, and he asked the final three questions. Then, having gotten them all right, he asked one more- If I would marry him. He actually said more than that, but you get the picture. He got down on one knee and put the ring on my finger. I don't think he actually waited for an answer, but I said yes anyway, and then we kissed. It was perfect. We walked back to the car, hand-in-hand, officially engaged.

Driving home, we decided that we wanted to go out and celebrate some more. We decided against the fancy restaurant on the lake, choosing instead the more casual Mexican restaurant down the street from our place. We changed our clothes and then biked there, stopping (of course) to call my mom and grandparents.

Sadly, I couldn't tell anyone at work, because I thought it would look suspicious if I called in sick and came in the next day with a ring on. I felt naked already not being able to wear it to work for two days, and now it's on my hand all sparkly and shiny.

I am so happy to be engaged to Arlo. I look forward to our life together and all that is to come. I know that, like the proposal, our life will be anything but boring.

P.S. I am aware that all of these pictures are of the ring, my hand, and me, but the other pics are on Arlo's camera, and will be uploaded soon. We got some good, "just engaged" pics!

UPDATE!!! I've entered us in the Crate and Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest, and the way to become a finalist is to get as many votes as possible. Here's where you come in.

If you liked our proposal story and want to try to help us out, please vote for our entry in the "Ultimate Wedding Contest" by clicking here or copying the following link:

http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/28351


Thank you so much for your help!

This Is What Happens When Arlo's Computer Dies

Hello, friends and family (mostly friends), I have missed you! I have been long away from blogger of late. This is mostly due to the fact that my only time spent on computers is at work (where this would so not be allowed), at the library and at Sven's Coffee House. I could not get the motivation to post when I have approximately 30 minutes to do all that I can, include pay bills, look at wedding venues, etc. That's right, despite the fact that I lack one very essential (at least to most people) part of being engaged, I have been starting to plan Arlo's and my wedding. Well, not so much as plan but more like day-dream and look up stuff online. I get the feeling that this will definitely increase in the upcoming months, but for right now, I'm not so bad, a website here, a t.v. show there. I completely did not plan on putting this in the blog quite yet, but it's what came out, so there you go. Let's see, what else has been in the works lately?

Well, for starters, I'm still at my job. I know I haven't posted much about that either, for practical and realistic reasons, but thought I should share this, as many of you are aware of my job saga. Anyway, it's official, I am continuing to work as a psychotherapist. It means some long days, but it's definitely a cool challenge, and I find lately I've been much more positive about this. Arlo has had a lot to do with this, as we have talked for hours hemming and hawing, and he helped me work through many of my concerns. I still have a lot to learn, but at least right now I feel pretty good about it.

Hmmm...what else? The cats have been, if possible, worse lately than before. This includes eating a oatmeal cream cookie, bag of Cheetos, bag of tortillas (el rey no less), bag of potato chips, 1/4 loaf of bread, a bag of snack mix, some of Arlo's mother's ginger snaps, and some mix for lemon scones. They are either really retarded or brilliant, haven't figured out which. Anyway, we have trialed several solutions and came up with one that, as of today, seems to be working. We relocated their food system to the living room and put two babygates in the doorway, one on top of the other, creating a 4 foot barrier. So far they have not figured out a way to scale it, but for now, we are still covering the cabinets in anticipation. Really, cats just shouldn't be this much work!

Arlo update- doing well, still working at the Yardarm and not able to substitute as school isn't in session. His lucky butt gets a luxurious August that is not too packed with bartending shifts and has some fun weekends in there, including Lollapalooza and Michigan races with his dad (okay, so maybe he's looking forward to Lolla a little bit more). He's definitely been making up for having more free-time though, as he's been making all sorts of good food and keeping the place clean. It's kind of like he's a house-husband right now. :) He's really missing his computer and hopefully he'll be getting it back soon. I think his friend Jamey is still trying to salvage what pics and tunes he can off of Arlo's computer, and then it should be back in his possession. Not much else going on, that I can think of at least, of note.

Me update- I just chopped off my hair, as I finally had a sufficient amount to donate to Locks of Love without having to end up bald to do it. It looks pretty good, just a stacked bob that is really stacked because it's so short in the back. I am probably going to do this hair donation one more time, starting now! Also, I am going to be starting a craft/knitting meet up on meet-up dot com, as I have started Christmas presents and need to get crafting. That's right, I am finally learning my lesson and starting in the summer so that I'm not a raving beotch by the holiday season. That, and I'm guessing that I will be in the throes of wedding planning by then , so it's better to start early. Having said all of this, two things...

1. Is this weird that I'm talking about wedding stuff without a formal engagement and does it make you uncomfortable that you're reading it here instead of hearing it from me? I figured that since most of the people who read this (or all) have pretty much been aware of everything with me and Arlo for quite some time now, and most want an update on how things are going, so, in keeping with the theme of this blog, I have decided to update here.

2. So, I know it's early to think about Christmas, but as most of you know, I do take requests...so now is your time. If you have seen something I've made for others that you covet, feel free to let me know that you love it and want one for yourself. (Tamira, I already know that you covet Phay's "harf".) I will try to tweak it to make it personally for you, not an exact replica. I am trying as much as possible to make my gifts out of supplies that are reused or repurposed, knowing that that will not be possible for everything. However, if you always wanted something made out of old records, vintage fabrics, old necklaces, etc, feel free to let me know. Also, keep in mind that I am going to be traveling home again for Christmas, so the smaller or more smooshable the better!

Sorry that there are no pics for this post. I promise they will all be coming soon!

I hope all of you are well and happy. Amanda and Bill, good luck in the last 3 weeks or so you have left! I cannot WAIT to see pics and I so wish I could be there. Tell my god-baby that I love him or her very much!

Talk to y'all soon and love you!

No Computer, What Am I To Do??!?!?!

So, Arlo's computer bit it the other day, and now we are left high and dry, relying on the goodness of our public library for posting, facebooking, and other very important -ings. No, not erotic literature reading.... geesh! Anyway, I felt a need to explain my recent slippage of my almost-as-recent improvement in posting. This is why. Also, while I'm here, I thought I would throw out there that I will be in Baltimore next week. I'm heading in late Wednesday and staying until Monday. I will be attending my Grandmother's funeral on Friday and probably doing a lot of family stuff, but if anyone has free-time that coordinates with my free-time, we should get together. Let me know!
Miss you all!

Kevin's Blog Has Been Mysteriously Absent Recently

I'm just saying....

In other news, I am going to try on Arlo's type of post today and talk about two new CDs that people should check out.

1. Paolo Nutini, Sunny Side Up- He has a great voice, and this album shows so much variety of sound. Some of it sounds a lot like a cross between Harry Belafonte and Otis Redding, with a little Bob Marley thrown in. Happy, dancy-type songs with some really pretty slow songs as well. It makes me want to see him again in concert sometime soon.

2. Hoots and Helmouth, The Holy Open Secret- Arlo and I saw them on Thursday night, and they put on an awesome show. We saw them at a tiny place, called Shank Hall, which held a way different crowd from the last time we saw them at 8 X 10. No drunk, entitled, rich chicks leaning on me and spilling beer on me, everyone was pretty tame, other than the band. They play really fun, loud folk music, with banjos, guitars, and a stand-up bass. It's music that is probably better live than on CD, but their new CD is perfect for driving around with the windows down. Afterwards, I talked to two of the band members, which was awesome! Arlo was fearful that I was inviting them to stay with us, as they were without residence for the evening, but I was not.

Alright, gotta go. Time to get ready for bed. I'm doing okay, two posts in less than a week, probably the best turn-around I've had so far. Now, if I could just say the same about Kevin's blog!

Chicago

Per some requests, I am going to try to post more regularly, though I make no promises. This weekend, Arlo and I stayed busy. His friend, Casey, came to Milwaukee on Friday night and she and I went to visit Arlo at work. We decided to stay in Racine so as to be 30 minutes closer to Chicago for the next day. For, you see, we were going to a Cubs game. So cool! Normally, I'm not a huge fan of sports, but this was pretty cool! Arlo had acquired tickets to Beyond the Ivy, one of the rooftop venues for seeing the game. It was through Casey, who works at University of Minnesota, as the Cubs were playing the Twins. Needless to say, in the box at least, we were outnumbered by Twins fans. It was a sort of sad game, as the Cubs didn't seem to have much fight in them and the innings went really quickly. Typically, it feels like baseball games drag on and on, but this was the opposite. I got sort of tipsy, drinking a bit more than I am used to. As it was a day game, Arlo and I headed home with Casey, stopped at La Tapatia for fried tacos, and then picked up Arlo's dad to hang out with us for the night. We watched Happy Go Lucky, eh, it was okay.

Today I worked in the garden out back and generally chilled. No pictures at this time, but I may post some later. After all, I was feeling a bit of pressure to get something out there. Gotta get going. Arlo's waiting patiently to get on the computer, and after all, it is his computer. Talk to you soon, y'all. We'll see what kind of spectacular posts will be coming soon to a computer near you.

Crabcakes, Snowballs, and Hampden....I must be in Baltimore!

Back in the Midwest, getting ready for my first ever Cubs game tomorrow in Chicago, and I am going to try to re-cap my trip home as quickly as humanly possible. As it was such a whirlwind trip, this is probably appropriate. And so, we begin, in an organized fashion.

Wednesday

Left as early as we could, heading out of work by noon and on the road by 2:00, we hightailed it through Chicago before rush-hour, and made it to Ohio before bedtime. The car-ride was smooth, uneventful, and didn't involve any driving for me, making it the easiest car-ride ever. I got to work on my knitting and we listened to This American Life.

Thursday

Up early(ish) and made it into Balimore around 2:30. Right away, we were put to work, helping my mom prepare the awesome crab cake dinner that she was preparing for our visit. For the rest of the afternoon, we cooked, unpacked, ate way too much, and hung out.

Friday

After a morning of shopping for birthday presents for Jerry, Arlo and I split up to go to our respective former employers. I was greeted by kids that were really excited to see me, some that couldn't remember my name, and the general craziness that happens when you haven't seen everyone for almost a year. It was great! And way too short. I repeated the same things about Milwaukee, Arlo, work, and coming back at least 15 times, and did not use my camera nearly enough. The rest of the day was spent shopping for baby gifts for Amanda and Bill and helping my mom work on Jerry's birthday dinner. That night, the dinner was yummy, and hanging out with the fam was fun. I was also exhausted and feeling a bit under the weather, so that was an early night to bed.

Saturday

I took my grandmother and mom to tea at Tea By Two as a belated Mother's Day present. It was lovely and I think they both really enjoyed it. While we were getting our tea buzz on and eating too much, Arlo was playing tennis with his tennis buddy, Kirk. That night, we had pizza and salad with Jess, Kevin, and Natty, and even got to see the Gutberlet's, who joined us after Kaitlyn's birthday party. Natty is thoroughly cute and entertaining, and it was so nice to see everyone and catch up.

Sunday

I met up with Wendy to see her new place and spend some quality crafting time together. Please note the awesome front porch she has, and the Wendy-rific porch accoutraments. She lives in a fantastic cul-de-sac in Hampden with her boyfriend, Jessie. There, they live happily with her two cats.

After Wendy's, Arlo and I headed to my grandparents' place to chillax with them for a bit. My grandfather shared a really long story about his old motorized bike, which was pretty cool, and I helped my grandmother download pictures, being ever the technology genius in my family.

That night, it was over to Bill and Amanda's for Bubba's subs and snowballs, thus completely the Baltimore experience. We got to see the baby's room, complete with furniture, feel Amanda's burgeoning belly, and watch Toby and Oscar have a collassal play-fight. I was very happy that they enjoyed the stuffed animals I made for the baby. It was a great night!

Monday

We packed up and joined my mom and Jerry for lunch at Green Leaf before heading out. It's funny, we left pretty much the same time that we left to come to Baltimore, around 2:00. This time, however, we drove straight through! That's right, Arlo is a crazy nut and, other than about 2 1/2 hours when I drove to give him a break, drove the entire day. We arrived home at 3:30 in the morning, having gained the hour by going west. It was impressive. Fortunately, the cats hadn't destroyed anything and the house was in one piece.

All in all, great trip! Quick and tiring, but really fun. The only bummer was that I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see. Check out the animal love going down!

How I Spent My Stay-cation

Who would have thought that so much could be accomplished and it could still be relaxing? The one added day I tacked on to the Memorial Day weekend made it even that much more awesome! Bear with me, because this post is probably more for me than anyone else, as it's pretty mundane what I did. However, as this is the journal of my time in the midwest with my love, then I'm adding it! Plus, it's my first vacation day! So, here it is, my staycation:

Thursday night- I left a bit early from work (5:15 instead of 6:00) because my last client didn't show. Met up with Arlo at Bootleggers for Thursday night trivia. There we had awesome half-price appetizers and cheap beer and tried to answer the questions correctly. I also tried to not go and tell on a table that was, I thought, blatantly cheating with their cellphones. Arlo tried to be the voice of reason, but I had a difficult time hearing it. Finally, I settled with just using a technique I've watched my mom hone to perfection- the stare of hatred, of saying, "I see you doing that, Asshole." I'm not proud, but at least I was able to shake it off (mostly) and enjoy the rest of the night.
Friday- Slept in, had pancakes with Arlo, and went to the doctor (I know, not fun, but it was the only appointment time I could get), mailed a present to my brother, and came home. Arlo and I packed an awesome picnic lunch and ate at the lakefront. It was a beautiful sunny day. After lunch, we flew a kite. Arlo bought a kite after the weekend at the cabin, where he tried unsuccessfully to help the kids fly one. Kevin (and others, of course), I have to say, flying a kite is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We even flew it out of the car window for approximately 30 seconds before almost hitting the electrical wires and Arlo had to let it go. For a brief, shining moment though, awesome! After our picnic, we went to a coffee house and wrote a song together, and designed the new cat feeder coverall. As Arlo worked Friday night, I chilled, watched The Nanny Diaries (I'm not proud) and was as slug-like as possible.
Saturday- Went to work at the farm for our CSA, picking thistles for about 2 1/2 hours before the rain started. How awesome is this....on the route to our CSA is a cheese shop that puts out about 20 different cheese samples and also makes home-made icecream. We had all of the samples and split a cone. Sluggish with dairy products, Arlo chilled while I drove home. We were home for about 20 minutes and then off again! This time to the movies. We saw "I Love You, Man," which, while it dragged occasionally and was pretty predictable, made us crack up. Then, we went to Big Lots, came back home and had dinner. More TV and then sleep.
Sunday- Met Arlo's dad at Milager's, an awesome gardening store, to pick out stuff to put in his garden. Then, we went to visit Arlo's grandfather's gravesite and plant some flowers. After that, we picked up fried tacos from La Tapatia, a mainstay of Arlo's experience in Racine, and a delicacy that we will be sure to share with our next visitors, whoever they may be. After stuffing ourselves with deliciousness, it was time to garden! We planted all of the tomato plants, carrots, onions, and seeds of many varieties, and Arlo hit lumps of dirt with a plastic baseball bat. Successfully having started the garden, we headed home, or at least I did, because Arlo had to work again. That night was a relaxing night of more planting, plus laundry. Hey, I said it was productive, not exciting! :) Oh, but I did stay up until after 12 and Arlo was very proud of me when he got home from work and I was still up. Of course, I did crash about 10 minutes after he got home.
Monday- The final day of our vacation :( We started with a workout at the gym, followed by Arlo cutting his hair, bathing Marley, and cutting the lawn. I worked on a necklace for his mother's birthday, and sorted all of my spring/summer clothes. We drove down to Racine, visited Arlo's grandmother, went to Barnes and Nobles and Target, and then met his mom and Mary for dinner at The Chancery, where we had shoestring onion rings, awesome dinners, and scintillating conversation. Got home around 10:00, fell into bed and slept like crazy until the alarm went off at at 6:15.

Wow, that actually made me tired even writing all of that. It was an awesome stay-cation, and I'm looking forward to my next vacation, which is only about a week away (crazy!) to Baltimore!!!

So, tell me about your Memorial Day weekends. Anything fun?

See you soon!

P.S. I was going to add the movie of my cats eating out of their new, modified feeder, but Arlo's camera died in the middle of shooting and it seems that it didn't save any of the footage. You will have to wait just a little bit more (Andrej).

To-Do List Update

It's been an exciting last several weeks, with lots of fun stuff and some not-so-great stuff.

Two weeks ago, Arlo and I had our first day working at the CSA. We worked off 8 of our 25 hours, planting onions and weeding. The farm was really neat, and Laura, who runs it, showed us around and gave us an idea of the fruits and veggies we can expect this summer. It was a nice day, complete with a stop at a local cheese place for about 16 samples of cheese and fresh icecream. I think Arlo jmay go up more often now that he knows that the cheese stop is on the way. That night we saw a play with his father. It was very good, but also sad, because Arlo's grandfather is slowly fading right now, and the play was about a grown son and his dying father. The next day, Arlo went down to Racine to visit and I stayed here to work on our yard and work on the cat feeder. It was an extremely productive and busy day, and at the end, I had half of a front yard finished, a small vegetable garden in the backyard, and one semi-finished cat feeder. Throughout the week, I worked on it so that it would be finished in time to be able use it for this last weekend. Why? Because Arlo and I were going to be staying in a cabin near LaCresent, Wisconsin, where his sister lives.

This past weekend was so much fun! I got out of work as early as possible on Friday, and we headed West. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get there, and we made it just in time to unpack and meet his sister, Sally, and her boyfriend, Jamie, for a fish fry. Awesome fish fry!!! All of it was fantastic, and I found out that fish dipped in butter, while incredibly unhealthy, is freaking deliciously amazing. After dinner, Arlo and I headed back to the cabin. We hung out playing games and drinking and went to bed in the loft. The next day we took a great hike/walk around the nature preserve and relaxed before the craziness would begin. At around 1:30, it struck in the form of Sally, Jamie, and their kids Garrick, Nolan, and Lauren. We ate, played baseball in the field, looked for frogs, got into lots of mischief, and had a couple of melt-downs (mostly the kids). Arlo's mom and Mary came as well, and we went on a tour of a Norwegian homestead circa 1890. After that, dinner at the cabin and a fire! The kids made it to about 9:00 and then the grown-ups stayed around the fire for another several hours. It was really nice. The next day, breakfast, crazing packing and Arlo and I were left, alone, again. We stayed for a bit longer, then headed to visit his mom and Mary for Mother's Day on the way back to our place. Arlo felt sick, so it's wasn't a fun drive for him. I was pretty miserable about having to start work the next day. Other than that, I think we were both happy about the weekend.

Now it's back to the work week, although the weekend's just around the corner. Unfortunately, the cat feeder isn't complete, as I found out pretty quickly that they can still sneak food out by sticking their paws up the auger. So, I've decided, though this cuts back on cost efficiency of getting the one feeder, to build a box to go around the entire thing. Of course, they'll still try to get food, I'm just hoping that this way they'll be less successful.

We still have much to look forward to the next few weeks. We will be working at the CSA more, coming to Baltimore for a visit the weekend of June 5, going canoing with his mom and Mary in July (I think), Winnipeg Folk Festival (Yes, Kevin, of course there has to be a music festival), and Summerfest (the biggest music festival in the U.S., it's several weeks long and held each year in Milwaukee) in July as well (Yes, Kevin, another music festival).

Can't wait to see you all in June!!! Can't wait to have a couple of days off of work!!! Can't wait to have some warmer weather!!!!

Peace out, y'all!

My To-Do List

There have been some exciting developments in the last week or so! One, we had our first day where the temperature went above 70, and all of Wisconsin rejoiced. There were people out walking, riding bikes, babies smiling, the whole thing. Of course it lasted less than 24 hours and now it's back to being cold and kind of gloomy. Tonight we are actually expecting snow! :( However, that's not going to get my mood down, because two, I have a burgeoning to-do list that's awesome!! Behold, The List:

1. I ordered a new cat-feeder and I am going to try and put my love of carpentary and my love of twarting my cats from food together in the this brand new project. As this feeder was over $100, I thought it would be worthwhile (and fun) to try and use the feeder for two cats. So, I am going to be building a contraption that will allow food from the one chute to go into two bowls. This could be disaster or it could be the answer to all of my catfood prayers.
2. Arlo and I are going to be joining a CSA (Community Suported Agriculture). This means we will have fresh, seasonal vegetables all summer and into fall! And here's the best part- we get to work on a farm!!!! The one that we are joining has a "work share" where you can work off half of the cost of the CSA. It's only 25 hours and when we go together, we count both of our hours. I am so excited!!!! Laura, who runs it, said that we could be doing weeding, harvesting, building stuff, demolishing stuff (yay!), and working at the farmers' market (Arlo's excited about this task). In addition to all of the delivered stuff, we can also go and pick asparagus and raspberries anytime we want! So cool!
3. I will be trained to teach water aerobics! The other day, I asked an instructor at the YMCA why they don't have any water aerobics on the weekends, and she said that they have trouble finding instuctors. She asked if I would be interested, and despite my lack of any experience whatsoever, she said I could do it, and she could train me! So, not sure when I'm starting but I'm totally excited about doing this.
4. Arlo and I are planning a trip to go cabin camping for the weekend! We found a couple of different cabins and aren't sure which cabin or which weekend, but it's definitely happening.
We are going to see if his sister and her boyfriend and kids want to join as well. I've never been cabin camping, so I'm super-stoked.

I will keep you posted on how everything is progressing (an hopefully adding pictures).

So what are everyone else's plans for the Spring?

As always, miss you all dearly and hope all is going well.

Kevin, sorry about my lack of webcam, but didn't get a chance to get one on Sunday. However, it's on my list!! I'll let you know when it happens and we can Skype our brains out!

The light!

Two posts in one weekend?!?!? You must be joking! But I am not. I just wanted to share another lovely gift we got. Arlo's dad, Jerry, is a fantastic glass-blower, and after he made us several cool glasses and vases, I made a request. I asked him to make us a hanging light fixture. Much to my delight, he did it! He even got us this cool pendant kit to hang it. However, it was meant to go right into the ceiling, and I didn't think our landlords would like it if I just went and cut a 4-inch hold in the ceiling and started searching for wiring, so we had some amending to do in order to set up the light. Arlo's dad also made one for Sally, Arlo's sister, and she did the same thing, so she offered very helpful advice on how to do it. Basically, it just meant buying a swag-kit, you know like the hanging lamps that were popular in the 70's, and attaching it to the bulb outlet from the pendant kit. Considering neither of us have any electrical experience, I'd say we did a pretty good job. After we finished it, we celebrated our handy success by going to a yummy new restaurant, Palamino's, where we ate fried foods, drank beer, and watched the Cubs game. Wow, it's almost like Arlo's dating a dude.

The light is awesome and it not only gives the kitchen a pretty glow, it leaves a cool wave pattern on the floor because of the edges.

I am already thinking of new ways that Jerry can add to our collection!

P.S. The last picture has absolutely nothing to do with the light, but I think this is pretty much the cutest picture of Sidd that I have ever seen!

Night, y'all.

The Harf!

Today I received a lovely gift. Phay sent me a photo montage of the harf I made her for Christmas, but didn't actually finish until about a week ago. For those of you not in the know, a "harf" or "scrat" is a scarf-hat combo. When I finished, I added fleece to the inside of the harf to cut down on the Detroit wind, as I used a fairly loose "basket weave" stitch. I found a pattern for this online, made it Phay-like by doing it in a cool gray-scale yarn. So as to not drive myself nuts, I actually allowed myself to give it to her un-finished and then spent the next several months getting more yarn and finally completing it. I think it was worth the wait, and I think Phay agrees. For those of you in Maryland and Pennsylvania, you may not have the opportunity to wear something like this as your weather is finally getting warmer, for Phay and me, we still have a chance, as we could have weather that's below freezing for several weeks to come. So, I didn't feel too badly about sending it to her this late in the year.



Phay's really excited and shocked...what could this be?!?!

Anyway, I wanted you all to rejoice in Phay's montage as well. I scaled it down (as she sent 14 pics!) and chose my favs. Behold, the harf! How awesome does Phay look?!?! She rocks the harf!

Please note the handy re-use of a typical house-hold object to protect the harf in-transit!

I would now like to challenge you. Should you have any cool shots of you wearing/using/admiring things I have made for you throughout the years, please send them to me! I realized when talking with Phay today that I have made a crap-load of home-made gifts throughout the years. Most of my cool stuff went to friends and family. It's cool if you don't have easy access to the pics and so you can't send them. This is just a challenge should you choose to accept it.

Not much else to report right now. Just hanging out, watching TLC, sitting with the cats, while Arlo is bartending. After posting, it gets really exciting...I'm going to clean the bathroom! I miss you all and hope everyone is well, happy, and warm.

Oh yeah, one more thing....Happy birthday to my mom, although she doesn't read this, because she didn't know about it. At first this was on purpose, but then I just forgot to tell her. Just wanted everyone else to know that yay, it's my mom's birthday!

Night y'all

Okay, I lied, one more thing. Saw Brandi Carlisle last night. Freakin awesome concert! Originals and covers of Hallelujah (some of you have heard this on 88.1), Let It Be (which makes me think of Letter B from Sesame Street), and Folsom Prison Blues. Very cool. Arlo, does this make you proud?