The Blackford Three

The Blackfords were here for a visit this past weekend and finally I have something fun to post about! Of course, that makes it sound as though life here with Arlo is awful and boring and not worth writing about, which it most certainly is not. However, unlike him, I cannot seem to get myself motivated to post unless it's something pretty big. I could write about seeing Rachel Yamagata (which was great, BTW, despite the sea of talkers around us) or finishing Phay's harf or scrat, but do I? No. I push it aside for other things, like eating and sleeping. But now, 9:00, I've eaten, it's too early to sleep, and because food is just sitting in my belly, I don't particularly want to exercise. Perfect time to blog.

As you probably figured out, because you are pretty clever and savvy, the earlier post this weekend was a ploy to be silly. Way to go, Drej-bo and Kevin, to turn it around on me. :) It definitely served its purpose, I feel, though, because I found it almost as amusing as when I found 37 comments on one post.

For information on Rachel Yamagata or how I finally completed (but have yet to send) Phay's harf, please give me a call. Otherwise, what follows is a detailed, but not too detailed description of when the Blackfords came to town. Pictures are going to have to wait, as they are on Arlo's camera, which is way in my car, which is way in the garage, and even if I did get it, I have no idea how to download the pics onto his computer. So deal with it. Awesome pics are to follow.

Friday

We picked A & B up at noon, and I spent the first few minutes being in awe of Amanda's burgeoning belly. So cool! After getting their bags, we took them back to our place first to drop off things and do the dime-tour (not nearly as long as the Gutberlet dime-tour, in fact, we probably shouldn't charge that much). Then, it was to Beans and Barley, which is seeming to be the first place we take any guests (read Wendy, and then my mom and Marylou). Great conversation, first of many, focusing on what our life has been like here. Later that day, after hanging out and I believe watching some of a basketball game (like conversations, first of many), we headed down to Racine for a fish fry. Amanda specifically requested a fish fry, and I think this was the primary motivation for getting here by Friday night. They weren't disappointed, I don't think, and to boot they got to meet Arlo's dad, Jerry, and he joined us for the fish fry. After dinner, we went to Woodman's, uber-grocery store with an attached liquor store the size of Beltway Liquors, where Bill was educated about Wisconsin beer by Arlo and we picked up supplies for the weekend. For the remainder of the evening, more basketball. Oh, and baby's first present, a onsie that says, "Daddy and I agree: Mommy's the Boss." So awesome. BTW, I predict that baby will be one big tipper.

Saturday

Calling for snow in the late forecast, we decided to hit the town early and show them around Milwaukee. Oh, I guess I should start by saying that we started off the the proper way in Wisconsin, with lots and lots of kringle. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed to Bayview, where we checked out the shops and had fried cheese curds (fresh cheese nugget things that have been deep-fried) and burgers. Bill was craving some custard, but we thought we would hold off. Arlo and I weren't sure of the quality of custard at Bella's Fat Cat, but we know how delicious it is at Kopp's and Leon's. So, onto more touring. We drove around Milwaukee downtown, checking out Usinger's for summer sausage, driving through Marquette's campus, and driving by the lake to look at the ginormous houses and admire the beautiful lakefront. (I'll check it out!)We took a break at Alterra's coffee for more conversation and warm beverages, with some crossword puzzle action. By the way, the weather is getting colder and colder by this point, with snow definitely in the forecast. We ended the night by getting custard from Leon's to go (mint and chocolate, two of my favorites) with Bill in the backseat, eating a vanilla custard in a cone, as it is starting to sleet. The funny thing was that there was a line at Leon's. Crazy Wisconsiners. We ended the night with home-made vegetable stir-fry, more basketball, and wine and beer, except for Amanda, who was rocking the hot apple cider. Overall, awesome, yet very tiring day for all, as demonstrated by me falling asleep at around 10:30. Of course, the others, including Amanda, managed to stay up a little bit longer (but not much!) Oh yeah, and at this point, it is actually snowing.

Sunday

I woke up early to find 6 1/2 inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground. Tried to get it all shovelled without waking anyone, but then got some back-up in the form of Bill and Arlo, just when I was getting ready to give up. We rewarded ourselves with kringle. Barely finished digesting the kringle, we headed to the beer tour and tasting at Sprecher, something that Arlo and I have meant to do since we got here. It was fun, though we kept getting the stink-eye from the tour guide, mostly b/c I couldn't keep my mouth shut. After the tour, we got to have beer and all of the free soda we wanted (they have 8 varieties). Amanda probably got the short end of the stick here, because she couldn't have beer and doesn't particularly like most soda, but I think she was having fun none-the-less, and fairly amused by Bill. After the tasting, we were too full for the lunch we had planned at Mader's german restaurant, so we picked up brats from the Outpost and took them back home for lunch (and more basketball!) :) Sadly it was not too much more time before they had to be back on that plane and heading home. Bill got properly snookered on more beer and became almost belligerent in his quest for more custard, but somehow we got him into the car and on his way.

I missed them as soon as we pulled away from the airport and the house was really quiet after they had left. It didn't help that I now had lots of work to do, and did not at all look forward to the next day at work. But I'm so glad they came and got to see our place and spend time exploring Milwaukee with us.

Time to walk Marley and hit the hay. No exercise tonight, it seems. Might as well finish my wine and get a piece of kringle then. Good night, y'all.

I would say good luck to Bill to post first, but it seems to be an impossible task, as it would seem that 10:30 on a Tuesday night is not prime internet time for anyone else but Andrej. Later!

How Do I Know?

If my friends really love me? How do I know if they really care? How do I know if my friends really love me?

How will I know? If people post a comment. And the sooner, the better friends they are.

Just throwing it out there.

Cat Owner's Lament

So, it may seem unimportant to most, but I have to share this (plus, it gives Andrej and Bill a chance to fight).... After almost two years, my cats (Fizgig mostly) figured out the cat feeder. So sad! Arlo shared the news with me a week or so ago, saying that Fiz had gotten it partially open and was pawing out the food when he caught him, Sid watching, fascinated but not about to fight for the food. Arlo pushed the partition to the side, thus impeding Fiz's progress. We both held our breaths, waiting to see if Fiz would figure it out again. He didn't. He tried several times for the next couple of days to get it open to no avail, though the feeders were moved all around the room. But after a week or so, he figured it out again and now he can break into the feeder in about 30 seconds. Damn! So, now I'm trying something before shelling out more money for two more feeders. The behavior modification plan is two-fold. One, I am not putting food in the sections so that if they break into it, they get no reward. Two, I am taping the section so try as they might, they can't get into the next section. Of course, this could backfire, as they also love eating tape, which could cause some interesting effects. We'll see how it goes. Oh, it's a sad, sad day. So, it's no 6-month-review, but it's something.

Mom Takes Wisconsin By Storm!

I had been planning on doing a whole "6 Month Review" post, but alas, 1. I'm tired, 2. I have a lot of work to catch up on, and not much time, and 3. There are other things to write about. So, I'm putting off my review in favor of a more timely subject- my mom's visit to Wisconsin!
First of all, I had no clue. She completely caught me by surprise. Supposedly, she's been planning this since Arlo and I surprised her for Thanksgiving. She picked this weekend because my birthday's on Tuesday and she wanted to come to visit as close as possible to then.
Arlo asked me if I could get off early on Friday, and I was able to, as one of my client's cancelled and I typically have an early day on Friday. I was not suspicious, as I thought Arlo was surprising me with something sweet, as he often does (one benefit of being with such a spontaneous and thoughtful man). He wouldn't tell me what was happening, but told me to take the GPS. After work, further instructions: Go to Beans and Barley (or Beef and Barley, if you're Jess and Kevin). When I walked in, he asked me to close my eyes, which did make me suspicious. I mean, come on! I've seen Beans and Barley before and what could possibly be different? When I opened my eyes, there was my mom with her best friend Marylou! I believe my words were, "Are you kidding me?!?!" I was shocked and so excited! No idea! In Wisconsin! So weird! We sat down and had an awesome lunch (mmmm....chili), and then took them to see the house. Fortunately, Arlo cleaned the place like a madman earlier that day so that it was completely presentable. They liked it and surprisingly my mom had no negative comments about it. We dropped them off at their hotel to check in, with the plan to pick them up around 4 for the fish fry.
Quintessential to the Wisconsin trip- The Friday Fish Fry. We are planning to take Bill and Amanda when they came, would have taken Wendy, but she's a vegetarian, and would take you if you visited, the fish fry is a weekly tradition (though we don't go weekly, b/c weekly fried fish would not bode well for my figure.) We took them to an extra-special location, down in Racine, Cliff's Boathouse. It's all wood paneling, Brewers and Packers paraphernalia, smell of fried food, beer served in a can, and only about 10 tables in the place. We ordered five fish fries, and I was pleased that my mom didn't try to order something different (or at least broiled). Arlo's dad joined us, which was cool, as he hadn't met my mom yet. We had a great time, Mom and Marylou ogled at the waiter, and we ate so early that we finished at like 6:30. It ended up being an early night as they were exhausted (as was I), and Arlo had to work at the Yardarm.
The next day we woke up to a snow storm. It was really coming down! But we had guests to entertain, so we weren't going to stay in. We picked them up and headed out. We ate at Karl Ratsches, which is an old German restaurant. Awesome food, lot of fun, and lots of snow waiting for us when we got outside. We headed to Potawatami Casino where Marylou got her slots fix, Arlo and I spent $1 each on like 30 minutes of slot poker, and we all had fun. Then it was back into the snow to look around Milwaukee as best we could. We ended up at Trocadero, a French restaurant we like. We had an awesome cheese plate (you have to eat cheese in Wisconsin), drinks and crepes with sweet potato fries (oh crap! Am I approaching Andrej-level descriptions? Kevin, feedback please.) After dinner, Arlo dropped us off at their hotel room for some lady bonding, and we watched House Bunny (okay movie, but pretty silly).
Today was their last day here. Whirlwind trip! We went to the Milwaukee Art Museum this morning and then took them to downtown Bayview, where they picked up cheese and more kringel for their trip. Then we just hung out at the house for a bit before dropping them off at the airport.
And now here I am. Almost six o'clock, and I'm tired and not feeling great (bit of a cold really), but it was a great weekend and such an incredible surprise. It made me pretty homesick as well, but it was really cool showing off Milwaukee and the home and life that Arlo and I have built for ourselves. I think they both had a fun time and also now have a better understanding of how things are going here. As of right now, there are no plans in the works to visit Maryland soon, as the next trip will be to Florida. The next big upcoming event is the Bill and Amanda (with child) visit of March '09. We can't wait!
Alright, best be going. Looking forward to see who can post a comment first. Will it be Bill, Andrej, or another contender for the premier spot?!?!? We shall see!

55 Reasons Why I Love Wisconsin

Driving home from work the other day, I started thinking about all of the things I love about living in Wisconsin. I decided to compile a list, not in any specific order, of those things, from restaurants and shops, to events, qualities, and places. I've added descriptions for most, and I would like to add pictures as well, if I can get the time to do it. As most of you know, my job during the week makes it pretty hard to post much, so I'm going to try to post more on the weekends. Especially now that the holidays are over, Arlo and I have more free time on the weekends, so hopefully I will be able to post more in the future. With the temperature dipping back down below zero soon, there will be very little reason to go out.

Without further ado, the list:

1. Kringle- that awesomely delicious pastry made pretty much only in Racine, Wisconsin, Arlo and I particularly love the cranberry, apple, and apricot variety. It's flat and round, like a sweet dessert wreath.

2. Triskele's- yummy restaurant that Arlo and I have been to twice and would like to hit more often, they have all you can eat mussels and awesome seafood.

3. Cheesecurds- Basically really fresh cheese that hasn't been pressed into blocks yet, so it's like small, unformed hunks of cheese. They're sold in sandwich bags and squeak when you bite it if it's really fresh.

4. South Shore Farmer's Market- As much as I loved the farmer's market in Baltimore, this one kicks ass! It takes place in a big park on the lakefront and with much more space, there's less bottlenecking. The prices are decent, you can sample a lot of the food, and they sell Sven's coffee, eggs on ciabatta bread, and tamales. Oh, and did I mention it takes place on the lakefront?

5. Changes/Robert's- A restaurant right up the street, this was called Roberts, but they've changed their name, though now it has both names on the outside. Inside it is all dark wood and a fireplace, with frequent karaoke and our favorite bartender who gives you a hard time when you don't know what to order. They also have really good fish and broasted chicken.

6. Fish Fries, in general- Pretty much every place has a Friday Fish Fry, inexpensive meal of (sometimes) all you can eat cod or other variety of fish, fried obviously, plus coleslaw, rye bread, and potato pancakes (if it's done well). My favorite fish fry is Cliff's Boathouse in Racine, WI.

7. Milwaukee Art Museum- Only been there once, but it was really cool and I want to go again.

8. Bradford Beach- A beach like 15 minutes away, who wouldn't love that?!?!? And with the lake being so big, it feels like you're at the ocean. Wouldn't go there anytime soon, but it's something to look forward to.

9. Trocadero- Fancy restaurant that has an awesome cheese and fruit plate and weekly wine specials.

10. Fasten Collective- A FANTASTIC clothing and accessories store that has free craft sessions monthly. This month we are making roses out of duct tape. Shout out to Wendy!

11. Bayview, Kinnickinnic Avenue- A lot like Hampden, but without the racism and drug problem. It's filled with kitschy shops, coffee shops, and second-hand stores, along with Fasten.

12. Sven's- Located on the above Kinnickinnic Avenue, a cool coffeeshop about 10 minutes away. Sven's also has fantastic rootbeer floats and homemade soups.

13. Tippecanoe Public Library- Within walking distance, a tiny library that manages to still have what you need, and the people there are really nice.

14. Tippecanoe True Value- I discovered this early on and have loved it ever since. It's tiny, and has everything you need, like the library, and the guys who work there helped me take apart my table base when the screws were rusted shut.

15. The Nomad- Really cool bar with live trivia, and much better atmosphere than the Charred Rib!

16. The Pabst- Beautiful theater that has cool concerts, some for only $10!

17. Turner Hall- Another live music venue (No, Kevin, I am not typing this from a music festival), neat old ballroom turned concert hall with cocktail tables and chairs (I love sitting for music!)

18. The numerous parks all around, within bicycling distance, some with public pools.

19. South Shore YMCA... WHAT UP, Y!?!

20. The Dells- Kind of like Ocean City, only on a series of lakes, not the ocean, with indoor water parks for the winter.

21. Koz's- a bar with "minibowling," 8-foot lanes, wooden pins hand-set each round, and I hit strikes the first 8 rounds!

22. American Players Theater/Spring Green- An outdoor theater in the middle of nowhere, so you can watch Shakespeare under the stars.

23. Outpost- a co-op, where, among many good things, one can find Bayview Brew, the coffee that Arlo brought home on Thanksgiving.

24. Jalapeno Loco- Awesome Mexican food in the mid-west...who knew?!?

25. Amelia's- site of the All-you-can-eat crab legs or fried chicken. Perfect for Arlo and me.

26. The Lakefront- So beautiful, and we have one section of it about 10 minutes away!

27. Kohlrabi- This yummy root vegetable that Arlo turned me on to, it is great with salt and pepper.

28. Woodman's- This ginormous grocery store that has pretty much anything you could want.

29. Festivals!- Milwaukee is like the festival capital of America...at this huge year-round venue, they have Summerfest, 11 days of hundreds of bands and thousands of people, plus every ethnicity's festival, and other random festivals.

30. Waves- Restaurant down in Racine that has all of these wacky combination dishes that remind you of the food made on Top Chef.

31. Ma Fisher's- 24-hour diner that Arlo and I went to on Halloween.

32. Landmark Bowl- Bowling, darts, and alcohol.

33. Beans and Barley- Healthfood store and awesome restaurant connected. Pretty much the best chili I've had.

34. Oriental theater- Like the Charles, only more gilded and less dark and dingy. Not that I don't love the Charles!

35. New Glarus Spotted Cow- So, yes, you can get this beer at Beltway, but it's made here!

36. Gays Mills Apple Festival- Funny name, but it's a lot of fun! A festival that celebrates the deliciousness of a perfect fruit.

37. Milwaukee Public Market- Kinda like Lexington, only cleaner and less crowded.

38. El Rey Chips- Some of you have had these miraculous tortilla chips, made here in Milwaukee

39. Yardarm- Arlo's current employer, it's a boating-inspired bar and restaurant.

40. Being close to Chicago- only 2 hours away!

41. The big clock- I think it's the largest 4-sided clock in the U.S. and it's a good landmark to figure out where you are, kind of like the Domino's Sugar sign!

42. Walleye- delicious fish that is caught in Lake Michigan.

43. EE Sane- a Thai-Laotian restaurant with fantastic pad thai, in the midwest!

44. Brandy Oldfashions- You can't really get these on the East coast, a mix of brandy, bitters, sprite, cherries and oranges, with a dash of sugar.

45. The accents!- How can you not LOVE them!!??!?!

46. Honeycrisp apples- Okay, so you can get these on the East coast, but they are grown here!

47. Kopp's frozen custard- Like soft-serve icecream, only twice the fat and twice the calories. Delicious! Oh, and they have butterburgers, burgers with a pat of butter cooked into the center.

48. World Market- I think these are elsewhere, but mostly in the midwest...they are sort of like Pier One, but they also sell food and wine!

49. Helpful Service People- Sounds like an oxymoron, but here it isn't....people will thank you for complaining here....and fix it without an issue! Not only that, but people will ask, "So, whattcha workin on?" if you buy wood, glue, and paint.

50. Deb and John's Plainfield Pub- The half-house/half-bar in our neighborhood, it's plastered with Packer's stuff and they had free snacks for the Packer's games. Free snacks!

51. Waking up each morning to Arlo.

52. Our house- it's perfect. Enough space, toasty warm, and filled with our stuff...oh, and color on the walls!

53. Our backyard- huge, space for Marley to run and a ginormous tree. Oh, and we have a fire pit!

54. The general lack of judgment here- You can wear a sweatshirt anywhere from the grocery store to a restaurant, and no one will look at you funny. Love it!

55. Being close to Arlo's family- We get to see his grand-parents and father pretty often and we are only 3 hours from his mother, sister, niece, and nephew.

There you go! 55 things that I love. I could also do a list like this for Maryland, and friends and family would be first on the list. What would be on your list?

New Email Address

So, this is pretty silly to post, but I have a new email address, as my umaryland one is finally defunct. This makes sense, since I have not been a student there for over two years. My new email address I've actually had for a while, but never used, beyond using it as my Match email address. Andrej will be happy, as it's a gmail account. Anyway, it's easy to remember, I hope, as I have edited it off this post, based on everyone's recommendations.

Even though this isn't a real post, I do expect a response, at least from Bill, in order to make up for the fact that he MISSED THE LAST ONE! That's right, he missed it!

That's pretty much all I got. I'm actually going to sleep now, and this week has been pretty uneventful other than work, so not much else to add. I hope all of you on the east coast are well and happy. I heard you are getting some snow and sleet today. We had about 3 inches, a mere dusting. I think we may have a couple more inches overnight. But this isn't a weather post...what am I talking about?!? I think I'm starting to ramble now, so it's probably best just to go. Later skaters!

The Experience of Verbal Impotence

For the last three days, I have been an involuntary mute. Last Monday, after a glorious trip to Baltimore sandwiched between two frustrating airline trips, I came down with the Plague. Or merely the respiratory, non-lethal version of it. I'm pretty sure that this man behind me on the plane gave it to me. He was hacking the entire trip, from delayed departure to the eventual late landing. I think it was just waiting, incubating in me all day Sunday. Anyway, starting Monday afternoon, I began to feel icky. This quickly turned to really shitty and remained that way right up until Friday. New Year's Eve was spent napping and crochetting, while Arlo made dinner. This was actually probably the highlight of the week, as he made a cheese and fruit plate, salad, crab legs, and potatoes. That man is a cooking machine! And bless his heart, he tried so hard to make this a fun night for me, while I was sitting, zombie-like, waiting to just go to bed. At this point, I had my voice still, but pretty much just used it to complain about how icky I felt. We were supposed to go to visit his mother and Mary, sister, niece, and nephew, but I was in no shape to travel. So, instead, we watched Stepbrothers and I napped until the stroke of midnight. We fell asleep shortly thereafter and I coughed my way into the new year. The next day was spent in a blur of napping, crafting, and watching movies (Wall E and I can't remember for the life of me what the other one was). Friday I went to work, grateful that I didn't have clients, as my voice was starting to get shaky at best. However, it wasn't until Friday afternoon when true mutism hit.

We had decided on Thursday that since we hadn't made it to his mom's and Mary's place for NYE, we were going to head there for the weekend. So, we hit the road straight from work, making it there for a late Fish Fry Friday night. We went to this great place, Club Oasis, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, hence the name. I tried to be healthy, ordering my fish broiled, only to find, yet again (I really should learn my lesson here), my fish swimming in a broiling pan of butter. Wisonsinites sure love their saturated fats! Anyway, it was lovely, and I spent the time listening, trying occasionally to participate with a nod or a short, whispered phrase, all while I sucked back tea so that I could get through the night with a minimum of coughing. This pretty much describes the rest of the trip. Others talking, interacting, and me, trying to stay involved but feeling so not myself. I never realized how much of myself and the way I am is wrapped up in talking. I wanted desperately to add to everything people were saying, to make comments like, "Oh, isn't that cute," when Lauren, Arlo's niece, was putting on her Dora outfits and demanding candy, and to respond to people's questions, especially when they were called to me from the other room. Although it was a fun trip, and except for the cough and mutism I was feeling fine, I felt like something was missing since I didn't have my voice. I felt rude to others because I couldn't adequately thank them for presents or respond to what they said. I felt pathetic because I had to make Arlo become my translator, tapping him on the shoulder and asking him to repeat loudly what I was saying in his ear. I know this may sound melodramatic, but I felt all of this because of the power of expression and the feeling of impotence when one doesn't have it. This is the most I have said in days, and it feels so good to get it out. Today I finally started writing things down to Arlo because I wanted to say something more than yes and no. I'm nervous about this week, because it's my first week of seeing a full client caseload and I have no voice. How can one do therapy with no voice?!?!?! The only thing I'm thinking is that this could be some kind of new, avant garde kind of therapy where the therapist says literally nothing and the client does all of the work. Could work. However, not sure it's the safest thing when working with paranoid schizophrenics. (Sigh.) Well, I should probably go. Arlo's going to be home soon with Marley, fresh from the baby-sitters. I am washing the sheets, something my mom always did when we were getting over being sick. Then, I'm going to think of something for dinner and try to enjoy the last few blissful hours of non-work part of my week.

As for my visit to Baltimore, here's the brief re-cap. I was able to spend Christmas Eve at Underwood with the Hollers, Phay, and Andrej, spent some time being entertained by Matthew and Grace who stopped by for the festivities, and wake up Christmas day surrounded by friends, though the group was quite a bit smaller than in previous years. Christmas day with the Brotmans was lovely, and my mom had all of our extended family for the evening, with more present-giving mayhem. The next day was pretty much spent with mom, shopping, hanging out, eating, and Friday night with the Blackfords, enjoying Taco Night. We had a great time, and Manders gave me a fabulous gift- the most beautiful hand-knitted mittens I have ever seen. Kevin, I'm glad you weren't there to rub it in my face how fantastic they were. :) And then Saturday, I went out for breakfast with Wendy and Tamira, got a fantastic hand-made bag from Wendy with a half-naked cowboy theme, and came home just in time to pack and head out. Another whirlwind trip to Baltimore. I don't have another trip planned right now, but I'm hoping that the next time I come home it will be for longer, or for good. :) And to everyone planning a visit, go ahead and start looking a flights now, but be forewarned that February and March can have some nasty weather.

Anyway, as I said before, I should be going. I hope all of you had a fantastic New Year's Eve, and I wish you all a happy and healthy year. Regarding my experience with involuntary mutism, it has left me with the following observations: 1. I talk a lot in my everyday life. 2. Much of what I have to say really isn't necessary, and often redundant, for, if I wait long enough, other people will say the exact same thing, and 3. Arlo asks a lot of questions.