texans via chicago with chicken

just a quick update so that i don't fall an entire weekend behind with respect to our travels.

the trip to texas was fantastic, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was finally getting to meet cole, who was born only a few months after are last trip to the south. josh and becca let us be a part of cole's first go at a swing, which was pretty exciting. you may be able to tell that cole was relatively unimpressed by the phenomenon. this was shocking because (a) the rest of us had built up the experience in our own minds as one of potentially epic proportions and (b) because 99.9% of our trip was filled with cole-smiles and cole-laughter. no complaints from this end, though. i fully enjoyed all of my cole time in texas.

not discounting the warm weather relative to my new wisconsin roots, the second reason that the texas trip was the subject of so much hype was because we got in some high quality time with josh and becca. though over the years these interactions have consistently involved some sort of extended time period of listening to music, this trip was even more exciting given that becca had scored us all tickets to the wilco show at austin city limits.  we weren't technically there for the taping (which occurred the night before), but we did get to watch a pretty awesome show. i got scolded during the show for having my phone out and so don't have too many photos from the show itself. however, i did regain enough courage to get some of the encore with nick lowe (you'll see in the video why i was slightly confused that phones were not allowed. . .). in any case, i'm not sure if this is one of the encores that kara got to see at the wilco show that she went to in des moines a few nights later (they did 3 at the austin show), but it is wilco joining nick lowe for a super-cool rendition of his hit "cruel to be kind."

Wilco at Austin City Limits

also, perhaps because of the camera-photo-recording debacle, the only picture i have of matt and i at the show is this one - where my eyes are partially closed. for the record, the guy who scolded me was super nice. i'm just sad that he screwed up my picture-taking plans. matt looks adorable, though. and you can tell that the venue was totally awesome.

see? i'm an optimist.

now we are back in almost-below-freezing wisconsin, bundling up and trying to get a lot of work done during the days. maybe because of the cold weather, we've been pretty good about making dinner and staying in at night. we effortlessly made this new deliciousness in the crock pot yesterday after finding that the recipe called only for chicken, salsa, and cream of chicken soup. delicious things are always appreciated. things that are both delicious and easy are like extra special treats.

also, consider yourself warned that it may be time to put your thinking caps back on. matt and i are almost convinced that - give that we travel more than any two people ever should - we should assemble a yelp account where we can rate, comment on, and leave recommendations regarding all of the places we visit on our excursions. only thing precluding the account at this point? you got it. . . a clever name :)

we're headed to iowa tomorrow for the jill + josh extravaganza. will report back soon.
love to all until then.