Follow-up and words of wisdom

this isn't a full-scale blog entry per se, but i did have two things to add from today. the first is that i somehow forgot to mention that during my travels back i ended up in the airport sitting back-to-back with a man who was transporting. . . birds. yep, some sort of noisy, crate-like contraption filled with what i assume were baby chicks (although at this point, i think that everyone knows i am a terrible identifier of animals, despite dr. weihe's best efforts and a modest A- in my "diversity of life" class ["but paul you say. . . "] only karen will understand that reference, but the amount that she will appreciate it makes it totally worth it. . . ). as you'll notice by the picture, too much noisy chirping results in some sort of pop-can-crate-resembling lid being closed over said carrier contraption. i'm sure those baby chicks learned their lesson.

the second point - more a passing along of words of wisdom - come from a friend of mine (and amazing writer), who posted a blog today about the continuing need for us to think carefully about the words we use when we're talking. even if we think we're being casual, words have real meanings and taking a second to think about what it is that you mean vs. what you are saying can save a number of people hurt feelings and heartache. her post is here, and was (i think) inspired by another beautifully written piece written and posted here (make sure you read all the way to the bottom on both, not only because the message is both well-articulated and important, but also because you are rewarded with pictures of adorable children). i know that a few years ago, a couple of my nieces & nephews heard me correct them on the usage of this term. i think these writings articulate better than i ever have where such corrections come from. this reminds me of another choose your words carefully campaign currently making its rounds on tv. . .

okay, back to work. i'm thinking of rewarding myself with a baby ruth in a few more minutes. . .

happy new blogyear

Madison's first snow back in December

i can't believe that it's already been 4 weeks since my last post. although i kind of can given the way that december flew by. i kind of keep forgetting that classes are out, it's winter, there's a new year, etc. maybe it's been the lack of snow (save for today, of course). or perhaps it's been the lack of lack of work (yeah. . .take a minute with that one). or maybe it was the insane travel schedule between october and now. whatever it is, there has been a strange sentiment to this holiday. though going home for Christmas and spending the last week and half in ohio were no less wonderful than any other year.

Hawkeye Slippers

the time at home was great. there's something about going home, as everyone knows. there is also something about being able to drive home (rather than travel there on a plane) that is also pretty delightful. that's been pretty great this year. i only spent a few days at home this year, both because a lot of stuff is going on in the lab (note: one needs to be extremely productive in the year before applying for jobs. . .) and because i don't need to go 6-8 months in between trips home anymore, which kind of rocks. my sister amy is still in florida, so i didn't get to see her or her family, but i did get to see mom and dad, dy, kassi, gabe, and izacc. presents were opened, games were played, and lots (LOTS!) of food was eaten. i really loved all of my thoughtful gifts this year, but best present had to be these oversized, stuffed slippers that kassi gave to my dad. both because she she bought them and because he wore them. which generally equates to two of the best people and one of the best gifts ever.

i spent a few days working back in madison before heading to ohio. i actually flew out the same day that a bunch of badger fans were headed to the bowl game. everyone at the airport was kind of adorable. lots of extra signs were up to help people (although this girl found them to make everything way more confusing at 5 am), everyone everywhere was wearing red, and amazingly excited and peppy airport workers were setting up a makeshift bloody mary bar/baked goods stand one gate over from mine. i can't imagine wanting a bloody mary or a cinnamon roll before 8 am, but i appreciate the sentiment.

matt and i really didn't do much in ohio, which it turned out was just the time together that we both needed. we did spend a few nights with some of his coworkers, i met another of his high school friends during new years eve, and we (of course) tried our hand at a few new recipes. matt had found a recipe for spring rolls and gotten some peanut sauce from the local grocery store. as it turns out, spring rolls are really hard to. . . well, roll. as it turns out, those little wrappers are really sticky. or maybe you all already knew that. i did not. and although i tried several different techniques, i never quite perfected it. the way to go may have been matt's way of selecting a single technique and sticking with it - trying to get it right. his ended up looking slightly better than mine, i think. but the pad thai that i put together later that week also looked and tasted pretty good. so. . . i would say that we're even, right? although i don't have a picture with them that is as adorable as this one of matt and the finished spring rolls. *ho hum*.

the only truly unfortunate part of the trip (aside from having to leave, of course) was that right around friday i started developing my first cold of the winter. it was pretty spectacular friday and saturday, which probably made me less fun than i might have been otherwise on the day that we went to lancaster with peggy, but thankfully ebbed a bit on monday so that my head didn't explode on the flight home. i'm not going to lie, it's been stuffy over the course of the last few days, but i'm hoping that i'm on my way to bouncing back after avoiding going out in the wintery mess today (and yes, that parking space that i rented two months ago is totally paying for itself right now). so, keep your fingers crossed.

Winter = Veggie Chili!

now i have several weeks of just being a person and working for the next few weeks. for some reason, this sounds kind of delightful to me. i need to go get groceries at some point, but i'm not interested in all of the work that it would take me to dig my car out right now. if i ever didn't think that public transportation was important for environmental reasons, the conveniences that i have been provided by the bus system in madison would be enough to convince me. the only problem tends to be that i buy giant containers of water (my tapwater. . . and apparently all of the tapwater on the isthmus. . . is gross) that i keep in my fridge - and these are not things that i want to schlep around on the bus.

also, i think most of you know this, but i definitely bought my wedding dress last month. it's beautiful, i love it, it was on sale, and after a brief moment in which i thought it had slipped through my fingers, i bought it (or rather, mom and dad bought it. thanks mom and dad!) so, now it has been added to the things that i'm hoping is covered by my renter's insurance.

okay, i think that is a long enough post for now. plus, the only picture that i have left is the one that matt took of the my hair from the back so that i could see what it looked like (yeah. . . i asked him if he was still sure that he wanted to get married and he said yes :) EXCEPT to say happy birthday to my big sister, dyanna. how often do i actually post on someone's birthday?!

it's going to be a(nother) big year. happy 2012, everyone!

matt in madison part deux

Photo (and laughter) courtesy of Nick Kuennen

believe it or not, i made my last out of town trip today for the next week and a half. this will be the longest that i've stayed in town, i think, since karen came to see me the first weekend in november (seriously. . . i just double-checked to make sure that is true and it totally is). so, i've picked up what didn't get put away over the last few days, made sure i'm ready to hit the ground running at work tomorrow, and am now settled into my oversized chair half-watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reruns, updating the blog, and drinking one glass of water after another (i know, i know. . .this is the perfect situation for a glass of red wine, but it is so dry in here after not running the humidifier all day, just the thought of it is almost enough to cause a coughing fit. so water it is).

Jill & Josh

you've seen the photos and heard a brief recap of the texas trip. the time since then was largely spent at the festivities of the parsons-payne wedding in good old pella, iowa.  i actually had a meeting on friday morning (the day of the rehearsal dinner) and walked out of the meeting (early), out of the waisman center, and into the car that matt had pulled up to the back door. it was almost like an exciting getaway, if an exciting getaway involved warning people that you had to leave early and then driving for five hours.

Jill

the wedding was much more exciting than the "getaway". matt got in almost a full day of work on saturday while we did hair, makeup, pictures, etc. i, on the other hand got to hang out with this beautiful lady. you almost think you'd hate her, don't you? because she can't possibly be as smart and sweet as she is beautiful? well, as disgustingly impossible as it seems, she totally is, and those three things are only the tip of the iceberg of the insane number of things that make her so incredible. so, needless to say, being involved in the whole day was pretty great. also probably needless to say, by the time we walked across the street to our hotel at the end of the night, we were completely exhausted. and kind of still are.

tired or not, though, it was really great having matt around for so many days in a row. this is probably good news considering we actually *are* hoping to be living in the same city at some point during our own marriage. this was also good news because for some reason this week involved a lot of getting things off of high shelves. i didn't even need to get my step stool out because matt was here. what a guy :)

Roman Candle Pizza

even though we totally like the pizza place next door to me, i really wanted to show matt the cute pizza place in the williamson street district, which is incredibly close to where i live and one of my favorite areas of madison. despite the crazy schedule, we found time to go just before leaving for pella (and then ordered delivery when we got back and were too tired to move). isn't it adorable?! it's so tiny - my camera is zoomed in, but there are probably less than 20 tables in the entire place - but it's just wonderfully quaint. AND they have a spicy pizza sauce. AND they're "beta testing" a thin crust pizza (which we ordered both times). i'm so glad that matt liked it. and i will say that he deserved to have pizza twice after being a sport about trying the homemade tofu pad thai that i cooked. even though it was really good (he put it on the "i would eat this again" list), i know it's not entirely in his wheelhouse. so, props for that. and i might have enjoyed both pizza occurrences as well. fiancée perk, i guess :)

i have to admit that the other pretty awesome perk of the week was the excuse to work from home for the past few days. i couldn't so much last week because of all of the meetings that were on my schedule, but if you walked into my apartment during work hours anytime since monday, you would've seen me at my desk, matt on my couch, and heard a steady hum of sports center in the background. i'm a fan of working from home in the winter, anyway (why go out in the cold if you don't have to?!), but it was extra great when lunch or dinner time would roll around and i could wander into the next room and chat spend it with matt. not to mention that after sharing an office for the last six years, i'm used to having someone around to bounce thoughts and ideas off of. i haven't fully gotten used to not having that anymore now that i have an office of my own.

but tomorrow it is back to work on campus. i am actually working on several papers right now, so i could probably continue to work from home, but i feel like i should at least make an appearance so that nobody thinks i've dropped off the face of the earth. the rest of this week, weekend, and next week should be filled with productivity. this will, of course, be followed by a drive home, drive back to madison, brief stay, and a flight to ohio. ahhh, some things never change. . .

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.

just can't wait to get on the road again?

well, the weekends of travels have begun. . . or are still going. whatever you prefer to say is probably right.

i spent the weekend of november 11th in des moines doing "wedding stuff" for both matt's and my wedding and for jill's & josh's wedding. i left madison early on friday morning and kara was sweet enough to come with me to baratta's, the preferred caterer for our wedding venue. we actually got a lot of things done, mostly because it turns out that we can use our contact at baratta's as an informal wedding coordinator.  this is a huge blessing in a lot of ways, not the least of which is that matt and i are both at least 300 miles away and neither one of us have an interest in making decisions about flowers, colors, seating, centerpieces, etc. needless to say, this woman is our new hero. it was also nice to see the space again in person. AND they gave kara and me free cookies. it really was quite a good afternoon.

saturday and sunday were the days of jill's bachelorette party and bridal shower, respectively. i know that order seems a little backward, but you'll have to trust me that everyone made it through unscathed. . . aside from being completely exhausted. jill doesn't look completely exhausted in these photos, but i definitely do. . . because i am. i'm not used to going to bed late and getting up early. i'm thirty now.

admittedly, it was kind of tricky to organize everything with a group comprised of participants from six different cities, but everything actually ended up running without a hitch. AND jill seemed to have a good time, which is really all that matters anyway.

also, these photos are reminding me how photogenic she is. *ho hum* if i didn't like her so much, i'd probably have to hate her for being so wonderful ;)

last week was thanksgiving, of course, so it was a quick couple days of work before heading back to a different spot in iowa. the trip back home is actually just slightly shorter than the trek to des moines (and pella), and it's an easy drive at that. somehow, though, the four-day trip felt no longer than the three-day trip from the previous week. it just goes that way, i think, when there is so much to do. and much was done, indeed: laundry, eating, patching clothes (thanks, mom), fixing turn signals (thanks, dad), some quality family time, and even some unexpected - but wonderful - time to myself with jason and with kristi. i didn't get pictures with either of these two, but i did snap this pic on my way back into town after dinner with kristi. this is the main street of buffalo center, iowa, deserted late on a friday evening and all decked out with new Christmas decorations. i thought a pic was appropriate because things look almost as peaceful as they really are. or maybe that's just how home feels.

i did end up coming back a day early to get some work done. appropriately, i had pretty productive days both yesterday and today and hope that i have at least 2 more ahead of me before matt and i leave for texas. you didn't really think things were going to slow down yet, did you? :)

I'm still really committed to not getting behind on this blog despite the insanity of my schedule over the course of the next few weeks. Thus, I am already digging into my summary of this weekend even before Matt's flight has taken off. I will say from the get go that I am not going to comment on the details of the recent Penn State scandal. That seems weird to just sprinkle into a blog about a fun weekend and perhaps more appropriate as its own post at a later date.

Despite what you may think at the end of this post, this weekend was actually specifically chosen as Matt's date of visit so that we could go to see the band Deer Tick at the Majestic Theater.  The opportunity to be seeing our favorite bands together again (a la our days in Columbia) and the cheap tickets made it kind of a no brainer as far as we were concerned. The venue was beautiful! It looks exactly like you would picture a well-preserved (or well-restored) old theater. . . complete with a lot of beautiful moldings and chandeliers. The video is a little blurry, I know. . . and the sound is a little weird as would be expected for an iphone but I knew that Becca & Lacey would for sure want to hear the really lovely rendition of Crying Shame that the band did (well, about 2.5 minutes of it, anyway. . . ).

Section 123, Row 12

The reason that I think you might tend up skeptical that Deer Tick inspired this weekend is that the rest of the weekend really centered on football. College football on Saturday, hunting down the Bengals game on Sunday, and then teaming up with Peter and Paula for the Packers-Vikings game on Monday night. As luck with have it, Paula (well, now all of us, I guess) knows someone who knows someone who has really awesome Packers season tickets.   Four of these alleged tickets became available for Monday night's game, and we jumped at the chance.  Well, actually, in true fashion, we contemplated the decision for quite a while and then eventually talked ourselves into it.

But we ended up being super glad that we did so.  We already knew that we probably were nto going to get a chance to visit Lambeau again - I mean, really, how often does that offer fall into your lap? -
but we had no idea how awesome the seats

Lambeau Field

were. Literally where Matt and I are standing in that picture was the row that our seats were in. Crazy. According to the attendance count, there were about 70,000 people in attendance, which means there were about 40,000 fewer people than were typically at a Penn State game. That was a little bit surreal. I knew that Beaver Stadium was big for a college stadium, but hand't really thought about it in comparison to the fields for professional football. This, combined with the fact that the actual playing field isn't below ground the same way that it is at Penn State gave the game a much more intimate feeling.  We were right behind the MN sideline - Matt sat almost smack dab on the 30-yard line, so without the up-down offset, people felt much closer (and looked much bigger) than we were used to.

Monday Night Football

The most noticeable difference, though, was the pace of the game. Every play seemed to go quicker than what we remembered from the college games. That and the abrupt changes in direction that seem kind of pointless when you are watching them on tv are a lot more interesting. Players are just moving so much more quickly than you think they are. . . despite being so big. It must defy some law of Physics.  Or at least laws of normal running. I am planning on posting a more complete collection of our photos on facebook, and after looking through them I wish we would have gotten some action shots of Adrian Peterson or Charles Woodson. They were both pretty fun to watch move. And kind of mind boggling at the same time.

Today was kind of a lazy recovery day (i.e., got home late and then slept in) before I took Matt to the airport in Milwaukee. Aside from a busy schedule for both of us over the next couple of weeks, this is a pretty short break. Following two trips to Iowa for me and a boatload of work-related meetings and deadlines for Matt, we'll be heading to Texas at the end of the month to see Josh and Becca and finally meet Cole. Yay! I am an equal amount of anxious about the things that I need to get done and excited about what promises to be an awesome trip!

Have a great rest of the week, everyone. Hopefully more updates and pictures for you next week :)

An extra hour of sleep and I'm still tired. That's just not fair.

Monty's Blue Plate Diner

Inside the Blue Plate Diner

So, I guess it's November now. I can't say that I didn't see that coming. I just had my first November visitor, too, as Karen made the trek over from the twin cities to spend some time in the apartment that had no furniture the last time she was here. She actually just left a couple of hours ago. I just knew that with everything I have coming up, if I don't keep up on these posts, everything will likely fall apart.

My sister Dyanna seems to have had the most productive weekend out of all of us. She coaches cheerleading at my alma mater and they got 2nd place in their division at state championships this weekend. There is a video that was posted to facebook that I'm unable to post, so you'll have to trust me that I thought they looked great!! Especially for a high school in a town with less than 1,000 residents, that's pretty awesome, right? Yay Bison!

And to think that I was just proud of myself for making yummy burritos on Friday night.

In any case. . .

I know that it doesn't sound nearly as impressive, but Karen and I did what we could to explore parts of Madison this weekend. We did brunch at Monty's Blue Plate Diner, which is supposed to be a gem of brunch spots in Madison. I must say, it was very good. I had a tofu scramble and Karen had an artichoke & veggie sandwich (impressed at how well we epitomized the whole brunch concept? me too.) And if you aren't impressed with either of those options, you may enjoy this cake that Karen got a slice of and we "tested" it later that day. The cake portion is actually banana bread, the light brown streaks inside the cake are peanut butter, and then there is obviously chocolate on the outside. What - you may be asking - is the theme of this cake outside of sheer deliciousness? Elvis. I don't actually remember the real name of the cake, but you have to admit that that's at least a little bit cute, eh?

Tomb of Unknown Civil War Soldiers

The plan for our Saturday afternoon was going to a trip to a historic site and then popping in at the Polish Heritage Festival to see what that was all about. Unfortunately, our lackadaisical getting-read process and the wait for seats at the diner meant that we didn't make it to the Polish Festival before it was too late.  We did, however, make it to the historic site. There is a beautiful, giant cemetery in the middle of town that has memorials for both the soldiers from the Union and Confederate armies.  They were both quite lovely, in my opinion.

Civil War Union Soldiers Burial Site

I was actually kind of surprised to find a Civil War-oriented historic site in Wisconsin. Am I the only one who is surprised at all by that? Obviously, the Union was a part of the war, but I tend to think more about the battle sites and whatnot when Civil War comes to mind.  Maybe I just lived near Gettysburg for too long.

As history tends to be when it is sitting right in front of you, both of the memorials were quite touching.  The cemetery itself dates back to 1858, but the city donated space in 1886 for a Union memorial.  Near the middle (by the flagpole in the picture) is also a monument that was erected in memory of children who died at a local orphanage after their parents had been taken by the war.

The Confederate rest site was orchestrated by a Southern woman who purchased the land and managed its conversion to a final resting place for approximately 139 soldiers, most from Alabama, who had been captured during the war and perished at Camp Randall Confederate Prison (kind of changes how you feel about Camp Randall Stadium, right?). She is now also buried there with them.

All in all, it was quite an interesting and educational afternoon.

That evening, we tried a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood by my house and then took the coupon from the local ads and went cosmic bowling. Always a good choice for an evening event, I think. There was some slight distraction by the end of the LSU-Alabama game, but we actually both did pretty well.  And we got to come back to my place and eat that cake, so it's not like the evening was really at risk of ending poorly.

The coming week contains - of course - more work to be done before Matt arrives in town on Friday (yay for having an airport that it is somewhat affordable to fly into/out of).  He and I have quite a few things planned and will hopefully be diligent about taking pictures. For now, just keep your fingers crossed that it isn't frigid next Monday night. Although I am inexplicably excited about seeing Lambeau, I think it is an understatement to say that I am not excited about the possibility of being cold. (I know that you're commenting about my being from Iowa right now, but I don't care. Being cold sucks.)

Hope all of you had a great weekend, too, and that you got to "Fall back" appropriately.  Note: put Karen on your list of people to invite over during DST next year. She reset all of my clocks for me :)