Been away from the web for a few days– never a bad thing, but it does take a little time to catch up again. Here a couple nice tidbits, in the order I was attracted to them:
Lots to do today, so not much time to talk, but check out the new photos in Oshkosh, and here are the shots from Michelle’s birthday:
Joe helped me out yesterday to get the blog back online and in your faces. By the time we finished (it did take a few hours), we were both satisfied that the solution we found to the hosting issue was the best one possible. Everything seems to be working just swell, but let me know if you notice any problems…
Having the site back up obviously makes it a little easier to whip a post out here and there, so look for an up-tick on that in the next couple days– this morning, I can mention that we had a good time in Milwaukee on Saturday for Michelle’s and our friend Stephanie’s joint birthday parties. Some photos to come in the next couple days when I get back to the homestead and can load them up.
Today, we are getting ready to head down to Schaumberg, IL for a visit to Ikea. Tomorrow, we’ll be in Chicago for Michelle’s actual b-day, enjoying some tourist-y stops in the city. Til then, enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Michelle and I were originally supposed to be out of town this weekend for StoryhillFest-Midwest, but the plan fell through (mainly for financial reasons). We ended up being at home in Milwaukee instead.
No complaints here: we had dinner together on Friday and just relaxed at home making some plans for the weekend.
Saturday, we each had some chores to take care of around the house before a shopping excursion to a couple of area malls. After that, we went to Atwater Park for a while just to enjoy the beach and the view. That night, we made a meal at my house and watched a movie.
On Sunday, we took a ride out to Lake Geneva to go to the beach. The weather was cool and overcast over there, but the water was still pretty nice. We ate an early dinner at a place called Popeye’s, near the lake, and then we had some ice cream as we mozied out of town. We were getting back in the car just as Prince Fielder hit his walk-off homerun to salvage a victory against the Giants.
Sunday evening, Steph S had a house “warming” party (albeit 7 months late), and when that died down, Michelle invited the bulk of the party goers over to her place. We hung out, had some drinks, ordered some food, and played games until about 3AM.
I’ve got more to do around the house again today, but I’m really hoping we can get out and enjoy the last day of a beautiful Labor Day weekend. It’s been a very relaxed, easy-going unofficial end to summer…
The summer season is undoubtedly, officially here. I had things to do around the house yesterday evening, but couldn’t bring myself to stay in, after seeing all the people dining outdoors on my bus ride home.
Michelle and I biked on the Oak Leaf Trail (despite the insects breeding like gangbusters in every stagnant pool of water) and we used a restaurant.com gift certificate for dinner at Bayou. It was a really nice meal– Michelle ordered a catfish fillet entree, and the portion was huge; three whole fillets. I had a cajun shrimp meal, and if you don’t think 9 little shrimps sounds like plenty of food, let me assure you– it was, and it was tasty.
We sat out on their patio, which overlooks the segement of the Milwaukee River near the corner of Humboldt and Commerce Street— the Humboldt bridge is out, so you have to make a few wacky turns to get there, but it was still a nice view and a pleasant evening. It was windy, but warm enough that there was no chill whatsoever.
We’ve got a number of summer weekends booked solid already, but there was an opening for next weekend (May 29-31), so we’re going on a weekend camping excursion to the north Kettle Moraine and good ol’ Mauthe Lake. There are a number of campsites up in that park that don’t require a reservation, so we feel OK about going on short notice.
Back to work and enjoying my open windows for now…
Glad to get a lot done around the house this weekend– the laundry is done, the floors are clean, the dishes are put away, and the bed is made. Why I couldn’t get some of this stuff accomplished last weekend (when it was raining like hell), I really can’t say. But now I can forget any guilt I might have had when enjoying the nice weather, watching baseball, or doing other more recreational activities.
Michelle and I took a ride over to Grandma’s today to have lunch and observe Grandma’s birthday. We picked up a cake @ the Metro Market that was fabulous; it was an Irish Creme Mousse cake. I don’t know how they get that top layer of cake to sit on top of that inch of moussey goodness, but I’m glad that they do. We had a nice time chatting with Grandma and watching a little bit of the Brewers game.
Michelle is working on her portfolio website this evening. When she first decided to do one, I thought it might be easy to use some sort of quasi-pre-fab software (akin to WordPress or something else similar) to whip a site together. Little did I know how unique and cool these sorts of websites really are. Michelle is doing hers from scratch, and the mock-ups I’ve seen so far look great. Hopefully her web host (me) has enough bandwidth to support her efforts 😛
Really looking forward to getting that new laptop delivered this week. I had sort of forgotten how much I like to work on the computer away from the desk until I couldn’t do it anymore. Here’s hoping for a nice productive week…
So it’s been a wacky few days. My laptop’s death kind of threw me for a loop and I was shopping around for a good deal on a new one over the last weekend. Work has been nuts. Got some excitement on all fronts, though.
I did find an OK replacement laptop at a decent price with my discount from work. I’ve liked the ThinkPads that I had, and I stuck with Lenovo when buying a new one. I’m sure I’ll be happy enough with it. One thing I DEFINITELY wanted to do this time is get a brand new machine, instead of muddling around with a used one. I STILL have a bad taste in my mouth from a really poor ebay experience like 4 years ago…
Lorch also came into town last weekend and crashed at Casa del Bocko for a couple nights. He had to fly out of Mitchell at the crack of dawn on Saturday because he was shooting for a documentary on the Honor Flight. It’s a really cool program, and all three of us (me, Lorch, Michelle) all agreed we wished we could’ve gotten our grandfathers signed up when they were around. So hey– if you know or are related to a WWII or Korean War vet, check it out. Seriously.
Anyway, it was nice to hang out with Lorchie and watch the Brewers together. We had some beers at The Harp, and we grabbed a pizza at BBC. We talked about getting ready for attending Wordy’s wedding this summer. I am looking forward to the vacation, for sure.
So, later in the week here, I got a call back from my old boss up in Oshkosh. She had a good reason to call, as I had been in there on 4/23 for an interview. I got offered a job as the Assistant Director for Operations back at the old UWO FAO. It’s a really good professional opportunity, so I took it. I didn’t say much about it to many people as I decided to apply and go through this process, for a variety of reasons:
So, it turned out well. Here are the answers to some of those commonly asked questions that immediately come to everyone’s mind:
Anyway, I appreciate your interest, and I look forward to speaking with you soon. I’m going to do the books for the month and finish watching this ball game…
A somewhat interesting read that I had today on the Modern Mechanix blog— the article was originally published in Playboy in October 1967.
Later on this evening, Michelle and I are headed to Riptide for dinner. Lent may be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love a seafood Friday…
Hope your weekend is swell.
I like to tease Michelle about how she doesn’t like movies. Let me clear one thing up, with the straightest face possible, dead-seriously, no kidding: Michelle likes movies. She has seen her fair share. Generally, we just don’t enjoy the same sorts of movies.
I’ve showed her some that I think she would not have otherwise considered watching (Garden State immediately comes to mind) and gotten positive feedback. Others, she would not have otherwise watched and now probably regrets the time spent on them (Goodfellas is the best example I can think of here).
One that I was recently surprised to find out she missed when we were kids is Back to the Future. I can remember seeing it for the first time at Grandma & Grandpa’s house during the summer (probably the same summer that we convinced Grandma to rent us Ferris Bueller’s Day Off— which she was not impressed with). It seemed like a picture that is right up Michelle’s alley; it’s got some of her favorite things:
I quickly predicted that this movie would rocket into her Top Five All-Time list. When the movie was over, I found out Michelle has not actually compiled such a list. But, she did enjoy it. I don’t think she’d like the sequels as much, so they’re not going to be “required viewing.” I noted that BTTF is probably my mom’s #1 or #2 movie all-time– it’s probably neck-and-neck with Blast from the Past.
Do we see a theme here?
It’s only Tuesday, but it already feels like it’s too late to say much about the past weekend and whatnot.
Since I left you last, I had a busy work week starting to get caught up from vacation, and then we went rafting up in the greater Crivitz area over the weekend. It was fun. Frankly, I’m too tired to say much more about it right now. I just looked at the date when I last posted something here and thought that I should write a little something anyway.
Michelle drove my car in to work yesterday. It was her first time driving my car by herself. She did just fine. I told her that this means she has to get a manual for her next automobile.
Finally, I was late to work this morning because my landlord had me parked in to the driveway. I know that I’ve been taking the bus and leaving the car there all day, but you never know when I’m going to change that plan, y’know? *sigh* I think it’s going to be a long year in ‘tosa.
You’ll probably notice the server going offline for a bit later on today. I start my new job at UWM on Monday, and I’m going to relocate this box to the Mundschaus’ house for a few weeks until I have someplace to live.
Brief recap of my last weekend “living” in Oshkosh:
Met up w/ Knitt and Michelle on Friday. Joe and I had a cigar and a game of darts after he got done with work. The three of us went to Peabody’s, but no one else showed up. *shrugs* We still had a good time.
Yesterday, Michelle and I tried to shop for a Brewers jersey in Appleton, but the only sizes on the rack were for the excessively heavy gentleman. I might have to try ordering something online.
We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then later we went to Dick’s Halfway Inn for Dave Schrubbe’s graduation party. We met his GF, which was neat, and had a good time in general.
OK, well– gotta finish getting ready and then head down to MKE. Next time I write, I will be in a different zip code.