Jess and I have been so crazy super busy lately; we have not posted anything here in months. The elusive “free time” is hard to come by these days. …But its all for the best.
Jess and I Overlooking Maui - 10,023 ft in the Air
When your locked in small flying room for a few hours, the mind has time to wonder. Here are a few of my recent travel insights from 35,000 feet up.
Clouds:
Sunrise Above the Clouds on Mt. Haleakala - Maui, HI
For the brief few moments when you’ve risen just high enough to see across the clouds for miles, beneath you the sky turn into a sea of white, where The Deadliest Catch meets Zeus atop Mt. Olympus. Sometimes, non existent where you can see down to the round farm fields of the West, appearing like water rings on a college coffee table. Sometimes so thick they look like CoolWhip spires spread perfectly over the stormy layer that lay below. (If only Laverne Boulion could grow a Strawberry large enough for such a sky dessert.)
And like humidity on a Wisconsin summer day, turbulence is the Yin to the beautiful cloud Yang. Inevitably, when ascending/descending through clouds the plane will shimmy as if to remind us exactly how high we truly are. (‘Shimmy’ ranging from driving to Eau Claire on old 53 to feeling like Bobby Brown is teaching the plane a lesson.) When that first turbulence hits, its always fun to watch the shiny new fliers as they clutch their chair arms and mouth incantations to their deity of choice.
In the end we all arrive safely, enjoy our time at our destination, and prepare to do it all over again. Happy Travels!
Welcome to 2010! It’s time for resolutions, and one of ours is to blog a little more. I don’t really know what we’ll talk about, or if anyone reads our blog, but we’ll throw some stuff out into the web and see what happens. I have our blog linked to Facebook, but we have a few extras on the blog, so check that out too.
2010 looks like a great year for us. We are planning a summer trip to Europe and possibly a fall trip to Mexico. We planned to sell our condo and buy a house this year, but I think we might stay where we are. There are some great home deals out there, and we’ve scrimped and saved to get the down payment. However, we’re not sure we can get what we need to get out of our condo due to the market and the status of our association. It’s a little disappointing, but ok. Instead, we’ll keep saving, keeping paying off debt, and maybe spend a little extra in Europe.
We spent our New Year’s in LaCrosse with our good friends, Andy, Matt & Jamie, and Gus. Once back in Madison, we spent the weekend cleaning up, decluttering, and budgeting for our trips. New Year’s always feels like a good time to plan things and clean out the closets. We snuck in some reading/game playing time too. Overall, good way to start the new year.
I can’t believe it’s Labor Day already. Even though we had a quiet summer, we are still wondering where it went.
We got back from CA a few weeks ago (you can see pictures using the link on the right) and it was a great trip. I was a little worried that the nine of us might not get a long, considering we all have different life styles and travel preferences, but it really was a lot of fun.
September is super busy for us. Right now, Boone’s parents are in town and then head to Necedah for their annual bow shoot weekend. Then we head to Milwaukee for a weekend, then my ten-year reunion, and then to La Crosse for Oktoberfest. We are really excited to spend the month spending time with people who we haven’t seen in a long time.
It’s almost time for lunch and a trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo, so I better run. Happy Labor Day everyone!
Me making a funny face & posing with the tragically defeated cow puzzle.
Starting a puzzle is like starting a harmless game of Jamunji. You must just keep playing until you’ve finished.
And, this wasn’t just any ordinary puzzle. This is an “Impossible,” borderless, Holstien puzzle with 5 EXTRA pieces. Jess and re-stumbled upon it while doing a little house clean up last weekend.
About 2 years ago, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of being the best man in the wedding of two of my greatest friends, Caleb and Amanda Olson. Their wedding was absolutely great, a morning wedding with a brunch reception. To keep with the fun, they wanted to have a pluthera of board games available for kids and guests after cake.
Caleb and I had gone to the Good Will store in Eau Claire and quite litterally bought every board game and puzzle they had. I have to say, there is nothing like the look on a cashier’s face when you haul a convoy of shoping carts full of board games up to the checkout.
..Putting This Cow Puzzle Out to Pasture.
Have a great weekend and good luck puzzleing …you’ll need it.
Things have been unusually quiet for us lately – and that’s ok. Boone and I survived our May & June weddings, and have spent most of the months of June and July in Madison. It’s like we actually live here. We got to doing the things we don’t often get to do, like the Art Fair on the Square and gatherings with Boone’s co-workers. We’ve gone to the farmer’s market, cooked interesting things with veggies in our CSA box, and spent many nights hanging out with our friends. My sister spent a weekend with us a couple weeks ago, and Rick & jan came down last weekend to catch Rick’s first Brewer game in Miller Park. It’s really been a lovely summer so far.
Boone is doing really well with his side business. A new projects here and there are helping with our house/sabbatical fund, and work has been keeping me pretty busy too. I finish the next release this week, which means a little less stress and a little more reading time. I am just finishing Michael Perry’s Truck and have a shelf full of other things to read. (darn those Border’s coupons!)
August and September look a little less quiet; a trip to California with friends, trip to Milwaukee to see old friends, possible camping trip with Jon & Mel, my ten-year high school reunion, Boone’s annual bow shoot, and some time on the porch with my family. I’m glad we got in all that rest time. 🙂
So, I (Jess) broke my first bone ever a week or so ago – my left pinky finger. Lame, right? It’s actually more awkward than painful because of the weird splint I have to wear, but I never realized how much I used that stupid little finger!
- Typing takes a lot longer than it usually does.
- When I steer, I hit my pinky finger on the signal lever.
- Putting on my seat belt takes more consideration than it usually does.
- Try holding a bottle without your pinky, then open it with your other hand.
- Washing my hair is not as simple as it once was.
- Yoga is out of the question, and weights at the gym are a little hard to grip.
I have a few more weeks with it on. Arg!
It’s been a long time since we posted anything. I guess we talk enough with our friends and family that they know what’s up, and I don’t know if this isn’t read much by anyone. But, we’ll try to do better this year, starting off with a quick catch up:
We are both still employed at the same places, which is awesome for today’s economy. Boone went through a round or two of layoffs, but is still there and in a little bit of a different position. He enjoys it most days though. He is also working on a few side projects for some extra money and experience in web design, which is really cool. It’s a difficult balance of work and play for both of us right now, and work seems to be in the lead.
We only have two weddings this summer, and they are both fairly early. Don’t get me wrong – I love weddings, but they just take a lot of time, energy, and money. After that, we are off to San Fran and Napa with a group of friends to enjoy the city, the wine, and the weather. I think we’d like to do another trip this year, but we don’t know if the budget will allow for it. Until then, trips up north to Osseo and downtown to the Farmer’s Market will have to do.
We are still in our condo on the West side of Madison. We had thought about selling this spring, but with the market the way it is, we aren’t sure we’ll get what we need for a down payment on a house. So, we’ll tough it out for another year. It might allow us to do some of that traveling we want, and additional condo projects and plans. Stay tuned for updates.
As you can see, the tree is up and so far, Katie isn’t really phased by it. We weren’t as lucky with the elf hat (I think she is still holding a grudge over that.)
Our Christmas tree tradition happened as always: cutting the tree with Jon & Mel and putting the holiday squirrel is near the trunk by a pinecone. Jon & Mel’s tree and squirrel won’t be up this year because they just purchased their first home (hooray!) and we are really excited for them. Our cards are in the mail (mostly) and the place is decorated as well as we were willing. We’ve gotten out and done most of our holiday shopping, but boy, is it no fun! Traffic, noisy and rude people, presents to wrap- it’s a lot of stuff that makes me think maybe shopping online is the best way to go.
The best part about the holidays is getting to see lots of family and friends, and we’ve been traveling up north a bit lately. There was Thanskgiving, then the Julson family had a Christmas reunion a few weekends ago. It was really nice to see everyone, some of who I hadn’t seen since our wedding. The Myhre side won’t be gathering like they have in the past but there will still be a few people at our Christmas Eve dinner. It seems to get a little harder ever year to get everyone together. Boone and I will be at Sesvold’s Christmas Day like always, and we hope to see some of our up-north friends while we are home Friday and Saturday. Then my lovely little sister turns the big 2-1 after New Year’s, so we’ll all be there to help her celebrate/keep an eye on her.
Back to work and condo stuff- oh, I’m president of the board and website manager now so that means a little more work (and a lot more hatred of 6-10 inch snow falls). Happy holidays!
Boone and I have had some really nice fall weekends recently. We traveled up north a few weekend ago to hangout with our families, and it was really pretty out. The maple trees around our association have also been just brilliant- I wish I had gotten a picture in their prime. We went to the Eplegaarden and picked up some apples and pumpkins, and walked around the orchard a little bit. Last weekend we went to a fun Halloween/house warming party (I dressed up as a certain VP candidate and Boone was my Maverick. I was a little worried people would think I was a supporter, but I think the Fargo-like accent, the Barbie crown, and pink sash got my point across) and next weekend we are headed to State Street for some more Halloween fun and music.
I was also Boone birthday this past weekend and my birthday next weekend. It feels a little odd to be turning 28 (Boone says 27 isn’t a big deal for him), looking back to all that I’ve done and planning for ALL the stuff ahead. I’m a big planner but somethings you just can’t plan for. But Boone says those thoughts are just too deep for one’s birthday, so I’ll just have to focus on having fun with our awesome friends and a nice bottle of wine. Maybe a manicure too.
It has been quite some time since I posted anything here. Both of us have been really busy lately, busy and rather boring. Our big excitement last weekend was cleaning our condo. …and I mean CLEANING our condo. We cleaned top down left right left right a b a b a start and then some. We even gave our hardwood floors, that we love so much, the cleaning trifecta of sweep, swiffer, and wax.
Perhaps it was the (are-you-good-golly-serious) Badger’s loss on Saturday, but we found ourselves motivated and extra productive. We even added the garage to our cleaning hit list, as we still had concrete powder everywhere from our concrete countertop project a month ago. The place looked as if we had brought in a CSI team to dust for prints. (…none were found). Thankfully, we got all the dust off and out and are once again able to comfortably park two cars with workspace.
Who knows what exciting series of events this weekend will bring, GoodWill donation run, laundry room make-over, Bed Bath & Beyond. I don’t know if there will be enough time.
Actually, our place is really nice now and we are thrilled to finally have it spotless. If you are lucky enough to have “Fall” open those windows, take a walk, pick some apples, carve a pumpkin, kick-back with a cup of hot cider, and have a great week!
