Wisconsin Weekend!
Since our a/c is broken we decided to leave the house, wander around the lovely state of WI and sleep in the air-conditioned bliss of a Hilton.

First stop: State Street in Madison for the Farmer's Market and shopping. We had yummy scones, bought cashew brittle from Mennonites and used the restroom in the state capitol building. Let me just say the capitol building is really nice and golden on the inside and I loved the old school revolving doors. There was some sort of weird musical concert happening when we were visiting and there were quite a few barefooted stinky homeless men wandering around. Not sure why they were barefooted, but that could have contributed to the stink.

I bought a nice green hat at a cute hat shop. It's one of those hats that can be six different styles of hat. I look forward to making everyone thing that I have six green hats in six different styles. When I was buying the hat, the girl in the shop asked me very seriously, "Would you like to purchase any bandanas today?" Just so you know, the hat I bought is not very bandana friendly. But, maybe she knew that I liked to wear bandanas when I'm working in the yard or trying to modestly cover my head?

Later in the afternoon we wen to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, which ata cost of free was the best deal all day! We donated a couple of dollars and wandered around. They had little nooks and crannies of wonderful ideas for our yard, including native plants, a sunken garden and a shady crek to walk beside.Our favorite by far was the Sinister Garden of dangerous plants.

Saturday evening we had a late dinner at a place called Ella's Deli. If you have never eaten there, it is a wild psychedelic ride full of animated critters, superheroes, carousel horses and pastrami sandwiches. It's a kosher-syle deli and ice cream parlor full of every thing that kids love. Every table has something encased in it to look at - ours had PEZ containers. There were birthday parties all around us, most of the kids being in middle school it seemed. We, of course, had fried pickles and yummy deli sandwiches. So if you're in Madison just look for the gaudy place with a carousel out front. The place is chaotic and fun and I'm so glad we found it!

On Sunday we drove towards Baraboo to see Dr. Evermore's Forevertron. It was supposed to open at noon. At 12:30 it hadn't opened. It was disappointing to say the least, but the next stop on our adventure did not disappoint. The Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb was a delight of the yellow variety. Walls of collected mustard jars and 100s of mustards from around the world for sale. They even have a tasting bar! We were also lucky enough to have the owner ring up our sale! The place was packed and this coming weekend is their big Mustard Festival. They're going to have the Weinermobile, mustard custard and all kinds of fun stuff.

Our next to last stop for the day was New Glarus, the little Switzerland of Wisconsin. I bought some yummy smoked Swiss cheese and took a few pictures of the Swiss-chalet style buildings. It was all very odd looking in 90 degree heat surrounded by Asian tourists! From there we headed to Beloit to buy fireworks and head home.

All in all a great weekend of new sights! We really liked Madison and we will definitely return. For the most part we thought taht a lot of the ruralness of WI reminded us of Mississippi. Who would have thought? But don't tell either state I said that!

I think life without air conditioning in the middle of July should be used as a torture device in interrogations. That is not to say that no a/c in a place like Florida would be worse. Our house has taken on a wet feel, much like the humidity I love. In Florida the a/c would make the humidity cold. In Illinois it's like sleeping in a warm bath. I haven't wanted to cook since Sunday when the a/c broke.

We had a marvelous party this past weekend. Our house was filled with a bunch of people and I think that they all had a good time. Martin has set up a computer in the living room attached to our big tv and people were able to play "You Don't Know Jack" on the big screen. It is actually a great idea and you don't have people huddled around the computer screen somewhere.

We also made square burgers on Hawaiian bread. This was Martin's idea to have sort of a Polynesian hamburger thing going on. I patted out the burgers into a square shape using a big shallow pan. Then, I cut the burgers into large squares, larger than the four bun combo that we would be putting them on(allowing for shrinkage). Once we did that we threw them on the grill and when they were done we slid them onto the four-square burger buns and then cut the four buns apart to make little burgers. They were delish and fun! We should have done a photo essay on the process but I think we will definitely make them again so I'm not worried.

Our party also included several out of town guests. Luckily we have enough beds for everyone and no one seemed to mind that the a/c was kaput. I took the ladies who were visiting to Richard Walker's for breakfast. This is a place that puts bacon in the pancakes! I had my pancakes plain :) I also took them for a walk around the square in Woodstock. It is a nice place to walk around and there are plenty of little stores around. We witnessed a hysterical woman screaming and crying b/c she knew she had lost her wallet at a store. I also left a note on a friend's backporch b/c for once she was at work and I wasn't!

Last night was the last night for my pottery class. I only have four of my pieces fired and finished. I have about 5 more pieces waiting. I'll have to pick them up in August. One women in the class was wonderful at making pieces and then she totally ruined them by painting really ugly things on them and firing them with the ugliest glazes. She loved them I'm sure an dmost of my pieces are not flower pots with holes in the bottome, but I still am proud that I figured it all out. I might take a class next Spring if they offer something on a night I don't work.

On another weird note, I am happy to say that if they handed out awards for slowest weight loss I would win. I have officially lost ten pounds over the last year. Yay!

Martin finally watched "Shaun of the Dead" on Friday. He is still not sure how I never heard the song "White Lines" before I met him. If you've seen Shaun of the Dead, you will understand the connection.
The pool was well used by the neighbors this weekend. I think at one point we had 10 people in the pool. It was fun to get the neighbors in our backyard. Creating good will and all that.
We had thought about going to Madison on Saturday to the arts festival up there. We instead just hung around the house, played some pinball and got in the pool. Also washed my new car on Sunday. I am still loving it by the way. It has even been named "The Black Pearl." Hee hee.
Made delicious salmon tacos last night.
New pics on Flickr of the Farnsworth House and other stuff from this past month. Even our bunny friend in the backyard!

Today is my first day back at work since about last Tuesday. While I did work last Friday I don't count it because it was Friday and Fridays are always a little less grim.
My parents were visiting us and flew into town on the 4th of July evening. This meant driving to the rumored crowded O'Hare and the warnings of massive towing being enforced because of all the holiday traffic. I think we were quite possibly the only people picking up arriving passengers at the airport. It was deserted. I don't know why the media and airport people want us to think that everyone is flying somewhere on the holiday. We then drove home to witness our neighbor's children running around barefooted in a street full of fireworks.

While my parents were in town we used the pool a good bit and tried to coax the bunnies visiting our backyard to eat a carrot or some lettuce but to no avail. On Saturday we also had tickets to see the Farnsworth House in Plano, IL. It is a really neat place to experience and the tour was quite interesting. For those of you that don't know, I have a tremendous interest in all things architecture so seeing the little retreat built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was thrilling. We also took some time on Saturday to visit my aunt and uncle in Naperville and eat stir-fry. (We returned to Naperville unintentionally on Sunday and visited Penzey's Spices with my cousin Katy who had just returned from Summerfest in Wisconsin and also just turned 19.) I got a little blue thing to hold salt from the Sur La Table store as well.

Monday we all took the train downtown with the plan to have lunch with Martin and to occupy ourselves with a few Chicago sites until the nonn hour arrived. I took my parents to look at Cloud Gate, or the big silver bean. (This viewing led me to discover something called the Streisand Effect.) I also witnessed quite possibly the saddest sight I have seen in recent days or weeks. The Virgin Megastore had announced its closing a few weeks ago on Michigan Ave. I went to see the most empty and pathetic selections of music left on the few remaining displays. I bought a Peggy Lee, Martin Denny and another CD mainly because of the good deal, but the spirit of the place was gone. Even the punk cashiers had lost their moxy. I had to go next door to the Room & Board to cheer myself up.

We met Martin and headed to Au Bon Pain in the Merchandise Mart for lunch. I think I could have spent all day in there! Will definitely be going back to look at cool faucets and whatnot.

Martin & I spent all morning (like 4 hours) buying a car on Saturday. It is lovely but I dislike car salesmen trying to sell me undercoating and saying the weather in Florida is not harsh. I bought a black Pontiac Vibe. It has a sunrook that I didn't really want but otherwise it feels like such a big car compared to the little Corolla. I sit up much higher and it just feels like I'm not cowering at most other car's bumper levels. I am tryingto park as far away from other vehicles as possible. There seems to be the weird phenomenon of people automatically parking by my fancy new car. It's okay as long as the other cars are nice cars too. Otherwise I have to wonder why someone would want to park as far away I am doing.

The only thing the car is missing is a jack for my mp3 player. It's not an IPod, just a bit of rebellion on our part not to believe the hype. Most cars we looked at came with a little jack that looks like a headphone jack to plug the player into and then listen to in the car. We spent a few hours yesterday shopping and going to various big box electronic stores looking for alternatives. So far we've come up with some interesting ideas but most seem to involve a new radio. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just something I wasn't expecting. Will post pictures of the new vehicle soon because I think it's pretty and shiny.