Pre-emptive blogging

As some of you may know, it's NaBloPoMo and it looks like Jasper, Everett, and Juno are plowing ahead, again, this year!

So before we get 'reprimanded' for not blogging...I'm blogging!!!

Unfortunately, well, I've mostly been working and I don't think anyone wants to see pictures of that. So a few updates:

Remember the parking lot with random trees?

It became this...

And on some nights, this....

More next time!

Birthday love

Yup, it was my birthday a few weeks ago.

While I had lots of well-wishes from near and far, in person, over email, Facebook, and even snail mail (we'll leave out the part where someone opened my mail and stole the magnets my aunt sent me), here are a few of the best...

From Jasper...

Everett...

 and Juno...

Thank you!!!

Random trees in parking lots

This is the view from my apartment...trees in the middle of parking lots.

2011, so far...

This is what I did this year...
I had a birthday and got gifts and hugs...

I saw Bon Jovi in concert (a few times).

I went shopping at Target...Missoni, anyone?

I worked (a lot) - I'm actually taking this picture of Tina and Sarah, but you get the point...

Went to baseball games and basketball games...

We went to Iceland, went to the Blue Lagoon, and had the best lunch ever (according to Mom)...

And I made cakes - maybe more on that in another post!

Belated NLDS news...

Well, this post is a little late, but...

My colleague convinced me to ditch Friday afternoon at the office to go to the NLDS Game 5 - Diamondbacks vs. Brewers. (it didn't take much convincing). So we got decked out in our Brewers gear and headed to Miller Park on a beautiful fall day!

Miller Park looked great - too bad the roof was closed, though...and since this post is over a month after the event, we all know the Brewers won the series!!! (although they lost to the Cardinals in the NLCS...)

Can't wait for baseball in 2012...will Prince Fielder still be with the Brewers?!?!

Super Bowl XLV

The Hoan Bridge...

...otherwise known as 'our bridge', by Jasper...



Originally called the Harbor Bridge, it was renamed the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge, after one of Milwaukee's mayors, and it connects downtown Milwaukee to Bay View. In the summer, it's amazing to see all the sailboats going between Lake Michigan and the river...

And sometimes the not-so-little boats, too...


Unfortunately, it has had its share of problems...

It's pink!!!

To support Jasper, Everett, and Juno as they start NaBloPoMo...here is my post.


Remember when Jasper and Juno played in the fountains outside the Milwaukee Art Museum? Well, here's what the fountains looked like a few weeks ago, in support of breast cancer awareness...

Guess which set of cousins came to visit this past weekend! It was a very musical weekend - piano, dancing with the polka band at Friday Fish Fry, and maybe Jasper and Juno will post some of their guitar pictures...

Everett had his eye on them...

And everyone got to play in the fountains outside the Milwaukee Art Museum after we watched the Burke Brise Soleil open Sunday morning.


Come back to visit again soon!

Christmas is almost here!

Just like Keira and Juno, I put up my Christmas tree yesterday. Only, I didn't have to pick mine up from the tree farm; I got mine pre-lit!


Do you recognize him?




This is Aidan, telling me that Derek Jeter is also his favorite baseball player! :)

Thankgiving Dinner #1

Okay, sorry about the 'gross' picture (FYI: it was 2 adrenal glands, from 1 patient).


On a lighter note, the annual Department of Surgery "Thanksgiving Dinner" was held the other night. Here I am with the Alysandra and Dave's boys...


Here Layton is, eating his pumpkin pie, which Aidan was nice enough to 'bake' for him...


This is Tina's son, Jake, eating his pie...



Hmmm...I think Aidan is taking some lessons from Jasper here!



All done?

Yes, it's red. But...!

Okay.
So on my way home today, I noticed that the flame on the Wisconsin Gas building was red; which I just finished telling you almost never happens. But, in my defense, I still think that there's no rhyme or reason to the 'weather beacon.' Remember the poem?

When it's red, there's warm weather ahead!

Today's weather: Rainy and in the mid-40's
Tomorrow's weather: Rainy and in the mid-40's


Hmmmph.

Speculaas!

This past spring, we took a family trip to the Netherlands and Belgium (this is us in the Keukenhof Gardens).



While the tulips, canals, churches (etc.) were nice, what we most enjoyed was the food: Rijstafel, pannenkoeken, Belgian chocolates, Liege waffles, Belgian beer, and pastries (like the cremekoek we discovered in Bruges)...



And speculaas (in Dutch, speculoos in Flemish), tiny little windmill spice cookies that came with our coffees and hot chocolates on our first (jet-lagged) morning. They were delicious, and it was requested that I make speculaas when we got back home.


Well, guess what arrived in the mail yesterday!



Hooray for Christmas cookie-season!


(Yes, I know I'm supposed to figure out how to replicate the creme koek, too. Haven't gotten to that one yet).

Cello lessons and the 'adult student'

As some of you may know, I started taking cello lessons last winter.


And while I may never be good enough for Jasper to watch me play on Sesame Street, I'm having a lot of fun and I played in my first recital a few weeks ago. I played a little minuet accompanied by my teacher and then in a quartet with some of the other students. Our quartet was called "Three Middle Schoolers and a Surgeon."


And thankfully, no, there's no video of that on YouTube!

The Wisconsin Gas Building

When the flame is red, it's warm weather ahead!
When the flame is gold, watch out for cold!
When the flame is blue, there's no change in view!
When there's a flickering flame, expect snow or rain!

On top of the Wisconsin Gas Building, in downtown Milwaukee, is a 21-foot weather beacon, which apparently has been used as a harbor light and navigation aid for mariners on Lake Michigan. It's lit up every night, and is supposed to change colors, based on the little poem above.


Except that most of the time...it's blue. When it's sub-zero (before the wind-chill) in the middle of January...it's blue. When it's a beautiful, 80-degree day in the middle of July...it's blue. I can count the number of times I've seen it red or gold (and I can see it from my house) on both hands. And I have *never* seen it flicker.

Summer in Wisconsin

Winter in Wisconsin can be a bit long, cold, and snowy. But when that long, cold, and snowy (wait, did I say that already?) winter is over - summer is actually beautiful.

And summer officially starts with SummerFest, one of the largest music festivals in the world. Since I live across from the Summerfest grounds, during those 10 days, I can hear a lot of the concerts through my open windows (Mat Kearney and Kenny Chesney: awesome. Kid Rock: not so much). I was lucky enough to attend this one, though!


Summer is also the time when people come to visit. Mom and Dad came over Labor Day weekend and we went to Madison to the Farmers Market at the Capitol and then to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin home. Mom really, really liked the Kettle Corn from the Farmer's market.
Look at the size of the kohlrabi!


Here we are at Taliesin. Frank Lloyd Wright built it as a summer home for his second wife in 1911; it burned down in 1914 and again in 1925. The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students live in the house during the summer months, even though it is under repair and parts are falling apart. We did get to see the shell that inspired the design of the Guggenheim Museum.

Testing Juno's mom

Juno: see if your Mom remembers Christmas dinner at Balthazar now (also known as Becky's Christmas, because we had to do it in November).