Only in Wisconsin...

Only in Wisconsin are green AND gold liturgical colors:

I know I'm ridiculously behind on posting--coming soon: NC adventures, UW FOOTBALL, and Fall colors.

Peace, love, and God bless the Packers (and this season, their fans!),

Jess

Sailing on JoJee

Some of you have been following my sailing sagas. I joined the UW Hoofer sailing club in the spring, and it has been an adventurous summer. When I was a kid, my parents helped out with the upkeep of Electra, a rather spectacular 40' teak sailboat, in exchange for summer sailing. So admittedly, when I thought about sailing, I flashbacked to gorgeous sunny days spent sitting on the bow with the wind in my hair. Right. About the only accurate part of that picture was the wind part. Turns out sailing, especially little boats by yourself, is an enormous amount of work. And tricky. And it takes awhile to figure it out. But the various times throughout the summer I have thought, forget it, I caught the wind just right or something clicked between the boat and my brain or I had a magical perfect landing or some other glorious moment *queue angelic choir--aaaahhhh* happened and this fabulous rush of some biological chemical is released and I forget that I've gotten knocked in the head with the boom or have unknown bruises all over me and turn in on that high so I'm ready to go out again soon.

But I still hold on to thinking that sailing is sitting on the bow while someone else deals with tell-tales and jibs and halyards. So when the opportunity came up to sail on a "real" sailboat--think 2 sails with a keel (that bottom fin that keeps the boat from going sideways across the water), I jumped. And yesterday, we got to sail on JoJee, with some friends. Joe, the captain, has been my instructor a few times. He comes complete with stories and religious jokes that only an octogenarian Jewish man can get away with. He didn't exactly let me sit on the bow for the trip. In fact, I spent most of the afternoon at the helm trying desperately to remember all my sailing definitions from the manuals while he yelped out commands I had no idea how to respond to. When you're in a boat by yourself, you don't remind yourself what's port or starboard or make sure when you grab the rope you need that you remember the name of that particular piece of line. After a few more commands from Joe at the front, I finally fessed up I'd never sailed a boat with two sails. "Well, you've been in one before, right?!" as if that took care of how to know what to do with a jib. But it was still lots of fun--good wind, sunshine, and lots-o-laughs. Plus, now I've successfully tacked with a 26' boat--WHOO HOO!

And Joe did give me a break from steering to take some pictures, which was super! I wouldn't dare bring my camera on my little techs or even a Badger Sloop, so it was nice to document the shoreline from the boat. Enjoy!

The JoJee


Terrace Time


The Maple Bluffs


Thanks, Liz, for this picture of the Scholten sailors

Glacial Drumlin Trail

There's this really fabulous bike path in Cottage Grove about 10 minutes from our house. In October, Sasha and I will be biking the entire 52 miles from Waukesha to Cottage Grove with Mandy and Ryan ( withinreachmovie.com ) as part of their biking the US for sustainability gig. It's a pretty fantastic ride--and very scenic--here's a few pics from a ride the other day.

Drive-by Daisies

Go Pack Go

*Disclaimer--if you are a die-hard, tried-n-true Packers fan, this post will turn you as green as moldy cheese*

Tom got a bonus birthday present two weekends ago when some friends of ours invited us to a Packers game--yes, we got tickets. Those of you who are Packers fans know how difficult this is--every seat in Lambeau Field belongs to a season ticket holder, which can in turn be willed to another person when the ticket holder dies (57,000 people are currently on the waiting list for season tickets, according to the Packers' website--that's about a 30 year waiting list!!!).

"So do you guys know where the tickets are?"

(like that would matter much anyhow)

"50 yard line, row 18"

WOW--even a football-no-nothing such as me

knew we had struck gold,

green and gold, that is.

A little pre-game fun at Kroll's

And you thought the cheesehead hat was bad....

Reflections of a Capitol

Unbelievable clouds

Tom and I were driving back from MI today when we ran into this eery, crazy storm just inside WI. Tom was driving, and I kept saying, "Look at that--look at THAT!" And he was like, "I'm driving--and we're about to die, so I'd rather not." I went on and on before he said he was serious--no more talking about the cloud--did I think we could drive past it soon? I think. But I was wrong--we ended up completely beneath it. It was incredibly windy but we didn't get any rain until we hit the other end of it. Because Tom didn't want me to talk about the cloud or continue to stare at it with my mouth literally hanging open, I got out my camera and took all sorts of pictures. Here are a few--other than compressing for the web, these photos taken from the car are completely unedited.

more sunsets

Staycation

We had high hopes for our 10th wedding anniversary--St. Thomas. Yah, well, with the move and all, we decided to rent a cabin in northern Wisconsin. And then, since we actually still own our vacation home in NC, we thought it silly to rent someone else's house *grin* So, like many across the country, we staycationed. It was great! Especially since we're so new to Madison. We got a state park pass and checked out Devil's Lake near Baraboo, walked the trails at Governor Nelson's right across Lake Mendota, and spent a day at Kettle Moraine State Park (north) hiking and checking out the glacier museum (and then drove home noticing the "gifts of the glaciers," as Tom likes to call them: drumlins, kettle moraines, erratics... yes, we're still dorks). We also went to the World Circus Museum, the Wisconsin State historical museum (right in downtown Madison) including the Odd Wisconsin floor (who knew we had the world's largest jackknife, tallest couple, and several serial killers here in WI?), kayaked, and spent a few nights on the Union Terrace with friends and the sailing club along with the usual suspects for Madison--state street, downtown, farmer's market, and the pool. All in all, it was a great time. And of course pictures!

Just another Friday in Madison

Just another Friday at the Terrace--life is good!

Diefs in Madison

A few weeks ago, my Uncle Tim and Aunt Brenda and their girls came for a visit. We mini-golfed, went to the fair, toy shopped, visited the American Girl headquarters, zooed, swam, bowled, and generally had a great time! Here are some highlights:

From the Ferris Wheel

Cheeseheads in the making

Joy-a-whirl

The Turtle Totem

Lion around

The Scholten Zoo

Our house was a bit of a zoo a few weeks ago when we had our two youngest nephew/monkeys for the week. I tease 'cause of the zoo picture below with Tom as the zookeeper, but actually we had loads of fun. Tom has a bunch of pictures on his camera of the whole week, but here are a few highlights from zoo day. I should give a shout out to the Henry Vilas Zoo--it is our city zoo here in Madison, and we've enjoyed it a few times already this summer.

More zoo pics

The Paw


... belongs to this Tiger


One of my favorite animals


The Badger (though not quite Bucky)

The Prairie Dogs (hours of entertainment!!)

Michigan visits

One of the great things about living in Wisconsin is being so much closer to friends and family. These are pics from a visit earlier this year to Kate and Ralph's in Detroit--Megan was in town from Seattle, where she lives (for a year already!) with her husband, Judd, as well as Emma, Gretal, Milo, and Simon. Kate somehow missed being photographed, but she looks just like Megan :P

Thomas, being adorable.

Allison, being a cuddle-bunny

Leah, being a monkey.

Auntie Megan, being the fun one (since Uncle Judd isn't around)

Whirleyball

Also while in Detroit we got to have some fun with Chip and Lisa playing whirlyball. I am fully convinced post-college boys sat around brainstorming fun things to relive childhood days. "Dude, you know what I miss?! BUMPER CARS." "Definitely. Bumper cars were the best." "We should open a bumper car place!" Yeah! Only with a twist--bumper cars and basketball... "WITH WIFFLE BALLS!" "Totally." And thus, whirleyball was born. Fun times....

Tom's in car 48, Chip's in 26


Get it, Tom!!!

And now the girls....


R we confused or what?!