Waking Up to a Winter Wonderland.

Last night while we lay fast asleep a beautiful blanket of snow covered Madison. It was quite a surprise this morning. They weren't really calling for snow last night.

We were running late. Both Jimmy and I woke up and quickly got dressed and ready for work. We hadn't even had the chance to take a look out of the window at what was waiting for us. I wanted to eat breakfast before we left...still haven't looked outside. It was quite comical when I think about it, but I just sat down on the sofa with my bowl of cereal (our sofa faces the sliding glass door) I grabbed the remote and instead of turning on the TV my eyes were fastened on this scene.

I called Jimmy who was still getting ready and asked him if he had the chance to look outside he said, "No."
"Well you better get in here. We have a surprise."

Congrats to Mary, Bobby and Ella!

Just wanted to give a shout out to my dear friend Mary. She is expecting baby number 2 at the end of June. Congrats to the Mann family. I am very happy for all of you!!

I gave in.

Well, after my rant about Christmas music I gave into the radio stations. I was on my way to the Dells over the weekend to go to the outlet stores. The Dells or the Wisconsin Dells is a town north of Madison and is a combination of Mrytle Beach and Gatlinburg of course with no beach or mountains. It has lots of amusement parks, theatres, shops and very touristy stuff.

Anyway, I was headed to the outlets to go shopping and it was snowing. I was scanning through the radio stations when I came across the song "Sleigh Ride" and I just had to stop and sing along. Well that did me in b/c the whole way to the outlets and then on the way home I sang Christmas songs.

Oh well. Celebrate the Season.

Is it just me....

Or is the Christmas music driving you crazy. Don't get me wrong I love Christmas, I love singing carols, I love buying presents, I love going to church plays, I love eating all of the Christmas goodies but Christmas music ALREADY!!

One radio station up here started playing Christmas tunes the day after Halloween. That is way too early. What about Thanksgiving?? Give Thanksgiving a chance. Poor Thanksgiving everyone forgets about it!!

And of course the department stores are decorated and "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" is being played nonstop.

I am sure the marketing ploy is to play Christmas music so early that people will think, "Hey I need to start buying gifts." I am sure the thought behind it is to raise retail sales.

I will step down from my soap box. Hope you have a holly jolly weekend.

Chicago and Obama

Some pictures I took while visiting Chicago right after the election.

This was on display at Navy Pier.

The CNN Election bus was still parked right outside of Grant Park where Obama gave his speech last Tuesday night.

A fun weekend

Sara and Keith arrived on Friday around 11. Since this was Sara's first flight I made a sign for her and held it up when they walked to baggage claim.

Our first night we stayed in Chicago. We checked into our hotel and ate lunch at Ed D'Bevic's which is an old 50s style diner where the waitstaff throws menus at you, chews gum in your face and tells you that the food you just ordered will make you gasy. It was a nice place....no really.

Then we walked down to Michigan Ave. and had cocktails on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building to celebrate Sara's birthday. What a view!! What a great place to go. If you are ever in Chicago please do this. I think it is better than going to the observation deck. You still have a great view, its free, no long lines (unless it is a friday or saturday night) and you can buy a drink.

Here are some views from our table...

After a drink or two you will start to see like this......

We went in several stores and then headed to Navy Pier. After that we had happy hour at the hotel and then headed to Zanie's Comedy Club to see Brett Ernst. We laughed and laughed. This was my first visit to a comedy club and I can't wait to go back.

On Saturday we went to the Planetarium and then headed up to Madison. We gave Sara and Keith a tour of our new city and visited the capitol and the Cave of the Mounds National Park.

On Monday we toured Miller Brewing Company and had a blast with their free samples at the end of our tour. You know you are in Wisconsin when the free samples are 3, 20 oz. mugs of beer per person. WooHoo!!! If you like beer and are in Milwaukee this is a must do. The tour is free and so are the beers.

VOTE!!

Enough said.

check out this video too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGf2o4qeBo