Danny

We were fortunate to have a visit from Danny, Spencer's brother, this past weekend. He was only in town for two nights but we still had a great time. On Friday, we had lunch at one of Milwaukee's oddities--The Safehouse. A totally spy-themed restaurant, this place is full of secret messages, passages, and hidden cameras. You need a password to get in after 8pm, but they will still let you in if you do what they tell you. The food is your typical bar fare, but you go more for the experience than you do for the food.

Friday night was spent at a Brewer's game. For some reason it seems like every time we make it out the team loses. We got a few good runs in though, and I indulged in the cheese-covered waffle fries that come in a souvenir Brewer's cap.

Saturday was especially fun. We made the trek down to Chicago to check out the sites. I've never really been downtown, so it was fun for me, too. The city runs a free trolley system in the summers to boost tourism, so getting around was pretty easy. Thanks to Spencer's new GPS, so was parking. No more guessing what road is next! The funny thing was that half the roads around Grant Park were closed to we couldn't get where we needed to go. The GPS really came in handy! We toured the Sears Tower, perused Millennium and Grant parks, and dined at Navy Pier. Unfortunately, Danny had to head off to Uruguay for work so we dropped him off at O'Hare and headed to our favorite place in the world...IKEA!

We are moving to a new, bigger place in about a month so of course that means more stuff! One of the conditions of our tenancy was that we put down area rugs in the living room to protect her lovely wood floors. We accomplished that goal with two beautiful blue square rugs, but failed to pick up the right size padding to go underneath. We also picked up a few items to increase our organization, plus one nifty futon-chair that folds into a twin sized bed that will go in the second bedroom in the new place. So now we have a sleeping arrangements for up to 5 people if we put 2 on the old futon and 2 on the air matress! Visitors welcome... :)

Music

I added a music player at the bottom of the blog with some songs if you want to listen to something.

~Sp

Summer Fun, Flooding, and DHL

This will be my last summer as a student where I am free of educational and occupational demands. Even though I am working on a research project this summer I still am taking full advantage of the summer. Two weekends ago Megan and I went camping with our good friends, the Schmutz family to kick off our summer. We went to Pike Lake, WI and had a wonderful time. Interestingly enough, we left right after some tornado warnings expired for our area, and we returned the next afternoon right before we received more tornado warnings. Good timing on our part!

Last weekend we had a camping trip that we had planned for a few months up to Door County, WI to visit the Peninsula State Park. The night we arrived it was raining but the trees kept most of the rain from falling on us, at least until we would experience a wind gust. We ended up playing Skip-Bo in a large tent with friends after dinner to wait out the storm. The next two days were absolutely gorgeous. We hiked, saw Lake Michigan, went to the beach, and enjoyed our trip. I would love to spend more time in Door County as we didn't visit the small towns up there, nor did we get to go fishing or boating on Lake Michigan.

With these two trips, summer vacation has officially begun. My brother Danny will be flying in to Milwaukee to see us for a couple nights and we will be going to the friday night Brewers v. Orioles game here at Miller Park. We will also go down to Chicago for a day trip and see some sites before sending him off to Uruguay for his work. There is much, much more going on this summer, but I'll fill you in later.

Unfortunately, due to the horrible storms about a week ago, much of Southeastern Wisconsin remains underwater. The devastation is unimaginable. Entire towns sit under feet of flood water. I have never before lived in a county that has been declared a federal disaster area. Our main interstate has even been temporarily shut down in areas, requiring hundreds of miles of detours for many people. The LDS Church sent some semi-trucks filled with disaster response kits that arrived at our church building over the weekend, and many more trucks were sent to Iowa where the disaster is even worse. I hope that the midwest can dry up soon.

Lastly, something odd has happened with a package I am expecting to get today, perhaps it is even slightly comical. I have never really understood the effects of time travel or Casimir effect-type wormholes, but I believe my DHL package has experienced them firsthand:

6/17/2008 6:35 am Arrived at DHL facility. Milwaukee, WI
6:32 am Arrived at DHL facility. South Plainfield, NJ
5:59 am Depart Facility Niles Regional Hub, MI
3:59 am Depart Facility Allentown Hub, PA
6/16/2008 9:20 pm Processed at DHL Location. Niles Regional Hub, MI

Amazingly enough, my package made it from Michigan to New Jersey in 33 mins, and then from New Jersey to Milwaukee in a short 3 mins. It also took a short trip to Pennsylvania early this morning. With this kind of technology in its grasp, DHL should be focusing on more important things than moving my package to each of its east coast facilities on the same day. (Sarcasm noted)

BTW, pictures from camping coming sooon.

~Sp

Chillin' and Grillin

We are moving in the middle of July to a new apartment that will be a little nicer, a little closer, and a little less expensive. That isn't the topic of this post, but rather the catalyst for the big news, I have my very own grill! I have missed grilling on a charcoal grill since I moved away from Provo. I bought this grill on Amazon after signing our new lease agreement as our new apartment has its own large backyard. Here are some pics of the grill that I received, put together, and grilled on today. It's the Char-Griller Patio Pro:





This grill I bought for $80.99 from Amazon.com. One of the nicest features is the grilling grate is made of a nice heavy cast iron. I am very excited to grill more during this summer. Check the grill out there at Amazon: LINK.

And of course. . . that's a Wisconsin Brat. . . delicious.

Quick update about everything else: School's out - yeah! Summer research work started - meh. That's about it. L8R

~Sp