This is the second delivery of Anne's Christmas gift to Ack - champagne deliveries. This month we have the André Robert Blanc de Blancs Reserve NV, Charles Ellner Grande Reserve Brut NV and Brocard Pierre Blanc de Noirs. We will let you know which was the best - Anne is out of town on a bonspiel and Ack will wait for her return before sampling.

'Tis the Season

We'd say Happy Halloween if we could.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Anne and Ack joined Erin, Al and his folks Maria and Jim in Salt Lake for the holiday.  
Warm! Sunny! Delicious! Fun!  
The visit included...

...a hike up a canyon along a creek,

...a tailgate party and then a win at the Utah-Colorado game,

...and, a spectacular Christmas display in Temple Square. Thank you, Mormons.

Welcome, September

What an amazing first day of September!

Opened the Northside Farmer's Market with Ack; harvested more from our deep wealth of zinnias (grown for Erin and Al's July wedding but peaking in August instead); sailed my little Expedition for the first time in a long time; Ack sold the dinghy a day after he posted on Craig's List; and Bob (stepson of good friend Jo Shuman) stayed with us on his route from Seattle to New York.

Forgot to ask his last name!  Vosper, perhaps?  Here's his journey blog on Track My Tour:
http://trackmytour.com/XMJXV#344875

Best part of the evening -- out on the pontoon with Margaret, Meg, Bob and me and Ack to watch the annual lighted boat parade but, as Bob put it, a lightening storm off in the distance stole the show.  Huge cloud over Lake Michigan (90 miles away!) that showed awesome flashes for hours. The stars on the way back were a close second - beautiful night. 

Christmas tree - from backyard to living room

We wanted to take down a increasingly large pine tree in the back yard to make way for a larger garden. We (Ack and Tom Achtor) cut it down and now the top of the tree is our Christmas tree. The lights are on, but we are waiting to add other decorations when Erin, Alana and Al come visit. Merry Christmas! Here are three pictures of the current project.

Merry Christmas

Alana photographing ice crack

Forgot to take Christmas pictures while Alana and Erin and Al were around for Christmas, but here is one of Alana taking photos during a walk on the frozen lake. Alana went back to N.O. on the 28th.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving - we were at Al and Erin's with his folks, Maria and Jim.

Happy 4th of July!

There is nothing like the "Rhythm and Booms" fireworks display in Madison WI! It is billed as the "largest fireworks display in the Midwest", there are about 15,000 shells fired during the 35 minute show. Yes, those are firecracker hearts in the photography. There were also smiley faces and stars. The weeping willow that turned colors just before burning out was my favorite this year. Anne and I went with Rick and Nicky. Biking down after a lamb BBQ.

Happy Memorial Day

A parade, gardening, sailing and BBQ brats and beer.

Waiting for the Bunny

Here we sit, waiting for the bunny.

This morning, the Easter Chicken arrived and hid the eggs we'd colored last night.  Anne hunted while Ack watched, sipping a mimosa, and giving hints as needed.  Anne went to church at Prairie where she heard this great e. e. cummings poem:

i thank You God for most this amazing day
By e e cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)


It turns out that cummings was U.U. too.

The photo -- Trina, her parents and grandparents came over for supper.  Fun!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's eve at a party at the curling club. Dinner and a continuous flow of champagne all night long. We slept in the morning of the 01/01/10. We spent much of the day relaxing and running errands, but also a bit of skiing in the Cherokee Marsh.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas.  Erin and Alana are home, and Al visited for a day or two (weather kept him an extra day).  It was a fun and relaxing day. Turkey, potatoes, brussel sprouts and trifle for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Game playing after the dinner.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Ack and Anne went trick-or-treating with Bob, Christy and 1-year old Katrina in their Tenny Park neighborhood. It was a very neighborly activity - there were lots of families with kids walking their neighbor and lots of folks knew each other. And households get into the holloween spirit - lots of decorated pumpkins and ghosts in windows. One house even ran a little skit on their porch; trick-or-treaters needed to participate in the skit in some small way to recieve their treat (which was chocolate). We live in a friendly neighborhood, but very few kids (maybe 1) which makes it have a different feel than Bob and Christy's neighborhood. Here, dogs take on the role of neighborhood children. To keep up with what is going on, it helps to have a dog to walk in the morning so you can meet folks and chat.

Fly a Kite

We went for a hike before Easter dinner at Griffy Lake. On the way back we stopped to let Anne and Al fly a kite. You can see an animated gif of several snapshots - see if you can find the kite in these images. Erin and I mostly sat on a bench and commented from afar.

Dinner was lamb, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and fennel, spicy green beans, carrots, and rutabaga. Dessert was apple pie and ice cream. Erin knows the recipes to them all!

Happy Easter!

We are celebrating Easter at Erin and Al's with them and their cats. We colored eggs and the "Easter Bunny" hid them sometime before we all woke up. Captain Terrific (the girl cat) turns out to be a terrific egg finder. Fortunately for Ack, no eggs were hidden in phones.

LaLa, wish you were here! (you too, Mia)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Erin and Alana came out the day after winter solstice and are here for a week. Here we are decorating the tree. Margaret, Meg, Reed and Grace are coming over for Christmas dinner. We are off to another snowy season, currently we have over 40 inches of snowfall. Anne and Alana went skiing this morning and Alana went back out for more. Ack stayed home and cleared snow off the roof in anticipation of near 40F weather on Dec 26 - high today is about 12F!