Hiking Around Maine

Yes, I've decided to stray from the "Big Trip - Day X" naming scheme. (you're welcome)

Today, I woke up with some terrible lower back pain. Not a good thing for the day you're scheduled to go hike up a mountain. After a check of the weather forecast (it looked terrible) Mike and I decided to go for it!

We drove up to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. The drive was very nice - many lakes, big hills, a few legit mountains mixed in, and of course - as seems to be the law in Maine: MANY Dunkin Donuts. I had thought that there was a ridiculously high quantity of the chain in Portland itself, but apparently they are even in the small towns:



When we reached Mt Washington we found that the road to the top was closed. The guy told us it was due to several feet of snow on parts of the road, -10F temps, and wind gusts over 120mph. We did have a Chevy Lumina, but I guess they still wouldn't let us through.

We ended up having a very nice trip - a couple of very nice (and thankfully short) hikes and some great pictures.





When we got back to Portland we got some _great_ chowder down at Gilberts Chowder House. I then got the chance to hang out with Claire while the rents went out for the evening. We had a very nice evening - read some books, watched some Dora, and drew some pictures.

The Big Trip - Day 2

Another great day today, although this time the weather didn't cooperate quite as well. I don't think the sun managed to get through at all today but we still managed to have a great time.

I'll be putting all kinds of pictures from this trip here btw.

After sleeping in (which was great!) I awoke to find a baby in the house. Rufus, a friend (of Mike and Sheila)'s kid, was over for a bit. He was a good guy - no pic to pass along, but a big head of blonde hair. His favorite (and only) word is "daddy" and he employs it the same was smurfs use the word "smurf". Do you like blocks? Daddy. How about we go outside? Daddy. -- You get the picture. Anyway, while the one word vocabulary is cute to any adult (except perhaps his mother), Claire was not as big a fan. She definitely grasps that the baby can't really communicate but was still getting frustrated when, on the way to breakfast, all Rufus wanted to talk about was his Dad. "I'm not your daddy!" she would yell with a very frustrated look on her face.

"Breakfast" (in quotes since it occured at 130PM) was great - Becky's (careful that has audio) was great! I got to help Claire with her french toast - partly grape jellied - part strawberry - partly orange marmalade, part syrup, and of course: part everything. Good times!

We did a bit of shopping (I love shopping) and later a lobster dinner! Mike and I went to pick the beasts up - they were very very easy to prepare (which was a fun experience in itself) and they were uber-tasty! Here, you see me with a manical look on my face - looking forward to the finished product.



Unfortunately, one got loose after I had cut the rubber bands on it's pinchers and it got Mike on the nose:



Looks like a windy and chilly day tomorrow so we'll see whether we get to go with our "hike a mountain" plan or not - something tells me we'll find something good to do!

The Big Trip - Day 1

Day 1 of my big trip is complete.

The whole trip will take from Thursday 10/19 through to Friday 10/27 and will take me from Madison to Boston to Portland (ME) to Boston to Burlington (VT) to Boston to Madison.

Things got started off when my wonderful mother work up early (445AM!) to give me a ride to the airport - thanks Mom! This marked the first time that I was allowed to bud in line due to being a tad late in an airport line. I really wasn't that late though, I bet that if I hadn't budded I would have still been 15 minutes early, but when they offered... I definitely accepted!

The flight from Madison to Detroit ended up being late as we had to circle a while due to cloudiness - you may think that the aviation has evolved to the point where landing during overcast weather is possible... apparently you would be wrong. Anyway, this meant that I got off our plane at 8:58 and my next flight left at 8:48. Lucky for me half the airport was in the same shoes so they held the plane!

The bus from Logan (Boston airport) to Portland Maine was absolutely as pain free as Mike and Sheila had told me. A two hour drive filled with sudoko (my parents addicted me to it last weekend) went very quickly and cost just $20 - not bad!

The day was still young though - after hanging out with Sheila and Claire a bit Mike got home - or actually "woke up" would be the better wording since he was in his room up to that point. We then headed out to check out Portland Head lighthouse - VERY pretty... just like the postcards. As Mike says "by far the most famous thing in Maine".



I happened to be in town on basketball night so we got to go play a bit with some of Mike's buddies. 4-4 full court and a final 3-3 half made for a really fun time, but I definitely haven't been around the basketball enough lately. Lots of mistakes and missed gimmes.

The night ended with Mike and I playing some foosball - I had him on the ropes but he eventually took down the evening series 5-4. We've decided to keep a running lifetime series total from here on out.

Oh, and actually that didn't end my night. I still had a bit of life in me so I decided to start watching the Lost Season 1 DVDs that my lovely wife recently gifted me. Several of our good friends have been telling us a great show for long enough that we've finally given in. Very good to figure out some of these beginning details that I've been missing. Seems like it's going to be a great show.

Pictures!

Ok, so it's been a looong time since I uploaded to Flickr. Monica has been doing most of our photo management of late - she's a big Picassa fan, so you can catch a lot of our stuff out there. So... some of these will be repeats but some are new... anyway, here goes.

St.Germain Add another to the list of great trips to St.Germain. The highlights of this one included 30 degrees in June, Rusty getting his first taste (with us) of the water, and some fun lawn games. Good times and some great Rusty pics.

Mike's Graduation Mike's MCW graduation was tons of fun. We got to see lots of people that we hadn't seen in a long time, play some football, have some good food, and just enjoy a great day.

5-21-06 Monica, Melodie, and I did some quality eating. We hit the new taco place (Texas Tubbs) followed by the new ice cream place (Ben and Jerry's).

Mallards Game Monica, Emily, Emily's father, Dion, and I went to check out the 2nd game of the Mallards season. They came up short but the Mallards keep things really fun with plenty of between-innings games and a mix of both on and off field fun.

Grillin Out Monica and I grilled up some zuccini to go with our chicken fingers. Good stuff.

Brat Fest Monica, Tivoli, Michael, and I went to check out the world's largest brat cookout at the Aliant Energy Center. As always it was a great time and the prices are awesome. The picture is the grill for the event - it's a semi-trailer that opens (on hinges - it's modeled on a real grill :) ). We even got to pick up a bratfest Christmas ornament for the tree!

Mother's Day . Claire brought her family to join the Sun Prairie crew for a fun Mother's Day. Mom got a shiny new iPod nano! Of course, the wikipedia Chocolate Truffle picture (featuring Monica's creations) came out of the event as well!

Farmer's Market Monica, Mom, and I went to the farmer's market on the square in downtown Madison. As always we picked up some cheesy bread and other goodies that are always a hit!

Gas Prices Sadly, this picture is no longer even impressive but at the time... it was A LOT!

Disc Golf. Monica, Rusty, and I went out to Token Creek to get in some disc golf. We really need to get back out there. It's a lot of fun and Rusty is actually surprisingly well behaved (doesn't retrieve the disc for you if you make it clear that isn't what you want).

Big Happenings In Maine

So, as you may already know my brother Mike got his #1 match for residency and is headed to Maine! This week he and Sheila are out in Maine house hunting and checking out the area in a bit more depth. The big news of the day: they've got a house already! Man, kids these days move fast. Can't wait to see the pictures of it. I'm sure they'll be on The Halblog in no time flat.

While the Claire's parents are out of town, Monnie and I went over to nana and bapas house (where Claire is staying for a couple days) to hang out. While looking at some of Sheila/Mike's online pictures we came across a certain one that she was not a big fan of.

Claire: make it change!
me: to what?
Claire: me! at grandmas house!

(luckily the next one on the page was just that and crisis was averted)

Just imagine if I had shown her this one!

Jesse Cook

Mike, Dad, and I headed down to Edgerton on Saturday night to see Jesse Cook play at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center (EPAC).

The show was very good. The style (as he mentioned during) was a successful attempt to fuse the gaps between Rumba and Indian. For the most part you can imagine (as Mike suggested) it as the soundtrack to a movie like 'Once Upon a Time In Mexico' or 'Desperado'. There are some great samples on his site, just go surf around and it'll start playing whether you like it or not! just make sure your sound is on.

Unbelievably quick and accurate with the guitar. This was an unbelievable show - and the EPAC was a great venue for it.

Mike and Sheila Return!

After a week vacationing in Brazil, Mike and Sheila have returned! We got to see them right when they got back and it sounds like they had a great trip.

Monnie and I were happy to see them and hear about the trip but Claire was even more excited to have them home. She'd been having a good time hanging out with nana, bapa, Monnie, and I but was definitely happy to have them back!

More pictures of the day-and-a-half Monnie and I spent with here here. And Monnie's post here.

In other (big) news.

Mike took the boards! Glad that's done with and it sounds like he's already on to more crazy adventures. I don't want to ruin the story but it does involve a flashlight that makes hippo noises and changing the tire of a car while in motion (typical Mike and Sheila stuff). As usual, the 2 year old sums it up best: "That blue car is broken".

Monnie and I (as well as nana and bapa) are super pysched to be taking care of Claire now that we've finally managed to deport her parents to Brazil! I'm sure they'll have a great time and we'll get some awesome photos and blog reports. and I'm sure we'll have fun while they're away too, including (but not limited to) sliding down the giant rainbow in our backyard, as we do whenever Claire is over at our house.

Aly is moving to Vegas! We'll definitely have to meet up when we're out there in March. I'm sure a large part of the reason that she's moving out there is so that she can participate in our 15 guy all night gambleathons. Sounds like every little girls dream (well, maybe Emily K's actually).

Jon and Alison are not only recently engaged, but also have just completed their blog across Europe. Lots of photos and even a few movies for you to check out.

Assorted Christmastime Happenings

What a great weekend!

We started out in Milwaukee. A great breakfast with Annie & John, Meghan & Jason, and Kara & Lieland! Too bad that Pete had to work, but it was great to get to meet Lieland (Pete and Kara's baby). Later that night we had Christmas with the Fritschs. Thomas and Matt came over as well as grandpa to join her parents and the two of us. Here's Cocoa getting in on the present opening action, and Barb and I making a snowman.


Saturday it was back to Madison to have Christmas at the Halbergs. Mike and Sheila were in town and Claire was in full effect. Very excited for presents to be opened! Our gift was a hit. I don't think you can go wrong buying a girl of any age 5 pairs of princess shoes and a tiara!



Sunday we woke up late (a little Christmas gift to ourselves) before heading up to Green Bay for the Packers vs. Bears game. It was a great time and the Pack made it exciting at the end - unfortunately, it just wasn't your day (or year for that matter). Completely randomly, we ran into cousin Tim and second cousin Zak! Unbelievable in a stadium that size! There's more on that here.



Monday we met up with The Roos (minus Ericka) for lunch in Johnson's Creek. The highlight, of course, being the introduction of the newly engaged Emily and Rob (congrats kids). Monnie and I spent the rest of the day with Carissa and Niki - we watched some corny movies and had a great dinner at Ginza Tokyo. There's more about it here and a little here too.
Here are our leftovers (dressed more for Halloween than Christmas).


That's one great weekend and a couple more great ones coming right up. This weekend we're starting out with dinner at John and Leslie's on Friday night. I'm really looking forward to stopping in to see grandpa beforehand. After that we're headed up North for our 3rd annual New Years in Bessemer, MI (Powderhorn Mt), then a weekend or two after that: up to Mt. Bohemia for a weekend of skiing. What a great time of year!

Last Weekend

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been sick and generally no fun for the past week. The exception being over the weekend when Claire was in town for a visit!

If you've seen The Halblog in the last couple days you've already seen some pictures but I've posted a few more out to our Flickr site. It was great to get to visit with the trio from Waukesha on consecutive days in Madison! The highlight was probably Ella's Deli, where the carousel was a big hit!

Here's my favorite picture from the weekend. Check out Flickr for lots more.

Another Great Weekend

We just got done with a very fun weekend in Milwaukee.

Things got kicked off with Nate and Ericka's wedding on Friday. They had perfect weather (especially considering that the rest of the weekend it was either a thunderstorm or 150 degrees) for an outdoor wedding. The War Memorial was a great setting, right on Lake Michigan. They even had fireworks courtesy of Festa Italiana right down the road there! I think everyone had a great time! I don't have any pictures of the wedding but hope to have some at some point - our camera has been behaving poorly but I think Carissa has some that she'll be able to send me (?).

After a late night Friday, Saturday was pretty much a recovery day. We had planned on heading to Festa that evening but ended up with thunderstorms. Actually, that was alright though as we were all feeling pretty lazy. Instead, Monnie, her parents, brother Thomas, and I played a few rounds of Scattergories and ordered some pizza. Sheila, Claire, and Mike came over to work on the wedding programs and Mike put on a hoola hoop exhibition that's definitely worth checking out.

Sunday was another good day. We started making our first calls to get some answers on missing wedding RSVPs. The seating chart is getting put together and we're working towards our "final number". Later we had a 'couples wedding shower', mostly for Monica's side of the family (except my parents and Sheila/Claire) and some friends. I admit that I was somewhat worried about exactly what would go on but it was a great time. Uncle Ric made some awesome Mexican food (I got to request the genre) and everyone really enjoyed staying in the house and away from the incredible heat. I think that's going to have to be the hottest day of the year... it was CRAZY out there. Anyway, we're quite appreciative of all the gifts and it was great to see some people that I hadn't seen in a while. I don't have any pictures of the shower but Sheila has some posted already - check em out!

Big week ahead here: Presentation Thursday and closing Friday!