New Glarus and Paoli

Sorry for the lack of new pictures the last few days. Pictures take a really long time to upload, and I’ve been too busy watching basketball. “Watching basketball?” you might say. “What, you, Famous Hat?” Yes, when you are married to a basketball addict, you do get sucked into March Madness. Especially since our beloved Badgers are going to the Final Four, but unfortunately they play at the exact same time as the Easter Vigil Mass. I’m going to have to make some tough decisions…

Friday evening Cecil Markovitch, the Married B-Boy, and the OTHER Choir Director were going to the Dorf Haus for their fish fry. Normally I’d have joined them, but it was one of those stupid days at work where I created extra work for myself, having to manually enter a bunch of data our software usually enters for me, so I was in no mood to go so far afield. Travalon and I were going to stick close to home, but the Other Couple texted and wanted to get together at a restaurant just down the street, so we did. We were there until after nine, and they were still planning to catch a movie! We just went home and to bed.

Saturday was a beautiful day, relatively speaking (in Hawaii it wouldn’t have been), so Travalon and I took Rodney the Dog and drove to New Glarus for a long walk on their bike trail and back up through their adorable downtown. We stopped by the brewery and stocked up, then we drove to Paoli and had cheese curd bread, which is even more amazing than it sounds. A new brewery called The Hop Garden had just opened up, so we tried their beers, which are very potent, and then I was completely buzzed. Good thing Travalon was driving! He didn’t try all the kinds like I did. We also took a walk in Belleville, along the bike path there that goes over a bridge. We got home and watched basketball – of course – and then Richard Bonomo stopped by for leftover fish fry from Friday night and a showing of some of our Hawaii pictures. There are so many that he only got partway through Kauai before it was really late.

Sunday Luxuli, Prairie Man, and the other bass in the choir went to brunch with Rich, Travalon, and me. It wasn’t a beautiful day, so we just stayed inside and watched basketball, until Rich had a few people over for dinner. I probably could have put more photos on the blog, but I was really getting into these basketball games. The teams who make it to the Elite Eight are very good, so the games were close and exciting, with lots of lead changes. One even went into overtime. We did take Rodney out for a walk between games, and despite the lousy weather, the wildlife was out in force. We saw the cranes who nest in our neighborhood every year, and two weasel-looking creatures chasing each other. The birds are returning to the marsh behind our house, so now we wake up to lots of birdsong in the morning. Spring is finally on its way!

Famous Hat