Way Behind

Yes, yes, it's been too long since I last updated. We have been quite busy, and I will try to recap everything that we have been up to in the past few months. Check out the posts below for updated events!

Sarah and Matt's Wedding

On June 26th, also Dan's birthday (Happy 29th birthday Dan!), Tim and I attended our first wedding of the summer (1 out of 3). Tim's parents, brother and fiancee drove down in Madison on Friday, and we all drove down to Wheaton, Illinois the next day for Sarah and Matt's wedding. It was a wonderful wedding, and reminded me a lot of mine and Tim's wedding. They had a simple ceremony is a beautiful church, and a reception at a golf club nearby. Sarah and Matt looked like they were having a lot of fun on their big day, which is always a good sign when the bride and groom are enjoying their wedding ;o) The weather also could not have been better! Congratulations Sarah and Matt!

On our way down we passed a Dunkin Donuts, which we DO NOT have in Madison and it kills me! So me made a mandatory stop. The World Cup was going on and the US team was playing, so off course Tim was on his stupid blackberry as long as possible to keep track of the score!

The church was beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't have a good view to get more pictures!

Instead of assigning table numbers, they did "themes". Each table had a theme that related to a part of their lives together; it was very sweet, but made finding your table a bit tricky!

As you can tell from the quality of these pictures, my little camera didn't do the best job, but I did manage to catch a great picture of Sarah fearing the cake-in-the-face move! She managed to avoid getting smeared with cake, though just barely!

Cooper's Haircut

Alas our fuzzy puppy could not handle the heat anymore, so we got him a haircut! We always shave him down, instead of doing the typical cocker spaniel cut, so he always looks like a little rat when we get him home. We laugh at him for about 2 weeks, and then he starts to look super cute again. Luck for him, he needs to look cute for Dan and Sarah's wedding in September, so he will be getting another haircut in August, so he'll be nice and cool!

Cooper's new do, and the lazy dog days of summer :o)

One Year Anniversary!

It is hard to believe, but Tim and I have been married for an entire year! Unfortunately our work schedules did not permit an extravagant celebration, so we made do with what we could here in Madison. Our anniversary was on a Sunday, so we were able to play mini golf on Saturday before the bad weather rolled in, and unfortunately the rain kept us indoors all of Sunday. Tim did get me an Edible Arrangement bouquet (chocolate covered strawberries!!!), and we went out for a nice steak dinner at Johnny Delmonicos. The baker who made our cake includes a free "replacement cake" when you order through him, so Tim ordered us a carrot cake and cream cheese frosting "replacement" to celebrate our anniversary. We did have some left over from the original one-year frozen cake to compare. In my opinion the one-year old cake wasn't bad, but in the words of our baker, "I have hockey pucks that taste better than one-year old cake!" It was above hockey puck status, but not above "replacement cake" status! It was a good anniversary, and hopefully next year we can play a big trip to celebrate!

Tim brought us all breakfast from Eistein Bros., including a doggie bagel for Cooper! He could not have been happier once he figured out how to eat it!

After breakfast, the boys took a mandatory nap. After watcing one of the world cup games with our neighor, it was off to Johnny Delmonico's!

We started with the crab cakes for an appetizer.

Stuffed chicken, corn au gratin, and yes, this steak is just as amazing as it looks!

Of course we both had to order dessert! Cheesecake and bread pudding.

Back home again, we ate some chocolate covered strawberries and one-year-old cake (our replacement cake was not yet available).

One happy family (Cooper is obsessed with trying to eat the one-year-old cake)!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Other Memorial Day Adventures

In addition to the SYAP reunion concert, I had a wonderful 4 day weekend with family and friends. Tim and I were home from Friday through Monday evening, so we had 4 solid days to relax in Stamford. Unfortunately bad weather delayed us in both directions (how is there always bad weather in the city we are travelling to, but not the one we are currently in?!?!). However we made it safe and sound to and from Stamford.

The first day home my parents took us to Grand Prix New York. My dad, the amateur car racer, said that this was the closest thing to racing a car he had done in a while, so I KNEW it was going to be fun. We got to do two 10-minute races on the bottom track (see link above). These carts can go up to 40 mph, and you are required to wear a full racing suit, and a helmet. These tracks are not the typical oval track at most go carts areas either, there are hair-pin turns and straightaways and strategy is actually involved! It was so much fun! I was able to prove that I am in fact a better driver than Tim, and my dad was able to prove that years of amateur racing experience trumps every skill we thought we had. It was a blast!

I also got to spend some time with my friends. I had a party at my parents house on Saturday night, and we ate fabulous home-made food (because it wouldn't be a party if my parents didn't hand make everything), and I got caught up with everyone on life and had a great time hanging out with everyone! I miss my friends from home so much, and I wish they were closer, so thanks to everyone who was able to make it :o) I also got to meet some people for breakfast at IHOP (always delicious!) before we left on Monday. Hopefully it won't be another year and a half before I can come home again!

The weather was beautiful, and we could not have had a better trip home! The reunion was great, and it was a good balance of friends and family. Hopefully I'll get to come home again soon! Thanks everyone for making our trip so fun!

YAP 50th Gala Reunion

When I was in high school, I was a member of the Stamford Young Artists Philharmonic, a youth orchestra founded by Salvatore Princiotti. Mr. Princiotti, or Maestro, or Mr. P, has been running SYAP for 50 years, and 50 generations of students have been under the direction of only one conductor for the entire duration of our time with this group. And so hopefully you can imagine that celebrating the 50th year of this organization is one extraordinary event. I bought my tickets home for this show months in advance, and could hardly contain my excitement! I had not been home in a year and a half, so not only was I excited to visit friends and family, but I was so excited to attend the reunion concert to honor my conductor, Mr. Princiotti.

Sal is now 75 years old, looks like he's 60, and has the heart and soul of the 25 year old young man that founded SYAP. Over 100 alumni returned to Stamford to perform on stage under his direction, and even more us attended the concert. I was not able to perform with the group, but I was far from disappointed to be able to sit in the audience and hear them perform. The concert was a wonderful tribute to Sal, and it was a wonderful chance to catch up with the other Yappers of my class! I had a wonderful time, I'm looking forward to the next reunion concert :o) Stay strong Mr. Princiotti!

Wisconsin Trivia State Championship

Several states around the US have trivia competitions. Wisconsin has one of the biggest participating groups for trivia, while some states only have a few representatives from one or two big cities. So in case you think that it's a bunch of dorks sitting around playing trivia, well, you're only half right because apparently Wisconsin has at least 5 major cities FULL of these dorks (us included!). Tim and I started playing a couple of years ago with some of our college friends, but that group disbanded when people started moving away from Madison. More recently we started playing again with our neighbors across the hall in our apartment building. It has become such a hit with this group that we go at least once a week, sometimes more than that! It's a great social activity, and I feel I'm learning lots of useless facts.

So how do you play trivia? In Madison, you can play Monday through Thursday night, with several bars to choose from each night. There are 6 rounds with 3 questions per round (18 total questions), as well as a half-time question and a final question worth more points. You get to wager points on each question, so it is a game of strategy as well as a game of who knows more useless shit! If your team is ranked in top 20 in your area at the end of the season (usually a couple of months), then you automatically get to participate in the State Championship (with a $1000 prize!). If you are in the 20-40 top teams, you get to participate in the Wild Card game for a chance to go to the state.

Enter Team Suicidal Puppies (my neighbors idea). We qualified for the Wild Card round, and halfway through the tournament we had essentially ZERO points. We realized we had no chance of making it to state, but we were going to keep trying anyway. Going into the final question, we were in dead last place (I kid you not). The final question is worth up to 15 points, and if you get it right you get 15 points, and if you get it wrong, you lose 15 points. We wagered everything, and on that single question went from DEAD LAST to FOURTH PLACE and qualified for the State tournament!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Unfortunately we got destroyed at the State tournament, but still managed to finish middle of the pack. However it was the comeback of the century, and we have been trying to have a repeat performance ever since with no such luck. Alas, we still enjoy trivia, and love to play. Our team is currently ranked 17th! Check out our league standings ;o)