Tag Archives: wine

Weekend Wars

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I had a phenomenal weekend away to visit my friend Val and celebrate her birthday.  I took a day off on Friday, something of a rarity in my life, and drove down early to Madison to take in the city.

Val and I started a weekend of pampering with hour long full-body massages.  I won’t gush any more about how wonderful it was, but we both decided after that is going to be an annual tradition.  Don’t be surprised, however, if massages happen more often in our lives.  I forgot how wonderful and relaxing they can be!

After our massage, we went to a favorite wine bar on the west side, Eno Vino.  We each had a glass of delicious red wine and split two appetizers: the mushroom and sausage pizza and the beef tenderloin and salmon brushetta.  Highly recommend all we had!

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I had the Tinto Rey by Matchbook.  Absolutely smooth and wonderful, with tons of flavor.  Plus, the name reminded me of my favorite Matchbook Magazine!

After our early dinner, we went back to Val’s place to get ready for a nice night out.  We ended up grabbing a beer with friends at Paul’s Club, where we drank under the famed indoor tree.  After Paul’s we went to our traditional spot: The Old Fashioned.

Saturday, I had the extreme pleasure of celebrating the bridal shower of my good friend Danielle.  It was absolutely amazing to get together with friends from college and reconnect.  I ran to Fromagination, my favorite cheese shop, to pick up her gift.  Thankfully, I got a parking spot right on the Square during the Dane County Farmer’s Market, a rarity for sure.

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One thing I am truly proud of, and can gush about for hours, is the success of the girls I graduated with.  Distinguished in our own rights, there were so many girls at our small table that were in graduate school, planning weddings of their own, already married, and even a mom!  I’m so lucky that the college culture I was a part of at Ripon College developed deep values within us all to be well educated, but most importantly, incredibly happy.

Driving in from Madison from Sun Prairie, I veered into one of my favorite areas: the Monroe Street neighborhood.  I parked next to Trader Joe’s and went into Strictly Discs to celebrate Record Store Day 2013.

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I had a cup of foamy beer, browsed around for twenty minutes or so, and came home with two new albums.  Don’t you worry, they’ve both been played on my dad’s old record player a few times already!

Val and I spent our Saturday night eating our favorite Mexican food from Los Gemelos, then enjoying a bottle of wine with Anjali.  It was nice to catch up between the three of us, and jam out to some old school rap.  Thank goodness there are no incriminating photos of myself dancing to “Brass Monkey,” there are already dozens of those from undergrad.

Sunday was perfect.  Val and I woke up early to head to the Alterra that just opened in Madison.  For those of you who haven’t been to an Alterra, head to Milwaukee or Madison and have some of the best coffee you will ever have.  I am such a fan of Alterra coffee and food.  But, the secret is this: their lemonade is delectable.  Far and away my favorite thing on the menu!

After grabbing breakfast and taking a quick stop at Gap, we headed down to the East Campus Mall area for the Ask Listen Save suicide prevention walk.  In its third year, it is already the highest fundraising suicide prevention walk on any college campus.  It made me truly proud of my alma mater and being a Badger.  It is one of the values I learned at UW: to love each other unconditionally, regardless of being best friends or a stranger.  The walk was amazing, and an opportunity to see the lakeshore as spring has finally begun to show itself in Wisconsin.

And, I can’t forget, the walk did give me an opportunity to see my best friend Bucky!

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I had a phenomenal weekend in my favorite city; the place that feels like home.  I’m so happy to have fantastic friends to visit as well as a city that welcomes me with open arms time and time again.

How was your weekend?  Did you see your college mascot wheeling around on a cart in the middle of campus, or was that just me?

We’ll All Float On, Alright

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UW’s classes begin tomorrow.  If someone could tell me where summer went, I would be greatly appreciative.

There seems to be a lot for me left to do, even though I feel prepared for the academic year.  I have all of the books needed for class, I am getting ahead in readings, and I have brand new clothes to start the year our right.  However, I just have all of these little to-do items that I wish to get accomplished in the next week or so.  Even though it’s my last official week of summer vacation, I feel as though I’ll be working hard all the way through.

It’s really okay, though.  I’ve had a great past few weekends seeing friends, so I cannot complain about how my summer shaped up to end…and I still have Labor Day weekend to look forward to.

Two weekends ago, I headed down to Indianapolis for Jessi’s bridal shower.  It was fantastic for all of us bridesmaids to be together at last, and I cannot believe how well we all got along.  That Saturday night, Jessi, Michael, Janice, Betsy, and I all got together for dinner (delicious curry, thanks again Janice!) and drinks. Lots of Strongbow, sake bombs, and other assorted drinks were imbibed.  It was such good chatting; it did not feel like I just met Janice and Betsy.  We all had so much fun, and I cannot think of another time in my life I laughed so hard.

Jessi and I posing for a quick photo at Janice’s apartment.

The next day, we went to Mallow Creek Winery for the actual bridal shower.  It was full of amazing food and wine, plus more giggling between us girls.  Janice did a fantastic job organizing everything, and it was a wonderful time.  I wish I could’ve stayed in Indy longer, but then it was time for the ride home.

All of the bridesmaids and the bride together at last!

Last week, I had a non-exciting work week.  Just tying up odds and ends from summer to then get the year started out right.  I also worked on getting things organized for the academic year as far as orientation for SLIS went.

I was able to spend last weekend in Ripon seeing all of my good college friends and visiting Sam.  There was a lot of time where Sam and I had things to be doing, but we did have a great time together nonetheless.  Friday night was the annual Sigma Chi cookout, which marks the beginning of the school year and end of summer.  I was so excited to see my second branch of my ADPi family there in full force.

From top to bottom: Nicole my grandlittle, Ali my little, and me.

Saturday, Sam and I ran errands around Appleton with Courtney and Mara.  I enjoyed catching up with those two and spoiling myself a little bit.  After a long day of being around people, Sam and I took a walk around campus around midnight.  It was pretty quiet, and we stopped to chat on the tables outside of the commons.  It was a great time to talk about life; not the everyday things, but the big things that have changed for us during our time at Ripon.  I can honestly say it is now one of my favorite memories with Sam at Ripon.

Sunday was beach day with ADPi.  I got my swimsuit on and headed out to Green Lake for some summer sun.  It was a gorgeous day and I got a bit of reading in while laying in the sand.

Carballo, Flynn, and I at Green Lake.

Pheew, I’m all caught up on the exciting adventures as of late.  Tomorrow night, very late, Jessi and Michael will be arriving to Madison.  I’m excited to tour Wisconsin with them for the weekend.

How are you spending your Labor Day weekend?

Germany Trip: Stuttgart

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After a decently long train ride from Mainz, we arrived in Stuttgart.  We immediately got to our hotel, dropped our luggage off, and began exploring.

I went with a small group of people to see the great palace that was near to our hotel.  Everything surrounding the area was completely beautiful.  We needed to gather early on to make our way to the library school in Stuttgart, so we all stayed close and had about an hour to sightsee.

I found a great lion statue, making me miss my ADPi sisters.

Going to the library school in Stuttgart was one of the highlights of the trip.  Even though there are differences in the ways libraries function, many of the same issues are faced in Germany.  One of the big differences I noted for public libraries, is that libraries are seen as cultural institutions rather than learning or educational institutions.  The similarity that was striking, is that the same stigmas of being a librarian are also associated to librarians in Germany.

The students explained their educational paths, what they have done research on, and what they hope to do in the future.  They also met our entire group out for dinner so we could connect and network with one another.

Before dinner, we had about two hours of free time, so Erin and I hopped into the city shopping area and went to the Steiff Galerie.  Although I already had a Steiff badger and a souvenir for my mom, I wanted to see one of the huge Steiff bears.  I ended up getting myself a bear there, and am very happy.  Plus, Steiff gave free gummies out with every purchase.  Sweet deal.

He was not worth taking home, but he was adorable.

I ran off to a grocery store to grab a bottle of wine before dinner, and Erin and I each had a glass before we ventured off to dinner.  Seeing the fellow library students again was great, and I am happy that we have all been able to connect.

Erin, me, and Victoria out to dinner together.

Our next day in Stuttgart, we started in their state archive.  It was exciting that they showed us different books and the damage that occurred…bookworms, paper-eating ink, fire damage, water damage, etc.  We were also able to see some great archive information, such as papal bulls and charters.

After a quick lunch, Erin and I ran over to the city library.  We scored impressive Stuttgart library cards.

You can be jealous of my library card.

After that jaunt, we began our afternoon at the state library.  It was afternoon, it was a bit hot, and after lunch…I was pretty tired.  However, I perked right up with the amazing book collection the library holds.

That is me with a Gutenberg Bible.  Up close.

I really enjoyed our two days in Stuttgart, and wish I had more time to explore different parts of the city, but I think I ended up seeing the best parts of the city — especially for a library geek such as myself.