Appropriate Action

What does one do when they are sitting in new hire orientation and the ethics guy is wearing a neck tie with a blow up doll of Marilyn Monroe pictured on the front?

Answer: Laugh inappropriately until room stares.

Milwaunna Hang Out With Feef?

The last, but certainly not least, of my family members finally made it to see Max - Stephoin. His goal in Chicago was two fold: 1) party with Max and 2) party non-stop with me and Caitlin. Both were accomplished. Upon his arrival, he was introduced to Max and also to his new laptop that he had shipped to our house! Max was down with Stephoin, possibly because he thought he was me half the time.

Just a quick side note - Max is adorable.

Our first major adventure was to go to Milwaukee and check it out. We have never been, Stephoin has never been - so why not? Besides...we've all seen pictures from Chicago. Let's give Milwaukee a chance!

Our first "order" of business was to get some grub. Since we no approximately 0% about Milwaukee, we just stopped at the first non-chain restaurant we could find - Mikanos Cafe. Greek it is.

Max was also hungry, so he got lunch as well. I'd like to take this time to introduce you all to Max's monkey. The monkey was a gift from our cousin Sarah, and Max is obsessed with it. He holds on to it constantly. It makes him feel warm and cozy.

The food was good. Its always a good sign with the restaurant is almost full...which it was.

I devoured my gyro with a vigor unparalleled. From this point on I am going to just show you photos of our adventure in Milwaukee. I will just say that I found the city to be very awesome. Sure, it has clearly been through some rough patches...but I think it is in a real revitalization period right now and it shows. We found lots of interesting things to explore. We are excited to come back in the summer one weekend and explore some more. Check it out:

Yes, Milwaukee was a very good time. Max was an amazing trooper considering he spent the entire day in his car seat/stroller. He finally let us know how he felt about that, so we had to take him out for a while and love him. He appreciated it.

The next day Stephoin and I went house exploring, including checking out the Home Alone house.

We went down to Lincoln Park to Sweet Mandy B's to try some of their treats and explore that neighborhood. That was a great bakery.

Sure, everyone does cupcakes. But still, good lookin for sure.

Then we walked up to Lakeview to meet up with the Hilton's for some dinner at DMK Burger Bar - which I obsess over constantly. It was absolutely amazing, per usual. It was a little loud for conversation for such a big group...but who can talk anyway with gigantic burgers in your mouth?

Oh man. I got the Prosciutto burger. AHHHHHHHHHHH.

Then it was time to go home for some tender moments before bedtime. Max is so full of love these days. He loved having Unky Feef to visit and hold him so tight. We still had a few days to go, but Feef is not one to waste precious moment opportunities.

He kills me.

More Stephoin visit stories/pictures to come.

Poser Boy

You may or may not know that Stephoin was in town last week. We had a fantastic time hanging out together and introducing him to Max. We did lots of fun activities, of which I will report next week. Something about Stephoin is that he wishes all photos taken of him were calculated, posed and flattering. Here are just a few examples from our trip of the poser opportunities we had.I call this one Regal Beagle

I call this one Here Comes The Son

I call this one A Sensitive Man

 

New Chapter...a very long one

Today Caitlin said that tomorrow we begin a new chapter in our lives - the one where I start work again after a three month break. For some reason, this feels like a really long chapter. Like 35 years long.

Juicy is the Luciest

I promised I would report about our dinner. Okay, this is where my diet really starts to go awry. But listen, before you judge me with your judging ways, just note that the food I ate was called "the Juicy Lucy". How can I pass up a meat product with that name? We went over to the 5 8 Club to discover what this was all about.

We started off with something that really helped us feel like we were in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area - fried cheese curds! Wow, these beat cheese logs any day.

Then our food was delivered. DWo and LWo represent! They were so happy to have us there - so many Friday nights without friends to eat meat products with. Sad.

This is a picture of my burger - aka, the Juicy Lucy. Why is this burger called that?Because the burger is cooked around a huge layer of cheese that melts inside as the burger cooks. Every bite is met with juicy cheese flowing out from the center. You can get blue cheese or pepperjack in there as well. I mean, wow.

This is a meal that the whole family can enjoy...well, except Max. Just milk for him. Sorry buddy. Soon you will have Juicy Lucys too.

This was my reaction to the first bite. It looks like I'm disgusted, but I'm just trying to grapple with my intense explosion of happiness.

Later at home we snapped this cute picture of Max with his favorite monkey. Seriously, this kid kills me.

And DWo and I passed out on the couch and watched Olympics. That much food is just not good for your body, only your spirit.

On Sunday after church we went down to the statue gardens by the museum of art. I always like green houses where plants are growing in a warm environment inside, but outside it is freakin' crazy cold.

We approached one of Minneapolis's most famous landmarks - the spoon cherry sculpture (fountain in summer)

This is a very excellent thing - I would compare it to the bean in Chicago. Its just something you got to check out.

Similar to the bean, you can take a picture of the Minny skyline in the orb.

You can also take group photos, like this one.

And then maybe things will get out of hand and you'll start doing weird poses for the camera, including belly visuals and handstands.

And then you'll take profile appropriate pictures of individuals, like this stunning photo of DWo standing majestically on the spoon. Don kind of looks like one lone rice krispee on this spoon, right?

And that was our trip to Minneapolis. We left at 4am on Monday morning so Max could sleep most of the way home. Thanks Wo's for having us and partying it up to the break of dawn! We have really enjoyed exploring while I've been free from work.