Hey it's super cold out there.  So what could the mail deliver that's the complete opposite of -1 temps?  Besides a few airline tickets to a few warm and sunny places...The 148 page Burpee seed and garden catalog! 

Visions of growing all kinds of stuff this spring.  Which will ultimately be reduced to a few tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic and flowers.  But man, some of that stuff looks incredible.  Only 5 and a half months to go.  

This is it the run up to Christmas starts this week. That means cleaning the house, wrapping presents, prepping for snow storms...  Sounds about right.

Joel is home again.  Everyone has heard of the Freshman 15 well how about the Sophomore -15?   Yea, he lost 13 pounds since he left here in fall.   Seriously.  I guess all the bike riding, walking, tennis, studying and intake of jamba juice, jimmy johns and whatever he makes at home is a weight loss plan.  Its really not that much  - less than a pound a week, so lets not get all freaked out.  He did have a really bad cold last week, perfect for taking finals right?  So 3 semesters down and 5 to go?  When he starts next semester he will have officially completed more college than I have.   Super proud of him that's for sure.

Annual December trip to NYC

This week I was in NYC for work.  I think I have been in NYC at least 3-4 times at this time of the year.

Here is this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and ice rink

Here is the Bryant Park Christmas tree.

I also met a friend for drinks at the Dead Rabbit.  Really cool little place and apparently quite swank.  

Below is a list of press and awards this place has garnered.

Tales of the Cocktail 2013: World’s Best New Cocktail Bar, World’s Best Cocktail Menu, International Bartender of the Year (Jack McGarry) Esquire: Best Bars in America 2013
Liquor.com: 15 Bars to Visit Before You Die
CNN: 10 Favorite New Bars of 2013
Village Voice: Best New Bar 2013
New York Magazine: Best Everyman’s Bar 2013
Forbes Magazine: Top 15 American Nightspots 2013
CBS: NYC’s 5 Best New Cocktail Bars
Eater: Where to Drink in New York Right Now 2013
Zagat: New York’s Hottest New Restaurants and Bars 2013
Wine and Spirits: Where to Drink and Dine in NYC 2013
Thrillist: The Thrillist 47

Yes is was really good.  They have a hardbound cocktail menu book.  Incredible stuff.

Tree

Well the tree and decorations are up.  I took a picture to find out that certain pictures when uploaded to Google+/Picasa can be "Auto Awesomed"  and one of those effects is twinkle.

Yes the train is up and the cat is sleeping under the tree.  She thinks she is outside.  Yes the star is a bit crooked now that I look at it.

Here comes winter

Cedar Lake starting to freeze over.

Caffeine update

Hey, tomorrow I will be coffee and for the most part caffeine free for 10 months.  I mean who knew you could do that?

I mean I have not been completely with out it.  I have a coke every now and then, and honestly it's almost too sweet for me now.  I think I have had fewer than 10 soda's in that time.  At a restaurant, I get water or lemonade.  Yea or a beer.

I did buy a 1/2 pound of Alterra, er, Collectivo coffee a few weeks ago. Two Sundays ago I made some.  It was pretty tasty but man the buzz was pretty intense again.  Took a long time to get that 32 oz  (a full french press full) down.  Then came the headache.  Pretty weird.   I may start drinking coffee again  but I really like the fact I don't need to have any every morning to get going and I have saved a bit of cash (I bet around $150. at $15.00 a month).  So maybe just a weekend thing for me.

Whats next?  Gluten free?  Paleo?  Man,  I think those would be so much harder than caffeine.  So many things in the diet to change for those.  I am sure the family would love that too.

Time to bundle up!  Man the cold came in with a vengeance this weekend didn't it? No need to tell us as we all went downtown to the 87th annual Milwaukee Christmas parade.  17 degrees,  and the wind, man I think we were near zero on the windchill.   My clan staked out a site in front and we were on TV a lot.  I have the parade dvr'd and it is funny to see how cold we look.  Bundled up, barely see a face, then there is me standing behind or to the side, arms out like Ralphie on Christmas Story.  Mom and Jenny were a little further away and because of the cold, no one was willing to pull up camp.

So cold that Kiki was really miserable and we had to quit before we even finished the parade.  Took some time but she got the feeling back in her feet and hands and we were off to breakfast at Blues on 76th street. Wait, what?  A 90 minute wait, no thanks.  Back to Miss Katie's Diner for a great brunch of eggs, hash-browns and sausage.

Been kind of slacking on the posts here lately.   Not a lot of newsworthy stuff going on.  Mostly a lot of house and winter prep.  Garage the lawn tractor, fire up the snow blower, patio furniture into storage, leaf remove and all that kind of necessary crap.

This time next week we will be watching the packer game, eating Thanksgiving meal and mom's house.  Joel will be home for a few days.   First time we will have seen him since we left him in August.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Not a whole lot going on right now.   Mackenzie is in full basketball season swing.  The camp she went to last summer shows the improvement.  She still plays with the second string, but pretty much runs the show then.  She has double digits in rebounds and at least 10 points through 6 games and at least 2 steals per game.

Fun to watch and I really need to replace my backboard for her next spring.  Get some summer help and even play summer ball.  Crazy to think but next year will be high school ball.

So many seasons

Ya know what season it is now?  Mail order catalog season.  Holiday catalogs are hitting your mailboxes.

Seriously.  In two days of mail we have got:

Sharper Image
Woolrich
Lucky Jeans
East Bay
Northern Brewer
LL bean
Title nine
Delia's

And there will be more.  very soon.  I wont even count the Kohls and Target ones yet.

October

Well its over.  Birthday month has come to a close.  It was a great month.

We went to Ninja Japanese steakhouse for my birthday dinner.  The food was pretty good  but the atmosphere was better, well no so much the atmosphere as the small show you always get at one of these places.  The knife work, the showmanship, tossing vegetable bits to be caught in your mouth as the chef flings them at you.  Don't get too dressed up at this point.  The guy then takes a squeeze bottle of sake and starts squirting it at your mount as well.  We all had a good laugh as Tracy wore more of it than she actually got in her mouth.  Quite humorous.  Then at the end they turn on some crazy happy birthday song and come out with a dessert and sparkler that they light at the table.

I also couldn't forget that yesterday was our 21st wedding anniversary.  What can I say?  The number kind of speaks for it's self.

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post.  I had so many things I wanted to add.  Like us going to the pumpkin farm and then we had a Halloween party (thanks to all those who came).  Carving pumpkins and pumpkin seed making and decorating.  Man I feel like I am missing a bunch of other things.

Remember a few weeks ago I took that bike ride in Greenbush?  Well this weekend we had some time to check it out with the leaves changing.

Mackenzie had a sleep over so we had some nice alone time.

Took the back roads back to the Parnell Tower and as well as driving on the Kettle Moraine scenic drive for most of the afternoon.

A little chilly but the rain stayed away.

Run

Hey I know Jenny is the runner this year, but hey, I can run when I have to.

Sunday Tracy and I did the KEYS 5K.  That's the Kewaskum schools private scholarship program that awarded Joel $6,000.  So we try to give back a bit.

It was a gorgeous day compared to last years  rain.  Did Tracy and I train for this run?  Well no, just like last year, I mean its 3.1 miles.  How hard can that be?  Right?

Not too bad - I beat last year by about a minute clocking in at 38 minutes or just over 12 minutes a mile.  Tracy was only 3 minutes behind me.  Just think, had I trained even a little I may have done better.  It did not help I have some nasty chest cold thing that really made my lungs burn.  I almost did not run because of it.  That was going to be my excuse anyway.

I am a bit sore today, more than Monday and I thought it would help my cold and it didn't .  Running is just not my bag.  I will stick to blowing out a lung on my bicycle.  Although next year I may even train for a few weeks before the run........I doubt it.  

More travel

Last week was a long week for me.  Lots of long work hours and travel to another state.  But you know what that means!  When I need to travel for work, I try to make it as work free as possible after hours.

A little Mexican for dinner in Little Rock.  This is Chuy's.   I have a shirt from them when I ate there in Houston over 10 years ago.  Looks like they have expanded the chain out of Texas.

Really good Chili Rellenos.  Look it up.  Like a stuffed green pepper, but its an Anaheim pepper and then, what the hell,  lets deep fry that too.

After dinner on to the beer hunt.  New place just opened in August.  Stones Throw.  Decent beer, not spectacular by any means.  Tiny little brewery, want a tour go give yourself one.  

It also was Thursday Arky Trivia Night.  I sat at the bar having no intention of playing a game I would not win.  But the gentleman sitting next to me cajoled me into it.   15 questions of purely Arkansas based trivia, 10 of them Civil war related.  I got 3 right!  which was more than the dude next to me got right.  And he was asking his 20 year old college daughter for answers.  I said HEY I can play that game and started texting my kids.  Joel's phone wasn't working and Kiki just called me a dork but put a heart after it so that made it ok.

Friday came and went, left work a little early for lunch and a free birthday month beer at the Flying Saucer.  Pumpkin beer.  Yep its October, its now appropriate for me.  I am also only 186 Beers away from getting my name on the ceiling of this place.  A guy can dream.

Sure I will have one more, I'm not piloting this thing...

Happy Birthday!

It's October and birthday month is here for many of the Turks.

But how could I forget to post for my best-est buddy Joel.  The dude turned 20 years old on Sunday.  20.  No matter how often I say it I am still not right with it.  It was just a few years ago he was playing Thomas the train, or was it legos and then baseball and he was in High School.  Now he's a man on his own.

It's hard to say happy birthday for some ages and its even harder when the are 1900 miles away.  We have not had him blow candles out or pictures of him of the last 2 years.  It's bittersweet.

So here are a few birthday pics to remember him by.

Little Joel says Thumbs up let the pictures roll!

Who knew he picked his college when he was 12?  

Ha how fitting to end on the little sad pumpkin he made when he was in pre school.

By the way candy bars  do not travel well to Arizona this time of year.  Even Priority Mail, even with ice packs...just saying..

Lets see travel post and a car post,  now combine them?  Well not really.

While Mom is off gallivanting in Europe,  I 'borrowed' her car and gave it some TLC.  At first I thought I had Jenny's car.  With all the car seats, toys, blankets and kids clothes in the car.  Checked again, nope this is Mom's car, I am pretty sure.

Started early  - You know pre winter stuff, wash and wax..

Had lots of scuffs and scrapes and scratches.  I will suggest she parks away from people from now on.  I removed quite a bit of  paint that wan't hers on the doors, obvious door dings.  

I am not amused at these scuffs.....That means buffing.

Some more....

Ok, I can fix this.

Yea this is better

Ready to go.  So after claybar and washing and polishing and waxing we have the final product.  I then 'unborrowed' and brought it back home.  

24,901 and 238,900
Just numbers I suppose.

What I f I told you that one was the miles to the moon and the other around the earth at the equator. Then if I told you that Tracys Subaru went more than 12 times around the world or is one third the way back from the moon?
Well it would be the truth as that little wagon, er truck hit 300,000 miles today.

I think I went through the numbers a while ago, but that's 37 oil changes, over 11,800 gallons of gasoline for a total cost of $31,423.27. That's $6000 more than what we paid for the car.  24 tires.... you get the idea.  

I think that's pretty remarkable.  And it's still going.

  

Mama Mia!

Hey , Mom finally worked up the courage and bought her European vacation.

Fast forward a few months to the date of departure.

I stopped by to take her to the place where the coach would pick her up to take her to the airport.  We chatted for a while and made sure she had everything.   Just about ready to leave, she kiddingly  said, "I should go to the bathroom an throw up before I leave".  Yes she still was quite nervous.  Can you blame her?  When was the last time she traveled any distance without someone with her; family or friends and this was to a whole different continent.  Well I got her off to the bus, like I was sending one of my kids off to school for the first time.  Waves and kisses from the bus and off she went.   

Got a text a few hours later that she was already having a good time (only at the airport) and she should be fine with her group.  Ahh they grow up so fast don't they?  Haven't heard from her since, and I think that is a good thing.  

Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pictures when she gets back.  Wonder if she will do it again?