Working in Chicago

Last week I spent the week in Chicago for work and Diana had to hold down the fort and take care of the Pup. December is not the ideal month for field work and we were collecting water and sediment samples from the Chicago River all week. The weather started out mild and sunny, then changed to overcast and rain (pouring at times), and finished with temperatures in the 20s. The work was tough, but we finished it and were back in Milwaukee by 7:30 pm on Friday. It was a long week without seeing Diana and Cassie! I included some pictures from the trip.

It's good to be home and it's hard to believe Christmas is just one week away. We are looking forward to having our first Christmas in our new home and will be joined by Mom and Dad Mitsche, David, and Michael.

Working Hard on the River

Chicago Skyline Looking South

Coming into Downtown

Downtown

Cool Building

The Holiday Season Begins

So December is here and that means it's the holiday season. One thing I have learned is how much Diana loves Christmas decorations. Unfortunately our house does not have a fireplace... which means no mantle... which means no place to hang stockings... and that is a problem. To solve the problem we hung some shelves one our big wall to give the stockings a home.

The Holiday Wall

After hanging the shelves and decorating the wall, Diana and Cassie decided it was nap time. Cassie woke up for the picture.

Tired After Decorating the Wall

 This weekend our friends Nikki and Joe came to visit from Madison. On Saturday, Diana was thrilled to see Marquette beat Wisconsin in their annual basketball matchup. She was the minority with three badgers watching. Wisconsin had their moment later that night when they beat Michigan State to advance to the Rose Bowl for the second year in a row. There is always exciting sports in Wisconsin.

On Sunday, we woke up early to go down the the lake front to run the Milwaukee Santa 5k. The weather was cool and a little wet, but the rain held off and the candy aid stations powered us through the run.

Santa 5k

We finished off the day by picking out our Christmas tree and getting it all decorated.

Christmas Tree!

 That's all for now. 

A Month Gone By

Well it seems the month of November has gone by and we haven't updated the blog once. Sorry! Things have been busy, but nothing particularly exciting. We spent a couple weekends getting some household projects completed: finishing a workout area in the basement, installing a garage door opener, and other odds and ends. One of these days we will post pictures of the inside of the house. I also had a weekend taken up by work when a bluff collapsed into Lake Michigan at the Oak Creek Power Plant. My company was part of the emergency response, which required some immediate staffing.

Before we knew it Thanksgiving was here and Mom and Dad Mitsche were here to visit for a few days before heading up to Sturgeon Bay to visit Diana's Grandparents. We went up for a nice Thanksgiving dinner - and a nice Packer win - but had to come back home since Diana had to work on black Friday. Unfortunately for Cassie, the trip north was a little stressful and she ended up with a lovely urinary tract infection, but she is doing well now.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove out to Madison for the last Wisconsin home football game of the season. It was a good game even though it did rain the entire time. At least it was relatively warm... and we did get some great fried cheese curds at the Old Fashioned. We can't go to Madison without a stop at the Old Fashioned.

Wisconsin vs Penn State



Having fun in the rain


Today, Diana and I had our first race of the Great Lakes 5k Running Series, which is a series of five 5ks throughout the winter. Conditions were cool and breezy today, but we both had good runs. Diana finished 30th out of 76 in her age group and I finished first out of 23. Next weekend we are running the Santa Shuffle along the Milwaukee Lakefront with some friends.

We will try to post again soon!

Busy October

Andrew and I just returned home from a great weekend get-away in Boston for the Head of the Charles Regatta! Weather for rowing races in mid October can be a gamble, but we lucked out this year. We spent the weekend staying with Auri who lives in long walking distance to the race course. We started our trip with a Brewery Tour to Sam Adams... brewery tours have turned into a hobby for us.



Posing in the Sam Adam Brewery tasting room. Free beer at 10 AM is a great way to start our weekend in Boston.



 After spending the morning touring Boston and filling up on clam chowder at Quincy Market, we headed over to the race course. Here are a few photos from the weekend of racing...



Andrew came out of rowing retirement for an Alumi Race with University of Delware. Just incase you cannot pick him out he is 4th from the back of the boat wearing a white hat. He is pretty sore today.



These are the Marquette Varsity Women. They rowed a strong race and had a great time in Boston.

 We had a great time in Boston meeting up with old friends from high school and college! We are lucky to have great friends to visit in great places!  Now we are back in Milwaukee and back to real life. It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of October.





New Color Scheme

Since we moved into our house in May we have been planning on changing the orange color of the front door and shutters. We have had the paint for about 6 months now and finally changed the color during what might have been the last warm weekend for the year. If we didn't get it done then, it probably wouldn't get done until spring. Let us know what you think of the new color!

Half Orange and Half Blue

Diana Working on the Tedious Window Trim

Done!

The next day we headed down to Rockford Illinois for the Head of the Rock Regatta. Diana is helping coach for Marquette University and she was also rowing in an alumni boat at the race. We decided to also take Cassie and she loved being outside all day.

The Rock River

Cassie Watching the Racing

Diana and Cassie!

Diana Back in a Boat. Just Like Riding a Bike.

We are staying busy and will post again soon.

Marathon Weekend

Yesterday was the running of the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon that starts in Grafton, WI and runs south along the shore of Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. We woke up early and drove the half hour up to the start getting there a little before 7:00. The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 (half an hour earlier than last year to avoid the October heat)... not a problem this year since it was 39 degrees. The start was at a local high school so we could stay warm and stretch before the start.

Getting Ready

First Marathon!

Last Minute Stretching

My goal for the marathon was to get under 3:30, which is an 8:01 minute/mile pace. So I figured lining up next to the 3:30 sign was a good way to start.


At the Start Next to My Goal Time

Once the sun started shining and I warmed up a little I was able to get rid of the long-sleeved shirt to Diana around mile 7.5. Diana and Cassie were great support along the course and stopped whenever they could. Skip ahead a little and Diana got a good picture around mile 20. She even got a smile out of me.

Around Mile 20 and Still Smiling

I held a steady 8 minute pace through mile 20 and then picked it up a little for the last 10k. There was a good crowd lining the path leading up to the finish.

Coming into the Finish

 And then it was over. The race went by surprisingly fast and under the goal of 3:30.

Under 3:30!

At this point the legs decided they could hurt since the running was over. I don't think I will run for at least a month now.

Ahh No More Running

And I can't forget Diana! She has been very supportive with the marathon training... putting up with my long runs, endless appetite, and my little case of tendinitis (she's a good PT).

My Race Support!

The conditions were perfect and the view over the harbor and Lake Michigan were great.

Beautiful Day in Milwaukee

Weekend in Madison

Finally a couple minutes to post about last weekend. We went out to Madison on Friday night to camp at Lake Kegonsa State Park. Currently all of our Madison friends live places where they can't have dogs so we camp so we can bring the pup. Fortunately, Cassie loves being outside and especially loves swimming. This state park has a nice dog swim beach. It's always fun to get out camping and we had a nice visit from David on Saturday for dinner (brats, beans, and corn all cooked on the fire).

Lake Kegonsa State Park



Nap Time in the Hammock

  On Sunday we woke up early and packed up to get downtown for the start of the Ironman triathlon. It is an impressive sight seeing 2500 athletes start swimming at the same time.


Ironman Wisconsin Swim Start

 This year Diana and I volunteered for the bike to run transition during the triathlon. We caught the athletes as they finished the bike leg and then put their bikes back on the racks as they went out on the run. This is one of the more active and busy volunteer opportunities during the race.

Another reason for volunteering is that volunteers get to sign up for next year's race ahead of the general public and I was planning on signing up. I learned on Monday morning how crazy signing up is for this race. Registration was scheduled to open at 9 am and I was told by others to get there pretty early. I thought 6:45 am for a 9:00 registration would be early enough, but at least 500 people with sleeping bags new better. Fortunately registration opened early around 8:00 and I was registered by 9:00 and made it to work by 11:30. So after taking a half day off of work and spending some $$$ I am now registered for the 2012 Ironman. Let the training begin.

Canning Update

It has been a hectic week in the kitchen for me and Diana trying to processing all of our veggies. So far we have frozen some bags of peppers and green beans. Canning has been quite the experience and we have 5 quarts of tomato sauce, 6 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 4 pints of pickled green beans, and 5 pints of zesty salsa. I found out how hot the hot peppers were for the salsa when I tried to take my contacts out for the night... after flushing out my eyes I did not try to put them in again in the morning.



Canning Room in the Basement

 Tomorrow we are off to Madison to camp at Lake Kegonsa State Park for the weekend and to volunteer and watch the Ironman triathlon on Sunday.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend started off with our friends Joe and Nikki coming to visit from Madison. Joe and I ran a 20-mile training run along the lake Saturday morning. I am training for the Milwaukee lakefront marathon and Joe the Chicago marathon. The run went well and the rain from the early morning storms held off.

Showered, rested, and nourished we headed out to the Lakefront Brewery Tour and to meet up with our friends Meg and Kyle who drove up from Chicago. The tour is always a good time. This was our 5th... no 10th... no 15th? who knows, we've been on the tour a lot. It's what people do in Milwaukee.

Done with the tour and the rain and moved in again limiting our outdoor grilling and using our newly completed bags game. This was a fun project for me and Diana that didn't involve working on the house. The logos took some time to complete, but Diana the perfectionist did a great job. The rain didn't bother us too much and we set the bags up in the basement.

Wisconsin & Marquette

We took advantage of the fall-like weather and stocked up on pick your own vegetables at a local farm. Now we are trying to figure out how to use our bushel of tomatoes and sweet peppers and quarter bushel of green beans and mixed hot peppers. Any suggestions??? We spent our afternoon learning how to can tomato sauce and pickled green beans. The kitchen looks like a war zone.
 

Pick Your Own Veggies



Our Massive Haul  

After an eventful weekend we head back to work tomorrow. Summer may be over, but we are looking forward to a busy fall!

Let's Try This

So we had this idea to start a blog to help us stay in touch with family and friends. I asked Diana what you write in a blog? she said it's like a journal. Okay... so what goes in a journal? We will share snapshots of our life: Me, Diana, and the Cassie Pup.

To get everyone up to speed, we got engaged during our road trip out west while hiking over the Paintbrush Divide in the Grand Tetons National Park, WY in August 2009.

We spent the next year finishing graduate school, planning our wedding, starting new jobs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then got married in Upstate NY on August 21, 2010

After our amazing wedding with family and friends, we set off for our Honeymoon adventure to the Big Island of Hawaii

Settling down after the wedding we decided we needed another thing to stress about... a puppy

3 weeks old with the whole litter

troublemaker

Cassie loves the water

we still have work to do on perfecting canoeing

And just one more big thing to stress about... being homeowners

It's Official

Home Sweet Home
Wauwatosa, WI

So those are the big landmarks of the past 2 years of our life together. We hope you enjoyed reading this post, and look forward to many more to come!

Andrew and Diana