Another Project Completed

This week marked the completion of the china cabinet refinishing project. Working on this a couple hours here and there made this last about a month from start to finish. We think it looks pretty good. It definitely looks better than they way it originally was. One project done... an infinite number to go!

Staining the cabinet

All Done!

St. Patty's Day

Not much new to update since the Ski Vacation. It feels like we skipped spring and went right to summer with several days in the mid seventies... in March. We celebrated St. Patty's day with the "Luck of the Irish" 5k, which was a bit hilly. I remember last year there was snow on the ground and it was pretty cold. This year was 65 at the 9 am start. The big project that we are finishing up now is the built-in china cabinet in the dining room. It looked a bit dated when we moved in so we sanded everything down and just finished staining. We'll post some pictures when it's all done.

Otherwise things are pretty normal right now. Last weekend marked 6 months to go until Ironman so it's time to start training. Diana and I do a masters swimming class at the YMCA on Monday nights and the do power yoga on Wednesdays. As we get into spring we will start picking up more workouts with TriWisconsin, the local triathlon club. So far we have several races planned for the summer with the first being the Lake Monona 20k run out in Madison.

That's all for now.

Colorado!

We just returned from a great ski vacation to Colorado. We flew to Denver last Friday and met up with Mom and Dad Millspaugh, Phil, and Chris Jarmul at the airport. It was a good start having everyone getting to Colorado coming from 4 different cities. We drove out to our hotel in Silverthorne and met up with Rob in Keystone for a late dinner.

Saturday we spent skiing at Keystone and it was pretty windy and cold. The mountain was in a cloud most of the day and skiing was a bit of a chore. Diana had some trouble acclimating to the altitude and wasn't feeling great for the rest of the day.

End of the Day as the Clouds were Breaking

Bundled up at Keystone

At the end of the day we packed up and made the 4ish hour drive to Crested Butte. This mountain is off the beaten path and goes through a couple mountain passes on the way. It is quite the contrast to the resort mountains of the front range. Going through the plains there were times when the road would almost disappear from blowing snow.

Blowing Snow on the way to Crested Butte

Once at Crested butte we were greated with bright sun and blue skies. The mountain was deserted and we barely waited in any lines the entire time we were there. There wasn't much fresh snow, but the conditions were great and some untouched snow could be found if you searched enough in the woods. We skied all day Sunday and Monday, and then half a day on Tuesday before driving out to Vail for the night and then out to the airport on Sunday. Diana skied great and soon will be tearing up the bumps like the rest of us.When we weren't skiing we made use of the hot tub and ventured downtown to check out the thriving town of 1,500 people. Crested Butte is definitely the place to live a secluded, laid back life.

On our last day there my brothers and I hiked to the summit from the top of the highest lift-served area (about another 350 ft vertical). The views from the top were impressive and the skiing down was pretty good too. The hike took about half an hour and I could definitely feel the altitude. Enjoy the pictures below of the trip. We aren't sure where we will go next year, maybe Utah?

Sunrise from our Rented Condo

Picture time on the Mountain

The Peak from the Ice Bar

Riding the T-Bar

Blue Bird Day

As high as you can get. 12,162 ft.

The Village of Crested Butte from the Summit

Diana!

The Ice Queen?

February

Again, a month has passed by and we have not updated the blog. The main reason is that I have been working in Chicago for the past 4 weeks. Diana had to take care of the home and pup during the week. Only being home on the weekends left lots to do other than updating the blog.
I was back on the Chicago River, this time collecting sediment samples from depths of 16 ft below the river bottom. The information from the samples will be used to assess the condition of the river and design a remediation if necessary. We did luck out with mild conditions for January and February. Temperatures were mostly in the 30s and 40s, and it only snowed on us once. I took a few pictures to share the experience.

View of Downtown from the River

Directing the Barge to a Sample Location with the GPS

Having Fun Collecting a Sediment Sample

We did make the most of our weekends when I was home. One day we went for a walk in the park and Cassie decided she wanted to relax on the ice. She also went crazy for all of the ducks there. We think she would have been a great hunting dog.

Cassie Hanging Out on the Ice

Another day we ran a 5k. We are getting ready for the upcoming race season with my big race being the Ironman in September and Diana's is the half ironman in July.

Diana Coming Into the Finish!

And we have been busy keeping up with the home brewing. The first batch came out great. We just bottled batch number 2 (a german alt) and brewed batched number 3 today (a dunkleweizen).

Siphoning the Beer from the Fermenter to the Bottling Bucket

Ready to Bottle

Bottling is Complete!

Time to Enjoy!

That is all for now. We will attempt to get back to a weekly update.

Winter is Here!

Winter is finally here. We have had a couple snowfalls and have been "enjoying" our 100 ft long driveway and lack of a snow blower. We did invest in some cross country skis since the mountains of Wisconsin are not very impressive. Similar to West Mountain to give some comparison to those from NY. But lots of people go cross country skiing and we have been enjoying it so far.



Diana got way ahead of me. She looks tiny.

We will continue with the skiing and are looking forward to a trip out west in March to ski at Crested Butte in Colorado. Cassie also loves the snow but we haven't taken any good snow pictures with her yet. Instead here are some of her other hobby... crawling under furniture.

Cassie after crawling under the bed to get a sock.

In her classic superman position reaching for a toy under the coffee table.

I am off to Chicago for the next 4 weeks to work downtown on the River. I'll be back on the weekends but I will miss Diana and the pup. I'll be ready for our ski vacation after this stretch of field work.

Where's Winter?

So here we are in January now and we haven't seen more than 0.5 inches of snow. Out of the 9 days of January, 5 have been over 40 degrees and 7 have been above freezing. After church yesterday we went for what felt like a nice autumn walk by the lake. Hopefully winter gets here soon!

Cassie Loves Her New Extension Leash

Enjoying the Morning by the Lake

Checking out the Geese. Art Museum in the Background

Me and the Cassie Pup

Brew Day!

The first 5-gallon batch is currently fermenting in the kitchen next to the refrigerator. Brew day went well and the house smelled like a brewery for a little while. The batch should be done 5 weeks from now.

Checking the Original Specific Gravity of the Wort with the Hydrometer

The First Brew