Minnesota Vikings Come to Wisconsin

Green Bay, WI. It's a different world up there. Where else does it not feel strange to crack a beer at 9 am? The Vikings played poorly and I nearly went to volunteer my services at QB, but I decided instead to soak in the ambiance of the place. I was surprised by the number of Vikings fans. I went incognito at first, but once I realized the Vikes needed a boost and the weather warmed, I took off my hoody and showed my purple pride. The kids in front of me kept me fed by picking out all of the purple Skittles after I told them they would get "Purple Power" and end up like me if they ate them. I guess they would rather aspire to be like my buddy Scott in the hard hat and his nephew. Scott wasn't out of place at all in this get up. The tailgating was a lot of fun and despite the Vikings loss, I had a good time in Lambeau. Thanks Scott, for inviting me along!

Fly Fishing the Root River

I found a fun way to spend an autumn Sunday afternoon in Racine, fly fishing on the Root River. It is not exactly like the movie "A River Runs Through It," as you are often looking into someone's backyard (how many plastic toys can one family have?) and it is never long before the next vehicle sans muffler passes, but the fishing is great! The fly rod that Laura got me for Christmas is finally being put to use. Check out the 8.5 lb Rainbow trout I caught. I think I am ready to start guiding fishing tours for guests of Matters' B&B. Book now!

Where have we been?

It's been about a month since we've updated the blog. So where have we been and what have we been up to?
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Sept 29 - I visited Alina & Elliott at their new home in Naperville, IL. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Elliott all day while Alina unpacked boxes. We went to the park twice since it was such a gorgeous day and we also went to lunch in beautiful downtown Naperville!
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Sept 30 - Jay played flag football with YPR (Young Professionals of Racine). He co-organized this event as part of the new Sports and Social League that he started about a year ago. The really cool part of the event was that Jay got the local NAFL team, the Racine Raiders, to come and ref the games. It was a co-ed event, but I decided I was better suited to be the official photographer!

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Oct 1 - Our newest nephew, Charles Henry Feistner, was born!

Oct 6/7 - We drove up to the Twin Cities to meet baby Charlie and also visit other family and friends.
We visited Charlie, big sisters Olivia and Kailey, mom Kari, dad John, and auntie Laura, at their home in Brooklyn Park on Saturday. Olivia and Kailey are very excited about the new baby! He is adorable and we are looking forward to getting to know him!
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Saturday night, we met up with Gary, Deb, Karla, Brian, Sarah, and a few others for dinner and drinks at Champps in downtown Minneapolis. It was fun to be in downtown again and see what has changed and reminisce about what hasn't. It certainly is a lot busier than downtown Racine on a Saturday night! Sunday we met up with Gary, Deb, Ben, and Trisha for brunch at the Egg & I in Uptown. The weekend was too short, as usual, but fun as always!
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Oct 12 - One of my ex-co-workers (Rob) turned 30, so we celebrated at his place in Wauwatosa. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the party, but you can see pictures of him on his band's website: http://www.4to1band.com/. Rob and his wife Missy have a cool basement (if you're an Illini fan), and a night at their place usually includes at least one performance by Rob on the drums.
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Oct 13 - One of my ex-co-worker's husband (Kevin) turned 30, so we celebrated at their place in Waterford. We started with a softball game that Becky organized. It was a lot of fun, and even I had a few good hits!
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Oct 20/21 - After watching the Transformers movie with Brad and Aileen on Friday night (we give the movie a C), we headed to Illinois for a few various reasons. First, to see Sue, Scott, and Alex in Schaumburg. Then, to see my cousins Matt and Mike who were in Aurora for their job. We got to play Playstation on the World's Largest Plasma TC - 103"! Finally, to visit Alina, Steve, and Elliott in Naperville to celebrate Elliott's first birthday!


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Our next big event is our 4th anniversary on Thursday, October 25!

Kristin & Martin's wedding

Last weekend, Kristin came back to Milwaukee to get married! It was an awesome weekend filled with lots of dancing and fun parties with my favorite friends from high school.

The festivities started Friday night with Kristin's bachelorette party. We met for dinner at The Water Buffalo in the Third Ward. Following dinner, we headed down the street to Centanni Piano Bar where we danced the night away.

On Saturday afternoon, I attended the wedding rehearsal at the War Memorial. I was a personal attendant, so I had to pay attention to all of the finer points of the ceremony. It was a gorgeous day to be outside next to Lake Michigan.

On Saturday night, we headed back to the Third Ward to the Palms Bistro for dinner. There must have been 75-100 people there to celebrate! After dinner, other out-of-town guests arrived for drinks, dessert, and dancing. It was like a wedding reception in itself!

Sunday started at Spa Roma in Milwaukee, where us girls got our hair done. Then we headed over to the War Memorial to get ready for the wedding which was at 4pm. The ceremony was very personal. The officiants were Kristin's aunt Peggy and her yoga friend from North Carolina. One of the many highlights was Kristin's brother, Charlie, and Martin's brother played a saxophone and guitar duet.

After the cermony, we enjoyed the beautiful weather out on the patio with cocktails and appetizers. Just as the sun set behind the building, we headed inside for dinner. The tango band that had played during the wedding ceremony moved inside to play during dinner and to start the dancing. After the band finished, the dancing continued. Too bad we had to work on Monday or we would have danced all night! Congratulations, Kristin and Martin! What a great couple!

Brewfest

This weekend, we attended our first Brewfest at Festival Park in Racine. Brewfest featured over 250 craft beers from nearly 100 brewers. We didn't try all of them. The weather was great and most of the beers were too. Click on the picture to the right to see the full photo album. We each paid $35 for admission and a glass. The proceeds go to support the Kilties Bugle and Drum Corps. The event was very well attended and we found out that all the beer is donated. So it begs the question, how much do kilts cost anyway?

BWCA 2007

This fall, we managed to make our way back to Minnesota for one of our favorite vacations, the annual Boundary Waters Canoe Area expedition. We missed it the last few years, but Jeff, Andi, Scott, and Nancy have kept up the tradition. The weather started out rainy, windy, and cold, but the weather improved for our last day and a half.
The adventure started sour when the curmudgeon that runs River Point Outfitters and Resort wouldn't give us a room for the night (long story) and all the hotels in town were booked for some festival. We can't say enough bad things about this guy's customer relations. His wife's overly chipper personality somehow didn't make up for his nasty attitude. We set up our tents in the rain and the dark and did alright considering.
This year's route started in Mudro, to Fourtown, to Horse where we spent the first 2 nights. The first night was especially cold since we were not aware that the fire ban had been lifted and we huddled around a latern for some percieved warmth. Day 2 we spent travelling up the Horse river and the rain stopped for the most part. We made it to Canada for lunch next to the Low Basswood Falls. Day 3 we made the short journey to Sandpit where we set up camp with beautiful weather and good fishing. I caught a big largemouth and a small mouth bass.
The food was excellent thanks to delicacies by Tweeter and Nancy such as curry chicken, Mesquite pork tenderloin, and unbelievably good fire roasted pizza. Mmmm. No bears, no bugs, and no trivial things to worry about. Another great trip. I could have stayed for a month longer. Click on the picture to link to our other pictures.

Random Events

So what have we been up to since the trip? Besides recovering from jet lag and blogging (obviously our new favorite hobby), we hosted an impromptu game night at our house (which I don't have any pictures of), had a BBQ with a bunch of friends from work for Jay's birthday on August 30th, and got together with various friends on Labor Day weekend. On Sunday, we went to Ottawa Lake with Becky & Kevin to go canoeing - Jay's choice because he read that the fishing was good. We did have a good time canoeing (once we paddled through the sea of dogs), playing bocce ball and dumping our canoes (on purpose) so we could try to right them again. Just one crazy adventure after another...

Blogging

Welcome to our blog! We felt it was a good time to try it out to show the details of our recent trip to Germany and Ireland. It is kind of fun. Maybe we will do it more often and not only for major trips abroad. Notice that you can click on any of the pictures and it will link to our online albums of related pictures from the trip. We hope you enjoy this. Let us know what you think...
Jay and Laura

Alina & Steve's wedding

This is a little out of order, but we're new at this blogging thing.

On August 3rd, we were in Alina & Steve's wedding at the Redfield Estate in Glenview, IL. See Alina's wedding website for more details.

We had a wonderful time! Click on the picture of me & Jay to see more wedding photos.

Blog o' the Bog

After spending a few days in Germany, it was on to Ireland where we met up with Geb and had more than a wee bit o' magical shenanigans. The sunset was deadly while we had dinner and pints in Sligo. Click on the photos for more pictures.


The next day we were off to Donegal, where we visited Donegal Castle. A sound gaff I must say.




On to Slieve League in the far West of County Donegal where the weather went crap. 'Twas absolutely lashing! Still a mighty view.





The next day we went to Derry and toured the walled city and the Guild hall.



We took a driving tour of Free Derry and took in the propoganda displayed in the famous murals.






We continued on to Northern Ireland and came to the Giant's Causeway. Class place. Ol' Finn McCool did a nice job.



On the way back, near Sligo, we came upon a bit of traffic...

...but it didn't prevent us from a session at The Quays in Galway.






As you can see, we travelled hard and had loads of craic along the way. Thanks Gary for doing all the driving.