Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas in Texas 2008

We decided to get out of the cold for a few days, so we visted my grandparents in Pharr, Texas. The temperature was between 60 and 80 F most of the time. We spent a lot of time in the pool, played shuffleboard, and went surfing at South Padre Island. My grandma made a great Mexican meal on Christmas eve. We didn't miss the snow a bit. Click on the picture to see more...

Friday, December 19, 2008

Blizog

A blizog is not a term coined by Snoop Dogg, it is a blizzard blog. We got over a foot of snow in Racine. After three hours of shoveling, we have access to our home.
Unfortunately, it is snowing again and my back aches. Click on the picture to see more.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Deer Hunting 2008

Another successful year of deer hunting is behind us. To our surprise, we did well despite the extremely wet fields; the freezing, windy weather; and the abundance of standing corn. We shot 3 bucks (4, 8, and 10 points) and a doe.
Click on the photo to see more pictures.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

4th Annual NH Weekend


Karla and Brian were the only participants in Nerd Herd Racine 2008. Can you believe this is the 4th year? This year was packed with fun Wisconsin style. We went to the high rivalry Brewers/Cubs game at Miller park and tailgated before the game, visited Mars Cheese Castle and the Racine zoo, ate kringle, drank beer, and watched some Packer fans watching the game. That's what we do here for fun!

Fly Fishing Root River 2008

The fall bite is on! The picture in the upper right is a nice brown trout that I caught in Lincoln Park. Below left I am battling a steelhead that got away. Below right is a 14 lb. steelhead that I landed.











Wednesday, September 10, 2008

BWCA 2008

This year, our annual BWCA trip took us from Sawbill to Wine Lake by way of the Kelso River. We hiked our longest ever portage of 460 rods (about 1.5 miles) but it was worthwhile as we found complete seclusion on an island camp site on Wine lake. The weather was temperamental. An hour or two of sunshine seemed to be followed by 15 minutes of rain drops. Often the rain was done before our cribbage game, played in the protection of the tent. Sometimes, the rain and sunshine were simultaneous. I have never experienced as little wind as on our second day. The canoe stayed wherever we stopped even in the middle of the lake. This made for some great fishing, and I managed to catch my first lake trout which we fried up for lunch. Scott and Nancy kept up the gourmet camp cuisine tradition. Fire roasted pizza in the middle of the woods is unbelievably good. Another great escape from the real world if only for a few days. Click on the picture to link to our picture gallery.

Monday, August 4, 2008

4th of July 2008

Click on the link to see photos from our annual 4th of July at Buffalo Lake. We had a great time as always... jetskiing in the lake, fishing, playing cribbage, playing ladder golf, and of course, having the most spectacular fireworks display in Becker County! Photos courtesy of Kari and Trisha.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Matthew Elijah Rodgers


Today Jay and I became an uncle and aunt again!

Matthew Elijah Rodgers
Born: 7/28/08 at 3:06am
7 lbs 2 oz, 20"

Click on the picture of Matthew to see more.

We feel very lucky - now we have three beautiful nieces and three adorable nephews!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Francesca & Jeff's Wedding


On Friday, June 20th, we attended Francesca and Jeff's wedding at Boerner Botanical Gardens. It was a gorgeous setting and perfect weather during the ceremony. (The thunderstorms didn't start until we were already eating dinner!) We had a great time! Congratulations to the DeGloppers!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New York

We just spent a whirlwind weekend in New York City to attend Aaron and Julie's wedding. We arrived on Thursday night, and after checking into our "cozy" room at the Park Savoy (1 block south of Central Park!) with Andy and Julie, we took a cab over to Aaron and Julie's Upper West Side apartment to relax and have a drink. On Friday, Jay and I met up with Eric in the Lower East Side, where we went on a long walk through Chinatown, Seaport Historic District, and Wall Street. We hopped the subway back to the Lower East Side to catch a tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. It was pretty interesting to envision how immigrants coming to New York in the late 19th and early 20th century lived. (No photos were allowed, but you can see pictures on their website.) After the tour, we gave our feet a rest and stopped for a pint at an Irish Pub called One and One, located in the East Village. After enjoying a snack and watching a bit of the Euro Cup, we started walking again, this time through the East Village and Alphabet City over to the East River Park. Finally, we met up with our respective groups for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. On Saturday, I woke up early and headed down to Times Square with Julie. I got to the TKTS line before it opened in order to get our half-priced tickets to Avenue Q! I met Jay back at the hotel and we headed out for lunch and back to Times Square area in time for the 2pm show. Avenue Q was really funny and we definitely recommend it, especially to those in our demographic. It was pouring after the show, so we waited it out a bit, and finally took the subway back to the hotel. Dinner was with Kristin and Martin at Café Luxemburg in the Upper West Side. To cap off the evening, we met up with the wedding party and friends at the Juilliard Penthouse for dessert and drinks after their rehearsal dinner. To let you know how highly respected Aaron and Julie are in the Juilliard community, this penthouse is where people like Yo Yo Ma stay, and they were able to reserve it for a whole night!

On Sunday morning, we met up with Kristin, Martin, Andy, Julie, and Martin's brother for a birthday brunch for Kristin, followed by a walk in Central Park. Next we headed to Aaron and Julie's first wedding ceremony at Advent Lutheran Church in the Upper West Side, where Aaron is Music Director. It was a lovely ceremony and we enjoyed some cake afterwards. To pass the time between the first and second ceremony, we stopped for pizza and then walked through Central Park to our final destination, The Loeb Boathouse. Aaron and Julie celebrated their nuptials again with a beautiful Jewish ceremony overlooking The Lake in Central Park. (We also had some raccoons as guests outside the window!) Dinner, drinks, and dancing followed, but we finally had to say goodnight so we could catch a few zzzz's before catching our early morning flight. To top off our New York experience, we had a celebrity sighting at LaGuardia. Dan Rather was in the security line and I even sat down next to him to tie my shoes! It was a little too early for small talk and photographs, so you'll have to take our word for it!

It was an incredible weekend and we had a great time hanging out with my high school friends again! Mazel Tov to Aaron and Julie!

Almost Famous

Check out page 11 of the Modine 2007-2008 Annual Report!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Epic Flooding in Racine

You would not believe the amount of rain we got in Racine. Check out this link to the story. Over 8 inches in some areas! We shot this video with our camera phone, so the quality is terrible, but we caught this video of a canoe going over Horlick dam. We saw it go by in our back yard and rushed out to see if we could save it. No chance. It snapped in half at the bottom. Check out this link for better videos at Horlick dam of the torrent that is the Root River. To quote Laura, "whoa."

The river has flooded our little shack which is about 7 feet above the dam level. Nothing compared to the damage downstream.

Jesse & Coral's wedding


On Saturday, June 7th, Jesse and Coral were married at O'Donnell Park in downtown Milwaukee. It was a beautiful day, despite the severe weather later in the evening. We had a great time dancing the night away with all of our Modine friends!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

California Trip


Our week vacation in California went fast. We started in San Francisco to attend Sonia and Chris's wedding on Sunday. Click on each picture to see the full albums.

We met Gary and Deb in and spent a little time in San Francisco. We attended an A's game, visited Chinatown, ascended Coit Tower for a view of the city, and rode a cable car.

Next we camped in Yosemite for a couple of days. The scenery was immense and surreal. Jeni gave us a tour and loaned us some camping gear. The views on her commute to work are spectacular.

We packed up the tent and were off to L.A. We stayed with Shalini and Pim and enjoyed the SoCal weather. We drove the PCH, toured Warner Bros. Studio, visited L.A.'s hottest locals, and went surfing. It was a really fun trip.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Francesca's wedding shower / Mother's Day weekend

On May 10th, I hosted a wedding shower for our friend Francesca. She and Jeff are getting married on June 20th at the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Milwaukee. We played my favorite shower games - trivia and The Newlywed Game. I also asked each guest to fill out an anniversary card for Francesca and Jeff so they will have a card to open each year from a different person. Click on the photo of me and Francesca to see more pics from the shower.


On Sunday, my family came over to celebrate Mother's Day. Sue and Scott made brunch for everyone and Jay and I provided the kringle! Click on the Thysell/Rodgers/Matter family photo to see more!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Photos and more photos

We've been busy this past month and haven't updated the blog. Instead, I added 6 new photo albums to our picasaweb site. Check them out if you're interested!

- Mandy and her horse Montana visited April 11-13.
- The Ranua family visited on April 19th. We met Cade for the first time. He was born on March 22.
- Our nephew Alex celebrated his 4th birthday.
- We visited Alina, Steve, Elliott, and Rosemary in Naperville. Rosemary was born on April 16.
- We traveled to MN for Claire's baptism. Claire was born on March 28. We also got to spend some time with the Liens.
- We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with the Modiners. Amy, Casey, and Lauren returned from Australia on May 4.

We have a busy summer ahead, but hopefully we'll have some time to keep the blog updated!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Heather & Mac's wedding

Last weekend, we travelled to Omaha, NE, to attend the wedding of my college friend Heather. We had met her fiance Mac one other time - at our own wedding - shortly after they had started dating. We had a great time catching up with my college friends and exploring the Old Market area of downtown Omaha. Heather and Mac live on the east coast - Heather in Cambridge, MA, and Mac in Providence, RI - but they met while in med school in Omaha. Congratulations to the happy couple! Click on the picture of Heather & Mac to see more photos.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Sunny California


As I write this, the snow is coming down steadily in Racine, but my memories of my visit to California are still fresh in my mind. I returned last Monday from a week in northern CA.

The previous Tuesday, I flew into San Jose and visited a customer for work in Sunnyvale. The weather was gorgeous - low 70s and sunny - but we were working hard, so we didn't get too much chance to enjoy it. On Thursday at about 11am, I started my drive north to Napa Valley. I spent the afternoon in downtown Napa at Annette's Chocolate & Ice Cream Factory and then at Artesa Winery. The views at Artesa were beautiful, so I spent about an hour and a half tasting wine and soaking in the sun on the patio.

My journey continued that evening to Sacramento, where my friend Andrea and her boyfriend Ryan picked me up and drove me to their house in Folsom. On Friday, we had breakfast at Mimi's Cafe and spent a few hours catching up. Both Andrea and Ryan had to be at work in the afternoon, so I rode Andrea's bike to Folsom prison, which is only about a mile from their house and also where Ryan works. I checked out the museum that was on the grounds, but it was quite small and had a lot of Johnny Cash memoribilia, so I left after about 30 minutes. I continued my ride to historic old town Folsom, which was a really cute part of town. The picture of me to the left is next to a cool old truss bridge, just for pedestrians, in Folsom.

Friday evening, a few friends picked me up and we drove to South Lake Tahoe for the weekend for Sonia's bachelorette party weekend. On Saturday morning, we went snowshoeing in Emerald Bay. It was my first time snowshoeing, and it was really fun! It was a good workout, and with the high altitude (over 7000 ft), I got pretty winded! That afternoon, we went to lunch at the Blue Angel Cafe and then to a local spa for some relaxing treatments. We spent the evening back at our cabin eating dinner, watching movies, playing games, and giving Sonia fun presents. I also enjoyed looking at the stars in the outdoor hot tub.
On Sunday, we drove back to San Francisco and I got to stay the night at Sonia & Chris' house in the city. Sonia took me on a walk around their cool Noe neighborhood, once again in 70 deg weather.
It was a great getaway from Wisconsin in February! Click on the photo of me and Sonia to see more pictures from the weekend!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Obama visits Racine

With the Wisconsin presidental primary scheduled for next Tuesday, all of the candidates are making their way through the state, but only one has stopped in Racine - Barack Obama! I got word on Monday night and got a ticket on the internet. The event was free, but only a limited number of tickets were issued. Tuesday morning, there was an article on the front page of the paper, and by the time one of my friends looked for a ticket at 9am, they were gone. I arrived at 5pm on Wednesday night, and by that point, it was standing room only. That was fine with me since I didn't have to wait outside in the cold very long. The program started about 20 minutes late, but Obama spoke for about 40 minutes and then answered questions for about another 20 minutes. I'm not advocating one candidate over another, but it was pretty cool to see Obama in person and hear him speak. Thanks to Kylie for letting me borrow her camera!


Here is a link to today's recap of the event in the Racine Journal Times:

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Racine's only ice skating rink

Last weekend marked the opening of Racine's only ice skating rink as we cleared the snow away on the river in the backyard to expose a perfect ice sheet. This is a significant difference between Racine and the Twin Cities where every park has an ice rink. Weather conditions only make this possible for a few weeks a year, so we enjoy it while we can. We had the gang over to experience what Minnesotans do fer fun ya know. Click on the picture to link to the full album.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Blackhawks Down


The Wild were in Chicago on Friday to play the Blackhawks. Laura and I had never been to the United Center, so we thought it was a good excuse for a trip to the windy city. The Wild won 5-2!

Monday, January 7, 2008

January fun!

January is shaping up to be an eventful month so far. We returned back to work on January 2nd after a long holiday break. The next day, Jay got his wisdom teeth taken out. He was a model patient and is recovering quite well. So well, in fact, that we went out with our friends Becky & Kevin on Saturday. The temperatures heated up to the 40s, so we headed out to Red Arrow Park in Milwaukee for some ice skating. The rink is small, but it's free, not to mention the only outdoor rink we know about (besides the river in our backyard, of course).
Above Right - Jay shows off his figure skating skills.


Left - Becky and Kevin with unknown children.





After getting a little much-needed exercise on the rink, we headed out to dinner a newly renovated restaurant/Irish pub.

After dinner, we headed to the Bradley Center in Milwaukee to catch the Milwaukee Admirals take on the Chicago Wolves. (Hockey - for those of you who aren't AHL fans.) As an added bonus, the Goo Goo Dolls performed before the game. The tickets were only $9 each! Great deal for a concert and hockey game! We also had really good seats - right next to the stage and close to the ice. I took a bunch of pictures of Johnny Resnick. The rest of the band was slightly hidden from our view - mostly due to Johnny's collection of over 20 guitars. (Seriously, how many does he need for a 75 minute concert?)

Even though the Admirals lost the game, we had a great time. Thanks, B&K, for inviting us!

The weather continued to be warm on Sunday, leading to lots of dense fog, so we had a cozy day inside. Today, we reached record highs in the 60's, and unfortunately, the unseasonable warmth led to some tornadoes in Racine and Kenosha counties. We spent about an hour in the basement at work this afternoon, and then another hour or so in our basement at home. Fortunately, I got Jay a ping pong table for Christmas, so we kept ourselves entertained! Luckily we did not sustain any damages in our area, but like I said, it's been an eventful month so far!


Happy 2008!