Afton's Visit and WI food

Well, Afton came out, and we had a blast! We did lots of really Wisconsin-y things, like ate custard (a thick and creamy ice cream-type dessert. I think it has more egg yolks in it. Not to be confused with the solid gelatinous substance Californians call custard) and deep-fried cheese curds (and ok, to me, curds sounds disgusting. Until you realize that really it's just bits of cheddar cheese that they batter and fry into a delicious, hot, cheesey treat!). We got the cheese curds at The Old Fashioned in Madison - the BEST cheese curds I have ever had. And I pretty much try them every place I can. The batter is so light, and they have dipping sauces you can use - the roasted garlic is crazy delicious! Besides Madison, we went to a fish fry (a Wisconsin Friday-night tradition), a sheep and wool festival where we saw some sheep getting sheared, and went to Chicago.

Most awesome thing we did in Chicago was had dessert at the Signature Lounge. You absolutely need to go there, even if you get one dessert and split it between a couple of people, because it's a restaurant on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building, and the view is just beyond spectacular. I really liked it at night with all the lights. Even the bathroom has a view! So, go to Chicago and go to the Signature Lounge. You will love it!

I think I'll keep this short for today. More insight to my life to come.

Nice Customer

A couple of weeks ago, I helped a couple of customers figure out things with their accounts, and it took about an hour or so, but we got it all taken care of. One of their children said, "After all this [paperwork], we at least deserve an ice cream cone." And jokingly, I said, "Yeah, that sounds good. I like plain vanilla." And the dad said they'd try to bring me some custard (which will be the subject of another post, another day!). I told the mom that they really did not have to bring me any custard, and I was just teasing. I've seen them a couple of times since then, and he always mentions that he's going to bring me custard. Well, today, they did! They came to my work for the sole purpose of bringing me vanilla custard!! And I was thinking, if they did actually bring me custard, they'd bring me a little scoop I could dash in the back room and eat quickly. Well, they brought me like a little pint of custard! I couldn't believe it. How sweet of them!

I wanted to also say that I probably won't post for the next few days - my friend Afton is coming to visit! (Perfect timing on the custard - she needs to try some and now we don't need to make a separate trip! What a co-inki-dink!) We'll be in Madison, Jefferson, and Chicago, so I don't think I'll have much time for posting. I hope you survive, and I'll be back Monday or Tuesday.

Jasper

This is the first in what I'm sure is going to be a lot of posts about the best dog ever, Jasper. I was talking with Adam this weekend, and I told him that I had no idea when we got Jasp that I would end up loving him so much. There he was, sitting on my lap, nervous as can be, and I was thinking to myself, "I just got a dog. That was a lot of money. Did I make the right choice?" It didn't take me long to see that I had definitely made the right choice, and if I knew then what I know now about how he's the perfect dog for us, I would have paid even more (but don't tell that to the breeder!).

I’ll save for another day my list of why Jasper is the best. But this weekend he did two funny things – he was sitting on the bed with Adam and me, and he was scratching his ear with his hind leg. I probably said something to him that caught his attention, so he turned and looked at us, but he was still in itch mode, so he lifted his leg but put it right back down like he had changed his mind. Then he did it again – did the “leg wave” but didn’t actually scratch! And the whole time he was staring straight at us. It was hilarious!

His other funny thing he did this weekend was, while he was playing with Adam, he was up on a recliner, and Adam squeaked his toy, and Jasp leapt off the chair, like a deer! His legs straight below him, like he was just standing mid-air. And I was sitting next to him in the LoveSac, so I got a perfect side view of the leap. Man that was funny! I love that dog.

I know how to play the level...

So, for Labor Day weekend, my husband and I had plans. We were going to spend a day in Evansville and go to the Thresheree, for sure. While we did visit Evansville for a couple of hours (and had some delicious beer battered fries at the Night Owl - yum!) the Thresheree plans didn't go through. We blamed it on the weather, but I think we just liked to have a weekend to lounge around at home. And for us, that means we got to play Donkey Kong on the Wii! In case you haven't played it, Donkey Kong is so much fun! And we have definitely gotten our money's worth. But one thing is funny - they have these little pigs sometimes in the levels. Whenever there is a check-point mid-way through a level, there is a little pig manning the booth. And when you play a level repeatedly without beating it, a little cheering booth pops up at the beginning, with a pig there waving a flag who will show you how to finish the level if you ask. And that little pig gets really annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if he just popped up, but no, he waves his flag around and makes noise that gets irritating. So when Adam and I play and he shows up, I like to say, "I know how to play the level, pig." Then it sounds mean enough for me to get it out of my system, but really I'm just telling him I don't need his help... right?  :-)

I'll be here all week

So if you know me in person, you probably know that I'm a loud sneezer. I have sneezed loudly ever since I can remember. I think I got it from my dad, whom you can hear sneeze from three rooms away :) Anyway, I have a few sneezing stories, but for now, I'll just tell the most recent one.

We had an orientation at work that probably 150+ people were at, including some people I used to work with. I said hello, since I hadn't seen some for a few months, and then sat at my table (we had assigned seats, so I wasn't sitting with the people I knew). Towards the end of the three-hour session, I let loose with a classic "me" sneeze. One of my coworkers a table away said, "That must be Megan."

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! I'll be here all week. Tip your waiter.

Location, Location... (you know how it ends)

Continuing with the CA/WI differences, another little topic I thought of was cities. Apparently, I am not the only one to notice there are a lot of cities in Wisconsin named after Native American words that you can only pronounce properly if you were raised in Wisconsin. (Or, I guess, if you are Native American yourself.) In California, there are a lot of cities with names in Spanish (easy example: Los Angeles). So while I'm stuck here trying to pronounce things like Oconomowoc (exactly how many o's is one word allowed to have?), when we go out to California for Christmas, my husband has to attempt to say things like Aliso Viejo (which is not pronounced vie-joe, in case my non-Spanish speaking readers were wondering). There are also a bunch of other things here named after Native American tribes - Blackhawk being a prime example. There's a Blackhawk credit union and bank, a technical college, a golf course, and a curling club, and that's just in the Janesville area! Whereas in Southern California, we have little mom-and-pop Mexican food restaurants in every strip mall and the missions founded by the Spanish (most of with start with "San," which means "Saint.") Interesting to note the cultural influences in each state...

And on the Mexican food note, the other day my boss got lunch for us at the Mexican restaurant across the street. Having grown up with said Mexican culture all around in California, I tend to know more about Mexican food than my friends and family in Wisconsin. So, as the "Mexican food resource" at work, I made a recommendation to one of my coworkers to try the flautas (basically taquitos). She decided she would give them a try. Then another coworker decided to get them. Then another... and all of a sudden I was getting nervous, thinking, "What if everyone hates what I recommended? I'd feel so responsible!" But, thankfully, everyone loved it! One coworker said she wanted to give me a hug because it was so good, and she's going to ask me for more recommendations, and another said that the flautas are now her new favorite Mexican entree. So, I ended up pretty pleased that everyone liked their food.

That about does it for today. Go eat a tostada or enchilada for me :)

As I nodded, nearly napping...

So my husband hurt his foot. It’s not really serious, but it’s taking a while to get better. In the meantime, he is pretty restless when he sleeps, and tries to take up the whole bed. After two nights of sleeping up against the wall (no, I don’t mean my shoulder was next to the wall – I mean I was sleeping on my side with my whole body up against the wall, taking up maybe 1/16 of our queen bed), I decided we couldn’t sleep in the same bed while he’s recovering. This presented a problem: we do have a guest bed upstairs, but I am expecting a visitor soon, and I didn’t want to wash the sheets again after having slept in them. I could sleep on the floor or I could sleep on the couch… except that we don’t have a couch. Which leads me to another sub-topic: my husband and I are kind of hippies. We bathe regularly, do not smoke anything, and are faithful to each other, but in other aspects we are hippies. We eat hemp seeds for the health benefits they provide, I rarely shave my legs (I do shave them, just rarely), and we do not have a couch: we have a huge bean-bag like chair called a LoveSac. It’s really amazing, the most comfortable thing ever, but it’s a little non-traditional, to say the least. All that being said, it seemed to be my best non-bed option. I gave it my best shot, and while I definitely got some sleep, I’d say it would have been about the same as if I had stayed in bed with Adam (although I definitely had more room on the LoveSac!). My final opinion is that the LoveSac is great for naps (especially when you really meant to sit and read for a half hour and you end up dozing for more like an hour and a half), but not so great for a whole night’s sleep.

And last night? Well, I got a full night's sleep, but I'll have to wash those sheets upstairs after all.

Wisconsin's SLO

So I usually notice what’s different between California and Wisconsin. Here’s something that I noticed is similar: Madison reminds me a lot of San Luis Obispo. Now, people who have spent more time in both places may not necessarily agree, but from my experience of both, they are alike in many ways. First of all, they are both college towns. Second of all, there are a lot of “hippies” in both cities. These may not be real hippie-hippies, but the sentiment is there – dreadlocks, a lot of biking, and a focus on what is natural. San Luis Obispo goes one step further in not allowing any drive-thrus (they can have a McDonald’s, it just can’t have a drive-thru). So ok I guess that’s really only two things, but maybe that’s because the hippie aspect covers so much. If you like Madison, I would suggest visiting San Luis Obispo (or, as those in the know call it, SLO). I think you would enjoy it.

I think I'll keep this short for today. More observances of life to come.

Grocery Store Adventures

Hello, my name’s Megan, and I am a grocery-store singer.

Let me clarify. I don’t schedule performances at grocery stores. I don’t set up a small stage in produce to belt my show tunes. But… I do tend to sing along when there’s a particularly catchy tune (and not always at the half-voice level you sing at sometimes so no one really hears you). The other day, I was cruising the aisles, and the Turtle’s “Happy Together” came on. What a great song! And I hadn’t heard it in a while, so I was really excited! I launched into grocery-store singer mode, not really self-consciously singing, per se, but just aware that people may notice my singing. I was walking and this tall guy who was probably a few years younger than me was coming towards me. When we got closer, I thought, “He’s going to hear me singing now.” As our carts began to cross paths, I realized that he was singing, too!!! That was so awesome. I’m not alone! A minute later, while the same song was on, during the “ba ba-ba-ba ba’s,” a young father with his daughter was singing, too! Aside from the Tiki Room, this is as close as my life has gotten to being a musical, where everyone spontaneously sings the same song and knows all the choreography.

On a completely unrelated note, I tried the whole wheat linguini at Olive Garden and I liked it! I would have to say I still probably prefer the normal pasta, but I was a little afraid I wouldn’t even like the whole wheat option. This is a good thing, I think. I’ve been holding out on switching over to whole wheat options (the Japanese eat white rice and have one of the lowest national levels of obesity!), but… I’m considering it more and more. I’ve been having oatmeal for breakfast every day for the past couple of weeks and I have noticed that I feel fuller when lunch comes around. It sticks with me more than my normal breakfast of garlic sourdough toast, that’s for sure!

Well I think I’ll wrap up there for today… and happy reading! (my blog or whatever else it is you’re reading)

Let's give this a shot

I've been thinking... I kind of want to start a real blog. What am I going to write about? I'm not really sure yet. For now, I'm going to leave this connected to a blog I started back in high school... approximately 2003. This blog is almost as old as my little sister. I'm hoping I'll be able to revitalize it with current events in my life, as well as humorous (in my opinion!) reminiscences.

Today's topic: Wisconsin translation of California-ese.
As of next week, I will have lived in Wisconsin for two-and-a-half years. Prior to that, I lived in California for 23 years and a couple months. Needless to say, my natural dialect is Californian. I list below the main words/phrases that have a different meaning in Wisconsin that I was not expecting:

1. Pop. In California, this is what happens when you blow a balloon bigger than it should be, or when a normal-sized balloon touches something hot/sharp. In Wisconsin, this means "soda." One local restaurant even advertises that their special includes "two cans of pop." This never ceases to make me smile, mostly to myself, because yes, I realize that I am the odd woman out in this situation!

2. Garden. In California, this refers to the flowers in your yard. In Wisconsin, when they say "garden," they mean "vegetable garden" (which is what we'd call it in California). Why not just say vegetable garden? I like to think that Californians are more specific.

3. Barbecue. In California, a barbecue is either the grilling instrument itself (e.g. "We just got a barbecue!") or the event that revolves around said instrument (e.g. "We're going to have a barbecue this weekend"). In Wisconsin, "barbecue" is talking about barbecued food of some type or other (pork or beef is what I have encountered most often). Hence, when you are in Wisconsin, you would say "We are having barbecue for dinner." Also, the actual instrument is just called a "grill." Instead of saying "I'm going to have a barbecue this weekend," in Wisconsin, you would say "I'm going to grill out this weekend."

4. Ski. In California, you go skiing at Mammoth. In Wisconsin, the same activity is referred to as "downhill skiing." This is to differentiate it from another type of skiing that Wisconsin offers, which is "cross-country skiing." In many conversations I've had with WI residents, I would say "my husband is going to go skiing," after which my conversation partner would invariably ask "Downhill?"

5. Drinking Fountain/Water Fountain. In California, when you come to a park or large building/business, and you're thirsty, you would ask someone if there is a drinking fountain. When I had been working at my first Wisconsin job for a few months, a customer came in and asked me if we had a bubbler. I thought to myself, what the heck is a bubbler! I stammered for a minute, trying to figure out how I could tell this crazy customer that no, we do not have one of those imaginary things you are asking about, when thankfully, another employee chimed in and said "It's right around the corner." She then explained to me that in Wisconsin, specifically in the greater-Madison area, they call this a bubbler. It's actually a cultural term they have embraced to the point of printing t-shirts that say "It's called a bubbler!" on it.

I have accepted these words into my new vocabulary, so that I understand them, but I typically refrain from using them myself. People still know what I'm talking about if I say I'd like a soda... right?