Catching up!

Since our move to Madison, I've found it difficult to share all that I want to share with all of the folks I miss. This blog seemed to be the richest way to capture my thoughts and experiences in Madison. I will, of course, still be in touch in a more personal way, but this will help me share all the little details that I couldn't otherwise share with all!

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As many of you already know, Susan and I have been loving the house and our new neighborhood. Madison is, so far, every bit of what we sought -- a beautiful, small city with plenty to do, but still friendly and neighborly.

Our neighbors are the best! As an example: Susan's dad has been battling liver cancer, and finally got a donor liver 2 weeks ago (he is doing very well -- see the Friends for Terry blog for details). We had to make a hasty departure to get to Michigan for the transplant, and we quickly had several neighbors volunteer to take care of the cats in our absence. Another neighbor went to our favorite (so far!) breakfast place (Lazy Jane's) and brought us back scones for the drive as we were packing.

Our street has quite a mix of people: young, old, single, couples, married, unmarried, families, etc. They all introduce themselves, invite us over, and actually talk to one another (a recent study shows that lack of community is far from a DC-only phenomenon). On one side of us, a retired couple that bought their house for $14,000 many moons ago! On the other side, a wonderful couple with 2 really sweet daughters (here's Hannah with our dog Indy). Across the street, another lesbian couple, both teachers. Throughout the neighborhood, there are children of all ages, and you can see how the families spend time together. Especially great to see lots of dads out with their kids, more than I've ever seen. There are at least 2 stay at home dads just on our block.

The neighbors are not happy because of the condos being built on the street behind us. We laugh because in Arlington, huge buildings were flying up everywhere, and in no time. The disputed condos are 4 stories high and don't look any more done than when we bought the house a few months ago. I think it's smaller than some of the starter castles in Arlington. :-)

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Another thing very different from other places I've lived: people have a lot of joy in their gardens. I mean, every house, from the most modest to the most extravagant, has flowers everywhere. Not manicured, landscaped types -- these are the owners' hard work! We figure that maybe the long winters make people want to see their yards really POP in the springtime! Right now there are daisies, irises peonies, poppies, and lots of wildflowers. One neighbor down the street says when his poppies are done blooming we can take some of his pods for our garden. We have a great lilac bush in the backyard that reaches up to the back balcony and smells great; everything is leafing out in the yard, very lush. We even have raspberry bushes if they survive the dogs! We are also a short walk to Olbrich Park, which features a huge botanical gardens (and boat launch and ball fields).

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I have been doing lots more bicycling -- getting serious, bought bicycle shorts and everything! It's so nice to be able to ride and worry less about cars. It's a bike-friendly town too, with bike lanes on the busier streets.

Good thing I'm getting exercise because I have been enjoying the food here! One of the Wisconsin delicacies is cheese curds . They're awesome! I knew this move would challenge my low-fat diet...! But, the good news is, I've been able to avoid having too much of the frozen custard (which is even worse for you than ice cream), because I am loving the gelato at Java Cat, one of the zillion local coffee shops. They make it fresh on the premises, and it has 1/3 of the fat of ice cream (so you can eat 3 times as much). Lots of great flavors, everything from lemon to chili-chocolate to almond to berries and cream.

We went to the Dane County Farmer's Market (rumored to be the best farmer's market in the country) a few weeks ago -- rode our bikes, of course! We came home with ridiculously cheap, fresh cheese, cheesebread, scones, cookies, wild garlic, asparagus, tomatoes -- can't wait until the really good stuff arrives. It was absurdly busy though - hoards of people moving, ever so slowly, shoulder to shoulder, around the 4 blocks surrounding the capitol. Requires patience! And Susan had to break down and trade in the milk crate on the back of her bike for some proper gear for hauling all that stuff (who, me?!)!

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We've been seeing lots of good concerts; last week, saw Aimee Mann at the Barrymore Theater and Ellis Paul at Cafe Carpe in Ft. Atkinson, WI (see the link to my Flickr photos for some great pics of the tiny little club and its beautiful surroundings on the Rock River). Up next month are Garrison Starr at the High Noon Saloon and Peter Mulvey at Cafe Carpe and at the Folk on State outdoor concerts.

We also went to see the Madison Mallards, an amateur baseball team in the North Woods League which draws about 6000 people per game. They really have a good thing going there, the organization seems great, really puts on a good show. The team, however... we'll see!

When we're not running around too much I try to spend as much time as possible on our wonderful porch; the weather has been phenomenal!

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To the upper right of this post there are still more things that have been keeping me busy...

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