Fondue, music, and a little bit of sausage dancing.

Greetings readers! It's a beautiful sunny day again here in Madison, WI. We have been here for three whole days now and are loving it. It has been a mixture of work and play for both of us; e-learning conference and Cisco interspersed with play time in the streets of Madison.

Wednesday was a beautiful day here in the land of cows and sunshine!  Having met up with Nancy and Ann, two other professors from the University of Cincinnati, we decided that a mini-road trip was in order. So we piled into the car and headed off to the Swiss style town of New Glarus.  Home to the oldest Swiss settlement in Wisconsin, and to our favourite brewery, it is somewhat of an annual pilgrimage. I had already done a 2 hour business development call with some people in Norway and California so was totally ready to get out of the hotel.  The open road beckoned so off we went.

Arriving at New Glarus we spent a very pleasant hour wandering the shops and generally having a lazy day.  We finally decided that it was time for lunch around 1pm  so headed to the local Swiss restaurant. There we indulged in Rueben sandwiches, Cheese fondue, and bratwursts.  There was mirth, merriment, and laughter all with a Swedish accent.  I should mention that there was no polka dancing or clogs in evidence despite rumours to the contrary.  The afternoon was spent at the New Glarus brewery home of our favourite beers before heading home for a much needed nap.  Oh afternoon naps I will miss you when this vacation is over!

Wednesday evening was an opportunity for more culture. Throughout the summer Madison has classical music concerts that take place on the green around the state capitol building. The music was obviously important, but the opportunity to sit on the grass with a bottle of wine and friends was perhaps more appealing.  So with plastic glasses in hand we settled in for an hour or two of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and Chardonnay, that well known oakey composer.  The music was good, the wine better, and as you can see from the picture above everybody had fun. The most fun though was had by a group of people sitting a short way away from us.  A squirrel ran down a tree and straight into the middle of a group of picnickers.  The squirrel proceeded to then run around, no doubt scared out of its fur, while all the picnickers screamed and ran around in circles.  After a while the squirrel ran back up the tree, it's job done, and all the people sat down sheepishly.

The whole evening then sped by with a visit to The Old Fashioned, a Madison institution and one of our favorite places to hang out (such a strange turn of phrase). Fueled by the cocktail of the same name, we indulged in walleye sandwiches, bratwursts in buns, and gourmet mac and cheese.  All six of us seemed very happy and James did declare later that he had felt a little silly at dinner, presumably code for being hammered. However everyone was well behaved, even though James did contemplate trotting out his Jimmy the Hula impression for the table. Alas, it was not to be, despite many requests.  Neither did he agree to perform "The Koschoreck", a special kind of polka danced while wearing lederhosen backwards and upside down and involving six pounds of bratwurst together with a large bag of cucumbers.  Ah the stuff of legend....

Thursday bought more work duties for us: James spent time in the conference discussing the finer points of e-learning retention while I chaired some meetings with people in the Cisco Hong Kong office.  Gripping stuff!  In the afternoon I headed out for a walk and a visit to the Madison Contemporary Art Museum, a terrific place that was showing an exhibition on technology and its impact through the ages. I spent a pleasant two hours there before returning to the hotel for a few more meetings and dinner in The Capitol Chophouse, a very splendid affair indeed. For those who like such details, dinner revolved around steak, scallops, crab cakes, and was accompanied by a Panther Creek pinot noir and a Frogs Leap Merlot.  All jolly nice indeed. It was good to spend time with a group of friends and marked a definite high point of the week so far!

Friday was a lazy day.  I had spent the morning recording some presentations for Cisco from our hotel room while James took to the floor in the conference to present his paper along with his colleague Jim.  I'd like to say that the afternoon was filled with our usual kind of craziness and mayhem, but it was actually spent wandering Madison, looking around the university, eating ice cream on the shores of the lake, and popping in and out of various shops.  It was all quite restful and very welcome.  Friday also ushered in my last day of working for Cisco as well. I have been very fortunate to be able to return to my old job, now as a contractor, in the summer and to work with my (mostly) fabulous colleagues there.  It went very well this year again, and I look forward to the possibility of doing it all again next year! Now it is time to try and return to being an artist once more.....

Friday brought a quieter evening at The Old Fashioned as two of our party had already departed. Still, we acquitted ourselves well and retired to the hotel room for a reasonably early night (11.30pm) as we all had early starts. Nancy and Ann were heading back to Cincinnati and James and I had a date with a car for the next part of the "Homos on the Road" extravaganza.

So there you have it, dear readers. I'll be posting tomorrow as we head onwards and upwards....literally.  We are heading to Minnesota!  Yes, I am wondering why as well.  But all will be revealed soon. Keep your eye on the blog!

Big love to all!

D&J