He's At It Again!

My brother recently found out that he secured a lottery spot for the 2010 Western States Endurance Run, which is a race that he's been trying to get in to for a few years now. Western States 100 is one of the oldest ultra trail events in the world, and definitely one of the most challenging. The 100-mile rugged trail run winds through California’s Sierra Nevada, beginning in Squaw Valley, and ending in Auburn. The run includes a climb of 2,550 vertical feet in the first 4½ miles, and a cumulative total of 18,000 feet of climbing and 23,000 feet of descents.

The race begins at 5am on the Saturday of the last weekend in June and runners must finish by 11am the following day in order to be eligible for an award (the coveted bronze belt buckle). The field typically consists of approximately 450 seasoned ultra running veterans.

So Kelly will add yet another ultra endurance race to his impressive and continually growing resume. His next ultra is on February 7—the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail run in Huntsville, Texas, which is the race that started his ultra career in 2005. Since the race will be much flatter and faster than many of the other ultras Kelly has competed in, his goal is to run a PR. Can you even imagine trying to run a personal best in a 100-mile trail run? It’s really just hard to grasp the concept of running that far, let alone trying to run it as fast as you can. But that’s my brother. Always making my athletic accomplishments look like small potatoes :)

Weekend Visit Home (and to the Zoo!)

This past weekend, I spent some time home with my parents in Brookfield to destress. I took the day off work on Friday and drove there on Thursday evening. It was a beautiful Halloween weekend with incredibly warm temperatures. I enjoyed a couple nice runs, and the first-ever run with my mom! My mom has worked extremely hard to get to where she's at now health wise. She's so fit, and also eating really well, too. We ran approximately 4 miles together, and I was overwhelmed with pride to be able to share that with her.

The rest of the weekend I spent time catching up with my parents, shopping and enjoying coffee with my mom, and we also made a visit to the zoo on Saturday morning, probably my first visit to the Milwaukee County Zoo in close to two decades! Growing up, my mom would take my brother and I to the zoo all the time. It was great to go back and see what a wonderful place it still is. I think it's one of the finest zoos in the nation. It was also nice because it was a free admission day on Saturday, so there were many families taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the zoo on such a beautiful fall day. The backdrop of the colorful, crisp leaves was breathtaking. Afterwards, my dad and I ran from the zoo, back to my parents' house in Brookfield.

30th Wedding Anniversary!

Today is my parents' 30th Wedding Anniversary! That's a LONG time. I realize I'm very lucky to have parents who have been together so long and whose relationship only seems to grow stronger. Congratulations! I'm very happy and proud :) Have fun today!

The Big Surprise

A bit more on the birthday surprise party. So like I said, Karen organized the whole thing. She got my parents involved, and I was led to believe that I was going to dinner on Saturday night to Harvest with my parents and Karen. My mom asked me weeks beforehand to pick the restaurant and claimed to have made a reservation for 6:45pm.

My parents arrived in Madison at ~3pm on Saturday so we could hang out together before dinner. Which is when we went to the New Glarus Brewing Company for a brewery tour and beer tasting. Karen originally planned to join us for the pre-dinner activities, but at the last minute, claimed that she had to go run over to her sister Kate’s house to check on a “sub-pump alarm” that was apparently going off while Kate was on vacation. Sub-pump alarm? Yep, I fell for it. So Karen faked this whole entirely believable phone conversation with Kate right in front of my face and I never doubted its legitimacy for a second.

So while my parents and I were in New Glaurs on a brewery tour, Karen ran to Kate's to pick up the food and supplies (where she had been storing everything), and then back home for party prep—everything from chopping veggies, to setting up tikki torches in the backyard, to packing beverages on ice. Kim was also on hand for party-prep, despite a recent ankle sprain. At 5:30ish, several other friends arrived to prepare for my arrival and surprise.

Just before 6pm, my parents and I were driving back into Madison from New Glarus. We had planned to pick up Karen back at the house at 6pm before dinner. Apparently we were running a little early, so my parents were trying to think of ideas to stall. My mom was like, “should we pick up some ice cream to have after dinner tonight.” I knew we had enough in stock, so I declined. As we neared my neighborhood, my dad tried with, “we’re a little early to pick up Karen. Let’s drive around the neighborhood and look at some houses.” Which is totally believable because my parents ultimately hope to move to Madison.

Around 6ish, we finally arrived at the house. We hopped out of the car and started to walk up to the front door. Out of nowhere, my friends start popping out from behind the house, in what seemed like a never-ending single-file line. “Surprise,” they all yelled. I don’t think I'd ever been so surprised in my life. I had no idea what was going on, and was admittedly very confused and flustered.

Once I was able to process everything, I gave everyone hugs, and we headed to the backyard for a great evening of conversation, laughing, and summer barbecuing. Karen and Kim had set up an incredible spread of amazing foods and drinks. I had such a great time and still can’t believe how it all happened. Now I think back on some of the conversations that took place in the week leading up to my birthday and think, ohhh…I should have realized what was taking place right under my nose! It was a fantastic surprise and birthday, and I’m so thankful for such great friends and family in my life. Definitely a memorable birthday. And I just love a good surprise!

An Culinary Journey

Mom, Kristin, and Dad on the Monona Terrace overlooking Lake Monona

Dinner at Taqueria Guadalajara

Chicken Sopa and la cerveza

Platillo Guadalajara--grilled beef, fried onions, cactus, pico de gallo sauce, a grilled chili, and refried beans with cheese

Torta with grilled steak, fried onions, avocado, and jalapeno peppers

Sucre Patisserie on the Capitol Square

White Chocolate Cloud=muroise cremeux, vanilla biscuit, and berry garnish

Lemon Tart= butter crust, lemon curd, and garnish

Noir de Chocolat=dark chocolate, chocolate cremeux, and ganache glaze

My parents came into Madison yesterday evening on their way back home from a week-long stay at our family’s cabin near Minoqua. They picked me up from work at 3ish, and we immediately headed to the Union Terrace where we enjoyed the warm weather, good conversation, refreshing pink lemonade, and a beautiful view of Lake Mendota.

At 5ish, we drove to Taqueria Guadalajara, a great little hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant on Park Street. I blogged about it after my first visit last summer. It’s super cheap, and very authentic. I think my parents enjoyed it. Or at the very least, they thought it was an interesting experience.

From there, we drove back downtown and stopped at Sucre, which is a somewhat new addition to the capital square, a posh, European-style Patisserie, where we picked up fantastic little desserts to go. From hole-in-the-wall Mexican to a stuffy Patisserie, I’d say we truly hit both ends of the dining spectrum.

With our beautiful desserts in tote, we walked around the square to the Monona Terrace, where we were hoping to enjoy Mama Digdown’s Brass Band, a New Orleans jazz band that was scheduled to play as part of the Monona Terrace’s Concerts on the Rooftop series (Thursdays in June and July). Alas, big mama never made it onto stage, and I’m assuming the concert was cancelled due to the chance of inclement weather. Bummer. But still, despite the lack of music, we enjoyed our succulent desserts and the evening together.

Green Lake Pics

Allie and John catch a big one!

Aunt Karen with Allie, Emma, and Megan on the 4th of July

Launching fun island (first attempt...there was a leak and the island quickly deflated once it was out to sea. Luckily, as of Sunday night, fun island is back and leak free, thanks to Karen and Kate's patching expertise).

Allie asks Uncle John to "bump it up." It was the cutest thing ever when Allie would come up to me throughout the weekend and be like, "Kristin, bump it up?" and she'd stick out her little fist.

Kristin and Karen, ready to watch the Green Lake fireworks

Megan and Kristin breaking out festive glow necklaces for the fireworks

The whole boat is glowing!

Kate, Jen, and Kristin at the Princeton flea market. Seven of us went to the flea market and decided on a little contest...each of us had $2 to find the perfect item. Later that day, we'd present our chosen item to the entire group, and vote on the best!

Kristin proudly presents her flea market find, Sahara, the newest fun island "service animal", which is essentially a plastic snake or creature that lays on fun island and magically keeps birds from doing their thing on fun island. Very effective.

Other presented flea market items included an Asian fan, egg cups, cheese curds, washer traps, bandannas for "blind folded tether ball," and plastic swords for the girls to fence. Each person (all 11 of us) had 2 votes. I'm happy to report that I won by one vote. I knew I had a winner when I first set my eyes on Sahara. The Mittelstadt's take their service animals very seriously.

Playing a very exciting match of tether ball with Kate

Vacation Highlights

Just arrived back in town early this morning from Green Lake, where I spent a very long, relaxing, and memorable, 4th of July weekend with the Mittelstadt clan. We had fantastic weather the entire time—warm and sunny during the day and cool and breezy at night (perfect for sleeping).

Highlights from the weekend include watching fireworks from the boat, observing several attempts to launch fun island, daily ice cream deliveries, blind-folded tether ball with Emma, Martha’s sangria, soaking up rays and reading magazines on the pier, washing dishes with Allie, playing Bananagrams and Taboo, Friday night burgers and meals on the boat house, long bike rides with Karen, Saturday flea market shopping with the girls, and the unveiling of Sahara, the newest addition to fun island’s service animal crew.

Many pictures, stories, and perhaps a few recipes, to follow. Man, it's tough to come back to work and reality on Monday following such a great vacation.

Garage Sale Gals

Polish sample platter from Polonez

Chrusciki, Traditional Polish dessert

Mom and dad enjoying dessert

My new smoothie maker!

On Friday morning, my mom and I hit the road for one of our favorite mother-daughter activity, garage saleing. We came back with a car load of goodies, so I’d say we had decent luck. I found several new records (Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes”, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” etc.), a framed vintage poster, and a Rival drink mixer, which I have already used every morning since to make fruit smoothies. Instead of using my food processor, which requires hand washing of many separate components, I can now simply whip up a smoothie with my trusty two-speed hand blender.

After a day of non-stop shopping, we drove downtown for Polish Fest, which prides itself as America’s largest Polish fest, held at the Henry W. Maier Festival Park on Milwaukee’s lakefront. There we enjoyed plenty of polka music and dancing, authentic Polish foods and crafts, and of course, excellent people watching.

Our favorite Polish dishes were from a booth sponsored by Milwaukee’s famed Polish restaurant, Polonez. We enjoyed a sample platter with polish sausage, potato pancakes, and meat and cheese pierogies, as well as a dessert called chrusciki, which is a delicious deep-fried, jelly-filled pastry.

The next morning, fueled by Polish grease, my dad and I ran our traditional lakefront course, from Brookfield to the downtown lakefront (~10 miles). My dad was tearing it up, and I think we were at record pace despite the heat. I always cherish having the opportunity to share my passion for running with my dad.

Later that day, we celebrated our victorious run with custard from Kopp’s (best in the world). I enjoyed two heaping scoops of Cookies and Cream in a waffle cone. The thing was bigger than my head, causing many stares and comments, and I’m happy to report I finished strong.

Jazz in the Park

Jazz in the Park at Cathedral Square Park

Blue Number Nine- NJ jazz/soul/funk band

Mom and Dad

Dad and Kristin

Mom's awesome picnic spread

Shrimp Asparagus Risotto

Kristin and Mom

I took the day off work this past Friday and spent most of the weekend with my parents in Milwaukee. On Thursday night, we went to Jazz in the Park at downtown Milwaukee's Cathedral Square Park, which featured jazz/soul/funk band Blue Number Nine.

The concert was a great way to kick off the weekend. We had a wonderful time enjoying the warm summer evening, great conversation, and fabulous appetizers and wine. My mom's impressive spread included vegetable pizza, salsa and chips, cheesy crab bread, cheese and crackers, shrimp asparagus risotto, and whiskey cake.

Construction of a Square Foot Garden

The Spot (before)

Supplies

Mom carrying supplies

Kristin and Dad digging

Dad adding soil nutrients to the bed

Dad building the trellace, mom stringing the bed

Kristin planting

Mom stringing the trellace

Dad building the fences

My new square foot garden!

So beautiful!

My parents and I had a great time together on Saturday. Much of our time was spent building a square foot garden in my backyard, which was an arduous and time consuming process. We had a great time, however, and the now that the hard part is over, I can reap the rewards (fresh vegetables) all summer long.

Before setting to work, we spent a bit of time enjoying the downtown farmer’s market, where my dad was drawn to all sweets like a kid in a candy store. The definition of a sweet tooth, my dad picked up cinnamon rolls, donuts, and an apple crisp pie along the way (see, it’s in my genes!). We also purchased several veggies and cheeses, including a 10-year aged Cheddar from Hook’s, which I am excited to pair with wine.

Back at the house, we set up camp on the backyard patio. My mom and I immediately set to work digging, while my dad built the cedar frame in the garage. Although my parents weren’t immediately impressed with my “perfect spot,” they quickly came around when they discovered the great soil quality and continual sun. Once we secured the frame and churned the soil, adding many recommended nutrients, my dad began to put together the metal trellace, while my mom and I started stringing the garden into 1 ft. plots. After that, we were ready to plant. Following a crash course from my mom, I was planting like a pro. My dad then put small fences around some of the plants, like the beans and lettuce, which are more prone to greedy varmints like birds, rabbits, and deer. After a long hard day in the sun, we proudly admired our work, before heading out for a night of drinks, dinner, and ice cream!

Since then, I have been at war with what I believe is a chipmunk digging small holes around the perimeter of my garden (perhaps I have disturbed his home). Yesterday was an all out war, as I continually filled his little holes with dirt and bricks, only to come outside and discover new holes nearby. As of last night, I seem to have won this little showdown, as there are no new holes. Clearly, my little friend has realized who is boss.