Burning Down the House

Although the weekend was cut short by a grueling 8-hour shift on Sunday at Banana Republic, I still had a great one. On Friday night, Karen and I headed to her family's lake house on Green Lake, which is about an hour from Madison. We went to my favorite fish fry at the Mecan River Lodge in Princeton. As always, it was fantastic. The next morning, we did a 9-mile loop on the shores of the lake in the mist of the early morning. After that, we enjoyed homemade waffles followed by some quality yard work. We raked and burned mountains of leaves, and enjoyed watching our fire grow bigger and bigger. He he he. After our work in the yard was done, we headed into Princeton, to do a little botique shopping (where I had much luck!) before venturing on a little road trip to Naperville, Illinois, where my high school friend, Beth, was hosting a chili party. After a quick stop for appetizers (cheddar fries) at Beef-a-roo, we arrived in Naperville around 7pm. I've heard about Beth's famous chili party for several years, so it was great to finally enjoy it firsthand. That same night, we drove back to Madison. Luckily we did not kill ourselves falling asleep at the wheel. At several moments, I think we came close. But, we just sort of live on the edge like that.

On Sunday morning, I slept in while ambitious Karen went for a run. But by sleeping in, I mean up by 7:30am. For breakfast, we went to Einstein's for the usual, and to enjoy the Sunday paper. We then met our friend Eileen at the Monona Terrace, which was site to this weekend's Winter Art Festival. The festival featured many items from local artists. It was sort of like the summer's annual Art Fair Off the Square. Not too much luck there, but it was still nice to see. After the art fair, I did a little reading and enjoyed some mac and cheese before heading into my 8-hour shift at BR. Luckily, it went by pretty fast and was not so terrible after all.