Rainy Day at the Kentucky Oaks

Kristin and Michelle

Look, it's Tom Cruise! Oh wait, it's just Eric...

Let the racing begin!

Cooling off.

Kristin and Jose

Mmm...tasty mint juleps!

Our fabulous hosts--Mr. and Mrs. Koetters, and Regina

Michelle, Kristin, Regina, and Sheila

And then it started to pour.... :(

But the race must go on! Here is Proud Spell, winner of the Kentucky Oaks

Winning jockey Gabriel Saez

Aaron, Jason, Jose, and Greg

No amount of rain could stop us!

The 134the Kentucky Oaks was held the Friday before the Kentucky Derby. There were 12 races throughout the day, the first of which took place at 11am. The second to the last race of the day was the famed Kentucky Oaks at 6pm, which featured a field of ten 3-year-old fillies, all competing for $500,000.

Our seats for the day were PHENOMENAL. We had two boxes of seats that were front row, center, directly in front of the winner's circle. A big thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Koetters for hooking us up with a great local ticket broker.

For the first few races, we enjoyed our fabulous seats and took in the entire experience. The horses were breathtakingly beautiful and fast. Of course, the hats and people watching were also great. Unfortunately, the showers came all too soon, soaking the track and making for very sloppy race and spectating conditions. Despite the rain, we sported ponchos, and enjoyed the afternoon.

Proud Spell and jockey Gabriel Saez won the Kentucky Oaks (the 3-1 favorite despite finishing third in the Ashland in her final prep). It was pretty awesome to see the garland of lillies (which is what the winner of the filly's race is awarded) draped on Proud Spell following the race. Gabriel Saez and the owners watched proudly.

I made only a few bets throughout the day, most notably on "Wisconsin Girl" and "Forward Wisconsin," which both sounded like winners to me! My "Wisconsin Girl" did come in second place in the final race of the day, which won me $10 in a side bet with my friend, Jason, and ended up being my biggest win of the weekend.

Wisconsin Admissions Director Milks Cow

Today was an interesting day. Part of it consisted of accompanying my office's director to our campus' Dairy Cattle Center to take pictures of him milking a cow. Classic. Dr. Rob Setlzer, Director of Admissions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, milking a cow. And he was such a good sport!

So how did this all come about you may ask. I am on a committee that is charged with planning the 2009 Big Ten Admissions Director's Conference, which will take place at UW-Madison next May. At this year's conference (which is at Purdue next week), we will unveil our invitation and a glimpse of the activities we'll offer next year. We wanted something catchy and funny, so we decided to make a slide show of pictures of our director all over campus "sampling" activities and planning for the conference. Essentially, we're going to start the slide show with a picture of Rob's desk flooded with applications and say, even though we've had record number of applications, Rob's focus has been entirely on planning for next year's Big Ten Admissions Director's Conference.

Then we've got shots of him everywhere....sailing on the lake, sporting Bucky's costume, jumping on the beds at the hotel we've reserved for the conference, sailing on the lake, shopping at the bookstore, and of course, milking a cow. It's good stuff. And Karen's working on a fabulous script to accompany the slide show.

It's been a great event to plan, since we have a somewhat unlimited budget with which to work. While of course much of their time will be filled with meetings, our tentative "fun" plans include a dinner cruise on Lake Monona, dinner at the Chancellor's house, a bus tour to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesen in Spring Green, appearances from Bucky and the band, a traditional tailgate at the Union, and sailing on Lake Mendota.

Fresh Curds

Very jealous of Karen's sweet new ride

Picture in front of Paoli Cheese House

Fresh Curds!

And more curds across the street!

This past Tuesday afternoon marked my first ride of the season. Well, actually my first ride of the year. Make that my first ride since last September's Ironman race. I literally have not been on a bike since--not even on my trainer. But truthfully, that's the way I like it. I am very much a fair weather rider, which usually eliminates most of the year around here. But then I very much look forward to hopping back on my bike come May. Which is good, since Ironman training requires many summer weekends that are dominated by 4-7 hour bike rides. After three solid months of those distances, a girl needs a decent break from the saddle!

So the ride I do most often, and the route I did on Tuesday, is to Paoli, Wisconsin, which as you can see, offers many options in terms of fresh cheese curds. It's approximately a 30-mile loop, offering breathtaking scenery (if you like that whole dairy farm/corn fields feel), relatively little traffic, and great rollers. It's a quick ride and the perfect workout if you only have 2 hours to fit in a ride.

Paoli is pretty much the half-way point of the ride. I love Paoli. It's a small town gem that offers two extremes, which blend together nicely. On one hand, we've got the House of Cheese and the Paoli Pub (obviously very Wisconsin-esque). On the other hand, there are several art galleries and small boutiques. Something for everyone in Paoli!

Chancellor Finalists

As you may or may not have heard, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Chancellor, John Wiley, is stepping down in September. And thus, the process has begun to select UW's 28th leader.

This afternoon, UW system President Kevin P. Reilly announced the four finalists who are being considered for the position. A 23-member search and screen committee, chaired by UW-Madison Professor Marsha Mailick Seltzer, recommended the finalists to Reilly and a special committee of the UW System Board of Regents.

The four candidates will participate in meetings and receptions on campus from May 12-15, where they will interact with faculty, staff, students, and community members. Reilly and the Regent committee will interview the finalists on May 14. The final appointment of a new chancellor must be confirmed by the full Board of Regents. And finally, here are the finalists:

Dr. Gary D. Sandefur
Dean, College of Letters and Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin
Provost
Cornell University (New York)

Dr. R. Timothy Mulcahy
Vice President for Research
University of Minnesota

Dr. Rebecca M. Blank
Former Dean, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan

Personally, I'd like to see an outsider selected. But of course, I'll need to study up and learn more about each candidate. I do seem to remember reading some of Rebecca Blank's work during graduate school...

Should be an interesting process.

Karen's Birthday Feast

A short break to the Derby posts. Cinco de Mayo (Monday) marked my roommate Karen's birthday. Thus I took another vacation day on Monday to unpack and settle from the weekend, and to cook up a feast! We celebrated with the season's first barbeque on our back patio. We enjoyed Italian pesto dip as an appetizer, burgers, and Asian slaw. For dessert, I made Karen's favorite....a Maraschino cherry cake with butter cream frosting. From scratch. The cake was disappointingly dense, but the butter cream frosting was delicious. I found the recipe at allrecipes.com. But anyways, we had a great dinner and celebration!

The Cool Car and Other Pics

The "Cool Car"

Group Pic at Buffalo Trace

Sampling at Woodford Reserve

This is me proceeding (such a rebel)...

Interesting sign at Jim Beam...

And here's the mold!

Bourbon Trail

Jose, Jason, and Aaron sampling bourbon at Jim Beam

Jim Beam

Kristin and Jose

Statue of the late Booker Noe (1929-2004), master distiller at Jim Beam

Sampling at Woodford Reserve distillery

Woodford Reserve distillery

Jason and Jose sampling Bourbon at Buffalo Trace distillery

Derby weekend was amazing. I had such a phenomenal time. Of course, the best part was catching up and hanging out with my great friends from Ann Arbor, all of whom I met during my short stay there as a graduate student. Even though I hadn’t seen a few of them for nearly three years, it was as if we hadn’t skipped a beat. And a few others who I met for the first time welcomed me with open arms, just as Jose and crew had done one of my first nights in Ann Arbor nearly four years ago.

I made the long trek to Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning, and met up with my friends Jose and Aaron, and my new friend, Jason, when I arrived that afternoon. We then left Ann Arbor at ~6pm. Destination: Louisville. It was me and the boys. Fittingly, we called ourselves the “fun car” for the duration of the trip. We made a stop at Wendy’s for dinner, and then Dairy Queen for dessert. One of my favorite parts was when Aaron enjoyed a Frosty with dinner, and then a DQ Blizzard a half-hour later for dessert. Now that’s impressive eating.

We arrived in Louisville at ~11pm, where we were greeted by the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Koetters, who graciously hosted us during our time in Louisville. More stories about these amazing people in later Derby installments.

The next day, after one of Mrs. Koetter’s amazing home cooked breakfasts, we headed out for our first of three stops on the Bourbon Trail. Now, I must admit, when my friends first mentioned the Bourbon Trail, I thought they were referring to a hiking trail. While I’m obviously not much of a Bourbon drinker, I definitely enjoyed learning more about the strong tradition of Bourbon making in Kentucky, and taking in the beautiful Kentucky landscape.

Our first stop was Jim Beam, which was probably our favorite stop of the day. We enjoyed a quick video that overviewed the 200-year family legacy of Bourbon making and then sampled two of their Bourbon offerings on a beautiful porch overlooking the bluegrass hills. Next, we met up with the rest of our group at Woodford Reserve, which was a located on a breathtaking estate, but was a bit more pretentious than our tastes. Our final stop of the day was Buffalo Trace, where we enjoyed a lengthy tour of the distillery and more samples. Interestingly, Buffalo Trace was one of four distilleries that was permitted to operate during Prohibtion in order to produce Bourbon for medical purposes.

That evening, back at the Koetter’s house, we had a fabulous barbeque dinner with beef tenderloin, green beans, the most amazing mashed potatoes I’ve ever tasted, and an incredibly delectable coconut/pineapple cake with thick vanilla frosting. Mr. Koetter had the back porch bar all set up upon our return, from which we enjoyed cocktails from Mrs. Koetter’s extensive mint julep glass collection (her oldest glass dates back from the 1940’s). It was an incredible night, and it was just the beginning of Derby weekend….