Christmas Wrap-Up

It's been a while since I wrote so I need to recap the past few days. Yesterday was Christmas. Mike and I exchanged our gifts in the morning (which I will talk about later) and then went to Chris and Jeremy's for a family get-together. This was the first year that we didn't go up to Green Bay to spend the holiday with Mike's mom. Kind of a change in tradition if you want to call it that. With a new little baby in the family, it makes it a bit more difficult to travel and spend time in a small apartment with 6 adults, 1 newborn and 3 dogs. Plus Mike had to work today - sucks to travel on a holiday. We'll spend time with Mike's mom on our way up to my family's Christmas later this week. Mosley is all decked out in his Christmas wear in the pictures here. Even brought his Santa belly!

On Christmas eve, Mike and I went to see a movie - Enchanted - a nice, light-hearted Disney flick about a fairytale princess who ends up in New York City. It was such a nice change over the blood and guts dark movies we've been seeing lately. After the movie, we had our Christmas Eve dinner at Hui's Chinese Restaurant in Wauwatosa. We weren't expecting them to be very busy - which was wrong. There were quite a few people and their families having dinner. We were probably the only people there that didn't have close ties with the owners. Everyone knew them and there was alot of hugging, good wishes and gifts. Was really nice to see. I am always amazed at Chinese restaurants how a single family can make the whole thing work. Coming from a restaurant background where waitresses used to bitch if more than one table was sat at the same time and how they were always "in the weeds", I take my hat off to Hui's and their ability to have one person handle the whole restaurant as well as bartending needs. Their son was acting as host as well as take-out orders and bussing tables. I am guessing there was just one or two people handling the kitchen. And they never show any stress. Sure they were a bit hurried, but they still managed to get everything to us without any problem or delay and did it with a smile. And the food was great. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken a little hotter than I should have - knocked out my tastebuds! But still really good.

Earlier in the day we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We are now members so look forward to shorter visits with particular interests in mind. We were planning to check out the Dutch Masters because we just saw a story about Rembrandt and other Dutch painters on CBS Sunday Morning. The museum has an impressive collection. While at the museum, we also checked out the Modern Art exhibit area as they have made some changes recently. Absolutely stunned by David Lenz 's Sam and the Perfect World. David Lenz has the ability to paint people to a point where you think it is a photograph - it is truly amazing. We have been awed by his work for quite a few years now.

The weekend had gone by pretty quickly. Friday night we saw the movie, I Am Legend, at The Times Cinema - we really like this little theater. They have been doing a nice job of having first run movies along with the classics. And you can have a beer or wine in the theater - bonus! We had a couple of beers before and after the movie across the street at Meritage. Nice place. We'll have to check out the dining soon as everything coming out of the kitchen looked great. Mike ate at the bar one night when they first opened and it looked really good + he said it was!

Other than that we did some Christmas shopping and just hanging out - very relaxed.

Merry Christmas!!

Little Cry Baby

I visited with little Mosley and his mom today. It's not fair that I put this picture up as he was a good boy up to this point. He is five weeks old and wieghs in at 12 pounds. A real cutie!

White Truffle Dinner

Last night Mike and I went to Ristorante Bartolotta in Wauwatosa for dinner. On Monday and Tuesday nights they offer half-price wines. This is a great opportunity to try a wine that we would not normally order due to the price. Not a bad idea for them because people will probably do what we did and order a $90 bottle of wine (good deal at $45). They were also offering white truffle dinner specials. We opted to go for the White Truffle 4-course prix-fixe menu. Luckily for us, our waitress, Michele, was kind enough to let us know that it could easily be shared as the portion sizes were fairly large. As the price was $120.00, that was a fantastic suggestion. We started with beef tenderloin tartar with shaved celery root and white truffle, followed by ravioli stuffed with spinach and Paul Bartolotta's trademark egg yolk baked inside. It was outstanding. Our next course was Veal Cheeks (I know, it is kind of sad) and Sweetbreads with wild mushrooms - unbelievably rich. This was the point where we knew sharing the meal was a good idea. Our dessert was a nice Panna Cotta with strawberries. Beautiful. Excellent meal. Service was outstanding, as usual. And we love the atmosphere of the restaurant - a real gem.

Santa is a biker?

We ran into Santa bikers on Saturday afternoon in The Third Ward. Not sure where they were or where they were going, but it was a funny sight to see. Another snowy day in Milwaukee. I have become a superb shoveler. We did a little bit of shopping (lots of looking) and had lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market - love the gumbo at St Paul Fish Market -before heading out into the snowy, slushy world. And we finally got our tree!

It's getting down to crunch time for xmas shopping. I've been picking up a few things here and there and so far am happy with my choices. I always prefer the "giving" to the "receiving" at xmas time.

Yesterday Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's record for career passing yards - he's thrown an equivalent to like 35 miles! Packers are 12-2 and have played well enough to get a bye in the playoffs. Very exciting times for Packer Nation. Earlier in the day, we checked out the movie, No Country for Old Men. As usual, I bought into the incredible hype to be somewhat disappointed. I think I am going to stop reading movie reviews and go with my own gut feeling. I thought it was good, but not "unbelievably incredible, best movie ever" like some of the reviews.

I decorated the tree last night and now need to start the wrapping!

Catching Up

I need to catch up on what's happening here in my world.

My little Brewers snowman is sitting on my window ledge. He is melting just a little bit, but is hanging in there.

The beautiful house is on the eastside of Milwaukee, known as "The Lion House" - currently home of The Bradley Foundation. You can't tell very well because of the snow, but the lions are decked out in Santa caps and scarves. This house is on Franklin & Prospect.

Friday, I took a ride down to Racine with a business associate to drop off a Christmas present at SC Johnson (Johnson Wax). I've seen alot of pictures of the SC Johnson headquarters designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but it as been a while since I was looking right at it. Very funky considering it was built in 1939. Racine is an interesting place - it is home to some major industry players, SC Johnson and Case as well as home to some incredible Danish bakeries and their specialty pastry called kringle. The architecture in downtown Racine is really remarkable - lots of Federal style buildings. Its harborfront is really nice and the beaches are noted as some of the cleanest beaches in the US year after year. I was looking for a certain restaurant downtown, but got turned around a bit and ended up going to The Ivanhoe - a nice pub/restaurant in a historic building. The building was built in 1891 as a tavern serving beer from The Bohemian Brewery in Chicago. It eventually became a Pabst Tavern and made several changes throughout the years. I am glad to see it is still a pub and has lots of character. Many of the original fixtures, etc. are still intact. And the burger was good too!

Thursday night Mike and I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the Martin Ramirez exhibit. We had seen this exhibit highlighted on CBS Sunday Morning and just had to check it out while it is still in Milwaukee. Martin Ramirez came to the US from Mexico in 1925 during hard times to try to make some money to support his wife & children. He was found homeless on the streets in 1931 and diagnosed as a catatonic schizophrenic. He spent the rest of his life in mental institutions where he drew amazing pieces of art on paper with crayon that he made himself from paper bags, newspapers, cups, etc. that he glued together with his own saliva, flour and bread dough. Remarkable stuff - makes you think... The exhibit goes on through mid-January.

Snowy Tuesday

It's a snow day! All of the schools are closed today. The kids across the street got busy right away and built a snowman. I shoveled early this morning before Mike went to work - it was probably 2-3 inches. Now it just keeps coming down - a mix of big flakes of snow and icy hail as we're right at 32 degrees. I'll most likely have 2-3 more inches to shovel this afternoon. It's pretty and I don't have to go anywhere so I really don't mind.

I had a photo shoot this morning for my headshot photo. Sarah from I Do Photography came to the house. She did a really nice job. Even took a few shots of Bailey. She was very professional and made me feel comfortable. Would certainly recommend her to others.

Last night we went to Bacchus for a wine tasting. There were several wine purveyors from around town who each selected five wines and champagnes to sample. For the most part we were underwhelmed with the selections but there were a couple of shining stars. It was a nice experience and good for the Bartolotta Group to put on an event like this. After the wine tasting we went to Buckley's Kiskeam Inn- a new owner has taken over the quaint little cafe on the corner of Cass and Wells that used to be Benjamin's Inn. We used to go here quite a bit when we lived downtown. We had a holiday party here when I was with the GMCVB. And I liked to go here for lunch when you needed a nice quiet spot. I think they will do okay as they have put a large bar in what used to be the dining room. It looks like they are going more towards an Irish Inn feel. There used to be around 3 or 4 rooms upstairs that Diane used to rent out for the night. I don't think the new owners will use this as an inn.

This past weekend was kind of a loss due to Mike waking up with the flu on Friday. He slept all day Friday and Saturday. I had a city tour on Saturday from 1:30pm-5:30pm which included a stop at Miller Brewing for a tour. The group I toured were in town for a board meeting and looking at the city for hosting their 2010 convention. It's been a while since I did the brewery tour so it was nice to get myself reacquainted with it again. I met the group at the Hotel Intercontinental which used to be the Wyndham Milwaukee City Center. Since the Marcus Corporation bought the hotel, the changes have been fantastic. The lobby is now a nice place to sit and enjoy a cocktail or coffee and some conversation. It used to be such a boring ill-used lobby. Also, to note - the Christmas tree in the Milwaukee Center lobby area is awesome! One of the best dressed real trees I've seen in a long time. Very pretty!!

Sunday, we enjoyed another Packer win. We took the Raiders down!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Holiday Shindig

Last night we went to Visit Milwaukee's Holiday Mixer at the Mitchell Park Horticultural Domes. I was happy to see that they have hired someone who is going to bring the Domes back to a high quality attraction as well as a great place for special events. I felt that Milwaukee County really did a disservice to the Domes a couple of years ago with their budget cuts in the Parks Dept. - i.e. the fountains had not been fixed, the floor wasn't properly cleaned and waxed, etc. It seemed like they were only doing enough to keep the doors open. It sounds like with a bit of work and good leadership that we'll have something to be proud of again very soon. It is such a unique attraction. There are three domes each with a different climate - Arid, Tropical and Seasonal. I just booked a tour which will be going to the Domes in July yesterday. And my cab driver from Nigeria who dropped me off last night said he'd like to go there with some friends and a camera. Nice fella.

After the Domes, we went with some friends to Fourth Base. I love this place. It is one of the first places I checked out when I moved to Milwaukee. (My firsts: Water Street Brewery, Saz's and Fourth Base) Fourth Base is a great sports bar with fantastic food. They don't have a menu, basically the menu changes daily. You just look in the glass case to find out what's fresh and what you might want to order - shrimp, scallops, lobster, steak....yum! The bar became locally famous in the movie, Major League. The memorabilia throughout the bar is really interesting - lots of old football helmets, great old photos, newspapers, uniforms, etc. We found out that some people from Chicago tried to steal the big pig that used to be in the front window. Somehow they got it out on a crowded Brewer game day, however it broke. They haven't been able to find someone to fix it yet. Our waitress was very nice - she told us the story of the "hog heist" - still can't figure out how they got it out the door without anyone noticing. Good times.