We’ve been under a Flood Warning for, no exaggeration, two months nonstop. As the river levels have slowly dropped, it finally expired this morning…and this afternoon, they’re forecasting the possibility of thunderstorms with heavy rain.
Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
(Nope, just like the song, not ironic at all. More of a bummer if the river starts rising again.)
It’s been a pretty good weekend. And a pretty long weekend. The credit union Tara works for gives employees a paid day off on their birthday, and since hers was Saturday, she got Friday off. She talked me into taking a personal day myself, which didn’t exactly require a lot of arm twisting. Three-day weekends rarely do, and this was my first day off since starting at CheeseGov, so it felt overdue. Can you believe I’m approaching four months there already?
Anywho. We tossed around all kinds of ideas for something fun to do on Friday. Kayaking, hanging out in Madison, and swimming naked in a kiddie pool full of Jell-O were all on the table, but we decided instead to do a bit of exploring (only because we were out of lime Jell-O; I’ve found the grape just doesn’t cut it).
After driving to Delavan and browsing a couple of vintage stores, we stopped by The Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago – home of the paper bag pie. Since I just baked, and froze, a peach pie, we didn’t buy one. But we did pick up some food items and had an impromptu picnic with cheese curds, crackers, thinly sliced roast beef, and macaroni salad out front.
Our next stop was Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corners, a suburb of Milwaukee. Tara has a membership to Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, which includes reciprocal free admission to a number of other gardens, like Boerner. This saved us $18, but honestly, it would have been worth the price of admission. I may not obsess over gardening like my wife, but I still appreciated the beauty contained within these 40 acres.
Our final destination was Buckatabon Tavern and Supper Club in Wauwatosa. (Rhymes with “chuck a robin,” by the way, which I’d have never guessed.) We’d stopped there for brunch in December and vowed to come back for an actual supper instead. Tara’s birthday gave us the perfect excuse.
Buckatabon was conveniently located less than 20 minutes from the botanical gardens. We’d made a reservation for 6:15, but got there an hour early, thinking we might wander around downtown ‘Tosa, as the locals call it, but it was kinda hot and we’d been on the go for seven hours already, so we asked if they could seat us early, like a couple of old fogies. They were more than happy to oblige.
Guys, everything was fantastic. We started with an appetizer of burrata cheese, charred pepper-peach salsa, arugula, Coca-Cola gastrique, and garlic parmesan toast points. Geez Louise, that was mighty tasty!
The rest of the meal wasn’t bad, either. I’d normally do a Friday fish fry, but the allure of prime rib proved impossible to resist. This was the smallest of three sizes. I can’t imagine ordering a King cut (16 oz.) or a Buck cut (24 oz.)!
Tara got a wild mushroom stroganoff (not pictured, but equally delicious). We were much too full for dessert, but all in all, it was a great way to celebrate her birthday.
We did more celebrating of her birthday Saturday evening by bar-hopping around our quaint little town. We stopped at five different places, all within a four-block radius (gotta love Wisconsin!). This sounds like a lot, but it was over the course of many hours.
Alas, there is no celebrating today, unless you consider pulling weeds a fun way to pay tribute to a birthday girl. I personally do not, but I suppose the weekend has had enough fun activities to warrant a few chores.
Mark My Words 
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