Mark My Words

Last week marked our fourth anniversary in Wisconsin. Sunday, we went to the Taste of Madison for the third time.

It’s good to have traditions.

And when those traditions include tasty food from more than 90 vendors and restaurants, all the better! Not that we would ever be able to hit even a small fraction of that number. Which is why you’ve gotta go in with a game plan. Ours is walking the entire perimeter of Capitol Square before committing to a single bite. You’ve gotta scope things out, take mental notes. And then circle back. Which is exactly what we did, after setting up a picnic blanket beneath a shady tree. The humidity wasn’t quite as intense as it has been, but it was still pretty hot.

In addition to the delicious food–a global cornucopia that included Filipino pork adobo and lumpia, a Mexican tamale, Himalayan dumplings, a Vietnamese Banh Mi taco, and…well, a pretzel native to Wisconsin…we also picked up a couple of protest pins from The Roving Anti-Trump Band-Wagon. Mine: Imagine there’s no MAGA. It’s easy if you vote. Hers: Another nasty woman against Trump.

Thank god Madison is so liberal.

My favorite bite was the Mini Coxinha, a popular Brazilian street food. It’s essentially a chicken croquette that I thought resembled a strawberry.

Pretty cool photo, right? You have no idea how many failed attempts there were! Here are the rejects. For those of you who grew up in the DVD era, think of these as deleted scenes:

Photography is hard, man.

Tara and I tried multiple poses, but either the foreground or background were blurry, or the capital looked like it was sliding sideways (very bad news if you’re a Flat Earther!), or our hands looked weird. Finally, I hit on the idea of using a fork, but even that took several attempts to get the focus just right.

The things I do for this blog! I suffer for my art, guys.

I told Tara we need to start doing this every year…posing with a different food in front of the capital. It can be a new tradition on top of our older tradition.

Next year, we might mix things up and go on Saturday evening instead, to avoid the midday heat. And I want to bring chairs, because my ass does not enjoy sitting on the ground for extended periods of time. Sadly, my limit is about two minutes.

Despite the heat and crowds, we had a great time, as always! Most of the plates cost $7 or less, so you can go without breaking the bank.

Afterward, we stopped by Trader Joe’s, and the cashier was so happy to see our anti-Trump pins, she gave us free chocolate.

I love you too, Madison.

Labor Day itself was much more relaxing. For Tara, anyway; I spent about 2.5 hours cutting the grass, and then putting up harvest decorations. But I’m kicking back on the deck now, enjoying red wine and indie music, and we’re planning on firing up the grill for steaks and shrimp in a little while. Speaking of those steaks, we have always bought ribeyes. I consider them the Cadillac of beef…but they have gotten so expensive lately, we’ve switched to New York strips. It’s a no-brainer: the ribeyes cost about $25 each, but the same size NY strip is literally half the price…$12.50 or so. And almost as good as a ribeye. It certainly doesn’t feel like we’re “slumming”!

This is the first of three consecutive four-day work weeks for me. We’re headed to Door County next weekend to celebrate our anniversary and I took Monday off, and the following week, my parents are coming up for a visit, so I cashed in some PTO on Friday.

Oh, and Tara got a new job! Hate to end on a cliffhanger, but I’ve gotta fire up the grill soon.