random stuff

[sylversmoke]

Today was mine and Jimi's second anniversay, so we took the day off and ran away together.  Well ok we putzed around the house all morning but why not be leisurely getting around, it's not like we had a set time we needed to be anywhere.  Then we went shopping and he bought me a new digital camera since my old one died a few months back.  I gave him a Spyro game for his PS2, which he is currently playing, and a cavalier hat which he does love.  Oh yes, and I have a card I still need to finish writing in and give that to him... must do that before bed.  Well we tend to be rather casual about the actual giving things to each other but we are just as much in love as ever and that's the important thing.  After finally leaving Madison, we went up to Mirror Lake State Park.  We are both sad they did not have rowboats for renting - the canoe which we did rent was nice but not really good for snuggling.  No we did not attempt it.  Jimi fished and I did some crocheting.  At one point a great blue heron flew in and was walking along the shoreline.  We got amazingly close, within a couple dozen yards.  Of course we did, because in typical me fashion, I left the camera in the car.  But admit it, you would have been nervous too about taking your brand new camera out in a canoe.  Jimi did get one bite right at the end, which he is calling a catch and nonconventional release.  He had it within a couple feet of the boat and started pulling it out of the water when it slipped the hook.  However we got a good enough look at the head to identify it as a pike, complete with a good set of teeth.  And since he had no gloves or pliers or anything but his bare hands to use in trying to take the hook out, it's probably just as well the thing freed itself and saved him the hassle.  We didn't really want it in the boat anyway, all things considered.  He's decided he got the perfect amount of enjoyment out of that bite.  The other thing we did while at the park was decide to take our honeymoon there, or at least mostly decide.  We've been trying to make that decision for quite some time now.  They have a cabin there which is available for rentals and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  From the brochure, it looks way pretty.  We will be camping but not really camping and in a state park, so it'll be quiet and nature-ful and private, but comfortable.  Sounds perfect for us.  I don't know when we'll be able to go, we're hoping late September or early October, since our September rent will be free and I will also be getting my bonus check that month, and I have to use my PTO time before the middle of October.  But that is also the time we will be moving, so I don' t know.  After leaving the park, we went into Lake Delton to the Moose Jaw Brew Pub for dinner.  Great food, and lots of it - I have lunch tomorrow left over and Jimi has probably lunch and dinner both.  Despite this, I am not sure I would want to go there again.  The two person table they sat us at quite effectively prevented snuggling (all in all I think my only complaint for today is lack of sufficient snuggling and I intend to do something about before bed).  It also had braces from the legs up to the middle of the table end, which meant I couldn't pull my chair all the way in, and that was also kind of irritating.  The decor was hunting lodge motif and it was all out - everything in pine woodwork, actual branches just cut down to size, sticks or branches trimmed down, then sealed.  So a very natural look, except for whatever they used to seal/protect/polish it all.  All the lighting was chandeliers made from deer and moose antlers.  And stuffed animals mounted on all the walls.  From my seat, I had a great view of a branch with two stuffed lynx perched on it.  There was also pheasants, bears and raccoons - and what appeared to be a bear wearing a coonskin cap which I didn't understand at all.  And of course the obligatory deer.  It's not that I normally have a hard time with that sort of thing, more that there was just so much of it.  I felt very surrounded by dead things that were supposed to look alive, and that's including all the woodwork too, so very surrounded, and it was a little unsettling.  A stark contrast, I guess, to be in an environment attempting to recreate life and nature after spending 2 hours in a canoe out in the real thing.

Ok that rambled longer than I meant it to, sorry for lack of paragraph breaks but I really don't feel like going back and putting them in now.  I meant to be off the computer an hour ago so I could do some cleaning and go to bed early, I'm not sure either of those are going to happen now even though both are much needed.  Ah well.  It was still a good day.