A post before departing.

As I rapidly approach my next big trip (less that 2 weeks!  Ahhh!) I remember I promised you all one more post before I left just to hold you over until my return.  Well, I am a girl of my word, so read on, my friends, read on!

Although the weather wasn't nearly as nice since my birthday post, I did manage to get in a good day of hiking before it got too cold!  And wouldn't ya know, this day of hiking was planned a week in advance, yet on the morning of, I decided to wear Satan's socks which led me to slide in the most ungraceful manner across my wood floors jamming my foot under a door causing significant skin removal and blood loss.... But nothing to keep a good girl down and I still hobbled along!!!  I've found that perfect and beautiful days can be few and far between here in WI, so I'm not about to let a foot injury stop me (no worries, I did not photograph my injury this time, only because I was too busy lying sadly in the fetal position)

The entrance to Le Hike

I did purple aka Rainy Dew (I think 5 miles...a shorty, but good enough for a bum foot)

        My sexy pose- obviously

I also did what I believe is my final Milwaukee beer tour.  It was the tour at Best Place.  A brewery once upon a time, now more of a historic museum.  But, still got beer!

Schmoozing with the Beer King

Meg came to visit me end of April and we had a blast tooling around Milwaukee!  We did the staples I like to show everyone new to my city (who says being tacky isn't fun!) and hit up the Miller/Coors tour, the Bronze Fonz, the SafeHouse, and Miller Stadium for a Brewer's game!  Meg let me drag her all around Milwaukee and did it with a smile on her face especially considering she just had LASIK the day before driving to see me!  Crazy girl (or should I say lucky girl, since she won it for free! Congrats!!!) I resurrected my kick-as goggles so we could even be matchy matchy!

Double the sexy!!!!

Miller tour (beer tastes better free)

Out on the town playing giant Jenga

I was blissfully unaware that Meg was cheating a lot of the game!  I just thought she was really good!

We caught up with my work friend, Annie, at the Brewers game! This was Meg's first ever professional sporting event

Monday's are free Public Museum days for Milwaukee residents; and dontcha know I happen to have Monday's off!  So off to the museum I went!  It was your typical museum (buncha old shit and dead animals) but I must say I was tickled in the discovery of the secret snake button!  There's a hidden button in the museum that makes a snake rattle - and I was simply enamoured with the idea, and with the fact that I now know where it is! I'll add this to my list of Milwaukee things I am now 'in the know' about (along with the SafeHouse password).  I'm so (un)cool, it kills me!

Me in Old Town Milwaukee- The door jams were so tiny!!! Or I'd be an amazon in the late 1800s...

Hanging out with the Irish Folk Storyteller

Dino attack!!!

Bugs bugs bugs!

I turned into a BEEEUUUTIFUL butterfly

Rock candy biotches

Secret snake button!

Chillin' with the pygmy and the giant

My favorite part of the museum! Jim sat down cause his pants were itching and bothering him

Low and behold- the culprit was last nights undies that never made it out! BWAHAHAHA!!!

Hiding the shame. 

In other day-to-day tooling around Milwaukee life, I've been going out to dinner with girlfriends, going out on the town at night, and overall, just having a splendid time!  I want to thank all my awesome friends here - because of you guys, I am really enjoying the brew city and can see myself here a while (which if you know me, is a HUGE accomplishment: HUGE)

I'm hitting up a bridal shower on May 5 (Congrats Brenna!!!) then spending the next few days getting my ducks in a row before I leave (and trying to survive work- it always gets so monotonous right before a vacation and my 10 hour days feel like 15!).  I can't wait to tell you all about my trip when I return!

Oh, and I can't end this without saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mama! Love you!

Birthdays & Other Shenanigans

Phew! Sorry for such a long delay again between posts. I've felt as if there had been such things of little significance happening (at least things that didn't warrant their own mini post) that by now, I've accumulated so many pictures - so here's a sample platter of my life the last month!

1) Valentine's Day: Remember that? It's a day in February where everyone feels all lovey dovey and buys flowers and candy. I had a loverly (that r in there is intentional) V-day dinner with some girlfriends that included a UBER fancy love/heart themed white elephant exchange. I scored some pink silly string. Nothing says love like an aerosol foamy plasticy substance :D The dinner was great, but the sale candy starting Feb 15 was probably my favorite! I bought a heart shaped box with a glitter Darth Maul on it.

Group photo!

Tell me this isn't a gem of a find! And 75% off to boot!

2) Michigan: Guess where I went? If you guessed Michigan, congratulations on your deductive reasoning skills. Early March I traveled across a time zone into everyone's favorite mitten shaped state (Despite what many Wisconsinites say, I do NOT believe that WI is also shaped like a mitten. If it is, I feel sorry for the janky ass hand that fits into that sucker.)

Seriously - NO competition! My cat could knit a better looking mitten than the state of WI, and he doesn't even have thumbs.

Unfortunately , I did not call ahead to let the weather know it was supposed to be nice and it was a shit storm (ok - not actual poo, but icy sludgy rain/snow). My visit there was pretty standard- breakfast with one person, lunch with another, dinner with another - but I must share with you.....I shot a gun for the first time!!! Woooooot! It was fun! Thanks to Nick for taking me and showing me how! Yeah, I am pretty badass, thanks for noticing.

CSI: Hudsonville edition!

If you enlarge this photo - you'll see my bullet hole in the blue X region! DAMN STRAIGHT I'm good. Given 50 bullets, and ample time to aim, I have a 1/50 shot of taking you down! I'm a force to be reckoned with!

3) Pre and actual St. Patty's Day: Unless you've been hibernating still, you should have noticed that everyone's favorite excuse to drink fell on a SATURDAY this year! And to boot, it was a Saturday that I was not on call! So partake I did in Milwaukee's festivities. Friday there were a few pre-drinking events such as the shortest and smallest St. Patrick's Day parade - approx. 280 steps! It was fun mostly because it was funny. There were Irish dancers, $1 beers, and a Blarney stone to smooch!

The sign leading the parade

Pucker Up! You're all thinking "Lucky Rock! I wish Hannah would kiss me too!"

I was tickled that the fountain was dyed green!

Dance!!!! So many curls. Eat your heart out little orphan Annie.

At night, Jim and I headed to the Milwaukee Art Museum to go to their "After Dark" special. You could tour the special exhibit ("Accidental Genius" - which after viewing, I decided that the 'accidental' part is right and 'genius' is apparently a very loose term), make cheesy St. Patty's day crafts, listen to a band, and nosh on hor D'ouerves. We even dressed up all fancy and such (even though it was unnecessary - it was still fun. And I looked very cute in a Mad Men kind of way)

Swanky swanky!

The 'sails' of the art museum

Actual St Patty's day was my first ever spent downtown! Some of the awesome girls at work invited me out. It was CROWDED, but a ton of fun. I went out at 12 and didn't leave until 9pm! Don't worry, I wasn't drinking that entire time. I didn't want to be hungover on my birthday the next day. The weather was gorgeous though so there was a lot of patio-sitting and general just hanging out!

Being silly!

Group shot - token ginger in a sea of beautiful brunettes

Bringing sexy back - and my green beads ended up turning my neck green which added to the sexy.

The sunny, but crowded, patio. Green beer makes it more tolerable.

4) 25th Annual Birthday Celebration of one Miss Hannah Rose Hartsig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks right folks! #25! I am now officially closer to 30 than 20 (eeeeew) and it happened to be the NICEST Midwest weather ever. Normally my birthday is cold with ugly dirty icy snow lumps scattering the landscape, but not today. High of 75 and blue skies. I woke up and got breakfast in bed (birthday bacon, suckers!!!!!) and if you notice in the pictures below, I got a special twisty straw birthday cup as well. After breakie, to the lake shore we went so I could pick out my b-day present at the kite store :P I picked a cat kite cause, let's face it, I'm one year closer to spinster/crazy cat lady. It was a phenomenal kite flying day until the wind abruptly stopped and it all went to hell. At least it didn't get stuck in a tree.... Since there was nada for wind, we went on a paddle boat ride, had a picnic in the park, and then went to climb a lighthouse. The view from the top was so beautiful, but it took a while to get up there because a bat shit crazy lighthouse volunteer adopted us and attempted to give us a tour. Unfortunately, her thoughts were a bit disjointed and when she wasn't repeating herself every 5 minutes, she was going off on completely unrelated tangents about Milwaukee. I'd love to say it was informative, but it wasn't. What it was, though, was hilarious. I know laughing at other people's expense isn't nice, but I figure society owes me one for all the times I allow it to laugh at me (which is, please hide your shock, frequent). The evening concluded with a walk though a sculpture park (since it was a nice day and we were getting really good at laughing at, er, I mean appreciating, art) and homemade manicotti! Overall, an incredibly wonderful and successful birthday celebration. Oh and I totally kicked off year 25 living on the edge - a full day in the sun with no sunscreen. Fellow gingers know, I'm a total risk-taker.

Don't judge, I know you don't look like you look like a supermodel in the morning, either.

My cute airplane necklace from my mama.

More travel themed gifts: a toiletry bag from my siblings!

Hold on tight!

Samson the cat kite.

Nothing is a kite flying buzzkill quite like a giant string knot :/

Look which March baby is on the beach for her b-day! Whodathunkit!

Pedallin' away!

Feel the burn!

Hitting the spiral stairs up the lighthouse

The view from the top!

Me trying to make an ugly statue a bit prettier

Contemplating art....or lack thereof

Art in motion.

My next update will probably be right before my Europe trip - so check back the end of April :) Life is short (I would know, I'm already 25!) so make sure you keep laughing (even if it's at me!) See you soon.