Have I Mentioned My Wife Is Wonderful?

It's coming up on my birthday. 


Which birthday? 


In the world of Logan's Run, I've unfortunately been dead for a bit. (Oh, but Jenny Agutter. Ooof.)


Our lives have been insanely busy and complicated since before the engagement, before the wedding, actually since we've known each other, and we, well, I, have a tendency to miss the forests due to a desire to burn down every individual tree, in a craftsman-like manner. My sweetheart got it into her head to fix that for a bit, get away, remember that really, its all about us and fuck the details. God I love this woman!


She, being possessed of a second X chromosome, is a fair bargain hunter, and we belong to Groupon, Angie's List, Hot Deals On Untraced Items (not sure about that one), and my newest, favouritest website, Living Social, where she found a deal on a get-away-from-everything weekend that was simply brilliant.


Getting away from it all for 36 hours was all she was really after, so she picked Fennimore, WI, a 5 hour drive for us, over an hour from any serious metro area, down in the hollers and coulees of unglaciated SW Wisconsin, with only a few simple little things to do in the area, just looking for peace. Good lord did we find it!

The Fenway House Hotel/Silent Woman Saloon is a turn-of-the-20th-century Hotel, recently re-opened and improved, and while she still has stuff to do, it is absolutely wonderful, rooms with corner jacuzzis, cali king size beds (you may ask "What do newlyweds need with a three acre bed?" Well, a lot of accessories, generator, block and tackle...) The Silent Woman Saloon bar and restaurant is on the first floor and under. The artwork is a headless serving woman, and given the fact that I'm a weirdo and okay with it, I asked if the artwork referred to any possible haunting activity. They replied that, except for maybe a touch of ethereal goodness in one room, it is not, the name was taken from a pub in London, and they are not advertising themselves as a haunted getaway. Phooie.


The service was perfect, the food incredible - Honey had maybe the best prime rib I've ever tasted, I had a piece of pan-seared walleye that was (almost) better than pick-yer-own-vice. Sweetie is gluten-intolerant, and so we, as we must, asked the waitress about grains content in the food and settled on our choices. The waitress then returned - on her own initiative, she had inquired further in the kitchen, specifically, the sauce for the shrimp scampi, and felt it might present an issue, and so informed us. We were quite grateful, and even more surprised when the chef, on his own initiative, made a batch of scampi without sauce, so just garlic and butter. Lovely people!


The bartender, Nate, a fine, stout fellow, introduced my Darling to the products of the Whispering Winds Winery, just outside Fennimore, (and the next day, Babe introduced my credit card to the winery - a lot of good wines, grape and fruit, and one called Purple Stuff, which I suspect is a bottled hangover [if enough were to be inebriated], but love the name.) I was able to watch a bit of real baseball, Brewers-Astros, with the BrewCrew slapping around the damnable texans 7-1. A couple of older farm wives came in late, for their Friday night rum and cokes, in their best cougar dresses, with the best quote of the night: "We may be a bunch of old ladies, but we've been around...a long time!"


The next day, we tooled around the area a little bit. The Whispering Winds Winery, did a wine tasting and enthusiastic bout of purchasing. Rural Route 1 gift shop and gourmet popcorn shop, lots of neat little kitschy stuff, including my Packers and Badgers, a cool variety of flavored popcorns (and yummy). She got an ice cream at the local cafe, half peanut-butter/chocolate, half mint chocolate chip, I even took a little bite. We spent the evening in the hot tub, me with gin and Diet Dew, her with her newly purchased wine cellar, watching 'The Fifth Element', relaxing in the AC and snugglebunnies.


On the way home Sunday morning, we went to my hometown and had a breakfast dinner with my parents, and my brother and his family, had not seen my parents since Christmas so it was fantastic. My youngest nephew, 4 y.o., got restless as little rugrats will, and eventually began begging anyone for money for a video game, and my mother, his Oma, leapt to his rescue and gave him a dollar. He came back in 5 minutes with a piece of paper, a receipt, and said he'd lost. He gave the receipt to me when I asked for it, and it said won 100 cr. Now confused, I got up and asked him to take me to the game. It was in the restaurant bar and was video slots! Near as I can tell, he put in the dollar, played a game, and won the dollar back, and being 4, and now well on his way to a criminal future, did not know what it meant. The host graciously refunded the dollar without arresting me, so all was well.


Just a neat little weekend. To my Sweetheart (who reads my little bits of doggerel), 


Thank you so much, Babe, and I love you!!!