Picnic 2009 is "in the can", so to speak. And what a great Picnic it was. For those of you who made it...you know how good it was. For those of you who didn't make it...you missed a great one.
As always, my highly-skilled team of chefs (Mark, Bill and Roland) performed admirably under tough conditions. And, this year, my friend, Brian Ribando, really came through as well. My good friend, Maureen, was there at every turn. And, Angi and her friend, Sue, busted their butts on Saturday as well as Sunday to leave me with a clean house by Sunday afternoon.
Monday and Tuesday were just crazy as I worked to get everything ready to leave on my trip out West on Wednesday. I packed Tuesday night, and it was soon clear that I did not learn as much as I thought from my trip last year. This year, I'm only going for 50 days, and it seems like I'm taking twice as much as last year. I have to "shoehorn in" the last few items, and the Escape is as packed as it can possibly b.
Wednesday morning, I head out at 8:00AM bound for Eau Claire, Wisconsin to spend a day or two with my good friends, Dick and Diane. Weather is good...traffic light as I head across Michigan, into Chicago, north through Illinois, then northwest through Wisconsin. I get to Dick and Diane's around 4:30PM, and they have a cold bottle of Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss beer waiting for me...something to wash away 600 miles of road dust.
They have been invite to a dinner party, and I am invited as well. We head out around 6:00PM and drive twelve miles or so to a neighboring community and the home of our hosts, Tiit and Ann Raid. Tiit is a retired artist who taught at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His wife has prepared a fabulous dinner of grilled leg of lamb, cous cous, grilled squash, and plenty of other great dishes. We're joined by Mike Christopherson (another retired artist from UWEC)and his wife, Deb...and John and Betty Qualheim (Graphic Designer). In addition to the great food, we're putting away a lot of great wine as well. Conversation is easy and fun...lots of great old stories of car thefts and other of life's mishaps. At the end of dinner, Tiit invites me up to his Studio to take a look at some of his artwork...it is absolutely remarkable. There's a series of small paintings of different holes from a local golf course...stunning in their intricacy and detail. Another series are variations on different reflections from a lake next door...again, stunning. I did not see a single work that I would not be excited indeed, thrilled, to have in my home. After dinner, it's back home for bed...big day tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment