Vacation Day 1

Finally nice weather so I jumped on the bike for a ride. Wind out of the south so I decided to head into it hoping for a tailwind on the second half of the ride. New Glarus seemed like a good destination and in a about an hour and a quarter I was ordering coffee at Fat Cat Coffee Works. Fat Cat is nice place with good selection of food ranging from bakery items to soup and sandwiches. Next time I'm trying the oatmeal with toppings since they offer breakfast all day.

The ride home was I bit faster with the tailwind but I got sidetracked into some extra hills while avoiding my standard route home along County highway. Overall a great ride, I'm ignoring my slow average speed for now, more miles to come later this week I hope.

Still Here

It's been a while since I posted anything but winter hasn't been much fun. A few rides in the snow but now it is so cold I only run when I can't take riding my rollers in the basement. Streaming movies from Amazon almost makes being inside tolerable. We'll be back once it warms up enough I can drag everyone outside.

First Snow

Despite my wishing for a snow free winter I got outside this afternoon. Almost two hours on my old mountain bike churning through up to 4 inches of snow from home West to Blue Mounds State Park along the trail trail. A quick stop at the bike camp and I headed home, into the wind driven snow.

Once home and ready to warm up Zack wanted to build a snowman. We had to drag Kevin out to get the middle ball in place. Even with his help we ended up needing a ramp to slide it into place. Zack is happy with the result and I'll sleep like a rock later.

Sunday Brunch

We headed out Sunday for a late breakfast, aka brunch. Chad suggested Marigold Kitchen in downtown Madison. We arrived at a great time, ordering and seated before a long line formed. The food was great.

After eating we hiked around downtown, touring the Capitol and heading down State Street. The Capitol Christmas tree is up, but undecorated. Guess we'll have to go back again to check out the finished product.

Kid's bike

I've stolen, temporarily at least, the 29er Kevin got this summer. He hasn't ridden since August and I was curious so on went my pedals. So far I've ridden it three times, all from home via the rail trail. I'm not sure I like it in the tight trails at Blue Mounds but it makes the ride there and back much faster.

Way Behind

We didn't disappear and will get some new posts up soon.

Just a few pics for now.

Cupcake Party

A cupcake party has been long in the works. I've had recipes to try and recipes to redo. Tonight we had the party with family and the cupcakes were a hit.  We had mini cupcakes for appetizers and big cupcakes for dessert. There was an actual meal in between too.

The cakes were made yesterday and frosted today. I'm no grand baker; the cupcakes are from a box cake mix which I split the batter in half and add mix ins to. That way I get a dozen of each flavor. One must for me is homemade frosting. You can really tell the difference.

In the line up tonight were:

Lemon Burst with Blueberry Buttercream- white cake flavored with lemon. These have lemon curd filling, and a buttercream frosting with pureed blueberries and lemon juice mixed in. The frosting turned out a little thin. I think last time I made it with cream cheese in the frosting.

Peanut Butter with Chocolate Frosting- Yellow cake with peanut butter in the mix. These always bake up nice and puffy. The frosting is chocolate with peanut butter mixed in. This time I used dark chocolate peanut butter that I had in the cabinet.

Coconut Lime- Everything in this cupcake had coconut, lime juice and lime zest in it. The frosting was a cream cheese frosting and there was coconut and lime zest sprinkled on top. I think these turned out pretty with the star frosting tip.

Gooey Pumpkin Caramel- Yellow cake with pumpkin and spice mixed in. The cake was filled with caramel then topped with a spiced cream cheese frosting. More caramel and chocolate on top. Next time I will heat the fudge topping so it looks more like a drizzle.

The cupcakes were much enjoyed but there are dangerous amounts leftover. I need to go for a run tomorrow to counteract the sugar rushing through my blood.