Sunday, July 31, 2011

Summer's goin by fast...

Well, July is pretty much over now but the blogging bug has bit me again so let's see what's been going on in my world.

Rachel's parents came down this weekend to spend some time with us. We managed to celebrate Dave's birthday by going to Natt Spil, an eclectic fusion restaurant just off the Square that has what is, in my humble opinion, the best damn pork sandwich EVER. On crispy home made french bread, with spicy mayo and plenty of cilantro and jalapenos. Mmm-mmm good.

We managed to get quite a bit of theater in this weekend as well. On Friday after attending a bbq at Joseph and Leah's we headed out to go see You've Ruined A Perfectly Good Mystery, a play written and performed by Madisonians that is headed off to the New York Fringe. The play was about a Sherlock Holmes rip off set in a completely irreverent choose-your-own-adventure and narrated by someone with a hilarious love of overworked simile and heavy handed puns, much to our main characters' dismay. Probably the best part about this play was the scenery, which was carried and acted out by the rotating portion of the cast. Particularly awesome whenever there was travel involved. Plus, at the end, dirigible battle!

Next up was Captain America. I liked it, maybe not as much as I liked Thor (THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!) but it was a fine addition to the Marvel line up. Hugo Weaving had an amazing clipped German accent as the Red Skull and, as Rachel put it, "Everyone hates Nazis, and when you have people that even the Nazis hate then you just don't care how many get blown up!" Hat tip to Marvel for including Nick Fury's Howling Commandos as part of the storyline and making Bucky into a badass. Also, the Avengers trailer at the end? YES.

Finally we traveled an hour out of town to Spring Green, WI to watch a play at the American Players Theatre. This place was very cool as it's an outdoor theater, and we have been blessed all weekend with absolutely perfect weather. Unfortunately we were a bit confused as to exactly how seating was going to work and brought a picnic dinner, only to find that there were actual theater seats and outside food wasn't allowed in the theater. Nonetheless we quietly broke out our peanut butter and raspberry & hot pepper jelly sandwiches and served ourselves slices of gourmet sheep and goat cheese on crackers while the play was going on.

The play that we saw was Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, a comedy about a man who accidentally brings the spirit of his first wife back from the grave with terrible results. It was very witty and the actors performed quite admirably and, for being an outdoor production, the special effects were good. I do have to say that it did drag on a bit especially towards the beginning, but overall it was a great way to finish out the evening. Plus I think I saw more bats during the play than I have at any other point, which is awesome.

And that's mostly what's been going on. Deb, as I know you're reading this, if you could send me some of the pics from the weekend I'd love to post them up.

Thanks for reading!