Happy (Moving) Birthday to Dave!

Dave's birthday was June 20th, and we moved to Wisconsin on June 25th. So how do you celebrate someone's birthday when your life and house are in disarray and you're moving within the week? Take photos with moving boxes in the background, and go to Strong Museum! Normally Dave wouldn't request a trip to the children's museum for his birthday, but preferences change quickly when the museum is running an exhibit called Videotopia that allows visitors to play 100 different arcade video games. Dave was happy that he left the high score on a few different machines, and Natalie was happy that there was a monster-sized foot stool that enabled her to play too!

Oh, and we sold our red car (possibly the last vestige of my young, free and single days--sniff!) late in the evening on Dave's birthday. Quite a birthday present! We had to sell it before we left town, and clinching the sale made us feel like we could really complete the move. Phew!

An acquired taste?

A week or two before leaving Rochester, I saw this bumper sticker and it cracked me up. We definitely acquired a taste for Rochester during the nearly 5 years we lived there--we especially miss the terrific friends we made.

I certainly never expected to acquire a taste for one thing--Rochester's famous dish, the garbage plate. For the uninitiated, this involves 2 hamburgers (or hot dogs) covered with home fries and macaroni salad and smothered in hot sauce & onions. We heard garbage plate lore from our first days in Rochester, and we decided we couldn't leave town without sampling one for ourselves. Just before moving, we ate lunch at the home of the original garbage plate, Nick Tahou's. What a surprise to discover that we actually enjoyed them! It was like our own Green Eggs & Ham moment. Too bad we waited until our last week in town to try them out!

Here is the evidence of our bravery:



Rochesterians, please eat a garbage plate and think of us!

Taking a bite out of Wisconsin

Here we are, safe and sound in our new home! I will post pics from our road trip soon, if I can find some where I don't look like an overheated, exhausted pregnant lady! (We had a lot of fun, I promise.)

In the meantime, here's a photo of Natalie's desperate attempt to eat on move-in day. I was very late preparing lunch, and when I left the cheese unattended to grab the bread, Natalie siezed the moment. I turned back and the block of cheese had one large bite out of each end ;) It made me burst out laughing.



I'm sorry to say this was not fine Wisconsin cheddar; it was the nearest grocery store's cheapest option. Obviously it didn't faze Natalie.