I’ve been meaning to write a new blog post for awhile, but I’ve been spending all of my writing time working on the book I am writing. I don’t think I have mentioned the book I am currently working on yet, but it is a personal story for me that I am fictionalizing to make it easier for me to write.

Now, I will write a bit about what I’ve done for the month of July since the kayaking excursion with my parents.

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July at my parents’ house in Iola. My sister and her family came, as well as my grandparents, Aunt Carrie and Uncle John. It was a hot day, so we spent most of it in the pool. I took having a pool for granted growing up, though taking care of a pool is too much of a pain in the ass for me to consider having one ourselves.

Grandparents

On July 16th, my mom and I went to my grandparents’ house just outside of Waupaca. They have listed their house to sell after living there for over 50 years. They are getting older and it is too hard for my grandpa to take care of the house and all of their land on his own.

I wanted to go and be there at least one more time before it is sold. The house was a huge part of my childhood since my grandma was usually our babysitter growing up. We also spent most of our holidays at their house until they started going to Arizona for the winters.

The following pictures are of the outside of the house, their long driveway where I learned to skip, and some of the wooded land right off the driveway where the golf cart trail my grandpa created used to be.

I walked around the fully carpeted (yikes) house and tried to take in as much as I could. I looked at the pictures on the walls more closely than I usually do because most of them will probably be sold or given away. It's weird to think about the house not being my grandparents’ house and someone else living in it. It will be sad to see them move out, even though we all know it needs to be done.

I can’t imagine how hard it will be to sell my parents’ house someday. I lived in their house in Iola for 18 years. We moved into it when I was 6 months old. I have no memory of living anywhere else until I went off to college.

Restaurant Week

July 16-22nd is Restaurant Week in Green Bay. We typically don’t take advantage of it, but I made Jeff go to a couple of places with me. It was easy to make him because both his birthday and our 12 year anniversary (of being together, not married) happened during Restaurant Week, so we made them special occasions.

First, for Jeff’s birthday on the 17th, we tried out The Turn at Titletown. It’s a newer restaurant and Top Golf place in the Titletown District by Lambeau Field.

The food was great and the place looks really nice. Unfortunately, the service was shit for us.

I made a reservation online about an hour ahead of time since I wasn’t sure how busy the place typically is, especially with it being lunch time during Restaurant Week. I didn’t need to bother with a reservation, there were plenty of open tables.

A few of the Top Golf Swing Suites had groups in them and there was one other table near us that was waited on. Once we were seated, we waited quite awhile, at least 10 minutes, to have anyone come and serve us.

The first guy to come to our table came up talking to us as if we had already been in conversation with him. I hate it when people do that. He asked us if we had the jeep outside because he has a jeep and there was one parked right next to his that everyone was apparently asking him about. It was odd and unnecessary.

As if only an afterthought, he asked if anyone had come to our table yet. We said no so he took a quick drink order. We both got water, so pretty simple. When he returned with the waters he asked if we were ready to order but didn’t take out a notepad. We told him our order, but he was essentially walking away from our table as we ordered. I had wanted to get a lemonade with the order, but he was already running back to the kitchen.

Mind you, I don’t think he was actually our server. We are not sure who was. Once we started getting our food, which was really good, multiple different people brought out the different courses. Jeff had to ask for utensils to eat his Caesar Salad and we had to request more water and napkins. We never had napkins to begin with, which sucked since our appetizer was cheese curds and we could have used them.

I might have understood the poor service if the place had been packed, but like I said, it wasn’t. The jeep guy that originally started serving us was often standing around talking to people in the Top Golf suites.

I’m not sure we would go there again unless it was with a group to use one of the Top Golf suites.

Jeff’s Birthday

After our lunch at The Turn, we wandered the Titletown District so Jeff could see what’s new. I go to Titletown once a week for outdoor Zumba, so I am used to it now.

Later that day, I showed Jeff his cake, which I had chosen the design for. It’s a tradition we do for our birthdays, choosing the cake designs for the birthday person. I got him a cake that referenced his favorite AEW wrestler, Orange Cassidy. He loved it. He dressed up in one of his Orange Cassidy T-Shirts and my aviator sunglasses so he could take a picture with the cake to post on Twitter.

The Bottle Room

The other restaurant we tried for Restaurant Week was The Bottle Room. We went there to celebrate our 12 Year Anniversary. We don’t always celebrate our dating anniversary, but we figured we might as well say that’s why we were going to a “fancier” place.

I made reservations online for The Bottle Room, just like I had for The Turn, but this time they were actually needed. It’s a small place and most of the tables were taken. It’s a nice restaurant and I wish I liked wine because it feels weird to go eat at a wine-focused restaurant without drinking any wine.

Both the food and the service were great at The Bottle Room. Maybe we will try the place out again sometime.

Zumbathon

I missed Tuesday night Zumba at Titletown because I went to go see The Presidents in Suamico. I hadn’t been to a live band since pre-COVID, so it was fun. It was especially fun since a lot of people commented on my weight loss. I’ve lost 40 pounds since Thanksgiving. I can tell the difference when I am dancing. I am lighter and have more energy. Plus, jumping jacks aren’t horrible anymore!

I made up for missing Tuesday Zumba on Wednesday night at an outdoor Zumbathon at the West Side YMCA. That’s the gym I used to go to. The Zumbathon was for charity and the theme was Hawaiian, so I ordered a Hawaiian shirt and some leis online. I’m sure I will use them again sometime.

Titletown Night Market

On Thursday (July 22nd) we went to Titletown again for the Titletown Night Market. I gave Jeff the option of going to the theater to see Bo Burnham’s Inside (if you haven’t seen it yet, DO IT!), or go to the Night Market and see AJ Mitchell who was performing there and get some food. He chose the Night Market, so we went and saw AJ Mitchell, who I have a few songs from on my Spotify playlist, and ate cheese curds.

Stephen King

I will end this update post on a cool thing I learned. Someone posted in the De Pere Community Connect facebook group that Stephen King lived in De Pere as a child (ages ~2-5). Apparently his mom told him that one day he came back from playing by the train tracks with his friend and was shaken. His friend had been killed by a train.

King has said he has no memory of whatever occurred, but he may very well have witnessed his friend getting hit by a train. This is sad and interesting since he went on to write The Body, which was later made into the movie Stand By Me, released in 1986 (the year I was born!)

Someone posted the address of the house Stephen King lived in, and I noticed it was very close to the address for our store The Game Capital. So, I took a little drive to it, about 2 blocks from the store. It’s a little house and it is very close to train tracks. It happens to be for sale right now, so if you want to own a little piece of Stephen King’s history, here’s your chance!

Stephen King’s Former Home in West De Pere

Most of July