25 in 2025

 Ever year I say I am not going to do this list and every year I do it. I struggle every year coming up with things to add. I did keep a lot of the ones from last year on the list as they are generic and things I should be trying to do every year anyways. 

Here goes nothing for 2025

1. Have at least one adventure every month 

2. Get my 50 book pin from Brenda Novak 

3. Read at least 100 books

4. Watch at least 12 new to me movies

5. Explore at least one new park or trail

6. Try at least one new restaurant 

7. Get my Goodreads To Read list under 450 books

8. Make at least one new recipe

9. Try at least one new beer, cider, or cocktail

10. Visit at least one new winery or brewery

11. Walk/bike/hike at least 450 miles

12. See at least one live performance

13. Visit at least one new museum, landmark, tourist attraction, etc 

14. Visit at least one new county

15. Try at least one new coffee shop

16. Visit a new Indie bookstore

17. Try one new pizza place

18. Watch Gone With the Wind

19. Go to at least one new ballpark

20. Try a new food

21. Visit at least 1 National Park 

22. Get my bobblehead museum stamp

23. Buy my garden spinner I want. 

24. Get at least 25 baseball stamps

25. Visit a new chocolate/candy shop

It should be a good year. Stay tuned to see what gets done this year

Pizza Snob Adventures 2024 -- Wild Tomato Wood-Fired Pizza & Grille

 One night the hubby said we had to try Wild Tomato Pizza in Door County. I was surprised by this since it was wood fire and I thought he wasn't a fan. Since his buddy recommend Wild Tomato, he was all about trying it. 

Wild Tomato has two locations in Door County, one in Fish Creek and the other in Sister Bay. Fish Creek is the original location. They are both open year round with limited hours in winter. Neither location takes reservations so in peak season be prepared to wait. They also do carryout.

We went to the Fish Creek location. The parking lot is small in front but there is more parking in the back. The Inside dining room is not large. We got there by 4 PM and still had to eat outside. It was a blustery day so it was a bit chilly. I'm glad I had my sweatshirt with me.

The menu consists of some appetizers, a few salads, and pizza. We found the appetizers to be pricy for our frugal budget but reasonable for Door County. Cheese curds, which looked amazing, were $12. We just ordered a sausage pizza.

The pizza was perfect. As the hubby would say "it had the right amount of wood fire on the crust". The sausage was good. It wasn't too saucy for me. I am not sure why we waited so long to check it out.

Wild Tomato is a definitely dinner possibility for good pizza. It is wildly popular even with the chain in owners. I would recommend if you do go, go early or be prepared to wait. It is that good and the wait staff is friendly.

I wonder where our 2025 pizza adventures will take us. Maybe I will finally cross Calumet County off or maybe the pizza gods will be in our favor and we will explore pizza in a new state or at least a new pizza joint in Arizona.

5389. Hit all the wineries on the Door County Wine Trail -- Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market

I have been to Lautenbach's many times. I may have even did wine tasting on my first trip there back in 2012. That was a whirl wind trip of fun and snacking I don't remember if we did the wine tasting or just sampled snacks. To properly ensure I have tasted their wines, I was bound and determined on our yearly cherries and apple run to do their wine tasting. 

Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery and Market is located on Hwy 42 just south of Fish Creek. It is open daily during fall and summer and Thursday-Monday during the off season. It is wildly popular for cherries and apples. They even have a cherry pit spitting zone too. That is fun.

The wine tasting is in the back of the main barn. For $5 you can choose 5 samples for your flight or $10 for you can get 5 regular wines/ciders. The problem is there is at least 40-50 different wines and ciders to sample so to pick 5 is tough. I didn't realize there was a back side of the sheet, despite it saying more on the back, so I ended up doing two tastings.

The first tasting I went with

Cherry Riesling -- This was a semi dry wine. It definitely was on the drier side. Not a huge fan

Cherry Blossom -- This was a semi-sweet cherry wine. It wasn't bad but I have a favorite cherry so it is hard to find other cherry ones I like

Lingonberry -- This was my first adventure into Swedish lingonberries. I would have a glass but definitely not worth buying an entire bottle

Autumn Harvest -- This was an apple cranberry blend. It wasn't bad but I am on a mission to find a really good apple wine. This was not it.

Cranberry -- It is cranberry wine. It didn't wow me. I would have a glass but again nothing I would buy a bottle of.

The second tasting I went with

Bing Cherry -- This was good but Cherry Bounce was still better. I contemplating getting a bottle but I still had a bottle of Cherry Bounce.

Pear -- This was quite tasty. I might have bought a bottle if it was for the pear cider.

Honeycrisp Apple -- It's a decent apple. Still not the really good apple that I'm looking for. I would drink this again. 

Hard Core Apple -- This was a hard apple cider. It was okay. Not anything spectacular.

Pebble Beach Pear -- The hubby tried this one first and was like you will like it. This was my favorite of the day. We bought a bottle of this. I can't wait to bust it open. 

Overall it was a fun tasting. It would be more fun with a few friends and not the hubby. I would definitely recommend this tasting to a beginner wine drinker as well as a seasoned wine snob. They have something for everyone. 

I now have visited 6 of the 10 Door County Wine Trail Wineries. 4 to go.. The goal is to get them completed by my 46th birthday in November. I have Door 44, Lake Fire, Red Oak, and Stone Throw's Winery left. Might be a challenge. I may have to push it back to my 50th birthday. 

548. Have a sword fight

 Last year, Bergstrom-Mahler Glass Museum did a Renaissance Faire themed Art After Dark complete with sword fighting. I wanted to go so bad but life got in the way and I had no one to go with. This year they were doing it again and I was bound and determined to go. Danielle put it on her calendar and I was going to be in training. Work got all messed up and I had to take some PTO so I could go but it worked out. 

It used to be once a month but now it is once a quarter, Bergstrom-Mahler Glass Museum hosts Art After Dark, a themed experience to see the museum after hours. The event is usually the last Thursday of the month and is free to the public. Food and drink are usually available for purchase. It usually runs 5:30-8:30.  I have attended a couple events over the years.

All I could talk about was getting to sword fight. I was going to be seriously disappointed if I wasn't allowed to participate. We got to the museum in time for a sword fight demonstration. That was pretty neat. They were quite talented.

Then we headed towards the back of the lawn to where WHFA Appleton (Badgers Den Sword Academy) was going to let you practice your sword fighting skills. After signing my life away, I donned my helmet and grabbed a sword. 

At first they gave me a long sword and my trusty opponent had a shorter sword. I felt this was a disadvantage so they found me a shorter sword.

The goal was to "behead" your opponent by hitting them in the helmet. I was not very successful. I was beheaded more than I was able to get behead my opponent. 

I was expecting more of a pirate sword versus a Medieval type T Sword. I wanted to swashbuck my opponent. Oh well. It wasn't a real sword but more heavy of form type sword but it felt very well. 

Needless to say I was not a very good sword fighter. Good thing I didn't need to pass that test to get knighted. 

After my attempts at sword fighting, we wandered around, sampled mead and beer, browsed the shops, and eventually completed all my missions to become a knight.

It was a fun evening. Hopefully they continue to have this particular Art After Dark. I'm sure Danielle would tag along with me again.

Now that I found out I'm not very proficient at sword fighting, maybe I can find out if I can master joust.  

Book Talks 2024: Brenda Novak

 I was disappointed back in December 2022 when Brenda Novak announced her book stream tour would not be stopping in Wisconsin.. she would travel through WI but not stop. It didn't surprise me but it would have been nice. I wasn't driving 4-6 hours just to go see her. So when she announced that her book tour this year would take her to Kenosha, I mentioned this to the hubby. He rearranged his scheduled so he could take me.

I discovered Brenda Novak by accident at the start of the Pandemic when she invited Susan Mallery, another favorite author of mine, to be part of her virtual book launch. And I was hooked. I joined online book group. She writes women's fiction and along with some romance and suspense. She really likes conflict so some of her books are struggle because unless I am the mood for a thriller, I prefer light reads. Not all her books are overly suspenseful and are good reading. I am definitely a fluff kind of reader. Her Dundee, ID series is probably my favorite series and Summer on the Island is my favorite one this year. 

Blue House Books in Kenosha was hosting Brenda. It was right down town and the first tour stop to sell out.. The hubby and I had pizza from Cut Stone Pizza before hand. Like most Indie Bookstores, it is not a large bookstore. Even though we got there 10-15 before hand most of the seats were taken. I directed the hubby to a cozy arm chair in the corner while I snagged one of the few remaining seats up front.

Brenda talked about her new book, The Banned Books Club as well as how she got started in writing. She spoke for a good half hour along with reading part of her book. Then she opened the floor up for questions. After that she signed our books we pre-ordered, which was not a requirement. 

Meeting Brenda was pretty dang awesome. She and her daughter, Alexa both recognized me from my blog post I did earlier in the year about places to visit in Wisconsin for a different book she had coming out this year. They even looked to see if any of the recommendations I had in the blog were close. Sadly there were not.. in my original vision there might have been. Brenda was great. I usually hate meeting authors, so famous.. or infamous, that I don't know what to say but it was easy to talk to them. She was impressed I made the journey down. I said I bribed the hubby with pizza. 

It was a fun evening. Maybe one day she will get to my neck of the woods. The only problem is a lack of a good venue, even with the air stream. I would if the Plaza and Lyon's book would sponsor her and she could do it outside on the plaza in Neenah. That would be fun. Hmm. I might have to suggest that.

As much as I loved meeting Brenda Novak, I think R.L. Stine and Debbie Macomber still beat her out for my favorite author events. It will be really hard to beat both of them. 

St. Louis and the south always get big name authors. I will take what I can get around here especially now that the Fox Cities Book Festival is no more. I would suggest always taking the time to meet your favorite author when you get a chance even if it's a few hours away. 

Pizza Snob Adventures 2024 -- Cut Stone Pizza

 When Brenda Novak announced she would be stopping in Kenosha as part of her The Banned Books Club book tour, the hubby said we could go. Then came the problem of finding dinner before hand. Google maps to the rescue. I noticed there was a pizza place right next to the book store. I get to see Brenda Novak.. the hubby gets pizza out of it.

Cut Stone Pizza is located downtown Kenosha. The actual sit down restaurant is open 4:30-9 Wednesday-Saturday. They also have a fire engine pizza food truck which is around in summer. That has since gone on the bucket list.  

You order at the counter and then find a table. There is not much seating but we were able to snag a table. The menu consists of a handful of sandwiches, some appetizers, and pizza of course. There is pre-determined pizzas or you can build your own. I gave the hubby the option of meat or cheese. He went cheese. The person behind us laughed at that. I was like he's simple when it comes to pizza.

The pizza was very good. It was the perfect wood fire crust with just enough fire on it. It was not a huge pizza as wood fire pizza is but with the breadsticks it was perfect. The cheese breadsticks were fabulous too.

Next time maybe we will get meat... or ice cream for dessert. 

Cut Stone Pizza is definitely worth a dinner stop if you are in Kenosha for dinner. Even the bookstore recommended them. If we ever find ourselves in Kenosha for dinner again, this would definitely be one of our choices. Pizza Snob Approved. 

Book Talks 2024: Tammy Borden

 I kept seeing local bookstores and libraries hosting this author, Tammy Borden. I kept trying to get to see her because her book sounded interesting and something always interfered. Finally when Kimberly Library was hosting her, I made a point to go see her. 

Tammy Borden is the author of Waltraud: A True Story of Growing Up in Nazi Germany. The book is the story of her coming of age in and around Berlin during World War II. It is historical fiction as Ms. Borden had to make up dialogue and fill in gaps from her mom's stories but it is really her mom's biography without being a biography.

To hear Tammy Borden speak was a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday evening. To hear her speak of her mom's story, the research she did, and the family she was able to give some closure to was very inspiring. 

As she said this story told itself and she might not be able to write another book as easily since the story was already there. It was just putting down facts.

If you get a chance to hear Tammy Borden speak, do it. She is amazing story teller and captivates you from the beginning. Even if you can not, go read the book. The story is that good. It is on Amazon or if you are in the Fox Valley, your local bookstore or library should have a copy too.