Tag: top 100

These are some of the things that made 2025 special:

1. New Year’s resolution to try and listen to all of Los 600 de Latinoamérica. I didn’t make it all the way there in 2025, but I’m still listening!
2. Celebrating 17 years with Angie and hiking Quarantine Point. Drinking giant sangrías and sparkling cocktails before a delicious meal at Brisa Mar. Looking over the breathtaking Morne Rouge Bay.
3. Many walks on Grand Anse beach.
4. Rhythms of a Friday evening and the art gallery at the Monkey Bar.
5. Bad Bunny releasing Debí Tirar Más Fotos and learning that UW-Madison professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo collaborated with him to make these Puerto Rican history visualizers for each song on the album.
6. Discovering the store We Have Been Here Before while waiting for Randy to change the Suzuki’s oil. Going there later with Angie on a date.
7. Fixing our first flat tire with the help of a friend and some local panhandlers. Venturing inland to buy a spare.
8. Traveling to Lima, Perú to work with an amazing group of English teachers from Ecuador, Bolivia, and Perú as part of the U.S. Department of State’s English Access Program. Weathering the storm that came with our country’s administration change and their defunding of critical diplomacy initiatives abroad.
9. Learning more about Perú and unity through difference. Exploring the Barranco neighborhood of Lima with its many murals, restaurants, and museums. Eating ceviche and causa at the colorful Canta Rana.
10. My sister Katie and brother-in-law Ryan visiting for vacation. Hanging with them at La Luna and showing them a little bit of the island. Their son Perry choosing to research Grenada for a school project.
11. Celebrating Angie’s birthday at Nat’s Pizza. Our friends Matt and Cait surprising her with a pile of homemade cookies with a lit birthday candle on top.
12. Finding hope in the corners.
13. Boat ride and snorkeling at the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park to celebrate Bebe’s birthday.
14. Listening to Horror on L’Anse Aux Epines neighborhood runs with ocean views in three directions.
15. Cal’s spring break visit. Still waiting for KFC. Exploring Seven Sisters and finding the secret waterfall. Braving the deep plunge pool. Driving to the north of the island for the first time and seeing Copper Falls. Eating pelau and earning an audience of street dogs. Visiting the Jouvay Chocolate Factory, discovering petroglyphs, and hiking to the lookout. Grilling out on the SGU campus. Discovering the hidden beach at Quarantine Point. Sailing and accidentally playing chicken with a sea turtle. Surfing (kind of) and tide pools.
16. Writing about Maná’s nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for my buddy Charles’s newsletter No Fences Review.
17. Making a stop motion animation out of Jade Rivera art.
18. Books! All of the wonderful contributions to Katie Holton’s The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape, Oliver Burkemann’s 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals and Meditations for Mortals, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
19. Renewing our Grenadian license and registration for our Suzuki Ignus at the National Soccer Stadium.
20. Drinking Stags with Levi and Leonel at The Grind. Frequent conversations with the staff at Cauls.
21. Finding out I didn’t get a job that I was a finalist for at WIDA. Reaching out to my former principal at D.C. Everest Senior High about a vacant Spanish teaching position. Getting a job offer by the end of the day. Taking a full minute of my mile pace time on a run afterwards I was so stoked about it.
22. Easter hike on Mt. Qua Qua with friends. Seeing the mona monkeys.
23. Randomly seeing my friend Matt at a coffee shop before he and his wife were going to have to say goodbye to their beloved dog Pickle. Being able to give him a big hug.
24. Villa-sitting for our friends Rick and Karen. Zen and the art of pool maintenance along with poolside philosophizing.
25. Stargazing on the villa’s roof while listening to The Cure’s Disintegration.
26. Taking big leaps.
27. All my conversations with Matt Benelli that prevented us from progressing in cribbage.
28. Final dinner with Matt and Cait. Helping them wrap up their time in Grenada and taking them to the airport. I love a good airport drop off!
29. Realizing my friend Matt Stifler is actually Argentinian cartoonist Liniers.
30. Angie knocking it out of the park for another term in medical school. Witnessing her sustained dedication to make her dream a reality.
31. Hikes to Hog Island and Roger’s Barefoot Beach Bar.
32. Moving to Mariposa.
33. Heading back stateside for a Wisconsin visit.
34. Cal finishing his sophomore year at UW-Madison.
35. Visiting the Schmitz family’s go-to local restaurant for just a moment. Entering it and immediately exiting due to an unfortunate (and funny?) situation.
36. Climbing the tower again at Rib Mountain State Park.
37. Buckley. And Dan Line (along with many other neighborhood friends).
38. Big and small things. Finding pennies.
39. Saving a baby squirrel that was lying helpless in the middle of a road.
40. Seeing Andy Buch’s bees and being gifted some of their honey.
41. Visiting Briq’s Soft Serve with my parents.
42. Trying to solve the NYT’s easy sudokus as fast as possible and sharing screenshots of attempts with Angie.
43. Camping at Newport State Park with the warrior of the woods.
44. Showing up to dinner with our friends hours late because we underestimated how long it would take to hike in and set up camp. Feeling terrible that we were unable to contact them due to not having cell service in the woods. Finding out they had arrived only minutes before us due to being delayed by their own unforeseen circumstances, thereby feeling equally as terrible for not being able to get ahold of us.
45. The stars. The moon. The sun.
46. Brad and Deborah’s house warming party, along with family pets.
47. Disc golfing with Cal and sinking long putts.
48. Visiting with Kim and Dave Casey before Kim passed. Celebrating Kim’s life. Sharing stories, making picture boards, remembering all the good memories, supporting one another. Reflecting on how grief comes in waves.
49. Pig roast in Alto to celebrate Blayne’s graduation.
50. Camping with friends in the mud at the Blue Ox Music Festival. Buying rain boots at Fleet Farm at 6:00 am. Having the fine owners of the Corny Fish Shed serve up some breakfast glizzies.
51. Taking up a new longboard hobby for the summer (kind of, but not really, but for sure this next summer).
52. Getting breakfast with my dad and brother at the Westside Dinner.
53. Celebrating the Fourth of July on Lake Wisconsin. Neighborhood fireworks show over a pond in Mequon, Wisconsin.
54. Returning to Grenada with 40 picture frames in a suitcase. Settling into the new place at Mariposa and putting together the picture wall. Humming birds and geckos on our patio. Sea turtles (tugas) in the ocean below.
55. Losing Angie’s cellphone after pizza at Nat’s with our new Swedish friend, Jesper. Finding it in epic fashion the following day.
56. Another hike on Mr. Qua Qua with Jesper, this time dangerously muddy. More mona monkeys.
57. Cooking up fish that Jesper caught on a spearfishing expedition and flying his drone on Morne Rouge Bay from our apartment.
58. Going on an adventure to get a new car battery.
59. Fish tacos and Gloria Estefan at La Plywood.
60. Cribbage on the beach and rum punches at Esther’s.
61. Villa-sitting a second time. Rick getting stranded, delaying his return. Angie and I fixing broken steps on the staircase down to the ocean. Doing other maintenance tasks so the villa would be ready for incoming guests.
62. Day trip to St. George’s with Angie.
63. New running route with a beach and insanely steep driveway.
64. Meeting our new neighbor, Kara. Walking her energetic dog, Tyrone.
65. Meeting new friends, David and Elizabeth, while they were walking their two beautiful dogs on the beach. Enjoying drinks and meals with them. Playing Rummikub on their sailboat.
66. Watching Angie swim 5 miles in August to raise money for cancer research in honor of Kim.
67. Discovering Savvy’s Bar & Grill at Mount Cinnamon Hotel on Grand Anse.
68. Naps.
69. Final Grenada sunset before moving back to Wisconsin solo.
70. Cal rocking his dental school admission’s test.
71. Discovering Pete Sandker’s infinite shoreline that unearthed a timely Wisconsin-Caribbean connection for me.
72. Watching Cal play in DCE’s annual alumni soccer game.
73. Visiting my grandpa (for what would be the last time) to celebrate his 93rd birthday.
74. Returning to my previous teaching position. Discovering that my old students had kept a whiteboard sketch of me visible the entire year so that I’d still be there even though I was in Grenada. Enjoying the opportunity and challenge of working with new students.
75. Moving back into our house while going on a Pearl Jam kick. Slowly getting everything unboxed, organized, and decorated over the course of the fall. Spinning records again.
76. Getting DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS on vinyl and watching Bad Bunny’s livestream No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí: Una Más.
77. Multiple trips to visit Cal in Madison. Jumping around at a Badger game. Getting hot cider on a farm. Tailgating and boxed seats with Madison Bob and Ron Dayne.
78. Neighborhood walks and hikes with Buckley. Hitting up the Turkey Vulture Trail with him and discovering a lost shoe.
79. Visiting Inner Sleeve Records with the Cepress boys. Picking up a copy of Disintegration on vinyl.
80. Biking up to Minocqua with my brother on a gorgeous fall day. Taking the Bearskin Trail for a good part of the journey. Upon arriving, meeting up with my dad and Eli, swimming in the lake, having a fire, getting ice cream. Reflecting on endurance.
81. Heading to Minneapolis for Matt Neely’s Memorial Gathering. Reconnecting with good people I haven’t seen in a long time.
82. Celebrating my mom’s 70th birthday.
83. Hearing Michael Perry speak with Ceps and meeting him afterwards.
84. Carving pumpkins and putting together my 2026 Halloween playlist.
85. Writing and sending letters to Angie.
86. Watching Jeff Tweedy & Co play at the Memorial Union Theater during his Twilight Override Tour. Finally remembering to bring my Lifetime Union Membership card even though I didn’t need it. Getting breakfast the next morning and visiting the Capitol as the Christmas tree was going up.
87. Celebrating Thanksgiving with extended family for the first time in four years. Yet celebrating it for the first time apart from Angie since we’ve been married.
88. Cutting down a beautiful Christmas tree from Highland Trees with Cal, my dad, and my sister’s family. Listening to The Mavericks to get into the holiday mood.
89. Watching my niece dance and my nephews play the piano.
90. Celebrating the life of my grandpa. Listening to my dad’s moving eulogy.
91. Drinking two old fashioneds in honor of my grandpa. Then, venturing off to an unforeseen active evening with Cal—weightlifting, pick-up basketball, steam room, Mexican restaurant, and two games of bowling—all on our way to Chicago to pick up Angie.
92. Picking up Angie in Chicago. Big hugs and not being able to stop saying, “oh my gosh!”
93. Annual neighborhood caroling tradition leading us to Kin & Kind. Cozying up to watch the Packers play.
94. Celebrating Christmas in Madison, Wausau, and Alto. YouTube fireplaces, videogames, Christmas movies, snow falling, and intangible rooms.
95. Meeting the new babies of the family: Alma and Isabel.
96. The crazy Kloosterboer gift exchange, the legendary Klohn Joosterboer, and associated shenanigans.
97. Ice skating and basketball.
98. Another year of writing An Uncommon Commute.
99. Watching Miles’s basketball game and visiting the Casey home afterwards. Eating sushi and playing Blank Slate. Starting to turn the page on a difficult 2025.
100. Getting tacos with Stiflers at La Taquería and ringing in the new year at Day’s Bowl-A-Dome.

These are some of the things that made 2024 special:

1. Cal getting his wisdom teeth out and calling me at work to say in Spanglish, “Estoy triste porque el dentista took mis dientes and won’t give them back.”
2. Celebrating 16 years with Angie a là saunas and cold baths.
3. Annual adoption day breakfast with Cal at the delicious Breakfast Bear.
4. Swanson and Rislove kazoo chorus at Kin & Kind‘s live music night with Jason and Ryan.
5. Packers playoff run led by J. Love and A. Jones.
6. Backyard fires with the Solo Stove.
7. My buddy Boyd spinning vinyl at Whitewater Music Hall. Also, wearing baby blue to support him and his Lions while serving ourselves at Sconni’s. My buddy Ben closing ‘er down to host us.
8. Angie’s manifestations via To Be Magnetic.
9. Seeing Making Movies as part of the Grand Theater’s Lift Every Voice series.
10. Receiving a lucky bamboo from a student with the message, “The bamboo plant is said to bring good luck and positive energy to the place where it is grown. This bamboo has been selected to express my gratitude and appreciation for everything you do. I hope that this bamboo plant will bring you and your family good luck, health, and happiness.“
11. Sunday walks listening to Mountain Stage. Realizing that this is the music I’d choose to listen to on my deathbed.
12. Watching Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell perform (on TV) at the Grammys.
13. Angie getting accepted into medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies.
14. Cleaning up downed trees and splitting firewood with friends.
15. Helping my bro insulate his cabin up north and making a fire to burn a tree stump.
16. Family roadtrip and vacation over spring break in Orange Beach, Alabama.
17. Watching Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, a mindblowing story based on a favorite sci-fi trilogy of mine, In Remembrance of Earth’s Past, by Chinese author Liu Cixin.
18. New glasses and an updated prescription after 10 years of wearing the same glasses without ever updating my prescription.
19. First Bucks game as a family to celebrate Cal’s birthday.
20. Listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered episode “Songs to make you laugh with ‘Weird Al” Yankovic.”
21. Walks in the neighborhood with Buckley.
22. Listening to records.
23. Trip to Door County to stay with Meghan and Karsten and attend the soft opening of the Shoreline Restaurant in Gills Rock.
24. Witnessing Wisconsin’s Caribbean blues without fully realizing it at the time.
25. Watching the Survivor finale with friends.
26. Moon Man on tap!
27. Completing the Door County Half Marathon with Angie. Training for it with the Nike Run Club’s Half-Marathon Training Plan.
28. Mix tapes and Choose Your Own Adventure books at Bridge Up Brewery in Sturgeon Bay post-race.
29. Cal crushing his freshman year at UW-Madison.
30. Seeing the Northern Lights in Wisconsin.
31. Finishing my fourth year of teaching Spanish at D.C. Everest Senior High. Watching students I mentored complete the Global Scholars Program.
32. June recognizance mission to Grenada with Angie as part of See SGU. Live music at 61 West and hearing “This one goes out to all the lovebirds out there” before every single song.
33. Camping with my family in Brule, WI. Ordering the 1, 1, and 1 at the Twin Gables Cafe, having the waitress and my family doubt my choice because of how small it was, and immediately needing to eat something else upon returning to camp because I felt faint.
34. Food and beers at the Fish Shed in Cornucopia, WI and visiting with our friend Joe (but missing our friend Jody).
35. Disc golfing at the gorgeous and expansive Highbridge Hills Megaplex.
36. Blending in kitchen cabinets to accommodate a bigger refrigerator.
37. Attending the Blue Ox Music Festival with “festival Angie.” Listening to great music and spending wonderful time with friends.
38. Hosting Cal’s Madison friends for a weekend. Hoops and pool time at grandma and grandpa’s.
39. Deciding to quit my teaching job to support Angie as she attends medical school in Grenada. Cleaning out my Spanish classroom at D.C. Everest and remembering all the memories.
40. Buckley and Moco’s tolerance of one another (and maybe even affection for one another).
41. Being inspired to write again after reading Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist and Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird.
42. Cannonballs and climbing hills.
43. Brad’s bachelor party in Milwaukee, WI—playing Spikeball, throwing axes, and general shenanigans.
44. Brad and Deborah’s wedding—hotel room dance parties, celebratory dinners, testing out my Portuguese skills, general merrymaking with family and friends, and celebrating an amazing couple. Post-wedding beach visit with Angie and Brad.
45. Successfully changing a flat tire while on a bike ride with my bro.
46. Teaching my niece and nephews tennis at my dad’s summer camp.
47. Spending time with the Caseys at their cabin.
48. Finding childhood Michael Jordan posters in my parent’s basement and passing them onto Cal.
49. Cleaning and organizing our house to prepare for our move. Taking breaks to watch the Olympics when feeling unmotivated and somehow finding the inspiration to carry on cleaning and organizing.
50. Having high school friends over for a campfire and having two of them show up in full-on track suits.
51. First full-on Barn Dance since before Covid. Witnessing the next generation sit down and sing “Stand By Me” in unison.
52. Giving Cal one of my flannels for the Barn Dance because he couldn’t find any and having him cut off the sleeves of said flannel before immediately finding one of his own and saying, “Oh, here’s one of mine.”
53. Full moons.
54. Former Mankato neighbors adopting sweet Moco while we are away. Dan taking care of Buckley, along with the occasional help of several other good friends.
55. Watching Cal play on a local summer soccer league.
56. The support of all our friends and loved ones at our going away party, hosted by our lovely neighborhood craft beer bar Kin & Kind.
57. Finding rainbows.
58. Fluffy bunnies and the Alto Fair.
59. Baby Etta.
60. Eating sushi in Wauwatosa before taking Angie to O’Hare Airport.
61. Packing our remaining possessions into our upstairs bedroom.
62. Anticipating that I’d have a lot of time to read in Grenada and buying a Kindle Paperwhite, along with a sweet cork cover for it that reminded me of a surfboard (because in my mind, Caribbean = surfing, apparently).
63. Reading more than I have in years and feeling inspired to cultivate a reading habit from here on out. Some books I’ve enjoyed so far on the Kindle are Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties, and Kio Stark’s Don’t Go Back to School.
64. Spending time with Cal and moving him to Madison before the pair of us traveled to Grenada. Packing up his stuff and moving him into his first apartment. Self pickup of the apartment keys from The Hub Realty. Finding the perfect-sized bed frame and building him a bedroom shelf. Shopping at the tiny Ace Hardware store on Willy Street.
65. Getting mole at Garibaldi. Final frisbee game with Cal at Elver Park.
66. Loosing my year+ Duolingo streak during a chaotic August and not caring. Feeling empowered to control my own language-learning journey and not let an owl dictate how I feel about it. Take that Duo!
67. Moving to Grenada.
68. Cal’s Grenada haircut.
69. Snorkeling at the Underwater Sculpture Park.
70. Buying a Suzuki Ignis and driving it on the left side of the street.
71. Angie’s white coat celebration at Le Phare Bleu.
72. New beaches like Morne Rouge.
73. A colleague sending me a video of my former students telling me “te echamos de menos, Señor” and singing “Cielito Lindo.”
74. Starting my website ericwenninger.com and my newsletter An Uncommon Commute.
75. Angie persevering (once again!) through a lost luggage situation and Cal incredibly finding said lost luggage (aided by the fact that Angie’s suitcase is bright florescent green) in a sea of gray and black suitcases at the Miami Airport while on a 6+ hour delay.
76. Hiking to Hog Island after Angie’s first exam.
77. Playing cribbage and reading cards with Angie at the Brewery.
78. Cooking red snapper whole. Cooking much more to support Angie’s intensive study schedule.
79. Holding my own playing ultimate frisbee with a bunch of SGU youngsters.
80. Taking a random walk through my neighborhood and starting a conversation with this guy I met along the way, the first of what would become many with my newfound friend Matt.
81. Participating as a crew member in my first sailing regatta.
82. Journeying out to Nat’s Pizza and feeling happy about it.
83. Getting our shit together to vote absentee, even though shit still hit the fan. Realizing we all might need some more empathy.
84. Running in Lance Aux Espines and finding out where the sidewalk ends.
85. Contemplating blue while missing the fall. Creating my October Oceans playlist to help me cope.
86. Angie’s incredible motivation, work ethic, and resilience.
87. Hearing 80s and 90s soft rock everywhere in Grenada. Embracing it fully. Can’t stop, won’t stop.
88. Grenadian grocery stores playing full Michael Jackson albums on repeat.
89. Negative capability and the adversity in our lives that helps us to grow.
90. My buddy Matt teaching me how to sail a Hobie Cat.
91. Walking on the beach with a rum punch, or two (but absolutely no more or else you’re flirting with danger).
92. A Caribbean Christmas with visits from my parents and Cal. Driving them around, visiting sweet beaches and a waterfall, and eating good food.
93. Listening to my dad sing some 70s classics at an open mic night at Nimrod’s. Surprising musician Paul by joining him to sing the Buena Vista Social Club song “Dos Gardenias.”
94. Baking Christmas monster cookies, listening to my ever-growing Christmas playlist (now over 24 hours long), and watching Christmas movies both new and old.
95. Cal joining a Grenadian soccer team to compete in a local tournament late at night on a small field with some unique throw-in and penalty-kick rules.
96. Working on a media literacy unit for the Access program. Learning about the six individuals we featured in our lesson who are using social media for good causes: Dani Aravich, Hollis Belger, Darius Brown, Nick Lowinger, Julia Warren, and Joshua Williams.
97. Seeing Santa Claus flying in a helicopter while on Grand Anse Beach on Christmas Day.
98. Grilling out on SGU’s campus and stargazing.
99. Counters and candles.
100. New Year’s Eve dinner at La Luna with Angie, and our Grenada (Sandwich, MA) friends Matt and Caitlyn.