HEY ... It's Hot and Humid ! ( I want cool and rainy !)

Too hot for ME ....
Grandkids , Jacob and Owen , however ,
Love it ....

Hey ... It's rainy , and cold ...

But don't let That detail get you down with bursts
of sunshine like THIS around every corner .....

..And for your musical consideration ...One of our favorite bands in
a great venue in town ...

the Squeezettes perform at Old German beer Hall

March Madness !

As we approach Easter , let us not forget that not
 only are the Squirrels getting Frisky out there , but
 the Hoops action is picking up with March Madness
 in full swing at the college level !

Yes...Kathy and I have our picks set in the Brew City
Madness group of individuals ...Kathy has Indiana and I  picked
 Louisville at the end  , She is taking a differant route
 there by picking more Underdogs - and I go with the
 favorites .  We'll see ....BIG $$ talking here !!

Jacob and Owen are doing fine (.except maybe when
 they're teething ) , and they had big fun in the snow
 this winter

Kevin and Jacob

Tom and Owen

....and plenty of warm-weather action on it's way !

Speaking of fun , Kathy and  I recently went to the
High School National Finals for the Rube Goldberg
Device competition ....where enthusiastic future
engineers create wacky , outlandish devices that do
 a simple action ..out at WCTC , in Waukesha.

An Illinois team in mid-wackiness

If you haven't heard of Rube Goldberg , don't
worry , no one has --'cept us Geeks ....

I recently hit a  minor Milestone with in my
Geo-caching hobby (now at 876 finds ,by the way )
with my First FTF -'first to find' of a newly set out cache
that I had to get to by way of Snowshoe out in the
Pewaukee area . These are usually jumped on right away
by the many eager-beaver cachers out there who get
them within hours ( if not minutes )of being made
accessible to the geo-caching public ...and I was fortunate
 that a big snowstorm hit the same day for this one AND
I was going near the area for a job !

my big find

Named 'Well Walker' this cache is part of a future Zombie-
theme-based string of caches in this marshy park area and
this was actually the BEST time of year to get this one
unless you fall thru the ice !
Yep ....this activity/hobby is not for the faint of heart ...
here's the link to the cache website , if interested..
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx  .. search for 'well walker '

So ...until next time ...

WATCH OUT for those Snow-cats !!

Hello !

Happy 2013 ....Still around ....just too busy
to post much ....you can Always check out
the sidebar stuff  - or the pics link !

Second try

Well...I ACTUALLY tried to post this up on
Facebook as my  first real one There....
But it took Forever , so here it is Here..

 "My first REAL post here...wow , how Historic !And I'm
about to state that I was Sick the past few days ....Stomach
 flu ( ewwwww! Nuf' said) ..and a local
restaurant  is suspect . Their garlic bread ! Look out !
Garlic butter sauce musta been sitting in the vat too long .
At least we were able to use a coupon for the meal .

Anyway , I just wanted to pass on to anybody out there

who's a reader of finer Sci-Fi works , that I put away on

sunday - while sick - one entire novel by a fav author

of mine ( and maybe yours ) --'Redshirts' by the mighty

 John Scalzi .

--Not to be confused with 'Red Dwarf' , the British comic sci-fi tv series of a few years back .

The story's sort of a take-off from the Startrek universe --

with a twist and a half . This was a real fun romp of a story ,

and actually made me forget GARLIC BREAD for a while .

He has a pretty cool and popular Blog too ( at least among
us nerd types ) -- www.whatever.scalzi.com

Enjoy ! "   That was it ....I couldn't get it to upload this little post in Facebook . Maybe I'm not ready for Primetime ?

Flying into Fall....

Yep...gotta catch up with all thesummer
 goings on...
Kathy & I grabbed some State fair action
by the horns - always plenty of fun !

---A lotta birthdays this time of year ...

Chris S. junior's 

Thomas's 

Early august found Jeff and many of the usual
river - rats camping on Wisconsin river sandbars
again around Muscoda ...

resting after playing Bocce ball

Hiding 'Ma Bear' , my latest geo-cache

the Manly art of Butt-Cooling

After getting our dancing shoes warmed up at the wedding 

reception for Amy's friends Val & Josh , we were 

ready for the wedding of 

KELLEY & ROGER....

A fine ceremony at Charles Allis Art Museum with
plenty of food , fun and dancing at Lakefront
Brewery well into the night....
Plenty more pics in that top link in the next column,
as always ( as they become available) ...

Can you say 'Mr. and Mrs. Thounlasenh'?
Don't be afraid...you can do it !

Packers are back ! Kathy's brother Mike gave us 4
tickets to the 4th exhibition game , so Tom,Mo & I went
to see the Pack destroy the KC Chiefs .Fun in
Lambeau -land , like checking out this fan ...St. Vince...

Labor day weekend found us making the trek to
Viroqua , and the home of old friends  Susan
& Mike F. who are going 'off the grid' with their
plans for retirement on their homestead on
the edge of town . The area is a hotbed for the
Organic food movement and has a large number
of Amish to set the example in low-impact living .
It'll be interesting to see their progress as
time goes on ....
We had a Great time checking out their local
farmers' market , some local characters , eating ,
biking, geo-caching , and partaking of Mike's
understated brand of homespun ,heartfelt
humor that we've known since back in the days
of the Milwaukee Free University ...
Susan's got her hands full !

On labor day itself , Al & Lois  held a picnic/concert at
Muskego park , with his 18 year old guitar-prodigy
teacher-Macyn Taylor - (see link in next column)
 playing her fantastic variety of acoustic folk /
jazz/blues (Al & Matt's brats& burgers were pretty good , too !)
As game master for this event , I can attest that all
attendees -- friends & family --had a fun time !

Lastly(whew !) , this past weekend was Kathy's birthday ,
and she had quite the time , starting with sister Jean
flying in again just for the occasion . Meeting up with with
 Kathy for breakfast at The Gingerbread House was Jean , Louise, 
Christine and the girls .

Then a trip to the lakefront for the Kite festival ,
with some really Large kites ,music and adventure....

Followed by fun , music ,beer and MORE dancing at the
annual Oktoberfest at the Heidelberg grounds in Glendale
where a couple reserved tables  insured us room amongst
the traditional German festivities !
A lot of friends and family showed up, and the kids
 really made this special with their enthusiasm ,
like wide-eyed Owen , live-wire Esme,fun-loving Brianna
... and especially this one little girl -a cute 2 year old
dressed in a Dirndle - who took Jacob by the hand all
around the hall and then tried to
dance with the poor , unsuspecting boy.... he would
have none of that !--well , maybe Next year !

Yeah we danced up a storm - literally!- and it came
down in buckets , too(the rain,i mean!)....a great time had by all !

We topped off the weekend with a trip to the famous
Starving Artists Fair .....great stuff , oozing with creativity
and colorful things for sale and appreciation...followed by
fun and food at Louise & Jerry's .
Thanks for coming back , Jean !

Fall and football fantasy , here we come !