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 !

The Balladier strikes again

I had fun with this last nite....
and I just HAD to post it , being ( I
believe ) , one of my finer efforts ...

Our old friends , Nancy & Bruce , live up in a
suburb of the Twin  cities of Minnesota , and 

Bruce and Nancy , hiking in Glacier NP

Bruce is retiring as an editor at the Star Tribune
after 50 years , and is also known for having amassed 
quite a large collection of cufflinks , among other 
antiques---in fact that's their side business.. 
A party is being thrown in his honor
soon by Nancy & friends ...but we can't make it ! 
Soooo , Nancy wants some of us  to send a poem ,or 
some such tribute , to the man ...
Naturally ,my mind , thinking  'how can we make this
fun - maybe even take it Down a notch ?' , comes up 
with this ........
      Sing in tune to the theme song from the
               Beverly Hillbillies ....

The Ballad of Bruce Adomeit'

Come and listen to a story about a man named Bruce;

A poor writing man, and his words were not obtuse.

Then one day, he met a fine young lass

And before another deadline, we had to raise the glass---

To wedding vows, married bliss.

Well, the first thing you know, Bruce says its time to go --

'Gotta pack up all this stuff, and sell the old condo'

Said 'This Roseville Place 

is like a favorite pair of socks'

So they loaded up the Cufflinks, and moved a couple blocks--

To Roseville that is; 'Easy move -  still a good commute!'

Well, now it's time to toast the man

Who's put in 50 years---

The Star Tribune's the place that he

gave blood and sweat and tears..

You're all invited here today

to give the man a cheer,

and partake of some debauchery

and roasted pig & beer....

Minnesota style;

take your Redwings off

You sure enough can print that --

y'hear?

Rewriting TV themes songs as a career change ?

Nahhhhhhhh.......

What Happened to June ??

It happened , alright....
I was just too busy Livin' it to Yammer on and on
about it HERE ...
And now it's almost August....

I guess my available time to write here is drying up
as much as my grass , these days  ..


Well , Father's day found Kathy and I at Harrington
beach SP , camping with the kids --and grandkids-
showing up for the fun....we hiked & swam &
geo-cached ...a Great weekend ! Fantastic facilities at
this newly expanded park , too...

Our camping line-up minus Kelley and Father

Jacob sees a LOT of water !

Kelley got a year older on the 26th , so we celebrated
it on the 22nd , before she got too old to snuff out the
conflagration ...

Their big day is coming Soon !

TIMBER !! Tom , Kevin and I  took down Ol' Shaggy, the roughly 64
year old spruce , and its neighbor , Big Blue , in our front yard.

Not exactly ' Town -square Xmas - tree ' material ..
but they Will be missed !
A massive effort has already taken place to fill the gap
with new rock-garden plantings and cedar trees (from
Jim & Gwens placeup in doorcounty) , so we won't see those
phone poles and street wires in about 20 years ...

Kelley had the first of 2 wedding showers at Gwen's
 place on Lake Keesus , a fancy soiree to be sure...

Gwen,Mo,Kelley,Amy,Maddy,Jamie

I also seem to remember a day at summerfest , and the Big Bang
fireworks

And a bunch of other stuff.....

And THEN our big trip circumnavigating the Big Lake,
Gitchegummi itself --- Lake Superior !

8 miles and 2 hours of climbing  later - looking south from on top Sleeping Giant

Ten days of  (some driving ..) , camping , hiking , sightseeing ,
geo-caching (what I could get away with !), a little Cold-water
swimming , and general fun !
Yep , our friends up north think 85* is a God-awful  heat-wave,
they buy their milk in bags at the store, and develop lop-sided
walking gaits from the weight of all those $1 (loonies) and $2 (toonies)
in coins they lug around . I soon figured out to buy my gasoline at the
nearest First Nation ( Indian Reservation ) , at about $1.35 / Litre ,
a real bargain . Brats and beer --and everything else -- costs as
much as twice that at home . A 13% tax on all sales is the norm
 -- but we still lived the High Life , literally , with all the hiking
opportunities , like the 16 - miler ( 24 Kilometers ) to the top
of Sleeping Giant , across the water from Thunder bay ; Ouimet 
Canyon Provincial Park ;Temperence River SP ; Picnic Point ;Many
 waterfalls, from Aguasabon to Rainbow  , from Duluth all the way around to 'the Soo' ;

Kathy at Pigeon river falls, Mn.

the treacherous Agawa pictographs ; --and the memorable Crack in the
 Wall hike--with the 5/5-rated geocache  - 'Crack' -  just 480 feet out of
 safe reach ...

Just inside entrance to Crack in the Wall, looking up in awe...

Actually I'm satisfied with 24 finds out of 33 attempts for caches ...
Juuuuuuuuuuust enough for Kathy's patience , too !


Check out all the pics (well, SOME of the 375 I took !) on 
our family pic site in right column ...
if you dare !

PS....If you havent already noticed , I have a new music player up there , Called MIXPOD ...Feel free to turn your volume up and/or hit the VIDEO button on top left for an extra sensory whallop ...I fill it on a seasonal basis with new /old tunes using Youtube as the source . Enjoy !

Busy, busy, busy month of May

Where'd it go ?
Wellllll-l-l , must keep up with new
developments with 2 grandsons , Owen
and Jacob , of course . They
recently met as cousins for the first time
at Amy & Kevin's for a Mother's day /
tailgate  cookout ..

But here's a better pic , the next weekend at a
Tom & Mo cookout ..

Jacob is a- toddlin' all over , getting into trouble, has
new shoes to adjust to..
Owen is now taking the bottle , besides the 'traditional'
food source ...
And we get to see them quite a bit !

The 6th found me at my first geo-cache event..
the Muppet Mayhem get-together at Whitnall park.
A well attended affair, with a lot of 'character'
 , if a little wet and muddy day for it ..

The 19th found a few select helpers aid Jeff
in finding his 500th cache down in Racine,
out on the breakwater . Known as 'Match-
head'...finding it  ( let alone Getting to it !)
was a minor adventure . Into the rock
caverns , created by loads of huge boulders dumped
haphazardly , we went  , watching out for spiders
(Amy cringes at their mention ) on a nice day
at the lakefront . Jeff came up with it first , by
dumb luck ,dead reckoning , or something....

The reward ? Ice Cream afterwards at Skoops on Hwy 32 !

The next day was a 40 mile 'Chocolate City' bike ride
near Burlington with Chris , Chris and Kevin the Elder ..
followed by a nicely attended celebratory picnic with
family and fellow biker friends ...delicious and Fun !
Even Jacob had done a few biking miles --at nearby Bong
Rec area --and had to cool down ....

I've  also been enlisted into the South Hill's Senior Golf
League with Brothers Tyler , Rob and Dad ..and am the 3rd
or 4th youngest member in this august collection of mature
golfers  ( if not one of their Worst !)
Hopefully , I'll improve with Age !

One thing that DIDN"T happen was the felling  of OL'
Shaggy , the old pine in our front yard , which is dying
 from a fungus infection since last year . Tom says there's
no hope for it , so It and the blue spruce next to it are
to become firewood ....BUT Not Today !
It rained , so they live to see a few more sunsets for a while...

Happy Memorial Day ...Fly that flag !

May Flies

Yes , it does....
Just a quickie here.....Finally got to hold my second
 grandson , Owen...What a cutie !
And no matter how I juggled him , he never opened
those little peepers !There's something special
about being a grandpa...and this is it !

Let's not forget grandma Kathy too...

_____________________________________________________

As long as we're in 'birthday mode' , here are a  few
shoutouts  and huzzahs to those celebrating a new
year with us ....A blast from our past ( his wife Susan ) made us
 aware that Mike F. is soon to be 62 , and is now living
in western Wisconsin on a ' gentleman's farm' and is
retired ....I'm jealous !
If any of you gentle readers are
in our sheepshead group (like George , Linda ,Liz or
Jim )you know of whom I speak . Yes , he's still around

1982 .. Mike at George&Lindas for bagels

and kicking !
Welcome back !!

Birthday # 2...ENZO , dog extraordinaire , belonging
 to Kelley & Roger , turned 1 year old...

Bow - Wowza !

And lastly , this little hobby of mine has a milestone
to celebrate ...

This Week...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEOCACHING!

With the flip of a proverbial switch, the idea of geocaching

 flickered to life 12 years ago. On May 2, 2000, at an order

 from the U.S. President, Selective Availability (the intentional

 degradation of the GPS signal available to civilians) was 

turned off. Civilian GPS devices instantly became 10 times

 more accurate. The original geocache was placed one day

 later. It was hidden in the U.S. state of Oregon on May 3, 2000.
In the geocaching community, we refer to the demise of 

Selective Availability as the "flipping of the great blue switch."

 Although there never was a literal switch, the results are 

undeniable. Geocaching spread around the globe. Now you

 can use Geocaching.com, or one of the Geocaching.com

smartphone apps to embark on adventures to more than 

1.7 million active geocaches hidden around the world. The

 geocaching community has ballooned from that original 

small group of GPS enthusiasts to more than five million people.

Happy birthday to all ...and to anybody I missed !

It happened in the rainy April pre-dawn hours...

..Earlier today , at about 3:20 am .
Owen Thomas came into the world , and into
the loving arms of our daughter , Maureen ,
and son-in-law Tom ...
our 2nd grandson !

20 "....6lbs , 15oz ....healthy , with dark hair ,
just like Maureen had at her birth ...

Maureen 1983-11-21

Kathy made a visit , along with 'Owen  groupies' from
both sides .... not me , still harboring a bevy of dangerous
cold germs ( there's probably much worse germs floating
around that 'clean' hospital air !)

Hooray !...Jacob and Morgan have themselves  a new cousin !

As always , more pics at Adairfamilyworldpics site in the right column !

PS......Congratulations to DIANE on her last day ,sunday, working at my brother Rob's store after 20 +
years of helping customers for ,at first my mom & dad, and then Rob ....more time now to cater to  my dad & keep him in line & out of trouble , whether he's here or out in Vegas !

a quick post-easter , pre-birth note ...

That's right !...Mo & Tom's baby is due any
day...nay , any HOUR now , so i must be brief...
just in case...
It's busy now , anyway , with work , impending
projects , etc.

Amy & Kevin & Jacob had a successful move
to their new home in Oak creek...and just picked
up Seeker the cat after her extended stay with us..
NOW we can get new carpeting !

Jacob (that little Scamp!) is apparently
thriving in his new stomping grounds and
 is slowly but surely gaining the skills to take more
than a single step or two , unaided ...as we see here...

Easter brunch went great with all the kids over at Casa Adair

...the only sad exception being there was no Easter basket hunt

as in years past ...we will wait for the next generation of kids

to get old enough to do the hunting , now !



See you after baby Riha makes it here !

Here we are, at the Other warm end of March...

Unusually warm weather , interspersed with 'normal' cool
march temps...I'll take it ! Although , now I have cut
the grass the Earliest ever ! Basically , all caught up with
 yard & landscape cleanup chores , now . All kinds of
stuff is blooming , earlier than ever ; long ago have already
spotted the first Robin (Louise & Jerry beat me to
that honor by HOURS !) ;
 Geocaching opportunities abounded the past
few months with little snow cover , low temps , and longer
sunshine after workdays ! Practically the whole family took
advantage of this to visit 'dog friendly' Stigler Nature Preserve
in New Berlin a few weeks ago for a nice walk in the woods --
and scored '5 for 5' cache finds ! We're Good !















Friday , March 16 was Jacob's 1 - year birthday , and  we
did him right with a nice bash at our house . The little guy
Wowed all of us , as usual !

The very next day, -Happy St. Parick's Day !- , was
Maureen's 2nd baby shower , held by Cindy &
family , Tom's mom, up in Port Washington .
A very nice Soiree' , so I'm told !
That magic day is inching ever closer !

Maureen with 2 grandma-in-laws, mom-in-law and mom Kathy
















This march has had it's share of 'firsts', including a
strange one while at The Coffee House' , a favorite
music venue of ours on the Marquette
campus...just before the music starts , an old guy
sitting next to me, a regular at the joint , collapses in
an epileptic fit ...now we know what THAT looks like ,
and it's NOT pretty ! He turned out okay in the end though...
The next day , Kathy & I made a sunday adventure to
Illinois -Chicago northwest suburbs - first to Johnnies Beef ,
 for some of that Italian Beef magic at a great price!
-Then to find the oldest geocache still existing in the upper
 midwest ..'Beverly' by name..designated as GC28 in May ,
 2000... harking back to the first few months when
geocaching started as a hobby , thanks to new GPS 
technology - and the satellites to support them -came
'on line' . This also goes to show the attrition rate for
geocaches seems high to me....I only hope MY hidden
caches ( all 13 of them , currently ) have as good a
life as Beverly !

2 spicy italian beefs and a watermelon slushy !























We also found a couple wood ticks !

After that, we paid Tom , Judy & Ryan in
Libertyville a visit to check up on their remodeling updates
...all is well with

Kathy's nephew and family !







Packer fans living in Bear country

So here we are , at the end of March ....

- Hoping Kentucky wins the Final Four

hoops matchups (me , anyway...Kathy

chose North Carolina , who's out of it !)

- Amy ,Kevin, Jacob & Seeker are soon

 to move out of the house and into their new

 home in Oak Creek ( we'll miss 'em )

- Sheepshead group meets Here , this

weekend...bring your CASH !

 - I'm about to win that $500 million mega-

millions windfall....

Whoops ! -- sorry , too close to April Fools Day , folks !