Trip to Wisconsin: Wedding

The main purpose of my trip to Wisconsin was to go to Geoffrey and Theresa's wedding. It was a lovely wedding-- beautiful ceremony, fun reception, even good beer! And it was a good chance to catch up with some old friends. Here's the happy couple at the reception:



And me with the beautiful bride:


And here's some of the old gang...


Dana and I went to the Milwaukee Polish Fest (America's largest!) on Friday afternoon. It cost all of 25 cents to get in, and we got to hear a Polish-language rock band, and to see....

The POLKA POLICE! A bunch of older men with accordions... What could be better?

Trip to Wisconsin: Madison

Just back from my long weekend trip to Wisconsin. I went on Wednesday evening; on Thursday, I took a quick side trip to Madison, the state capital, home of the U. of Wisconsin, and a fine beer town (more on that coming soon in the beer blog).

Madison is quite lovely-- it sits in between two lakes (Mendota and Monona) and has lots of parks. It features a beautiful state capitol building, which is visible from much of the town by virtue of its location on a hill.

And oh, the beer... But for that, you'll have to wait.

I went into the Capitol building, which is very nice, and climbed all the way up to the observation deck, from which one can see all of Madison.

Madison currently has some public art scattered around downtown-- just as Washington DC had various painted panda sculptures, so Madison has, appropriately, cows.

Bunny Hunter

Unfortunately, the camera (/phone) just doesn't do justice to Moose's stalking. When he sees a bunny (or squirrel, or kitty-- in this case, a bunny just to the right of the little tree), he goes into his routine: tail straight out, feet placed very carefully, one step at a time, slow crouching advance... until he gets too close and the stalkee takes off. Then it's fulll speed running till he reaches the end of the leash, at which point my arm nearly comes out of its socket and the fun is over.

Mug Club Night at Upland

It had been a while since I'd been to Upland Brewery for their Wednesday night mug club special. And thanks to the cameraphone, I was able to snap a few pictures. Everyone misses Daniela and wished she had been there!

So say we all of us: Yaniv,

Ingrid,

And Chris.

Eric's new cameraphone

My snazzy new cellphone is the first one I've had that comes with a camera (and video, and MP3 player...). It's kind of fun to snap a picture at any time-- allows for more spontaneity, it seems. Anyway, one day recently, I took the dogs out in the front yard for a midday bathroom break. Moose decided that it was too nice of a day to just stand around, so he plopped down in the sun and refused to move....



These pictures didn't come out as well (cameraphone doesn't do too well in dim light), but.. Meet Sebastian, a friend's huge Doberman. Sebastian, despite his somewhat imposing appearance, is the biggest baby of a dog I think I've ever met. He demands to be petted at all times, nuzzling up against your leg, licking your face, whatever it takes.

Look at me-- how can you resist this face?


And, to finish where we started, this is the first picture I took with the new phone, and it is now my background image...

Play Date Fizzles

Play date #2 with the dogs from p&b's crew (even with an extra dog joining the crew) was a bit of a dud. It was just too hot for much running to occur, or so Moose appeared to think. It seemed to be more just 'lolling about' type weather (90 and humid).

Foo Dogs and Flower Pots

Just wanted to show a picture of our beautiful new guardian lions (aka Foo Dogs), protecting our front door from all enemies, spiritual and otherwise.

Dogs vs. Computers

Our dogs do not like our laptop computers-- they perceive (correctly) that the computer is a rival for attention. Each dog has its own way of dealing with this problem.

Moose's strategy is to sidle over to my chair and lay his muzzle on my keyboard. Fairly effective, in that it makes it difficult for me to do whatever I'm doing on the computer, and it makes it likely that I'll pet him to make him stop doing this. Win-win. (As this picture was being taken, of course, Moose lifted his head up to see what was going on, but you can use your imagination)


Raz's strategy is more direct.

Guest Menagerie Members

We came home one evening to find a visitor grazing in the back yard... She seemed quite unconcerned by our presence, though she did startle a little bit when I inadvertently took a flash picture (through the window glass-- didn't come out).

Soccer, anyone? World Cup's coming up!


Game On!