New Year, new look

Frequent visitors will notice the new look to my blog. I'm playing around with the templates and such. Still studying the CSS, HTML and blog widgets. I've also created a signature below. I'm still trying to figure out a better archiving system. If anyone has ideas, let me know !

You are my Sunshine

It must be the end of the year. It's the only way to explain why I'm so nostalgic and mushy this past couple of days.

So here's a song that I heard all the time as a little girl. My Grama Boo would sing this to me. And even today, Grama Boo tells me "You are my sunshine". I'll tell ya, there is nothing like the love of a grandmother. Enjoy!

Memorable Dogs in one's life

"If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life."

I have almost always had a dog in my life. And the few times I went without a canine companion, I always felt I was missing a piece of me. So here's an rambling bit of an ode to my faithful companions through time.

Puffy (1971 - 1989)

My first dog and best friend for 18 years was a bitchy little garbage-eating tomboy of a 20-odd lb miniature poodle named Puffy. (No wise cracks on the name, I was 5 when I got her) I've never owned a dog more protective than this one - I know that she would have literally given her life to protect mine. My dad used to love to tease Puff by pretending to hit me. That poodle would come flying at him to bite and put herself between me and the imminent danger. Oh could she put on a show too with all the snapping and growling at anyone she thought was a danger to me (i.e. mailmen, friends, uncles, family) Trust me this came in handy during the very infrequent spankings my parents would try to inflict on me. Being an only child, Puff was my constant companion - her favorite sleeping spot was under the covers by my feet.

I never realized that chocolate was toxic to dogs, because it was Puff's preferred treat and the only candy she'd go after if left to her own devices. Being a white poodle she always had an orange mustache - because she and I loved spaghettios which we'd share for lunch. Puffy and I had so much in common including our aversion to small children. So imagine my surprise in 1987 when I had Ryann and ol' Puff dog decided that baby was okay. She'd even lay down on the floor next to the little baby carrier whenever I'd bring the Ryann over. Puff was very protective of Ryann too, it's like she knew that that baby needed to be protected and was part of the pack. Of course, Puff never warmed up to Todd.

Willy-Boy (1983-1995)

Willy was my parents' next door neighbors' dog and the silliest and most adorable yellow Labrador in the world. When Willy's mom threatened to divorce the dad because of Willy's massive amounts of shedding, the Dad called me to see if I would take Willy so his wife wouldn't leave him (I'm guessing there was more to the marriage problems than just some hair) So in 1990 Willy moved in with Todd, Ryann and me. Willy was the perfect companion for Ryann - as he was so gentle.

It wasn't until our second spawn, Raine, came along in 1992 that problems arose in paradise. Willy never adjusted to Raine being a member of the pack. And we had to be vigilant in keeping the two separate. And Raine, being the inquisitive 6 mo. old crawling little beast that she was, meant Willy was pretty good at leaving the room as soon as the precocious dog-chaser crawl in. Willy didn't take kindly to having his hair or tail pulled or his space invaded. But what he absolutely could not tolerate was sharing his dog food with Raine who acquired a pretty strong taste for the kibble. This meant Willy was never fed when Raine was home.

Unfortunately, the inevitable happened one morning when I was packing the car to go north. Not thinking, I threw some food down for Willy - ran stuff to the car - came to the backdoor just as the screaming started. - The backdoor had locked, I couldn't get in and all I could see through the window was Willy going after Raine. I could see blood and the dog and baby freaking out. I broke a window open, crawled into the house, ran for the baby to get her away from the cujo-dog. Fortunately, the damage was limited to a bite over Raine's left eye. Which made her look even more fierce and scrappy than before.

After that eventful day, I decided that Raine ranked higher than Willy in the pack and Willy had to go. I called his old Dad to see if there was anyway he could take Willy back. And as fate is wont to do, he was just finalizing the divorce from his evil ex-wife and was absolutely thrilled to death to be able to get Willy back. He told me the worst mistake he ever made was "getting rid of Willy and not the wife in the first place".

Tasha (1994-2004)

This was our first German Shepherd, Tasha Yar. She was our Chief Security Officer (Trekkie fans) and once we had her, the break-ins to our house by the neighborhood punks ceased. Tasha was a great companion and a really fun dog to train as she was so smart. She had a great prey-drive so finding things was her favorite game. We'd make her wait, go hide a toy and let her find it. Which she always did!

The first year we moved to Holland in 1998, we left our faithful friend with my parents back in Madison. The idea being that we'd get settled and then have her flown over to us - however, my mother had different plans, and will admit that she never planned to give Tasha back to us. I had taken her grandchildren across the ocean, she was keeping my dog.

Tasha was spoiled rotten by my parents and treated like a family member. Tash had a great life with my folks. When we moved back to Madison in 2001 - Tasha decided to stay with my parents. She had become very attached to my Mom and they were inseparable. Fortunately, we could visit often. Sadly in 2004, Tasha was put to sleep when the cancer had progressed to the point of no relief. It was the one of the saddest days in my life.

Cita - (1999) and Teiko (2005)

Cita is just a reincarnated snottier version of Puffy. Swear to God. Cita hates strangers, loves chocolate, is bitchy and fiercely protective of her small circle of loved ones. Cita carries a Dutch Dog Passport as that is where she was born. When she was a pup - we took her everywhere across Europe, including restaurants, events, even the ocean. I think we overwhelmed her - because now she hates to swim, hates loud noises and can't stand a crowd of people. Cita is happiest when the house is quiet and she is curled up next to Raine or me . She basically hates all other dogs and tolerates only a few humans and necessary canines.

Now, Teiko is the Mama's boy. This dog means the world to me. I remember the first few weeks with him as a puppy, it was just like having a kid. I was so absolutely in love! This dog has such a sweet disposition and will do anything for the Mama. A totally an awesome dog.

Life is just that much richer with good friends.

December 2007 Round-up

Thought I better put up one more blog entry before 2007 ends. Here's a bit of catch-up on the family! Ryann is home for a couple of weeks before she goes back the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities to finish up her junior year. Exciting news is that Ryann will be traveling to West Africa in May for a couple months to work on a research project with one of her African Studies Professors. She plans to do research in either Senegal or Guinea. This depending on whether civil war breaks out in Guinea or not. (You can imagine how excited this makes me....) Update: 1/4/08: Ryann reports a straight 4.0 GPA for the semester....Yeah!

Raine got her dream present this year - a PlayStation 3 with the game Rock Band. - All I can say is that it is loud. Really loud. Tried playing the drums last night while Raine sang. Pretty hilarious.

On Saturday night (Dec. 22)- we braved the heavy rain and drove to Paul's Winter Solstice party. This is a great Wisconsin friendly event- complete with hand-made cheese, beer and wine made by guests along with a complete smorgasbord of food. Every year Paul brings out his homemade beers for friends. We even were able to keep a solstice fire burning during the deluge. It finally changed over to ice just as we pulled into home driveway at about 1:30 am.

Had a great Christmas at Uncle Bear's house on X-mas Eve with my family. On X-mas day MK and the kids were over for Christmas Spaghetti dinner.

Todd and I are going to go test drive a Toyota Camry Hybrid. Todd wants to trade in his car while there is still good value on it. Anyone interested in a very fast Infinity G35?

New Years will be celebrated with friends here in Madison - our friends, Ankur and Ashwini will be hosting a BYOB and DJ Music party . They have rented a really cool little east side coffee shop for the event.

So that's where we are this final week of 2007. I wish everyone a happy new year and to my dutch friends - Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar!!!!!

Rylee's sure cure to the common cold

So my man is sick, really miserable. And anyone who lives with a man - knows that level of sickness! The world will end shortly. What do you do? You make chicken soup!

And, this is what I personally want when I'm feeling under the weather - so everyone under my care gets the same treatment.

The steam of the soup with thyme, rosemary, oregano and sage will cure your sick loved one no matter what in about 1 week. And guess what? This cost is about $10 to make a whole pan of loving cure with extra healthy leftovers. That and about 5 days of basic misery.

Or go to a doctor and pay $205 for the office visit for the doc to say take it easy and stick to liquids.....Want a U.S. medical cure?

I left work at 5:45, went to the 2 stores - to get groceries and jaegermeister, picked up Raine, got home, prepared everything, and had a cosmo, (because you know, you have to take care of yourself!) and managed to make a homemade dinner by 7:30 pm. Here's my recipe! - (Okay, this looks complicated, the timing's not quite right, but its not, really difficult, trust me!)

Rylee's sure cure for the Common Cold - Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken (buy on sale or use parts which is ever cheaper!)
• 1 whole onion (chopped)
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• 1/4 Head celery (the more greens the better!!!!!)
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic
• Fresh or dried herbs of your choice - garlic, (white pepper, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, bay leaf, savory, pepper and salt) - This is the HEALTH magic!- come make it with ME to learn the measurements!)
• 2-4 cups of chicken stock or bouillon (or whatever poultry stock you have on hand - I used duck stock because that was what was in the freezer.)
• Salt and pepper to taste - depending on the amount you need. (personally, I let my eaters decide their own sodium. so I don't put much in the cooking!)
• Various seasonings (your personal cure: savory, chile, garlic - whatever is your magical ingredient! - that's the LOVE and ENERGY that cures your loved one!)
• 1 bag (10 oz) dried extra wide egg noodles.

Directions:

1. In a 5 qt Dutch Oven, pan sear your whole chicken in about 1 tbs of olive oil. Turned regularly. About 10 minutes
2. Remove whole chicken from pan
3. In same pan, sautee all fresh ingredients (onion, carrots, celery, garlic) for about 5 minutes
4. Add 1/4 cup of water or white wine to deglaze the pan which brings up the fond (the good stuff on the bottom of the pan). Scrape bottom of pan.
5. Add whole chicken back in pan -
6. Add 4 cups of chicken boullion - cook for 20 minutes - on high simmer.
7. Remove whole chicken, cool. - 10 minutes or until cool to the hands. Chop and set aside.
8. Add fresh herbs and extra LOVE or ENERGY spices to soup stock. Cook on a high simmer for 30 minutes.
9. Start water boiling for noodles. (10 minutes) - same timing as herbs in soup. Bring to boil. Cook to noodle directions.
10. Turn off Stock when you add noodles to boiling water.
11. Add chopped chicken to soup stock -
12. Let noodles finish, drain, let stock stew for a few more minutes.
13. Put noodles in bowl, add soup mix to bowl to individual request. Let each season to desire.
14. Heal!

I think we've had enough snow now

I think I've had enough snow now. We had another six inches yesterday - This is the most snow - this early that we've had in wisconsin for years. We're still trying to figure out the global warming angle to all this snow.... The snow-encrusted patio furniture picture was taken off the back deck right as the sun was dawning this morning.

But all this snow means that ski season has arrived as well. Last night, Raine and Todd headed up to Cascade mt. for the first ski run of the winter. It was Raine's hella lucky day, as she got her christmas present early - new ski boots and a helmet.

Soon they will be heading to Mt. Bohemia in the UP for some serious extreme skiing. I'll take a nice green/blue path any day with a chalet where I can get hot chocolate after each piste run.....

Be careful what you wish for....

Okay, so you know the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for"? Well, back in November, Todd and the boys went up to the property in the keweenah pennisula for the deer hunt and my dad went to the old family farm outside of Reedsburg.

I was really hoping for venison since we had one package of steak left in the freezer. So I told everyone "good luck" and to bring me back some deer. Well after the hunting weekend, nothing. Todd missed a buck, my father wasn't having any luck - so it looked like 2008 was going to be a long year without venison.

But...towards the end of the 10-day hunting season, Todd gets a call from Al to get his butt up to Stevens Point to process some deer. And my dad calls with news that he got a buck and doe. HooHoo! The next think I know, i've got about 125lbs of venison packed in my freezer! Yeah. Basically we don't have to buy meat for the next several months.

Here's a link to a blog entry about venison steak that I wrote in July 2007

Chicago is my kind of town

Went to Chicago on Tuesday for the annual German Christkindlmarkt - Christmas Market - with Raine's German class. We spent the morning on Daley Plaza visiting our favorite booths and buying our annual Christmas ornaments. Of course we had to have wurst and potato pancakes for lunch!. After browsing the fun stalls of hand made German and world gifts we crossed the street for another annual trek - our trip to Marshall Fields on State Street. We purists refuse to call it Macys, it will never be Macys.....
After doing the downtown - we headed over to the Brookfield Zoo for a couple of hours. Last year we never got to the wolves, so this year that was where we headed first. A bit anti-climatic if you ask me....the wolves were looking a little too well fed and lethargic. Criminy, Teiko looks like a better wolf than these guys.....
To warm up we went into the South American Aquarium Building - Raine got a cool shot of some type of shining grouper'ish fish through the glass as it zoomed by. I took the shot of the star fish on the glass.

December Projects

Pancakes: This morning, (Dec 1) I'll be flipping pancakes for the Northside Business Association Breakfast with Santa. Last year we served almost 300 meals at the Esquire Club in just a couple of hours. All the proceeds last year ($1,200) went to two food pantries on the north side of town.

Christmas Lights: Thankfully, Raine and I got all the Xmas lights up on the house last weekend before the snowstorm. Today will be the official lighting of the house... As Raine says, the holiday season doesn't start until December 1. So no xmas lights until that date. This year we've converted to all LED lights. Not sure yet if I like the blue-tinge of the white lights, but we'll see....

New Flooring: We are getting rid of the horrid white carpeting in the downstairs this weekend. In its place we are putting down a "wood" floor. The flooring is called adura and it looks like wood and comes in planks. However it's made of vinyl and is waterproof - a good thing to have in a house that sits along a marsh.

Update 12/07: It's done! Here's a photo of Todd laying the flooring on Saturday night. It took about 32 hours of labor to rip out the old carpet, prep the concrete and lay the new floor - Todd is a rock star! And the floor looks absolutely awesome!

Let it snow....

All Right! Let Winter begin.....

The first big snow storm of the season is predicted to hit southern Wisconsin starting around noon on Saturday. The meterologists are threatening promising us a little bit of everything; snow, ice and maybe even thundersnow (thunder and snow together, how cool is that?). Will provide photos of anything exciting over the weekend.

12/07 Update: That was an intense storm - By Sunday morning we have over 6 inches of snow with the first 3 inches being heavy icy crud. It took over 2 hours to blow and shovel the sidewalk and part of the driveway. The temps then went down to 0 degrees to really harden everything. I've been chipping at the iceblocks in the driveway ever since. And during the week we've received another 7 inches of snow - It is definitely a winter wonderland in good ol' Wisconsin this year.

K-Bird and Teiko

Well the leaves finally fell this week. And it made for some gorgeous photos. At least I think so. Mom brought Katte over to get some autumn photos. But of course, Katte was nervous and it was difficult to get a good shot. Teiko, on the other hand, being the little ham that he is, made the shot of the day. This was suppose to be Katte, but she was too afraid to lay down, thinking my mom was going to leave her. But I still got a nice little picture of the K-bird sitting right against Mom.

Anyway, here's the link to my shutterfly account, if anyone (Mom?) wants to order photos.

November blooming Delphiniums

Imagine my surprise to find late blooming Delphiniums in the backyard today. They bloomed in June of this year as well. This is the second year this plant has given us two blooms within one season. Cool.

Generations of Family Ties

I've been doing some genealogy work with my Grama Boo. I've been documenting a lot of her history and I've scanned in dozens of photos from her family lines. Above is a sweet little photo of my great grandmother Helen, me and Grama boo and my mom taken when I was about 3 months old. Somewhere around here is a five generation photo with Ryann taken a couple of years before Grandma Helen's death. (I'll post that one as soon as I find it)

Update: Found a 5 generation photo taken when Ryann was just a couple of weeks old.

Varsity Letters

Yeah!!!! As a sophomore, Raine earned her varsity letter in Golf this year. She was awarded it last night at the team dinner. In addition she was also recognized as an All-State Academic Athlete with a 3.7 GPA Wow! Raine shaved 22 points off her 9 hole average during the season. Way to go!

Halloween is over for another year

While some families take the upcoming holiday season seriously and fanatically, in our house it's all about Halloween. Decorations for the house include skeletons, orange lights, tombstones and cobwebs, talking heads and scary music. And Raine, being our in-house aficionado for all things scary, was in charge. This year not only did she decorate the house, she also baked and decorated dozens of cookies in Halloween motifs. Last night, she and her buds dressed up and scared the bejezus out of the neighborhood kids coming to our front door. And the neighborhood kids loved it.

New Mexico - the land of enchantment

We had a wonderful trip to New Mexico - first we attended ARIN's annual public policy meeting. ARIN, the American Registry of Internet Numbers - provide the IP addresses for north american requests. Our company 5Nines is a member of this group.

Then we met up with our good friends from college - David and Tracy who have been living in Albuquerque for 17 years (which I still can't believe...) and travelled north to Sante Fe with them. We tried to get to Ojo Calientes mineral water spa and arrived 20 minutes before closing. And bless their hearts, they let us in to soak how ever briefly and it felt wonderful.

For a couple of days, Todd and I spent the time exploring the natural beauty of northern New Mexico. We hiked around the Rio Grande Gorge, visited ancient peublos, drove through the mountains, and even bought a little turquoise. The trip ended to soon and we were back in Madison before we knew it.

Below are about 40 pictures of New Mexico. If you want to look at the whole gallery just double click on the black screen - you'll be taken to my picasa gallery where you can view individual images.

The Land of Enchantment

Todd and I are in Albuquerque, New Mexico this week. Right now we are at David and Tracy's, our friends from college, having breakfast. Soon we'll be heading up to Sante Fe for the night. Where we'll be going to a geothermal spa called Ojo Caliente for some natural baths under the stars.

Yesterday, Tracy took us to the Acoma Pueblo. This pueblo is built on top of a sandstone mesa and has been inhabited for several hundred years. They do not allow photos to be taken unless a permit is purchased. Suffice it to say, it was amazing. We took a guided tour of the pueblo with a Acamo named Gary. We saw some beautiful pottery and met some very nice people. Will report more later.

The taste of Champagne

So last weekend Todd and I popped the cork on one of the last bottles of champagne we bought back to the US after living in Europe for three years. This particular bottle of Taittinger was purchased at a Carre Four grocery store in Nancy, France for the equivalent of $21.65.

Knowing that the Euro was coming, and our days in Europe were ending we took all of our francs to France for one last hurrah weekend. We had about $300 worth of francs, so we found a grocery store and brought around 20-25 bottles of French wine and champagne. It was one of the best purchases we ever made. With our household being packed up for shipping, these boxes were labeled "Kitchen Cooking Supplies" for the official manifest.

You can see on the picture that we had written the price we paid because we were so amazed at how cheap it was. Not sure if the same thing would happen with the dollar being so weak against the Euro but back in 2001 it was a field day!

Revisiting Reims, France

One of my favorite cities is Reims, France. It has history everywhere you look, roman ruins, a medieval center, the first cathedral I ever visited (which almost turned me religious, as I was so moved by the experience of walking through the nave and being overwhelmed at the ability of humankind to build such a monument by hand...) But my favorite part if Reims is that it is in the heart of the Champagne region.

Above are photos we took when we visited Reims in 1998 or so. I can't believe how young the girls are in the photo. If you'd like to see more photos from France and when we lived in Europe visit the first website I ever built in 1999. This website chronicles our life living in holland from 1998-2001. The site still functions nicely and holds up well after 8 years -

The last colors of summer

Oh my, It's been almost three weeks since my last post. I can't remember anything really big happening, but at the same time I have glimpses of lots of little things occurring like visits to Grama Boos, Spaghetti fest, the start of fall yard work, fall clothes shopping. The past month has just whirled by. Pictured above is a rudbeckia capturing the last summer rays. I also like the composition below of the coneflower and frilly white flowers. Both photos were beautifully taken by Raine.

Grocery lists

I try to make lists when I go to the grocery store. And for the most part I stick to buying what I've already written down. But this week I didn't have a any notepaper, was in a hurry and I needed a bunch of stuff to restock the pantry. So I whipped out my trusty digital camera and I took pictures of the empty spice jars and under my kitchen sink to remind me what I needed when I went at the store. (below: dish detergent, windex)

If you are like me and type faster than you can write, another way is send a text message to your cell phone with the grocery list.

Soufflé gone bad

This is what was suppose to happen: A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

This is what we created: Trust me, we analyzed this to death. The end observation: the pan was too big for the contents. We should have bake this in smaller pans. The taste was all right - but we all know the big fluffly presentation is what it's all about....We will try again!

Let the building begin

Todd and the guys (Paul, Eric and Al) went to the U.P. this weekend in part to check out the Beaton property. The building permit is posted and the concrete foundation was poured last week for the cabin and sauna. We're now another step closer to the northwoods cabin. Click here to see more photosThe boys then headed on up to the Keweenah property to play work on the new electricity and gas connections to the trusty trailer on the property. Aside from 16ft tall tree stands for deer hunting season, the guys also dammed up Gay Lake and now have a water source from one of the above ground springs on the property.

Ryann's new digs

Went to the Twin Cities on Saturday to see Ryann's new place for this school year. What an awesome little house just minutes away from the campus by bicycle. You can see a slideshow of house pictures here

Also found her a bed and desk as well as loaded her up with groceries. Went out to dinner on Saturday night with the usual suspects, Ryann, Margo, Ryan Dean and Raine. We ate at a new little restaurant called Kilimanjaro - Saturday's special was goat stew. The stew was fantastic with great seasonings. You dont' find goat at Copps. I can tell you that.

Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown Kick it!

Beef Stroganoff - a family favorite

Apologies to our non-meat eating friends, just scroll past this entry. During our last supper (before Ryann left for school) Todd taught Ryann the art of making Beef Stroganoff, a family favorite. Made with tenderloin, mushrooms, red wine, beef stock, whole mustard and sourcream, this dish is just too good to pass up. Poor Teiko didn't stand a chance getting a piece of the meal. But he sure gave it a good try asking Todd for some leftovers (of which there was none as evidenced by the empty plate....)

The last hurrahs of summer

Todd, Raine and I got a nice treat over the labor day weekend. Frank offered us his cabin. Raine has spent a lot of time up at Beacon Lake helping Frank with the myriad of projects that always need to be done before opening the cabin for the summer. But I don't think Todd or I have been to this little piece of paradise in a couple of years, since we spend most of our time further north at our property in Michigan.

Here's a little slide show of our our weekend. You can either watch it here or click on the images to see bigger versions and captions. (Still working with the picasa webalbum features....)

Ryann has left the building

Ryann has gone back to the Twin Cities for the start of her junior year at the University of Minnesota. Mama sad. Well, not really sad, because it was nice have my messy kid back in the nest for the month of August. Messy, meaning, she leaves stuff everywhere. Bowls, dishes, clothes. You name it, Ryann has left it laying around....One of her cooking feats while home was her famous pizza night. She has got the dough and fresh made pizza sauce down pat. Wow! That kid could make a living opening a pizza joint somewhere. Friends come out of the woodwork when word goes out that Ryann will be pizza making. Here's a photo of the Pizza Meister putting the finishing touches on her sauce (made with fresh herbs from the momma's garden!)

A Sad Day

Our wonderful next door neighbor, Francis (Doc) Adams was killed by lightening this morning at the Odana Golf Course in Madison. I am numb. Doc has been our neighbor for six years and was always available to give gardening as well as great neighborly advice. We will miss him dearly.

Life is lived in the moment, today! Grab it, embrace and learn from it. And make sure your people that matter to you know it!

Lights out at home

Wednesday was a night without electricity as our neighborhood was plunged into darkness for about 6 hours after heavy rains and lightning took us off the power grid. Being the ever resourceful folks that we are, we managed to make spaghetti and meatballs by candle light. You can do quite a bit with a gas stove and 25 candles. Power came back on right before we sat down to eat.

It's funny how you don't even think about electricity until you don't have it. Raine called me on my way home from work to remind me not to try the garage door opener. I said "well, duh". And Raine counters with "Well, Dad tried to open the garage, just wanted to make sure you didn't make the same stupid mistake..." Thinking I was so much wiser it wasn't until another hour or two without lights, that I decided to check Channel 3 online for a weather update. Duh.

Alice Cooper Rocks

Due to some unforeseen technical difficulties, my post about Alice Cooper is coming a week late. (I misplaced my USB cable...) We did get to see Alice at the Dodge County Fairgrounds and had a great time. Alice is timeless and his band played hard and tight. The fairgrounds were surrounded by cornfields which must have been really something for Alice and entourage to come into. The crowd was all ages from bikers to grunge. And the beer was $2 a can. Can't beat the price. Alice sang all of the favorites: Eighteen, School's out for summer, No more mister nice guy. Raine got some really fun video using the camera. When I figure out how to show a 150MB video, I'll post it....

Heading to the county fair to see Alice Cooper

File this under "Only in Wisconsin". Todd and I heard the other night from a Barrymore contact that Alice Cooper will be performing at 8pm tonight at the Dodge County Fair. So we're heading to Beaver Dam as I speak to see the classic Rocker! (even though he's a republican and born-again christian.....) Todd says "Regardless, we still think it's going to be a great show!" Will report more tomorrow.

Awesome new photo album

Found this awesome photo gallery tool from Picassa. It takes a bit of getting used to it but I really like the slideshow function.

The Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival

The usual gang of suspects - Todd, Eric, Paul (the brewmaster), MK and I were joined by newbies Ankur and Ashwini as we spent a gloriously hot and steamy day quaffing samples of beers from over 200 breweries and brewpubs from across the midwest! The 21st festival did not disappoint.

Favorite beers this year? Mine were Brugge's Old Dog Cru and Tripel de Ripple, and Two Brothers Brewing Company's Domain Du Page Real Ale (from the ale tent). Our resident brewmaster Paul said " I loved the Huma Lupa Licious from Shorts brewing Company, Bellaire MI An incredible hops explosion, intense, powerful, aromatic. Not a beer for the weak. I'm going to have to make a road trip to Bellaire." Ankurs added his two cents by agreeing with me on the Old Dog Cru as well as Paul's vote for the Huma lumpa licious and adds local favorite -
Lake Louie Brewery's Brother Tim’s Tripel

Pygmy Elephants in Borneo

It's not often that a new species of animal this large is "discovered". The Borneo Pygmy Elephant , a new sub-species of the Asian elephant, was confirmed by the World Wildlife Fund. They are now tracking many of them to learn more.