As a child my favorite thing to do when visiting my Auntie Helen was to play tourist. She lived at the seaside but instead of taking a little plastic bucket and spade to the beach we took the kitchen mop bucket and a trowel. :)

Today I played tourist in my own town. John, Drew's (and by extension my) college roommate is in town for two days. ( Read more... )

It rained ALL WEEKEND. I don't mean like in Seattle, England, or any other maritime climate where it drizzles, spits, and rains lightly. I mean monsoons. With tornado warnings and rain coming down in buckets complete with bucket. I've lived in my neighborhood for years but I've never seen puddles like this before. Puddle does not even begin to ( Read more... )

The guys convinced me to go to the Jonathan Coulton concert tonight. I was by far the least geeky-looking person in the place (I went straight from work, still had my pearls on), but I had a blast.

One of the highlights?
( Read more... )

Things I saw on my walk to work this morning:

Signs of Foreclosure
Damn. That's not supposed to happen in my neighborhood. We're a neighborhood of long-time elderly residents, rented 2-flats, and young people who buy estate sales. I was sure that the house in question was owned by people who had lived there 20 years. This morning there was a moving ( Read more... )

Dear pedestrian ( Read more... )

John Roach's column in this month's Madison Magazine is about religion and the presidential campaign. John Roach always makes me smile, but this month he makes me a think a little too.

This election I would like to vote for someone who doesn't shove his or her religion in my face and our policies. A leader who doesn't cater to the Christian mullahs ( Read more... )

Last night we had 5" of fluffy snow on top of our dense, frozen snow pack. Happily it is dry and fluffy -- easy to get off the car and easy to shovel. Last night when I got home from knitting I shoveled the driveway and then parked. This morning I went out very early to shovel again. My next door neighbor was just finishing up her driveway (and my ( Read more... )

I was just reading the paper and noticed this short article.  This is not the sort of thing you read every day!

According to UW Police Officer Gerard Pehler, he was assisting a fan who had fallen due to heat exhaustion when a bystander approached and asked him, "Can you do anything about two having sex in the women's restroom stall?"

"They're going ( Read more... )

I stopped at the Farmer's Market this afternoon after work. It was raining, so I figured that they would be short on customers. I bought asparagus, morel mushrooms, and a dozen eggs. At home they turned into a wonderful asparagus & mushroom omelet with arugula & carrot salad (from Saturday's market) on the side and home made bread. Yum!

This last weekend it snowed from Friday night until Monday noon. We got 15 inches of snow and 1 inch of water mixed into that. Now, here in the Upper Midwest we're good at clearing snow. I was not snowed in at all this weekend. But with temperatures hovering around freezing, the snow was really wet and really heavy. How heavy? The Wisconsin State ( Read more... )