Once again it is that time of year. That time where I have to sit out in the hot sun for 4-5 hours so I can sake off a spot for the Menomonee Falls Independence Day parade. We were hoping that this year we could skip the parade, but since Sarah is a cheerleader, they are walking in the parade so we figured we'd have to be there to drop her off and pick her up anyway. Plus, some of the other cheer parents wanted to all sit together, so I said I would go sit out again.
This year I managed to snag a large spot right near the end of the parade route. It's nice because once the parade is done, we just have to turn our chairs around to see the fireworks. There will be no worrying about having to go look for a good spot to see the fireworks, because we'll have one of the best spots already. Bonus!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Guitartown - Waukesha
We were looking for something to do last Sunday afternoon since our schedules were pretty much free for a change, so I asked Kris and the girls if they wanted to drive out to see the Gibson Guitartown displays. Gibson Guitars is sponsoring an art project this summer in Waukesha, Les Paul's hometown, that will feature 30 painted guitars that will be on display for the next three years. There will be 10, 10 ft. tall displays outside in Downtown Waukesha and then another 20 playable guitars at various business in downtown Waukesha.
Playing the guitars would be cool if I knew how to play them, so we decided we'd just drive out and look at the displays they had around town. I printed out the map to drive around and find them all, but in the end we only saw 7 of the 10. I have no idea where the other three were, but they weren't where the map said they were. We could have driven around more, but it was 90ish degrees and all the starting and stopping was a little annoying. Normally I would have just parked and we would have walked through the downtown, but like I said, it was just way too hot.
The girls liked the "Gilded Garden" and "The Founder" best, followed up by the Hummingbird one. It's amazing the cool things that are right in our own backyard.
If you want to see all the guitars, even the playable ones that are housed inside business around downtown Waukesha, go to the link above and click on their Flickr page.
Playing the guitars would be cool if I knew how to play them, so we decided we'd just drive out and look at the displays they had around town. I printed out the map to drive around and find them all, but in the end we only saw 7 of the 10. I have no idea where the other three were, but they weren't where the map said they were. We could have driven around more, but it was 90ish degrees and all the starting and stopping was a little annoying. Normally I would have just parked and we would have walked through the downtown, but like I said, it was just way too hot.
"Carlos y la rana Azteca"
"The Gilded Garden"
"The Founder"
"Meow, Meow, Moon, Meow"
"Red Hot Red"
"Harmonious Heronymouse Bush of Beasts"
"Hummingbird"
The girls liked the "Gilded Garden" and "The Founder" best, followed up by the Hummingbird one. It's amazing the cool things that are right in our own backyard.
If you want to see all the guitars, even the playable ones that are housed inside business around downtown Waukesha, go to the link above and click on their Flickr page.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Beer Slide
We are sitting home watching the Brewers beat the Diamondbacks right now and after Ryan Braun's second home run of the night I said something about Bernie going down the slide into a mug of beer. Alison turns and says, no dad, it's the Kalahari Splash Zone.
I told her I know, but they need to bring back the giant beer mug for Bernie to slide into. I feel sorry for anyone who never saw Bernie go down the slide from his chalet (not that stupid dugout) and into the beer mug while the barrel flashed "GO BREWERS".
I looked on youtube, but all I could find was snippets in the Come See What's Brewing song. So here it is. Bernie leads it off. Enjoy.
I told her I know, but they need to bring back the giant beer mug for Bernie to slide into. I feel sorry for anyone who never saw Bernie go down the slide from his chalet (not that stupid dugout) and into the beer mug while the barrel flashed "GO BREWERS".
I looked on youtube, but all I could find was snippets in the Come See What's Brewing song. So here it is. Bernie leads it off. Enjoy.
Summerfest 2012
Thursday night Kris and I had a night out by going to Summerfest. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, go read the wikipedia link. Back in the day we used to go spend half a day there listening to the music, eating, and drinking beer. Now, it's strictly the music, and the days of spending an entire day down at Maier Festival Park are long gone.
This year we went to see my favorite band, the Foo Fighters. I can't tell you how much I wanted to see these guys. Every time they came around in the last 10 years or so, I had something going on, or I had to work... something prevented me from seeing them. this year, I figured, no more, I'm going to see them.
As usual, we got their early so we had a place to park that wasn't to far away and we weren't fighting the crowds to get to the amphitheater. The opening band was pretty lame and we put up with them for an hour. They were called the Silversun Pickups, and while they might have been nice for a $5 cover to get into a bar with live music on a weekend, I wouldn't have paid much more to actually go see them alone.
The Foo Fighters were spectacular. They played for two and a half hours, and the music was non stop. There were very few breaks in between songs, they just played. It was really pretty awesome. If I had to say, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to if not THE best.
Our seats were pretty decent, though I had quite a time getting them. The day they went on sale, I got online to get them and ended up in Section 8, Row T, and that was maybe 90 seconds after they went on sale. If you get any farther back than section 8 you may as well skip it. That's just my opinion though. I figured I should be happy I even got the tickets. The Monday before the show the director of Summerfest was on the radio saying good seats were still available, that sometimes extra tickets are released the week of the show when they know the exact configuration of the stage, or seats that the band may have been holding back for one reason or another are released for sale to the general public. So I checked every day to see if I could get better seats. Every now and then a couple seats popped up in a better section a few rows closer, but they weren't a drastic improvement. Then the day of the show, Thursday morning, I checked and there were a couple of seats in a better section (more toward the middle of the stage) and they were in the first row (no, not in front of the stage but in the first row of the next grouping of seats - the yellow section if you know the Marcus layout).
So now I had two sets of seats. I knew a couple of people who wanted to go, but didn't have seats and didn't want to sit up on the grass, so I figured I would be able to get rid of the original tickets easily, even if it was short notice. Well I was wrong. Everyone I asked said they couldn't go for one reason or another. Kris and I asked everyone we knew. I even went next door and asked our new neighbor if he wanted them (at a discounted price) or if he had any friends who might be interested, but we had no takers. We took them along in the event we saw someone outside the park who was looking for tickets. But no luck.
We got into the amphitheater and were walking to our seats and I said something to Kris about them as we were walking in. We were looking up at the lawn section and Kris said we should just go give them to someone up on the grass so they wouldn't go to waste. And I thought, yeah, why not. Kris said something about how cool it would have been when she was 22 or 23 and someone would have just walked up to her and given her tickets down in the reserved section for a concert she really wanted to see, so I thought, sure, I'll do it. As we were walking in we saw a couple sitting up on the grass right against the railing. They looked hot and tired, like they had been there all day. I know that in order to get in free you used to have to get there right when the park opened. I don't know if that is still the case, but I do know the GA seats go very fast (I think they give out wristbands now) so it is a good bet they had been walking around for a few hours at least.
So I grabbed the tickets from Kris and walked up the stairs to the grass, and said, "excuse me, how would you guys like to go sit up in the reserved sections?" The looked at me like I was crazy. I said, I had an extra set of tickets down in Section 8 and I couldn't find anyone to use them, and I didn't want them to go to waste so if they wanted them they could have them. They said sort od skeptically, "OK, what's the catch". I said, "No catch, here you go. Enjoy the show", and handed them the tickets. They took them, looked at the tickets and said "Oh my god, thank you so much." Then Kris and I went down to our seats to wait for the opening band.
All in all it was a pretty good night. We felt good for doing something nice for someone, and saw one of the best concerts I will ever see in my life. So I guess it'll be a show I won't forget anytime soon and I hope for that couple we gave the tickets to that it was a memorable show too.
So anyway... we had a pretty good view of the stage from our new seats, right down the aisle. I smuggled Sarah's camera in and it doesn't have a great zoom on it so the flash doesn't help, and in order to get a good shot in the dark you have to hold it VERY steady. Luckily I did manage to get a couple of good shots.
This year we went to see my favorite band, the Foo Fighters. I can't tell you how much I wanted to see these guys. Every time they came around in the last 10 years or so, I had something going on, or I had to work... something prevented me from seeing them. this year, I figured, no more, I'm going to see them.
As usual, we got their early so we had a place to park that wasn't to far away and we weren't fighting the crowds to get to the amphitheater. The opening band was pretty lame and we put up with them for an hour. They were called the Silversun Pickups, and while they might have been nice for a $5 cover to get into a bar with live music on a weekend, I wouldn't have paid much more to actually go see them alone.
The Foo Fighters were spectacular. They played for two and a half hours, and the music was non stop. There were very few breaks in between songs, they just played. It was really pretty awesome. If I had to say, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to if not THE best.
Our seats were pretty decent, though I had quite a time getting them. The day they went on sale, I got online to get them and ended up in Section 8, Row T, and that was maybe 90 seconds after they went on sale. If you get any farther back than section 8 you may as well skip it. That's just my opinion though. I figured I should be happy I even got the tickets. The Monday before the show the director of Summerfest was on the radio saying good seats were still available, that sometimes extra tickets are released the week of the show when they know the exact configuration of the stage, or seats that the band may have been holding back for one reason or another are released for sale to the general public. So I checked every day to see if I could get better seats. Every now and then a couple seats popped up in a better section a few rows closer, but they weren't a drastic improvement. Then the day of the show, Thursday morning, I checked and there were a couple of seats in a better section (more toward the middle of the stage) and they were in the first row (no, not in front of the stage but in the first row of the next grouping of seats - the yellow section if you know the Marcus layout).
So now I had two sets of seats. I knew a couple of people who wanted to go, but didn't have seats and didn't want to sit up on the grass, so I figured I would be able to get rid of the original tickets easily, even if it was short notice. Well I was wrong. Everyone I asked said they couldn't go for one reason or another. Kris and I asked everyone we knew. I even went next door and asked our new neighbor if he wanted them (at a discounted price) or if he had any friends who might be interested, but we had no takers. We took them along in the event we saw someone outside the park who was looking for tickets. But no luck.
We got into the amphitheater and were walking to our seats and I said something to Kris about them as we were walking in. We were looking up at the lawn section and Kris said we should just go give them to someone up on the grass so they wouldn't go to waste. And I thought, yeah, why not. Kris said something about how cool it would have been when she was 22 or 23 and someone would have just walked up to her and given her tickets down in the reserved section for a concert she really wanted to see, so I thought, sure, I'll do it. As we were walking in we saw a couple sitting up on the grass right against the railing. They looked hot and tired, like they had been there all day. I know that in order to get in free you used to have to get there right when the park opened. I don't know if that is still the case, but I do know the GA seats go very fast (I think they give out wristbands now) so it is a good bet they had been walking around for a few hours at least.
So I grabbed the tickets from Kris and walked up the stairs to the grass, and said, "excuse me, how would you guys like to go sit up in the reserved sections?" The looked at me like I was crazy. I said, I had an extra set of tickets down in Section 8 and I couldn't find anyone to use them, and I didn't want them to go to waste so if they wanted them they could have them. They said sort od skeptically, "OK, what's the catch". I said, "No catch, here you go. Enjoy the show", and handed them the tickets. They took them, looked at the tickets and said "Oh my god, thank you so much." Then Kris and I went down to our seats to wait for the opening band.
All in all it was a pretty good night. We felt good for doing something nice for someone, and saw one of the best concerts I will ever see in my life. So I guess it'll be a show I won't forget anytime soon and I hope for that couple we gave the tickets to that it was a memorable show too.
So anyway... we had a pretty good view of the stage from our new seats, right down the aisle. I smuggled Sarah's camera in and it doesn't have a great zoom on it so the flash doesn't help, and in order to get a good shot in the dark you have to hold it VERY steady. Luckily I did manage to get a couple of good shots.
Note the guitar that Dave Grohl is using in the last couple of shots. It is the checkered guitar of one Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick (who is playing Summerfest next Saturday). He explained that Rick Nielsen was letting him use it , and told a story about how Cheap Trick was one of the reasons he wanted to become a musician. They even played a refrain of Surrender. It as just one of the many memorable moments from the show.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Car Wash
Since Sarah is now on the JV cheerleading squad, summer means the start of fundraising season. This summer, the cheer squad will be spending select Saturday's washing cars to raise money for their competition fees and expenses. Saturday was the first one and Sarah volunteered for it. I volunteered to be a parent supervisor for the second half of the day.
Sarah had to be there at 8:30 to start setting things up and getting ready for the car wash to start at 9:00, which was fine because Alison had to be at school at the same time for a girl scout outing. Kris and I took the opportunity to get errands done before I had to go sit and watch the girls wash cars. We drove past them around 10:30 or so and saw Sarah holding a sign on a street corner about a block away, and as we drove through the stoplight at the intersection we saw some bad news. There was another car wash being held right around the corner from them. This one was FREE. It was being held by the local Baptist Church, for whatever reason.
I thought that was pretty crummy to do to a group of kids who were trying to raise money for their team. But I told Kris, anyone who was going to pull in to have their car washed by a group of high school girls was doing it to support the team, not because they wanted a first class car wash. Personally, if I was choosing between the two, I would go to the cheerleader one. I don't trust the Baptists, but that's just me. They are sort of weird, and I would question why they are doing it for free. If they want to do it as some sort of service to the community, I think there are much better ways to help people than by washing their cars. So like I said... WEIRD!
When I got there around noon, they were doing pretty well. There was a steady stream of cars, one or two at a time. And after sitting there for three hours, I thought the girls did pretty good. Twice there was a stretch of about 10 minutes or so when there wasn't a car being washed. The girls did have a few people drive in and stiff them, presumably because they thought the girls were part of the Baptist project going on around the corner. But overall they made pretty well. They netted $625 for the day. Who knows how much more they would have gotten had the Baptists not been there taking business from them.
Sarah had to be there at 8:30 to start setting things up and getting ready for the car wash to start at 9:00, which was fine because Alison had to be at school at the same time for a girl scout outing. Kris and I took the opportunity to get errands done before I had to go sit and watch the girls wash cars. We drove past them around 10:30 or so and saw Sarah holding a sign on a street corner about a block away, and as we drove through the stoplight at the intersection we saw some bad news. There was another car wash being held right around the corner from them. This one was FREE. It was being held by the local Baptist Church, for whatever reason.
I thought that was pretty crummy to do to a group of kids who were trying to raise money for their team. But I told Kris, anyone who was going to pull in to have their car washed by a group of high school girls was doing it to support the team, not because they wanted a first class car wash. Personally, if I was choosing between the two, I would go to the cheerleader one. I don't trust the Baptists, but that's just me. They are sort of weird, and I would question why they are doing it for free. If they want to do it as some sort of service to the community, I think there are much better ways to help people than by washing their cars. So like I said... WEIRD!
When I got there around noon, they were doing pretty well. There was a steady stream of cars, one or two at a time. And after sitting there for three hours, I thought the girls did pretty good. Twice there was a stretch of about 10 minutes or so when there wasn't a car being washed. The girls did have a few people drive in and stiff them, presumably because they thought the girls were part of the Baptist project going on around the corner. But overall they made pretty well. They netted $625 for the day. Who knows how much more they would have gotten had the Baptists not been there taking business from them.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Golf Cart
The morning before we left for home, my parents took the girls for one more ride around The Villages in the Golf Cart. When they got back, My dad let them take a turn in the cart on their own. Alison appears to be a much better driver than Sarah, which is rather amazing considering that Sarah will have her drivers license in a little more than two years.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Vacation 2012 Part Two
Let's see... Next was Wednesday when my mom had scheduled some craft thing with the girls at one of the rec centers, so we stuck around The Villages. It was just driving around in the golf cart and swimming. That was nice since I was sort of tired of all the driving we had done the previous couple of days. Kris and I went to have lunch at Sumter Landing and walk around looking in all the little shops. We also took the time on Wednesday to drive around The Villages and take a few pictures of the girls for possible Christmas cards. I'm not sure if we'll use any of them, but I think we got a couple of good ones.
Thursday was EPCOT, which was pretty much the same as Hollywood Studios. It was hot, but not as crowded. We went on one ride we did not go on the last time right away, Soarin', and then a couple of other cutesy rides that Ali likes - the Figment ride in the Land of Imagination and then we started walking around the world showcase. Soarin' was really fun and Alison was a little scared when we told her what the ride was like. But afterward she said she really liked it.
By early afternoon
and the heat was kicking in. Ali was getting a headache and not feeling
well (I think because she was getting dehydrated) so we went to a
couple of movie attractions where we were indoors for a good 30-45
minutes at a time.
We finished the World showcase quickly because a severe weather alert had been issued and the rain was coming. We waited it out for a little bit in the big ball at the entrance to EPCOT (Spaceship Earth), and by the time we were out, the rain had almost stopped. But again, everyone was wiped out so we left.
One thing to add about Thursday was the people we were talking to in line for Soarin'. As we sat in line for about 80 minutes, some kid started talking to Kris. He had been given the little lanyard that they use to track how long people wait in line. After a few minutes they had a nice little discussion going. Then the kid's cousins started in too. One of them happened to be a year older than Sarah and was actually a very nice boy. We found out they were from Kentucky and they told us all about themselves and what they did in high school (football, baseball, wrestling). One of the people in their group (Kris told me it was an aunt) was taking pictures of the boys talking to Sarah, which I thought was kind of strange, because she wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was taking Sarah's picture. After we got off the ride Kris said something to Sarah about the boy being very nice and sort of cute, and Sarah said, yeah, he was. So Sarah could have had a boyfriend from another state if she had played her cards right.
Friday we went to the endangered animal/rescue park in Homosossa Springs. But that lasted about an hour. Ali wanted to go, but got bored quickly. That and the fact that there were quite a few mosquitoes out and biting made it sort of miserable. Also, the girls were freaked out by a story my mother told them about going there a couple of weeks previous with my brother and niece and seeing a couple of snakes crawling around the paths. They were all trying to be very careful, watching where they stepped.
It really wasn't much anyway, but we ended up going back to my parents'
house and went swimming all afternoon. Which was fine with me. We drove back down to Sumter Landing because the girls wanted to look in some of the shops and while we were down thereby Lake Sumter, we saw an alligator, which was rather surprising. It looked like about a 4-5 footer. I didn't think the oldsters would let gators get established in their lakes, but I suppose they figure it'll bring people into town to see them, and then they'll spend their money there.
Anyway, I would have rather enjoyed a relaxing afternoon the day before we left so we could pack things slowly and weren't feeling so rushed.
Overall it was nice to get away from the stresses of work and WI for a week and the girls enjoyed being able to swim every day.
Thursday was EPCOT, which was pretty much the same as Hollywood Studios. It was hot, but not as crowded. We went on one ride we did not go on the last time right away, Soarin', and then a couple of other cutesy rides that Ali likes - the Figment ride in the Land of Imagination and then we started walking around the world showcase. Soarin' was really fun and Alison was a little scared when we told her what the ride was like. But afterward she said she really liked it.
We finished the World showcase quickly because a severe weather alert had been issued and the rain was coming. We waited it out for a little bit in the big ball at the entrance to EPCOT (Spaceship Earth), and by the time we were out, the rain had almost stopped. But again, everyone was wiped out so we left.
One thing to add about Thursday was the people we were talking to in line for Soarin'. As we sat in line for about 80 minutes, some kid started talking to Kris. He had been given the little lanyard that they use to track how long people wait in line. After a few minutes they had a nice little discussion going. Then the kid's cousins started in too. One of them happened to be a year older than Sarah and was actually a very nice boy. We found out they were from Kentucky and they told us all about themselves and what they did in high school (football, baseball, wrestling). One of the people in their group (Kris told me it was an aunt) was taking pictures of the boys talking to Sarah, which I thought was kind of strange, because she wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she was taking Sarah's picture. After we got off the ride Kris said something to Sarah about the boy being very nice and sort of cute, and Sarah said, yeah, he was. So Sarah could have had a boyfriend from another state if she had played her cards right.
Friday we went to the endangered animal/rescue park in Homosossa Springs. But that lasted about an hour. Ali wanted to go, but got bored quickly. That and the fact that there were quite a few mosquitoes out and biting made it sort of miserable. Also, the girls were freaked out by a story my mother told them about going there a couple of weeks previous with my brother and niece and seeing a couple of snakes crawling around the paths. They were all trying to be very careful, watching where they stepped.
Anyway, I would have rather enjoyed a relaxing afternoon the day before we left so we could pack things slowly and weren't feeling so rushed.
Overall it was nice to get away from the stresses of work and WI for a week and the girls enjoyed being able to swim every day.
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