Odds on Favs

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger then their democratic state itself. That in it's essence is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group. - FDR

I see Madison has been voted one of the top 10 cool places for 20-29 year olds.   Why you ask? Well because of the normal jobs and so forth you have the "quirky, progressive and hyper-literate urban culture".    What?  hyper-literate urban culture?  I'm not actually sure what that is.  Overstimulated knowledge of literature?
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I visited the new brewery in Columbus, right across the street from the F&M Bank (sucks to be you "who's") .  They have submitted all the paper work, have the liqueur license but the brewers license will take some time.  On average it's taking 3 months to get the license as the government is understaffed and are forbidden to hire more (smaller government and all that).

They finally got their building permit and construction is now going at full tilt.  I stopped in and took a photo of the hectic, almost crazed level of construction.

 
It won't be long now until Hyper Street . . . oops  Hydro Street Brewery will be serving it's first pint of craft beer.
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Check out this panorama of Lake Geneva I stitched together.

Lake Geneva - about 150 degrees. 

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I just went out to look at my rain gauge and found a beautiful Monarch Butterfly trapped in it.  I put him on some "warm" rocks.   We had 0.23 inches of horizontal rain yesterday. Sustained 30mpg winds last night about midnight. The house was a rockin.

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Brewers - I think one of the biggest reason the Brewers will win the series against AZ is the bullpen.  KRod could be an MVP on the team.  Not that he has pitched THAT well but just having him has solidified the bullpen.  It's like he was the missing piece and all others now have their place.

The big question is will we see Slumpy McGoo or Hairston at 3B.  It's sad when Counsell is totally out hitting Slumpy in September.

Let's look at both teams and see how they match up. I'll use  RC27 for hitting  (Runs Created per 27 outs) for the 2nd half of the year.

C Lucroy  3.59 Montero 6.06
1B Fielder  7.95  Goldschmidtz 5.52
2B Weeks 5.11 Hill 6.56
SS Betencourt 4.00 Bloomquest  4.01
3B Slumpy McGoo 3.23 Roberts 4.98
LF Braun  9.37 Parra 6.11
CF - Tony Plush  5.00 Young 4.08
RF - Hart 6.85 Upton 7.23

So the Brewers average 5.64 runs per game. The D'Backs 5.57

Pitching staffs the 2nd half  Brewers have an ERA 3.08  D'Backs 3.48

Brewers win series 3-1 taking both at home and one on the road.

If you are wondering about Miller Park - this year Miller Park was 10th out of 30 for giving up the long ball. 6th in hits,  8th in doubles and 8th in triples and overall 10th in runs.  Chase Field in Arizona is 5th in runs 10th in HRs, 5th in Hits, 5th in doubles and 6th in triples.

Hold on to your hats - two hitters parks. 

Game one the Brewers are -139 to win  and  large favorites to win the series at -170. Brewers are +800 to with the World Series while the Phillies are +180

Phillies are -220 to with their 1st game and  -290 to beat St. Louis!
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Have a great weekend and let's go for the trifecta!  Brewers, Badgers, Packers. And yea - I'm rooting for the Phillies!  I hate St. Louis more then Philadelphia!

Here is an oddity - who had the BEST pitching outing of the year in the Majors?    Chris Capuano!  9 innings, 2 hits, no runs no walks and 13 Ks and 122 pitches.  WHO KNEW!! 

rod

Whats a little dent anyway.

I was a little off with my prediction.  If you remember two weeks ago I predicted this

Brewers  95 - 67  .586   ----
Cards      88 - 74  .543     7 games behind!

and in reality the final outcome was

Brewers 96-66
Cards     90-72  6 games behind

I was close.

ESPN will be in Madison for the Game of the Day and tickets are at their all time highest price EVER (which is a redundant sentence) for the game.  it is expected that there will be 40,000 Nebraska fans in Madison NOT going to the game. Madison will be a very crazy city Saturday.  I bet there will be puke, or shall I say "tactical chunder" everywhere on State Street. 
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Being a fashionista I love watching the new fashions that are being pushed on woman and I believe they totally suck.  Have you seen what Boston Store, and all the other stores are pushing on us?  Do they think we live in New York?  6 inch spike heels and just really weird things no one in Wisconsin or the Midwest would ever wear.  Let's see how those heels hold up when it's -10 icy with 3 foot drifts.
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Check out this panorama of the International Boat Show that I stitched together.  It's too big for this blog so I had to upload it to it's one page.  Originally it 2 by 14 feet. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Rods Pano

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hmmmmmm - every night I remember things I need to say and every morning I have forgotten them.  Seems I need to take notes at night! 

One thing you need to watch today is the wind - it's going to get REALLY windy  gusts up to 50.  So this morning I went out and took some shots of the Sweet Autumn Clematis.  These shots look a little fuzzy on this site  hmmmm.

Remember we thought it was dead as it did not poke it's head out of the ground until the 1st week of June.  Elwood and I had to make a small adjustment as we have 2 more. One is on the lattice work and if we went with the original plan we would not be able to get down the stairs.

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Check this out

 

Friend of mine ordered a specially made Manual, Black, Camaro (90% of Camaro's are Automatics).  Took two months to get it.  He got a call that it was FINALLY ready and was being shipped to him.  Only a three hour trip.  He get's it and it seems the delivery truck forgot that there was a chain loose and for three hours that chain was banging against the car.   Those are nicks and dents from the chain.

I'm not sure if that little piece of plastic helped any.  Yea - he is a little ticked off.

Columbus is the news.

Seems a American Funding Company, here in Cbus made like 3 million calls to the no-call list.  OOPS!!  so it needs to pay Wisconsin $175,000.

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That's all I got - I'll take notes tonight when I become brilliant

Rod

How Full Tilt Poker Screwed Poker Players Thanks to Republicans

I actually went to my old work yesterday.  They hired me back for like 1 day a week or whatever.  So yesterday was the day I was trying to remember my old phone number and get passwords and remember to plug in LAN connections.   One day a week ain't bad.


In fact it seems all the people Walker tried to get rid of are now double dipping.  Schools are hiring back teachers because they can not find replacements and so forth. So instead of hiring new people to replace the old people, there are not enough trained new people. 


BTW - did you see that it seems many of the jobs Walker said he created are actually OUTSIDE the State of Wisconsin?  It's almost like he was not telling the truth or something.


But you can't get totally mad at Republicans (of course you can but follow along).  11 years ago Republicans were all anal about online poker because the Christian right Tea Partiers (before they were formally called Tea Party) believed poker was evil.


The Republicans wanted to shut down all online poker because it was not regulated.  After passing a bill which basically DID shut it down online poker (and took $10,000 a year out of my pocket).  They made it illegal for banks to accept poker money . . . like a bank could tell it was poker money.  So what happened was that Neteller, a very very large  AND SAFE bank in England was shut down to Americans.


So with only a few places still open to Americans we were forced to leave our money IN the online sites instead of transferring the money to safety.  But recently it was getting harder to get money INTO the online sites (I had not tried to get money INTO a site since 2001 . . didn't have to it was always coming out).


WELL - It seems one major online site.  Full Tilt WAS CROOKED.  It was a giant ponzi scheme that the Republicans forced poker players to partake in.


The problem started with getting money INTO a poker room. Full Tilt could not get accept money into their accounts, HOWEVER, it wanted business, so it just SAID the money was in the accounts so people could play.


So Full Tilt had hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual money that people were playing with.  When someone wanted to cash out they would us OTHER peoples money. Except all of a sudden everyone wanted their money.  $300 million is owed to American players.  Meanwhile the people running the company were pulling out tens of millions of dollars a month.  In fact $444 million were paid to owners and partners while payouts were not being processed.



Lawyers say it was not a ponzi scheme . . . it was just bad management.  PokerStars the rivel was having the same problem getting money from US players but instead of saying "yea we got it trust us" they said - "sorry no money no playing"


The whole problem as with all ponzi schemes is what happens when everybody wants their money at once.


So while Republicans sort of had the right idea saying money COULD be stolen, they totally screwed Americans with how they attempted to fix the problem.  They actually CREATED the problem by closing all of the SAFE places to store money. 


And these guys think they have a better idea on financials?
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Columbus had another 0.42 inches of rain yesterday and combined with the 0.72 inches the day before we are pretty soaked. Madison has had twice that amount. This LOW system has been siting over Wisconsin for about a week now and if you have been watching, a 50 wide 200 mile slash down the middle of Wisconsin has been some of the coldest weather in America.

Also of note is "weather forecast slippage". This is a really hard part of the year for forecasting. The battle between good and evil, summer and winter has begun. The week long predictions for the most part are pretty good but there has been nothing to push the low away. There is a cold front not even on the west coast yet that is now suppose to push it away. We will see.
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Ticket for the Nebraska/Wisconsin game are going for $400 a ticket on ebay. Did playing high school teams and technical schools really help UW prepare for Nebraska? This is a totally different animal. The College football world will be in Madison this weekend.  The game of the week in America.

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Last weekend I was at the International Wooden Boat Show. This was the first time the show has ever been in Wisconsin and WOW, were there some amazing boats on Lake Geneva. Most were built in the 30s and 40.  I walked around all day Saturday snapping photos and now have the task of preparing all 300 for viewing. 

 

The boat above was the first boat to ever go 100mph. It was built in the early 30s   Huge engines.  The cool thing here is that the owner was able to fire up it's engines from this dock and have it on the trailer in 42 seconds.  He demonstrated it.  You can't tell from this shot but it's 33 feet long!

In fact that was one of the odd things.  As he left the dock and turned left so we could see the broad side people gasped at it's length.  They built boats very long back then.  At the end of the day there was a boat parade with over 130 antique boats!  AWESOME!!!

You can see more at Rod Melotte dot com,  I'll be slowly putting more and more shots out there.  

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Watched Pan Am last night - excellent show - not like anything else on TV and I liked it.   Check it out or record it for something different.

Have a great day today!

Rod

I LIKE TV!!

This weekend I'm attending the International Boat Show in Lake Geneva BUT DON'T WORRY - I'll be in front of the TV for the Packers!!

I've been reading a lot about Nick Collins injury - scary stuff. One report said "If you look at the replay tape carefully, you will see a slight bend in Collins' neck when he impacts Stewart. That type of involuntary motion to the neck, delivered by an impact at speed, can cause a narrowing of the spinal canal and permanently increase the risk of paralysis from a recurring injury".

I doubt we will ever see Nick Collins play football again which . . for HIM this is a good thing. The average life expectancy of an NFL player is 55 years. Collins is very very lucky he was not paralyzed.

Looking at the injury list is crazy with Packer/former Packers/Badger players

Lee Evans
Aaron Kampman (again)
Al Harris
Jim Leonhard
Josh Bidwell

Before people get all worried about the Packer defense. ALL the NFL teams are having trouble. This looks like Canadian football. Green Bay is ranked 20th in Defense efficiency right behind Minnesota after 2 games. The Bears are 17th. BUT the Packers are #2 on offense and actually #1 in rushing offense. #1 you ask? The reason is that when the Packers rush they ALWAYS achieve their goal. It's not quantity yard but quality yards.

The Bears? #29 on offense.
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TV - I LIKE TV.

2 Broke Girls is pretty good with some peppy repartee' and an interesting story.

If you have a chance it's a nice comedy. I liked Unforgettable

New Girl - I have always liked Zooey Deschanel but for some reason the show did not make it for me - she was good and I'll have to watch episode #2 as pilots (not piglets) are always a little over the topish with acting.

I have not see Person of Interest or Terra Nova yet. 

Of course the BIG news on TV is that this is the last week for All My Children and it's been interesting to see how they are all coming together and saying good bye to people that have been in our homes for 40 years!

One last TV thing - the rock group Cake. What a bunch of ass holes they are. I saw them on the Audience Channel and I tell ya - the lead singer is just a POS in my book.
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Have a great day.

Rod
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HARRRRRR!!

HARRRR - It's international  talk like a pirate day and as Cap'n Slappy says:

Thar be only three pirate jokes in the world. The biggest one is the one that ends with someone usin' "Arrr" in the punchline. Oh, sure, thar be plenty o' these, but they're all the same damn joke.

"What's the pirate movie rated? - Arrr!"
"What kind o' socks does a pirate wear? - Arrrrgyle!"
"What's the problem with the way a pirate speaks? - Arrrrticulation!"

The second joke is the one wear the pirate walks into the bar with a ships wheel attached to the front o' his trousers. The bartender asks, "What the hell is that ships wheel for?" The pirate says, "I don't know, but it's drivin' me nuts!"  ARRRRRRR! 


And finally. A little boy is trick or treatin' on Halloween by himself. He is dressed as a pirate. At one house, a friendly man asks him, "Where are your buccaneers?" The little boy responds, "On either side o' me 'buccan' head!"   ARRRRRRR!!   


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Then thar be Micheal Vick! He got slapped last night in the noggon and he be out with a concussion! Oddly no one is really sad about this.

Sad are the Packer Corner backs by giving up 800 yards this year so far. No worries - it's early.BUT - this is an extreme year for the NFL - look at Brady who is putting up video game numbers!
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The weather was good for  half the weekend and Saturday we went on the Down Syndrome walk.  Here is a shot of Caydence being herself.  She had a great time even though she is getting over a cold.

A funny thing happened to Josh.  He applied for Channel 15's Biggest Loser contest and got in (even though he is not 700 pounds or anything)

WELL - as told by him they are at the initial weight-in and get to meet their personal trainers.  The first 4 contestants meet their trainers and they are buff guys that shake hands and ask normal questions.  Then it's time for Josh's trainer.

Out steps this HUGE RIPPED WILD EYED AMAZON WOMAN.  She looks him in the eye and says  YOU, ME, WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS THING, I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU HURT AND WHEN WE'RE DONE WORKING OUT TWO HOURS A DAY I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU GROCERY SHOPPING AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK THE FOOD I TELL YOU TO EAT I'LL TEACH YOU!

all said in a somewhat intimidating scary way.

Let's just say something about his work outs - his REST period, is running on a treadmill (seriously).

And BTW - I guess there is no food pyramid anymore?   It's not a "Food Plate".  this is the new "Food Pyramid".    

Notice there is no spoon or knife and I can not find where the cake would go.
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Nice amount of rain yesterday and this morning.  Columbus received 0.51 inches of good soaking rain.  In another weird thing - we are at 59 degrees for 18 straight hours.

But here is so real news - the first prediction for snowfall has arrived.  We are heading into the 2nd straight year of La Niña and the NOAA prediction, based on previous results from back to back La Niña's, is that we will have below average snow fall.

Here are the last six winters.

2005 - 47.9 inches
2006 - 55.1
2007 - 101.4
2008 - 72.0
2009 - 51.6
2010 - 73.1
2011 - 43.8
Average - 50.9

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I was in Milwaukee with Karl and Jody last Thursday and took a bunch of photos,  here is one of a lion in front of the Bradley Foundation house.

also a statue shot which I loved because of what was behind it.

We all know who this is right?

And finally a Milwaukee street scene. 

In my pools I have two pools where "in the long run" it would be nice for the Giants to lose tonight - but in one pool I need the Giants to win so I can win the week.  

Have a great day! 

Rod

Brewers - win going away!!

THAT was close - I wrote a small blog yesterday before I took off to Milwaukee - I had made a comment about the laundromat burning down (at least that was the report I received) but now I hear a DRYER caught fire and it was extinguished with a fire extinguisher. That is MUCH different the the "laundromat is engulfed in flames".

We have a Cuisinart coffee maker which started spilling over the sides (I think I told you about this once but it's the prolog to another thought). I guess you have to soak the TOP of the carafe in warm soapy water every so often to clean it - ANYWAY before I found the simple fix we purchased an $8 drip coffee maker and while reading the instructions I was perplexed. Then I realized that THEY consider a cup of coffee to be like 6 ounces!! SIX OUNCES?? Why even bother!!
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HEY - Survivor looked pretty good but I dislike Ozzie and like Coach much better. Also notice that Jeff Probts is now the Executive Producer. Why is this a big deal you say? Because in the last two Survivor's he has been the Executive Producer and in tribal council's he is allowed to steer the tribes in a certain direction.

For instance - this week John Cochran was on the block to be kicked out and Jeff steered conversations away from him and to Semhar, who was eventually kicked out. And I was happy. I noticed this a few times in the last season. Normally Jeff was pretty fair but all of a sudden I saw a change. THEN I noticed that he had become the Executive Producer. AHH HA!
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As I said I went to Milwaukee with Jody and Karl to see their condo. I took my camera (of course) and snapped away! I've never really walked around Milwaukee that much. I mean really explore. Seriously, what a nice city, at least in the downtown district (don't go north of 30th street).

So many people smiled at me an said high. Two older woman saw me and as I passed with my camera tripod and so forth, one said "nice equipment" I said "thanks" and then a few seconds later I said "OH, you mean my camera!". They ignored me.

It was cool for sure but in the sun it felt good. HOWEVER, Columbus was very very close to frost the other night! This would ALMOST have been a record for how soon we got frost. The record was 9/13 and on 9/14 there were patches of frost but not everywhere. We got to 34 degrees.

Back in Milwaukee the condo was nice. The condo/hotel had impressionistic prints all over in muted colors so I created the below shot.  I don't know if colors in that era were muted OR they faded over time . . . whatever.

I had an hour to walk around by myself and then Jody and Karl showed me around a bunch.  Had lunch at the Water Street Brewery.  Here is the inside of the brewery.

As I said I liked downtown Milwaukee.  I'm not going to put a lot of photos here because they can be copied to easily.  If you want to see them LIKE Melotte Photo Imagery on Facebook OR email me to get on my email list as I send out photos periodically.

In baseball the GOOD news is that Detroit lost and FINALLY Jim Leyland can change his underwear!  He was not changing until they lost.  TWELVE DAYS MAN!!!

The Brewers - here is the rest of the schedule for the Brewers WITH the opposing teams winning PCT

Cinci .493
Cinci .493
Cinci .493  should win 1.73 games
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433 should win 1.92 games
Florida .447
Florida .447
Florida .447 should win 1.88 games
Pitts  .453
Pitts  .453
Pitts  .453  should win 1.86 games

So the Brewers SHOULD win 7.39 games of their next 12 games - the Magic Number is 8

The Cards play

Philly  .655
Philly  .655
Philly  .655
Philly  .655 should win 1.22 games
NYMets  .473
NYMets  .473
NYMets  .473 should win 1.71 games
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433
Cubs  .433 should win 1.83 games
Hou .342
Hou .342
Hou .342  should win 2.15 games


 So the cards SHOULD win 6.91 of the next 13 games

Final Standings

Brewers  95 - 67  .586   ----
Cards      88 - 74  .543     7 games behind!

BTW - K-Rod - shut the f*ck up!!  I guess you care MORE about YOU then winning!  Would you rather play on a 4th place team as a closer or a first place team as a set-up!!   DUDE - leave - you are a free agent and you just told everybody you don't care about the team - just yourself!

Rod  

Survivor

Few things before I get going to Madison.

SURVIVOR - season Premier is tonight on CBS - 8:00 featuring Coach and Ozzy - WHOO HOO!  Also tonight is Big Brother 13 finale'.

A few photos of the The Pagami Creek fire in NE Minn (Boundary Waters) thanks to efudd.

 

 

Brewers - WHEW - Magic number is now 8 after Braun's walk off HR!!   WHOO HOO!!

I have fallen in love with Black IPA's  YUMMO!!!!    New Holland and Dogzilla make outstanding Black IPAs.  New Glarus has a new one, it's good but . . . .not as good as the much more expensive ones mentioned.

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I was doing my spread sheet for the art fair to see what sold and saw that there was a completely different set of prints sold.  Of the 19 different prints only ONE was the same as what sold in Fitchburg - weird.

OK - sorry - gotta run.

Cheers
Rod

SMOKE

The smoke you are smelling is from a HUGE forest fire in northern Minnesota way north of Duluth. it's BLUE here in Columbus.

This morning I was outside and the sky seemed weird, no clouds but weird hazy. Then about 10:00 I start smelling smoke and look outside - BLUE, wind from the north. Word is for a few days of blue-ness - you know what that means? AWESOME sunsets!!

Hey - you have to look at the bright side of things.
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Football - last year opening weekend in football there were three 300 hard passers. This year? Thirteen 300 yard passers. Plus three kickoffs were returned for TDs. Most ever on opening day.

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Going to Milwaukee for some photos Thursday, I hope the smoke helps (as opposed to hurting).

I did not have anything to say but felt I should spread the word that if you have breathing problems in the past - JUST WAIT until this smoke hits you!

Just found something - since March 1st

I have and 1891 visitors (not page hits but actual bodies)from California read this blog - the 3rd most of any state.

582 from Germany
15 from Iran

Wyoming is the least amount from one State 19 (and I like Wyoming) I get more from Delaware then from Wyoming. I had more from Esfahan Iran then from Wyoming!

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This site really makes me want to take Amtrak cross country!

Lee Rantz Photography



Cheers!

Rod

The Aba Daba Honeymoon

So far the featured games of the year (Monday Night football on Thursday and Monday Night Football on Sunday Night) have been outstanding nail biters. The Dallas game last night was SWEET. Even my Dallas friends say Dallas has great talent but STILL are dumb as doorknobs! They continually shoot themselves in the foot and once again - BAM.

Camp Randall 1914

I know nothing about the Wisconsin game this week but at the Art Fair people were telling me I MUST get photos of Camp Randall (did you know that Camp Randall was named Governor Alexander Randall, who later became Postmaster General of the United States.

The photo on the right is Camp Randall in 1914 - I'm pretty sure "Jump Around" would have been frowned upon.  (The "Jump Around" tradition started on Saturday, October 10, 1998). 

I believe on the photo they are all singing the 1914 hit song by Arthur Fields "The Aba Daba Honeymoon" the words are below:

’Way down in the Congoland
Lived a happy chimpanzee,
She loved a monkey with a long tail,
(Lordy, how she loved him!)
Each night he would find her there,
Swinging in the cocoanut tree,
And the monkey gay, at the break of day,
Lived to hear his Chimpie say: 

“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Chimpie to the Monk,
“Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they’d chatter away,
All day long they were happy and gay,
Singing and swinging in their hunky, tonkey way.
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Means “Monk, I love but you,”
“Baba, daba, dab,” is monkeytalk,
means “Chimp, I love you too,” 

 WELL - I can see how that would put the crowd in a frenzy!!


I'm pretty sure it was not thew other hit song "Back Back Back to Indiana".

Funny thing about  "Jump Around".  On September 6, 2003 UW officials decided to cancel the "Jump Around" and Stadium security and the local police department had been informed of this decision. Yet no one told the students.  When the 4th quarter started the students realized that there was no "Jump Around".  Then the entire section sat down in protest, raises their middle fingers and started chanting "FUCK THE SOUND GUY FUCK THE SOUND GUY" Chanting and booing continued through the majority of the fourth quarter. (oh those crazy kids)

Two days later when engineers confirmed that the stadium would suffer no structural damage and after a huge petition was circulated the Chancellor announced that the "Jump Around" tradition would resume and all, once again, was right with the world.

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Then there is the Brewers - never fear.  The only thing to fear is the fact that against powerhouse pitching they have problems, but look, the Phillies did not really do that well either.  All the games against the Cards and Phillies were low scoring.  The Brewers will win the division and then in short 7 game series anything can happen.

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Art Fair in Sun Prairie was very good.  25% better then last year in sales (same weather, same spot, same Badger game, everything was the same).  Oddly and ONCE AGAIN, what sold in Fitchburg (Vince) did not even get glances Saturday.  I wonder if everyone was in a Badger mood.  Another thing I have noticed is that strangers are knowing how I am. They come up and call me by name and I don't have a clue who they are.  Anyway, all is much better then good on the Art Fair Circuit.

Another surprise was the submarine photos  - who knew they would be an attraction.  I did know that I was probably the only artist that had WWII Sub photos!  One guy purchased a print and told me he was stationed on a Boomer in the 60s (I thought that was WAY WAY awesome. . . a BOOMER.  Boomers were the nuke subs that could take out a nation . . as opposed to Hunter Killers that could only take out Boomers).   Another old guy was the radio man in older subs.  A tattoo artist loved the forward torpedo photo and purchased one saying it would make an outstanding tattoo.


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I don't think DJ will win money this week on her awesome $20 football pool put on by a church (there were legal problems with "pool" and the name is now a "sweepstakes"!  Each week she gets 3 random NFL teams.  Add all the points scored and she COULD winn $500 a week.  This week she had Houston (34) which seemed promising but then she had San Diego and Carolina( 24 & 21).  Not going to make the cut.  MAYBE 5th place but the Dallas/NYJ game hurt her.  There has to be a TON of people in this pool, 17 weeks, 3 random teams  $1000 a week given away.  All for $20.

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Have a great week and get those fire places ready - high Thursday will be in the middle 50s  BRRRRR!

Rod

WOW

What can you say about last nights game - amazing. Not just the final minute but how the Packers REALLY were tough in the red zone!! And Cobb, pretty sure he is the 1st player to get fined for tying an NFL kick-off record! He said God told him to take it out. What would happen if you did not listen to God. What if God said take a knee. "God told me to take a knee". Well, God WOULD be the best offensive coordinator the Packers have right? And . . . .LORD KNOWS the Pack need help on Special Teams.

Brewers? Yea - why is it all the clips I have seen I see the back of Gomez's jersey! Seriously - you rarely want to see the back of a center fielders jersey.

Today is get the final things ready for the Sun Prairie Art Fair tomorrow - problem is I have to pick up 12 large canvas images and put the hardware on AND pack the UHaul and make sure everything is ready. Man I wish I had those canvas YESTERDAY!!!

The interesting thing about the Art Fair is that this will be the 1st time I've done a fair twice. I have the same spot, the weather is exactly the same, the Badgers are playing at home against a bad team (just like last year). It'll be nice to compare.

Then after being on my feet for 12 hours and setting up and down a pretty sturdy canopy I have to wake up Sunday early for 18 holes of golf for the leagues banquet, FORGETTING that I'll miss IRONMAN AGAIN. No league banquet for me next year - I have to get shots of the IRONMAN competition - ching ching!

Sunday is 911 and one thing that I have been hearing about that time was how sports were so so important to Americans. After 911 Americans needed some sort of normalcy and it was sports that help a lot of people.

I do not have a lot to say but felt I needed to say SOMETHING - now I'll get back to moving stuff into the garage.

Have a great weekend!

OH - this is so funny! I had tears in my eyes!

Louis CK Punches Dog In The Face To Save Her Life



Rod

Hydro Street Brewing Company - Update

I met with Aaron and Sandye today at what will be Columbus's new Brewery - Hydro Street Brewing Company.

Aaron is shoveling through yards and yards of paperwork and (side note - 90 calories of Coke is like two gulps! - I need another one). . . . . . and Sandye was waiting for some sort of contractor who it seems keep showing up late or never.

There is no firm opening date but things are moving along at Island Speed. However I believe they receive their Liqueur License tonight, one of only a couple available (I did not know the Holding Cell went belly up, what a shame).

However I did get to look at the plans and talk about the process and frankly - I am totally pumped.

Here is what the place looks like RIGHT NOW!!

 

As you can see Mr. Frey is trying to sell some carriages and I'm thinking he is trying to talk Aaron into the idea that all seating will be in carriages (I think there is an ordnance stating all bar stools must now be in a carriages) . . . (you would not know that because the city website only gets updated once per decade).

  

BUT if Aaron holds his ground there will be seating for 49 customers, not 50 (there is an ordnance saying only 49, at 50 you get 25 penalty points (that is a new ordnance and if you would ever go the to City Counsel Meetings you would know that).  

Speaking of City Council Meetings there is one Tuesday night and I'm thinking about going there and suggesting we get a Town Crier.  I have a photo of what the Mayor would look like if he became the town crier.   At least we would know since THE CITY WEBSITE NEVER UPDATES!!

In fact on the website it says: Have you got a question for someone "at City Hall"?
   Got a suggestion?
      Or a complaint?
Well.... here's your chance....   Just click on Request Tracker
      to get in touch with someone in city government who can (and will) respond. 

Well - I registered over a week ago and am STILL waiting for my secret password so I can ask a question.  The website says they pick up brush every other Tuesday - STILL WAITING!!!  

Anyway - the small Brewery will be a 1 barrel a day system.  Hoping to have 10 taps with one of those taps being an R&D tap with experimental beer.  

A barrel is 43 gallons and a gallon is 8 pints so each day 344 pints will be brewed up (about).   All sorts of styles(Miller, Miller Lite, Bud Bud Light, Schlitz Light, Steel Reserve, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Natty Light, Gluek, Beer 30).  

mmmm Doesn't the above look good?  LOL

OK OK - I JOKE!!  

The actual brewing will be enclosed behind wrought iron gates (as per law). A brewing area can not be open to the public.  There will be a bar and some food options but I forgot to ask about that part.

Anyway - something to look forward too in the cold months ahead.

Cheers
Rod

 

Giving the Cheif of Police A Way Out.

First let me say that the Chief of Police and I are good friends and I totally respect him and his authority (which actually means I've never met the dude and I'm hoping I don't get pulled over because my tail light is not bright enough).

This whole mess was caused by the fine officers in blue when they posted on Facebook "There will be some changes made to the parking restrictions near the elementary / middle schools this week. Watch for signs."

After a few comments/complaints there was a smack down from the Facebook police stating "The changes on Dickason Blvd. were presented to the council for approval last month - during a public meeting. Additionally, these restrictions were always in ordinance under Sec. 98-78(b). This is nothing new except that I have ordered signs." 

The problem is for the past 20 years residents on the EAST side of Dickason Blvd have been parking on the street and all of a sudden and without warning it is now NO PARKING.

Response was " Every ordinance has the potential to affect every resident."   Notice the word "Potential"  There is no "Potential" here  - it has a very LARGE affect. 

"People need to be more proactive and ask questions and attend meetings, etc.Take more of an interest and ownership and responsibility in what happens."

"We have a city website and we post notices in public buildings (which we all regularly walk into?)  and have a city cable access channel and advertise in the local paper. Additionally, I use social media to communicate as well."

I then proposed that the City Council hire a Town Crier so the citizens would be better informed and I believe at the next meeting I'll bring this up!  

I mean very few people have Charter, very few people read the Cbus Journal (I did and never saw the notice) and really - who goes to the website regularly.  I signed up on the site to voice a comment but can not as of yet because I have not gotten the magic return email that allows me.


SO - here is the deal - the actual ordnance 98-78 b. (1) states " On the west side of the west lane of South Dickason Boulevard from West School to Fuller and on the north side of the 200 block of Fuller Street except for school buses waiting for or engaged in loading or unloading schoolchildren.  

I believe the parking in question is on the EAST side of the EAST lane South Dickason.  So any tickets that have been given out (if any, I don't know) are in violation and should be ripped up.

I do not see any changes to the ordinances the website.

Since all of a sudden everyone is looking at ordinances (thanks to the Chief) I did see that ordinance 106-35 states: A beautification committee as defined in ordinance 78.33, shall consist of three citizens appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the council in January of each year, for three year terms, one each three years.

Who are these citizens?  I know Main Street Org had a committee but they were not "appointed by the mayor".

Just saying.

ANYWAY - I gotta get to work.  It's been a very busy week for me (seriously it has).

OH - saw Who'sIn on TV last night talking about the F&M Bank AND I have heard rumors of a big going away get together at The Kurth Wednesday night for Who'sIn who has one foot in Florida and one in Columbus (meaning I would not want to be in Nashville looking straight up!).

More on that when I hear plans.

Have a Laural and Hardy Weekend!

If you see me pulled over honk and wave

geez - is the new Hurricane hitting Columbus?  It's raining at .85 inch per hour at the moment.

Rod

Mystery Solved

I tell ya! "A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One" is an awesome book. Few times in my book reading life have words had a physical effect on me. There have been a few times when I reach the end of a chapter and while the events were not exciting the words and how things transpired made something in me move. . . . .or it could have been that pizza I ate.
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The Columbus Fire Department and the Columbus Police Department have let the citizens of Columbus down this week. First the Fire Department tells a developer it's OK to burn brush for 4 days south of Cbus. Who cares if there is smoke drifting into peoples houses 24/7 for 4+ days straight. After all the Chief does not live there. Who cares that when you wake up a 4:00 in the morning you see flames from an unattended fires.

Then the Police Department decides on a whim there will be no parking near the elementary/middle schools. Of course they don't care about the city residents who park on the street and now must find new places to park.
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On the brighter things. I have watched way to many Brewer games this year and I have noticed behind the batters in the front row was a woman who was keeping pitch by pitch scores. She always had the same exact seat. Now I'll admit that the woman in question was rather good looking. The thing that got me was that she seemed to always be alone and at every game. Different people were always next to her. Who was she? A players wife? Someone working for the Brewers? She was always very "into" the game.


Mystery solved.

Adubya did some research and it seemed other people had been wondering the same question. She is referred to as "Front-Row Amy" on WisSports.net. According to WisSports.net "Apparently, she has had season tickets for three years, and comes to the games by herself. She was in the third row the past few years, but was able to move up to the first row this year. She also commutes from Oshkosh for the games...and the clincher as far as convincing me that this is "our girl," she said that likes to be there alone, so she "can focus on the game and keep score."

Her actual name is Amy Williams(42). She is on Twitter, where she describes herself as "the most passionate Brewers fan you will ever meet."

She also says there that she loves to dance and work out.

Here is a Twitter post - guess she is not a Cub fan

Amy Williams@BrewerGirl823Amy Williams@ Miller Park pkg lot. Sum cubs fans r blasting that stupid song..cubs r gonna win 2day..Really?? Think u just got swept be the 28 Aug via txt

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Last night of golf was last night (odd sentence there).  Hit the ball well, didn't score but I was making contact with authority (for the most part). 
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Big day in sports  Brewers Badgers and Packers.  I put $10 on the trifecta.  Brewers to win, Packers to cover 4 and Badgers to cover 35.  If all of those come in I with $56.

It's a very very silly bet but how often can a person play all three games! 

Don't worry about the Brewers.  They are playing like a NORMAL good team now, can't expect them to win 75% of all their games.  If they win today (they are huge favorites) the Cards have only gained 1 game.   Heck, if the Brewers lose all 6 games tot eh Cards they are still up by what 4.5?

Stay cool tonight!

Rod