Clematis from hell.

wow - four blogs this week, I guess art fair season is truly over. 

Here at the residence of RodMelotte.com (sneaky product placement) we have run into a small problem.

It's our Sweet Autumn Clematis (or as Elwood would say Clematis paniculata (C. terniflora)).

We have two and one needs to go.

As you can see it's pretty impressive.

And the aroma is like a truckload of Cotton Candy hitting you in the face.  When I'm mowing the lawn I can smell its amazing fragrance.

  But as you can see there is a problem.  Small animals are getting caught in it, humans can not go down the steps and I have hacked it back 3 times.  You can hear it growing at night.    But the problem? . . . . .bees.   Oh, like my garden I can put my face into the flowers with a thousand of bees buzzing and not one will bite.  They don't care about humans at all.

But sitting and relaxing on our deck is a little nerve racking and they mistakenly fly into the house where I live trap them and stet them free (have not killed a bee yet).

SO - this weekend we going to take out the honeysuckle that is also on the stairway in preparation for removing this alpha clematis next year.  Then with the extra free space we will get a clematis that is not quit so . . . . . wonderful.

Anyone want a clematis that will grow 30 feet a year when cut to the ground in spring?  Perfect for a fence post away from the home.  Awesome for that matter.

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Fireman saves kitten  

http://youtu.be/CjB_oVeq8Lo

 

 

This just seems like a bad idea.

 

And finally - on Facebook

The Kaasa Farmsted

ESPN had a big survey of all 122 professional sports teams in various categories.   There are a couple of rankings that stand out.

Championships won or expected within the lifetime of current fans.
Milwaukee Bucks - ranked 122
Green Bay Packers - ranked 3
Milwaukee Brewers - ranked 95
Baltimore Ravens - ranked 1

Quality of venue, fan-friendliness of environment, frequency of game-day promotions.
 Milwaukee Bucks - ranked 115.
Green Bay Packers - ranked 5
Milwaukee Brewers - ranked 3
San Francisco Giants - ranked 1

The best and worst of "our" teams?
Milwaukee Bucks
over all rank 114
Bang for Buck (no pun intended) 74
Title Track 122

Green Bay Packers
Overall rank - 5
Ownership AND title track - 3
Strength of on-field leadership - 26

Milwaukee Brewers
Overall rank 35
Stadium Experience - 3
Title Track - 95
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So I'm looking for information on the reading Kaasa farmstead and I see Columbia County was suppose to be called York County

So far I have only found a reference to th4 Kaasa Farmstead in a 1916 Atlas which is talking about Fred Schilling being the owner of 130 acres in that area.

ANYWAY - what I'm talking about is the old barn in The Gateway area that is being torn down.  I was out taking some photos this morning before it leaves this planet.  I'm glad the wood is being reused.

Columbus road problem - a press release and old photos

Just a note - since I've become pretty sporadic you can get this blog emailed to you automagically - just fill in your email address in the space on the right.

Also make sure you LIKE  Melotte Photo Imagery in Facebook.

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Columbus Wi rainfall - OH - it's on baby!!  2009-2010, you are going down!!  

With the new website  MelottePhotoImagery.com going online I've been going through three external hard drives and one internal and looking at all the garbage photos I have  - here is one from the past.

You know you live in a small town when you get this in the local shopper.

At least they are FRESH!

I'm not sure I ever posted these articles from the newspaper. Maybe I did.

If you are just skimming headlines . . . . . .

And I thought the chicken shoot was a bad idea!! 

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OH the new grocery store?  I would not hold your breath for anything wonderful, IF, at all.  It's complicated.  I won't get into it here.
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got this press release from the CPD

MEDIA RELEASE
THEFTS FROM VEHICLES

Over the past few weeks, we have had numerous incidents in which it was reported to us that residents had property stolen from their vehicles. In all cases, the vehicles were parked and left unlocked. The majority of these thefts are occurring during the overnight hours.

Please lock up your vehicles and be alert to suspicious activity. If you are the victim of a theft in the city of Columbus, please report it to the Columbus Police Department by calling the non-emergency number: (920) 623-5919. Report all thefts even if they seem minor and report all suspicious activity to the police department.

If you observe suspicious activity or you believe a crime is in progress, call 9-1-1.
Anyone with information regarding these thefts is encouraged to call the Columbia County Crime Stoppers at:
800-293-TIPS (8477)

You can keep your identity confidential and you may be eligible for a cash reward.
http://www.co.columbia.wi.us/columbiacounty/crimestoppers/CrimeStoppersHomePage/tabid/1036/Default.aspx

TIPS:

 Lock your vehicle doors - even if parked inside a garage.
 Do not leave valuables inside the vehicle.
 Park in a well-lit area if possible.
 Do not leave your garage door opener inside the vehicle.
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I went to the new Madison Library yesterday to take a look.  Didn't have my camera bit I did have my iPhone - I think I have to take my camera and talk to whoever is in charge - wow - what a beautiful place.

Here are some iPhotos

I did not know there was a drive through option.
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Roads - so many people complain about the roads in Columbus but they really do not understand the funding problem and how much it costs.  Here is an example of the true cost on a city street.

Lets say you are in a sub division, there is no through access.  The street has deteriotated so much it needs to be replaced.   The project, remove the existing street, fix the underlying street base and resurface the street.  Total cost will be $354,000.

Here is the question.  Based on the taxes paid by these property owners how long will it be to recoup it's half of the project costs.

Answer - 79 years   (approx)

OR - we can raises taxes immediately by 46% with an additional 3% annual increase for the next 25 years.  See the problem?

Streets cost a FREAKISH amount of money.

City governments are in a real pickle when it comes to streets.  I had an argument the other day with a guy blaming the city for wasting money on other projects.  This is like being on 3rd down and 18 and complaining that the ref should have given you another yard and SHOULD be 3rd and 17. 

Two things have been happening, the State helped build the roads decades ago and said all you have to do is maintenance.  OR, Columbus took out cheap State loans for new streets knowing that new housing from those new streets would pay for the long term maintenance.  Worked like a charm.  But now the roads are REALLY wearing thin and we need NEW roads . . . . but the State will not help now and taxes won't cover NEW roads, only filling pot holes. 

Bake sales??    

A lot of people complain without knowing the real problem city governments are in.  We have had a lot of growth in the past few decades but not really growth that fills the coffers over the long term, only short term.

I'll get off my soap box now.

Is long term liability worth short term growth?

Well now - my latest obsession (that which occupies my mind 24/7 when not thinking about other obsessions) has been how city's grow and city finances.  Not a new obsession at all, more of a life long one but perhaps a rebooting since I was assigned to the Columbus CDA.  I've skimmed a majority of 6 or 7 books on the subject of city planning (all from the middle 2000's and up, no need for books written in 1967 or anything) and all of them talk about NOT industry growth as the future, but making a town people friendly.  This seems like a no brainer but I guess it's not.      

But the eye opener comes from a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization called Strong Towns.  I listened to one of the presentations and I swear he was talking about Columbus.   For instance, at one point the guy asks the crowd.  How many of you have a highway that is suppose to be fixed by the DOT but they keep pushing the date back.    BINGO!!

Now I don't 100% fall into their ideas but I do agree with many many of their comments and visions.  While "city hall" in and Columbus boasts about The Gateway (I actually like The Gateway) and the Commerce Center (not so fond of that one) Columbus seems to ignore the downtown, what I call the true heart of Columbus.

The crux is that America is in a big experiment which started after WWII.  The idea was to take out big loans and attract industry for growth.  Seemed like a good idea.  But it's not working. Generation after generation keep taking out loans for business parks but there are hidden costs which don't show up for 20 years.  All of the new infrastructure is now 20+ years old and city's need to take out more loans OR leave city streets with pot holes to fix the business park infrastructures.

To cover the cost the idea is to buy MORE land (long term liability) to attract MORE business (short term growth).   

People will say growth is good but is it growth just for the sake of growth? At any cost?  When my stomach grows is that good?  Is Columbus getting fat?  We need GOOD growth, SMART growth.
There are hidden costs to growth that no one seems to talk about.  Hometown ShopKo is growth, is everybody ecstatic about that growth?  Will that ShopKo, in 20 years be MORE wonderful?   I think it is as good as it gets right now!   

I know there are some on the CC that agree with me, not so sure about CDA yet. While we build brand new roads on the edges of Columbus the roads IN Columbus are ignored.

Fix what you have, don't build new urban sprawl which will cost you money in the long run.

And BTW - Curt Hanson and The Gateway. While I might not 100% agree on The Gateway if you are going to do it, I applaud him.  Have you seen all the trees?  And the nice light poles (not the cheap wooden ones) or the extra wide sidewalks.  If you are going to have a business park, do it right, make it people friendly.

There is good growth and bad growth.

ANYWAY - that is my mindset at the moment.
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In other news - my football system which is still hitting 60% ATS after 22 years starts this week.  The big game is take the Eagles and the points over Denver, in Denver.

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Still working on my new  website (RodMelotte.com) and going through Terra bytes of photos.  One that surprised me this year was this one called Three Kows.  getting a lot of attention.  

 A fractizilation of this image.

You just never know what will capture peoples imagination.  Funny thing was while I was setting up this shot the cows were perfect and just as I start snapping the steer (to be correct) on the left starts peeing.  Gallons and gallons and gallons, I swear it took 5 minutes.

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Enough ! 

Rod

Sympathy Cold ?

A non-edited photo as the storm rolled in last night - Columbus received 1.96 inches of rain.

DJ got a couple shots on Tuesday, her flu shot and just for good measure and because we're going to Door County  in a few weeks (remember last year) a tetanus shot.  She was told that "if you get sick it's not you, it's the shot, you might feel a little achy and yada yada yada".

So not knowing this I pick her up from work and she says "I think I'm coming down with a cold".  I immediately felt the same (seriously).  So we're driving home feeling sick.

That night she goes down for the count. BAM!  She is in bed by 7:30 feeling horrible. Sniffles, sneezing, sweating, POW, she is SICK!!  I'm not feeling that great either. She was so sick I slept in a different room as she had a heating blanket on high and it was a warm night.

So I wake up thinking there is no way she is going to work and if I worked today I might call in too as I feel like crap. Then . . . .like the Who's in Whooville I hear her singing in the bathroom and talking to Milo.  WHAT?

It was the shot, she feels great . . and now I am the only one sick.  BLAH!!   I've been in the "almost a cold mode for 4 days now".  Not REALLY a cold but not wonderfully healthy.

ANYWAY - enough about that.
--------------------
There has been a rumor and even a news story in the Beaver Dam Gazette about Columbus getting a new grocery store.  I am putting zero faith in this faux news report.  The developer has not mentioned this to the city who actually own the property where this would go.

In fact this area is in a little battle at the moment between the developer and the city on snow plowing.  The developer has not fulfilled his obligation so that road is still a private road. He says he will not plow it in a snow storm.  The city says it's not our road so we will not plow it. SO - the first snow storm will be interesting (I think there is defunding Obamacare involved also).

In the rest of that  faux news article the developer says there will be 6 to 8 new stores opening up . . . . but he would not mention who they are.   The city has been waiting for him to do ANYTHING with that area for years! and now, out of the blue and without telling anyone he has all this??     

------------------------

gotta say it - New Girl is the most hilarious show on TV.  DJ and I were almost pee your pants laughing.

----------------------------

RodMelotte.com and MelottePhotoImagery.com are both up and running at their new eCommerce site.  Check them/it out.  It's a work in progress with more options and pages and so forth coming soon (can you say T-SHIRTS??   LOL).

But seriously - right now it's only framed canvas but prints and frames and t-shirts are on the horizon. I'm also almost working on a catalog.  It's taking a little bit of work because every size and option takes a new image, can't use the same one over and over because of automation.  

Speaking of T-Shirts . . . . a Blackjack Basic Strategy t-shirt.  O man!  Gotta work on that.

Also - West James Gallery is getting an upgrade with my work.  After weeks and weeks of hard nosed negotiations both sides have agreed to agree.  The turning point was when Shelly looked in in the eye and said "this is how much I want for that wall space" and I, looking shocked said " NO!  I will pay you more!!".  BOOM - take that Shelly! What do you think of them apples. 

Yea - I'm a tough negotiator and now she knows it.       

The above image is an idea for a diptych (two separate images displayed as one).  Not sure of size yet but it could be two 16x48 or two 7x21s.

Just thinking out loud here.
-----------------------------------

Had I first run in with a store owner who does not like my idea of eliminating parking on one side of West James.  I said, would you like to double the people in your store OR have parking in front.    She said (not Shelly) where would customers come from.   I wanted to say, "if you depend ONLY on customers that can park in front of your store, are you really trying that hard to be successful?".

I feel we can get three times the number of tourists in downtown Columbus as there are now buy FIXING James Street so it's human friendly. 1000 people every weekend are in Columbus and probably 20 make it downtown.   I understand the problem about loading and unloading and that can be worked on, but saying "if you can not park in front of my building my shop will fail" . . . . you have MUCH bigger problems!

remember - vacant store fronts is NOT a problem, it's an opportunity.    This can be fixed!
------------------------------

And here is a map of Pangea.

My first CDA Meeting was last night - this blog has the recap.

News From Columbus Wisconsin

FUBR!

First of all there was the Badger game Sunday morning.  For all that missed it I believe this was the worst reffing I have ever seen - way worse then the Fail Mary last year in the Packer game which was a call open to interpretation of the rules.

But the Badger game was just down right incompetence.  This comes from SBNation   

Setup: Stave completes a 6-yard out to Abbrederis to the ASU 13 yard line. Abby steps out of bounds and stops the clock at 00:18. The ball is spotted on the right hash mark.
00:18 - Wisconsin snaps the ball, Stave runs to the middle of the field.
00:17 - Stave clearly takes a knee
See the knee:

See the clock:

Note that Stave taking the knee is largely obscured from the defense by left guard Ryan Groy.


00:16 Stave places the ball on the ground at the 15 yard line as he gets up off his knee.

00:15 The officials blow the whistle. Clearly audible in the video.

00:13 As an official walks in to set the ball, three ASU players jump on it.

 00:10 Two of the ASU players get up, the third remains on top of the ball while the official gently, casually taps him on the back. Stave protests to the other official.

00:05 Eight seconds later, the remaining ASU player gets to his feet.

00:04 Official places the ball.

00:03 Official holds up a hand to the center indicating that Wisconsin cannot snap the ball.

00:01 Official puts his arm down and starts to back away. (You can see the ref behind the ASU D-line.)

00:00 Time expires with Wisconsin still trying to snap the ball.


To recap: Wisconsin downed the ball with 17 seconds remaining, the refs blew the play dead at 15 seconds, after the play was blown dead several ASU players jump on the ball and sit on it for eight seconds. There can be no question that this is a delay of game on the defense. The refs do not place the ball on the ground until 11 seconds after it was blown dead and don't put the ball in play until 14 seconds after. After that the officials huddled very briefly in the middle of the field and then, without any explanation or speaking with anyone else, ran off the field. That was one of the most bizarre and unprofessional things I've ever seen...


---------------------------------------------

Today I have to travel to New Glarus to deliver a 7x21 framed canvas print.  Looks great.  Can't wait for the customer to see it.  I think I'll open my webstore October 4th. We're going to Door County the week before to get some free motel days.  Remember the vacation from hell last year?

1. constant rain/wind
2. we find out Milo might have cancer and mighth have to put him down when we get back
3. Rod starts to catch a cold on the way up.
3. DJ breaks her ankle day 2
4. Rod is getting really sick with cold
5. No emergency room within 30 miles
6. after 1 day in hospital DJ is now on crutches - Rod should be in bed
7. we decide to leave early
8. drive home truck kicks up rock and breaks front window of car.


HOWEVER - I probably took some of my best selling photos on that trip  - am I like fine wine?  or the grapes?  I need to suffer to take my best photos??  NOOOOOOOO!!!  I don't want that  LOL

This is where DJ broke her ankle. 

 

This is one of my hotter images. 

a cool stand of birch I stopped at on the way to the non-emergency room

A wonderful stone wall where I stopped again on the way to the non-emergency room

 I do my best work when deathly ill.

The GOOD news was that as we neared home the vet calls and results were back.  Milo does NOT have cancer.  He has been suffering for the last year with a horrible infection in his sinus's. 

WHEW!!

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FALL COLOR REPORT

Looking for a site for fall color?   Check out the link above!   Funny.  When I was at my class reunion a friend how lives near Denver was talking about how everyone in Colorado brag about fall colors. He said Colorado is nothing compared to Wisconsin!   Then he starts talking about why with the type of soil and so forth.  Weird, 40 years ago I did not know he knew that stuff. 

-----------------------

My first CDA meeting tonight.  Looking forward to it. But I lost the agenda already! 

No no - I just found it.

New Business 
2014 CDA Budget - I am pro budget.
Branding Columbus - as long as it does not hurt I am pro branding
UPDATE on the new ultra-cool city Website - I am pro-website

Old Business 
Capstone project
16-60 Reconstruction
Entrepreneur Resource Center

OH - I have things to say!  I HAVE A VOICE!! 

A Daunting Task

I was going to post this yesterday but I got too busy.

Here is the rainfall graph.  Columbus received .0.66 inches of rain the other day while Madison had 0.26  More rain on teh way Sunday - guess I'll have to get the lawn mower out again. 

 OK - this will label me as a bad person but I actually LOL'd maybe it's just the way it was worded? I feel bad for laughing.  

A jihadi rapper from Alabama who had a $5 million bounty put on his head by the FBI after he climbed the ranks of an al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group has reportedly been killed by members of his own organization.

-----------------------------------------

News from downtown - - - - The Broadway Theater has risen like a Phoenix.  

Exciting News! We had our first contractors into the space this morning! Among other things they said that the project’s estimated timetable of completion would be about five months. They were impressed with the vision and enthusiastic about the space’s potential. They were professional and we look forward to getting their estimate.

I believe the REAL wording should be - "once we get approval from the City Council completion would be about five months. "

 -----------------------------------------

So I'm creating a store front for a new site (newer then the new site I had a few weeks ago).  I now realize that when people asked me if I had a web portal for ordering prints they REALLY were hoping I had a storefront where they could find an image, click on it and bingo, it would be ordered and delivered. 

SO - my task now is to create a storefront with all the bells and whistles. Not THAT hard but the "daunting task" is deciding and compiling my vast amount of images into some sort of easy to find arrays.  I have to resize an image for the storefront, then for each image I have to resize for every size ordered.  So typically for each shot I have at least 5 copies. 

Deciding, resizing, uploading, comments, descriptions, sizes, prices and so forth for each image.

Now I see I have to design shipping labels and thank you cards and so forth. 

DAUNTING!!

Here is a sneak peak

A work in progress - the GUI and back-end both work - need more images

I was sort of against shopping cards for art.  I wanted personal contact but after listening to 3 or 4 podcasts about such things and playing back what people in art fairs were asking . . . .

I mean 5 years ago who would have purchased SHOES online but ZAPPOS is now a billion dollar company.   With over a billion people online and my ability to ship worldwide . . . . . buying art online is not THAT of an odd thing.
------------------------------------

Packers are -7.5 favorites over the Washington Agitated Indians.

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Seasons over and a retrospective.

WOW - Saturday was the last art fair of the year and yesterday was my first day after fair season.  I felt rather lost.  All of a sudden I had no stress of getting things ready for a new fair.  It was odd.

I made some pretty major changes this year going BIGGER and it seems to have worked.  I made less sales but bigger sales.  I also know I need bigger shows so I'm seriously looking into Art Fair on the Square (or off).  Of course I have to be juried in but from reviews the $500+ price tag seems worth it.
Lake Mills and Fitchburg were my big winners while New Glarus and Sun Prairie will bite the dust.  I'll do Deforest next year after a year off and I would like to try Holy Hill.  DJ and I will go to that one September 21st to check it out.

In the meantime I'm working on my new site (RodMelotte.com) which will have an eCommerce shopping cart.  I've been listening to podcasts from Art Fair Insider and many artists are under the false impression that a website is a gallery and sales will appear magically.  Websites are there for sales, not for pretty pictures.

My feeling is that I would become a Wal Mart so I had resisted but when you get down to it why have a website if the ultimate goal is not for sales.

So that is my art story.
-------------------------------------------

I got blown out in Fantasy football.  Calvin Johnson sucked!  3 freaking points.  But while my team did 30 points under projections the other team did 30 points OVER!   McCoy? really?  I had him lasy year and I don't think he scores 24 points all year!  He killed me.  AJ Green REALLY killed me with his 28 points (projected 10). 

 0-1
------------------------------------------

I can not longer type - I'm freezing in this building!  
  

Friday

I was at the City Council meeting last Tuesday and was voted into the CDA (Community Development Authority).  Basically the city planners.  The vote was 4-1 in favor

Read my City Council blog here. 

Here is the link to the council - the vote is at about the 5:00 minute mark. Four all in favors and one slightly too loud NOT IN FAVOR!!   That is fine.  I think he votes against ALL of the Mayors appointments.

My view and the view of the many books I have read on city development for the 21st century (thankfully we agree) is the way to make a city prosper is not through spending all of your energies into gaining business but by making your town a place people want to move too.  Especially in a bedroom community like Columbus.  

It seems in the past city leaders assumed if you build a hardware store people will move here.  People move to towns because of the quality of life, not the quality of business.  The PROBLEM is that many citizens just do not see the benefits of sidewalks and playgrounds but they can see the benefits of a hardware store.  It's something they can see and touch.  Like advertising, you can not SEE the results of a new sidewalk or swimming pools and so forth.
 ---
OH - there are now 22 children that use the sidewalks on Vista Circle. Would you want them walking on the road?  Sidewalks are so important to transportation. The city dropped the ball on Avalon and other streets without sidewalks.  It's not IF there is a horrible accident, but when.  
 --
Speaking of business - Hydro Street Brewing is installing new equipment.  Take a look at these bad boys!  State of the art temperature controlled fermentors.    

The nice thing Aaron has pointed out are the little nozzle's on the upper right part of the cone - tasting valves.  Freaking handy!

 
  At that's not all, to go with them are the boiling and mashing units.

Any idea how hard these are to come buy?  Most breweries are on at least  a year+  long waiting lists!  There is a HUGE shortage of stainless steel brewing equipment world wide.   But Sandye and Aaron can talk their way to anything.

These are prototypes, the company that makes these normally sell larger equipment for the Macro Breweries and these are the first of a kind.   So Aaron goes from a 1 barrel system to a 4 barrel system.

The vision is to brew 500 barrel next year compared to 175 the previous year.  With over 90,000 pints of craft beer served last year the old system was maxed out.

In other news Chef Alex Drudges has graduated and is now an actual Chef and I tell ya - his food at Hydro is really outstanding - seriously.    Hydro Street employees 16 people now and is becoming the center of activity in Columbus!  A catalyses for growth and coolness.   

West James Gallery is NOT closing.

OH - check this out - IT'S GETTING FIXED.   Lot of grumbling and complaining but there is progress.  He is blaming the city - something about trucks I think.

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Last Art Fair of the summer Saturday in Sun Prairie in Cannery Square.

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With the big win in Denver last night there was talk about how the opposing team was sucking wind because of the high altitude so I looked and Denver is 3-1 in the last 10 years with the opening game at home and 5-3-2 in their 1st home game.   

I only had the kicker for Denver and got 7 points the hard way - ALL PATs!!  argh!

OK - gotta get matting!

Cheers
Rod

OUCH!!! That stings! + City Website negitive speak

really?  I had not blogged for a week?   Sort of busy I guess.  Everybody always thinks I sit around eating Bon Bons all day. No no, pretty active actually.

I had the New Glarus Art Fair Sunday which was . . . OK.   I did my usual but the crowd was perhaps half what it was last year which sort of hurt.  I've found that I have an average $$ per person attending so the larger fairs I have done GREAT and the smaller ones I feel I do poorly but in reality right on schedule.

SO! - since a friend of mine Cassius Callender has been pushing me to do Art Fair on the Square I think I will apply next year.  If I get my average I should make a sweet $126,000 for the weekend. You don't think that is a little optimistic do you?

Last week I was taking portraits of horses, a Clydesdale to be exact and I found out that when a  Clydesdale steps on you it can sting a little. Plus when you push a Clydesdale to get him off you it's like pushing a brick wall. Nothing actually happens.

All is well and he seemed sorry.  All the horses were so lovey and curious, they were like big, HUGE puppies dogs.

So the photos . . . . that white horse is a normal sized horse. 

Then I switched lenses and put on a wide lens just for a different look.  It did not work out that well but I did get this one.

Which is getting a lot of attention on Facebook.

But the crowd pleaser has been this one. 

--------------------------------

With the help from my buddy balderdash with some files I had my fantasy football draft and according to Yahoo I got a "B" in my draft.

Here is their write up!

Led by a Stellar WR Corps, Grinder's Island Looks to Have a Breakthrough Campaign


Grinder's Island parlayed a solid draft slot (second overall) into a respectable performance. With a mark of 10-4-0 (1,393 points), they're projected to finish third in Yahoo Public 887825 League (I finished 2nd last year with no quarterback basically). Grinder's Island stocked up on pass-catching weapons early on, using three of their first five selections to pick up WRs Calvin Johnson (first round), Julio Jones (third round), and Steve Smith (fifth round). That early positional investment yielded the highest-scoring quartet of WRs in the league.

The Season Ahead

Week 6 figures to test the depth of Grinder's Island. Among all weeks this season, it has both their largest number of players (3) and projected fantasy points on bye. They have the least difficult schedule in Yahoo Public 887825 League when factoring in opponents' projected points. Along with having the easiest overall schedule, Grinder's Island also has the league's easiest first four games and softest last four games of the season. An especially easy stretch appears to start in Week 1, during which Grinder's Island plays projected bottom-tier teams for two consecutive games.

Draft Notes

• Strongest Position: WR, the only better-than-average position on Grinder's Island, is projected to be 25.4% better than the league mean at that spot.
• Reaching for the Best: Although they got the highest-ranked WR left on the board, Grinder's Island may have reached a little on Lance Moore in the ninth round (82nd overall pick vs. ADP of 106.0).
• Risk Hater: Actuaries love the drafting style of Grinder's Island. They minimized risk by selecting 10 consistent players among their 15 picks.
• Mr. Mendoza: Marcedes Lewis is owned in fewer than 10% of Yahoo! leagues (1%). Let's hope that a.) Grinder's Island has some solid inside information, or b.) he's a close friend of the family.
• D-Fence: The best offense is a good defense? Grinder's Island chose to go with two DEFs instead of loading up at other spots.
• Single-Bar Facemasks: Grinder's Island knows this is American football, right? They elected to go with two Ks, instead of stockpiling depth at other positions.

1st Round (2nd Pick)

Calvin Johnson was the best value pick of the round, projected to score 57.2% more points than the average player at that position.

          2nd Round (19th Pick)

Although Stevan Ridley was the worst value pick of the round, he is still projected to score 9.6% more points than the average player at that position.

3rd Round (22nd Pick) 

PPR Powerhouse: Julio Jones will bring extra value if Yahoo Public 887825 has a PPR format, as he's projected to rank 10th in the NFL with 90 receptions.

4th Round (39th Pick)

Estimates have Matt Ryan scoring 307 fantasy points, 6.0% higher than the average at the position. If they are right, this would rank him sixth among QBs.

5th Round (42nd Pick)

While drafted 42nd overall, Steve Smith is not projected among the NFL's top 10 in either receiving TDs (24th with 6.4) or receiving yards (20th with 1,048).

 NOTE - I filled in my last spots with players/teams that will be used in the bye weeks.   

My one Packer is Finley.  Rodgers was drafted 13th. There  were 11 running backs drafted before I got my 2nd pick.

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OH - tonight the City Council votes on allowing me to be on the CDA,a seven-member quasi-public agency.

The city website sort of disses the CDA which I'm not real happy with but that is how the City Website rolls I guess.

What am I talking about?  

Housing
Between 2004 and 2007, there were 80 new single family homes and 46 new multi-family buildings. As of April 17, 2008, there were 5 new single family homes and no new multi-family buildings in 2008.  

Why even mention that.  OH - they were good 2004 to 2007 but not so good after that.  That is negative talk, ONCE AGAIN on the city website.  Why post negative ANYTHING on a city website.
sigh!  Who is in charge of the website anyway.  

You know me - it's all about advertising and getting the word out and those are the wrong words.  Columbus has an identity problem (no identity) and that needs to be fixed.

OK - Me out.