Piece of Ship?

A certain ping-guin emailed me this photo last night...
Not good.

Some Things Seem Impossible...

I have had days
when I have felt as though I was attached
to an impossible task, feeling or desire.
Weighing me down so much,
so heavy, that has stopped me
dead in my tracks.

Then I remind myself to step back,
look at it from another point of view.
That's when the answer becomes more clear...

Do You Inhale???

There's a lot of talk about smoking lately. Where and when
in particular, especially with "no smoking" in certain public places.
Many people are quitting...but are they?
Or are they choosing to smoke in the car, closet, garage...???
Some people choose to smoke the more herbal type of cigs
these days...legal and illegal.

So my question for you is...
Do you smoke?
If you still do...where and what?
Have you tried quitting?
Do you inhale or are you just trying to be cool?

Have a smokin' Thursday!!!

PE Cars on the Square

Here's a few photos from downtown Madison back in May
when Public Enemies was being filmed. I mostly went down
to the square to see the period cars.



A little quivering doggie named Cindy was there too!
Her owner said that when he bought the bike at a garage
sale...she came with the bike... LOL










The hood ornaments are exceptional!! Not
like the spring-loaded ones these days.







There's your Tuesday stroll down memory lane!!
Have a great one all!!

The Shining - Remixed Movie Trailer

Saturday night I watched The Shining...a movie based on Stephen King's novel and directed by Stanley Kubrick. One of my favorite horror movies! Great camera work in this film....(when you watch it, remember Kubrick directed Space Oddessy 2001...keep that in the back of your mind during the movie)....extra wide shots!! Jack Nicholson is perfectly crazy and Shelley Duvall, well she'll always be Olive Oil from the movie Popeye to me. And we can't forget little Danny Lloyd who did a great "Danny isn't here Mrs. Torrence," with his first finger. I think he grew up to be a ventriloquist-just kidding. LOL

While watching the movie, I remembered stumbling onto this "remix" of the Shining movie trailer on YouTube about a month ago. It's really well done, using clips from the movie to create a new warm and fuzzy Shining. If you have problems viewing it here's a direct link to it on YouTube.

Let's go with Bowie....in space!!

The Flight of the Conchords is fast becoming one of my favorites.!!!!!
An Australian music/comedy duo who are somewhat clueless in America.
They have their own series on HBO. They recently released a music CD.
Usually in each HBO episode they will do a couple short story-related music videos.

One of their episodes was about David Bowie visiting Bret in his dreams.
Hysterical stuff...especially if you are a Bowie fan!!!

-This is dedicated to my good friend, Minxie!!!-

Rally...No Hot Air Balloons!

Here's a quick slide show of the Hot Air Balloon Rally
that took place last weekend in Wausau.
The winds were too high making it dangerous for balloonists to take off.

Enjoy!!

WI Brewery Tour - Central Waters BrewPub

Last weekend we took a detour from Wausau to
a little town in Wisconsin called Marshfield.

We stoppped in at Central Waters BrewPub
to sample their brew and have dinner.



Central Waters is located in the old Parkin Place dairy processing plant.
Parkin Dairy was known for their molded ice cream desserts.

We tried every one of their beers on tap LOL.
I'm just showing you one of the few trays.
One of their most popular beer is Tiger's Eye.
A golden English pale alethat is hopped with "English Fuggles".
Wasn't our favorite...
We really enjoyed the Loch Ness scotch ale and the Mud Puppy porter!
So delicious, we picked up a few growlers.




Appetizers!! Fried pickle slices, calamari and mozzarella marinara.
The pickles really went well with the brew!




We ordered a few sandwiches...The Pub!
Grilled prime rib...very tasty!




Chicken Pesto Panini...loved it!




Some photos from prohibition...WE WANT BEER!!




The works!!

Great brewpub, I highly recommend it.
BIG variety of brews here and a great menu of tasty sandwiches that hit the spot!

It's Chalk Fest!! - Wausau

We've never been to Chalk Fest in Wausau...so we thought we
would see what all the excitment was about!!
Hundreds of chalk drawings by single artists to families
or teams of artists. Their art consisted of still life, humor,
environmental issues, homages to their favorite movies
(no Depp??) and on.

I'm posting a few today and will try to make a slide show later
this week to show the range of fun drawing on the sidewalk!!




This original chalk drawing was about 20 feet long.
Created by at least 3 artists.

"Where the Wild Thinks Are"

A nice view of Wausau's City Square being decorated
with beautiful chalk drawings.

Here's one to remind me of the balloons that didn't fly that day.
Grrr.

A hardworking family working one of Lotus' crabs...
maybe that's Lotus in her favorite color. LOL

Have a great day all!

Look what parked next to us...!!!

On our way up to Wausau yesterday,
we stopped at Culver's for lunch.
We ordered, got our food and sat down.
People stared pointing out the windows,
making faces and whispering to each other.
Seemed odd, but we carried on with our lunch
talking and eating...trying to ignore the commotion.




We finished our lunch and went back to the car.
Our jaws dropped when noticed what was parked next to our car.
A double-decker hound carrier!! Or was it a doggie rescue bus?




Poor pups. They just looked out their holes, not barking or snapping
at the people staring or walking by. They looked hungry!
"Where's my Butter Burger!!"




Obviously, someone took a welding class!!
It was a very odd sight.
Have you ever seen one of these?




Later in the day...on our way to Marshfield, we saw birds
hanging in the updrafts...floating without strings!
There were so many!! And they were huge!!

Enough Animal Kingdom for today...
enjoy your Sunday everyone!! Cheers!

WI Brewery Tour - Red Eye, Wausau

Our good bartender from Hereford & Hops told us about this brewery.
He highly recommended it...and now we know why.
It has fabulous beer and food.
Very organic, very, very, and I'm not kidding you,
tasty stuff here!!




We started our lunch with a set of "samplers." Our two favorites are
pictured above on the left. "Bloom" (far left) and the one with the lemon
slice is called "The Cyclist." Both are perfect beverages for lunch...
and speaking of lunch...




We ordered two items off the menu to share.
One was a chicken wrap...sorry don't remember the
name of it. It was excellent & fresh!!




Our other treat was the "Red Eye Special."
A delicious salad with beautiful pieces of avocado.




A nice big window so that you can observe the magic!!

Red Eye was one of my favorite breweries so far...
top of the list for them!!
I plan on going back for more growlers soon!!!

WI Brewery Tour - Hereford & Hops, Wausau

Alright, back to the tour!!
A few weeks ago we stopped in at Hereford & Hops in Wausau.
Nice place, good steaks & good beer.
Their Maibock was oh-so tasty and growler-worthy...
we bought one for the cooler.




Here is our friendly bartender...holding up our
beer guide. He gave us some more information about
the Wausau area and more breweries in the area that
were not listed in the guide.

Note the bartender's similarity to Captain Chinstrap!!
I think he's one of his crew...who stole my ship,
the Mother of Pearl!




We continued on to one of the bartender's suggested
breweries the next day...was it a trap?
You'll see....next up, Red Eye!!

Which do you prefer?

Snow or humidity?

I'll take the "humidity of the day" please..
with an ENORMOUS glass of ice water.




On these hot humid summer days,
it's always fun to go back to our photos of last winter.
Remember all that snow in Wisconsin?
Here's a litte reminder to cool your thoughts!

Have a COOL Wednesday, mates!!

WHO's bar & grill

Talk about mystery men!!
You want to know who I am...??
Have you ever really wondered who "who" is?

I think he's a who with a double life!!
Yeah, but don't tell his who wife.
She might just take his who life.

Whoosy, the unknown barkeep.
Where do you sleep?

Up in Superior?
Is Columbus beer inferior?




The bar is air conditioned
He tells his wife he's north fishin'
I bet right now he's wishin'
He had an alibi




Who's bar!
Yeah, that's right!
It's YOUR bar

Al Capone's Hideout Tour

Welcome to the Hideout Tour!
This one's a long one...I hope you have
something to sip on while we take the tour...
are you ready?




On the road to the Hideout we saw a black
bear crossing the road...he stopped near the sign
and looked back at us. What a poser!




Here's some info just in case you plan on
making the trek up north...




As you enter the property, you see this beautiful stone
building...The Hideaway!




The craftsmanship is amazing...
too bad no photos were allowed inside.




This is a shot of the restaurant/cocktail lounge.
It used to be the garage where they hid the cars.
Notice the stone again...that was the outside of
the old garage building. We were told that Capone had guards
up on the roof at all times when he was on the property.




Supposedly, this is a jail that was used for other
gangsters they would kidnap from rival gangs...




The jail was quite cramped.




Ok, back to the house...




This is the entry side faced the lake, the door is
behind this section...we went inside.
Sorry, no pix allowed. I'd love to elaborate on the
inside...but I think you should take the tour
for yourself!!!




These steps lead up to the kitchen.
Beautiful gardens...Al had class!




This is the door on the ground floor facing
the lake. It was used by his
"underlings" & guards.




A pathway from the house leads to these steps and down
to the lake area. Capone used seaplanes to fly in booze from
Canada...the lake was a great resource on the grounds.
They also cut ice from the frozed lake for refrigeration.




Caretakers cottage...one of Capone's was always
on the grounds to oversee the Hideout year 'round.




Al used German Shepards to patrol the grounds
at night when he was on site.
This is their little "cottage."




Capone used to do a little farming up here and had farm
animals too. The building to the right is a museum...with
an old time general store and a display of the St. Valentine's
Massacre. A funny note about our tour that day...
There was a woman who brought her children with her for the
tour. The kids were about 3, 7 and maybe 11. When the
tour guide announced that "this" (St. Val's) was his favorite
part of the tour...OMG, the reaction from this woman...
she covered her little girl's eyes and held her protectively.
What was this woman expecting when she took her kids to
Al Capone's Hideout? Unicorns and rainbows? Think!




This is the bunk house for Capone's underlings.
More garage space to hide their cars too.




Al's garden...he liked to putter in the veggie
garden...multifaceted gangster he was!




Outside shot of the main garage that was turned into the
lounge & gift shop.




This is a patio area near the entrance of the
Hideaway. It used to have a covering for shade.
Nice place for BBQs & hooch!

Thanks for coming on the tour!
I hope you enjoyed it!!