Continuing a childhood tradition….

August 15, 2010

Growing up midway between Chicago and Milwaukee gave us the option of taking advantage of what both cities had to offer. The Milwaukee Zoo, Christmas window shopping on State Street, and in August, the Wisconsin State Fair. Now that we live in the Milwaukee area, I am able to continue this tradition with my son. We’re not big ride people, choosing instead to skip the midway and focus on the barns, the exhibits – and of course the food.

At least the traditional Wisconsin state fair food….the roasted corn and the cream puffs. The chocolate covered bacon, deep fried Milky Ways or deep fried Oreos, just aren’t calling our names. In fact, if you asked the kiddo, he’d tell you that deep fried Oreos sound like one of the grossest things *ever*.

As we toured the animal barns, we noticed these container groups, and living wall.

There are a couple of “rides” that we can’t miss, the Giant slide and the sky ride. First up was the slide. Mom skipped it this year, but kiddo says next year, I must do it. And I will. To ride, you grab a burlap “potao sack”, climb a ton of stairs to the top (getting more nervous with each step), and then fly down!

From there a quick trip through the Wisconsin Products building, and a bit of Cedar Crest ice cream. We fell in love with Cedar Crest while living in southwestern Il. About 15 miles east of downtown St Louis, you’ll find the town of Lebanon, IL. On Main Street is Dr. Jazz Soda Fountain. Oh how, we miss Dr. Jazz (and its owner, Paul). But we still can have the ice cream…in fact this reminds me that we owe Paul a picture of us in front of the cow statue at the Cedar Crest factory up in Manitowoc, WI.

Next up the sky glider. No trip to the fair (or Summerfest for that matter) is complete without a ride on the sky glider. Kiddo and I love it – hubby not so much, in fact I suspect avoiding this ride was the reason behind needing to stay home and cut the grass. Great views of the fair from up here – no doubt we’re in Milwaukee, home of the great beers of MillerCoors!

Perhaps the best part of the sky glider is where you end up……

Kiddo was getting tired, so we grabbed a box to go…because no trip to the fair would be complete without the cream puffs. Even have one for Mom when she arrives tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday: Making Progress or Futile Effort

June 9, 2010

My first real bike "ride" – Miller Lite Ride for the Arts

June 8, 2010

This weekend I did my first organized bike ride. Until now all of my cycling has been done either solo or with one or two other riders – in fact with the same one or two other riders, my son or my husband. Unless of course, you count time on a compu-trainer with other “real” riders, teaching me that my pace has, well, some room for improvement.

The combination of worrying about pace combined with an uneasiness in having another bike too close to my wheel (defined by within several bike lengths) had me just a tad concerned about an organized ride. At the same time, it is something I want to do – and if I do plan on finishing a triathlon, something I need to get over.

This was the perfect first ride. Many different options for length (5, 12, 25, 65, and 75 miles) with staggered start times, many volunteers along the route to keep you on course, well placed and stocked oases, and as we found excellent rider support.

Hubby was doing ride with me and we choose to do the 25mile distance – one we can easily ride, and knew would not be a challenge. The ride had an early start so the night before we got everything set up, clothes laid out, drink bottles filled and chilled, rack on car, spare tube and tool kits, and road ids set on the counter next to car keys and coffee mugs. I checked the pressure and aired up my bike tires. Morning brought the hint of a beautiful but cool day – perfect riding weather. And the first of our mishaps – two flat tires on my bike. I’d not closed either valve correctly. Oops.

Starting line was the Summerfest main gate, and it was filled with bikes when we arrived.

We choose to hang back and leave behind the initial rush of our group.
About a mile into the ride, shortly after we’d crossed the Milwaukee River, I heard a loud bang. Really loud. Everyone jumped, some nervous laughter, a women commenting that’s why you should always carry a spare tube. Over the next half mile I kept turning around wondering where my husband was in the crowd. Then my phone rang, and I found out. The sound was his back tire exploding with the force of 120psi. I turned around and went back to help. Neither of us had ever actually changed a tire, but we were making an attempt when the SAG vehicle arrived.
The tire wasn’t cooperating and even the SAG guys couldn’t get a small section to stay in the rim. We decided to load up the bikes, and head back to the starting line where Wheels & Sprocket had professional assistance. They quickly got us on our way and we once again started from the Summerfest grounds.
After that, the rest of the ride seemed uneventful, but hugely enjoyable as we headed south along the lake.
Stopped at the halfway oasis and the 20 mile one. At halfway to remove layers and at 20 miles paused for an apple and a refill of water.
The skyline in sight, we knew we were close
As we headed into downtown, we came to the stretch I’d traveled four times: on initial start, heading back to find Steve, on our second start and of course the “race” to the finish.
One last trip over the river and the finish line/Summerfest grounds were in sight.
Once back at Summerfest we enjoyed the after ride party. Re-fueling with Wisconsin greats – brats and of course, the cold, great taste of Miller Lite. What could be better?
While triathlon pace I do not possess, this ride did teach me I can manage in a bike crowd, that clicking in and out of pedals is becoming somewhat second nature, and that organized rides are fun.
Also learned that hanging back and starting well after the others is a good strategy for me. That said, the competitive bit in me was glad to realize our pace wasn’t the worst. We ended up passing the people who were around us when the tire blew – so made up close to 45 minutes on them. Will do this one again, however, will choose a more challenging length in the future!

Hey, I *could* have a flock of pink flamingos….

June 7, 2010

Originally I was going to do a post titled “Reduce, reuse, recycle” featuring this planter created from more or less “found” elements…. coupled with details on how I re-use last year’s potting soil with a bit of a mad scientist approach involving fresh potting soil, compost, organic fertilizer, alfalfa pellets and some really grubby, dirty hands. Or how I use the styrofoam packing peanuts to fill the bottom of planters.

Sure, I used an old golf cart found in my parent’s garage, and a very old golf bag. And I do mix up my own potting soil. And, I did save and use the packing peanuts – usually checking to make sure they are styrofoam, rather than corn starch which melts with water, to fill the bottom of large containers

But then, when I posted a picture on facebook of my finished product, my brother commented, “what will the neighbors think”. You see, I live in an established, somewhat conservative, upper middle class suburb of Milwaukee. We did what I think was a brilliant thing – buying the least expensive house in the best neighborhood possible. What we didn’t do was the expected tear down/rebuild or massive remodel/new addition. Instead we are tackling tiny project after tiny project ourselves.  The result of which has been comments from our neighbor that our purchase price is “bringing the neighborhood property values down”, or in seeing we were doing landscaping ourselves comments about hiring a professional.

So maybe my neighbor won’t like my golf bag planter. But I sure do! We got the original idea back in 2004 when we attended the PGA Championship at Kohler. There on the streets of Manitowoc, WI was this planter….

Ever since, we’d said we’d have a golf planter. Finally made that a reality. My version:

I think it’ll get better as it fills out and grows. Oh the plants – in the top: Phormium ‘Jester’, Cuphea cyanea ‘Caribbean Sunset’, Cascade Centradenia, and ‘Aloha Red’ calibrachoa. Lower front pocket (with ball) Sanvitalia ‘Sunbini’, back pocket, sorry, lost the tag, maybe a santolina?

In other ghetto gardening news. A couple of weeks ago I saw these great painted trellises and tomato hoops at a local garden center. 
 
LOVED them, but not the cost. Instead I bought 12 tomato hoops from Menards and four cans of paint. For the cost of two of the garden center versions, I have a dozen. Set up a little spray paint assembly line of one of our bare spots, and went to town.
Have three each purple, blue, yellow and green to add to my driveway container vegetable garden.


I think they will be quite cool. 
And if the neighbor has a problem with these, I guess I could remind him it could be worse….I could follow the example of this homeowner I saw on today’s Ride for the Arts.

Wait until next year when I finally get my bottle tree…………

Wordless Wednesday: Perfect Companions

June 2, 2010

Okay, wordless on this one would just piss me off if I was reading. 
#1: Phormium ‘Jester’ and Calibrachoa ‘Painted Coral’
#2 Oxalis vulcanicola ‘Molten Lava’ and Fuchsia ‘Autumnale’
#3 Callibrachoa ‘Saffron’, Argyranthemum frutescen ‘Butterfly’, Millium effusum ”Aureum’
I am in serious lust with all of these plants.