This past weekend was Milwaukee Irishfest.  I went up Friday afternoon; as usual stayed with Art & Cynthia Warneke.  Cynthia was working for the fest selling drink tickets much of the time (it's amazing how much beer gets consumed at this event!) which permitted us to park fairly close and fairly cheaply.  Art & I had a bit of mis-communication as ( Read more... )

A friend phoned me around noon today to report that she had just seen a swallow-tailed kite at Homer Lake.  Now, this is a bird that I've only seen once--in Florida--so I promptly headed out.  Needless to say, I did not see it.  Swallows, yes, kite, no.  Given that this bird is so distinctive that a  split-second glimpse woul identify it ,(think ( Read more... )

There is now a new Honda Fit in my garage.  I need to spendsome time with the owner's manual.

Well, I did it!  I just bought a new car:  A Honda Fit.  (I should be able to actually bring it home on Friday.)  Silver, 4-dooor hatchback, stick shift.  Much better turn radius than my current Mazda.  This is basically exactly what I was looking for; I was sort of expecting that if I wanted a stick, I'd have to order it, but they actually had one ( Read more... )

I finally broke down, went to Office Depot while they were still running their sale, and bought a new (desktop) computer. 6 meg memory, terabyte hard. This one runs Windows 7;  one of the reasons I needed a new one is that Windows XP will soon no longer be supported.  Part of the deal was that they would port my files over from the old to the new ( Read more... )

After being without any connection to the outside world since Saturday afternoon, I returned from my doctor's appointment near noon today to find the ATT guy on my doorstep, so to speak.  My phone and internet are back!  The repair guy said that somebody had backed out of their drive and over something vital, cutting a cable.  Let us hope that I ( Read more... )

My phone suddenly stopped working this evening.  I have no dial tone, just a hiss when I pick up the phone.  So I call ATT repair service--and basically they want me to fix it myself.  If  I can't, they will try to get somebody to me on Monday.  (If I didn't have a cell phone, I'd be really cut off!)  In the meantime, nobody can call me if they don ( Read more... )

I saw, I bought, I ate.  And it was good.

This morning I had my annual eye check-up.  I am happy to report that the doctor found no sign of glaucoma or maccular degeneration--and I DON'T NEED NEW GLASSES!  My current prescription is just fine.  This is good.

Some years ago, my friends Rolf & Mary Wilson began having a party for Thanksgiving in the summertime, complete with turkey, ham & trimmings.  (This came about after the November Thanksgiving that Mary was sick & couldn't eat)  Well, Rolf & Mary got divorced & the big house was sold and you can't do that sort of thing in an apartment, so the ( Read more... )