Weekend Recap

How was my weekend? Pretty good. I started out with a trip to Madison right after work on Friday night. I met up with Joe and Dawn, then we picked up Jota and went to grab dinner on campus. After dinner we met up with Jota's wife, Shelly, then adjourned to Paul's Bar on State Street. Paul's is right by the capital. It is hard to forget, I believe it is the only bar in Madison that has a tree in the middle of it. It wasn't until around 11:30 or so when we finally met up with my cousin, Pocahontas. (I realized this weekend, that once I give someone a nickname, if I try to use their real name no one know who I am talking about. Kim, Jake and Mike mean absolutely nothing to my friends, they only know Pocahontas, Tom Brady and MKA.) The reason I was in Madison was for Pocahontas' graduation from Pharmacy School. We were with them passing around boots at the Essen House until bar time.

When I graduated from college many years ago, there was a party. And at the party, my sister gave me a t-shirt and had everyone at the party sign the shirt. Pocahontas, who was 12 at the time, signed it "I will finish in 4 years!!!" This was because I was on the 5 1/2 year plan, for the slower engineering students. This came up Friday night. Please let the record show that it took Pocahontas 6 years to graduate. Now some may make the claim that procuring a degree from Pharmacy School is a bit more challenging than an Engineering degree. But I will leave that topic for a debate on another day.
Here are just a couple of photos. Pocahontas, Jessie and my aunt Marilyn.M.K.A. helping Pocahontas get out the door at bar time.

Saturday was a pretty big day. I had a lot going on. I stayed at the Magnusson Bed and Breakfast Friday night. I was up and out the door at 6:17 a.m. First order of business for Saturday was to get in a training ride around Pewaukee Lake for my upcoming triathlon. I showed vast improvement cutting my time from 59 minutes down to 54 minutes. My goal is to get that time down to 45 minutes. I still have a lot of work to do. But the highlight of the ride came with maybe a mile to go. As I was approaching an intersection, there was another bicyclist approaching the same intersection from a different direction. This guy was decked out head to toe and all about biking. Helmet, jersey, gloves, shorts, shoes and a bike that was probably in the $2,000 neighborhood. Based on his looks I let him take the lead in front of me, figuring that if I was in front of him, he would just pass me right away. Wrong. In fact way wrong. I kept waiting for this guy to drop the anchor but he didn't, he was just out for a nice slow ride. I thought about passing him, but I knew I would be pulling over right away because I was almost done. So that made me feel good that I could not only keep up with this donkey, but also very easily could have passed him. I have mentioned it before and I will say it again, one of the greatest joys of doing a triathlon is when I pass some clown like this guy and his $2,000 bike, on my bike that is 20 years old and ring the bell on my bike. So with the training for the day out of the way, I headed home and cut the grass and cleaned the house. I knew that I would be inviting anyone from the wedding ceremony to my house before reception.

Saturday afternoon was Roman's wedding. I have a couple of thoughts on catholic weddings and priests that I will wait for another day to discuss. The service was fine, just a little long for my taste. Another sidebar to the service. How is it possible that people continue to leave their cell phones on during a church service? If you are really that important that can't turn your phone off for a church service, then don't even go. Or maybe you are that important but just forgetful. Sure that is possible, but that is the first thing I think about when going to church. I fail to understand how that can happen. Incredibly disrespectful.

As far as the reception. Bubs, I have to hand it to you. You had a great speech. It was thoughtful and touching as well as having enough humor so that it wasn't too sappy. Although I still have to say that the speech that Bob gave at his wedding is still number one in my book. And then there is Justus. After Bubs' speech, Amy's maid of honor started giving her speech. She got about 4 or 5 sentences into her speech which was about how Amy and her friends had a nickname for Roman. As she is building up to the punchline of the story, Justus blurts out more than loud enough for the entire room to hear, "Romancandle!!!" Totally stealing all of the her thunder. Excellent work Justus, I expect nothing less.

I had my camera but didn't take many pictures. Bob, Beth, Bubs and a very somber General.The General a bit more festive and Bob.

I finished up the weekend with a 5K walk with my father for the hearing impaired on the lake front. I knew I needed some exercise so I biked down to the lake front. I have done a number of walks down by the lake front, but in most of those we cut the corners and don't do the whole 5K. Well this one we did nearly the whole 5K. It was much farther than I was hoping. I think my father was also hoping for something a little shorter. 5K is a little more than his 72 year old frame should be taking on. But he finished. The remainder of Sunday we spent on the couch. And looking ahead it doesn't appear that I have many more free weekends. That means that I will have something worthwhile to write about for the next couple months. I will make an effort to get more postable photos.

Thanks to Joe and Dawn for letting me crash at their place Friday night. Thanks to Roman and Amy for a great time Saturday night. I hope you two had fun as well.

Lyric of the Day:
So if you disappear out of view.
You know I will never say goodbye.
And though I try to forget it.
You will make me call your name.
And I will shout it to the blue summer sky.