Quick trip to Wisconsin last weekend.  It's always good to get a taste of the city life.  One of our favorite areas in Milwaukee is Brady street on the East side.  Glorioso's is all a stop on our way out of town in addition to the new grocery store and café (coffee/espresso bar, fresh gelato, expanded bakery and a large wine, spirits and craft beer department too) that the Glorioso family is bringing back the what is believed to be the first pizza place to offer delivery service in the Milwaukee area, Trio's Pizza.
The way home takes us by Madison, the belt line was packed and I didn't think it was for the model railroad convention. 

For six days now, all eyes have been on Madison, Wisconsin, where tens of thousands of impassioned protesters having been marching on the state capital - and the battle over one state's budget bill has become a fiery national referendum on public employee unions.
It all began when newly-elected Republican governor Scott Walker declared he would cut costs by cutting pension and health care benefits - and curtailing collective bargaining rights for the state's 300,000 public employees.  We'll see what next Tuesday brings.

COB OVEN

    An earthen oven by Kiko Denzer on the grounds of the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, New Mexico. It's a phoenix that's seen better days. Since this photo, erosion repair has taken place and now it kinda looks like a chicken.  
Above photos are my first attempt at a cob oven for "bckrvue".  In doing so these are a few things I've learned:  
*construct a taller oven.
*a wider opening.
*a larger interior.
my goal is to rebuild a new oven with a design similar to the one from the Black Range Lodge.
Looks like a great place...I'll have to check this place out sometime.

ROOSTER WITH ROSES

Curling For Dummies

Curling has a rich history with many traditions that continue to this day. Though the origins of curling are unclear, most people regard Scotland as curling’s birthplace. Today, curling is played around the world, largely thanks to its introduction into the Olympics in 1988. Because curling can seem complicated if you don’t know a lot about it.

Curling Game Basics

What is this game of rocks and brooms all about? Curling is a sport in which two teams of four players each slide 40-pound granite rocks (also called stones) down a sheet of ice toward a target at the other end. Each team tries to get more of its stones closer to the center of the target than the other team.
Each player on the team throws two stones in each end. Once all 16 rocks have been thrown down the narrow sheet of ice, the score for that end is counted based on the final positions of the stones in the house, (the group of circles on the ice that looks like a bull’s eye). Only one team can score in an end. A team scores one point for every rock that it has closer to the center of the house than the other team.

Read more: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/curling-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html#ixzz1DOH8jCmO

CHICKENS

Susie's chickens with swiss chard

Blizzard of 2011

Two days after the fact we finely got dug out.  It took two Massive Furgusons an hour of digging to clear out our lane.  Average depth drifted in at about 5'.  Thank God for good, great neighbors.