HAVING A BALL IN MILWAUKEE.

We got on the road early Thursday morning so we could hit Brady Street for the 2014 FIFA World Cup match between USA and Germany.

We got to Jack's American Pub just as the game was starting.  

Chants of  U S A  echoed down the street as we approached the bar.

Red, White & Blue attire was both the look and the drink of the day.

The United States had some chances in added time, as DeAndre Yedlin made an impact as a sub, but they couldn't find the back of the net. It ended up not mattering, as Ghana couldn't score again.

















We lose, but advance.

 Look there isn’t an easy opponent in the second round of the World Cup. Belgium has talent in every position but they have a few of their good players on the DL.  So, with any luck and some aggressive play we'll get another Victory on Tuesday!

 After the match we stopped in to see Susie's father. Kendo is getting settled into his new apartment.  We had a drink and watched some Baseball, the Brewers vs the Colorado Rockies before we went back to the house to do some yard work, cleaning and call it a night.

 Rise and shine.  We're up early for breakfast at George Webb a local 24 hour restaurant which started up in the 1940's on the East side.
When you don't know the score of last nights game it's the place for the score and a great cup of coffee.

When you come from the neighborhood, as George Webb Restaurants have, you get involved in the community. Like making outrageous baseball predictions. Starting in the 1940s with the Brewer teams of the American Association, then the Braves, then the major league Brewers, George Webb predicted the home team would win 12 straight. If they achieved the lucky strike, George Webb hinted, the restaurants would give away free hamburgers. And oh, how close the teams came several times. You could almost taste victory. Finally, on April 19, 1987, the Brewers did it. Three days, and 168,194 hamburgers later, George Webb fulfilled the payoff, to thrilled customers and Brewers fans alike.

Friday evening it was back downtown for Susie's class reunion social at the Lake Front Brewery.

The Brewery is located along the Milwaukee river, river walk.




Susie's lab partners Carston , Russ  and Russ's brother Jim founded the brewery back in 1987.



Susie with a Klish, one of the 40 varieties of beers along the river walk.

Susie and Larry, one of the mascots.

Kind of sums up our weekend... OOOOO, what a great time.

We Plan On Using The Next 20 Years!

 No it's not Heaven but,
 it's Our little slice of Heaven

Its been years in the making.  Converting a small prairie patch to a formal lavender/sculpture garden.

It started with removing all the prairie plants and leveling off the land, the formation of a urbancrete circular seating area/sculpture base. 












Susie has worked over a year on the "MOON HAWK" memorial sculpture.

 Foam core with several layers of concrete.

Lot's of tile clipping and design.  Followed by a layer of mortar.

 I worked on the earthen cone.

 Beau helped move the sculpture into place when he was home for mothers day.

 Susie grew the plans from seed and transplanted them into the cone with Spanish moss.

 Two tons of decorative rock.

And lots of hard work.








http://qctimes.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/i-could-honestly-use-another-years/article_83081f8a-a843-506d-990c-3e96090832ea.html

'I could honestly use another 20 years'qctimes.comBack in the early-1990s, Tom and Sue Becker were driving the back roads of Jackson County, looking for an...

A BIRDS EYE VIEW

The view is just one of the benefits of working high up on a ladder or in a bucket.

The morning starts up rather peaceful.  Not a lot of traffic and the river is calm.

 Mart takes the bucket up while I stick to working on the second level.

 The TWILIGHT River Boat makes the trip from Le Claire northbound for Dubuque and then the return trip back down south the following day for about $400.00 round trip with meals and lodging.

 A tug runs up river to help a barge lock through.

  Ingram Barge Company has been moving commodities on the Mississippi between Minnesota and Louisiana since the 1940's.

 The Celebration Belle, offers a number of different types of cruises including dinner, scenic and lunch. The captain of the scenic tour gives a very informative narration on the area, buildings and history of the life along the river. Dinner cruises also include live music from big band to rock & roll.




This guy dropped in on me today.  A Red Indian fantail, one of the oldest and best known of the fancy pigeons.  He had feathered feet and was quit tame but he didn't fall for my call....whooty who, whooty who.

WORKING LATE AND PLAYING HARD.

 School has been out for two weeks now and we continue working on the yard and gardens each and everyday.  Along with working with Marty painting Butches huge house about 6 hours or so through the week.

I've got my second ton of stone from St.Cathrine's for the new Lavender Garden.

 When I'm at town painting with Marty, Susie has been busy at home working on new sculptures, the yard, gardens, cooking and cleaning.

















 We make a good team.  I rough stuff in and Susie fine tunes thing.

Tonight I went down the road with the two dogs and got a small load of rock from the deteriorating foundation of an old shed 

 







 An hour and a half later it looks all right.














Friday morning Hot Rod power tour rolled through Bellevue on it's way to the Dells

 So, I fired up the Bus and took a spin through town and ended up out at Jerry's Shed. 

He got about 30 gallons of wine bubbling away.






This summer Susie and I have made a pledge to ourselves to catch some live music each week.

And so the fun continues...  Friday night we caught Joe and Vicky Price in Dubuque at the Busted Lift with Joan and Marty.  Ryan biked down and Scott and some other Bob's made it down for the show too.

And to wind down, the next day we caught The Black Velvet Band at the going away party for Mary and Clayton who are moving to NYC.

Looking forward to More Work and More Play this week.  :)
Garden tour next Sunday.

 

Amazing Weekend.

One of the amazing things about Cliff Swallows is that they use mud pellets to build their nests on vertical faces.  We could see the triangular, white forehead patch of swallows at the entrances of  the occupied nests.  We spotted these cool little homes as we were getting new furniture for Kendo.







Ken was making a move to his new assisted living apartment.  So, we rented a U-Hall van and moved all of his necessities from the house to the new place.


Everyone pitched in to lend a hand to help with the move. 

Melissa, Pete and Judy took the new furniture for a spin before we moved it in

After the move, we checked out the  Brown Deer Village Block Party.

The hardest working lounge band in the Midwest  the 5 Card Studs had the place rockin.  The band played up the 70's lounge singer vibe...For the Ladies.  Amazing!

 Photo bombing some of the local celebs.

 When we make it to Milwaukee we always like to make it down to Lake Michigan for some beach combing.

Now, while there are no laws against beach combing in Wisconsin.  You do get a some odd looks halling up cooler full of beach rocks.  But, when they realize that you training for the Amazing Race they seem to get it.

 All that training builds up an appetite and Chubbys on North ave. was the perfect stop.

 A delicious cup of Alterra coffee and a bag of Milwaukee Mini Donuts hit the spot for a Sunday morning drive through down town .

 Amazing.

Swing into Summer!

 We've been busy pet sitting for our friends and neighbors this past weekend.  They have a great setup with a dog door to their indoor kennel.



From there we went to the state park for the first of several graduation parties this weekend.

 At the graduation we heard about Bubblesfest down in Green Island.

Bubblesfest is a 40th birthday party for the gal who runs the little road house down in the Jackson County low country.


There was a great cast of characters who traveled down stream to have some fun.

 We set up a canoe, kayak  float trip for early July down the maquoketa with Scott and his tribe.  Let me know if you want in on the fun.

 Several bands kept the fun rolling.
Then it was off to the Bellevue Braves championship game of the Louie Jess Tournament.

 Most of us were on the edge of our seats as the Braves made a great come from behind effort.

But alas, there was no joy in Mudville... as the Braves came up a run short, leaving two men stranded in the bottom of the 9th.



Friday was my last day at school and summer is in full swing.