so THAT's why they call it work

Cheese!

Susan and I love cheese. "What," you ask, "does this have to do with Madison, WI?" Why, I'm glad you asked... oh, and you know you want to know: what type of cheese are you?

stuff you need to know about Madison

Courtesy of the Isthmus Annual Manual:

• Miles to Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis: 142, 77, 256
• Avg annual snowfall: 50.2 inches -- it's more than Arlington's 18" (yea!), but 16" less than the city we liked the next best, Ithaca, NY (whew!). A small price to pay for an average high of 82 in July. (NOAA says 44 inches of snow is avg in Madison, and UW says 35... let's just say 3.5 ft with a margin of error of 1 ft!)
• Average number of days that Lake Mendota is covered with ice: 78.4
• 2005 population: 221,735 (not very diverse, unfortunately: 87% white)
• Number of high-tech companies in Madison: 475
• Number of parks in Madison: 249 (that's in 67.5 square miles, folks!)
• Number of trees planted by the city of Madison in 2005: 2,260
• "Actual number of square miles of land in Madison that are surrounded, in the popular putdown, by reality: 76"

Susan and Fleewee

Susan and I have an older dog, Fleewee, who is struggling quite a lot these days, and we with him. Susan wrote a beautiful blog post about Fleewee that left me sobbing, both about Fleewee's troubles, and Susan's compassion. She's also posted some recent pictures of our boy.

Ten things colleges should start teaching you

Guy Kawasaki feels that college does not prepare you for the working world, so he made a list of 10 things that colleges should teach you and why. A bit smug, and a fair amount of "common" sense, but overall some good reminders of how to talk to your boss, how to survive a meeting that's poorly run, how to figure out anything on your own, how to explain something in thirty seconds...

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UW-Madison had to settle for #4...

The University of Texas at Austin was named America's best party school in a new ranking out Monday.

The school beat Pennsylvania State University, West Virginia University and last year's winner, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the Princeton Review survey of 115,000 students at campuses around the United States.

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75 degrees in August.

It's been a nice weekend... on Friday, Susan and I drove to Cafe Carpe in Ft. Atkinson, a small town about 30 miles south east of Madison, to see Jeffrey Foucault, a wonderful singer-songwriter who is from the area (though it sounds like he has moved east to the Boston area to join his new wife, another of our favorite musicians, Kris Delmhorst). We have loved his blues-y style and wonderful vocals for years, but his new album "Ghost Repeater" is, I think, his best so far. And, how lucky are we... Peter Mulvey showed up to lend a guitar!

Kris has a new CD out too, so check that one out!

And one more musical recommendation... we went to see a band called the Ditty Bops because they were playing at the Barrymore Theater down the street, and I liked what I saw and heard on their web site. Oh, and they are touring the country by bicycle. And their 2006 bicycle-bikini calendar was among their sales merchandise. And their t-shirts are hand-painted. And their keyboard player played from behind a hand-painted pagoda. What's not to love? They'll be at Jammin' Java in Vienna, Va. on August 24, and at the Ram's Head in Baltimore on August 25 -- I urge you to go if you are in the area!


Their opener, Scarring Party, was equally unique, sort of old-timey 20's-30's dirge-y jazz. And the lead singer uses a special microphone that makes his vocals sound like an old Victrola recording. And they use a typewriter for percussion. Yeah.

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But, back to the weekend... the trip to Cafe Carpe was just what I needed... there's been a lot of stress at work (sigh) and at home (health issues with family and just general busy-ness) of late, and a quiet show in a small club in a sleepy little town was a great antidote.

On Saturday, we went about 20 miles west of Madison to the home of an old friend of Susan's from Ripon College , to attend a fundraiser for Fair Wisconsin. It was really great to see Tammy and her husband Tom bringing so many people together in opposition to a state constitutional amendment which would make not only gay marriage, but even domestic partnership benefits unconstitutional. Susan and I are hosting a small house party ourselves on behalf of Fair Wisconsin next month, and Susan has been working very hard creating and delivering invitations, and meeting with local merchants about donations.

I spent this morning on the porch catching up on the mail and reading the NY Times (we had to subscribe to get decent national and international news coverage!), and Susan joined me with the laptop. Then, off to the gym to work out like good kids, then home, where it's my turn on the laptop (while watching what is likely to be the Washington Mystics' final playoff game of the season) and Susan is out taking advantage of the rest of this beautiful day to do a little yard work.

So... how are YOU doing? Send me an email and let me know that I'm not talking to myself, okay? :-)