a couple Feingold videos

I'm glad Russ is our guy.
He makes me proud in the way that not many politicians do anymore.

---

A new friend of mine

I love Concerts on The Square.
I think most big cities have some form of this event. And maybe even all state capitals.
So I'm not saying it's unique to Madison, but gosh darnit, I'm going to let myself continue to think that Madisons Concerts on the Square is still special amongst them.

We got there around 3:30, spread our blanket on the ground. Off to the side a bit, not right in the "prime real estate" in front of the orchestra. But hell, you can hear the music all the way around the capitol anyway.

We went to get a couple low to the ground style lawn chairs and something to eat - and I took the picture you see up above. I've taken that picture a hundred times. But I can't resist trying again and again every time I walk by. I've got a feeling it's one of those scenes that causes people to instinctively reach for their cameras. Especially in later afternoon on to sunset.


We got our food, settled in on our new chairs (I left the tags on mine because that's what all the cool kids are doing these days). We got some new books from our favorite State Street book store - A Room of One's Own - and I took mine out and started reading.

And that's when I met my new friend.



See her there up on top of the book (okay... graphic novel. no..... not comic book. graphic novel. sheesh)

I don't think she was any sort of exotic butterfly... and maybe she didn't have the brightest colours in the butterfly encyclopedia...

But she sat there on my book for a while. I finished the page, waited a little bit, and then slowly turned to the next page.

She - I never did get her name - fluttered up, caught a light breeze, and then spiraled back down onto my book just in time for the next page.

She kept doing that over and over.

And you know what the best part was?

Check out the title of the book.

huh?

I remember a time when I didn't care about politics... I kinda miss that. I don't like that little videos like this can get me all worked up.



SO let me get this straight....
It was right to impeach and prosecute Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice when he lied about getting a blow job because he later admitted that he lied?

It is wrong to punish Scooter Libby for the exact same crime because he never admitted that he was guilty?

1st.... Isn't one of the traditional supposed conservative values personal responsibility? What happened to that? That was one of the things I liked about the conservative side of politics. What happened to "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime?" Now it's "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime, unless you've got friends higher up the foodchain. Then don't worry about it. do all the crime you want."

2nd.... What the hell kind of logic is that? Where else would that logic work?
A man goes out and commits a crime - he shoots someone, he sells some drugs, any other crime really - he is caught and found guilty in a court of law. BUT throughout the entire thing, he never admits that he's guilty. So at the end of it all he should go free? How does that make any sense?

3rd.... We have a long standing tradition of going a little easier on people who admit to their crimes. It's pretty well established that admitting to your crime is a part of remorse and responsibility and eventually reform. NOT admitting to your crimes usually indicates the opposite, and infers that you'd do the exact same thing again.

grrrr arg...
It's not even the pardon (or the commuting that will soon turn in to a pardon) that really bugs me. It's the hypocrisy.

a few 4th of July Pictures

Just a few 4th of July pictures. They are from this weekend actually. Saturday night.
Madison has this HUGE fireworks festival called Rythm and Booms. They estimate around 200,000 people attend. We went the first year, we threw down a banket close enough that it rained ash on us the entire evening. But the crowds, and the stress trying to get out of the place, and being nervous anytime your kid is more than 5 feet from you.... just wasn't our style.

So now we sit across the lake at the Memorial Union at the UW.

We get there early. Get a decent table. Play games, eat ice cream, drink a little beer and read a lot. It's perfect for us. We watch the fireworks across the lake, and we have no problem whatsoever leaving. (the year we went down to the actual show we waited in line for almost 2 hours to catch a shuttle bus back to our car).

It was a good day all around.

did you just say "parakeet"?

We were a the park this weekend.
The weather has been absolutely perfect. In the 80s, sunny, a little bit of a breeze, low humidity.... perfect.
Sarah and I grabbed a table and broke out the cribbage board.

Ashley went over and introduced herself to the other kid playing there. She was a few years younger than Ashley, but that was okay, Ashley is pretty flexible that way.

We kept half an eye on them as we played cards. They settled in to a game where Ashley was the "mom" and the other kid was the college student, and they played out there version of empty nest syndrome, helicopter mom-ing, and abandonment anxiety there on the playground.

The other girls Mom was sitting on the other side of the playground by herself. We (the parental parties involved) gave a good natured wave to each other. Kinda that.... "i'm cool with our kids playing together, and I'll keep half an eye on your kid, if you keep half an eye on our kid" wave.

About half an hour in to our cribbage game, just as Ashley was saying "but if you go to college here in Madison, you'll have to come have supper with me once a week, okay?" the other mother caught my eye.

She was sitting on her bench, her eyes closed, her face tilted up towards the sun. She was listening to her daughter play, her soft smile would curl a little bit more when her daughter giggled. There was something about that moment.

God, I don't even know... Without knowing her, or anything about her at all, I felt connected to her. And I felt happy for her.
That sounds trite.
It was one of those moments that a writer obsesses with for weeks trying to put words to. That an artist tries for years to capture, and that a photographer, if she is lucky, sometimes manages to capture in that perfect frame.

I'm none of the above. But I did have our new digital camera along with us, and I tried to be subtle about grabbing a quick image. It doesn't really capture the moment (i'm so jealous of people who can take great photographs. god I wish I could. My Dad has been a good amateur photographer all his life, and my brother is an amazing photographer, but not me. That's not a pity play, just an honest assessment of my abilities. I know what i want to capture, but never seem to. I just take a TON of pictures, and sometimes i get lucky)



The picture doesn't do it justice. There was some larger truth in that moment. Something about happiness not being the day to day crap that we all have to trudge through to pay the bills, clothe our kids and out a little away for the christmas season.

Something about the notion that happiness is being able to find contentment in a warm sunny day when your daughter is playing with a new friend and the sun is falling just so across your cheeks. Existing in the moment, letting that contentment fill you up like a glass overflowing, and then taking it back with you into that drudgery. Letting that contentment sustain you until you can fill yourself up again.

Something like that...

nostalgia and comfort food

(that's cheap red wine in the corona glass)

zoom zoom zoom

The bike ride home from work today was the hardest one I've had so far.

I remember the first day that I rode in this summer thinking, "huh, this isn't that bad, maybe I'm not in bad of shape as I thought."

And the rides haven't been that bad. I'm not going to say they're fun. I wouldn't say that any sort of exercise if "fun". I'll just never be that guy. I ride my bike in to work for two reasons. The first, and the weaker reason to be honest, is because i think it's the environmentally right thing to do. I drive my car less, i spend less on gas (i've only saved $15.75 so far this summer though. And my bike has been a constant stream of acquaintance needs, flat tires, busted derailer, needed a new safety light, new helmet...)
and I'm not clogging up the roads with another car.
I can do it, so i should.

The other reason, and the larger (ha ha i made a pun) is my weight. Or not specifically my weight, but the health problems it brings when I don't watch it. I have two pretty specific breaking points. And the lower of the 2 I get kidney stones. When I was above that weight I was getting a kidney stone every three months. That sucked... a lot. And the other breaking point, about 10 pounds above that, seems ot be when i get my pancreatitis attacks. I've had one big one, and two pretty little ones. Let me tell you, next to pancreatitis, kidney stones are like a warm cuddling session in january.

So I'm motivated.

I haven't weighed myself since I started biking this summer. I wanted to give myself a nice big surprise. I was saving it for a day when i was stressed and needed a littel pick-me-up.

I've been biking since the 2nd week of June, I've put on about 90 miles. Not a huge accomplishment, but for a guy who can only associate the word 6-pack with the Taco Johns 6 pack and a pound deal... it's not so bad.

Today was stressful, this week has been stressful.
The ride home was dreadful.
It was hot and humid, and for the first time when I got off my bike, my legs shook and I felt like crap.
So i shower and weigh myself.
and....
are you ready for it?
are you trapped in eager anticipation?
are you on the edge of your seat?
are you saying "good cheese christopher, just frikkin tell us already?

fine, here it is...
I gained 3 pounds.

yup, i gained 3 god damned pounds.
Sarah said it's probably muscle.
I don't know if I believe that.
And even if that's true... what the hell is the end game here?
I slowly become this knot of sweaty stocky muscle?
I wanted to lose weight. And without that, it's going to be hard to stay motivated. There's already this little part of me thinking of reasons I should just drive in tomorrow.
It might rain...
It's going to be humid...
I could get home quicker.
I'm worried about my tire going flat again (2 flats already this summer)

I think those little voices have always been there, but I've been able to shout them down with "I'm getting in shape damnit, leave me alone!"