baby mouse

look what we found in the backyard.



after an hour of hanging out, our little baby mouse friend mysteriously disappeared when we weren't looking. i'm sure his mom retrieved him. right?

nephew of the year

my sister had a baby, and he is perfect. he came early, and still hangs out in the hospital....but not for long! welcome to the world, caleb.

caleb and his adoring parents julia and dana.

weekend action

last weekend was an action packed few days. kirk got married, becky had a birthday, and sweet corn was on tap.

on saturday, before the nuptial celebrations for kirk and beth, we made what should be an annual pilgrimage to sun prairie, wisconsin. sun prairie hosts a yearly sweet corn festival in the middle of august, and it is sweet indeed. true to our fine wisconsin heritage, the festival is complete with a petting zoo (baby cows, chickens, goats...nothing too fancy), beer tent, and kiosks of fried cheese/bread/mushrooms/everything. but the true highlight is the sweet corn. how does one obtain and enjoy said sweet corn? simple.... just follow these steps:

1. ) purchase your corn tote for $6.00


2.) have one of the corn people fill your corn tote with as much juicy warm corn-on-the-cob as seems reasonable, or portable


3.) take your corn to a workstation and shuck


4.) bring shucked corn to one of the friendly butter girls, who will coat your corn in butter


5.) salt liberally at the salt tree


6.) enjoy


after filling our faces with corn and butter and salt, we helped kirk and beth celebrate their recent wedding. it was a wonderful night full of wonderful people (and a wonderful doritos chips buffet).

kirk loves doritos. who doesn't, really?

ah, young love.

we ended the weekend in chicagoland, celebrating david's sister becky's birthday. happy birthday, becky!

trampoline frolicking with the 2 cutest people on the face of the earth, our nieces.

staple siblings

first day of school!

david is ready for his first day of school!*
* orientation. school actually starts next week.

to marta:

-from david

cat-bjorn

this new-fangled cat-carrier works great!

an evening at home

"i baptize you in the name of the snuggie"
*please excuse any potential or perceived sacrilege in the post. our intentions are good and pure

we've never been to alabama

david: "alabama is a good name for a boy or a girl."

marta: "we've never been to alabama."

now this is stuck in my head:

party bargin'

this afternoon we were treated to some fun in the sun (partly sunny) on lake de neveu, just south of fond du lac. thanks for a super time sondergards and myers.

the party barge

de neveu lake

a perfect 10 over the edge of the party barge

relaxing on an amalgamation of inflatables

earth days

i don't know why i keep posting movie trailers, but i do. i think this looks like a good one.

gee, thanks mr.

les paul, inventor of the solid-body electric guitar and guitar virtuoso until the age of 94, passed away today.



*thanks to brow beat for finding this spiffy video

duck, duck, mcduck?

are scrooge mcduck and donald duck related? scrooge is frequently referred to as "uncle scrooge" by his nephews huey, duey, and louie on the classic early-90s cartoon ducktales. occasionally, donald duck makes a guest appearance on ducktales, and he also calls scrooge "uncle." of note, the boys huey, duey, and louie also refer to donald duck as "uncle." how can donald be the nephew of scrooge mcduck, when donald is also an uncle to scrooge's nephews? to further complicate the issue, daisy duck, donald's presumed life partner, also calls scrooge "uncle."

and why don't they wear pants? scrooge wears glasses, a top hat, and spats! but no pants?

donald occasionally dons full sailor dress ragalia! but no pants?
a little music for thought....

who's the boss?

there are a lot of good life lessons in this song.

nice hat, benjamin franklin

rad!

this video is pretty much exactly like my ride to and from work...


...at least the part where he waits patiently for the light to change.

ps: i should note that i found this video on how the world works. also, i really like that band of horses song.

evening canoe

we took a short sunset cruise from tenney park to maple bluff and back.

this is our canoe transportation system, which we call a canagon (canoe-wagon). it makes for a very smooth trip from our house to the lake.

the unofficial destination of our trip was the governor's mansion. we were really hoping we might catch a glimpse of jim doyle barbecuing, fishing, swimming, or something. alas, we did not have a governor sighting. he was probably busy linking madison to the rest of the midwest by high-speed rail.