Climbers

Michaela's an expert.

Jamie's first time to the top.

125 years

Happy Birthday, Rhinelander!

Not Elcho

Disco Stu says, "The administrative branch gets down!"

Star Spangled JibJab

(thanks, Dave)

Lakewater

It was 90 degrees and and very humid yesterday. Storms were making their way across northern Wisconsin. Jamie and I were bachelors for the night, and we had the keys to a boat.

We drove out to Mom & Dad's with our fishing rods. We picked up their mail while Fred was in Milwaukee. We got the pontoon boat key, and drove down the hill. We had the portage, and nearly the whole lake, to ourselves. After we cooled-off with a quick jump in the water (I was the first one under!) We casted our lures for a bit. The fish weren't interested in working in the heat either.

We finished up our night with some Taco Bell in the camper, while we watched the Brewers put-up a crooked number in the sixth (9 runs, including a Johnny Estrada grand slam). (BTW, they won again today for a sweep of Houston, with a Damian Miller walk-off 3-run homer in the 11th.)

Chipmunk sighting!

WY? BCUZ I SED SO.

Calling all 7's

Seventh Heaven

A flat for the flute

Following links this morning, I found an interesting documentary section on Alexander Courage. He wrote the theme song for Star Trek. The closing credits (apparently this is the 4th of a 4 part documentary) also include something for Ann Margaret fans.

7 and a half minutes of Courage

Geo-interactive

I clicked on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website to read the Brewer's game story when I happened to see that they are trying a new multimedia report format. And it just so happens to be about geography.
geographer Yi-Fu Tuan
If you have 26 and a half minutes listen to his lecture (a small, postcard-shaped icon near the bottom of the page.) It was a satisfying experience.
Main article

Trout Lake visit

We went up to Trout Lake Campground in Boulder Junction to visit Tina and her Dad on a biking/camping weekend. We had dinner at their campsite, and then drove to a backwoods beach (White Sand Lake) that Dave & I had found while geocaching.

Travelers

As of our last received post, they were in Deadwood, SD:

Westward reports

Postcards from Dakota:

Having fun is hard work

We brought our camper down to the Riniker Open. We set up in Scott and Angie's driveway about 11:00 Friday night. Golfed at Eagle Ridge East Course Saturday morning. Dave and I were partners, we did alright. Doug and Sam Riniker won.

Saturday evening, we went to a picnic at The Riniker Bottoms. Great time.

Had a birthday party for Andrew on Sunday.

My lawn is a little tall right now, maybe I'll get a chance to cut it in between all this fun.

Beerfest

Beerfest was great.
They had over 600 festers this year.
We had 11 festers in our group. We had 5 camping units in our group. And we had festers in our group from Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Illinois.

Represent!

I kept better notes in my fest log (last year I gave up after 4 entries). Dave had 48 entries this year. This was his first year, he had lots of fun.

I seem to like the IPA's (India Pale Ale, it has a strong hopsy flavor).

We hiked a couple of miles to a geocache on Saturday morning. We took a few Illinoisans with us.
We had a community meal arrangement amongst our group, so camping was smooth.

Sunday I was exhausted, but that afternoon, I got the camper cleaned out and reset for this coming weekend in Hazel Green.

And since the day I left Milwaukee...

Preparation for relaxation is a taxation. Almost ready for beerfest.

Gonna have to see this one (R)

Successful electronics project

A laptop computer was a bite too big.
Simple electronics projects, combined with a bit of particular ingenuity seems to be me forte.
As per usual, I start with the assumption that if it can be done, I can do it. Then I begin, and I realize that the project is more complicated than I thought.
A few months ago I conjectured that I could print a picture on a transparency with our name and city on it and backlight it for a camper sign. I figured I would need a bright white LED instead of an incandescent bulb so as not to burn the cellophane. Two weeks ago, I bought the LED for 5 bucks. I also got a 10 pack of transparencies.
This morning I googled the simple LED circuit, did the math for my diode. I culled used parts from old mechanisms in the garage, used leftover materials, and voila:

Oops

I think I fried our laptop.

The backlight ($10) or inverter ($60) went out on it about a year ago. It's been sitting in the closet. Today I took it out and ripped into it. It's cool inside there. But, anyways. Most plugs are somewhat idiot-proof. I found a way around that.
They can only be plugged in one way. Apparently this one could be plugged in backwards, it smoked, a part turned black, and now it won't turn on at all.

I seem to have advanced to the level of my incompetence in electronics.

I feel bad that I broke it. But in an odd way, I have a sense of relief that another project is out of the way.

Space

I just learned how to use AutoHotKey. When I blog, adding a link is a quick click, but to make it open in a new window, so that you don't lose your old page, my this sentence is getting long, I have to add, or is it you have to add, the phrase 'target="_blank"' (thanks, Dave) between a and href. I know it's only a few seconds, but it wouldn't ever flow from my brain to my fingertips. I knew what macros were (keyboard shortcuts), but I didn't know how to build them. Now, instead of typing target="_blank", I just hold down the windows key and 'b' at the same time, and it prints target="_blank".

It took me awhile to figure out the correct sequence to produce the space required after target="_blank",

%A_Space%

but after googling, trial and error, and subsequent success; at which point I threw my hands in the air,... as if CoCo had just thrown strike three after starting the batter 0-2, and running the count full. Relief, as it were, not exactly joy. I knew it could be done, I knew it would be easy, I knew I would figure it out,... it just
w a s n ' t
q u i t e
r i g h t
. . . THERE!

Big pics

Zoom from this:
to this:

click here [only on specially loaded pictures (you can build them if you want.)]

Now lookit:

Wicked!

This chart shows that same trip: our speed and elevation through the duration.

Tracking

This is AWESOME!

This Motion Based software pulled data from my GPS from January until now, sorted it, and presented it to me so I would understand.

Here's an example:

Shelly and I were at the green stick-pin on the map, drove back out to the highway, drove in towards Camp 10, then back up to town.

Cool beans

Garmin, the GPSr company, just released some new software to access and use more data from GPSr's.

This website helps you utilize the data you have created by moving through your environment with your GPSr turned on.

Though I'm not a runner, this feature looks cool.

Clickabout

I cannot fully recall when or where I took this picture. My memory seems to be failing me. It's almost as if this particular place and time do not exist.

Walkabout

Shelly & I drove to Tomahawk today to get a Lincoln County Platbook. We found a geocache in a park on the west side of town, and then checked out some FCL/MFL land on the south side of the Wisconsin River on the way back home on Highway A.

This evening, Jamie & Kayla are at sleepovers. Jamie's first, other than relatives. Shelly and I went bike shopping for them (don't tell), and then went to Culver's with Mike & James.

Then I watched the end of the Brewers game in the camper in the back yard. I strung cable so that we can sit in the summer breeze to watch the games in the Wisconsin evening.

I noticed on the calendar, that today is the first of two full moons this month.