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Good News from Camp Jeff

While the sun is shining reluctantly on the shoreline of Lake Maria, the news from Camp Jeff is good. I can't reveal the details, but her highness is about to accept an offer of employment. The job is an excellent fit. The six-month search may be over as soon as this coming Monday. Watch this space.

I can see DeForest.
This Friday the primary wage earner and I hustled over to visit the mid-state branch of the family. Friday s our daughter-in-law's work from home day. Both Brogan and his brother Tate are home from day-care. Ryan gets off from work in the early afternoon. We held this family outing at their home in DeForest, Wisconsin. (Just North & East of Madison)

MiMi and I always are amused and amazed at these two brothers. Brogan, the too old for his age eldest brother, who is serious about order and process. Tate, who is more like a basket of ping pong balls, emptied off the fifteenth floor of a building stairwell.

Both of them are way beyond the age where they cling to their parents. For them, it's the attitude of, "We are having fun. Join us." I would in most circumstances, and being asked to get down on the floor and play with the farm animals is fine. It's the whole idea of getting up off the floor that causes me pause.

The good news - bad news of the day revolved around failed communication. I thought we were going to take everyone out for dinner. Our daughter-in-law was making dinner when we arrived. The good news is her dinner was better than anything we could have at a restaurant. The bad news is the poor girl had to work her tail off to whip up the tasty repast.

I'm looking forward to two trips to the City on the Shores of the Inland Sea.  

Monday, I'm going to bus down to Milwaukee to attend the meeting of the UrbanMilwaukee.com book club. For this gathering of the finest minds in Urban culture,we supposed to have read "Streetfight." This book, written by Janette Sadik - Kahn and Seth Solomonow, is the saga of how they changed the landscape of the streets of New York by humanizing them. By making those streets safe and enticing for humans rather than seceding land rights to automobiles, they brought bicycles, pedestrians, and community back to the streets of New York. The story is about how they expanded the pedestrian area of Times Square by closing off 7th street to traffic. How they built pocket parks on flat surface parking spaces and expanded the bicycle trails. All to the greater benefit of the citizenry in the lower accident and injury rates and the increase in bicycle commuters. The quality of life benefits are hard to quantify, but the increase numbers of people using their bike share program speak volumes to the concept being worthwhile.

Tuesday is my busy day, which assures me something important will happen that throws a wrench into my Schedule.

I'm in Milwaukee on "a down on Monday back on Tuesday" bus turn-around. When I get back, I might have time to hurl the travel bag into the bedroom before we go to the Marcus Theater for $5 movie on Tuesday. This week we will be reviewing "The Money Monsters" starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, a film directed by Jodie Foster. Frankly, I've seen the trailer so many times, I think I may have already seen this film. But I'm sure there are some surprises in store

After the movie, we trek downtown to Frank's Pizza Palace to meet with how many ever, Toads show up for this highly informal, traditional gathering. It started when our friend, and now NY resident Toad member, Bob Levy brought his Big Band group to play at this venue. The Toads showed up for support. Now the band hardly needs the Toads to bolster the attendance, as this event has a substantial following.

In two weeks, The MiMi and I will be motoring down the Third Coast to visit friends and make sure we maintain connections to our favorite metro area. Our schedule is still in flux, and honestly, there is never enough time to touch base with everyone we'd like to.

While our weather still tries to catch up to Louisana in February, I am blogging from Camp Jeff, deep in the heart of the Fox Valley.

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