dynagirl

The Muffler Man wants to say hello to you.

I found a nicely decaying Muffler Man outside of Oshkosh. Terrifying, and awesome.

We went to the Brewers-Giants game last night, and had a great time. Hats, bratwursts, expensive beer, and omg, the Brewers won. However… the amount, volume, and vitriol of the boos and taunts delivered to Barry Bonds (we were in the third-base bleachers) was so nasty that now I’m rooting for the guy! Don’t be mean.

The banners that just had * on them were pretty clever, though…

Driving to work yesterday, my friend Bryan and I nearly got side-swiped twice before we even got to the Beltline; once there, they just kept on a-comin’ with the crazy-mofo driving. The Beltline isn’t fun any time, and with big construction starting this week, it’s not going to be any better, so we agreed that we’ll be taking the surface streets for a while. Just a few miles past that decision, a lone sign-truck blinked, “FREEWAY ENDS – EXIT NOW” — and three lanes of traffic stomped on the brakes, trying to get over to the exit. It wasn’t the construction that closed it; there was a really nasty accident.

We had two compasses, but no map, so we missed a turn or two. We didn’t know the grim impetus, and so got to enjoy a really pretty spring morning drive through rolling hills full of trees and brooks and farms where we saw at least three actual farmers farming. (The fields! They do not plough themselves?! Crazy.) Maybe my friend’s awesome new girlfriend isn’t nuts for pedalling all the way from Verona daily.

Wow, I think I sound bitter and cutty today. It’s probably just living on ice planet Hoth starting to get to me. I’m looking forward to spring.

We got 15-24 inches of snow last weekend, and then we got some more:

Here’s the view from my window at work (hey, at least I’ve got a window, right?!):

Our snowman has a much better attitude. Yay, snowman.

It used to be that some yahoo falling through the ice was the first sign of spring here, like robins are for less ice-fishing states. This winter* has been pretty warm; Lake Monona only froze recently, and not very much. News trucks are now driving into the icy waters to warn others of the danger.

OK, it’s 12°F right now, but this is a new thing

Mark Borchardt and Mike Shank (“American Movie” and “Coven“) are hosting a Halloween showing of “Night of the Living Dead” tonight on G4. They’ll also be airing Mark’s 1984 classic, “I Blow Up.”

If you’re in Milwaukee tonight, they’re looking for people to show up as zombies to be extras in the “live” movie Mark’s making.

I Killed A Bear.

At the Great Taste of Madison, our Dude found his Walter.

The Milwaukee Admirals got a hideous new logo which, given this article, not a rebranding of the team on their own but merely as a brand extension of the agency and it’s dick-tastic sounding owner and his obsession with skeletons. Great jorb.
Via number-one hockey fan CzelticGirl

Meanwhile, Jen’s friend cooked up this Most Exceelent On-Notice Board Generator. Hours of fun.

We, uh, got some rain yesterday.

To be all retroswank with my new phone, I thought I’d look up a better way to give out the number on the Telephone EXchange Names Project. According to the Ma Bell recommendation list, our options are:

• ALpine
• BLackburn
• CLearbrook
• CLearwater
• CLifford
• CLinton

When I was laying in bed the other night thinking about this, I mistakenly thought that ALlerton would be awesome, as the next digits are one and zero, so you could say “ALlerTEN” and go on with the number, but I was half asleep and so wholly wrong. I’m afraid that CLearwater would be a bit of a fudge given the muck in the lakes over the summer, but it seems to be the best option, since there’s no mountains here, and I hated those stupid big red dog books. Though a CLinton number would be sweet, politically. Any votes?

Favre would not say when he might announce his decision, admitting that he was “too much in awe of what Mr. Brilliant Genius Thompson did with the 4-12 Packers last year” to commit one way or the other.

via Nietzsche or Nitschke?

Things to do in Green Bay when the Packers are dead. Also, toilet-papering the coaches and players homes props up the local economy.

I’ve always heard from my mother that “the ledge” in Green Bay /DePere (or Scray’s Hill) is part of the Niagara escarpment, but until recently when I thoughtlessly parrotted that knowledge to a visitor, I hadn’t realized that I really didn’t know what the hell that means. Here’s more than you wanted to know:
Wikipedia: Niagara Escarpement
Aerial photograph of Niagara Escarpment near Green Bay
UWGB page about the Niagara Escarpment

I think the last time I got my haircut by someone qualified* was…. Oh, my god; I was still living in Milwaukee, because I went to Nikki at Beauty. Even then, I most often did it myself. Well, now my hair is a bunch of random lengths, and it sucks, my pedicure is ratty, it’s winter, I’m stressed out about a thousand silly things, and I just need some general salon magic.

The ladies whom I’ve asked about their hair (only the great hair) have all said Sojo Blau, and I just called, with fingers crossed — and dear, sweet Josh can get me in for a cut and a style AND a pedicure tomorrow at noon. JOSH, I HEART YOU!!!!!!! Make me pretty again! I am embarrassed at how swoonily excited I am about this.

i.e., not me, especially not me in a dimly lit bathroom…

Piss on Vikings. Yeah, yeah… I’m not really into the rivalry thing; I’m just bitter that we have such a crap team this year, and feel sorry for Favre trying to keep it together.

DesignMadison is setting up a CafePress store to make t-shirts available, and I was wondering if it had been set up yet. I searched “design madison” and this t-shirt came up. Awesome!

On Saturday we were running errands and decided to grab a hamburger at a tavern next to the brake shop, while they finished working on the car. The marquee read, “Dear Mayor and City Council: Where are the Non-Smokers?! DOWN 60!” We walked in and I remarked how Madison’s smoking ban had been in effect for eight weeks and the place still reeked. Wellll…. it wasn’t from lingering tobacco, but the three old barflies, puffing away on their Old Gold’s. Cigarette smoke is gross enough, but cheap hobo smokes? That’s naaaaassty. When our burgers came out, we sent the waitress back to put them in doggie bags so that we could get the hell out of there.

And you know what? If Tailgator’s stopped worrying about losing income from the barflies, cleaned up and started advertising that they have seriously some of the best hamburgers in Madison, they’d be complaining a lot less.

This Packers/Browns game is painful enough, but seriously, you’ve returned from commercials FOUR TIMES with missed plays. You suck!

UPDATE, 6:10pm: Our boys look like they may pull it out after all. Did I ever tell you about the time I saw Trent Dilfer totally bite it at Lambeau at the NFC Division game*? That rocked.

UPDATE, 6:12pm: I HATE NAILBITER GAMES!
OMG BRETT FAVRE IS SO FREAKIN’ HOTT.

UPDATE, 6:14pm: FuckfuckfuckfucK!!!!! *sigh*
UPDATE, 6:29pm: YES!! Not quite enough… but hooray for Favre breaking 50,000 passing yards. It will be nice when he overtakes John Elway and his teeth.

PS to Mike Sherman: Penalties are bad. Please make your players stop it now. Thank you.

*January, 1998. Section 19, ROW 8. 21-7.

Baby badgers and cake badgers via Beta. Mustn’t leave out the lady badgers!

The best Best Bloody Marys in Milwaukee come from the Eitel/Johnson/Montemurro establishments – the Nomad’s, though, has always my favorite. The newly remodeled Comet is closing in, however, because THEY INCLUDE A STRIP OF BACON. Is that not the most brilliant thing ever? Comet also serves bacon as a bar snack, after 5pm on Sundays.

We had a fun time in Milwaukee, visiting friends for birthdays and motorcycles. Koppa’s Farwell Foods still has the best sausage, and they remembered me, so they are now the official Best Polish Grocer in the world.

A number of bar owners are still up in arms over the new Madison smoking ban. We went out to The Avenue for fish fry last week, and it was as busy as usual — an hour wait for a table. This time, the wait was much nicer, since there was no haze in the air and stinky clothing afterwards. People go out to taverns for many reasons — the camraderie and conversation, live music, a scene different from that in one’s living room. As much as drinkin’ and smokin’ may go together for many people like milk and cookies, I’m glad to be able to go out and not come home stinky and hoarse. New York did it, and Ireland did it — two very smoky places — I think health-nutty Madison can manage. As far as business losses, I know way more people who hadn’t gone out to taverns much because of the smoke, than people who won’t go out now because they can’t.

It’s interesting how technology is helping people eat more locally grown food, and sustaining organic and/or non-monocultural farmers by connecting those farmers with consumers. Eat Wild is a directory of farms across the country, with a profile of their products and contact information. I’m shopping for grass-fed beef! Moo.

Gah! Ozone Action Days are the suck. My head’s as hazy as the sky today. At least the bus is free.

On Thursday, I played hooky and went to EAA with my Dad, and took a lot of photos. Check out the invisible jet prop! Marvel at the gay army NOT AT ALL GAY NAVY!

This nasty old hag who poisoned her neighbor’s cats lives five blocks from us. While they’d never have roamed that far, our cats don’t go outside anymore, and I’m glad for that. My friend Jeff suggested we plant some catnip in her yard. Quel tempting.

Google + census data. Sweet! There are one-hundred and forty-eight people on my block, in seventy houses.

Finally have the Dells gallery up.

A manager at a Wisconsin Culver’s Custard read an article about vegetable oil-fueled cars, saw the 60 gallons of oil they were paying to have taken away, and started saving $500 a month after he converted his truck. Now the whole Culver’s chain has teamed up with the Madison Environmental Group to convert all the company cars to biofuel.

There’s a new game in town — last night we caught the finals of Madison ‘s brand-new all- girl roller derby league. It was a close battle between the Reservoir Dolls and the Quad Squad. I was cheering for the Quad, but Jenny Knoxville… girl, if you wanna win, you gotta stay up.

Great fun, and one of the refs wears a kilt. Whee.