Michaela Sue

Saturday's adventure was a houseconcert at alymid's featuring catalana. This was a very nice evening. A lot of Erica's songs are the type that I find I need to hear several times to really fully engage in, so it was very nice to have another chance to hear her.

The filking after the concert was lots of fun. I was pleased that my feeble attempt at hsifyppah's "The Wreck of the Crash of the Easthill Mining Disaster", a song I've heard exactly once, went adequately well. Everyone laughed at the right places ("If your train hits a steamship, you're bound to be killed!")

Nice how my guitar fits in the trunk of my new car with plenty of space for other stuff left.

My Saturday began with a phone call to aryana_filker, who was wisely escaping the rain by being at home where she was phoneable. Then a trip to the Public Market by bicycle to see what was on offer. The Farmers' Market opened Saturday. It's too early for locally-grown veggies but various live plants we on sale, plus the soap people and the honey people. It being warm, I sat outside to eat soup and charge my iPod with my folding solar panel, which seems to work well.

I finally found the "marsupial bridge," which is indeed under the Holton Street Viaduct and is entirely invisible from the roadway above. I drive over the viaduct twice a week, and you can't really see anything from the road. It turns out that there is a river below with condos going up along it, and a park. I'll have some photos up eventually. It actually makes some sense, connecting up the lower level. If there wasn't anything down there it would be pointless, since the viaduct itself is plenty wide for cyclists and pedestrians.

Saturday night was music night at Chez Dork. born_to_me's chili is great! Lots of fun. exapno was there with Xapling2, so were Marci, TC and Sean, anach and jerusha, and almeda and her energetic dog mightyajax. There were an amazing number of Small Creatures, with the two dogs, some cats, and a large number of little children of various ages. Much musical fun. Oh, and did you know you can experience a massive traffic backup on I-294 at 1 AM? You can! How much traffic can there be then? Too much for one lane, which is all we had in one spot due to some sort of work.

Sunday Joyce and I had coffee and part of a giant cinnamon roll at the market, stopped by Laacke and Joys to look over the kayaks at their annual Paddlefest. We walked over the Marsupial Bridge. We ate Reuben sandwiches at John Hawk's. They do a mighty fine Reuben there.

News from my weekend:

• Skating on the 400 meter oval at The Pettit National Ice Center is really fun. It surprises me that there are so few 400 meter indoor ovals. Sure it’s big and presumably expensive, but there are lots and lots of much bigger, much more expensive sports facilities, and you’d think that at least more of the ones from previous Olympic games would still be in use.



• The chocolate and cherry bread from Piacentine’s Artisan Bread at the Milwaukee Public Market is really good.



• St. Paul’s Fish Company in the Public Market is selling “salmon on a stick” in Teriyaki, Mesquite, and plain flavors. It is Really Good! Anyway, how could I resist something called salmon on a stick?



• aryana_filker and I finally had a nice chat by telephone. (That seven hour time difference is inconvenient.) As nice as e-mail is , it is so nice to talk. Also nice that these days a call to Germany can cost very, very little.