I am an admitted sun-aholic. Bright sunshine makes and inordinate positive impact on my psyche and well-being. When it’s gone for more than a day or two, look out.

That said, you would think that today would be a bad day for me. Another morning of fog followed by a monsoon. Nice. Despite that, it’s actually a pretty good day for me, attitudinally speaking.

Why?

Well, because I just came across this photo on my phone, snapped back in December in my driveway when we got that first big dump. This is a picture of the final shot of the 2009 outdoor basketball season.

We wondered then how long it would be before that ball would come down. Not long, as it turned out.  Around Christmas, you might recall, it got just warm enough to rain for a couple of days, letting loose that last shot.

Anyway, looking at this photo has reminded me how much nicer a spring monsoon is than a Christmas monsoon. It is truly a great day.

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Normally, on a rainy morning in March like today, I would not think, “hey, maybe I’ll fire up the grill tonight!” In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s been at least 5 1/2 months since I last did just that so, obviously,  it’s not yet returned as a regular part of my thoughts.

However, Charlie Shortino pointed out to us this morning that despite the weather early today, tonight might provide the first reasonable weather conditions of the season for charring some meat on the deck.

Hear it here:

grillnight

What are your minimum weather standards for firing up the grill?

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This is nacho mama’s chapstick! This is Wisconsin, and we need more cheese products. 

From our cheese-coated lips to God’s ear…. this is what we’ve been waiting for.

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… you might have warned me not to do as a kid. Or maybe not.

On Saturday, the day of sunshine and 40 degrees, I was itching to get my bike out of the garage and to go for a ride. So, out it came with a flat tire I swear it didn’t have the last time I rode it, probably in October. No matter.

I pumped up that tire and rode out the driveway, quickly accelerating through my gears until- whoa- I felt that wind chill. Now isn’t that interesting? At slow speed, with no wind and bright sun, it felt great to ride, but at speed greater than 10 mph, the windchill was a bit too much for me.

So, I decided to take a low-speed ride instead, across Lake Wingra.

Now, I’ve ridden around Lake Wingra a million times, winding around through the Arboretum, Vilas Park, and down Monroe Street. But on this day, a rare one when the ice was solid enough to ride on and the temperature was warm enough to make it enjoyable, I rode across Lake Wingra, and back, and didn’t tell my mommy I was going to do it.

When I mentioned it to a friend he said that when he was a kid he skated across Lake Mendota without telling his parents. He said, “hey, it was the 70’s and helicopter parents didn’t yet exist.” True that. We just did stuff and maybe talked about it later. Maybe not.

If you want to send the URL of the video to my mom, go ahead. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right?

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What would it take-no, who would it take to have a sex tape leaked on the internet that would not cause a scandal?

Yeah, this would be it.

Don’t worry- it IS safe for work viewing.

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If Parkinson’s Disease has touched your family, come have some fun as we walk to beat it on Sunday April 18th!

Join me at East Towne Mall, bring a friend or a whole group- that makes it even more fun. Check-in starts at 11am, we walk at 12noon, and it’s all done by 1:30pm.

Register here, and I’ll see you there!

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Famous words, no longer used but still burned in our memories, from the old Emergency Broadcast System.

Several years ago the FCC replaced EBS with EAS (emergency alert system), and dropped all the old verbiage figuring that the annoying tones were enough to get our attention when necessary.

We have happily revived the old EBS language for the Beach Boys Temperature Alert System (BBTAS), designed to alert you when the temperature goes above 40 degrees, presumably this week.

Here’s the announce copy:

“This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Beach Boys Temperature Alert System. This is only a test.” 

Beach Boys Sounder (1)

“This is a test of the Beach Boys Temperature Alert System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Beach Boys have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of the temperature rising above 40 degrees. If this had been an actual temperature rise above 40 degrees,  the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions, like “hey, throw a blanket down for me at the Mazo Beach,” or “blow the dust off the pop-up camper,” or “take the Christmas lights down and get the flamingoes out and ready to go.”

 This concludes this test of the Beach Boys Temperature Alert System.

In bold are the important instructions we’ll give tomorrow morning, when we run the test again. What would you add? What will you think to do when the temperature finally breaks 40?

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I admire the Chilean people who said, within hours of the incredible earthquake there, “we can handle it.” And I totally understand and do not begrudge them for changing that sentiment yesterday,  saying “we could use some help.”

Take a look at this collection of photos and you can understand, too.

Click here to help through the Red Cross.

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I love to fish. It’s fun trying to mentally and physically out- maneuver a fish. And I enjoy the outdoors, so even if the fish aren’t biting, the rest of nature never disappoints.

But I never tried it in winter, on ice. Until Friday.

Went with my son Will, his friend Marco, and Marco’s dad, Jason. We had fun together, dressing in many layers, staying warm and talking about all sorts of stuff. But didn’t catch any fish, except for one lonely pumpkinseed. It was the star of the show. See video #1 below.

So after we had eaten our lunch, and our snacks, and had kissed goodbye the idea of cooking up fresh fish for dinner, the boys resorted to what all bored fisherman resort to, whether in a boat, on shore, or on ice: wrestling. See video #2.

After the boys were done, the dads joined in. Sorry, no video of that. Probably a good thing.

Can’t wait for May…..

Video #1

Video #2

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This morning the screen blinked at me,  ”Brett Favre to apppear on Tonight Show.”

“Ok, sounds good, ” I thought, yawning and still waking up around 4am.  Then the coffee kicked in and I realized what this meant, this Favre Alert.

What this means, this appearance in the debut week of a high-profile national show coming back from a high-profile divorce, means that Brett Favre will announce that he is returning to football next season.

Or, it’s the start of the What-Will-Brett-Do season. But I’m betting on the former, and here’s why:

If Brett ever really decides to hang it up, he won’t do it on the Tonight Show, no matter how big the tune-in might be. He knows that he can outdraw Jay for viewers any day, and would want to control fully how and when that info would be released.

If he really hasn’t yet decided what he will do, then making this appearance would just serve as the green flag to start the WWBD season, which he would do only if the theory that some people have is true- that his ego is larger than the mountains in Vancouver.  

Now, if he has decided that he will return to football, a less dramatic and fairly common decision for Brett, well then the spotlight of the Tonight Show would be a great place to announce that, wouldn’t it?

What do you think?

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