For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

This afternoon, Ack was inducted as a Fellow in the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.  Seated at our table to make the event even more wonderful were Mary and Joe Pryor, Orange and Dean Schroeder, Margaret Mooney, Ellen Pryor, Carrie Kruse and Ginny Kruse.  Long series of talks but interesting. Ack talked about how to take a complex entity, make it simple and then deal with the problems caused from that simplification. Judy Faulker, CEO of Epic Systems, gave three rules, one of which was: what you put up with is what you stand for. Jeremey Suri, a historian, stressed that clusters of creative people is what incubates profound change. Maury Laws, the composer of the music in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon (yes, that one we see every year on TV), traced how music really is involved in all parts of life.  7 Fellows total, all with interesting ideas. 

A November Friday with Mimi

 My mother is game for any adventure. 

On this sunny but cool day, Mimi and Anne putt-putted the pontoon over to Governor Nelson State Park for Donny Anderson to take and store it for the winter season.  This was after a few other steps first: shuttling a car over to the park (Poppy did that with me), clearing out the boat and drying the  hidden water in every compartment, finding that the battery was dead, and then recharging the battery.  The short ride on the lake was beautiful.

Then later in the afternoon, we went to the 60th annual lutefisk dinner at Lakeview Lutheran Church, down the road from our house.  Even though she wasn't hungry, and despite the fact that neither of us planned to eat the fish (the white stuff on the platter in the photo), we had a great time.  I ate the meatballs, mashed potatoes, rutabaga, cole slaw, lefse, cranberries and pie.  Mimi had a few tastes of the meatballs, taters and pie.  What's as delightful as any of the foods are the enthusiastic stories people tell about lutefisk: how they grew to like it, advice (to me) on how to eat it, their favorite way to prepare it, their favorite places to go for it, the church lutefisk suppers they've gone to this season already and will go to next. 

Through it all, Ack did great work at work and Daddy kept guard at the dining room table or napped in the guest room. 

Visiting Erin

Anne's annual American Folklore Society conference was in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana this year. I went down on Tuesday; Ack followed on Thursday; we both stayed with Erin and we all missed Alana.  While I was giving or hearing papers, Ack and Erin cleared out the yard of lots of overgrown brush.

Day in Dane: A Community Photo Album

Help me choose!

Dane County is going to put together a poster using images taken by county residents on four days throughout their 175th anniversary year. "The purpose is to produce photos that show what makes Dane County a special place to live and work." If you want to see other photos sent in so far from the other three days, go here: www.flickr.com/photos/danecounty175.

The last day for shooting was noon Friday to noon Saturday last week.  Here are four of the images I took that day.  Which should I send in? (Each photographer is allowed only one.)  

Knowledgeable Photoshop advice for enhancing the sky in the first and third images is welcome!

Another wig...

... and this one from Eileen can double as a beard when my hair grows back!

Chemo #3 day 2

Feeling just fine today! Even worked out. Though I did come  home at 2:30 to relax and nap on the boat with Anne.  Tomorrow is a full day of work. Meanwhile, two new submissions - one by Anne and the other by Alana. Both of them used Tom's tool at: http://profhorn.meteor.wisc.edu/wxwise/ackb/

Mr. Steve by Alana

Curly Grey Hair Guy by Anne

Chemo #3 - Day 1 (and wigs)

Well, today was Chemo #3.  Our stay at the hospital was a bit shorter today - we were only at the hospital from 8 am to 2:30 pm. Blood tests were done fast and while the nurses didn't do the 'rapid delivery' of the "R" helpful poison, they were able to increase the rate. So, that was nice. My reaction so far has been good, but unfortunately as I type this nausea sets in - and it is not because of my writing!

The weather was in the 80s, so when we got home we jumped on the boat and hung out on the lake.

While waiting at the hospital, Anne made some refrigerator magnets from the art supplies they leave in the waiting room. This reminded me of the great wig contest.  Here are my favorites so far (no particular order): They are by Mike (Simpson look), Erin (Bieber look) and Shaima (feather head man).