The Monster in the Yard

Remember my morning glory that I was so excited about and all the neighbors thought was so nice??? It is overtaking the lightpost. There is a light under there.... Still no flowers. We don't let the dogs get too close, we are afraid the plant may grab them!!!

Dave's high school sweetheart!

Here are our admission tickets to the party. The photo doesn't do them justice...they are very sharp.
Walking into Summerfest grounds...
This bike is featured all over the TV. There are 105 flags on the bike. Very cool.
Dave is a guy who has a list of favorite songs from throughout his life. Top on that list is I Love Rock n Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Well, finally, 30 some years after high school, Dave gets to see her in person. Joanie (as he calls her) has aged very well! This photo she is her doing her soundcheck.
My anxious husband!!!!!
Finally she is out on stage to sing!

Dave took this next photo. Awesome! He said she is looking right at him!!! I think he did an awesome job. She had ripped the white shirt off and now was down to her bikini top. Dave missed that as he was looking around the crowd!

On our way home we stopped at our local Harley dealer for a burger and some good music. Dave tried out a bike he would like to have. As you can see, there is no room on it for me.

Start of a 3 day weekend!

This weekend is the beginning of the 105th anniversary of Harley Davidson. Motorcycles and bikers from all across the world are here. Thursday night we went to the HOG ralley at Miller Park. The most incredible sight was driving into Miller Park and seeing the sea of motorycles.
Unbelieveable!
The crowds were huge so the food and beverage areas had long, long lines. Dave and I hadn't eaten dinner yet and were hungry so we chose to leave there and go to our favorite Tosa eatery, Balistreri's for pizza. There were plenty of bikes parked in front of the restaurant too so we weren't the only one with that idea. On our way out there were two young boys getting ready to get into their side car of the motorcycle all garbed up in Harley clothes. I started talking to them, and they looked at me like I was crazy... Their Dad then came over and said they were from Quebec, Canada. They drove down here for the weekend events. The boys only spoke french. Dad barely spoke English, but good enough so I could understand! Wow, that seems like a long ride in a side car.

Port Washington

Port Washington has childhood memories for me. My mom and dad would load us kids into the car once or twice a year and take the hour long drive up to Port Washington to Smith Brothers to buy a box of smoked chubs! That was such a treat. As I have gotten older I have tried them again, while tasty, they are a bit oily for my taste. The buildings are not the same, but there is still a charm about going to places that you have childhood memories of.

This weekend was a Nautical Festival in Port Washington. There were 5 tall ships in port. They were available for tour. It was such a nice day for a motorcycle drive up there and back. We did treat ourselves to some ice cream before we made our trek back to Oconomowoc.

I love summer....

This has been an incredible summer for growing....Well, everything but the flowers I have in planters. My cosmos are so large and beautiful! They are so easy to grow they are definitely a keeper for next year!

I wanted something to climb our lamp post out front of the house. I love Morning Glories so early this spring Dave and I bought 4 little stems, 2 would be red flowers and 2 white. Now we have this huge climbing growth, it is really quite striking, but not one flower. I don't really know if there is something that is needed in the soil out there....but in the meantime we have greenery. The neighbors all comment how beautiful it is. Wonder how pretty it would look with flowers??? It is growing so fast I sometimes think if I sat outside for awhile I could watch it grow.
On to my tomatoes. I love a home grown tomato. This year I planted 6 plants, 5 different varieties. They are growing like crazy too! They are so loaded with tomatoes that the plants are knocking down the cages. The best variety is the grape tomatoes, we have had scores of beautiful large grape tomatoes. They are very sweet. They are large enough to chop up for dishes!

Today Dave went to the hardware store and got some 2 x 2's and pounded them in the ground to hold up our precious plants... Well mine anyway, his favorite are the cucumbers. We have had an abundance of those as well. I told Missy to get ready, we are going to have to can tomatoes this year!

Gunner's First Boat Ride

Today is a beautiful Saturday morning and we wanted to go out on the boat and put the new ladder on. I guess Dave doesn 't want me to be embarassed again not being able to climb back up in the boat after a swim. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to take the dogs along. Afterall, there is plenty of room. By the way, I didn't have my camera...I took these photos with my camera phone. They are wonderful!
Didn't take long for Gunner to get up the courage to jump in! Dave went in after him. He didn't go far though. Both dogs were very comfortable on the boat and relaxed the whole trip. Zeus just laid in the shade.
Gunner kept me company up on the sun deck. I had to keep a hand on him as I wasn't sure he wasn't going to jump in after one of the boats going by. We were getting ready to leave and a salboat regatta was getting set up. Gunner did not like one of the sail boats when it got very close and he barked!! So, that was time to come home.

Up North---Girl's Style

Ooops....the drive up to beautiful Lakewood took an unexpected turn. I guess our friend Trooper Al wasn't just pulling us over to say hi....lucky for us that is all he did.

Missy's mother in law Kathy invited me for for their annual girls weekend. This is my second year and I have looked forward to it all summer. Missy and I left early Friday afternoon. When we got up there gracious Tom took us all out for a delicious fish fry at MJ's. We ate every bite on our plates. Might have been because we were awfully hungry, and had a cocktail or two before our names were finally called...
Saturday after a wonderful "fiber rich" breakfast, we left for the fair! It was so nice. We all had such nice purchases. We were again famished after all that walking and shopping in the heat we went to the Sandtrap for a fabulous hamburger!!!
When we got back to the house, we all were ready for a little nap. I chose to take mine down by the creek. It was so peaceful down there.

We had a bon fire which was the perfect backdrop for nice conversation. Thom's sister Amy joined us, along with a childhood/lifelong family friend, Ellen.
Then to our fun filled Saturday evening. We went to the Waubee Lodge for a drink. Our drink turned into a couple lemon drop martinis (not for me, I learned my less about lemon drop martinis...) and besides, I was driving.
We were so pleased. There was a wedding reception down by the lake. And a pontoon parade, we chose to think it was in our honor! This was the pirate pontoon, which I thought would be a perfect idea for our pontoon.
Oh boy, the conversation is getting interesting....
I had the most wonderful time, one on one with Melissa. We don't get to do that very much anymore. I just am awestruck at the wonderful woman/mother she has become!

Thank you Kathy and Tom for your kind invitation. Your home is so beautiful and you made us all feel so at home.