Rusty Gets Cranky, Fox Gets Gelato, and Rob's Mom Gets Famous

Our action-packed Saturday got started with a car ride over to Milwaukee's Enders Park for a fund raiser. While the subject of the fund raiser was the park itself, the slant taken was a series of dog events. As part of the dog rescue we are members of (WAAGR - cute currently available dogs here) we helped man a booth. Basically, there were a series of booths - vets, pet stores, photo takers, stuff like that: and us.

Rusty was not a huge fan of the concept. As many of you know he is really good with all people. Completely trusting - very friendly - all that good stuff. Other dogs though... not the biggest fan. His biggest issues seem to come with those larger than him but really - he is a pretty big fan of everyone just minding their own business. As the day went on he got a bit snappier - of course overall he was completely fine: I think we all do a bit of growling after a long day somewhere that we really would rather not be.

Rusty's trip through the obstacle course:


After a nice visit and a bit of the Badger football game with Monnie's parents we were off to Menomonee Falls to meet Annabelle Fox (mike and steph also attended) for Gelato. Seeing Annabelle was great (mike and steph also fine) and we got to enjoy our ice cream along with the conclusion of the Badger game.

Our night concluded with a very nice "couples wedding shower" for Emily and Rob, hosted by the Mooneys in Whitefish Bay. The evening was perfectly executed - great food, live music, and of course: wonderful company made for a really great time. During the course of a conversation with Rob, Rob's mother (Valerie), and I - it was brought up that I have a blog. While the conversation consisted mainly of Valerie and I dividing up Rob and Emilys future millions - we also discussed how blogs make instant celebrities of their subjects. So, I'd like to introduce Americas newest superstars: Valerie, Rob, and I. We'll try to remember you little people that made us famous once we get to the top :)

Work

I know not a lot of you don't really know what I do at work each day (other than intervals of surfing the internet followed by naps on the futon), but that's only mostly right! There are big happenings at Seeking Alpha these days.

We recently announced a partenership with the world's largest Financial information provider, Yahoo! Finance. This comes on the heels of more limited partnerships with Google Finance in July and Barron's Online in August. Our content will now be presented right alongside more traditional analysis and coverage on the site.

As you may expect, there are mixed reactions to the idea of financial blog content being presented on equal footing with more traditional industry analysis. From our side, it's obvious: Our content is generated by real industry experts - those with a very real financial interest in doing their homework and knowing their stuff. It's all moderated and edited, and gets the voice of the "real industry professionals" out. From the other side, it's equally obvious: "industry expert" is not always the same as "industry analyst" and therefore should not appear on equal footing.

Whichever side of the discussion you come down on: This is obviously very large and good news for Seeking Alpha, but it's also a pretty big win for bloggers in general. Completely free financial news and analysis is now not only available on Seeking Alpha but also on the world's largest financial stage.

I know the majority of this blogs readers don't consider themselves 'financially savy' (and I'm with you!). If you're interested in checking out what exactly it is that I/we do though: I recommend checking out our Sound Money Tips site. It's less "financial analysis" and more "everyday ideas" - recent topics include Lowering Pet Supply Costs, Cleaning Your Car Cheaply, and Discounts on School/Office Supplies. You can just check out the site or take it one more step and sign up to receive the posts in your email or RSS reader. Let me know if you need any help and Enjoy!

Rainer Maria, Epic Hero, and The Box Social

Geer, Brandon, and I took in a great show at the Annex (home of the worlds most obnoxious webpage) last night.

We were there to see Rainer Maria, after being quite happy with their show at Lollapalooza. They didn't dissapoint, putting on another very good live show. Aftwards, I bought the most recent CD and am listening to it this morning - good, but I'd have to say I much prefer them live.

While Rainer Maria put on a show that was exactly what I was looking for - the big story of the night were the performances delivered by the openers.

The Box Social (from "two blocks away") put on a great show. They had some really good stuff but just lacked some of the polish that they'll need to take the next step. It was a good show though - the three of us were all pretty impressed.

Next up was Epic Hero (from a suburb of St.Paul... Minneapolis, I think). They were great. The lead had a great voice and their all around talent level was quite high. I know that Brandon (and maybe Geer too) actually thought they were better than Rainer Maria. I'm not ready to say that but as we discussed during the show: they really had a lot of good stuff - if they just had a couple of "big hits" to go along with it, they could definitely sell some discs.

All three great bands for $11 + the place isn't crowded and is small (v.important to me, I find). Madison has so many great shows for cheap these days. Looking out even just a couple months there are so many that I want to see! Really looking forward to those!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted. Let's see... what have you all been missing?

Last weekend was Matt and Amber's wedding. Everything (from my perspective) went off very well - it was a gorgeous day for an outside wedding - the food, band, and company were great as well. In addition to our common Madison friends I got to see a few friends that I had met, worked with, and in one case last seen at UWW tennis camp some 8 years ago (*side note: 8-9 YEARS AGO!?!). The day was great and Monnie and I are very happy for the two of them!

The big news with the Fox's is that Steph will be taking over the lead posting role on their blog. This could very well mean that we see more than a post a month over there! ...not that I have much footing for a complaint lately. Oh, they also had a baby.

Monnie is doing well and is really enjoying her new blog on madison.com, Nutritilicious. There's nothing better for a blog than comments so make sure to leave one over there - even if it's just "man that food looks good"!

Last Friday we had a great time at the Brewers game with both sets of parents. Of course, the Brewers continued their losing ways -- but it was a fun time none the less and really a pretty good game... just the wrong guys coming out on top.

The fantasy baseball playoffs have started. I am coming into it with a fairly strong team but it's not looking good in the first few days of the week-long first round. Fantasy football has started up just in time to relieve baseball. I am pretty happy with my draft, so we'll just hope I can improve on a dismal last season.

Tons of birthdays this month. Happy Birthday to Matt (couple days ago), Marni (today), Aly (tomorrow), Claire (Friday), Me (not for a couple weeks), and Sheila (not for a couple days after mine). It sure seems like I'm missing a couple still too! Who is it? (and sorry!)

Well, that's probably about enough for now - looking forward to Gerrard and Karen's wedding over in Milwaukee this weekend!