Saturday

Our Saturday started out letting the dogs run in a field we recently "discovered" in the neighborhood. It's ideal as it's nice and big - no houses (distractions) too close - and no roads. Both of our dogs are great but Howie doesn't really hear "come" and actually do it when there are any distractions, so it's great not to have cars whizzing by.

After that we were off to Johnson's Creek to meet Mike, Steph and Annabelle for a bit of shopping and lunch. It was great to see them and after a bit of negotiation - they're going to be the godparents! Really glad to have them on board as honorary members of Team Halberg.

When we got back to Sun Prairie, we got to go out to dinner with Uncle Ric at the Cannery in Sun Prairie. Mom and Dad Halberg had taken us there just last night for a fish fry and we liked it enough to give the other food a try - great to have another good place in town.

... and now? It seems like now that the sun goes down at like noon it's just impossible to have the day last much past 8PM. So, we get to hang out on the couch and check out The Borne Identify on the good ole' USA network... man, we're getting old!

Oh, and did I mention: UW beat up Michigan, Ohio State lost, Notre Dame got crushed, and Miam is on their way to another loss (although, maybe not). Good day for football!

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 :)

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!

Good News Trumps Good News

As of 6PM last night the big news was that Monnie has a new blog on Madison's favorite website! Monnie will be doing a featured blog there (woohoo! the right side of the screen!) with her cohert Becky, called Nutirilitious. It's awesome that she has a featured blog (there are only 7!) on such a popular site! Congrats Monnie!

And then there were three... the other (even bigger!) news of last night was the arrival of the worlds newest Fox! Annabelle Mary Fox was born last night in Brookfield, WI. Congratulations to Mike and Steph on their first!

Fishin and Movin

I got an invite to head out fishing with (Mike) Gengler on Lake Michigan Monday night. Monday was another incredibly hot day but once we got out on the water the temperature was perfect.

We ended up catching our 10 fish (all salmon) limit in about an hour-and-a-half. Incredibly, almost all of them came in on the same line.

I'm thinking about getting this picture screenprinted on a t-shirt to wear when we go out again in a week or so with Mike and Kevin...

more pics here

Tuesday was another hot one for the move of Mr. Jon Fox to Milton. The move went as smoothly as could be imagined and we got all of his gear moved down there in one trip. Jonny recently graduated (Carroll) and will be the new band director at MHS. I'm sure he'll be awesome at it.

Big Happenings In Maine

So, as you may already know my brother Mike got his #1 match for residency and is headed to Maine! This week he and Sheila are out in Maine house hunting and checking out the area in a bit more depth. The big news of the day: they've got a house already! Man, kids these days move fast. Can't wait to see the pictures of it. I'm sure they'll be on The Halblog in no time flat.

While the Claire's parents are out of town, Monnie and I went over to nana and bapas house (where Claire is staying for a couple days) to hang out. While looking at some of Sheila/Mike's online pictures we came across a certain one that she was not a big fan of.

Claire: make it change!
me: to what?
Claire: me! at grandmas house!

(luckily the next one on the page was just that and crisis was averted)

Just imagine if I had shown her this one!

Coldplay @ Bradley Center

We saw Coldplay for the second time this year on Sunday night. Monnie and I have both really gotten into them over the last year or two and really enjoyed the show. As with the show at Alpine we were joined by one Mr.Tom Geer. This time Mike and Steph Fox came along too.

It was a very good show. Lots of energy and volume, although I was somewhat surprised that those in the balcony (us) didn’t stand the whole show – I can’t really complain though as that’s often my preference anyway.

(not our pick, but it is from the same show… thanks Flickr)

Great new blog

Mike Fox has started up a blog! More accurately, I have started a blog on his behalf since he's too lazy to click a mouse 4 times himself.

Since I did have to do the setup, I've taken the liberty of writing the first few posts under his name... he's talking about starting to write his own soon... he may want to think about changing that password soon at least!

I do see that he's changed the title of the blog to reflect his deep feeling of admiration for me. That's a start!

Back from Vegas

Monica and I got back from Las Vegas this morning and I'm very happy to report that it was an awesome trip!

My weekend was split between sightseeing (mostly in the middle of the strip, gaming and watching some football (mostly at the Stardust). Monnie built on my list with some shopping and a spa visit.

I think Steph (we were there with Mike and Steph Fox) and Monica each came in expecting to have a good time but not completely sure of what it would be like: I think they each had a great time shopping, visiting the spa, and checking out some of the incredible casino properties on the strip.

The only negative for us was on the way back home. Someone on our plane had some chest pain which caused some commotion. A doctor on the plane checked him out and we had to make a pit stop in Salt Lake City. Obviously, if the man's health was in jeopardy: we're really glad that we could stop so he could get help... but adding 2.5 hours to a red-eye flight was no fun!

There are lots of fun pictures for you to check out on Flickr! Here's a sneak preview:





One of the first things I noticed was the windows at Westward Ho had covers over them that weren't there the last time. Talking with the guy at the checkin desk, apparently they had to add them after some guy from Wisconsin reported that (before the new protective covers) the windows were "real flimsy" and could be shattered just by "knocking to see if his buddies were in there".


Mike gets caught checking out one of his favorite dolls at FAO Schwarz:

Relaxing Weekend

We returned today from the last summer trip (first fall trip?) to St.Germain of 2005. As always it was a very relaxing weekend, this time shared with Mike and Steph Fox, Kevin Burg, Monica and I.

The only work of the weekend involved getting the dock and pontoon out of the water. It was probably for the better that we had the work to do as it got us in the water for one last time (surprisingly warm actually). and while Kevin and Mike returned the pontoon trailer, I got to take a lap in the kayak.

When we moved the pontoon there were several bullheads and crawfish (crayfish) scared up that had been setting up camp under there. We had a little fun with them before finishing up the work. Here's one of each up close and personal.



The only casualties were Mike getting stung by a bullhead and Kevin being attacked by a leaping crawfish. I didn't know they could jump as high as this one is in the picture.




Matt (Fritsch) paid us a visit on his way back through from spending the weekend in MN. He got to have his first in-person look at the condo, along with his dogs Goose and Sera. For some reason I feel like I got to see these dogs about 5 times in a 3 month span... but that was a year and a half ago and I hadn't seen them since. Goose is literally 4 times bigger than he was when I saw him as a puppy. He's absolutely massive now.

We made it!

Well, we are in the new condo! There are still many unopened boxes floating around but it's actually starting to look more like a home and less like a carboard box dump! and my commute this morning? AWESOME. I will be driving an hour less every day which is an incredible amount of extra-life that I've just acquired!

Many thanks to Rob and Brandon for the help on Friday. Co-MVP honors go to those Fox boys. Thanks a ton for all the help guys, it is very much appreciated!

Monica had a second bridal shower on Saturday and we are quite thankful for all the gifts! It's amazing how generous people are - and now we have all this extra space so we can actually have a place for it all!

As for this week: there's a lot of excitement about the unpacking, and I'm really looking forward to getting back out there for MAUL. After a couple weeks of skipping, largely due to presentation preparation - it's going to be "interesting" to see how well I do out there.

Fishing weekend

Friday night and Saturday Mike Gengler took Mike Fox, Kevin Burg, and I out on Lake Michigan to do some fishing. This is the second year that I've been able to get out there and it's been awesome both times.

We ended up catching 3 salmon and a brown trout. The brown trout was much larger than the salmon but was comparatively very easy to land; it put up little fight and basically reeled in itself.

I don't have any pictures yet but a few were taken with a camera that used something called "film". Apparently this is some sort of technology that people used to use to preserve images, but I am not really all that familiar with it. I guess the images aren't immediately available though so I'll have to post them after they get developed...

Independence Day

Yes, the day that we won our independence from the shed. Today saw the shingles being scored and trimmed to fit the edge of the roof (along with one of my fingers). The door's saw some work but we just didn't quite have time to finish things up. Maybe if we hadn't lost those hours on the 3rd we would have finished... At any rate though, we got it far enough that a couple of these Fox's should be able to polish things off over the next month or so.



The trip home was uneventful (good thing) and the traffic actually wasn't too bad.

It was a very good weekend.

Day3. Roofing, facia, and some door frames.

Today we were really making some good progress. The tar paper was on and the shingles were underway when a storm started rolling in (about 3PM). We had already gotten quite a bit done but we were really hoping to get the roof completely shingled. It wasn't to be though as the rain didn't let up enough to let things dry off. I don't have a picture of where we left off on Day3, but actually this is pretty much how much we had shingled on one side of the roof when we quit (and the other side had nothing done at that point).



It turned out just fine though as we got to climb off that roof and jump in the lake. Swimming in the rain is always a good time.

Sticking with our theme of great meals, tonight we went to Monical's in Minocqua for pizza. The long wait ended up being worth it, although a fight almost broke out when Brunner couldn't get his garlic bread (they were all out).

Day2. The shed really takes shape

Day2 found us resuming work early (or at least it felt early). It was really gorgeous out and the executive decision was made that after a long day of work day1: today we would work until 2PM, then head out on the lake for a few hours. The break really hit the spot - the boss' idea really improved morale.

The end of Day2 saw the shed really coming together. The roof was up and the plywood was up.



Another good dinner tonight as we got some tenderloins going on the grill. A campfire was in order to cap off the day.

A shed is born

I spent my 4th of July extended weekend up at the Fox's cabin. It's up there near St.Germain.

While spending some time on the lake was in the cards, the goal for the weekend was to build a pretty large (12x12) shed.

After arriving Thursday evening, we began Friday morning with the outer perimeter of the shed in place for us.



We worked pretty much solid through the day until early evening, before breaking for an awesome fish fry at the HoneyBear. The HoneyBear's fry, by the way, is a must have if you're looking for some fish in that area.

Another day1 picture. By the way, if you click on these photos you should be taken to the flickr site with all of them...