Local H

Another great show from Local H last night (some samples will play if you visit their site). This time at the High Noon Saloon. and how can you go wrong with a $10 ticket.

Local H is a two man operation that produces an incredible amount of sound. There's no way that you would guess that it's two guys listening to one of their CDs.

The drummer (Brian St.Clair) is really fun to watch. When he's not playing he seems to not even be paying attention. He'll turn around and get a drink of water and just generally seem oblivious to what's going on. Then, suddenly, he'll spin around and play the drums absolutely ferociously - incredibly animated and committed.

The rest of the sound comes from Scott Lucas. Scott simultaneously plays lead, bass, and vocals - incredible that he can balance all that out and still move around the stage (when he's not jumping off into the crowd).

Family Reunion

There are a few posts already up and I'll be staying tuned for more, but I'm sure all will come to the same conclusion: what a great trip.

Seeing all the family (115+) was wonderful. About every 5 years someone puts in the incredible amount of preparation and work to get the group together for the meetup. This time we were hosted by Lake Okanagan Resort. Several pools, tennis courts, a beach, condos/villas, restaurants, low key golf course, and great company made the place perfect for the event. Kelowna was gorgeous and who knew that the lake was some 90 miles long!

While waiting for our luggage in Seattle I bumped into a guy that I play ultimate frisbee with... crazy! Monnie and I then went down to check out Pike's Market where we bumped (unplanned) into a friend who now lives in Seattle (crazier still!). I enjoyed Pike's Market but man... I didn't think I was going to get Monnie out of there!

Tim and Fran had already made their exit to Kelowna but were kind enough to let us stay at their place. The view from their 2nd floor is gorgeous.

The entire trip was incredibly scenic but nowhere moreso than the trip to Kelowna from Seattle. We took a very scenic path taking us on a pass through the North Cascades. It added quite a bit of the time to the trip but was well worth it. I would definitely take that drive again.

Kelowna and the resort were gorgeous as well. Tons of fun and family. Lots to do (not the least of which was relax). The resort had tons for all ages and with the group we have, there's never any pressure: just have fun.

Pictures!

Ok, so it's been a looong time since I uploaded to Flickr. Monica has been doing most of our photo management of late - she's a big Picassa fan, so you can catch a lot of our stuff out there. So... some of these will be repeats but some are new... anyway, here goes.

St.Germain Add another to the list of great trips to St.Germain. The highlights of this one included 30 degrees in June, Rusty getting his first taste (with us) of the water, and some fun lawn games. Good times and some great Rusty pics.

Mike's Graduation Mike's MCW graduation was tons of fun. We got to see lots of people that we hadn't seen in a long time, play some football, have some good food, and just enjoy a great day.

5-21-06 Monica, Melodie, and I did some quality eating. We hit the new taco place (Texas Tubbs) followed by the new ice cream place (Ben and Jerry's).

Mallards Game Monica, Emily, Emily's father, Dion, and I went to check out the 2nd game of the Mallards season. They came up short but the Mallards keep things really fun with plenty of between-innings games and a mix of both on and off field fun.

Grillin Out Monica and I grilled up some zuccini to go with our chicken fingers. Good stuff.

Brat Fest Monica, Tivoli, Michael, and I went to check out the world's largest brat cookout at the Aliant Energy Center. As always it was a great time and the prices are awesome. The picture is the grill for the event - it's a semi-trailer that opens (on hinges - it's modeled on a real grill :) ). We even got to pick up a bratfest Christmas ornament for the tree!

Mother's Day . Claire brought her family to join the Sun Prairie crew for a fun Mother's Day. Mom got a shiny new iPod nano! Of course, the wikipedia Chocolate Truffle picture (featuring Monica's creations) came out of the event as well!

Farmer's Market Monica, Mom, and I went to the farmer's market on the square in downtown Madison. As always we picked up some cheesy bread and other goodies that are always a hit!

Gas Prices Sadly, this picture is no longer even impressive but at the time... it was A LOT!

Disc Golf. Monica, Rusty, and I went out to Token Creek to get in some disc golf. We really need to get back out there. It's a lot of fun and Rusty is actually surprisingly well behaved (doesn't retrieve the disc for you if you make it clear that isn't what you want).

Awesome Songs

The Hungry Roo's latest post inspired me to look up everyones favorite State Street Artist - Art Paul Schlosser.

Say what you may about Art Paul, but you will never catch someone within 30 feet that isn't smiling. Besides, this guy has to be top 10 well known people in Madison (as would be voted by Madison residents and students).

It ends up being the perfect follow up to my recent Awesome Videos post... So, without further hesitation, I bring you: Awesome Songs.