Friends of Grant Park to create Park Watch Group
The Friends of Grant Park will be holding an informational meeting and training session on Tuesday, Oct. 14th. The meeting will start at 7 pm and will be held in the Grant Park Golf Course Clubhouse at 100 E. Hawthorne Ave., South Milwaukee.
The Friends of Grant Park are interested in forming a Park Watch Group. There will be a one-hour training session at the meeting provided by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's office. Some of the topics to be covered include security techniques, park regulations, communication and park safety.
September
Since having kids in school, September has new meaning. September, for me, now represents a crazy start. No longer just a month, September is cool clothes, new haircuts, interesting ideas, new friends, play dates, expensive shoes, and goals. Essentially, September is my January. As I hold my boys' hands and walk them to their first days of school, I not only think about the experiences that lie ahead of them, I also think about the experiences that will inevitably lie ahead of me.
This September, a busy month, became a series of firsts for us - one experience right after another. Some of these firsts include:
- The first year of school for our 4-year old.
- The first year with both kids (finally, thankfully, I thought the day would never come) in school.
- The first year where we're not paying so much to our poverty fund, I mean, child care.
- Our first year of way, way too many after school activities.
- The first year where I finally see clear, dark circles under my eyes.
- The first year where I'm able to walk past a sink full of dishes, clothes on the floor, crayons on the wall (!), and just go to bed.
- The first year in awhile where the news actually causes me to worry about the economy.
- The first year where I can look at my 7-year old and finally relax, knowing he can tie his shoes, dial his phone number, and make it through the boys locker room without stopping my heart.
- The first year where I fully understand the importance of strawberry cheesecake, loyal friends, a good iPOD, a husband who makes me laugh, and most importantly the little white iPhone that I will someday own.
Want a Good Scare This Halloween?
A friend sent me information about this cool haunted house, Monster Mayhem, located at 51st and Howard Avenue at Paulo's Pizza. It really looks scary! http://www.listerfx.com/ It runs all month long and there are ticket discounts. I've also been told that if you are an H-D employee and bring your ID, you can get $1 off admission.
Another friend of mine who owns Music On The Move has been creating HauntFest for years: http://www.hauntfest.com/ located at State Fair Park. He's got a lot of experience making things creepy!
Gardening Tasks for October in SE Wisconsin
It's Fall, and time to plan your garden for next year and do all you can now to make your lawn look great. In October you should:
PERENNIALS: Dig and divide Peonies after a hard frost. Collect and sow seeds of Coneflowers and Rudbeckias. Clean up dead or diseased leaves, but leave healthy plants standing that provide winter cover and food for birds and other small animals. Autumn Joy sedum and ornamental grasses are two great examples of plants that provide tons of food and shelter for our overwintering birds. They also provide interest in the winter landscape when you leave these plants standing. Spread compost at this time, but do not fertilize until spring.
So who's getting bailed out anyway?
I have to tell you guys, I am pretty pissed off about this whole bailout thing.
Not only am I pissed off that our government is taking money and funneling it to wall street (and other private sectors) but I am down right pissed that this even happened in the first place. It is our governments job to protect us as citizens, and they did not. This whole mess isn't something that happened overnight, there is a long laundry list of people that have blood on their hands here, all the way back to the Bill Clinton era.
Supervisor Jursik to hold Town Hall Meetings
County supervisor Pat Jursik will be holding Town Hall Meetings every Tuesday in October. The meetings will offer citizens the opportunity to discuss the transit crisis, deterioration of our parks, cuts to paramedic funding and other relevant topics of interest to County residents.
I'm a little late on getting this info out; one of the meetings has already passed. There are, however, three more meetings scheduled for this month:
A Celtic Halloween Party
From our Garlic Mustard Pickin' Friends:
On Saturday Oct 25th The Garlic Mustard Pickers will be helping Friends of
Grant Park with a family event. It's the "Celtic Halloween" party, with a
costume parade for kids, followed by a performance of Irish and Scottish
songs about "ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that
go bump in the night."
Location is the Grant Park Golf Course Clubhouse (at the east end of
Hawthorne Ave in South Milwaukee). Doors open at 6 pm. A kids' costume
parade is at 6:30, and the music starts in earnest at 7 pm. It's $5 for
adults, $2 for kids. Admission gets you a dessert and a beverage (soda or
hot cider, etc.) and a lot of fun music that you'll never hear anywhere
else.
This event is only done every other year. If you miss this one, you'll have
to wait until 2010 for the next one.
Celtic Halloween Party on Oct. 25th
On Saturday, Oct. 25th, The Garlic Mustard Pickers will be helping Friends of Grant Park with a family event. The event is the "Celtic Halloween" party! There will be a costume parade for kids followed by a performance of Irish and Scottish music featuring songs about Halloween.
This fun-filled event will be held at the Grant Park Golf Course Clubhouse (at the east end of Hawthorne Ave. in South Milwaukee). Doors open at 6 pm. A kids' costume parade will be held at 6:30 pm and the music starts in earnest at 7 pm. Admission is $5 for adults or $2 for kids. The Invisible Man is free (only if completely invisible). Admission includes a dessert and a beverage (soda or hot cider, etc.). There will be lots of really cool music you'll never hear anywhere else.
This event is only held every other year, so if you miss it you will have to wait until 2010.
South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center
In case you didn't know, South Milwaukee has a Performing Arts Center. It was built a few years ago as part of the South Milwaukee High School expansion and it is a hidden gem. In addition to serving the school system and local groups for events, it draws many fine performers to entertain you. I had been told that the theatre had great acoustics, and they were right, the sound is awesome. This is nothing like the high school stages you are used to seeing in a school, it's a modern performing arts center attached to the school that is not too small, not too large, and very classy. It has a great open lobby area to gather in before the show and it looks out over the high school commons area below.
Recently I got involved in volunteering at the SMPAC and it's been a great experience. Besides the satisfaction of volunteering, you get to see the show for free when you do it. It's easy, flexible, and you get some great perks for doing it.
Last Week's Power Outage, Oversleeping, and My Bad Hair
Last week, Cudahy had a morning power outage. Well - because of this power outage, I overslept. My kids had to be at school at 8:20. My eyes opened at 7:50.
Panicked, heart thumping - I ran to the phone. I called the kids' school. I told the secretary we were going to be late. Then I woke up the kids.
Twitter for Music
Check out this web site - Blip.fm. You become a DJ. This site is easy to use and has a similar look and feel to the social networking site Twitter. However, this site is only for music. Basically, you create lists of music you want to hear while other people create lists of music they want to hear.
Interview Questions for the common conservative
Interview Questions for the common conservative
In a recent post, I asked for a few conservatives and a few liberals to join me in an unbiased, moderated live debate to be posted in my forum.
Nona's Cafe to Serve up a Treat
One of the really great things about living in South Milwaukee is getting to meet new neighbors. That’s what my husband did a couple of weeks ago when he took our four-year-old granddaughter, Allie, to breakfast at a new restaurant in town, Nona’s Café.
It was a double a treat for Allie. She not only got to go to breakfast with her Grand Dad, she got to eat a chocolate waffle.
'Trick or Treat' a real treat!
We got kids -- lots of kids! We probably got more kids this year than any of the previous six Halloweens since we've lived in South Milwaukee. And they were great! Ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, 'The Scream', Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too, a shark with legs poking out its jaws, princesses, Sleeping Beauty, even a pint-sized Darth Vader. And we 'Darth Vadered' him back. Son Chris visiting from Michigan had dressed in black and donned cape and over-the-head mask with an amplified voice altering electonic box. He then went outside to greet the costumed trick-or-treaters with a scary-sounding "Give in to the dark side" and handfuls of candy.
Mr. pint-sized Vader's eyes widened when he spied his larger twin. He immediately raised light saber and challenged the candy-dispensing Sith to a duel. Then with treat in hand he started to leave. When he got to the street though, he paused, looked back at his larger nemesis, turned and came back up the sidewalk for a rematch.
Subscribe and Save
Here's a very convenient way to shop. Amazon.com offers a subscription service called Subscribe and Save for certain grocery items. These items are always 15% percent off with free shipping
Garlic Mustard Pickers Events
This from our Garlic Mustard Pickers neighbors:
The band had a very fun evening performing at the 2008 "Celtic Halloween" party (fundraiser for Friends of Grant Park). If you missed it, there is talk that the party might become an annual event.
Here is information on the band's performance schedule for November.
Sunday Nov 23rd
Folkfair International 2008 (International Institute of Wisconsin)
State Fair Park
2:00 pm in the "Coffeehouse Entertainment" area
(that's the "food court" stage)
Sunday Nov 30th
"Old Fashioned Christmas"
South Milwaukee City Hall,
2415 15th Ave, South Milwaukee
The band plays from 2:10 to 3:00 pm,
peforming Renaissance and Celtic Christmas music
There are lots of other local groups performing from 1:00 to 6:00 pm
Admission is free
You can always find an up-to-date schedule at the band's website,
http://thegarlicmustardpickers.org
We hope to see you at a gig!
The Garlic Mustard Pickers
The Choice
No candidate for political office is perfect. Politicians are just that. Politicians. Plus, they’re human. None can or will do everything any one voter likes or supports. Even so, we vote for the one we think will do the best job. I have already made a decision and cast my vote in this year’s presidential election, as many of you no doubt also have done. Even if you haven’t I don’t presume to think anything I have to say will sway you. In light of the inflammatory allegations and claims that have been tossed into the campaign, I would like to share my opinion to let you know the reasoning behind my decision. It isn’t because I’m a Democrat. I’m not and never have been. Despite growing up in a staunch Republican household, as an adult I have almost always voted for the candidate, not a party. An exception was 2004, when I voted against the incumbent. This time I voted for what I think is in my best interests and what I hope will most benefit my neighbors, community and country.
I Support Obama for President
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know I write primarily about running, bicycling and issues affecting our beautiful County Parks. I feel compelled, however, to deviate from my primary focus at this historic time in our nation's history to state my support for Barack Obama.
My reasons are personal and emotional. I do not follow politics closely ( I am more interested in local politics and news than in national or international affairs) but I do have strong feelings about the upcoming election. My reasons are as follows:
