Rewards of skiing uphill

So I have gotten to go out to Lapham Peak State Park to skii three, yes three times this year! Four times skiing total! I'm well on my way to a record year. The conditions the last time weren't the best, a little icy and a little thin in spots, but its a great trail with some great people out there. They are also well on their way to having snow machines for the trails when we don't get lucky enough for snow. They have a candlelight ski next weekend. I put a little lubricant on the old skiis this time so downhill was slightly better. I made a really bad video of that in fact, hopefully you don't throw up if you watch it.

Teaching

So I got my first taste of teaching this week at UWM... it was... interesting! Really is weird being back in academia after all these years. And especially weird looking at it from the other side of the fence. Was impressed by some and underwhelmed by others. They all seem to be trying tho, which is good. Not sure if that kind of thing would be for me, jumping into the middle of someone else's classes might have made things a bit weird (I am less artistic than the person I was substituting for) because I wasn't sure exactly where to point the students. Had some good conversations tho about design and watched Helvetica again, which is always enjoyable!

2008 Beer Events!

They have begun:

Mid-Winter Brewfest, February 10
Milwaukee Ale House, Milwaukee

Bockfest (blessing of the Bock), February 23
Capital Brewery, Madison

Great Taste of the Midwest, August 9
Olin-Turville Park, Madison

Hops & Props, March 1
EAA AirVenture Museum, Oshkosh

20th Annual Blessing of the Bock & Milwaukee Beer Festival, March 9
Bavarian Inn, Glendale

4th Annual World of Beer Festival, June 7
Schwabenhof, Menomonee Falls

...not to mention monthly beer schools and now beer dinners! I'm sure there will be more to come, but that's definitely a good start. Hope to see our fellow beer lovers there! (Food & Froth is purposely NOT on the list this year!)

Misc.

Nothing too exciting going on. But a lot of new "stuff" coming soon. Some custom kitchen chairs are coming in a few weeks (www.barsandbooths.com) so that's exciting, as well as new attic windows. It's also time to buckle down and put my freelance money to work and get a new Apple rig. Still debating tween a tower and an iMac. More later...

New Oktoberfeski Shirt!

Oktoberfest may be over but this shirt is great year-round! New design is up!

Brew City MINI Tour

Brew City MINI Tour
Originally uploaded by crustyjoe

We had a fun, sunny Saturday drive on September 9th with the Milwaukee MINIs. Thirty MINIs started at the lake with a photo at the Milwaukee art museum and traveled around the city visiting various Milwaukee historic icon and quirky sites, with samples along the way! Sites included Usinger's, Tulip Flower shop, Wisconsin Cheese Mart, the Chocolate Tree and Sciortino's Bakery on Brady Street. The best stop was Koz's Mini Bowl on the the South Side, that was a blast! Marcia made friends with the pinsetters. I designed a decal for the event, which turned out great! Photos of the event are here.