Yesterday was the grand opening of the Pick and Save on the former Kmart and Sears Grand site.

My daughter and I thought we would check it out in the early am to get some bakery before everyone else woke up.

There was a lot of activity and a fairly full lot surrounding the store. It is a big store. It was amazing how fast they worked to demolish the previous building and erect, finish and open the new building.

Since Katie and I were on a mission we did not tour the entire store. Also we ran into lots of friends and acquaintances who had the same idea (they were in the bakery area too).

As I have said before, it is not the job of the Village Board to pick winners and losers in the free market system.

What will this do to the Falls market? What will happen when Woodman’s opens? Will the new store help or hurt Sentry?

What are your impressions of the store?

President Obama’s visit to the Falls was a great thing. Whether you voted for a President or not, it is always great to have one come to your small town or village.

To have the President come and visit a local company to show them off is also a good thing for us.

Now most of you know my stance on “Green Jobs” but whether or not I think the stimulus money worked for this company (I don’t think the “stimulus” money worked at all) I am glad a local company got some exposure out of the deal.

As far as the money spent for him to come here is concerned, it is an insignificant drop in the bucket compared to let’ say the “keep your home from being foreclosed” fiasco. What was that amount of waste? 27 or 35 billion dollars? I would rather Obama come to the Falls twice a week for the rest of his life instead of spending half on that worthless program and we would be about 17 billion less in debt, the housing market would stabilize, rental property values would rise because more people who should have rented are renting, people who ruined their credit would be on the road to recovery, and, alas, I digress.

ZBB Chief Executive Officer Eric Apfelbach was asked about the Wall Street Journal editorial that highlighted many of ZBB’s problems. His answer was, in fact, totally accurate when he said the WSJ was making a larger point. That is exactly what they were doing. We want ZBB to do well, hire more people and buy larger properties from yours truly, but most of us don’t want them to use our tax dollars to pay for it. We want them to be successful based on their merits.

We want our kids to respect the office of The President of the United States and the person holding that office. We want them to be aware and excited about a President coming to our humble village. Respect for the office, in my mind, leads to a more careful and thoughtful vote for future Presidents. Let’s hope that is true in the next election.

Café Vino N88 W16521 Main Street

My wife and I heard that the new restaurant side of “Café Vino” was open for business, so we went there last Friday. We saw a few familiar faces as we ordered a bottle of some nice Spanish red wine.

We were impressed by what they did with the room and bar area. Not quite as folksy as before but kind of 3^rd Ward modern. They plan to have live acoustic music playing there soon.

The menu was completely different from the Deli side, with some neat appetizers, unique pizza selections and a few specials. We ordered the seafood pasta special and spinach pie. Both were excellent.

The bar has a full selection of gin, vodka, etc. but I was introduced to a bourbon unfamiliar to me, that was excellent, called Bulleit Bourbon. Mighty tasty.

I really hope people give this place a shot as there are too few places like Café Vino and a place like this should do well in the Falls due to the quality of the establishment. Give it a try for dinner and let me know what you think.

I am faced with an ethical challenge. Never have I illegally downloaded music or allowed my children to do so. Being a musician, and a capitalist, I appreciate the musician and believe they should be paid for their work.

In my basement are over 1,000 records. Many of these records I have bought, again, on CD format. Some I also have bought on cassette tape. A substantial number of these are so obscure, they have not come out on CD.

There is a download fileshare program out of Switzerland where for about $8.00 a month I can download the music in digital format as opposed to trying to convert vinyl to digital and convert to CDs or my computer.

If I download only the music, I can prove I already paid the artist/company for, is that stealing? If so, from whom?

Just called Jeff Steliga. Falls Fest is cancelled for this evening for the first time in 18 years.

Let's all give them a record night for Friday

Here are some pictures of the flooding at Pilgrim Road and Crossway (about two blocks south of Holy Cross Lutheran Church) This is the retention pond that my kids sled down, now completely filled with water. It almost made Pilgrim Rd impossible to navigate going South.

Prictures provided by Lisa Mackey

Just called Jeff Steliga. Falls Fest is cancelled for this evening for the first time in 18 years.

Let's all give them a record night for Friday

Falls Fest is starting this Thursday and ending Sunday evening.

Please attend, have fun, and support the local vendors.

For more information:

http://www.falls-fest.com/

Hey everyone. I will be taking a couple of weeks off from blogging to practice for our next gig, work extra hours, and enjoy the summer.

Our band, Pure, is playing on Saturday July 17, 2010 at the Klavier Lounge, on Mequon Road in Germantown.

We start at 8:30 and end at 11:30. We are trying a new format with a new member, Charlie Cooksey, and hope you can drop in, have a beverage and provide some feedback.

Click here for info on the Klavier Lounge

We hope to see you Saturday July 17^th at the Klavier Lounge.

The Klavier Lounge
N112 W16560 Mequon Road
Germantown, WI 53022

The following is from a mass circulated email received over 10 years ago. It is fascinating and much of it true, some of it not. The urban legend web site Snopes has some clarification on part of this document. For further fact checking click here.

"A page of history is worth a volume of logic."--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or the hardships of the Revolutionary War.
What kind of men were they? Here are some examples.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis, had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner urged General George Washington to open fire. His home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his grist mill were laid waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Dave and Carol, on WKLH, had a segment about favorite Summerfest concerts and memories. What are your favorite memories? Have at it.

My favorite memory was going to the first Summerfest, in 1968, with my friend, Tim Ells. We were pretty young and took the bus downtown and walked the rest of the way. The admission was about ¾ of the money we had on us but we were told you could get in free with 7 7up bottle caps. Where were we going to get 7 bottle caps? Someone had thrown them all over the area outside of the event. We easily found more than seven each and sold another seven to a teenager for half of the admission price.

We saw a bunch of local bands like Tony’s Tigers and the Skunks. Good fun.

One of the best concerts was a very rainy “Rock” day when a number of bands like POCO (I love Poco) etc. played. Poco walked off the stage when someone threw a bottle at the stage ( I don’t blame them). But the highlight was a guy I thought was a flakey hippy called John Sebastian, formerly of the Lovin’ Spoonful. Wow, what a great show and a super guy, who made a lot of great music. He is and was Rock’s eternal optimist. I have been one of his biggest fans ever since. The Best of the Lovin Spoonful stays in my 5 CD carousel all summer long.

Being President of the United States is not as easy as it looks. Nobody now knows this better than our sitting President.

During the campaign, candidate Obama ridiculed Bush and McCain for not capturing Osama Bin Laden. Following the inauguration, I fully expected Osama to be featured in the news, being deloused, with some Doctor looking down his throat with a tongue depressor. I suppose bigger issues got in the way of taking care of this simple matter. 

Maybe after a speech or two my headline will be true. Then we will worry about plugging the darn hole, as speeches don’t seem to be helping fix that situation either.

Many of you are on or use Facebook. It is an interesting site with unknown ramifications. Paul Arndt, shared his thoughts wil me and gave me permission to post them. I would like to weigh in on Facebook in the future too. Meanwhile here is Paul's opinion.

May 17, 2010

Subject: Facebook, good thing or bad thing.

I never thought that I’d be a member of Facebook, until this past year, when the people in charge of our upcoming high school reunion suggested that by joining, it would make it a lot easier for them to get the needed information out to us. With people scattered across the globe, and with different schedules and time zones, I agree that Facebook has been a very useful tool for this purpose. 

Through this internet tool, I have been in touch with people that I haven’t even thought about for the past thirty years. I’ve experienced many pleasant surprises in the past several months, and possibly realized that this planet that we live on is truly getting smaller each day. 

For those of you that have a Facebook account, you are aware of the friend list. I have noticed that there are some people that have this goal, or need, to have the largest friend list. I’m talking about being to the point of almost appearing desperate. This is regardless if they like you, or not. Regardless if they have anything in common with you or not, there are these people that will do anything to have not only your name on their friend list, but they will do anything to hijack your entire friend list in order to add it to their list. Mind you that this does not describe all people with a Facebook account; however it does cover many. 

Then we have what is referred to as the wall. This is a spot on your account where many people post random things for others to view. Again, this can be very useful for flock shoot type messaging; but many have this addiction or need to post something every hour. What really gets me are the individuals that are doing such activities from the work place. Senseless random postings such as the one that I saw the other day that went something like, “Someone just put another pile of forms on my desk to be filed…Arggggg!” Same person about an hour later, “Who’s in charge of toilet paper in this office anyway… Argggg!” What’s with the Argggg? Does this person want to be a pirate? 

Then we have these games hosted by Facebook. I will mention three of these games in which I have never played, but am constantly bothered by others to not only play but to help them win. We have Farmville, Fishville, and Mafia Wars. People are constantly asking me for fertilizer to help their crops grow, fish food for the fish, and bullets and machineguns for Mafia wars. I am aware of people in their mid to late 40’s that will stay up all night playing these games obsessed like Grandma on a slot machine. I have been in places of business where I have noticed people using Facebook while on the company clock. This problem has apparently escalated to the point where many companies have started to block Facebook from their internal network. Smaller companies without onboard IT people, have to spend the money to block it, or attempt to police their employees, which creates a situation for all because of a few. 

So far, the things that I have mentioned strictly apply to the adults that I have witnessed, and not the children and teens with FB accounts. I have talked with parents, teachers, and school staff about FB. Many kids, not all, are making the mistake of posting things on their wall with no viewer restrictions. It’s there for the world to see; obviously the main concern with this would be safety from predators. 

However, with some of the things being posted, people also need to be concerned about identity theft. Predators look for full names, birth dates, and family member names, along with statements detailing family outings such as vacations or other events that would leave a house vacant for a long enough time to rob, vandalize, or who knows what. Kids are also famous for posting what I refer to as instant emotion. This would be to post hateful or damaging remarks, be it true or not, about someone else for others to see. Some of these cases have been drug into the courtroom for the damages caused to an individual. And just as damaging is the person’s reputation that is doing the posting due to things such as bad and inappropriate language, hateful and damaging statements, and deliberate lies created to injure others. 

So, in winding this up. Is Facebook a good thing, or bad thing? I guess in my mind, with moderation, it can be a very useful tool to stay in touch with friends and family, along with the ability to share photos, thoughts, and feelings. On the other side of the coin, I feel that like anything else, without self control, it has the potential to not only damage ones self, but it can also cost you your reputation and or job if not careful.       

Paul Arndt

It may seem corney but guys like this keeps makes me optimistic in the strength of this country.

Oil Spill Solution

Will this work?

Two good friends are golfing.

They are backed up on the 8^th hole. It appears the cause of the slow play is a twosome of women one hole ahead of them.

Friend 1 says to Friend 2, “Why don’t you go up and ask if we can play through.”

Good idea says Friend 2 as he heads to the 9^th hole. About half way there, he stops, looks hard at the two women, turns, and heads back to Friend 1.

Friend 2 explains, “I recognize both of the women, one is my wife, and the other is my girlfriend. “Ohhhhh,” says Friend 1 as he leaves to finish what Friend 2 started.

About half way there, he looks hard at the women, turns, and heads back to Friend 2.

Friend 2 asks, “What’s the matter?” Friend 1 replies: “It is such a small world.”

If you and your family like to watch great local amature ice skaging, there is the Red, White and Blades figure skaking show. Admission is only $10 and the proceeds go to support the amature teams particpating in the event. It is one of the few events you can attend without paying for parking or getting robbed at the consession stand.

This show is celebrating their 35th year with performances from 6 clubs. Great family entertainment.

When and Where: On Sunday, May 16th at 2pm, at the Petitt National Ice Center

The subject of the "Big Pig Gig" is hot again. There is some fine local reporting on the subject from out own local paper  here:

Big concerns raised over Big Pig Gig

I was and am a supporter of this event and am glad they are looking at a revival of the event. The first year was tough, as is any events maiden voyage. Most people, including me, thought there would be lots of food to sample, buy or eat. The second year I was there I didn't recognize anyone from the Falls other than the volunteers and the place was pretty packed with people. They obviously drew from outisde the area. One wonders why more locals wouldn't attend an event in their backyard. Last year the planners took a hiatus to see how it could make money, if they were to resume. Smart.

The original brainchild of the event probably took some heat buut sure showed some initiative, which is refreshing around here. When you are a pioneer you are going to get some arrows in the back. Local civic minded groups were able to generate some revenue through volunteers. I don't know how that worked out for them,

It was refreshing to see folks thinking outisde the box as to where to hold the event. I have been thinking about where else we could hold an event like this in the Falls and came up dry. It always came back to 3 issues, parking, parking and toilets.Having it as a real street festival is bold and interesting.

Where do you come down on the Big Pig Gig? What about Main St?

Mojo's is closed. The restaurant seemed to have a bad rap against it from the start. Undesevedly in my opinion. We always got great service and a great steak, at a reasonable price. It was difficult to get my kids to eat anywher that wasn't a Chili's, Applebees or what not. Still, my wife and I like to get out where we leave the kids behind and go to a place where other adults feel the same.

The Colony Restaurant is closed. It was a friendly breakfast nook with good service and good food.

Can't the Falls support and sustaine one steak joint and a couple of local cafe's?

This is not a local government made problem or solution. What is going on here, in your opinion? What do we need in the Falls? For example, People ask why can't we get a Bartolatta or Eddie Martini's? What do you think?  What do we need?

By now, most of you who read this blog, are aware of the deal that allows the hotel to move ahead. Many of you also have said in this blog and other blogs  that it would be productive to have a forum on real issues and leave the personalties out of the discussion. I have lots of ideas and opinions about this project as you probably have as well. Well, have at it.

***Spoiler Alert*** This blog entry reveals the plot ending of the movie in case you haven’t already seen it or figured out how it ends by all the college and NFL human interest stories of last year. I am just warning you.

“The Blind Side” is a good movie, about a great story, with a happy ending for a sweet young man who was given a chance. The leading actress received an Academy Award.

The major plot twist takes place when the NCAA brings Michael Oher in for a mini inquisition about why he chose a particular school over another. The implication was that his adoptive family had planned all along to take him off the street, give him a warm and safe place to stay, feed him, keep him in and help him stay and graduate high school and even private tutored him so he could qualify for a scholarship.

Alternate Ending: Let’s pretend it was true, the family had no love or affection for Michael and coldly calculated all of this to get him to go to the school of their choice. Someone please tell me who is the victim here?

If the NCAA found evidence (provable or not) that Michael Oher was the recipient of “gifts” or financial gain by a booster he would most likely be banned from playing, probably for a long time considering the amount of money given to him. The university would certainly be fined, forfeit some games, or even get the “death penalty” and be unable to play in any tournaments or championship games. Would Michael lose his scholarship and still be able to attend and graduate?

Now let’s say 100 families (or a million) had the same idea: Take an abandoned kid off the streets, house, clothe, feed and educate him just so he could play for their school. Is society worse of better off? Has this hurt the game of football? Most important of all, is the victim of this generosity scarred for life or hurt in any way?

When you watch or remember the movie, think about the NCAA, rightly or wrongly, finding Michael Oher, guilty of violating NCAA rules. Would they be as compassionate as his exploitative benefactors? The NCAA has done some great things to athletics but it might be time to think about what they are doing to kids.