The Link

george bush jr. jr.

My friend Brandon kind of looks like George W. Bush sometimes.
 

looks like a pig

When I was 18 years old, one of my best friend's and I flew to NYC from our little city in Wisconsin during our last month of high school.  It was epic.  We walked around the city and basically just explored for the sake of exploring.  We were walking near Rockefeller Plaza when my friend suddenly blurted out, "Excuse me sir!  Are you an artist?!" to this old man walking down the street with some paper and markers..  He kindly confirmed and offered to draw my friend's face on this big white board.  We went into a coffee shop and spent the next three hours hearing about this guy's life (both past and present).  Sascha was originally from Russia, but had came over here at some point and had recently retired, opting to spend the rest of his days doing his art.  He lived on a small island in the East River bordering New York City with his wife and told us stories of his experiences under Stalin and Khrushchev.  Oh and he might have been a bit crazy. 

This random meeting was the best part of the entire weekend.

honored

I spent the wonderful weekend hanging out with several my best friends.  Two of them flew in by surprise from Tampa and Minneapolis.  Always a joy to see those people. 

It is really too bad they like such a terrible football team....

i want an iphone

Ryan Gallagher.
Tiffiny Newton.

richard keskey junior

Dick Keskey is one of my heroes. He is the former husband of the mother of one of my best friends, Ryan Gallagher. Dick and I go way back and it's good to see that I complete him.

Ryan showed me this video via an Skype video conference several months ago and I have been begging him daily to put it on YouTube. It finally arrived just last night.

vinny rottino

In 1998-99, I lived in an overflow dorm room (converted study hall) with three other guys. 

There was Brendan Clancy Cotter, Rob Savaglio, Vinny Rottino and myself.   

Vinny used to practice his swing and sleep with his baseball glove on.   

Cotter was never far from the binoculars.

And Rob....well he was Rob, frequently physically assaulting friends of mine and trying to strangle Cotter with a rubber cord. 

Fun times! 

Vinny is now a Milwaukee Brewer and I wish I still had his contact info....

22

This is my friend Ryan Gallagher (on the right). 

He's got Emmitt Smith.

mr. quade

This is my friend (and coworker) Jeff Martens. 

He's got a gun.

a slice of wisconsin

I spent Labor Day weekend up in Wisconsin.   

Always good to see family, friends and lakes... 

This is Trout Lake, a massive clear lake formed by glaciers about 12,000 years back.

We swam around on this beautiful day with bald eagles gliding above. 
   

Very blue.....

Theresa, Marylin (spelling?), me, Dennis...

We swam around for a while, then went to the spring-fed Crystal Lake, one of the clearest lakes in the state.  We are talking gin clear.   

Next to Crystal Lake is this other rugged swamp of a lake called Little Musky (I think). 

The water levels are real low this year and the shoreline was a solid 20-30 feet away from the shoreline.   The brown ground above looked stable from afar, but upon closer inspection, it was gooey muck. 

We were throwing little rocks into the mucky shit, laughing at the strange sound they made upon entering...Presented with this strange phenomenon, the only logical next step was to find the biggest  rock around and see what kind of sound that makes when it slips into the gooey mess.

Of course there is a video...

Plop. 

Here is my photo shy mother.   She rarely appears in any photographs and we are lucky to have this one. 

And the infamous Dennis (aka Danny)

Farmer Dan.

And Theresa, who is somehow now in High School.  She is a traitor and is going to Wausau East instead of West (where I went).

My Grandma...

And Grandpa...

My good friend Brendan Cotter came by with his Peruvian girlfriend Marilyn (again, spelling?  sounds like Mary Lyn)...

We drove through the area woods and lakes. 

We ate ice cream.

We grilled out. 

I fed him some bacon (even though he is a vegetarian). 

Good times...

Theresa was in the Labor Day parade in Wausau, so I stuck around to see her and take some pictures of the locals. 

There she is, on the left. 

Maybe she is a plumber???

As I walked down 3rd Ave, I couldn't help but notice the man cutting his grass. 

It was difficult to take this photo, as this glorious Wausau hero didn't seem too friendly.

Biggest truck I have ever seen. 

All in all, a good time...

aerial arborist

Here is a video of a hometown friend of mine way up in a huge tree with a chainsaw.