Today, on "lit, a place for stories"

Sea.

When the boy was very young, the wave swept away everything, including him... click here to read more.

Didja ever get the feeling you were being watched? (I Get Paid For Doing This)

Scenes from my office.

I also could have gone with June A Diddley Do, but I don't want Flanders to sue me.

The IWM blog tour is continuing with Brenda Sparks' blog.  Here's the intro:

It's JUNEAGANZA!!! *sigh* Okay, I'm running out of titles for the IWM Blog Tour, and it shows.  The only other one I had left was "Juney Tooty Fresh & Fruity," 
which doesn't even make sense.

Click here to go read the rest. There's CLONES!

Picture of the Day

FONZIE SELFIE! (Or: Road Trip To Milwaukee) (A Photo Essay)

For my anniversary present, Sweetie gave me a road trip to Milwaukee -- over an hour away!  We set out with three goals:

1. Find the spot where Teddy Roosevelt 

got shot by an anarchist and didn't even realize it until later.

2. Find the "Bronze Fonz"

3. Get burgers later on.

We did 2 of the 3.

In the parking garage, before we headed out to walk around. 

Miller Park, where the Brewers play.

We parked under the "Milwaukee Center" which is
an office building, hotel, and... big building?

We were waiting for Sweetie, and this was a mirror in the hallway.

Milwaukee City Hall. It's under construction on the lower levels.

There was a blimp in town for the Brewers game.
It was flying around all day and seemed to be having
trouble in the wind.

It's a statue.

Back to home base for restroom break.  This is a fancy lobby in the Milwaukee Center and
it deserved a fancy photo filter.  That's Mr Bunches there, heading to see the view.

Waiting for Mom.  

Mr F, on the right, is sitting in front of a sign that says "Do Not Sit On Vents."
WHATEVER I DO WHAT I WANT.

Because of Lake Michigan, it was 59 degrees.

I just liked the symmetry of this building.

Close up of a mural along the Riverwalk, where you can take your kids
to walk along the brown Milwaukee River, cutting through numerous outdoor patios
on which people drink beer and smoke.

The first of many duck sculptures along the Riverwalk.  We took several shots. This was the best one.

The One Wisconsin building. I love this building.
I used to walk by it nearly every day on my
way to work, 20 years ago.

Ducks. Possibly Gertie. 

Kayakers.

This building has giant ladybugs on it.
I never knew why.

That crane is lifting a boat.

Building

Larger boats going up the Milwaukee River need the bridges to lift.
This was absolutely Mr Bunches' favorite thing of the day.

This is a building. 

I liked the flower in the window, and I liked better framing
it through the crane here.

The sign outside the Milwaukee Public Market.

The inside of the Milwaukee Public Market, where you can drink beer and wine while
shopping for beer and wine. And also weird meats and live lobsters.

Ha ha I get it.

I cannot look at a giant inflatable crab without thinking
"Where can I get one?"

It's a statue.

I liked the foreign writing under the sign
but was disturbed by the scary
looking woman advising that some of the
toppings are really hot.

This is a meat stand that had a sign promising unusual meats but it turned out
they mostly sold regular meat, plus some "chorizo."  They also sold potato pancakes,
in the lower left side there. Plus whatever those white globby things are.

They had live lobsters in a tank, in case you want to go shopping and then carry around
a live lobster in a bag all day.
This particular lobster got pictured because Sweetie thought it looked like he had tusks or teeth.  If you google
"Do lobsters have teeth" you will find out that yeah, they do, but they're in the stomach, and
then you will have another reason to never eat lobster.

Mural outside the coffeeshop.

We walked by a construction site and
Sweetie said, just as I snapped this picture,
"Well, THAT'S ugly."
I said:
"No, I think it looks neat."

Sculpture

Here's that mural, from across the river.  We were walking back to home base now.  

Oh, cute!

A neat sculpture on the Riverwalk. 

This I am pretty sure is also a sculpture.

We found the Bronze Fonz!
From Wikipedia:

The Bronze Fonz is a public artwork by American artist Gerald P. Sawyer located on the Milwaukee Riverwalk just south of Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee, WisconsinU.S.A. The Bronze Fonz depicts Henry Winkler as the Happy Days TV show character Arthur Fonzarelli, also known as the Fonz.^[1] Fonzie stands in his typical costume, which consists of a leather jacket and jeans. He is giving a two-handed thumbs up.

We almost didn't find that; it was listed as being at "100 E. Wells Street," but was on the odd, not the even, side of the street.  The ONLY reason we found it is because earlier Mr Bunches had heard that bridge sound and we had run to try to see the boats, then he got sad, then we saw the boat, so instead of going back the way we had been planning to go, we walked along the Riverwalk on the reverse shore.  And stumbled across the Bronze Fonz.  Everything happens for a reason, even if the reason is a relatively silly one.

Inside the Home Base there was an  art gallery where people had painted sections of
Milwaukee under attack from movie or videogame monsters.

After walking around and seeing the sites,
we headed to a playground I'd found on
the Internet, to give the boys a chance to blow
off steam.  This water tower was on the way.

And then we made it to the park. 

Cass Street Park, entrance.

I have a blue filter on my camera. I'm not sure what
the purpose of it is.

On the way home we stopped off at Kopp's, which makes
my favorite hamburgers EVER.  

Fonzie Selfie!