Our Racine County Fair Menu: corn dog on a stick, barbecued pork chop on a stick, mini donuts on a stick, deep fried twinkie on a stick, pickle on a stick, caramel apple on a stick, deep fried snickers bar on a stick... and a bunny drawing on a stick (what can I say? we were on a roll!)



NOTE: We shared all of these items. So, unhealthy? Yeah. But we'll probably live.

PS: TheBoy loved climbing all over the Case tractors and combines. And the tractor pulls were a huge hit! It's surprising how enjoyable those can be to watch, especially given how boring they look at first glance.

And excerpt from President Obama’s speech to the NAACP. I think this is the most important part:

We've got to say to our children, yes, if you're African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. But that's not a reason to get bad grades -- (applause) -- that's not a reason to cut class -- (applause) -- that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. (Applause.) No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands -- you cannot forget that. That's what we have to teach all of our children. No excuses. (Applause.) No excuses.
You get that education, all those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes we can. (Applause.)
To parents -- to parents, we can't tell our kids to do well in school and then fail to support them when they get home. (Applause.) You can't just contract out parenting. For our kids to excel, we have to accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox -- (applause) -- putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. (Applause.) It means attending those parent-teacher conferences and reading to our children and helping them with their homework. (Applause.)
And by the way, it means we need to be there for our neighbor's sons and daughters. (Applause.) We need to go back to the time, back to the day when we parents saw somebody, saw some kid fooling around and -- it wasn't your child, but they'll whup you anyway. (Laughter and applause.) Or at least they'll tell your parents -- the parents will. You know. (Laughter.) That's the meaning of community. That's how we can reclaim the strength and the determination and the hopefulness that helped us come so far; helped us make a way out of no way.
It also means pushing our children to set their sights a little bit higher. They might think they've got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can't all aspire to be LeBron or Lil Wayne. (Applause.) I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers -- (applause) -- doctors and teachers -- (applause) -- not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. (Applause.) I want them aspiring to be the President of the United States of America. (Applause.)
I want their horizons to be limitless. I don't -- don't tell them they can't do something. Don't feed our children with a sense of -- that somehow because of their race that they cannot achieve.
Yes, government must be a force for opportunity. Yes, government must be a force for equality. But ultimately, if we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own future, each and every day.

I fervently hope that this message will be absorbed by the families of Racine Unified School district. We’ve got a HS grad rate hovering around 70% in RUSD, meaning that more than 1 kid in 4 isn’t graduating from high school. If the community can't fix this, we'll soon have no one left except the 30% that is OK with not even having a diploma in an age when degrees are nearly mandatory.

Shopping for the Food Bank

There have been a lot of layoffs in the Racine area over the past year, on top of the many layoffs in the years before that. I've been thinking about how many families in the area must be struggling to make ends meet. For the first time since TheBoy was born, we're actually making progress against our debt, and not feeling more than a moderate crunch on our budget.

So, we decided to do some shopping for the food pantry. And it was actually a lot of fun! TheGirl was put in charge of selecting items within our $50 budget. The food pantry provides a list of items they need. By the time we were done, we had half a cart full of everything from salt, pepper, ketchup and mayo to chicken noodle soup, baked beans, peanut butter, and tuna. Twenty-four items in all, for a grand total of $50.18. On the way out, we emptied the whole cart into the collection bin at the exit. What a strange feeling to spend an hour grocery shopping and head out to the car empty-handed. But it was a nice feeling, too.

Racine 2008 Fireworks

(more in flickr - realloy digging the fireworks setting on my camera!)

Housekeeping

Loads of things I've been meaning to mention but, with one thing and another, haven't.

1) TheBoy's Illness. I'd previously mentioned that he was seeming sick. Well, 8 hours of non-stop screaming, followed by a night lying on the floor next to him, and a visit to the doctor provided a verdict: walking pneumonia... or rather, crawling pneumonia. So, Zithromax for the germs. And an albuterol inhaler for the wheezing. Second time he's had albuterol inhalers and he's not even 1 yet. I'm seeing asthma in this boy's future. He seems mostly healed up now, but gets tired and cranky a bit earlier in the day. This is exacerbated by a clingy phase he's going through and the bad habits we let him develop while he was ill (no, not cigars and whiskey. I refer to his waking during the night and demanding our immediate attention. This will end soon, mark my words).

2) The Racine Zoo. Before TheBoy was in full scream mode, the three of us (The Fishmonger, TheBoy and TheGirl) spent the day oot and aboot (look, I can write Canadian!) in Racine. We visited the Racine Zoo and then lunched at the Groundskeeper. We generally had a very nice time. I highly recommend hitting feeding time at the monkey house (AKA The Castle). Quite a sight to see. Makes a high school cafeteria seem mild by comparison. While most of the animals at the zoo (lions, a tiger, monkeys, orangutans, a giraffe, a rhino, aligators, some sort of mountain goats, meerkats, coatimundi and more) seemed to be in reasonable (if not luxurious) accomodations, TheGirl and I were a bit put off by the African Penguins. They seemed to have no access to water, and were standing in a small glass-walled room surrounded by the aligator pond. Which is probably why they aren't given access to the water. Still, I wonder if the poor little guys ever get to go for a plunge. I'll be sad about them 'til I hear they do.

3) The neighbor's party. Very calm and relaxed. With TheBoy screaming for nearly the entire length of the party, we opted not to attend, but the party seemed very much in control, with no more than 2 dozen people at any time. No idea why there was a porta potty. Perhaps it's an inside joke.

4) TheWife's Birthday. It all went swimmingly, if you ask me.

We met for dinner at the Asiana Restaurant in Racine (which I've also seen referred to as Asiana Bowl, Asiana Korean Restaurant and Asiana Korean-Japanese Restaurant). The meals were quite tasty. I had a vegetarian stir fry of apparent Japanese origin, TheWife had some Korean thing which I forget, and TheGirl had chicken cutlets with panko breading. The Korean eggrolls and strange and delicious pancake looking thing which we had for appetizers were also quite tasty. Best of all, they were very accomodating of TheBoy. When our miso soup was brought to the table, our waitress asked us if it would be OK to bring him some rice and miso broth. We said it was, and he loved the bowl of rice, broth and tofu that she brought. Then, when he started getting 'grabby' during dinner (grabbing first my plate, then my beer bottle, then my napkin, and on and on), our waitress (who I think may also have been one of the owners) stopped by to ask if she could hold him for a bit. We said 'Sure!', and she spent the rest of our dinner strolling him around the restaurant (remaining mostly in our view), entertaining him. Quite the treat for us. I consider it a special fortune, since she wouldn't have been able to be so sweet to us if the restaurant had been as full as it deserved to be. A quick stop at Sugar Shack for ice cream, consumed while relaxing on a Monument Square bench, while caressed by gentle lake breezes, completed our dining.

TheWife opened presents when we got home. Once again, TheBoy had the best gift, a fused glass pendant from etsy.com. TheGirl's gifts (a Vera Bradley luggage tag, and a beautiful scarf) came in second, while the Vera Bradley messenger bag I bought TheWife is still on the potentially to be exchanged pile (right colors, wrong style. I knew it, too).

And that's it for now. We're hoping to visit the Keno Drive-In tonight. Expect a review and pics before next week!

{UPDATE} Wind Point Lighthouse

Remember when I blogged about the Jeld-Wen windows contest that might give a door and window makeover for Wind Point lighthouse? Well, it won! Yep, Wind Point Lighthouse, along with some strange monstrosity in the Chesapeake Bay area were both awarded a window and door makeover from Jeld-Wen. I have to see this as the power of The Fishmonger's Place. Many thanks to all who took the time to vote. I can't wait to see how the lighthouse looks after it's redone!

(Check out this pdf for the breakdown on why Jeld-Wen chose each lighthouse from the list of top finalists generated by the voting, or check out the Wind Point website for their info on the lighthouse.)

Strange Bridge in Racine

Yesterday was a day off of work, so I decided to spend the morning on a photo safari in Racine. My most interesting capture? The bridge where 6th Street crosses the Root River. I had stumbled across it once day after picking my daughter up from school. Road construction caused me to detour, and I stopped in awe when confronted with this thing.

From the road surface, it's barely interesting - a couple of abstract mosaics, and some sort of bronze plumbing fixtures. But from below... well, take a look at the photoset yourself. The bridge has some of the strangest adornments I've ever seen. Some seem inspired by the state seal, others by Nazi paraphenalia, the most repeated adornment almost seems designed to evoke (or invoke!) Cthulhu, or some ancient river god. The bridge is constructed strangely, too. The underside is a solid arch, with the space between the arch and the roadway filled with arches.

I've been unable to find any explanation for the origins of the bridge in my internet searches. But I've sent a question in to the Journal-Times. Perhaps they will reveal all to us. I'll keep you posted.

Schools info

The site linked in the title has some fascinating information about Wisconsin State Schools. It has data about academic performance, attendance, behavior, demographics, and so on. The great thing about the sit is that it allows you to compare different groups within the school (by gender, race, economic status, etc) or compare between schools, districts and statewide averages. Man, I could spend hours on the site. Important reading for anyone with kids attending school in Wisconsin. It's amazing how much variation I see within Racine Unified School District. Amazing of the mind-blowing, sad and scary sort. Check it out.

Racine's Festival of Trees

The Racine Downtown association does a Festival of Trees fundraiser downtown each year, and we usually visit. Since the roads had mostly been cleared, and snow had stopped blowing about, we decided to go down yesterday evening. It was lovely, if nearly empty.

They changed the venue this year from Festival Hall to Memorial Hall. Good move. There's lots more room, and the place is already attractive in that old fashioned hall sort of way. Lots of pillars and balconies. But the trees are the star of the show. Well, they are if you discount Santa. And speaking of discount Santas... Zack had his first Santa pic taken. He went about a minute without crying, then burst into tears. See flickr for individual photos, as always.

Snow Day!

No school for the kid today! In fact, we've all decided to stay home. The whole area is under a Blizzard Watch. We've got 3 or 4 inches on the ground with totals to exceed 10 inches today! And winds are gusting up to 35 miles per hour. A-a-a-nd it's supposed to be worse to the south (which is the direction I'd have to go to get to work) Sheesh! HAve a look at the video I shot after I (pointlessly) shovelled the driveway:


(PS: That's not fog, it's snow, blowing in sheets across the landscape. OK, it's boring, but I like uploading stuff to YouTube - makes me feel connected.)

Truth be told, I'm feeling a little guilty about not going to work today. There's a load of stuf fI need to get done, and now it'll sit until Monday. But Kenosha county (the one I travel through on the way to work) is reporting that they already have over 30 accidents, most of them on the interstate. I guess it's good I'm staying home. Besides, now I can get the tree up!

Anybody else staying home today? Or more to the point, did anybody from the area actually go to work? Leave a message in the comments!