What's Up, Doc?

After 11 years, my brother John has successfully completed his PhD at U.W. Madison. John gave his oral dissertation in early May and passed with flying colors! By June 11 he had submitted his final revisions to the university and by June 19 he and his partner, Jim, had planned a wonderful celebration at Burrows Park in Madison. Top picture shows a happy and relieved Jojo with our very proud parents. This picture shows Jojo displaying a new labtop carrying bag his siblings purchased for him as a congratulatory gift.

I will be showing pictures and commenting on this past weekend's events backwards, as I apparently downloaded all the pictures in reverse order....We can let it slide this time, right? Pictured here is my little muse for the weekend, Leila, who was very photogenic for me. Here, she "borrowed" my shoes to clump about at the party.

Lisa, Leila and I hamming in up. The party was a lot of fun. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the location was right next to Lake Mendota. John and Jim catered the event with lots of yummy subs from Cousins as well as chips, veggies and dip, and cold salads. Plus there was a variety of soda and beer and delicious red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

Bill and Mom

Bob, Dad, Mom and Michael enjoying a beautiful summer evening.

Look at these handsome brothers of mine! (Bob, Bill & John) Unfortunately this picture doesn't include my oldest brother, Don, who couldn't make it to the party because he and his family live in Arkansas. We missed you guys, but can't wait to see you next month!

Bobby!

Michael, Bill's friend, Scott, Mom and Bill.

Leila

Jim and John thanking everyone for attending the party and for encouraging and supporting John while he completed this momentous undertaking.

Yippee!

Mom and Mark

Dad gives Leila some beanbag pointers. She seemed more interested in collecting the bags rather than tossing them.

I learned that Leila is a big fan of watermelon.

You can see the Capitol just to the right of the tree on the left-hand side of this picture. Mom and Dad are standing on one of the public piers that was located next to the park.

I am indeed the runt of the family. Here, I stand with my "little" brother, Bill!

Leila swinging

Uncle Bill providing a lot of love!

Leila was very outgoing and played with some of Jim's relatives who attended the event.

Before the graduation party, we made a special trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison with Lisa and the kids. Her youngest, Leila, had never been to a zoo before.
Here, Mom poses with a very fetching penguin sculpture.

I am flanked by Michael and Emma.

That is a penguin mask on top of my head.

Mom and Emma rest on a bench.

We all were in awe of this beautiful lion.

Of course, the giraffes were a family favorite.

Napkin please!

That is Leila standing next to this display showing the scale of polar bears.

Emma and her little sis.

A proud Uncle Jojo ensured that Leila's carousel ride would be safe and fun. Emma beams behind them.

This wonderful carousel was almost junked several years ago, but was fortunately saved when the community learned of its existence (it had been in storage and "forgotten" for years!) and raised money to have it restored and set-up at the zoo.

Emma hangs on to Leila who really enjoyed looking at the peach and pink flamingos.

Admiring the pond where numerous coy swam.

Mom, Mark and I began the day by walking the dogs at the Mazo Marsh.

Among the tall grass we had to walk through, we did have the opportunity to see many lovely wildflowers!

Mom and Dad arrived the day before the festivities and stayed with us for a night before spending a second night with my in-laws. There were rainshowers that afternoon and into the evening, but with the wet weather came a truly magnificent rainbow which bowed right before our house (Mark actually observed 3 rainbows as he returned home from work that evening, but Mom, Dad, Bob, and I only saw 2 by the time we got outside).

Mark, Bob, Mom and Dad standing at the end of our driveway.

Admiring nature's beauty

On a more recent note, we did have some very severe weather this past Monday night in Cross Plains. An F-1 tornado has been officially recognized as the culprit to several uprooted trees and roof and house damage to area residences living in the village of Cross Plains. This happened in the early evening on Monday and, indeed, I can honestly say that I was pretty much unaware of the events until I heard the emergency alarm on the TV and after I received a phone call from my brother John. The damage of this particular storm (there were several tornados in southern Wisconsin that night, the worst being in the small town of Eagle), was about 3 miles from our house! Indeed, the only thing I noticed as being amiss was one single, heavy lawnchair overturned on our deck. The other three were fine, but one was flipped completely over.

These pictures were actually taken after the local tornado--which wasn't officially confirmed at that point as being such or wouldn't have been standing outside with my camera. It was very calm, extremely humid (you can see the moisture on my lens), and really intimidating watching this powerful storm move from where you live onto where other people are living there lives...waiting...watching....