Rappelling at Devil's Lake

Earlier this week my cousin Brad invited me to go climbing and rappelling with him and some friends at Devil's Lake. My experience in the tree business has gotten me comfortable hanging on a rope and swinging through the air. But it took me a little bit to get comfortable in the rappelling setting. All the principles and even techniques are similar, if not the same. But with the trees, so often you have branches to hang onto and even stand on. Today, the context was a little different - just a face of rock to push against, and certainly nothing to stand on.

Nevertheless, my first rappel was safe and controlled. The second one was a lot faster - I had the figure-8 hot from friction when I got to the bottom.

Here, Scotty's getting Brad set-up for a descent.













Brad took these of me coming down.

Labor Day Festivities

Katie and I have been looking forward to this Labor Day weekend for quite some time. We've just moved into a new place, and we've still been busy around town. So a quiet, extended weekend was highlighted on our schedule. Well Sunday night Katie started to get a cold, and it got worse Monday morning.

Nevertheless, we still managed a nice day on the water and experimenting with our new cast iron cookware.

Lake Wingra Boathouse is about a 10 minute walk from our place. We rented a canoe and soaked in some of the last good rays of the season.

The project for the evening was to make our initial attempt at fried chicken in my new Lodge cast iron chicken fryer. We had concocted a rub for the chicken earlier in the morning. Once the oil was hot, we breaded the pieces in some flour and began the cooking.

We couldn't have been happier with the results. Katie and I really get into these kinds of things - southern cooking, classic recipes, fun and different ways of cooking.

(Breading the chicken, in the fryer, and the finished product.)

Game Day!

Theres' something special about the first Saturday of the football season. Sure, a few teams kicked off the 2007 season on Thursday night, but let's be honest - the season starts today. After a back-and-forth week with tickets, I thought Game Day for me meant meeting my brother and his wife at Lucky's for pre-game. Then Katie said she'd join me for the game -- "oh by the way, we have tickets!" A doctor from work gave her possibly the best seats in the house - 25 rows up on the 50-yard line.

Life is good in the Schiefelbein household this fine Saturday morning. We just had a great breakfast made in the aforementioned cast iron skillet. Katie made her signature tube-top from an old Wisconsin shirt of mine, and I'm ready for that walk to the stadium.







This place off Monroe Street is great - it reminds me of the college days of "park at my house and walk to the game." It's not like we're downtown like the college students, but we're within striking range - right where Katie and I like to be.