Hi Everyone!

Bridge over the Menomonee River at Burleigh.

Olympic Ice

The Pettit National Ice Center is an Olympic speed skating training facility in West Allis, Wisconsin, a southwest suburb of Milwaukee. Inside the oval rink are two hockey rinks. Runners also use a track that runs around the outside of the oval, which is what I was doing on this frigid day.

Flags

From far left, clockwise: Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States, and City of Milwaukee flags reflected in a puddle on this extremely mild January day outside the UWM Library.

Allaince Food Market

The owners of this Milwaukee store on 35th and Center must have made an alliance with a cut-rate sign maker. Or possibly their name is Allaince? I’ve had to correct that word both times in this title and post as my phone keeps correcting it. 🙂

Running for Heart Health at the Steve Cullen Healthy Heart Club Run

I will be running 8K (I know, right?!) on February 16, 2013 during the Steve Cullen Healthy Heart Club walk/run here in Milwaukee at Underwood Parkway. If you are in town, please consider registering for this event with me. You can run or walk the 2-mile course or come help me stay upright for the full 8K (5 miles). Now, I’ve done these things before and paid my registration fee, then basically forgotten about the fundraising part because, well, I hate asking people for money (except maybe my parents) and you don’t have to do it. But these days, with technology connecting us in ways unimaginable a few decades ago, it is just too easy to tell everyone about the event and the good cause behind it – cardiac health and research – and it is also super easy for others to give with a few clicks of a mouse. All proceeds from this event will go directly to support cardiac research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. You can visit my fundraising page HERE.

The Cullen Run/Walk began 17 years ago in memory of former Milwaukee Alderman,  Steve Cullen who died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 40. His father, at age 41, and two brothers, ages 53 and 51, also died from heart disease. My kids went to school with Dave and Julie Cullen’s two kids, Dave being the remaining brother of Steve. Heart disease has had a huge impact on his family, as stated above. His brother Steve was a marathon runner and in great shape, but suffered a heart attack after a race and died. So there is a personal connection here as well for me, but we all have a heart and will most likely have problems with it at some point in our lives, or at least be affected by the heart disease of someone near and dear to us, so consider if you can help with a donation to a cause that affects us all. Thanks.

Okay – onward to more photos of Milwaukee! 😉

Around Milwaukee Today

I upload right from my phone, but it’s too much work to type proper descriptions from there, so I sometimes remember to come back to my regular computer and annotate the images. Today, I remembered! This is a view of the Milwaukee River taken from inside Water Buffalo restaurant on Water and Buffalo. The shiny part of the water in the middle was frozen enough for ducks and gulls to stand on it and also to give a bit of reflection.

I don’t know if this was meant to be a mouse, but it looks very much like a big hairy rat crawling distractedly toward a giant strawberry on the lower level of the Grand Avenue Mall. The thing is huge, probably at least a couple dozen feet long. It is wearing a Santa hat and appears to have a green cigarette butt dangling from its mouth. Nice. Happy holidays.

Farm Girl Art & Antiques is on South 5th Street. This is their sign reflected in the roof of a parked car.

This is also South 5th, facing north towards La Perla Mexican restaurant. The large Bacardi ad in the distance caught my eye. I think that was the side of a truck of some sort, but I don’t even know!

This Little Free Library is outside the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts on South 5th Street. There are several in our city, which I think is awesome, but this one is a really pretty one.

I have taken this photo before, but am compelled to do it each time I walk under this sign just north of the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts.

Follicle, along this same block, is a hair salon with a very shiny, reflective window. There’s my Dad!

The Esperanza Unida mural really stands out, especially on such a grey day among grey buildings.

Well, this is one of those sawhorse type things that gets put in traffic or on sidewalks to warn people of some sort of danger or restriction and the light on top flashes when it gets dark out. There must be a word or much shorter phrase for these things, but it escapes me. Made a nice reflection against a sheet of metal.

This antique sign was for sale in Farm Girl. Do they even still make Di-Gel? Not sure.

Took this out the car window on our way home on 27th and State. It had started to snow and the wet road provided some nice reflections.

Milwaukee Public Market

Water Street, downtown Milwaukee on the northern edge of the Third Ward.