Klowns in my Koffee

We spent the night with my husband's parents in Houston, Minnesota. They are terrific and the kids are always delighted to spend time with their grandparents. I am delighted to get out of the car after three hours of children taunting each other. We put "Mary Poppins" on the DVD and it creates an alphabet soup of cheeriness and sibling poking and elbowing and parental threats.

"Chim Chiminy, Chim chiminy, Stop touching me!, Watch your movie and stop bothering each other! Don't make me stop this car, Chim Chim Cheroo!"

Wisconsion Brew

We had a lovely time at the reunion and are glad that we went. Here are pictures that show how the newcomer can easily identify Wisconsin from visual cues.

1. All the cars are American.

2. So are the motorcycles.

3. This mysterious logo appears on most surfaces.

I think many people have seen variations of this over the years, but it always makes me laugh. I'd cite the author if I knew who it was.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE WISCONSINITE WHEN:

1. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

2 'Vacation' means going up north past Hwy 8 for the weekend.

3. You measure distance in hours.

4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

5. You often switch from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again.

6. Your whole family wears Packer Green to church on Sunday.

7. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

8. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings and funerals.)

9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

10. You think of the major food groups as beer, fish, and venison.

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife or girlfriend knows how to use them.

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Mill's Fleet Farm at any given time.

13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

15. You refer to the Packers as 'we.'

16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

17. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

18. You have no problem pronouncing Lac Du Flambeau.

19. You consider Minneapolis exotic.

20. You know how to polka.

21. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

22. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

23. Down South to you means Illinois.

24. A brat is something you eat.

25. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

26. You go out to a fish fry every Friday.

27. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

28. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

29. You find minus twenty degrees 'a little chilly.'

30. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Wisconsin friends.