Congrats to our local UW-Madison Water Ski Team who took 8th at 2006 NCWSA Nationals this past weekend. Pretty good considering they don’t have a jump or a slalom course for the majority of their practices, and are even willing to keep skiing when I’m willing to admit it is time to get off the lake when severe weather rolls in.
Yes, that is correct. We had some snow fall this past week and that probably helped cool of the lake. That, and the cold nights we’ve had where it has been down into the 30s overnight.
Last night 7, Sandy and I were out celebrating Badger Football & Hockey victories and knowing that the weather today was suppose to get up to about 60 and be sunny, we decided to go skiing.
7, Sandy and Myself
Today, I finished up changing the oil in my boat and gassed it up on the way to the lake. At 1pm it was sunny and pretty nice. But at 330 when we hit the water, the sky had clouded up and it was probably a little cooler (low 50s?).
Yes, that says 45.9 degrees…
Me, wanting to be a tough guy and get one last run in before putting on a dry suit, left my dry suit at home, planning on just toughing it out with a thermal shirt and shorty wetsuit. 7 and Sandy were better prepared.
7 suited up first and took a slalom run. Didn’t complain about the water, but kept his run pretty brief. Could be because he hadn’t skied a lot lately, maybe still recovering from 16 hours of drinking the day before or maybe just didn’t like the cold water.
7 on the Water
I suited up next and jumped right it. Ice. Yes, that is what the water felt like. Grabbed the handle, rope came tight, and off we went. Got up, and besides my face (which was freezing in the wind chill) it really wasn’t too bad. Took 3 good runs along the south and west shorelines. Managed some one foots. Sandy took the corner in the runs really tight. First time through it on the inside corner, I held my spot. Second time, I was on the outside and that was easy. Third time, I held for a while, but could feel it getting a little soft and decided to let the whip carry me across the bubbles. Now I had 20 feet off the rope, the distance I was at was pretty much the worst distance to be as there is quite the rooster tail at this distance behind my boat at barefooting speeds. So, having decided to ride the whip, I closed my eyes and released my cut and away I went. Actually, came through pretty good, probably one of my smoother wake crossings, but in retrospect, closing my eyes as I rode the whip through the bubbles was probably not the brightest thing to do.
Why’s there a giant ball of spray following the boat?
I can’t feel my face
The good thing about your feet going numb…
Just before I close my eyes and ride the whipSandy took to the water next. Having been living in Florida for the last 3 years and only getting water time in the heart of summer, she suited up in a dry suit and jumped in and took a good slalom run as well.
Proof that Sandy skied in Madison in front of the State Capital
She’s done!
Everyone had a good time and Sandy & 7 were content to have that be their final time out on the water. I, on the other, still want more!
I will admit to the fact that is officially dry suit weather now.
You can download full quality versions of these pictures and more in my web album.
It is always interesting when I see people from all over visit my blog… like today, someone from Tokyo, Japan spent several minuts reading my post about the Show Ski National Results. I’m pretty sure I don’t know anyone in Tokyo. I’ve also had a reader (or readers) from Everett, Washington keep coming back.
Now if some of these random people would drop a note by commenting and say hi, it would be really great. Did I help them out, convince them to go see (or stay away) from a movie, or just give them a fun filled fact about water skiing? Who knows?
Cory, on State Street, to a homeless person asking for money…
“Do you have a dollar?”
So last Monday, we have severe t-storms move through and highs in the 80s. Tuesday & Wednesday were decent too.
Sunday, high about 75, sunny and very nice.
Today, high in the 40s, rain in the morning, crazy windy, and snow. Yes, that’s right, snow. 9 days after a high of 85. There wasn’t any accumulation, but there was snow falling out of the sky.
Next skiing session will probably need a dry suit now. We’ll see.
I know the Bug-man YouTube’d this, but here is a cleaner copy I put up on Google…
Mad-City’s one and only Jaw Dropper featuring Paul O’Conner!!!
Waterski Magazine Online put together a short video showing the world what Footstock is. Click on the link and then look for the footstock video.
Libby, you make a brief apperance at the 2:05 mark and Dewey, you got quite a bit of air time starting about 2:25.
Looking for results? The official results can be found here.
| http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8079411349144989883&hl=en | |
| …but a classic… Matrix Ping Pong! | |
| http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=399518662556032906&hl=en | |
| For something done so very well, they messed up on Darth Vader… he’s missing his cape and I know it was included with SW Legos… | |
I caught this movie as I was killing some time. I had seen some reviews of this movie earlier in the day and some seemed to thing that this movie was going to be a serious look into the lives of people that work in superstores. I didn’t expect anything like that. I expected a fairly bad movie that I hoped would be funny. Nothing more, nothing less.
The premise of the movie is that the store has someone that has one the Employee of the Month award for the past 17 months. If he made it to 18 months, it would be a new record. The only people in the store that like this employee are the management, the customers, and his sidekick name Jorge (who is a lot like the character Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.) The store also has a slacker who basically doesn’t want management to know he exists, because if they did, they might fire him.
Well the store than receives a new transfer played by Jessica Simpson and the employee of the month and the slacker compete for her attention. The people that expect something should have been clued of by Jessica being in this movie.
The movie is pretty horrible (bad acting, weak plot, etc), but I laughed the whole way through it. Probably not going to watch it again.
It did make me wonder if things like this (reward stickers, secret hiding places amongst the pallets, and checkout speed competitions) really do take place in stores? Never having worked in a “superstore” I’ll never know.
Wait for this movie to make its way on to TV in a few months.
Mad-City Wedge 