The Other Side of Summer

No posts in all the month of August. Here's what's to blame: the CountyCat book request iPod application from the Milwaukee Public Library (on which, more later), a lack of good air conditioning in the home office, AMC's Mad Men, putting and then holding one's house for sale in a dormant real estate market, trying to hit out of the tall rough at work as we prepare for a new academic year, and falling in love with Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. There's a Bob Geldof song titled "August Was A Heavy Month," which about sums it up. I don't know if it's a good song, because I find Bob Geldof a touch insufferable, but I can get behind the title.

Here's what you missed:

During the hottest and mosquito-laden weekend in July, we city folks went camping in the Bong Recreation Area. Here, Caleb shows off the tent that Kirsten got to bring the comforts of home to the untamed wilderness.

Sam and Cousin Andrew, fast friends. Andrew, his brother Alex, and Auntie Jean were here on a month-long visit from China. "Where's my boy?" Sam would ask. "I need my boy."

Snug as three bugs in a rug, with Cousin Alex.

Swim goggles were all the rage. As was deet.

We are not men. We are Devo.

Legends of sandlot baseball.

Uncle Tim shows off the world's largest and second largest collection of Type IV delayed hypersensitivity reactions to mosquito saliva-borne antigens. Wikipedia reminds us that a mosquito's "preferential victim's sweat simply smells better than others."

Sam in a Box. Accessories are sold separately.

Sam, Alex, and Andrew make a fort of the couch cushions.

Caleb, after a haircut.

This is a picture of Uncle Tim.

Dinner with the whole dang family. America, the Beautiful.

Andrew and Sam demonstrate the glory of a Wisconsin August.

The Fab Four's first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9th, 1964, drew an estimated 73 million viewers, about 40% of the population of America at that time. Teenage girls were never the same. It's such a feeling that, my love, I can't hide.

Here's a rule: If you don't see each other but once a year, it's your birthday.

Re-staged for the West Coast broadcast.

Patiently waiting for the cake to be cut.

Just desserts.

Sam, Cousin Aidan, Uncle Eric, and Caleb in the pool.

Caleb all set for his first day of 4-Year-Old Kindergarten, or -- in the parlance -- 4K.

Sam in new shoes, backpack, and fresh rain.

Their mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Reactions to the first day of school range from tenuous to elated, often within the same face.

Cousins and their dads.

Sam shows off his new Transformers backpack. Or, if you're Sam, "Tranpormers."

The boys try to comfort me in the final moments before the bell.

Off to infinity and beyond.