My, how the tables have turned. It's true that Madison is just lovely in the summer, and it's made all the sweeter by the fact that now I'm the calm one and everybody else is freaking out. Seriously, I was at my friend's lakehouse this weekend and it was maybe about 87 degrees. Everybody's like, "Oh my god, we're going to diiiiiie, it's sooooo hot!!" and I'm like, "Mmm, nice!" Who's laughing at who NOW, Wisconsin?

I'm getting to explore more of Wisconsin, or at least the southern area of it. My friend's lakehouse is in Oconomowoc, which is pronounced Oh-CON-a-ma-wok and is extremely fun to say. In fact, so are a lot of Wisconsin place names: Menominee, Baraboo, Waukesha, Oshkosh, Sheyboygan, Lac du Flambeau (which I think means "flaming lake" and also is the not-so-Native-sounding name of a band of Chippewa). Not as creative as Pippa Passes or Monkey's Eyebrow, but not bad for a state that's not Kentucky.

I went to Milwaukee for the first time on Monday to see a Brewer's game. Incidentally, it was also the first time I've ever been to a baseball game where the home team won. The Brewers played the Giants and everybody boo-ed Barry Bonds. I adapted "Come on F(r)eel the Noise" to "Come on Feel the 'Roids," though "adapted" is pretty generous since that one line is pretty much all I came up with. (Aren't you thrilled I got that song back in your head?) It started pouring as we left the stadium, and in a show of just how much I've adapted to the Wisconsin lifestyle, I stood out in the rain with my friends and drank a beer in the parking lot.