Fun With Misters

Mike, our friend Leigh and I went to Milwaukee yesterday. We went to see INXS play at Summerfest. It was hot. Not just hot. H.O.T. The temp topped out at 99 according to the Weather Channel. Add the broiling sun to that and you have the recipe for baked Kurczewski. We got there at 3:00 so that we could get good seats. We were in the fifth row. I know what you're thinking...who waits five hours to see INXS? Um, hello? Have you ever seen J.D. Fortune?

And in our defense, if you got there between noon and 4:00, admission to Summerfest was free. So we were there early and it was too dog-gone hot to walk around much. So we got to the stage and camped out. There were people who'd been there even longer than us.

Leigh was hardcore. She stuck it out at the stage the entire time. I went over to sit in a shady spot on the sidewalk for awhile once and headed to the "cool down tent" for a little bit before the show started. The cool down tent was friggin' awesome. One of the hospitals had set up a tent and had a huge industrial size air conditioner pumping cold air into it. When you got too hot, you could dip in for a cool off. They limited the number of people they let in at a time but they didn't give you a time limit. Most people were pretty considerate and if you had to wait in a line outside, it wasn't for very long. Mike took off to do a little walking around and came back with a lemonade shaved ice (and a near heat stroke). We'd brought a washcloth and frozen some large bottles of water so we swabbed him down with ice water and pretty soon he felt better. The lemonade ice didn't last long, so Mike walked down a little ways to the vendor and got another lemonade for Leigh and a strawberry for he and I. Along with the ices, he came back with a little squirt bottle mister with an attached fan. He's a genius. We kept ourselves as cool as possible with the aid of the fan and the shaved ice.

Shortly before the show was to begin, someone had brought beach balls and the crowd was entertaining themselves with them. Mike was turned and watching the bouncing beach balls when I decided to squirt him. I did this (see below) on his back and he didn't even feel it. He couldn't figure out what Leigh and I were laughing about.


But he laughed too when he saw the picture. He's such a good sport.

The concert started and (naturally) everybody had to stand on their bench. Everyone except me, that is. Nooooo way was I getting my clumsy butt up there. People were jumping and dancing on them and the benches shook and wobbled like crazy. There were four rows of people in front of us and I'm so short that even if I'd gotten up on the bench I'd have had a hard time seeing. Oh I got to see a little bit but I was definitely in an obstructed view seat. Determined that I would get to see what I had waited five hours in the sun for, my dear sweet Mike jumped up on the bench, took my digital camera and took about 80 pictures of J.D. Fortune and the band (mostly J.D. Hey...he knows why we were there. :D) for me. The picture above is one that he took.

Sometimes people take their husband/wife for granted and forget what makes them so special. Not me. I'm constantly reminded about what makes Mike special. I know some women's husbands who wouldn't drive them and their crazy friend to Milwaukee. (I love Leigh but she's a little nutty.) I know a lot of women's husbands who wouldn't suffer through five hours in the blazing sun in 100 degree weather to see a band they don't even like. I know even more women's husbands who wouldn't take pictures of another man that their wife drools over on a semi-regular basis. Mike did all of these things and he doesn't even realize that he's doing something special. He's just Mike. Take him or leave him. You could serve me up J.D. Fortune on a silver platter

and I'd still take Mike every time.