A couple of months ago, I stumbled across this meme and couldn’t stop laughing.
“I’m going to adopt this as my new catchphrase!” I told Tara.
This was long overdue. My old one – “But have you tried geoduck?” – had been around since 2011. And quite honestly, wasn’t getting much use these days. Once I actually tried geoduck, the novelty wore off. Plus, geoduck is very much a Pacific Northwest thing. Since most of you weren’t reading me then, this is a geoduck.
(It’s a clam, people. And a rather tasty one.)
But clams aren’t exactly common in Wisconsin. And Washington was two states ago. It’s the perfect time to freshen up my catchphrase, and the fact that this one mentions cheese makes it impossible to resist.
If you’re wondering why I have a catchphrase, my response would be, everybody should have a catchphrase! Why should people like Captain Picard and Joey Tribbiani and Steve Urkel and The Church Lady have all the fun? They’re not even real!
Sure enough, whenever I leave a get-together now, I’ll say, “Stay fresh, cheese bags!” It’s a great, casual way to make an exit. Sometimes I get a chuckle. And the best part of all?
There’s merchandise.
For the record, I never once found a cool shirt with But have you tried geoduck? on it. I suspect if said article of clothing included an image of a geoduck, that would raise a few eyebrows…and might even get you kicked out of your more respectable joints.
Which makes it even more of a shame I never found that coveted t-shirt.
Even though it’s been so hot and humid you start perspiring the second you walk out the door this weekend, we still walked out the door. A couple of times even.
Saturday morning, I headed to what-passes-for-downtown for a quick stroll through the farmers market (happy National Farmers Market Week, by the way!) before heading to the historic water tower for a tour.
What’s the historic water tower, you ask? Exactly what it sounds like: a water tower with a shitload of history. Built in 1901, the Fort Atkinson Water Tower is 112′ feet tall, with a base constructed of local cream brick masonry, and a tank that held 100,000 gallons of water. It was in use until 1988, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
It’s a pretty cool building – the design is fairly unique – and the first Saturday of each month during the summer it’s open for public tours. I’ve been wanting to do this ever since we moved here, and I’m so glad I finally did.
The view from the top was, as you’d expect, gorgeous. And very green. I had no idea Fort Atkinson had so many trees until I was literally tower-ing over them. Between the scenery and the mini history lesson, it was a great time.
Afterward, Tara and I drove to Jefferson for Goat Fest. We stumbled upon this annual event last year, had a great time, and decided to do it again. It’s your typical Midwest small town festival: food and beer vendors, arts and crafts tents, live music. And, well…goats. They’re pretty much Jefferson’s unofficial mascot, and the townsfolk sure do love their goats!
The goats didn’t exactly race across the bridge so much as walk kinda quickly, but I don’t really blame ’em. The heat and humidity were pretty intense. We wandered around for a while, and grabbed a seat to listen to some live music. But the band was country, and they weren’t even playing any good country music (though admittedly my definition of what constitutes good country music is extremely narrow, e.g., Johnny Cash, Chris Stapleton, Shania Twain (but not the ballads) and Waylon Jennings), so we decided to bug out and return to our beautifully air-conditioned home, where we proceeded to while the evening away with cribbage and indie rock records, which are more our speed.
Oh, and maybe Dolly Parton on a good day.
Do you have a catchphrase, and if so, what is it? If you don’t have a catchphrase, what should yours be? Would you eat geoduck?
Mark My Words 
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