Infinity

I admit, this is a really weird photo. Sometimes the symmetry of an image catches my eye in a way that makes me want to snap a shot of it, though, and this was one of those images loaded with symmetry.

No, nobody else was in the room at the time.

Looking Up

An abstract fabric sculpture hanging in the entrance to the Monona Terrace.

Monona's Sylvan Shores

I took a walk this morning to see if I could find out who was playing their stereo loud enough to wake me at six-thirty. I ended up on the shore of Lake Monona at Frostwoods Park, where the sun was just beginning to shine down on this idyllic early-morning scene. This is what they pay the big bucks to wake up to.

All the noise, by the way, was coming from the Monona Terrace, where the Iron Man was getting underway. From the opposite shore of the lake I could just make out a couple thousand people teeming across the terrace. The near-calm on the lake must have been perfect for carrying the sound all the way to Monona, five miles away, where I could clearly hear the announcer and the background music.

The Vein in Dane

Some kind of creeper &mdash I'll have to check it again after it's leafed out to see if I can figure out what kind — has been encouraged to climb the spiral ramp to the parking lot at the Monona Terrace. With all its leaves temporarily shed, it looks like nothing so much as a network of veins or nerves stretching across the bare concrete. And made the foundations of the Terrace look creepily alive.