A trip to Madison, WI

This weekend I drove northwest to Madison. I stayed with my friend Robbie for two nights along with his fellow student roommates in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for someone named Robie. I've stayed at the house a few times and on each occasion I feel very lucky to just freely roam around and observe. This is probably because the work of Frank loyd Wright is intensely studied and highly regarded by some as I learned from a public tour of his studio in Oak Park. On Friday night Robbie held a pie contest so I brought with me a sweet potato pie. The next day we went ice skating on a frozen body of water close to one of the lakes that squishes Madison into place. Skating on a frozen body of water as opposed to an ice rink groomed with a zamboni is different in the ways you may suspect. There are more aberrations than in an ice rink including narrow cracks that traverse long distances, rocks just barely poking above the surface, and rough patches. We brought with us two hockey sticks as well as a home-made puck built from duct tape, cardboard, dead batteries and salt. The puck worked surprisingly well as we had ourselves a good time passing it around. Next to the body of water was a rink where people were playing hockey. I ventured over to the rink if only to scope out whether it was worth asking to join in on the game when one player shouted over an invite. I played for about ten minutes in a 4-on-4 game making a few plays that embarassed as well as a few that surprised myself before everyone called it quits. I walked back over to the body of water and overheard a few of the players talking in Russian as I passed. Robbie and I skated for a bit longer before leaving. On the way to the car we found the parking lot littered with red bulls and "you're welcome" notes left apparently by a red bull promotional team. I grabbed a few before we drove home. Back at the house I rested on the couch sipping red bull for several hours before Robbie suggested that we go to a coffee shop. Three cans of red bull and one cup of coffee later I sat in Michealangelo's scribbling on a few sheets of borrowed paper some underlying properties of cubed numbers. I summarized what I found in a powerpoint. I'll work on a way to upload it.