Steven Helmer Publications

This is one of the rare weekends when none of us had to work or had something else going on so I'm taking advantage of it and having some family time. Tomorrow's plan is to go to the zoo. Today, we drove up the road to Horicon, WI to watch the historic SOO 1003 steam locomotive as it passed through. You can find history about this locomotive here . We had to wait a bit longer than expected but it proved to be worth it, even if it was just for a few minutes (we could have seen it longer by going to Burnett for its coal stop, but I figured that would be too crowded). Here are some of the photos I took:

After having what has become our traditional end-of-the-week drink and then grabbing Friday fish fry, my wife decided to do some work in her sewing studio, so I found a movie to watch while having my shrimp dinner. Scary Movie was on, so I ended up watching that for what has to be at least the 20th time since my wife and I watched it on our first movie date 26 years ago. Here are some of the thoughts I had: The opening scene is one of the things that make this a classic spoof.  It's a fairly accurate re-creation of the opening scene from Scream but with plenty of comedic touches that set the tone for this film, whether it's Carmen Electra winding up in her underwear and then doing sexy poses or the Jiffy Pop on the stove. The James Van Der Beek cameo just has a sadder tone to it now. The way the Dawson's Creek star finds the "wrong window" while Cindy Campbell ( Anna Faris ) makes out with her boyfriend, Bobby (John Abrahams) is still funny but also a reminder ...

I consider myself a Green Bay Packers fan who tries to see the positive. For example, the Packers have started their season 1-2 and looked especially bad against the Atlanta Falcons in their home opener last night but I tell myself they still have 14 more games and plenty of time to turn it around. However, while I honestly do believe that; I also can't help but wonder if letting last year's starting left tackle Rasheed Walker leave in free agency was a mistake that will ultimately cost the Packers their season. I am going to be fair and say on paper at least, letting Walker hit free agency made sense at the time. While not necessarily an elite tackle, he was solid enough for just about everyone to assume he would be offered a lucrative contract the Packers, with first round pick Jordan Morgan in the wings, wouldn't be willing to match. In fact, there's no doubt in my mind they were expecting that large contract to net them a high comp pick and were probably as surprise...

Synopsis: The season finale sees Stuart ( Kevin Sussman ) and company trapped inside the comic store by the Adversary (voiced by André Sogliuzzo ). As Stuart processes the fact he may have brought about the end of the universe, Barry ( John Ross Bowie ) thinks he is going mad because he hears laughter none of the others can hear and Denise ( Lauren Lapkus ) is angry because Stuart forgot her birthday. My Thoughts:  I liked how this episode starts with answers but also a mystery. Within the first few minutes we learn, thanks to exposition from comic book fanatic Kyle (Ryan Cartwright), what the Adversary is and why it wants to stop Stuart. However, there are also a lot of other things that are left unexplained, including why Barry keeps hearing a studio audience laughing and how Denise was even able to keep track of what day it was to know it was her birthday. Speaking of Kyle , he's had several appearances on this series, but after getting much more time the past couple episodes, ...

Here are my thoughts from the Packers 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons last night: The Packers are in trouble.  I'm not just saying this because they are 1-2. I'm saying this because they are 1-2, should probably be 0-3, were blown out at home and don't seem to have any answers. Help is on the way with Micah Parsons and, theoretically, Josh Jacobs but there's a good chance their season will be unsalvageable by the time that help arrives.  Even coach Matt LaFleur looked thoroughly defeated during his press conference. This isn't all on him, but he also didn't do much to convince me he can right the ship. Shouldn't they at least attempt to run the football? OK, I get it, the offensive line hasn't done a good job blocking on run plays. And I can understand becoming one dimensional when you're down by multiple scores in the second half. However, they had just 5 running plays in the first half and 9 total in the game (one was a scramble by Jordan Love) d...

It was a decent fall day today, partly cloudy and reasonably warm, so I made sure to get out for a walk at lunch. There wasn't as much to photograph as I would have preferred (lots of birds but they like to hide in the middle of trees rather than stay someplace I can get a photo) but I did get a few, including some of a surprisingly cooperative woodchuck. Here's a selection of the photos: ______________________________________________________________________ Here are some of my previous nature photos: Lunchtime Walk Photos (8/19/2026) Lunchtime Walk Photos (8/7/2026) Some Random Nature Photos Morning Walk Photos 7/6/2017