Holy cow what a week this was. The Yankees came to town to play the Brewers this week and I had bought tickets to go to all three games. Monday I went with Jocelyn. The weather was nice and the roof was open for a night game which seems to be a rarity. The Brewers did great and took the first game from the Spankies, one of my least favorite teams in the world.

Tuesday I went with Luedke to the game. Since I get out of work at four and he is taking the summer off we got to the park early for some tailgating. We had a few more beers than I was expecting but it was worth it because the Brewers won again.

Wednesday is when this already crazy week went into overdrive. My friend Chris from our old hangout The Blind Tiger in NY decided to fly in for a couple games before going to see his beloved Red Sox take on the Cubs in Chicago. This was Chris’s furthest trip West in the US. The furthest he had been before this trip was Pennsylvania. He isn’t a NY city hermit refusing to leave the “friendly” confines of Manhattan Island. Many New Yorkers are like this. He lived in Austria and Europe for a bit. So I took off about noon and met Chris at my apartment. After I got changed we headed to the Milwaukee Ale House to get a bite to eat and take in the city of Milwaukee’s ambiance. We walked in and took a seat and low and low and behold Tyler was there. He was waiting for his girlfriend Angela so we had him join us. Chris also knew a group of guys from the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES). They were a group of people doing a reality TV show for the station. A group of 4 people get to follow around the Yankees to all 162 games. Chris was their tour guide when they went to Boston so he already had a rapport with them. A couple of them met us at the Ale House and we set up a tailgate for them. We headed to the park after the Ale House. We started up the tailgate and got the party rolling. These NY people don’t understand what a real tailgate is all about so I was under pressure to show them a good time. The tailgate went over well. I had plenty of beer and brats for everyone including the cast and crew of the show. It appeared that they had a good time and I was even civil to the Yankees fans. We shut down the tailgate and headed into the park. Chris knows another guy named Paul from Pewaukee. Paul was one of the nicest guys I’ve met and I’m not saying that just because he got us third row tickets behind the plate. The seats were some of the greatest seats I’ve ever had. We were able to heckle the Yankee players (Bostonian Chris especially like this) and Jocelyn almost got killed by a flying bat. One of the players let go of his bat and it came right at us. It hit J in the back but she didn’t get to keep the bat because it hit the guy behind us in the nose. Not only were we able to sit in these great seats but Paul also had access to a suite! So in the seventh inning we headed up to suite and had some free drinks and some sandwiches, what a perfect baseball game experience. The YES network people met us in the suite and we had a great time. It would have been a perfect experience but the Brewers lost. They still took 2 of 3 from the Yankees so all was not lost. After the game I showed Chris the Safehouse. We had a drink there, watched the magician bartender and headed home, some of us have to work in the morning. Thursday wasn’t quite as crazy but still fun. I met Chris for lunch at Potbelly’s. Chris was looking for a souvenir and ended up buying a pipe from the Milwaukee’s historic downtown smoke shop Uhle’s. After work we went to Jazz in the Park and had a couple bottles of wine and smoke our pipes. The weather remained gorgeous throughout the night. After JitP we went to the Lodge and got a couple pitchers of beer and a couple pizzas (Pizza and a pitcher $10 on Thursdays). After that we went to the Harp and had a beer and headed home. Chris left Friday when we went to work. It was great seeing him again. We had a great time and it was well worth the lack of sleep.

Friday after work we drove down to Peoria for the 4 mile Steamboat Classic race. We were pooped so once we arrived in Peoria we fell asleep as soon as we were horizontal. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for the race. The start was at 7:45 so it was another early morning. It was my first race of the season and also the kick off to my marathon training. There are a couple thousand people that run this race each year. There are Olympians and Boston marathon winners, it’s quite the event. I started in the eight minute mile grouping because I didn’t know what kind of pace I could sustain. I finished the four mile race in 28:31 which is about 7:09 mile pace. Not a bad start but I still have a ways to go to get to 17 minutes to compete with the three Kenyans that swept the podium. Jocelyn’s aunt and uncle did very well. Her uncle took third in his age group but her aunt showed everyone up by taking first in her group. It was a lot of fun and a good start to the summer’s race season. Aside from completing a marathon I also want to get my 5k time under 20 minutes, stay tuned. After the race we headed back to J’s dad’s apartment, watched some tube, and got caught up on this week’s lack of sleep. We headed over to J’s grandparent’s house at about two to sit with the family. At about five we went to have dinner with the family. After dinner we had dessert back at the house. The dessert and craziness of this week caught up with me. J wanted to go out but I was paralyzed and forced to call it a night. We headed back to her dad’s place and called it a night.

Sunday we woke up early again and met with J’s mom’s family and went for a hike on a really nice path. The path used to be an old train track bed so it was really the ideal surface for walking on. After the latest physical activity was complete we went to lunch with J’s dad’s family and then headed back to Milwaukee. This was quite the dyslexic weekend. I had all the partying and fun during the week and the fitness and physical exertion on the weekend. Either way the whole week turned out to be a fun one, even with the exhaustion.