This Couch Stinks (Literally and Figuratively)

Well this week was one of the worst on record. I cannot walk and had to work from home almost the entire week. I went to work on Thursday but sitting in my seat all day made my thigh swell up like a balloon. My pants were getting tight from the swelling and I started to worry a bit. The pain of sitting wasn’t too bad but the swelling kind of freaked me out so I worked from home on Friday. The pain I’m experiencing is worse than when I almost cut my fingers off. So if you must either tear your hamstring or cut your fingers off, take the fingers.

So after spending the entire week sweating on the couch I tried to go out with Craig and Feyer on Saturday. Craig and Feyer were fun but the whole experience was pretty miserable. I don’t know what I was thinking. I should’ve stayed home but I was getting stir crazy. I was only out for a couple hours but they sucked. This sucks.

Getting Faster… No Wait, I Can’t Walk

This week was pretty hectic around here. Bastille days has been going on so there has been no parking and an influx of people into our area. Thursday Jocelyn and I did the storming of the Bastille run. We walked down to the starting area and there were a bunch of people running. I wasn’t expecting to see as many people as I did. There were enough people to fill up three quarters of a city block sidewalk to sidewalk. The run was a fun run throughout downtown Milwaukee. There were no mile markers or even official times so it really was a fun run. There was one bar in the Third Ward that was acting like a water station and handing out beers. I was dying at this point and taking a beer, as funny as it would have been, would’ve have been the death of me. I knocked almost a minute off my time from my last 5k and ended up with a 21:05. I still have a little over a minute to shave off to get to my goal.

Thursday and Friday from about 3:00 until 5:00 I got to watch the Blue Angels practice for the coming weekends air show. I could watch these guys everyday all day and never get sick of them. They are absolutely amazing and a lot of crazy. I would love to explain what I saw but you really have to see them yourselves to appreciate them.

Friday after I got done watching the Blue Angels practice I had to head to Menomonee Falls with Jocelyn for the wedding rehearsal of this weekend’s wedding. We got to the church right on time and the rehearsal was the easiest I’ve ever been in. After that we went to a super nice shelter in Brookfield where Todd and Steph had a luau themed rehearsal cookout. All our friends were there and the luau was a great success. We drank some rum punch, played some softball and told college stories. We headed home after the park closed and got ready for the big day tomorrow.

We woke up bright and early ready to celebrate Todd and Steph’s big day. Jocelyn had to head out earlier than me because she had to get her hair done and all that good stuff. I caught a ride with Luedke. He also picked up Ham and Ben so we were a good looking car or tuxed up men. We went to Todd’s and got ready and ate some left over brats from the night before. Then the bus came and it was go time. We got to the church with almost no incident. The limo driver was clueless as to how to get to the church so we had to give her some direction. Pulling a Y turn in a limo bus on a country road is quite the heralding experience. We finally made it to the church just a couple minutes late. We then waited around for the girls, who were late, so we could get the show on the road. They finally arrived and it was wedding time. It was a Catholic wedding but there was no communion so the whole thing only took about 45 minutes. The wedding was very nice and easy on all the attendants. The A/C was pumping and there wasn’t a lot of standing or any kneeling. The whole thing almost went off without a hitch except for a little confusion on the holding of the rings. I wasn’t a big think and everyone got a laugh. So the wedding was over and two of our close friends are officially husband and wife. We didn’t take any pictures at the church, again nice. So we piled on the bus and started the celebration. We took the bus downtown to the Lakefront Bistro to snap some picture in the blazing sun and heat. The groomsmen were sweating up a storm but we were able to watch the Blue Angels again. They were doing their Saturday show as we were taking our pictures. We snapped some pictures by the lake, lost a couple pounds of sweat, and then hopped back on the bus to get downtown. This ride would usually take under five minutes but since the air show had just gotten out it was bumper to bumper downtown. It took us over half an hour to get downtown but we had tunes and some wine so we were good to go. Once we got to the reception at the downtown Hilton the fun kicked into high gear. We had some more drinks and ate dinner. I had the filet mignon and I might add it was delicious. The rest of the night was spent dancing away. Then, my awful luck continued. I pulled out one of my patented dance moves that I had done a million times before but this time my hamstring didn’t want to do it. I felt it tear and the pain was unbelievable. I think my hamstrings were still tight from the run on Thursday. I couldn’t walk and my night was over. I went into steaming mad depression mode because this kind of stuff has been happening to me too much lately. The fun and dancing came to an end and I hobbled to a cab and went home for the night while everyone else went out to have fun.

Sunday I was in extreme pain. I tried to leave the couch to go see the Blue Angels do their actual show. It took me fifteen minutes to go two blocks and the heat was killing me so I hobbled back to the couch where I stayed for the rest of the day. This sucks.

Study Shows Third of Studies Useless

CNN.com – Research: Third of study results don’t hold up

Wow this is a great study. It’s a study to prove that a third of all studies are useless. Great appropriation of government funds. I can do this study for you free of charge and get better results. I think a third is being very conservative and I would have to say that over half of these studies are nonsense. Oh yea, a study I just read says that you should take aspirin every day. No wait, this study says aspirin causes cancer. There are too many of these where insert item x here is good for you, no it’s bad for you. CNN.com – Research: Third of study results don’t hold up – Jul 13, 2005

Bachelor Party At A Bachelor Pad

Saturday was my friend Bill Moeller’s bachelor party. The crew went golfing up in Mequon but I have already had my allotted two rounds of golf this year. It’s an expensive sport and I don’t really like playing all that much so I skipped the golf and met everyone downtown. We met at one of Bill’s friend’s condo a couple blocks up from where I live. The guy has a very nice condo and it’s a straight up bachelor pad. The bottom floor has the kitchen and a small living room with a plasma TV in it. Then you go upstairs and its bachelor heaven. To the right you have a small bar area and to the left is a huge sectional sofa in front of a 100″+ projector TV. There was also a great sound system, a Vegas slot machine, and a stand up Ms. Pacman/Galaga video game. Then there is a fairly spacious rooftop deck with a great view of the Milwaukee skyline. We spent a couple hours there and enjoyed all the toys. We drank some beers, smoked some cigars, and ate some meat, all traditional bachelor party events. After that we headed over to a club called Mantra on North Ave. I almost wasn’t allowed in because I was wearing tennis shoes. They weren’t even real tennis shoes, they were nice brown ones. I couldn’t believe it; I hate those bouncers who need to compensate for inadequacies. What got me made is once I got into the club it was baron. There was no one there except for us. Well once I calmed down we danced and had some fun. They have authentic water hookahs at Mantra and Evraets had never had one. So we chipped in and bought some strawberry tobacco and smoked like we were in a sand hut. After Mantra we decided to go to 3. We got there and the line was immense due to the Summerfest crowd but we were with the right people. The reason we really started to going to three was because of Billy and the group of guys that we were with at the bachelor party. They went to high school with the original owners and Billy practically lived there the first year they were open. So they were able to talk us in. We drank some vodka red bulls and whoop whooped until closing time. After close the group went back to the condo as did half of the Milwaukee club scene. There was a rocking after party, something which I have not been to in ages. So around 3:30 Craig and I left. Craig wanted some sleep and didn’t want to sleep amongst the phat beats so he came back to my place. We stopped and Mykano’s and we were served the last gyros of the night. We ended up getting to bed after four but it was a lot of fun.

Well Summerfest is over. I didn’t go that much this year. I don’t know why but for some reason it just didn’t have the appeal that it had in the past. I went to see the Violent Femmes on Thursday and then this last Sunday I saw Dark Star Orchestra on the closing day. At least the coming week we should be able to find some parking spots.

Overlooked Summer Festival: Kondofest

Happy Independence Day everyone! I love the holiday weekends. This past fourth weekend was quite chill for a usual party weekend. Friday I stayed in and wound down to go into full relaxation mode for the weekend. Saturday was Kondofest. For those of you that don’t know Kondofest is a party held each year in conjunction with Summerfest. It is put on by one of my friends Mike Kondracowitz, or something like that. Any who, this year it was held at a new location because Mike now lives downtown and it’s easier to get to Summerfest than from Brookfield. This year Mike went all out. He got a permit from the city to shut down his block to through traffic and he also got a huge pig to roast up for the carnivores. The party always has a lot of people so it’s always tons of flying quarters fun. I was planning on pulling the all day party but I got a call from my brother saying he and Billie were coming down to see the Brewers. As fun as Kondofest is it isn’t often that my brother ventures to Miller Park so I decided to go to the game. Jocelyn stayed at Kondofest because she and a couple other girls were going to see Kenny Chesney at Summerfest. So I hopped into Schwenker’s Jeep and we headed off the park. We found my brother and we tailgated and enjoyed the perfect weekend weather. We headed into the game and although the Brewers lost we were able to enjoy the game. It was pretty cool after the game. Everyone stayed in the park and you were able to watch fireworks from your seat at the park. They turned all the lights off for ultimate effect. It was kind of weird seeing a full, dark, Miller Park. After the works we tailgated a bit more in the parking lot and then headed back downtown. We got a couple calls from some Kondofesters and they wanted us to meet them at the bars but I was too tired so I headed home and called it a night.

Sunday I woke up to a full house of partied out Kondofesters. We debated on going to the Brewers game but we decided to just pull the lazy day and watched it on TV and ordered pizza. That night we watched the lakefront fireworks and concluded the day.

Monday we did absolutely nothing and loved it.