Showing Bucky My Love, In Person

Can you believe it, this week is my first Badger game of the year. We have been so busy with weddings and other events that we haven’t had the chance to make it to Madison this year. This weekend the Badgers played Purdue for their homecoming match-up. Luedke being the great friend that he is hooked me up with a ticket. We left Milwaukee early in the morning on Saturday and made it to Madison before ten. The weather on the way was pretty crappy. It rained for a majority of the drive but once we got into Mad-town the rain stopped and then it was just cold and windy. We parked by the Kohl center and had a couple beers while we waited for everyone else to get into town. Todd, Steph, and Ham showed up about an hour later so we packed up the tailgate and retreated to a more hospitable climate. Is there really a better climate than Buck’s tavern on Regent? We spent the rest of the pre-game there. When it came time for the game some of the group, including Jocelyn, went to the KK while the rest of us with tickets went to the game. The game was fun and the Badgers’ D really stepped it up. They scored two defensive touchdowns in route to a Badger victory. After the game we headed to Brats to meet up with everyone else and enjoy some of the lovely State St. atmosphere. I ran into some of the Evans Scholars so I talked to them a bit. The rest of the night was spent bouncing around from Mondays to the Pub, to Mondays to the Pub. At the end of the night Jocelyn got a call from her cousin Ethan. We went up to Bullfeathers to meet him and a couple of his buddies. Once there we ordered a drink but the day officially caught up with me and I wanted to call it a night. We finished our drink and then headed to Ian’s to get some pizza. After our late night munchies we cabbed it back to the hotel and concluded our homecoming weekend.

Partying Like It’s 1999

This weekend I felt a young spry 26 again so instead of staying in like I normally do on a Friday night, J and I actually left the apartment for a change. Chappy was having people over by him so we decided to venture the block. Adam and Stacey were there along with a couple of their friends. The night was a lot of fun but we really didn’t do anything “crazy”. We sat around most of the night just telling stories and acting crude. There was a little dice shaking by the others but I avoid those games at all cost. We were planning on going out to the bars but we were having so much fun that the time melted away. I remember seeing ten o’clock and the next thing I knew it was 3:30. Club Jim shut down and walked out with everyone. They were on there way to Mykano’s but I had pizza oven quesadilla on my mind so I skipped out. I had a bunch of fun, a cheap night, and was able to stay up late just like the days of old.

Saturday was another football game. I called up the troops from the night before to see if they were up for some festivities at Apt. 54. They were all surprisingly up for it so I had a gathering for the Badger v. Minnesota game. Todd, Steph, Adam, Stacey and Chappy all came over. The ending to the Badger game was pretty amazing. They got their butts kicked all game but somehow stayed with the Gophers. Then during a punt with thirty seconds left the Badgers blocked it and recovered the kick in the end zone. It shocked the Badger fans as much as it did the Gophers fans. Craziness ensured in Apt. 54 and we celebrated with some tequila. After that game we watched USC v Notre Dame and Michigan v. Penn State. They too were awesome games that ended on the final plays of the game. After the games we DID NOT go to Brothers, amen. Instead we all went to Joey Buona’s for some family style Italian dinning. Oh, did we eat too much! I have never felt so unbelievably stuffed in my entire life; I was drunk on food, delicious food. Everyone at the table was in the same overstuffed boat after the 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 2 pastas, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. It really is the definition of gluttony but the food is so good! I struggled to stay upright during the walk home. It felt so late when we arrived back at the apartment and it was only 10. There was no way anybody was gong to be able to go out so we all went our separate ways. I was up for about another half hour when the food coma set in and I passed out cold.

Sunday Luedke and I went to Germantown and I helped him set up his company’s new network. It’s a lot of fun doing network setup. I wish I could find a full time job doing that. No Packers this Sunday so nothing to worry about.

Badgers Lose, I Lose, Packers Win

Friday I made some jambalaya. Now that I have free time on the weekends I will start cooking more again. My jambalaya turned out good but it was hot because I accidentally added too much hot sauce. J and I watched a movie about the real school of rock out in Philly. The kids that were in this school were amazing and the twelve year old guitar player was unbelievable. Rock School was a great movie.

On Saturday we invited Adam, Stacey and Schwenker over for the Badger game. We watched the Badger defense get run over by Northwestern in a 51-48 loss. We were pretty bummed after that but we pulled it together. Ham was in town for a wedding so we went down to Water St. and met him at the Water Street Brewery for a couple beers. After that we headed over to brothers for their two for one happy hour. That was a bad mistake again! I had way too much to drink which is my fault. No more Brother’s happy hour for this guy. We were home and sleeping before midnight. Not the relaxing weekend I was hoping for.

Packers finally got a win this Sunday. They beat New Orleans 52-3. They should have banked some of those points for the rest of the season. Let’s hope they can pull it together and put some wins together.

The Marathon That Wasn’t

This weekend was low key for me. Friday we stayed in and watched a couple movies. Nothing exciting, but relaxing.

Saturday I woke up and made some waffles with my new waffle iron that I got from Amazon.com for $7. The waffles I made turned out great and making waffles is a lot easier than pancakes. I had some extras waffles left over and froze them so I can have toasted waffles later. After breakfast we watched the Badgers destroy Indiana. It was a great game and it was enjoyable to see the Badgers steamroll a team. After that Jocelyn’s dad and her sister came up from Illinois. Jocelyn and her dad were doing half of the Milwaukee marathon. We watched TV until dinner time and then but we really couldn’t determine where we wanted to go eat at night. We ended up going to Edwardo’s. My meal was pretty bad. I had some pasta with sausage and the sausage tasted rancid. It was very disappointing. After dinner we just went back to our apartment and watched some TV and Saturday Night Live and called it a night.

Sunday I had to wake up at 6:30 to take Jocelyn and her dad to Grafton where the starting line of the marathon was. It was kind of a downer taking them to the start because this was the day that I was supposed to run the marathon but my dumb hamstring prevented that. Oh well. They had a great day to do the marathon. I dropped them off and picked them up about three hours later at the halfway point. After that we went back to the apartment, got cleaned up and went to Rock Bottom for lunch. Jocelyn’s dad headed home after that and we spent the rest of the day watching the tube.

Monday after work I brewed a batch of beer. The Packers played on Monday night and lost again! 0-4, sigh.

Hoegaarden Wit Clone

Tonight I brewed a batch of beer. I’m trying to make a clone of my favorite beer, Hoegaarden Wit.

I did a couple things different than I have in the past for this batch. I am using bleach for all my sterilization instead of ‘One Step’ sanitizer.
For this batch also I made a yeast starter two days prior to get a more active yeast.

Ingredients:
1 lb flaked wheat
1 lb flaked oats
5 lbs. unhopped wheat dry malt extract
2 oz East Kent Goldings hops
1 oz Saaz hops
1 oz. lightly crushed coriander seed
1 oz. dried Curaco orange peel, shredded
Belgian witbier yeast slurry (White Labs WLP400 or Wyeast 3944)

Procedure:
Steeped flaked grains at 150F for 30 mins
Added DME, boiled
Added East Kent Goldings hops, boiled 45 min
Added Saaz hops, boil 15 min
Added coriander and orange peel, steeped 30 min
Cooled to 70F
Transferred to carboy and add enough water to make 5 gal
Pitched yeast

To be continued…