Ba Hum-flu-bug

Ah, Christmas vacation. My mom came to down to Milwaukee to pick me up on the 23rd. Jocelyn went to Illinois to spend the holidays with her family and since she took the car I had to get a ride. On the way home we stopped by my Aunt Linda’s to drop off an iPod I had to pick up for her. We were there for a couple hours and sampled some of the holiday food that she was making. After that I dropped my mom off and headed to Falls. I stopped by Randy before going out to drop off all the Christmas presents. I got a hold of Marti and met him and Pyrek and their significant others at The Other Place. We were there for a drink and then we headed back over to the O. I spent the rest of the night there. I ran in to Kotnik who I hadn’t seen in a while so I talk to him for the remainder of the night.

Christmas Eve day was on the couch by Rich’s. About five I was finally able to pry myself off the couch and get ready. It was the usual Christmas Eve routine this year. We headed over to my uncle Jimmy’s for a little Christmas Eve festivities. My godmother Terri gave me my usual gift of Bloody Mary mix. I used to love drinking the stuff as a kid, and I still do, so Terri makes sure I get my yearly fix. She also bought me a very nice baseball display case for the foul balls that I caught. The rack is huge though so I’m going to need to get about fifteen more balls somehow. I guess I’ll have to go to forty Brewers games this year. After watching some Christmas Story, eating some dips and meatballs it was time for midnight mass. Mass was nice as usual and it really gets you in the spirit of the holidays. After church my mom dropped me off at Rich’s and I got to bed immediately so Santa would come and visit.

I didn’t do much on Christmas day. I had Randy pick me up at about three for our family gathering. I must have been a bad boy this year because I got a lump of coal in the form of an awful Green Bay Packer team losing yet another game. After the bitter loss I washed the taste away with some Christmas wine. Dinner was very good. We had prime rib and a whole bunch of other side dishes. After that we exchanged gifts. It was the normal craziness of paper flying everywhere and toys being strewn all over the living room. After the gifts we headed home. It was pretty early, about ten, but I needed some sleep so I decided to just call it a night instead of find something to do.

The day after Christmas I had some work to do so I had to get back to Milwaukee. My mom, Randy and nephew brought me back. We stopped by Kopp’s on the way down so I added to my holiday weight gain with a burger and some ice cream. Once I arrived home I did my work so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the rest of the week. Adam and Stacey didn’t have to work the next day so they called and asked if I was up to anything. The came over and we watched the tube and had a couple beers. Jocelyn got home about nine but because she had to work she really just wanted to relax. So Adam and I got out of her hair and headed to Flannery’s. Stacey didn’t want to go so it was just the two of us. We sat there for a bit and they headed over to My Office to close out the night.

It ended up being a big mistake going out because some mongrel gave me the nasty cold bug that has been going around. I could’ve gotten it at Kopp’s or at home and it was just incubating but either way I was now sick for my week off. I planned on doing a whole bunch of stuff but Tuesday through Friday I didn’t do anything. My week off was super boring because I couldn’t do anything. I ran a couple errands to get some fresh air but for the most part I just kept my butt planted on the couch. I watched about two movies a day because daytime TV is so awful. All these channels and there is not one thing on that I would even think of watching. So, boring week off, and a wasted week off.

There’s a Tear In My Beer

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To those of you who were lucky enough to enjoy the wonderful Tiger with me you can help feel my pain. A key cog in my New York memories were created and the Blind Tiger on 10th and Hudson. I feel some sadness that I will never be able to go there again. The story below is a Tiger eulogy.

For those of you that never made it there is still hope for finding an unpretentious New York bar. My buddy Chris, the bartender mentioned in story 4, has opened another bar not far away. If you’re in New York go visit Professor Thoms and tell Chris “Ryan sent you.”

Last Call for A Tiger

by Patrick J. Sauer

Tale of the Tiger #1: Three weeks ago. One of my best friends from growing up in Billings, MT, stand-up comic Auggie Smith, moved to New York after years of occasional visits and constant prodding on my part. We go out to celebrate and hit the Blind Tiger on a Sunday night. We settle in, get a beer and Auggie says, “Oh yeah, I remember this place it smells like piss and malt vinegar.”

I was perusing my weekly “the-sky-is-falling” newspaper known as The Villager with typical skepticism of its drumbeat that the neighborhood was always better than it is today when I came across an item that gripped me in angst for a not-so-distant-past. The corrugated tin ceiling really was falling.

They’re closing my bar.

On December 27th, an unpretentious bar on the corner of Hudson and 10th known as the Blind Tiger will shut its doors, leaving the city with one less great place to knock back a few. The reasons why are as common these days as $12 cocktails, suffice to say “luxury condos” is a central theme. Downtown housing prices and hipsters being what they are, it isn’t surprising that the Tiger is closing down, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

Tale of the Tiger #2: Holiday season, 2002. My wife Kim, my buddy Leo and myself decide to get a drink on a wintry December before putting up our Christmas tree. Kim wants one of Louise the bartender’s all-world Bloody Marys spiced up wit her homemade pickles. She brings a jar and shares them with other bar denizens. It’s a brilliant combination, equal to your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter, and the pickles don’t last long. Hours later, a crooked tree with lights and ornaments all weighted to one side is erected, leading to a second tree-decorating-correction-celebration the following night.

The shuttering of the Blind Tiger means very little and a whole lot. Given the economic realities of living life in regular New York, one less tavern isn’t going to provoke the boozy masses to revolution, nor is it going to spark bittersweet pining on one of the “Great Walks of New York” shows WNET breaks out during pledge week. The Tiger doesn’t qualify for Greenwich Village pathos because it wasn’t forced out, the owners decided not to renew the lease. And it doesn’t deserve an old world elegy because no matter how lived-in and comfortable the Tiger feels, it’s not even ten years old. This isn’t even a eulogy because one of the owners told me a new location five minutes away is coming soon and it’ll be bigger, better, cleaner and minus the distinctive piss-and-malt-vinegar smell.

Time will tell if the new Blind Tiger captures the old vibe, but it’s a safe bet that the women’s bathroom won’t be so cold in winter that sitting on the toilet seat becomes a test of internal and external fortitude (so says Kim). It also probably won’t have the important life lessons on the men’s bathroom walls such as “Never, ever bruise your whiskey with rocks, drink it naked with the water on top.”

Tale of the Tiger #3: Christmas Eve, 2004. My Mother is in town and we are going to mass at St. Veronica’s Church. I get the time wrong, but instead of walking the extra block to my apartment, I suggest a pre-service beer. There’s probably ten people sitting at the bar, ringing in the holidays. Mom says, “Why is it every time I come to New York City I end up in a bar?”

Good question, Ma, but I don’t have a good answer. That’s just how it is. There’s the obvious elements of a small apartment, a huge selection of brews and friendly atmosphere where beer geeks, cops, hipsters, European tourists, regulars and one-timers could tipple in peace together, but that could be said of a lot of neighborhood bars like Kettle of Fish, the Village Tavern or Chumley’s.

I can’t explain why the Blind Tiger always felt right, except maybe on weekend nights when it was packed and getting a drink became a contact sport. The Tiger is too corner bar to be cosmopolitan and too cosmopolitan to be corner bar. It’s not quiet enough to be a hideaway, but it’s not rowdy enough to be a honkytonk. It’s too grungy to be a lounge but not sketchy enough to be a dive.

The Tiger doesn’t have a pool table, dartboards or the unctuous douchebag magnet Golden Tee. Hell, it doesn’t even have a jukebox, just a multi-CD player stacked high with the barkeep’s favorites like every American dorm room circa 1992. They have beer and cheese tastings on Wednesdays, free hot dogs on Mondays and a bagel buffet on Sundays (to go with Louise’s Bloody Marys of course) but it doesn’t have live music, poetry readings, photo exhibits on the walls, stand-up comedy, pub quizzes or karaoke to take the attention away from its main purpose. Drinking and bullshitting.

The Blind Tiger is a bar. The kind of bar where anyone could walk in anytime, belly up and discuss/argue important topics such as: is Patrick Ewing top-50 of all-time (No), the best Belgian brew (Lindemans Framboise Raspberry Lambic) or what demon Karl Rove really is (Haagenti, great President of Hell who makes men wise by instructing them on every subject). The Blind Tiger is a bar where you can bring your mother on Christmas Eve. It’s also a bar where patrons get insulted by the permanent graffiti chestnut on the men’s room wall: “You wouldn’t know a classy broad if she took a dump on your head.”

Tale of the Tiger #4: Super Bowl Sunday, 2005. After spending a couple of hours watching Sportscenter highlights, trying to figure out if my beloved Philadelphia Eagles could still figure out a way to beat the New England Patriots, I picked myself up and went to drown my sorrows and congratulate bartender Chris, a big Pats fan. I sat down and he poured me one on the house, saying that it was a close game and it could’ve gone either way or something that he didn’t really believe. He had every right to talk trash, but instead, a free beer. Too bad the saucy regular at the other end of the bar who is always wearing the highwater jeans couldn’t abide by a weary Iggles supporter. He isn’t even a Patriots fan, but he sure couldn’t stop running his mouth about how bad the Birds suck. I’m not going to miss that guy…oh, sure I am, every Cheers needs a Cliff.

If I had to sum up the Blind Tiger, it would be the 2004, first-annual chili cook-off. Kim whipped up a big batch of her famous-in-our-apartment chili and entered against a surprisingly large field of twenty-five to thirty recipes. There was a wide-range of bland chilis and a few stand-outs including one that was way too friggin’ hot from Brooklyn and another made with Kobe beef, at a cost of a lot more than the D’Agostino’s ground turkey my wife used.

Yes, we may have brought the biggest crowd for the balloting and had a couple of attractive young ladies work the room on our behalf, but there were a truly gourmet options and that $50 first prize had to be earned.

As they called out the third and second place winners, Kim turned to me, looking a bit forlorn at the outcome of her first foray into competitive cooking and said, “I’m not gonna’ win, but that’s all right.” Then they announced that the “Cincinnati” chili entrant was the winner. Kim got red in the face from both excitement and embarrassment. And her eyes welled up a bit as she claimed her prize.

And I fell in love with her…and her cinnamon-infused chili…and the Blind Tiger, a simple local watering hole…all that much more.

Tale of the Tiger #5: This Tuesday, I’m coming back early from the holiday weekend for a final toast a fine bar. You should come on in and do the same. Raise your glasses to the Blind Tiger. And remember, if whiskey’s your drink; don’t bruise it with rocks, just a bit of water on top.

Slainte!

The story was posted on 2005-12-20

T’was The Week Before Christmas

I’m actually doing something out of the ordinary and staying up-to-date with my blog. It’s Sunday night and all of the weekend’s craziness is fresh in my head so no detail will be left out.

This may be up to the minute but there isn’t much craziness to document this weekend. Friday I had a half day so I had a little time to get some things taken care of. I went to an optometrist to try to find some prescription Oakleys. No luck though. I need some new specs but I can’t seem to find the ones that I want anywhere. After that I headed to the Ale House for some lunch. Post cheese steak and stout beer I headed home in the blistering cold. It was so cold that my iPod literally froze and stopped working and now I can’t get the piece of junk working. Please click on the link on the left side of the page to help me get my iPod back. They’ve roped me in and now I won’t be able to live without the thing. After the Ale House and the frozen iPod I got home and took an afternoon nap. J and I went grocery shopping, she took a “sick day” as well, so we picked up some stuff for dinner. We stayed in on Friday and I cooked a nice meal. I made some homemade pasta and some delicious sauce to go with it. We stayed in and had a bottle of wine and enjoyed the radiation of our radiators, pretending it was a fireplace.

I had to wake up early again this Saturday to help out Luedke. Up at six and off to Germantown. I worked on the network and did riveting group policy setup. At noon we had had enough and we had a couple beers and watched the UW-Whitewater championship game. For the second half we went to a nice bar in G-town called Barley Pop. I had probably the closed thing to heaven on a bun that you can get. It was a steak sandwich with mozzarella cheese, bacon and ranch dressing, oh man. We watched the second half of the game, played some Golden Tee, some pool and headed back downtown after seeing Whitewater lose a close one. I took an hour nap after I got home to refresh the batteries. When I woke up I tried something new. The hair is getting a little shaggy and in need of a haircut but I thought that before I trimmed it I would try something different. I got a hair highlighting kit and put some streaks in my hair. It looks ok actually. I doubt it will be something that I do on a regular basis but for the time being I like it. After that we got ready for a holiday party that our friend Tasha was having. We headed out there with Luedke and Anna. The party was a good time. Laid back with good hors d’oeuvres and friends, very holiday. After the party we were going to go out but this dang winter freeze prevented us going out again and we all just decided to go home. This week, the week for Christmas, ho ho ho!

Fa La La La La La – La La – La La

We had a very festive weekend. On Friday we headed out to Jocelyn’s swim team Christmas party. The party was at Thunder Bay Grill out towards Brookfield. The setup was nice. There was a small menu of four different entrees that we could choose from. I had the steak and J had the pork chops which I ate one of so I can vouch for their deliciousness. There were tons of raffle prizes given out during dinner. The prizes include such wonderful prizes as salsa, small novelty gift sets and some nice swimming gear for the swimmers. After dinner a lot of the team stuck around but J and I ducked out quick to go see the Christmas train which was about ten minutes away. The train was supposed to arrive at 9:30 but it was over an hour late. Luckily there was a shelter we could stand in to keep warm. While we waited around the kids sang carols with some teacher type lady. Finally the train arrived. It was so cold and windy I didn’t get to look at the train as much as I would’ve liked to. The train was the Canadian Pacific and it had every car decorated with Christmas lights. It also had one boxcar that opened up and acted as a stage for a band. I got to hear one song but it was so cold we had to get back to the car and someplace warm. After that we headed back to the swimming party but everyone was leaving and going to play poker at a team member’s house. That really wasn’t our cup of tea so we headed home for the night.

Still in holiday mode I got a majority of my Christmas presents wrapped during the day on Saturday. At night we went to go see the Christmas Carol at the Pabst Theater. I hadn’t been to the Pabst since grade school so I was looking forward to it. If you want to get in the holiday mood or like the Christmas Carol I highly recommend seeing the play. The actors were great and did an outstanding job. It is one of those events where you walk down the street and are singing Christmas carols on the way home. After the play we headed to Nick Richard’s party, singing Christmas carols of course. He and his girlfriend had rented out their condo’s party room for her birthday. The whole crew was there. We stayed there for an hour and then headed to Flannery’s to keep the party going. After the bars closed a couple people came over to our apartment for some Rau Braus and some late night movie watching. The movie watching was briefly interrupted by a pull-up contest. I bought this new bar that mounts on the door frame and you can do pull-ups on it. I have never claimed to be strong but my pull-up ability is nonexistent. Due to the weight that I gained back after my leg injury I have some extra pounds again and trying to pull that up is impossible. Right now I can do two. Jocelyn ended up beating everyone in the contest, even the guys, with five. Nothing beat after bar fitness. We finally closed it down pretty late which made for a rough Sunday but the fun was worth it.

The Bears Still Suck

No brainer for this weeks title.

Friday was a pretty cold one. Jocelyn and I had already made the decision on Monday that we wanted to go out to eat so even though it was chilly we walked to the Pasta Tree. The Pasta Tree is a quaint restaurant that is a couple blocks from where we live. Once we got there it was fine because the fire and wine made for a warm and cozy environment. The food was fabulous and it comes highly recommended. I got the shrimp and broccoli cream sauce and J got a vegetable type pasta. It was very satisfying but that satisfaction quickly faded as we stepped outside for the cold walked home. Once back at home we cranked up the radiators and popped in Star Wars III. We sampled some of the wines that Jocelyn got and enjoyed the warmth.

I had to help out Luedke so I woke up very early on Saturday and helped him out until about one o’clock. After I got home I was pretty tired so I took a nap. J and I both needed some stuff from Wal-mart so we headed there about three. We left at the absolute worst time because as soon as we left a blizzard started. We made it to Wal-mart, picked up a little Christmas tree and made it back ok but the weather was awful. This bad streak of weather really took away my desire to leave the house so J and I got some gyros from Mykono’s and had a repeat of the night before, with a different movie of course.

Sunday I was feeling a little stir crazy so I met some of the guys at Rosie’s for the second half of the Packers v. Bears game. The Packers managed to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The sting was further compounded by the jack ass Bears fans that came out of the woodwork and were watching the game as well. I like how every single one of them was also a “life long” White Sox fan, typical FIBs. After the game I had to go meet my live in Bears fan at Borders to pick up some books/Christmas gifts. On the way home we stopped at Flannery’s for a burger to conclude the events of the weekend.