It’s a very, very, very fine house!

We finally got our piece of the pie.

We closed on our first house today! Come visit!

Jocelyn had to head to Illinois this weekend so instead of sitting on my butt I went with Luedke and one of his co-workers and wife to Ann Arbor for the Badgers v. Michigan game. Luedke picked me up at work at noon and we carpooled in his friend’s van. The drive to Michigan was long and uneventful. We got to the hotel, checked in and immediately hit the hotel bar for a couple drinks. Luedke and I played some pool while we waited for everyone to settle into their rooms. After everyone got settled and met us at the bar we hung out for a bit and continued shooting some pool. We then cabbed it downtown and had dinner at Ann Arbor Brewing. I had a burger and a brew sampler, the food and beer were both delicious but be forewarned that when they say their Cajun burger is hot they mean it. After dinner we hung out there about an hour when everyone wanted to go back to the hotel. L and I wanted to get crazy so we stayed out. We met this dude at AAB and he took us to a hard to find bar that he thought we would like. We walked for quite some time and the dude didn’t even really know how to get there. The more we walked the more I thought he was going to lead us down an alley and have his way with us. We finally found the place and I admit it was a hard place to find. It was a really cool bar in the basement of what looked like an apartment building. We stayed there for a bit but we wanted to ditch the dude who brought us so we took off. L and I walked around and found another brewery. We ordered up another round of samplers and those lasted us until bar time. After the bars closed it was impossible to get a cab so I started asking people at the stop signs for a ride for $10. One guy said he would give us a ride but he had to drop his buddy off, we gave him the old “yea right.” So we continued our search. There were drunken Badger fans everywhere so we were hooting and hollering with them. One car we saw full of Badgers went through a stop sign and proceeded to get t-boned by another car, not a fun weekend for them. The cops were there in a second so we continued on our way. We kept on walking around and then out of nowhere that guy that said he had to drop off his friend drove up to us and asked if we still needed a ride. We did, so we hopped in and he took us back to our hotel for the night.

L and I woke up super early and trekked to the gas station to pick up some beer. Of course they didn’t have beer and they said there was nothing in the immediate area. So we went back to the hotel and slept a couple more hours. After we woke up we hooked up with Erica and all her friends. We went down to their room and drank some Guinni and talked Badgers. We all hopped on the shuttle with a bag of beer in tow. We arrived at the stadium and really didn’t have a plan. We walked around and found a liquor store where we bought some beer. We then camped out on the lawn of house that was nothing but Badgers fans. It was amazing. In the heart of Michigan country, and rows of houses with Michigan parties, there was a lawn of cardinal. We squatted there for the entire pre-game and met some of the people there. We finally made it to the game. It started out good with the Badgers winning and it was close at halftime. The second half wasn’t as fun because Michigan pulled away. The Michigan fans were ignorant asses. They didn’t know a homerun from a touchdown. I got about two dozen mini footballs thrown at me during the game and at half time I almost got in a fight with an old man and his family for calling the Michigan band a high school band. His quote was, “You can insult the team all you want, but don’t mess with the band.” Someone got his tuba pooped in when he was a kid. After the game we were walking away from the stadium and all the asses when we ran into this black dude. He was a Badger fan and we got to talking. He was a nice guy from a town over. He wasn’t very big but he proceeded to tell us that he used to be a linebacker for the Badgers and now lived back in Michigan, we were skeptical. We asked where to go for some fun and he told us the main bar area was the other way from the direction we were walking. We started to turn around when he asked us if we wanted a ride. Of course we said sure and in his car we went. While we were driving he told us about Madison and how hard it was for a black athlete. The guy was very interesting to talk to and he took a shine to us. We finally got to a restaurant area and we saw another brewery so we had him drop us off there. Interesting dude but this wasn’t the last we’d see of him. We did some boozin’ at this really cool brewery that also made their own alcohol. We met some more Badgers fans and even a couple nice Michigan ones. After a couple drinks Luedke noticed he didn’t have his cell phone. It fell out of his pocket in the dude’s car. So L called it up from Anna’s phone and asked if he could return it and he said “no problem,” he’d drop it off. So about half and hour later the guy showed up. Not only did he have L’s cell phone he had his varsity pictures with him. The dude wasn’t full of it. We talked to him a little bit and then went back inside. We stayed there another hour or so before heading further downtown to get some food. We ate at a good Mexican restaurant and had some margaritas. From there we headed next door for some beers at an Irish bar. Then we met Erica and all her friends at a pool hall. We hung out there an hour or so when we decided to someone heard of this awesome bar that was “a ten minute walk away.” An hour later and getting the “ten minute walk” answer from five other people on the walk we arrived at the bar, which was closed. So we hit up a dive bar called Touchdown. There were some overly drunk Badger fans causing a ruckus in the place. All the bars had at least a 7:1 Badger fans ratio. This bar was 100% drunk Badgers. We hung out there until the club opened. We thought this was going to be the cats meow. It was overly touted and identically to Bullfeathers. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Bullfeathers, but I thought this place was going to be something different. It was a good time though. Lots of Badger fans drinking and a couple crazies playing flip cup. I was running on fumes and wanted to leave and so did the others so we headed back to the hotel. We had a couple more at the hotel bar and concluded a crazy day.

Sunday was a long drive back. I felt fine but it’s a long drive. Fall is definitely in the air!

Another week that started early. This time instead of Jazz in the Park being the culprit it was one of Rock Bottom’s Mug Club events. Rock Bottom Brewery holds tapping events every month where members of the Mug Club can go to RB and try the month’s new beer for free. J and I went to the Oktoberfest celebration. They had a polka band and waitresses in durndels. We had our fair share of free beers then went inside and had one at the bar. After that we went to Jazz in the Park but didn’t stay. We decided to go to My Office “for one”. We ran into some interesting Irishmen and spent a couple hours talking to them. They were both unbelievably drunk. The one was almost unconscious but then the semi coherent one wanted to sing some Irish ballads. So the bartender turned down the jukebox and the guy snapped out of his coma and blasted forth this voice and song that brought chills to my body. They sang this great song and then the guy fell back into his coma. We would’ve loved to stay longer but we had to leave so we could get up for work the next day.

We didn’t do anything on Friday. We watched a movie and build a home theater PC for my cousin Steve.

On Saturday we headed to Chicago. I had to drop off Steve’s computer. Steve wasn’t there when we arrived and I forgot a power cord so I ran to Best Buy to get the part. On the way back I stopped at The Weiner Circle for a top notch Chicago dog. Steve was back when we returned. I gave him his computer and helped him set it up. J and I had brought our bikes along and joined Steve and his girlfriend for a bike ride down the lakefront. We started in Lincoln Park and biked past Navy Pier to Soldier Field. We had to get to J’s mom’s so we turned around and went back while Steve continued on. When we got back we broke down our bikes and headed to the Chicago burbs. It was only about a half hour drive. The rest of the night was pretty low key. We got some delicious Chicago style deep dish pizza for dinner and I ate way too much. It was an exhausting day and I was sleeping by 11.

We stuck around all of Sunday as well. I spent the day watching football and losing in pool to Chad. For dinner Craig cooked up his special filets and we had a great dinner and some wine. We shot a little pool after dinner and then we headed back to MKE. We made it back at about 10. A long weekend but very fun.

We packed an entire weekend into one Saturday this weekend. J’s old boss Gina and her husband Bob invited us to come along with them to the Badger game. We met them out at the Sports Dock at and took the LS to Madison. We went to Margaritaville on the West side and got some lunch before hitting downtown. We got downtown about two hours before game time. We went to Buck’s for a drink because that is my favorite place for Badger pre-game fun. After that we went to the Stadium bar and spent the rest of the pre-game there too. We actually spent almost the entire game at the bar too. We never made it into the game. After the third quarter we headed back to Buck’s. We met Luedke and some others there. We watched the end of some other games that were on and then headed back to MKE. Bob stopped drinking a while ago so he was our dd. We made it back to the Sports Dock safe and sound. We had “one drink” at the SD so we ended up staying there for about two hours. After that we met Luedke and the rest of the clan at Rascal’s. Schwenker came out of hiding so it was a special night. We didn’t stay at Rascal’s long. J went home and Schwenker and I broke off from the group. We drank our way back to our apartment. We went to the Nomad and another new bar that just opened up down the street from us. We made the traditional Myk stop to end the action packed day.

This weekend started unexpectedly early. Thursday J and decided to go to Jazz in the Park and out of nowhere I see my high school buddy Justin Gigstad walking around. Apparently he comes down from Falls fairly often to check out the concert. So J and I hung out with G and drank some wine. J went home but since G didn’t have to work and there was a holiday weekend coming up I decided to show him some of the Milwaukee haunts. We went to the Lodge for pitcher and a pizza. Then went to the new Brew City and our final stops were My Office and Myk’s. It was a great time but an unexpected night out.

Friday after work we headed up to Sheboygan for the county fair. J and I stopped at the O and waited for G to show up so we could return his hat that was left by my place the night before. After he showed up we gave him his hat and headed to the farm to pick up my moving boxes for our upcoming move. I said hello to Randy, my nephew and my dad. We chatted a bit and then I headed to Rich’s new house in Plymouth. We headed to the fair to get some Hot Wisconsin cheese, watch some tractor pulls and drink some Leine’s. The fair was the same ol’ fair but I had a lot of fun. I ran into to some of my high school chums so we talked stupid for a bit and reminisced about the days when we used to harass the carnies. After the fair we went to Antonio’s for a night cap. When we got home we had a shot of moonshine and went to bed.

We got to bed at a decent time on Friday so we were up pretty early on Saturday. Rich was roofing his garage. We stopped at a discount home supplies store and from there J and I embarked on the longest drive from Sheboygan to Milwaukee ever. We started by driving around looking for someplace to eat. We wanted pizza but all the places we wanted to go to were closed. We ended up going to Ella’s Deli in the beautiful torn up downtown Sheboygan Falls. I forgot how good the subs from Ella’s were. From there we stopped by Terri Andre State park. It has been ages since I’ve been there and once again I forgot how nice one of the gems of Sheboygan was. The water was so blue for Lake Michigan and the wind swept beach and dunes were gorgeous. J and I walked down the beach to the shelter house and looked at some of the teaching displays. Once we were done at the beach we headed to MKE. We got sidetracked on the way again and tried to stop at the Cedarburg winery. The winery wasn’t what I expected though because it is right in the downtown. I was expecting a big ranch type place in the country with a big barn, not a store in the downtown. We missed it when we were trying to drive there and drove right by it. When we asked directions and heard what the winery actually was we were disappointed and just drove back to MKE. When we arrived at home we had already had a complete so we took a nap. We woke up to embark on the next phase of the day. The Badgers were playing so J and I went to Brother’s happy hour to watch the game. We drank some beers and got some appetizers while watching Bucky win. J’s cousin Ethan and his friends met us at the bar and we bounced around Milwaukee all night drinking and playing darts. Ethan and his friends are crazy and tons of fun. After some Myk’s we hit the hay.

Sunday was another weekend day because of Labor Day. We started the day with a tailgate and a Brewer game. We had the normal clan. Me, Chappy, Adam and our significant others. We grilled what will probably be the last gourmet brats of the year and drank some brews. I wasn’t that gung-ho to go to the game because the Crew were in the throws of a nine game losing streak. Once we made it into the game we camped out inside Friday’s. There was nobody at the game, especially for a holiday weekend game but who can blame them for not coming. Well those that didn’t come didn’t miss anything because the Brewers lost their 10th. From the game we went to the Harp and hung out in the sun on their deck. Luedke and Anna joined us and the craziness increased. After the Harp we went to Brew City for more drinks and some appetizers. We were then going to go to Kenadee’s but it was closed so we ended up at My Office. We lost a lot of soldiers in the first hour of being at My Office. In the end it was Luedke, J and I. We continued the craziness and celebrated our labor until the wee hours. We took full advantage of our extra weekend day.