of the year because I have a week of vacation coming up!

On Thursday I started my vacation even though I had Friday to work yet.  I headed to the Pub to watch the Packer game.  With 25 cent wings and $6 pitchers how could you pass that up?  I watched the first half with some random guys I met at the bar.  Then the second half Jocelyn showed up to eat.  I got 2 orders of wings that night and they were delicious. The Pack beat the Vikings and I was ready to vacationing.

The rest of the weekend we didn’t do much because Christmas was on Monday.

On Sunday we headed up by Rich’s place.  We had our gift exchange on Christmas Eve and had lunch.  We spent most of the day there celebrating the holiday.  Later that night we headed to Jimmy and Loraine’s for the pre-church festivities.  The party was in full swing this year.  Everyone seemed to make an appearance.  I had a good time listening to Tommy’s wisdom and talking with the cousins.  We went to midnight mass with the family which finished in record time this year.  The usual hour and a half mass was cut down to a mere hour this year.  After mass we wished everyone a merry Christmas and headed back to WFB.

Christmas day was nice and peaceful.  J and I exchanged gifts.  I got some cologne, some gloves and a couple tickets to a concert.   The rest of the day we lounged and waited for lunch to come around.  A couple days before we started the beef tips and I had them slowly stewing in the crock pot.  Our lunch was great, some cheeses, tips, potatoes, asparagus, rolls and an impromptu Christmas tree cake.  We used our dining room for its first sit down meal and it was a great way to break it in.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day nibbling on the leftovers and enjoying each others company.  It was a great way to spend the day and wind down the hectic holiday.   Unfortunately J had to work the next day but my vacation was officially kicking in, a big Merry Christmas to me!

On Friday I had to use my misbooked Priceline.com hotel.  Back a couple months when I had my bachelor party I somehow put the wrong date down and got a hotel for December.  Luckily it ended up being Friday so we took advantage of the hotel and spent the weekend in Chicago.  We drove down after work and checked in.  I’m glad I didn’t pay over $80 for the room because it was about 2×2. After we check in we cabbed it a place Jocelyn found called the Beer Bistro.  They had the typical bar food but also had a deal with the twelve beers of Christmas.  We sat down and asked about the deal and they were out of a bunch of the Christmas beers.  That didn’t deter me though so I started my way through as many of the twelve days as I could.  We weren’t really planning on spending all night here but we ended up talking and eating some burgers and the next thing we knew I had drank all the beers they had available.  I asked the waitress for some substitutions and she didn’t know.  The actual owner came over and talked to us and he obliged us by giving us a shirt and talking to us for a bit.  We took our hundred dollar t-shirt and headed back to the hotel a bit before two.  We ran unexpectedly late.

Saturday we drove to J’s mom’s place.  We lounged around all day and watched some TV and exchanged presents.  I got a very nice suitcase that I desperately needed and a nice shirt and tie.  Then that night we headed back to the city to go out for Arianne’s birthday.  We went with her and a couple of her friends to a sushi place.  It was one of those trendy sushi restaurants.  I really wasn’t all that impressed with the sushi but they did have a great lava rock appetizer.  They bring out a very hot rock and some thinly sliced beef.  You then cook the beef on the rock.  It was fun and the best thing I had.  The craziest part of the whole restaurant experience is that we ran into my cousin Craig.  Jocelyn spotted him and he spotted Jocelyn.  So he can over and chatted a bit.  Talk about crazy.  After dinner we headed back to the burbs.  They had just had a new bar put in their basement and we needed to break it in.  We sat there the rest of the night talking and drinking wine.  If I ever get a bar in my house it could be trouble.  There bar is very very nice but I’m afraid if I ever had it I’d never leave.

Sunday we had a nice lunch.  We ate up, gave our holiday wishes and headed home.  One week of work left then vacation!!!

It had been a while since we had a fish fry and since we hadn’t tried the Lakefront’s yet we thought we would try the Palm Garden’s. We went to Lakefront right when they opened and when we walked in the door I saw a high school friend works there. So J and I had a couple beers at the bar and while there we talked ourselves into taking the Friday night brewery tour. We went through the normal tour for the hundredth time but at the end this one had a special feature. Since it was Christmas they had one of the employees dressed up as Santa and you could get your picture in Bernie’s chalet. For five bucks we did it. We took three pictures and the all came out blurry, oh well, we know what we looked like. For one or the pictures I pulled off Santa’s beard, very funny. After the tour we sat down to the fish fry. I got the sampler which had shrimp, bluegill and perch. It was very very good. After dinner we danced a polka to the live polka band and headed home for the night.

Saturday we just laid low and relaxed.

We had a doozy of a snowstorm on Friday.  It’s been a while since we had a “shutdown the city” snowstorm. The snow started Thursday night and we already had about four inches when we woke up.  My work being moronic made everyone show up.  Almost the entire city shut down during the day including the mall and all local restaurants.  We needed someplace to eat lunch so after some calls we found what seemed to be the only place open in Milwaukee, Maharaja on Farwell.  Our workgroup braved the roads and weather to go eat there.  My fearless co-worker Roman drove and we made it there and back without incident though I must said a couple prayers on the drive.  It was a nasty storm that kept up until about one and then started clearing up.  When all was said and done we got 8-10 inches.  After work I did my first sidewalk shoveling I’ve ever had to do to our house.  I prepared by getting a shovel at the Home Depot the night before so I was armed and ready.  After a minor heart attacked from the snow shoveling exertion we hunkered down for the night and considered ourselves snowed in and watched some movies.

I had to get up early Saturday to brave the cold and snow to take a certification test that my work offers.  It was a three hour multiple choice jobby.  I took the test without studying but since it was open book I think I did well enough to at least not embarrass myself.  After the test was over I was going to hit the couch for the day but while I was taking the test Jocelyn managed to get the LS stuck in the snow and buried in the driveway.  There was no way it was getting pushed out so we had to run to H-depot to get some pulling straps.  After completely shoveling out the driveway and hooking up the straps I was able to pull the car out.  Back to the garage with that car, it’s not at all made for winter.  The rest of the day was spent watching college football.  When night rolled around we headed to the Pub for a burger and beer.  We were home early, watched a movie and hit the hay.