Start spreading the news. Jocelyn surprised me for my birthday and booked a trip to New York for the weekend. I have to admit I wasn’t too excited when she first told me, which was really stupid of me, but there were a lot of things I was already planning on doing during the up coming weekend. We were going to go to the State Fair, my family reunion and another party Evraets was having. But once I started thinking about it I got really exited and felt bad for my initial reaction. So I spent my 29th weekend in NY. If I were a NY street I would be about the Chelsea. If I could only be a village steet again.

We left on Thursday after work and as our luck would have we woke up Thursday morning to terrorists being arrested in London who were planning to blow up planes with “liquids and gels”. If I never hear that phrase again in my life I’ll be happy. We were going to carry everything on but we had to check our bags with our toiletries for safety concerns. Security wasn’t bad in Milwaukee but the security in NY and some storms had all flights running late. We had a couple push delay announcements but finally after a flight transfer to a different airport, and 40 minutes sitting on the runway, we made it three hours late. We took a cab to the Upper East Side to meet Leigh Anne at George Keeley’s. Her boyfriend is a bartender there and we were staying with them for the weekend. We spent the night there drinking beers and hanging out until four. We got a ride to Brooklyn from James. The women went to bed and James and I ended up staying up until almost six talking and drinking martinis. Once I saw the sun come up I told James I had to get to sleep.

Friday we woke up about ten and headed to Jersey City to say hello to my old boss. We stopped into HCI and talked to Israel for about an hour. It was good to see him again and reminisce about some of my time in JC. We left HCI and headed down to Oddfellow’s to get some jambalaya. We got to the doors of OFs only to discover it had been shut down. What a HUGE disappointment because I was looking forward to reliving one of the many many meals we had eaten there. Instead we ended up eating at the Mexican place next door. We had some good burritos and headed to the village. We started by stopping at Chumley’s which was an old speakeasy. There was no one there but the cleaning crew and they were very nice and let us stop for a beer even though they weren’t open. We sat there and absorbed the history of the joint while watching the cleaners’ little girl run around the place. After Chumley’s we went to the White Horse for a beer. More history. After the White Horse we were going to go to the Greenwich Brewing Co. but that too was closed. Two places full of memories claimed by the city. This doesn’t take into account the closing of our beloved Blind Tiger. Since GBC was closed we continued on to our friend Chris’s bar Professor Thom’s. He met us there for a beer. After that we took the subway back to Brooklyn and got ready for dinner. We were planning on taking a nap but the train ride took longer than expected. We got ready and headed back into the city. We ate at the always amazing Blue Water Grill in Union Square. J had made reservations for the jazz room. We had a meal of seafood galore. I had a shellfish sampler and a shrimp and scallop entree. Everything was great and we were surprisingly stuffed after dinner. We headed over to Union Square and grabbed a park bench to soak in the city and do some people watching while we waited for Chris. Chris showed up and we walked to the Stoned Crow. There were a couple old Tiger guys there. We sat and had some beers but I was running on fumes at this point. Once we finished a couple at the Crow we drove to Chris’s new apartment in the heart of Little Italy. We were going to have some beers but instead we got a slice and took a cab back to Brooklyn too get some sleep.

We started pretty late on Saturday morning but we needed the sleep. We took the train to Central Park to meet J’s sister. We got to the park and it was a perfect day. We started in Columbus Circle and made our way to the fountain via Strawberry Fields. We waited for J’s sister at the stage by all the roller skaters. We waited some time but I didn’t want to wait any longer so I took off and trekked through the city and snapped some pictures of all the landmarks in the Time Square vicinity. After seeing everything again I headed to Scruffy Duffy’s to get some of their amazingly delicious chicken wings. I met J, her sister and her friend there we had a couple pints and some wings. After we finished eating we went to the financial district. We checked out Battery Park and South Street Seaport. After that we went to Marissa’s friend’s apartment. It was right in the heart of the financial district and had an amazing rooftop area. There were nice tables and chairs and amazing views. We hung out there until about nine and then left to get showered up in Brooklyn. We got ready and took the train to the village to get a couple slices at Rivoli’s and then we met Marissa and her friend at Positively 4th in the village. It was one of the places we used to frequent but this night it was packed with birthday parties. From there we went to a place called the Duplex and then ended up next door at the Packer bar Kettle of Fish. We spent the rest of the night there and then cabbed it back to Brooklyn and called it a night.

Sunday we met Marissa and her friend in Little Italy to get some pizza at America’s first pizza parlor, Lombardi’s. We’d been to Lombardi’s a bunch of times and there pizza is great. We devoured a couple pies and walked around Little Italy. After a bit of walking we went back to Brooklyn and Leigh Anne drove us LaGuardia. The flight back home was smooth and uneventful. What a great time and a great surprise! A mega thanks to J for planning an unexpected kick ass trip to NY, thanks!

I got my wisdom teeth yanked out on Thursday so I really wasn’t really in the mood to do anything. Friday after work I laid on the couch for the night.

Saturday we weren’t really sure if we were going to do anything because my teeth were still pretty tender. It was Brat Days in Sheboygan though so we made the game time decision to head up. I still had my nephew Garrett’s birthday present so I dropped that off by Randy. We stayed there for a half hour or so and got caught up on things. We were going to see the brat eating competition which we thought was at three but it turned out it was at noon and on ESPN at three so we missed that. Since we had a lot of time to burn we went to Rich’s to sneak in a nap and watch some tube. About five we headed to the park and parked before it got crazy busy at the grounds. We walked to Hops Haven and had some beers and watched the Brewer’s game. At eight we went down to the grounds to watch the Violent Femmes. They put on another great show and we stayed for the entire concert. After the show was over J and I did a Sheboygan bar crawl. We played some pool at Vreke’s, had one at 1002 and finally had one after the long walk to Water Street. It was just the two of us all night and we had a good time. We spent the night by Rich’s and drove back in the morning after a stop at the Sheboygan Taco Bell.

What a fun weekend we had this week. J and I put together a get away weekend to the Dells with Adam, Stacey, L, Anna, Chappy and Katie. We left after work on Friday night and drove up. When we got to our motel, which was the same one we stayed at last time, we checked in and got situated in our room. We then headed down to the pool and drank some drinks and enjoyed the summer weather. The second car of folks arrived about an hour after us so everyone was accounted for and having a good time. After a couple hours by the pool we got ready and hit the strip. We stopped by the always cool Riverwalk that is on the way to the strip. We saw a Doors cover band and got to take some pictures with a monster truck. After that we had a couple swigs at Nig’s and played some pool. Our final bar was the Essen Haus and the boot game. At bar time we headed back to the motel and caused some havoc in the pool. We were up until three or fourish causing trouble.

Saturday we woke up early. I can’t really say bright eyed and bushy tailed but we woke up. We headed off to Noah’s Ark for some water slides. It was kind of overcast but it was warm so the park was fun. We all hit a bunch of slides. I knew I had packed on a couple pounds but I didn’t know I was as bad as I am. I was going down Jungle Rapids and I actually got stuck! The slide has a flat portion and my momentum couldn’t carry me through it. Luckily Jocelyn, who was behind me, saw me just sitting there in the slide and didn’t go down the slide and run into me. So I scooted forward and finally got going. Oh man. After the water park we headed back to the motel and slept for a couple hours. After everyone woke up and got ready we headed to the boat ride we had booked. We took the powerboat boat tour of the river and it was so much fun. We got drenched and were laughing the entire time. It was way more fun than the ducks and well worth the cost. We weren’t expecting to get as drenched as we did so we drove back to the motel to change for dinner. We went to Moose Jaw pizza which is a great microbrew eatery. We drank at the bar while we waited for our table. By the time dinner rolled around everyone was famished. We dug into the pizzas and shared some laughs while wearing our paper moose antlers. It felt like a scene out of Lampoon’s Vacation and Marty Moose. We were obviously planning on going out again after dinner but once we got back to the motel and sat down everyone kind of crashed. We had a bunch of drinks in the motel room and hung out there the rest of the night.

Sunday on the way back L, Anna, J and I stopped at the Delafield Brewhaus on the way to the Brewer’s game. I had my third beer sampler of the weekend and a delicious Cajun burger. We then went to the Brewer’s game for the nesting dolls giveaway. It was a great weekend.

Finally a low key weekend. I did some wash on Friday night, exciting. Saturday J and I went for a bike ride around the city. Then at three we headed out to the burbs of Menominee Falls for a little get together with the Delahunts. We picked up some gourmet brats for the mean dish. We grilled out, drank some drinks, and enjoyed the summer weather. Todd and I played some horse with Steph’s friend’s boyfriend. I didn’t win but I didn’t embarrass myself either which was a relief. When the sun went down we headed inside and watched some movies. We spent the night in burbs and had a great time.

J and I went to look at a bunch of houses in the Whitefish Bay area. One was really nice and we’re going to put an offer in on it. After we finished that we headed to Trocadero for dinner. We had to wait an hour to be seated so J and I went upstairs to the Red Light from some beers while we waited. We finally sat down around nine. It was well worth the wait. We had some bruschetta and I got a burger. The burger was grilled medium-rare and topped with a blue cheese and red wine butter, very tasty. On the way home Luedke gave me a call asking if I wanted to head to Bastille Days. Since it’s only two blocks away I headed down there and had a couple beers with him. I headed home at midnight.

Saturday was a lot of fun my Cousin Steve’s girlfriend, Keri, had a surprise birthday party for him in Chicago. My brother and his wife drove down with J and me to Chi. Hamm hooked us up huge and saved us some cash by letting us stay at his place. He already had plans for the early night so we’d have to meet him later. After dropping our stuff off at Hamm’s we walked to an Irish bar for some appetizers and iced drinks to stave off the heat. After getting rid of the hunger pains we tried to find the restaurant where the party was going to be. We ended up being about two blocks away so we back tracked a bit to another bar. After a beer we headed over to the restaurant to wait for everyone to show up. It was hot outside and Emilio’s Tapas had the cure, sangria. We sat at the bar and had a couple different flavors to pass the time. Everyone started to show up and finally the birthday boy arrived. We did our surprise and a pathetic rendition of Happy Birthday and sat down for dinner. We had a bunch of different tapas and then for the main course we had a large dish of paella, good stuff. After dinner we sat at the restaurant bar for a bit and then headed to Clark Bar. It was a small bar but very much like a place I would hang out if I lived in the area. The alley between the bar and the building is where the St. Valentine’s Day massacre took place so there was a bit of history there as well. Steve and my brother showed their age and went home early. Hamm ended up meeting us at the bar so I hung out with him, J and Brett Johnson for the rest of the night. We ran it tight the rest of the night and capped it off with a hunt for some good eats. We started the walked home and passed by the world famous Weiner Circle. I was gung-ho to stop but there was WAY too many people there so we went to a burrito joint. It was a great decision because it was an unbelievably good burrito, but most are at four in the morning. After finishing our late night eats we finished the walk to Hamm’s and called it a night.

Sunday morning we thanked Hamm and drove back to Milwaukee. When we got back we went to watch the free air show on the lakefront. It was boiling hot but that didn’t prevent all the people from coming out to see the planes. We saw the Red Barons, the Golden Knights and the Thunderbirds. I’m amazed every time I see the pilots fly these planes. After the show we retreated to our apartment and sweated away the rest of the day.