On Friday I made my only trip to Summerfest. During lunch I went down to the grounds and got a wristband to see Steely Dan at the Marcus. I bought a ticket for J because she couldn’t make it during lunch. I headed down about six because I had to reenter the grounds by seven to use my reentry wristband. I picked up some Thai and sat down to eat. While I was people watching I people watched Luedke of all people. He and Anna were heading over to the Miller stage to check out an act. So I tagged along with them while I was waiting for J. We watched some no name rock group. J finally showed up and we headed to Steely Dan. They’re actually one of my favorite groups and they sounded great. They’re pretty mellow and Michael McDonald opened up for them so it was an older relaxed crowd. J and I stayed for about half the show and then watched the final couple songs of the jam band the Big Wu. We stayed to the end and got home a little after midnight.

We headed to crew game on Saturday. It was just J and I. My brother had hooked us up with some Brewers v. Cubs tickets. We tailgated and didn’t enjoy the parking lot as much as we usually do due to the Chub fans. L, Hand and their sig others met up with us in the parking lot. We headed into the game and it sucked. I’m done with games when the Cubs come to town. The fans are obnoxious and I do nothing but get irate around them and their ignorance of baseball. After a Crew loss we headed to Rascal’s up on North. Hand’s gfriend worked there so we had the hookup. We stayed there almost all night. J went home a little early so I was solo with the group. I left about 1:30. It’s a long walk from North Ave. so I stopped at the Nomad for a beer to break up the walk. There was nobody there but the bartender so I talked to him for a couple minutes. After that I finished the walk home, safe and sound.

July already, and that means Kondofest. We headed to Kondo’s house at about one ready to party it up. There animals were already there getting the party started. As always the party was a fun. Not too much extreme craziness to talk about, just a fun time. The weather was great. I manned one of the grills and cooked many fine meat selections to perfection. We spent all day at Kondofest and then about seven we headed to a new wingery & bar by Kondo’s called W.O.W. We got sidetracked and had a drink at Patty’s on the way but once we arrived a bunch of the Kondofest patrons were at W.O.W. We ate some wings and played some Golden Tee. We split from the group after that. J, her sister and I started barhopping in the direction of home. We stopped at the Nomad and County Claire and topped the night off with some Myk’s.

We celebrated our country’s independence by watching the Brew crew. We picked up Adam and Stacey and headed to the ballpark to do some tailgating. The weather was great and we got a good amount of tailgating in. The game didn’t disappoint. Everyone received a racing hotdog bobbledog. The Crew pulled out the victory so it was a successful day at the park. After the game we went to Points East pub a couple blocks from our place. We spent the rest of the day in the newly remodeled bar playing bar games and watching some World Cup. A great July 4th but it made for a rough July 5th.

I was itching for some Ale House happy hour so I tried to recruit some people for some after work fun. The only person I was able to recruit was my wife. No better person to go to the Ale House with than J so we hit up the happy hour. We sat there for a couple hours and then headed home to change. A bunch of people were heading to the Metro for a birthday party so we joined them briefly. The were just getting ready to move to a different bar when we arrived but it was a place that J and I didn’t feel like going so we slipped out. We went to My Office for a little while, then to Myk and home.

Saturday I was all gung-ho to have dinner and then go out. J and I went to Elsa’s to get some gourmet burgers. I had a Mexican style piece of heaven and J had a huge marinated pork salad. After dinner we went home and as soon as I hit the couch I withered and had no desire to go out. We spend the rest of the night watching episodes of Lost and enjoying the weekend.

This weekend was Jocelyn’s high school class reunion, Peoria Steamboat Days and her grandparents’ last month in Peoria before their permanent move to Arizona. Jocelyn bought a new/used Lincoln LS earlier in the week so we cruised to Peoria Friday afternoon in style. It was a hot and even hotter by the time we got to Peoria. Once in Peoria we checked into the hotel and got ready for the reunion. The festivities were held at an artsy bar type place down by the riverfront. The first part of the reunion was spent watching a jazz band with the general public. After the band finished it was just Jocelyn’s class. They had a bunch of munchies and some sandwiches. There was plenty of beer in the coolers and I mingled with Jocelyn and met the old mates. It was a lot of fun. Around ten the hall shut down we went to this arcade bar type place. We continued the fun there and at about midnight we headed back to the hotel so J could get some sleep for the morning Steamboat run.

J got up super early to run the Steamboat race in the heat. I was unable to get up and support her so I slept in. Once she got back I woke up and walked to McD’s to get some breakfast. I got back and showered up before we went to J’s grandparents’ on her dad’s side house. We spent the afternoon there looking at wedding pictures and eating Italian from a local eatery. Late in the afternoon we got ready at the hotel and headed to the other grandparents’ house. We met everyone there and headed to the country club and had a last family meal with the grandparents’ in Peoria. The family went to J’s uncle’s house and we spent a majority of the night there. I was planning on hitting the Peoria saloons but J was too tired so Arianne and I hit the town. The bar we went to had an amazing beer selection and I partook in many fine suds. Arianne and I played some shuffle puck and we ran into some of the people from the reunion. We talked to them the rest of the night and then headed back.

Sunday we drove home to Milwaukee. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and eat. Also filling up was the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, what a sweet job that would be. Once back in Mil-town we went to the Brewer game to get our bobblehead and headed home.

We had a big Saturday. My first visit to Alpine Valley in two years (to see Jimmy Buffett. This was added after the initial posting becuase Will brought it to my attention that I really just talked about food the whole time and never mentioned Jimmy. Am I addicted to food? I thought music was one of my passions but I guess food eating food trumps it). We headed to Alpine around one in the afternoon and met J’s former boss Gina, her husband Bob and some of their friends in Mukwonago. From there we followed them to Alpine and set up shop. We had a huge carport tent and tons of food and drink for the day. Nothing beats tailgating and the people watching in the parking lot of Alpine. We spent the afternoon wandering the lot people watching and partying at our own camp. I made some teriyaki shrimp and picked at numerous salads that had been laid out. Right before we went in I met up with Silly Billy and we headed into the show with him and Stephanie. We lost them somewhere so J and I watched the show from the railings by the pavilion. The show was awesome as usual and flew by. After the show we headed to the car and grilled up a late night snack. J drove us home and we arrived safely but completely exhausted from the fun of the day.

Sunday we headed out to J’s old employer, the Sports Dock, for a going away party for one of the long time regulars. Gina was working and Bob was also there so we talked about the craziness of the previous night. We had some great BBQ pork sandwiches that they were serving. Once filled up I smoked a cigar with Bob and we all made fun of the locals. After my last puff on the cigar we headed home to relax for the little bit of weekend we had left.