Four! – teen Balls Lost

I stayed in on Friday and watched a couple movies and I suggest both of them. I watched “Super Size Me” as well as “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.” It’s been a long time since I was able to watch one movie and not fall asleep during the it but both of these made the night fly by. Jocelyn went up to Canada on Friday but I couldn’t go with because I had my brother’s bachelor party on Saturday. Saturday morning I packed up J’s sister’s minivan and headed to Sheboygan for some golf and drink. The day really wasn’t the most ideal of days for golfing. It was really windy and cold. Our tee time was nine o’clock and with a temp of 37 and a gusting wind I teed off right into the river. That is pretty much how the day went. I’m awful at golfing and really have no desire to get better. It was fun golfing with Rich, Craig and Billy. The golfing really took a back seat to the drinking and screwing around after the front nine. The back nine our game really degraded and finishing was very hard. I lost somewhere around a dozen balls but I did manage to get par on one hole. We were the second of five foursomes to tee off so when we were done we sat in the clubhouse and waited for everyone to finish up. While we were finishing up I set up my laptop and stereo up for some tunes. We finished the party up at the club about ten and headed to Sheboygan for some drinks at Brennan’s. We stayed at the same place all night until two. There were a couple sober drivers so they took us back to Rich’s. I thought that this would be a lot crazier and I would have some crazy stories but I guess the wild bunch is getting old. It was still fun and there is still hope for craziness at the wedding.

My Truncated Life

I’ve fallen way behind on my journal so here is a quick update to catch up. Went to Madison on Saturday for Badger game verse Central Florida. Badgers won, we boozed at Bucks. Sunday of Labor Day weekend we went to the chef’s table at the Hyatt. Luedke’s parents won a dinner where there serve you a killer meal in the kitchen of the Hyatt, we were lucky enough to be invited along. Had some good grub, received a free room, thanks a ton to Luedke. Enjoyed Labor Day and my day off. Weekend of the 11th Angie Sampson, Jamie Thomas and Erin met up with us on Brady St. Drank, danced, had fun. Weekend of 18th we had people over for the Badger game on Saturday. Had a good time. Had some refreshments and made some spaghetti for everyone. We were going to go out after but everyone was too tired to go. J and I went to My Office for one and came home and slept. This past week I had training in Chicago. I had my first company expensed trip. I also received a promotion and a raise at work. This past weekend we went to Madison for the Badger game. We all tailgated at in the Merriter Hospital packing lot. There was a bunch of us along with J’s boss and some of her friends. The game rocked. The new Camp Randall is awesome! Thanks to L for the tickets, enjoyed a Bucky bucket. Went out after, total craziness. We’re all caught up! I’ll get back on track after this one.

Get The Plate Number on that Conga Line?

Friday night we headed to Madison with Todd and Steph because we both had weddings to go to. We arrived at Graham’s on the West side about eight. We had a couple bloodies there and then did the Madison bar crawl of all our old hangouts. We got a small bite to eat at Johnny-O’s, then drank a Real Thing at the Red Shed, drank some stiffies at the hot as blazes Monday’s, cooled off at Brothers and ended up at faithful Church Key. After we finished our crawl we headed to our respective pizza joints and met up post grease for the ride home. We had our trusty CDL carrying driver Graham to take us home so we had no worries. Once we got in the car to go to Graham’s, T and Steph passed out cold. Once to Graham’s we tried to wake everyone up but Todd was straight passed out so he got to sleep in the car all night. I think he said he ended up waking up about five and actually coming in the house. Day one down.

Saturday we had our wedding. Angie Sampson got married to Nick Krey. The whole day was great. We went to the ceremony and it was very nice. We did learn later on the church was actually robbed the night before. The thieves didn’t do any damage to the main part of the church but they trashed the offices and took some computers. Someone was watching out for Angie and Nick because the thieves also left the dresses and tuxes behind. Once the ceremony was over I had a little party to go to that my buddy Tyler was throwing. I was in town and I would’ve felt bad if I didn’t pop in. So J and I went there for a drink and checked out Tyler’s pad in Verona. We had to leave after about an hour to meet up with the wedding at The Great Dane South. Once there we talked, played some Golden Tee, and a little shuffle puck. After a couple beers we all headed to the nights final destination, the Radisson on the West side. This really is the way to do a wedding. The reception and our hotel room were under the same roof. Once at the reception we did the normal wedding things. Ate a good dinner, drank some cocktails, danced and met some new people. I did have a traumatic experience at this wedding that will forever scar me. I had had a couple beers so I needed to use the lavatory. These were really nice spacious bathrooms and I happened to be the only one in there at the time so I was taking my time, enjoying the flow, when all of a sudden the door flies open and I see Jamie Thomas leading the conga line through the men’s bathroom while I’m doing my business. The surprised look on my face must’ve been priceless. I had my pants zipped up in 1/10th of a second and I was done. The only problem is I could move anywhere because I was trapped by the damn conga line. So finally the line passed me and I was able to get to the door. At this point everyone had already congaed by me once so I was a nice guy and held the door open for them, oh the humanity. The wedding went until about 12:30. After everything wound down we headed to the hotel bar where we thought everyone was going to be but apparently everyone went to bed after the wedding because we were the only ones in there. We spent the rest so the night conversing with a very funny, very openly gay bartender and listened to his stories. We also met some cool bike builder guys some South Carolina. We stayed there until bar time and then took the elevator home.

I Too Blister In The Sun

Friday after work Jocelyn and I went to the zoo to “Feast with the Beasts” and see the Violent Femmes. It was a good time. We walked around the zoo and ate items from some different restaurants. The food was ok but I was really there to see the Femmes. Their entire show was awesome and they entertained from beginning to end. The thing that made it weird was I hung out with the lead singer a couple times in New York. Gordon was a regular at The Blind Tiger in NY, as was I, so we had talked to each other a couple times. Don’t get me wrong here, we weren’t bosom buddies or anything. We were just a couple of the privileged few who got to stay after bar time and have a few extra drinks while the Tiger was being cleaned up. So most of our encounters were about 5 in the morning with a belly full of beer. The craziest was the time that Gordon, Chris and I went to see a band at The Knitting Factory. It a good time but I felt very awkward the whole night for some reason. Anyway, I got to see the Femmes at the zoo and they absolutely kicked ass. Shout out to Wertz, The Blind Tiger, and Gordon.

Saturday morning was the first step on my quest to get back in shape. J and I signed up for the 5k Sausage Race at Miller Park. We got up about 7 and made our way to the race. I did my pre-race ritual of sitting around and waiting to start. Finally at nine the race started. If all of you thought being one of those racing sausages is nothing but fun, think again. The sausages all had to run the 5k with us. They all got to start in front and it took me a mile to catch the Polish. The course was fairly easy and towards the end of the race you run into Miller Park and do a lap around the field. I finished and had way too much left in my tank. I ran it in 22 minutes. Not what I wanted but it’ll do for my first race back. Jocelyn on the other hand kicked major booty and ran the race in 25 minutes. When it was over you received a free brat or hotdog. So I ate J’s hotdog as well as my brat for breakfast. When the race was over we cruised home. The day was gorgeous and with your entry in the race you also received a ticket to that night’s game. We were going to go to the game at six but the weather was too nice so we headed the park at three. We met some nice people next to us in the lot so we talked with them and grilled up my marinated tenderloin and a can of beans, delicious. We went into the game about the third inning. The Brewers blow. We stayed and watched them lose until the seventh and then we headed home. We were going to go out but we both laid down and fell asleep. We woke up at midnight and decided we really didn’t need to go anywhere.

Sunday we actually had a good time too. Luedke’s parents invited J and I along for a boat cruise on the Milwaukee River. It was the margarita boat tour. We cruised down the river and into the marina while sipping some boat drinks and listening to the tunes. After the tour the whole clan went to Mo’s for a couple pints. When that was over we wrapped up the weekend. A thanks to the Luedke’s for taking us along!

How Would You Like Your Steak… Large Please

Friday we took off for the PGA championship festivities up in Sheboygan. I thought the traffic would be awful but we were actually able to fly right up. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for at least a month and it’s not because the golf tourney, who care about golf, it was the steak. I’ve had my fair share of steaks at my fair share of restaurants and the world’s best (and cheapest) steak is right in my back yard. Schwarz’s in St. Anna (it’s a crossroad in the middle of nowhere, seriously, nowhere) has the best steak ever. Once you find the crossroad you come upon your typical crossroads town. A church, a couple bars, and some houses. This boonies town happens to also have Schwarz’s and it is always packed so be prepared to wait at least an hour. You can’t make reservations at the place, in fact the have a sign “If you want a reservation, you’re at the wrong place.” and the whole process isn’t like your normal supper club meal. The normal crowd (this time was no exception) has farmers who just finished their daily chores to dressed up businessmen in their beamers. Now when you walk in the door, or should I say squeeze in the door, you are greeted by a large bar and some waitresses with menus. You place your order at the bar and then sit there and suck ’em down until your table is ready. I ordered the porterhouse ($22) and Jocelyn got the petite NY strip ($13). So once our order was placed we sat at the bar, watched some golf, and sucked down some of their world famous $2.90 Old Fashions. A couple drinks later and our table was ready. The whole dinner part of the experience only lasts about thirty minutes. When you get to your table they have your salad sitting out for your and a veggie platter with bread. Once you get your salads done the waitress swoops in with your steak and you’re ready to go. When my steak came even I was amazed and I’ve been there a good amount of times. My porterhouse had a little umbilical cord that was attached to another steak that was bigger than Jocelyn’s NY strip. The steak had to be somewhere in the 35 oz. range. I dug right in and it was done perfectly and tasted great as usual. Their seasoning and melt in your mouth tenderness is something no other restaurant can compare to. I polished off the steak, felt gluttonous, and loved every second of it. I paid the bill, a whopping $38 and was once again able to bask in the glow of my meat high. Once we were done we headed back to Falls. It was the same old thing except this time everyone was wearing PGA Championship clothing instead of NASCAR and Packers gear. The O and Firehouse had a band so we checked both of those out. We pretty much did the Falls bar crawl and hit up all the fine establishments as well as the new bar across from the post office. It was a good time. We headed to my brothers a little before bar time and got some sleep.

Saturday was the 1st annual Murray family picnic. I haven’t seen a lot of my cousins in a long time so this was a fun time. We rented a park and set up shop. The day was full of drinking, eating WAY too much, and every lawn sport that you can think of. I played (and dominated) bocce ball, horseshoes, wiffle ball, and threw every kind of ball and saucer you can imagine. Really not much more to say other than it was a good time with the fam. My uncle Tommy did put on quite the show when he made his tacos on the grill and told his story and how he served in the military with Elvis, funny stuff. The picnic was over at about 8:30. We were planning on going out but we couldn’t get ourselves going, we were spent. So we staying in and watched the Olympics on Saturday night.

Tuesday we went to the Brewers v. Cubs game. Jocelyn’s dad and her sister came up from Peoria for the festivities. We grilled out in the parking lot before the game. Once we were in the game I met up with my cousin Steve who also came up from Chicago for the game. Steve came up with some of his buddies from work and a couple of guys from India that he works with, it was their first game. I sat with Steve and his buddies and booed the Cubs. I got heckled at my own stadium but I didn’t care because the Brewers won! Go Brewers! Wednesday we went to the game again but this time the outcome wasn’t as good. The Crew lost in 11. The one positive about this game is that I don’t have to see the damn Cub fans taking over our stadium any more this year. GO HOME CHUBS!

Congrats to by bro Randy and his wife Becky. They had a baby girl on the 16th so now I have someone to celebrate my birthday with!