Pickled Easter Egg Hunt

This weekend is Easter weekend. Friday after work I watched the Badgers play NC State. The Badgers comfortably won which was a refreshing change as opposed to their normal play. I met Luedke after the game at BBC’s on North Ave. I had a beer to celebrate the big win and headed home and got some sleep.

Saturday was a lot of fun. Luedke and Anna joined me for the Riverwest Pub Crawl. The crawl consisted of 19 bars and you could consume one free beer at each bar. The crawl was $30 and more than worth it. We got our free t-shirt and map and off we went to explore the Riverwest area. Riverwest is actually kind of a sketchy part of town but there were hundreds of people on this bar crawl and there were always groups of people around. All the details of the crawl would take way too long to explain so here is a bulleted list of the highlights.

  • Ate a pickled egg
  • Met two old ladies on the crawl who were wearing plastic cups on their heads and said they were so hungover after last years crawl that their hair hurt
  • Saw memorial to some guy that got killed in front of one of the bars
  • Saw Peep art
  • Saw crazily dressed band at a couple bars
  • got buzzed in through buzzer door by the bartender/doorman at a sketchy bar
  • Purchased old records from a yard sale
  • Ran into guys from Random Lake
  • Met Spike “the mayor of Riverwest”

The whole thing was very fun and I must thank L and Anna for going along with me. I had a good time and made it to 18 of the 19 bars. Easter I just stayed at home and watched basketball. I didn’t feel like going to Chicago with J so I just stayed put. I made a good ham and will have enough ham to eat for the next couple months. Unfortunately the Badgers lost to North Carolina. They played really good but didn’t have quite enough in the end. Happy Easter!

Celebrating The Irish In Me

This was one of the rougher weekends I’ve had in a while and it started on Thursday with a little bit of St. Patty’s celebration. After work I met Luedke and we headed to Sweeney’s for some Guinness and Jameson. Neither of us were really feeling the Irish vibe in there so our visit was short lived. From there we went to my Friday lunch spot the Ardor. The Ardor has great food and it didn’t disappoint on St. Pat’s. I had a delicious corned beef, cabbage and potato dinner there. After that was done we sat around and drank some $2.50 Guinni and played some vids. We were minding out business when out of the blue Schwenker shows up. He was wasting time waiting for Brad Mohn’s and randomly stumbled into our neck of the woods. So we sat, drank and played some dice while waiting for Brad. Finally Brad showed up but I was already deep in conversation with some random guy I met sitting at the bar that had a masters degree in art. He had just moved back to Milwaukee to interview to be a professor at a couple area colleges. His specialties were pottery and glass; he was a very interesting person. I was talking to him and everyone else had decided to go to another bar but I had just gotten a fresh beer and was talking to this dude. One beer turned into a couple and I ended up spending almost the whole night at the Ardor. This guy went to Madison too so we had all the college stories to share. Finally it was time to meet up with everyone else. I had gotten a text from Luedke saying he was at My Office so I made my way over there. When I got there there was no Luedke. Not wanting to look like a fool and walk in and walk out I sat down and had a brew. I ran into another character there. A black guy who claimed he was a true to life pimp and was waiting for one of his women. I was interested so I talked to this guy for an hour or so. His woman never showed up but I had had enough of this holiday and headed home a drunken solo Irishman.

Work on Friday was pretty tough and I know now why I don’t drink during the week. I went into work a couple hours late but it was no big deal because two of my three bosses were out and I didn’t have much to do. For lunch I went back to the scene of the crime, the Ardor and talked with the owners about the craziness of the night before. After what felt like sixteen hours of work was over I went home to get ready for the night’s basketball game. Luedke, Adam, Stacey, Chappy, J and I drove to Delahunt’s joint to watch the Badgers game. It was a good time. We ate fish fries, pizza and drank some brew to cure the headache from the night before. The basketball games were great and the Bucky advanced to the next round. There were some great upsets and all the games were close and exciting. One of those upsets was UWM beating Boston College to make it to the Sweet 16. The major highlight and upset of the night was Luedke, Dave O, and I defeating the salty crew of Adam, Chappy and Todd in three straight games of pitcher quarters. I didn’t think I still had it in me but I went three for three and was instrumental in destroying the salty three. Once the games were over we headed home around eleven and called it a night.

After what felt like my first rest in a week I was able to relax Saturday during the day. Marti had picked up Emily from the airport and they stopped over for a couple hours. They’re headed to the Sonoma Valley on a vacation so we shot the breeze about that and did some catching up. They took off and the Badger game started up. Jocelyn had just gotten home and Bucky was ready to kick some butt in the next round of the tourney. Luedke ended up coming over for the game and he helped get rid of some of my duty free rum. We drank some hurricanes, in the process getting 500% of our RDA or vitamin C, and watched the Badgers advance to the Sweet 16 with a victory over Cinderella Bucknell. After the game L went with his girlie to eat and J and I watched the next basketball game. The next game ended up being a double overtime game and L and Anna came back to our place to watch the end. After the games were over we went to the hotel Metro for a couple drinks and caught up with some of our friends there. Post metro we headed to Mykano’s for a gyro and called it a night.

You Take The Good You Take The Bad

These past couple weeks haven’t had that much going on. Last weekend I didn’t go out all weekend and just lounged, rested, and worked on my new Media Center PC (which kicks butt by the way).

Saturday Jocelyn’s mom came up for a visit. She took us out to a late lunch at the Ale House. I had a couple of my favs, Sheepshead Stout, and delicious mushroom burger. The burger really hit the spot because I don’t get my weekly Friday lunch burger fix anymore due to lent. The Ale House trip is pretty much the only thing that happened last weekend.

This weekend didn’t start out so hot. The week in general was pretty crappy. My aunt Joanie died. The funeral was Friday morning so that is a downer way to start out a weekend. I was close with my aunt Joanie. My mom and I did a lot with her on the weekends when I was growing up. So Friday morning we headed to Sheboygan. The funeral was obviously sad and after the funeral we had lunch with the family and headed back to Milwaukee. I wasn’t planning on doing much that night but it was Matzek’s birthday so I headed out to Mo’s to meet up with the clan. J had stuff to do on Saturday so she stayed home. I went out at ten which seemed like two days later in this long day. I stayed at Mo’s and then went to My Office with the newly engaged Adam and Stacey. We closed that place down and I went to Mykano’s for a gyro and headed home.

Saturday Jocelyn’s dad came into town and we went to Joey Buona’s to over eat. If you plan on doing anything Saturday night, do not eat here. Whenever I eat here it puts me into satisfied, deep sleep mode and I just lay. So I laid the rest of the night and did nothing but watch a movie. Sunday J’s dad came over to watch his beloved Illini lose to the Buckeyes to ruin their undefeated season. After that we went to brunch with Jocelyn’s dad at the Pfister. After we finished eating J went to show her dad her office so I went home. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go for a run. The lakefront was packed with people enjoying the rare 50 degree weather. It turns out Mother Nature was just teasing us because this week has been cold and snowy.

A very big positive event is going to happen this Friday. After years of struggling to get my credit cards paid off this week will be the week. This week’s check will officially put me credit card debt free. I will have paid off Spring Break ’98, ’00, and ’01 as well as countless other frivolous items I purchased when I was given the financial power of plastic. What a joy this is and a word to the kiddies getting credit cards now. Don’t get them! And if you do make sure the limit is somewhere around $300. I’m also off to AZ this weekend so I should have some good stories for you next week.

When Guinness Calls, I Must Answer

On Friday I played it cool most of the night but I actually did leave the apartment for the first Friday in a long time. It was the great Guinness toast and since I live three blocks from two great Irish pubs I called Luedke and met him at County Claire. Jocelyn had to wake up early so I went solo. I met Luedke and his girlfriend Anna at about ten thirty. We had a couple pints of the dark beverage and participated in the worldwide toast. I headed home about twelve and called it a night.

Saturday I played the role of bum and lounged around all day. I had to get rested up because I knew that that night I was going to need lots of energy for cutting rug. We were going to go to a party but we decided to skip it and hooked up with Craig, Jackie and Feyer for a night of Three action. We did the usual route to Three via Taylor’s. It was really getting nasty and cold outside but it was on fire inside, WHOOPTY WOO! We stayed there all night and grooved to the jams of Milwaukee’s premiere DJ Jonn Hawley. At about 1:30 we left and went to out other new weekend routine Real Chili. We inhaled a couple bowls of the good stuff and headed home. It was really nasty outside and J and I saw a car rear end another car at a stoplight because of the icy roads. I’m sure there was booze involved but it was too cold to stick around and see the outcome so we hoofed it home and hit the hay.

How Can A Brewery Be Tapped?

As typical weekends have been going I stayed in on Friday and did nothing. Saturday we had quite the full day though. Adam came over at noon to watch the Badgers fall again to Illinois. Luedke had made his way over at halftime to add another voice yelling at the TV. After the game was over we went to the Lakefront Brewery to take advantage of the four beers for five bucks deal. It’s actually called the brewery tour but we usually skip that part. This is usually a great time but we were actually disappointed this time. They had to setup the upstairs for a wedding so they shuffled everyone to the downstairs taps. When we got down there everyone got one beer and the barrels kicked and they wouldn’t tap anymore. It’s a brewery for crying out loud, tap another one of the hundred kegs lying around you lazy ass. Anyway there were about fifty very upset people, us included because we had two more tokens left. So we gathered the troops and headed to Wolski’s for a couple more brews. At Wolski’s we shot some darts on the real horse hair boards with the classic metal tipped darts. J and I didn’t do so hot but it was fun anyway. After Wolski’s we went to the Hi-Hat and we were going to get some grub but we sat down and put in a drink order. Fifteen minutes later with no drinks and a waiter spilling water on Luedke’s sister we decided to leave. The group all went to some place that I didn’t want to eat at so I hit up Subway for some eats. I finished my sub way before the other group so I went to the Nomad and waited for them there. Finally the group arrived and we stayed there for a good amount of time and drank some specialty brews. Soldiers started falling left and right at about eleven but Feyer called at that time as well and said he was in town. So J and I took a cab home and changed. We met Feyer at the Metro with one of his other buddies. Feyer had to go to Have A Nice Day to meet someone else so J and I stayed at the Metro until about one and called it a night.

I for one hate Valentine’s Day but I do like going out to eat so I took J to a cozy little Italian place called Zarletti’s here in downtown. We had a great meal and our waiter was very “friendly” and really allowed us to stretch out our meal. We were there for over an hour and had a very nice sit down meal which I haven’t had in a while. I had the shrimp scampi and it was delicious. If you want a nice reasonably prices place to take a special someone I give this place a thumbs up. Next holiday up, a real holiday, St. Patrick’s Day.