My Sausage Dreams Shattered

This weekend the Brewers were back in full swing and that means fun at the park. Friday we hit up the first Beer Pen of the year. J’s sister’s boyfriend was in town from the VI. He works for Miller in St. Thomas and was in Milwaukee for the yearly meeting. We stopped at the Milwaukee Metro market on the way to the game to pick up some brats. These brats really put a damper on my great plan for the Brewers season. I was planning on getting a sausage maker and making my own brats and sausage for the games this year. I was going to make good funky sausage like Cajun jerk and turkey. But the MM had all these sausages already and they were awesome. We grilled out before the game and I had a bell pepper and mozzarella brat as well as a spicy Hungarian brat. There are tons more to try and I plan on eating at least one of each before the all-star break. I would like to say that Chad saw a good game and the Brewers kicked butt but it was a very boring game. The Crew only got a couple hits and got their butts kicked by the Cardinals. After the game we headed home.

Saturday was Wians’ tailgate. I’ll start by saying Adam did a bang up job. He organized a tailgate for 50 people and setup the tickets, food and drink, and bus. We all met at A’s around 10 and boarded the bus. We set up everything once at the park and that is when the craziness ensued. I manned the grill and had a good number of Bloody Marys. I talked with a bunch of people about every topic under the sun. I got so caught up in the conversation that I forgot to eat any of the ten plus pounds of meat that I grilled. We then headed into the stadium. We got lucky because the weather was gorgeous and the ever unknowing weatherman said it was supposed to rain. A couple of us sat in the lower level and enjoyed the game and the radiation of the sun. The game flew by and the next thing I knew it was the seventh inning. Needing another beer I went with Ham to TGIFs to get a brew. This is where the tragic event of the day occurred. It may have fallen out of my pocket but I believe that someone stole my camera out of my pocket. I had just taken a picture with the things and I put it back in my pocket. I think when I was getting a beer the cord was probably hanging out of my pocket and someone just yanked it. Once I realized that it was gone I went into an immediate funk. I didn’t have much fun the rest of the day but it was time to go back to the bus anyway. We got back to the bus and headed back downtown. One small bit of fun I did have was I played some Metallica through the bus speakers using my iPod FM transmitter. The Metallica was a hit with the patrons of the bus and everyone got a rockin’. Once we got home I surveyed the scene and there were a bunch of messed up people. I don’t know how they did it but Adam said many of them went out that night. I wasn’t about to do this so we walked back to my place. Ham, Jessica, Todd and Steph were all staying with us. I was still in my funk and everyone wanted to go eat at Bucca’s. I didn’t feel up to it so I stayed at home, watched COPS and ate a couple ham sandwiches. I was sober as a judge at this point when I got a call from Schwenker. He was on his way downtown and wanted to go out. I told him he could chill by my place until everyone got back from Bucca’s. The big man came over and I played him in mini-shot checkers that I got from my brother. I somehow lost but my heart wasn’t in it to begin with 🙂 . Everyone finally got back from dinner and they were unbelievably drunk and everyone, but J, ended up passing out almost immediately. So Schwenker with no one to party with headed home and we watched some TV and stayed put for the night.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I finally bought something that I wanted in a long time. This weekend there was a large bike expo at the state fairgrounds. Friday after work J and I went to the grounds to get me a mountain bike. I shopped around and eventually settled on a last years model Giant. It’s a nice bike with shocks and disc brakes, just what I was looking for. This bike expo was pretty big and while we were standing in line they had a stunt bike rider doing tricks on his mountain bike. This guy was pretty nuts and he was hopping all around on his bike. He hopped on some platforms, some skinny stands, and rode up and down some extremely steep ramps. He was ok but that’ll be nothing compared to what I’ll be able to do by summer’s end.

What better way is there to break in a new bike than to get out and ride it. So I got up Saturday morning and biked to Sheboygan. J didn’t want to go on the ride this time, and I needed a way to get back, so she drove up. I left at eightish. The ride was actually easier than it was the last time. It was a bit chillier outside than I had expected and should have brought a coat but the workout kept my blood pumping and kept me warm. I stopped at the same little hardware store in Belgium for some a beef sticks and Power Aid lunch. On the ride I saw a blue bird, a cardinal, and a hawk. I thought god had sent the frogs to cover the earth again because I saw and heard thousands of frogs in the marsh areas on the sides of the bike path. The frogs were so loud I could hear them through my sound isolating headphones. Being one with nature, and getting a good sunburn was great but getting to my brother’s was once again a relief. I knocked an hour off my last ride to ‘boygan. It took me 4:45 to go the 66.1 miles. I actually had a couple things to do up der in ‘boygan. I sold my brother Randy my computer (I built a new one hence the iRau outage) so I had to drop that off and I needed my brother Rich to check J’s brakes which are need to be replaced. So I got both of those out of the way and I was also able to pick up my Christmas presents at Randy’s. The real reason I was up there was to take my mom (4/1) and dad (4/5) out for their birthdays. We went to Schwarz’s in St. Ann’s. I’ve ranted and raved about this place already so the only thing I can say is my porterhouse was delicious as usual. We ran into my cousin Bobby there who said that there is actually a better steak house down the road. I find it very unlikely that not only is there a better steak than Schwarz’s but there are two unbelievable steak joints in the middle of nowhere a couple miles apart. Either way now we’re going to have to try this place called Blank’s down the road. After dinner I took my dad back to the farm and we checked out some of the baby goats and sheep. Once we got out of the ban and smelt like crap we decided the only way to get rid of the smell was to go to the Osthelder and sit in the smoke for a bit. We weren’t even in the door and we saw Mike B and Chad Neerhoff sitting at the bar. We sat there and had a few and then we headed down to The Other Place for Marti’s dad’s surprise birthday party. We stuck around there for a bit and talked about Chad’s trip out to Napa. Then we had to leave because I got the unexpected call of a lifetime. My mom called and asked if we were at Hops Haven so meet up. I had told my mom that we would be going there and that we should meet up but I didn’t expect it to happen. So we fled the party and met my godmother Terri and my mom at the brew house. We spent the remainder of the night there and talked with Terri and my mom. It was a great time. Terri also had an unexpected encounter. It seems her daughter Sarah dates a guy whose hangout is Hops Heaven. Go figure he was there and we ran into him. The guy was a little freaked out to see Terri there but he held himself together enough not to make too much of an ass of himself. So once my mom and Terri left we wrapped up the night and headed home.

Monday was opening day and turned out to be pretty much the some old thing. I would write more but I’m getting bored so here is the truncated version. Took off work at 11. Went to parking lot to meet Booze Inn guys. Did shotguns and listened to music. Went and hung out with Falls boys. Booze Inn bus got in gladiator type fifteen on fifteen fight. Cops came, eight Harley, eight bicycle and five mounted. Went to game. Found Graham and Luedke. Watched game. Went to My Office with Luedke after. Went home and ate a pizza.

Is That a Pre- or Post-Chili Glow

Saturday was the start of our weekend this week. Adam came over to watch the basketball games and drink a couple brew ha has with us. After the games the three of us went to the Metro for a couple drinks. I actually skipped the martini special this week and drank only beer. The last time I was there was the night we drank hurricanes and I got gut rot from all the sweetness of the drinks. After that we headed over to My Office and finished up the night there.

Sunday J, Adam, Stacey and I went to the chili cook off being held at Lakefront Brewery. They had a bunch of different kinds of chili from all over the MKE area. It was $3 to get in and then a dollar for a cup of chili. I forgot my chili tastin’ spoon at home but that didn’t prevent me from eating upwards of twelve cups of chili. It was a gorgeous day so we finished up our chili eating adventure on the outdoor patio at Lakefront and soaked up some of the spring sun. It was pretty much the consensus in our group that Koppa’s had the best chili of the competition. There were many other good chilies including Philly Way, Soup Station, Soup Shack, BBC’s, and the official winner Q who made their chili with BBQ brisket and gave you a tortilla with it. We all ate way too much chili and we rolled home and basked in our chili glow. Maybe a chili glow isn’t a good way to describe what we were basking in. Either way it was fun. Since a good majority of the Jocelyn’s family went to Illinois I have to give them my condolences for Monday’s hard fought loss to North Carolina for the NCAA basketball title. You’ll get ’em next year tiger!

Mountaineering Is Not As Fun As Spelunking

This weekend actually involved some travel. Friday night we didn’t do anything because on Saturday morning we caught a flight to Tucson for Jocelyn’s grandmother’s eightieth birthday. Our flight Saturday morning was delayed an hour due to the fact that our fresh water supply on the plane had frozen. They were unable to fix the problem so our flight wasn’t able to server hot coffee or tea and there was no water in the bathroom. Before we took off we also had to stop or a fifteen minute deicing, thank heavens we were going to AZ to escape this miserable cold. We flew Frontier airlines and it was pretty sweet because each seat gets their own LCD screen with twenty-six channels of DirectTV. This was very cool and made the flight go fast. We switched planes at Denver and literally sprinted to our connecting flight and made the flight with less than thirty seconds to spare. It was amazing that something actually worked out while traveling. The second flight was smooth and we arrived at about eleven to the 85 degrees of Tucson goodness. J’s mom was there to pick us up and drive us to her grandparents’ house. We stopped at Subway on the way and also at a grocery store to pick up some delicious Fat Tire Ale (great beer which you can only seem to find in the West). From there we arrived at the house and I greeted all the relatives and inhaled my sandwich. Our plan for the day was to meet Jeff DeBruin and his lady Kelly and go to a Brewers’ spring training game. So I called J&K, who were already on their way, with the directions to where we were. They picked us up and we drove to the Rockies’ training facility. It took us a little longer to get there than we wanted but we found a place to park and went to the game. On our way in I heard a “heads up” and looked up to see a ball. The ball was bouncing in the parking lot and I ran to pick it up. This was actually turning out to be a great day. The day really was perfect. I got to see a spring game where Brewers killed the Rockies, tickets were $2, we talked to some folk from WI who were sitting in front of us, had a couple Fat Tires from the tap at the game, I got to hang with my boy Jeff, and we enjoyed the high 80 heat. We couldn’t stay the whole game and had to leave in the fifth inning to go back to the hotel to change for dinner. J&K dropped us off and headed back to Phoenix. It was great to see them and I’m very glad they came down to see us. That night we went to dinner at a Mexican place. Before dinner we had a pitcher of strawberry margaritas and some fresh table made guacamole, the best. For dinner I had a chicken and baked cheese dish. The restaurant had a mariachi band and they sang songs to the birthday girl, much fun. After dinner we went back to the grandparents’ house and had some dessert in the desert. When that wrapped up we were all pretty much shot. We tried to watch Napoleon Dynamite but I fell asleep. We woke up and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

Sunday we woke up early and got dressed for the birthday brunch. We went to the grandparents’ country club. J’s family had some professional pictures taken and I was forced to be in a few so I’m officially in the family now. I made sure to stay pretty close to the end so I can be cropped out in case of an emergency. After the pictures we had some delicious brunch and enjoyed the scenery with some mimosas and bloody marys. When the pictures were done we went back to the abode and watched Illinois beat the Badgers for the Big Ten championship. I was surrounded by Illini fans so my gloom was further enhanced but I am confident that we’ll get them in the real tourney. After the game we sat around and watched more TV and NCAA bracket selection show. Later that night we headed to the community courts and played some b-ball. It was a great four on four game with a bunch of the family and I knew I was going to pay the price the next day. After that we went back and ordered some pizza. We gobbled that up and headed back to the hotel to shower and call it a night.

Monday I woke up as expected, sore. Those atrophied basketball muscles were barking something fierce. We got everything together and checked out early. We dropped our gear off at the grandparents’ house and J, her mom, and I went to Catalina Mountain state park. We didn’t have much time but I did enjoy the hour and a half hike up the trail. We hiked to a set of pools and while we were there we ran into a guy that went to college with Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets. The guy also used to play for the Beloit Snappers. He saw our Brewers shirts so we talked with him a bit. We finished up our hike and when we headed out we ran into another Brewers fan from WI, we’re everywhere people! The mountains are very beautiful and we plan on doing the whole eight hour hike to the top next year. When that was through we relaxed the rest of the day in the sun at the house. Finally it was time to head back to reality so J’s mom who left on a different flight at the same time drove us to the airport. We hopped on our plane and made it back safely to MKE and the reality of cold.

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.