Down By The River…

On Friday Jocelyn made arrangements for one of our college friends, Erin, to come over and hang out. She came over about seven. We drank some beers and listened to some music while we waited for her husband to get off of work. He showed up about ten and we hung out and played some cards. Her husband Chris is a fellow tech guy so I finally found someone to talk geek with. We made some pizzas in my new pizza oven and spent the rest of the night at our place. While we were talking we discovered that they were going to a wedding in Falls tomorrow, as were we. So before we called it a night we made plans to meet up with them tomorrow night.

We drove to Sheboygan early Saturday morning to go to Tyler Schueffner’s wedding. We had to stop in Random on the way up because I forgot by camera at Craig’s the weekend before. I picked it up and we headed off. We stopped at a couple stores to take care of some errands. The weather was perfect for an outdoor wedding, which this was. The wedding was at the Pine Lodge in Falls and was a nice small wedding. The wedding included some very cool alternatives to typical wedding parts. Instead of the unity candle Tyler and Angela took two vials of different color sand and poured them into a bottle. The sand mixing represented the coming together of two lives yet you could still see the two different colors of sand to represent the separate lives as well. They also said an Apache wedding prayer which was cool as well. After the wedding the wedding tent was cleared out and converted to the reception tent. We had the normal Falls wedding fare, chicken and tips. Of course I proceeded to eat way to much chicken because the skin is just too darn good. After the last morsels of chicken were consumed an area was cleared away for a dance floor. Tyler had gotten this really good pianist guy who was a professor in Madison and plays at a bar in his spare time. He was great and sounded a lot like Randy Newman who did the Toy Story song “You Got a Friend In Me”. I wasn’t able to do much dancing because of my hammy but I did get out on the floor to do a polka. I also caught a frog that was trying to get back to his Sheboygan River home. So I helped him get back home and had fun grossing out the ladies first. The night was really great. Tyler and Angela did a great job and I felt privileged to be one of the people to help them celebrate their wedding. I also got to hang out with a couple old high school friends Dale Karls and Sheila Tenpas. I also met Tyler’s air force buddy who was a fellow tech junkie so we had plenty to talk about throughout the night. After the wedding wound down we headed to the O. Downtown Falls was rockin’ because there were three weddings going on and they all converged downtown. All my high school buds were there, of course, so we took a minute out of the night and got caught up on what we’ve been up to these last couple months. Erin, her husband and Angie Sampson and her husband all came to Big Jimmy’s to rock the root beer shots. We spend the rest of the night with them doing the Falls pinball between Jimmy’s and the O. When the night ended we all piled into the Montero and went back to Sheboygan. We dropped them off at Blue Harbor and then headed to Rich’s. Rich was out of town and hid his key someplace that we couldn’t find it so we ended up having to get a ladder and break in through the window. We got in and got some sleep.

Sunday we met up with Erin, Angie and the rest and went out for lunch at the Horse and Plow. I had a reuben and a world famous H&P Bloody Mary. After that we went out to Tyler’s gift opening and picked up his air force buddy to take him back to the airport. We dropped him off at Mitchell and headed home.

Concerts Are Better When They’re “Closer To Free”

This Saturday we went to a cookout at Craig and Jackie’s for Olivia’s birthday. We arrived about six. It was your normal cookout with beers and brats and had plenty of both. After we ate we got out the bocce ball set and I proceeded to mop up the yard with anyone who wanted to test my bocce skills. After my victorious bocce session we sat around the bonfire. One of my favorite things is an outdoor bonfire with some friends and some suds. Jocelyn and I ended up being the last ones around the fire with Craig. We decided around 2 that it we should wrap things up so we headed back to MKE.

Wednesday the Bodeans were holding a free concert on the roof of the Pabst to celebrate the launch of their new CD. A lot of people showed up, as you would expect for a free concert. I was able to get a great view from the alley by the Safe House. They only played an hour but seeing the Bodeans is always a treat, especially when they’re free.

Family and Food

This weekend we had the annual Murray family picnic. This annual picnic is only in its second year but is a must attend event due to the copious amounts of food. Jocelyn and I headed up to Sheboygan Saturday morning. We got to the park and immediately started digging into the vast variety of food. As usual there was a ton of food to sample, all delicious. The entire day was spent eating, drinking, listening to aunt and uncle stories, and playing yard games. We had a good time and when our stomachs were about to bust we headed back to MKE. We met up with the clan and headed to Rosie’s to celebrate my birthday as well as Delahunt’s. The shots were flying and I had more than my fair share. We headed to My Office for a night cap and some gyros to complete the night.

Baseball and Beats

The leg is getting better but I still have a long way to go. The bruising is absolutely disgusting. I have a bruise from my butt to my knee covering the rear 180 degrees of my leg. I can at least walk in a quazi normal fashion. But the leg wasn’t going to keep me from going to the Brewers game. The D’backs were in town so I got tickets from Craig for all three games. On Monday Jocelyn and I went early and I got to see my first batting practice. We talked to Craig for a bit before the game and got caught up on everything and I told him my back to back foul balls story. The game was a victory for the Brewers.

Tuesday’s game was a normal Brewers experience. Jocelyn and I tailgated pre-game and then watched the Brewers win. It was actually the best of the three games because the Brewers won and Craig got three hits, perfect.

Wednesday was a day game and I decided to take a half day. I hadn’t been to a day game during the week for a couple years so this was a good reason to go. Jocelyn was going to go but couldn’t get off work so I called Wians and Luedke. It was a perfect afternoon to catch some baseball and some rays. The game was pretty boring and the Brewers lost but the weather and time off made up for it.

Friday was yet another Brewers game. I didn’t even know I had tickets to until the night before. This night was a carbon copy of Tuesday except we sat in the beer pen and grilled marinated flank steak and potatoes.

Saturday was Evraets’s reception for his Mexican wedding in February. I was an integral part of making this reception fun because I volunteered to be the DJ. I have been working on my playlist for the last two weeks so that was set and ready to go. Early on Saturday I had to drive to Kenosha to pick up all the equipment that I needed to play some pumping music. So after I got the speakers and lights I headed back to Milwaukee to get ready. After we got ready we headed to Port Washington to set everything up. I set everything up and learned how to work the lights and the mixer. After that we went to meet up with the wedding party at a little supper club to have dinner before the reception. The entire wedding party wore their same outfits that they wore in Mexico so everyone was pretty overdressed for a Random Lake supper club. After dinner we went back to the hall and started things off. My list started with some 60s and then progressed in years as the night went on. The lights were going and the music was blasting. Throughout the night there was a good amount of people on the dance floor. I did learn that the job of a wedding DJ isn’t that easy. The crowd was very tough because they were mostly bar going beer drinkers so they camped by the bar all night and you couldn’t move them from the free tappers for anything. I also learned that there are a couple people who think that they know the magic song to get everyone dancing and whooping and hollering and they won’t leave you alone until you play the song. I also learned that every time you play the song they have to hear they are usually the only ones dancing. Also with the ability to create playlists on your laptop the job of the wedding DJ is much easier because you don’t have to switch CDs and can pretty much set it and forget it. Finally people love slow songs. Put on anything that people can dance cheek to cheek and the floor will fill up. The whole experience was a very very fun one. I think everyone had a good time and I got to experience something new. There were a lot of shots of tequila and some pretty sauced up people so I know at least they had fun. After some heavy hitting house requests I played the final slow songs and shut it down about 1. Everyone helped me break down the equipment and we headed home. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday we headed up to the Brady St. Artesian Festival. There were a bunch of tents with crafts and food. We ate some cheese and checked out the beaded jewelry. Nothing beats the people watching of Brady St.

Getting Faster… No Wait, I Can’t Walk

This week was pretty hectic around here. Bastille days has been going on so there has been no parking and an influx of people into our area. Thursday Jocelyn and I did the storming of the Bastille run. We walked down to the starting area and there were a bunch of people running. I wasn’t expecting to see as many people as I did. There were enough people to fill up three quarters of a city block sidewalk to sidewalk. The run was a fun run throughout downtown Milwaukee. There were no mile markers or even official times so it really was a fun run. There was one bar in the Third Ward that was acting like a water station and handing out beers. I was dying at this point and taking a beer, as funny as it would have been, would’ve have been the death of me. I knocked almost a minute off my time from my last 5k and ended up with a 21:05. I still have a little over a minute to shave off to get to my goal.

Thursday and Friday from about 3:00 until 5:00 I got to watch the Blue Angels practice for the coming weekends air show. I could watch these guys everyday all day and never get sick of them. They are absolutely amazing and a lot of crazy. I would love to explain what I saw but you really have to see them yourselves to appreciate them.

Friday after I got done watching the Blue Angels practice I had to head to Menomonee Falls with Jocelyn for the wedding rehearsal of this weekend’s wedding. We got to the church right on time and the rehearsal was the easiest I’ve ever been in. After that we went to a super nice shelter in Brookfield where Todd and Steph had a luau themed rehearsal cookout. All our friends were there and the luau was a great success. We drank some rum punch, played some softball and told college stories. We headed home after the park closed and got ready for the big day tomorrow.

We woke up bright and early ready to celebrate Todd and Steph’s big day. Jocelyn had to head out earlier than me because she had to get her hair done and all that good stuff. I caught a ride with Luedke. He also picked up Ham and Ben so we were a good looking car or tuxed up men. We went to Todd’s and got ready and ate some left over brats from the night before. Then the bus came and it was go time. We got to the church with almost no incident. The limo driver was clueless as to how to get to the church so we had to give her some direction. Pulling a Y turn in a limo bus on a country road is quite the heralding experience. We finally made it to the church just a couple minutes late. We then waited around for the girls, who were late, so we could get the show on the road. They finally arrived and it was wedding time. It was a Catholic wedding but there was no communion so the whole thing only took about 45 minutes. The wedding was very nice and easy on all the attendants. The A/C was pumping and there wasn’t a lot of standing or any kneeling. The whole thing almost went off without a hitch except for a little confusion on the holding of the rings. I wasn’t a big think and everyone got a laugh. So the wedding was over and two of our close friends are officially husband and wife. We didn’t take any pictures at the church, again nice. So we piled on the bus and started the celebration. We took the bus downtown to the Lakefront Bistro to snap some picture in the blazing sun and heat. The groomsmen were sweating up a storm but we were able to watch the Blue Angels again. They were doing their Saturday show as we were taking our pictures. We snapped some pictures by the lake, lost a couple pounds of sweat, and then hopped back on the bus to get downtown. This ride would usually take under five minutes but since the air show had just gotten out it was bumper to bumper downtown. It took us over half an hour to get downtown but we had tunes and some wine so we were good to go. Once we got to the reception at the downtown Hilton the fun kicked into high gear. We had some more drinks and ate dinner. I had the filet mignon and I might add it was delicious. The rest of the night was spent dancing away. Then, my awful luck continued. I pulled out one of my patented dance moves that I had done a million times before but this time my hamstring didn’t want to do it. I felt it tear and the pain was unbelievable. I think my hamstrings were still tight from the run on Thursday. I couldn’t walk and my night was over. I went into steaming mad depression mode because this kind of stuff has been happening to me too much lately. The fun and dancing came to an end and I hobbled to a cab and went home for the night while everyone else went out to have fun.

Sunday I was in extreme pain. I tried to leave the couch to go see the Blue Angels do their actual show. It took me fifteen minutes to go two blocks and the heat was killing me so I hobbled back to the couch where I stayed for the rest of the day. This sucks.