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.

Super Nothing Special Bowl Sunday

I was sick almost all week so I slept Friday night away. Saturday I was going to do more of the same but Marti called me and asked if I wanted to go to the Marquette game. Not being one to turn down a free ticket I decided to go. I don’t know where our tickets actually were but second half we snuck down and got pretty close to the action. Marquette won so my decision to go was a good one. After the game Chad came over for a bit but after he left it was back to sleep for me. This Sunday was the Super Bowl and I held another Super Bowl party. I got up pretty early to start all the dips and other food. We had chili, BBQ pork, chicken wings, guac, French onion dip, taco dip and pizza rolls. That morning I was starting the taco dip while I waited for the shower to open up. While I was doing this I heard the door open and some guy walk in. The guy looked at me in confusion and I looked at him in surprise and he yelled out “Oh shit, sorry” and took off. It was the guy that lives above us and he must’ve gotten off on the wrong floor and wasn’t paying attention, very funny. After that I finished getting myself and all the food ready. Luedke, Adam, Stacy, Todd, Steph, Chappy and Katie all arrived pretty close to kick off. We all pitched in $10 for a 50/50 pool and I was lucky enough to win the first half and J won the second so we won almost enough to cover the party cost. It appeared everyone liked the food, especially the pizza rolls, and everyone had a good time. The game was just another game, nothing too spectacular but another reason to get together with friends.

Windy (and Frozen) City

My weekend started Thursday because I took Friday off. Thursday night I went to see my coworker Roman’s band One Drum at the Jazz Estate up by North Ave. It was a good time and the music was kicking. The small place was packed and alive with fun. I was going to head home at midnight but it was such a good time I stuck around until the end. When the show was over I helped Roman break down some of the band gear. He was a kind soul and gave me a ride home sparing me from the winter elements. When all was said and done I ended up getting to bed around four in the morning.

Friday I had the day off so I spent it doing absolutely nothing. I did go meet Roman for lunch and hung out at our normal Friday lunch stop, the Ardor. Since I wasn’t working I was able to enjoy a beer with my lunch. Once Roman headed back I stayed and talked with the patrons a bit. On my way home I was stopped by three limos of drunken people in Santa hats. They were on a scavenger hunt and had all arrived at the same place at once. I had to take their pictures by a statue in Cathedral Square. Once I finished taking their pictures they all started running around tackling each other, one person got tackled in the street. I guess if you steal the other teams Santa hats you get extra points or something. This was too much craziness for my day off so I walked home. Friday night we just relaxed and got ready for the weekend. This weekend was Jocelyn’s dad’s second annual holiday gathering/celebration of her sister Arianne’s birthday in Chicago. Saturday we drove to Chicago and dropped our stuff off by our hotel about noon. I was starving so J and I headed to Miller’s Pub and got a bite to eat and a beer. While we were there the waitress told us about a German festival going on up the street so we figured we’d hit that once we were done. Once we finished we set off to find the outdoor German festival. We got a block and then decided to stop at the Berghoff Tavern. It looked like a historic place so we went there and had a Berghoff. From there we walked up and found the festival. Once we were there we both regretted eating because the food smelt delicious. We made it to one of the heated tents and got a little cup of glog. We sat in the tent a bit and then walked around and looked at some of the German crafts. Upon finishing there I went and showed Jocelyn the hotel that I stayed at when I was in Chicago. From there we headed back to our hotel with a brief stop at the new Millennium Park. Back at the hotel I took a nap for about two hours and watched some TV while J talked with her dad and sister. Then we decided to go eat a Giordano’s pizza that we saw on our way to Miller’s Pub. Once we got there we found out that it was closed. Never fear, Ryan is here! I remembered where another one was at. I ate at this one when I was down in Chi the last time, not to mention it wasn’t too hard to find because it’s right next to the Sears Tower which is kind of hard to miss. We then ate too much. We took a cab home because the snow was really starting to come down. We got to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday we all woke up and put on our best thermal underwear for the Bears v. Texans game. The temp was in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives, it was cold. We all got bundled up and walked to the stadium which was a mile or so away. The walk wasn’t bad but once we got to our seats things really started to get cold. The not moving around made things pretty bad and the Picl family was frozen to the bone. To make things worse the first half of the game was utterly boring. Once the first half was over we left and went back to the hotel to warm up at an Irish Pub. We warmed up there and got our cars and headed to the ESPNZone to watch the Packers game and the Illinois game for J’s dad. It turned out the Illinois game wasn’t on in the state of Illinois so we didn’t want to stay there because it was too crowded. We went to Pizzeria Due, which is down from Pizzeria Uno. I called my cousin Steve and he met us there and we all talked, drank, ate and watched the Packers lose to Jacksonville (but they still clinched a playoff berth). Once we finished there we went to pick up Jocelyn’s other sister from O’Hare. We got her and went to Gibson’s Steak house to eat. I had the porterhouse and the food was good. Schwarz’s steaks are still the best but this was good. We were stuffed once again thanks to J’s dad, thanks. After dinner we all said our goodbyes and headed home. We got lost on the way home because we couldn’t find N. 294. We saw a hundred S. 294 but no N. Finally we got on and I drove home so J could sleep. End of weekend.

Journey to the Holy Land

Friday after work J and I headed up to Rich Rau’s Auto body in Sheboygan to do some work on her car. We had to replace the brakes and rotors. Once there, we worked on the car until nine. We were obviously famished at this point so we ordered a fish fry from Ziggy’s Bar. When we went there to pick it up we ran into one of my cousins and her husband. We sat there and ate our fish fry and had a couple beers. Right when we were about to leave my uncle Tommy strolled in true Tommy fashion and we were forced to have one more beer. After we were done with that we said we had to get going. J and I drove back to Milwaukee that night because she had some things to do on Saturday.

Saturday I woke up ready to watch the Badgers destroy yet another opponent. To my surprise they looked terrible and lost. My dreams of a national championship contender were shattered. That night Jocelyn and I hung out together and had some drinks at the Metro. It was just us two and we had a great night.

Sunday I made the trip to the holy land to see the Packers v. Vikings. My good buddy Chad Marti gives me the privilege of tagging along with him to one game a year. Chad’s brother Paul picked me up and I drove up to Lambeau with Paul and his buddies. We had a good time being stupid on the way up. Once at the game we did the normal tailgating stuff. We ate chili and chips and then I passed out some cigars and gave people some Rau Brau. Once it was time for the game everyone was in a party mood. During the national anthem three Tomcats flew over and really gave me a shiver, it was awesome. Of course the game was awesome as well. The Pack were kicking butt all game but then at the end of the fourth they self destructed and allowed the Vikings to tie the game. But the ‘queens made the fatal mistake of leaving over zero seconds for ol’ 4. After a great return the Pack fumbled the ball but somehow managed to recover it. Then Brett took over and got the Pack into field goal range. Longwell hit the 33 yarder with no time left and we won 34-31. After the game we stuck around for the WI marching band’s fifth quarter. After that was done we went to the parking lot and tailgated for another hour or so and then drove home. A mega-thanks to Chad, nothing beats a Packer game.

Glory Daze III

Well my guy lost the election. I don’t know what the 51% of America is thinking. If you took time to watch any of the three debates there is no way that you could tell me with a straight face that this moron of a man is fit to run our country. My high school forensics team could’ve out debated that guy. Anyway, the country has spoken and I must now live with this man as my leader man for four more years. I guess it could be worse. I guess I could live in the Sudan. Ok, enough Ryan. It’s over and congratulations to the Bush supporters out there.

This weekend I had plenty of time to drink my blues away at Glory Daze III. For those of you that are unaware of what GD is, it’s basically a big bash that all the college buddies throw every year at a Badger game. This year it was the Minnesota game. Friday after work we jetted over to Madison and set up shop for the weekend. Jocelyn and I dropped off Todd and Steph on the west side at an Italian joint to eat. We were going to try to eat there as well but the place was packed so we tried four other packed places until we decided to wait it out at Chili’s. The wait was going to be about forty-five minutes but we got a first come first serve seat at the bar. I finally know why these places are so popular. Our whole meal, which included my kick ass fajitas, was under twenty bucks. I need to eat there more. After Chili’s J and I went to the Up North Pub for a drink to sit and chill. Graham joined us there and once we finished we headed down to Brats to meet the rest of the motley crew. We stayed there until about ten and then went up to The State where the entire clan stayed the rest of the night. I didn’t feel like drinking much so I only had a couple drinks. I still had tons of fun though talking with all my buddies and catching up. About one-ish a bunch of us piled into the Montero and headed to Graham’s to get some shuteye.

Saturday I was up pretty early. I took easy on Saturday just so I would be fully rested for the fun to come. It ended up being about ten once everyone got showered up and ready to go. We got down to campus and found an ideal parking spot. We parked the hoopty and headed to our meeting area. My group of friends from Chicago rented an RV to drive to Madison and we were going to use that as our focal party spot. When we got over to the RV things weren’t really set up yet so I went to Buck’s with a couple of people for a drink. We had our drink there and headed back to the site and started to get the party going. I really don’t know much of the debauchery that went on during the party. I was designated grill man so I didn’t leave a ten foot radius. The grilling took at least two hours but people were kind enough to come talk with me while I was grilling. Once I was done grilling I brought out some of my Rau Brau to sample and then we did some heavy drinking. When game time came around I didn’t have a ticket so we headed over to the Stadium Bar with a bunch of the group and watched the game there. The Badgers steamrolled the Gophers and the game was pretty much over after the first quarter. J and I stayed there until halftime. At halftime we went to Luther’s Blues to hang out with Jocelyn’s cousin Ethan and his friends. We had a great time at Luther’s and the second half of the game flew by. Once the game was over Jocelyn and I went to Casa Bianca’s for some cheese steak and pizza. We finished eating and then found the rest of the crowd stationed at the Karaoke Kid. We had to wait in line about forty-five minutes but once we got in the whole clan was there. It was just like the good old times, sitting around, being dumb. I was pretty exhausted so I only had a beer but just being around the clan was tons of fun. I sang my traditional “Ring of Fire” and watched as my friends embarrassed themselves. Once everyone was done at the Karaoke Kid the group kind of disintegrated. J and I went to The Key but when we got in the door we decided we had had enough. I had had one drink in about five hours and was just exhausted. We left The Key and headed to Qboba for a late night snack. After we were done with that we headed to Hamm’s brother’s place and crashed for the night. Another fun Daze in the books.