The weekend has arrived that Jocelyn and I have been furiously planning for what seems like years, our wedding. Leading up to the wedding I wasn’t nervous at all. I unfortunately was sick and spent the entire week trying to get over my cold. Friday after work ended the running around and craziness started. I was able to relax for an hour at home before I had to run to get the DJ lighting from a couple establishments. There was a mix up on the lighting that I had originally ordered and I spent Thursday frantically calling around trying to find some lights. I think I found the last two sets in Milwaukee, a huge disaster narrowly averted. Rich and I hopped in the Montero and drove around Milwaukee picking the stuff up. A spring snow and rush hour traffic made for crappy driving. After we got the lights I took Rich to pick up his tux. Once we got back downtown I stopped by Luedke and DeBruin who were having a couple beers at Mo’s pub. Rich and I had one and headed back to my apartment. Once back at the apartment I got ready for the rehearsal. Jocelyn and I didn’t feel like driving so we got a ride with her mom. We were a little late but being the bride and groom we had the right. The rehearsal was actually pretty long. The pastor took his time in explaining everything very thoroughly. After the rehearsal we headed to Turner Hall for dinner and drinks. Many had the classic Friday fish fry and the food was great. Once dinner was over we stayed at the Hall and had a couple more beers. Jocelyn went home early to get her beauty rest but my job as the groom was to go out and enjoy my last night as a single man. So I went out with a couple of the Marti boys, DeBruin and Luedke. We went to the German beer hall that is right by Turner Hall. We had a couple more beers there and a five person shot on a snow ski. I was home about one and to bed at about two after I did some wedding day chores.

The day of reckoning. I woke up about eight and got my stuff together, checking and double checking. At nine I headed to Kenosha to pick up the rest of the DJ equipment. On the way I stopped at McDonald’s for a wedding day sausage egg McMuffin and a breakfast burrito. I got back to Milwaukee just after eleven. As soon as I got back to the apartment everyone started showing up. Todd and Greg showed up followed by Marti and my two brothers. Everyone just sat around, drank a few beers, got ready and waited for 1:30 to roll around. We got to the church on time and accounted for. The groom and his men hung out in the basement and watched the Brewer game on my laptop. The only thing that caused a hint of stress was my mom and dad showing up late and my dad wasn’t dressed because he left his tux with my brother in Milwaukee. When he finally got his stuff together we snapped a couple pre-wedding pictures and it was almost time to get it on. Three rolled around and it was go time. I still wasn’t too nervous but when the door opened and I took my spot in front of the church the emotions started to build up. Everyone marched out and I must’ve looked like a deer in the headlights as they came down the aisle. Then Jocelyn’s music started and as soon as I saw the white of her dress I got extreme nervousness and experienced an emotional flood. She looked absolutely beautiful, stunning. As she came down the aisle I have to admit I didn’t soak it up as much as I should’ve because I was concentrating on keeping my composure and not breaking down. The handoff between Jocelyn’s dad and I was the toughest part of the wedding. She was on the verge of breaking down, he was on the verge of breaking down and I had just spent the last two minutes trying not to break down. So I had a couple facial twitches and contortions but I was able to receive my bride without blubbering like a baby. The rest of the wedding went by smoothly considering I could feel my legs chattering and smacking the insides of my pants. My voice did crack a bit for the vows and I had another facial twitch but I was able to recite my lines without messing up. Jocelyn did her line flawlessly as well and before we knew it we were husband and wife and the wedding was over. I was officially married to Mrs. Jocelyn Rau. The wedding went great considering the worries I had over the music on the iPod and my emotions getting the best of me. After the wedding we had the receiving line. I got a little emotional with some people but that was to be expected. So after a hundred hugs and kisses it was picture time. A snap here, a snap there and we were done with that. Jocelyn and I had gotten a carriage to take us to the art museum. It was a nice sunny day but it was cold. A carriage ride is extremely slow and we were getting passed by people walking to the Badger hockey game. The carriage ride was very nice, as was the champagne, but by the time we got to the art museum we had had enough. We let the carriage go. There was an event going on at the art museum and the security guards were being assholes to everyone so we only got a couple pictures there. It was windy and cold so we did the snap snap and off we went. J and I got a ride with our photographer and thawed out on the way to Lakefront. Once at Lakefront it was time to get this party started! I had some beers and apps and did the rounds. Roman from work was manning the playlist that I created so I had to give him a brief on the night and make sure everything was ok. We had our grand march and sat down for dinner. After a speech by me, Rich, and a prayer by father Mike it was time to eat. I dug into the delicious food and we drank some champagne and reveled in the moment. It was a great dinner. After dinner Sr. Marcia had to leave and she said some very nice words to me which actually made me shed some tears. Almost tear a free day but leave it to a tiny nun to bring the water works. We then did the tosses and parent dances as well as our first dance. We had a schedule made up and we were about an hour behind which was great party planning on our part. The rest of the night was spent dancing away. I was a mad man on the dance floor and then playlist was the best, since it was my own. Some chugged beers and shots of Jager kept the night going. Everyone was having a great time and I didn’t want the night to end. But at midnight we had to shut things down. A couple slow songs and Varsity to honor the Badgers’ Men’s Hockey National Championship and the party was over. It was an amazing time. After we cleaned up the DJ gear and got it packed up we hopped in a car and went to hotel Metro. We had some more shots and appletinis and laughed with friends. Once the lights came on the night was officially over. We said goodbye to everyone and check into the Pfister next door. J was starving so she ordered a pizza which she ate while still wearing her wedding dress. Some more champagne with the pizza and it was time to call it a night. Another watershed moment in life is over. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Everything went off without a hitch and it was so much fun. I had a perfect day and now I have a perfect bride, my lovely, beautiful, Jocelyn.

The party didn’t stop on Saturday night though. The Brewers were in town and a bunch of friends and family came to the game to tailgate. My cousin Craig really hooked me up with sixteen free tickets. I was a little leery about asking for that many because I thought that some of the people that said yes to coming to the game the night before would actually be “partied out” and not show up on Sunday. But everyone and more showed up. We had a group of about 25. We grilled out and enjoyed the spring weather. Craig also did another cool thing and got J and I’s name on the scoreboard congratulating us on our nuptials. Jocelyn actually missed it because she was on her way to talk to her dad and sisters but I saw it. I stood up for my accolades and totally forgot to take a picture of it, the only regret of the weekend. I got see it though and it was very nice. I went up to one of the luxury boxes to meet with my East coast buddy Wertz before he flew back to New York. After that I headed down to watch the rest of the game. The crew lost but oh well, it was my weekend not theirs. After the game we headed back downtown. Adam and Stacey joined J and I for a dinnertime grill out in Juneau Park. We ate some brats and drank a couple more beers before wrapping up the weekend.

WHAT A WEEKEND! It was perfect and I know it will always be one of the best times in my life. I thank Jocelyn’s family, my family and all my friends for helping me make these wonderful memories. Also thanks to my love Jocelyn for making me the luckiest man alive! I love you!

This entry should be much longer but once again there are just too many details that should be included that there is no way I can remember them all. That combined with a booze haze makes what should be a long story short. I had my Chicago bachelor party on Saturday. I drove down with my brother, Evraets and Billy. We drove to Chitown and checked into the Hyatt Regency in downtown. I got a steal on Priceline.com at $100 a room. After we checked in we took a cab to the Cubbie Bear in Wrigleyville where I met up with a bunch of my friends from Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Once there we started our game of bar golf. Bar golf is scored like regular gold with one drink at a bar being par and each drink after that being one under. We had a scorecard and itinerary all made up so we were well prepared. We all started on our way wandering from bar to bar. Some of the bar events that occurred during our wandering were cigar smoking, wooden Indian posing, other party food raiding, batting cage swinging and Fat Tire Ale (imported from Colorado) drinking. We were doing really good until about hole number nine. We stayed there a little too long because one of our friends from Madison worked there. So we camped out there and since there was a Qdoba across the street some people went get something to eat. After that, the group got pretty split up and it was everyone for themselves after that point. I tried to plod on with my cousin Steve. About a half hour behind was my brother, Evraets and a couple other friends but as far as the golf game was concerned it was over. I was -11 after nine so I’m pretty sure I was winning. We continued drinking at various establishments throughout the night and we ended up at an after hours bar someplace in the Chicago with a skeleton crew of about six of us. Everyone was a mess, including me. I was super tired and drunk so my brother and I left a couple diehards and cabbed it back to the hotel. We got back around four so I was pretty mad when Billy started thrashing around the hotel room at seven. I was pissed but I knew he wanted to get home so we woke up and drove back. I was home by noon which was nice because I could rest the rest of the day. It was a good time.

Hey there Patty! St. Patty’s landed on a Friday this year which makes for a guaranteed crazy day. After work I headed over to the Milwaukee Ale house to meet a couple of the guys that had the day off. The Badgers were playing in the NCAA tourney and got their butts spanked. Never-the-less, that didn’t prevent Luedke and Wians from having a few. We stayed at the Ale House for a bit to have some happy hour pints and shoot some darts. After a couple hours there we went to meet Jocelyn and the Delahunts at Flannery’s. I was bound and determined to get a sampling of the world’s largest rueben at the Wicked Hop. On the walk to Flannery’s I stopped and paid my $5 for a slice and was it huge. I gnawed on the thing the entire walk to Flannery’s and I barely finished half of it. I never throw away food but I was stuffed and out of time so once I got to Flannery’s I had to throw some of it away. Once in Flannery’s I joined the “happy” crowd. We stayed there for a couple hours sampling the Jamison and Guinness. After Flan’s we went to My Office for the smaller crowd ambiance and a couple more festive St. Patty’s drinks.

I woke up on Saturday a little groggy from the night before but nothing to severe which was good because Saturday was the Riverwest Pub Crawl. I went on this last year with Luedke and Anna and it was a blast. This year Jocelyn and Erica came along. The crawl started at Onopa and we had good weather again although it wasn’t quite as warm as last year. There are really too many details to describe this event packed day. We snaked our way through the Riverwest area of Milwaukee drinking beers at the nineteen bars on our map. A couple of the bars have food to eat. One thing that every bar does have is an interesting cast of characters because Riverwest is a very bohemian area of Milwaukee. The five of us had a great time. From one until about ten we ventured around the neighborhood. At our final stop, The Squirrel Cage, Luedke, Anna and Erica took a cab home. Jocelyn and I probably should have as well but we decided to walk home. We thought that the walk would sober us up. The problem is you don’t really sober up if you stop at bars on the way home. It was a very long walk home and we stopped at The Nomad on way home for a beer, some rest and warmth. After a drink we headed to Mykano’s for a gyro to soak up some of the toxins in our stomachs.

Sunday was a pretty rough one. J and I had to drive to Sheboygan for my nephew’s baptism. We weren’t in the best of shape but we made it. Sitting through church with tons of crying kids was really the last place I wanted to be. After church they had the baptism. When that was finished we went to Rich’s house to eat the leftover food from my bachelor party. We didn’t stay long. All the noise and people in that little house was pretty nauseating so we headed back to Milwaukee and enjoyed the rest of our lazy Sunday.

On Saturday I had the first of my two bachelor parties. This party was for my uncles and Falls friends because I knew that most of them wouldn’t want to make the trip to Chicago for my main one. I pretty much repeated the beginning part of my previous weekend. I went to Rich’s, helped my mom make some of the bachelor party food, packed it up, drove it to the VFW, and set it and the music up and waited for the people to show up. A majority of my uncles showed up, some cousins, and some Falls friends. A bunch of Rich’s friends also showed up, I guess it was his bachelor party too. We sat around, drank some beer, shot some dice, and ate some food. It was pretty close to the tamest bachelor party I’ve ever been to; sad part is it was mine. A bunch of people took off back to Falls but I stayed in Sheboygan. My buddy Fudge stuck around so at least I had one person to hang around with. Rich, some of his buddies, Fudge and I went to Hops Haven. We stayed there the rest of the night and had a couple beers and smoked some cigars. It was the world’s tamest bachelor party ever. I’ve been to sweet sixteen birthday parties that were more exciting. Oh well, I have one more shot and I really wasn’t expecting too much craziness from the Fallsenites.

This weekend was pretty low key and it was much needed. After a couple crazy encounters with the Marti clan I was able to sit back and relax with my own clan. My cousin Lisa and her husband Jeff were having their 25th anniversary party in Sheboygan on Saturday. Lisa had asked me if I would supply the music and I was happy to oblige. I headed up to Sheboygan Saturday afternoon by myself because Jocelyn was having her bachelorette party in Madison. I went to see my new nephew and run a couple errands. The party started around sevenish at the Sheboygan VFW. I set up the tunes and let them play while we had some classic Sheboygan buffet. The rest of the night I sat around with my aunts and uncles and talked. I didn’t feel like staying over so at eleven I packed up my equipment and headed back to Milwaukee. I called Luedke and a bunch of other guys to see what they were doing but by the time I hit the lights of Milwaukee I was ready to hit the hay. I sat on the couch and fell asleep almost instantaneously. I knew I would need the rest while I could get it with the upcoming weeks.

Not much doing this weekend. Friday low key and Saturday we ran up to Sheboygan to get Jocelyn’s car fixed at my brother’s. We didn’t stay overnight though and after a stop at the Golden Chopsticks buffet and Piggly Wiggly we were back in MKE by seven. Sunday was action packed with my third annual Super Bowl party. Chappy, Katie, Adam, Stacy, Todd and Steph were the party goers at Apt 54′s XL party. I spent Saturday night doing some of the food prep work. Sunday morning I woke up early to get all the food made. This year’s menu included BBQ Pork on Sheboygan hard rolls, chicken wings, potato skins, cole slaw, taco dip, French onion dip, and black bean dip. As is tradition I made way too much food. Everyone rolled in right before kickoff and I immediately started shoving food down their throats. The game was probably the most boring Super Bowl that I have ever seen in my life. The Steelers beat the Seahawks by a final score of something to something. Even though the game stunk we had a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed the food and it’s always fun to get together with friends for some revelry. Steph made a Steelers football cake that looked very professional. I wouldn’t allow anyone to stop eating after the cake though, I had wings to get rid of. Even after the force feeding of my guests I still had a ton left overs. After the game everyone headed home and we cleaned up. It was another good time to add to the book of good times.

Another wonderful vacation in a tropical paradise. This Tuesday we left for St. Thomas to spend the week. We flew out of O’Hare at seven in the morning so we woke at four to drive from Milwaukee. We flew from Chicago to Charlotte to St. Thomas. St. Thomas is two hours ahead so we ended up getting in at about four in the afternoon. Jocleyn’s sister Marissa lives on the island so she came to pick us up at the airport. The airport was pretty rickety but they really know how to welcome you. In Hawaii you may get a lei but in St. Thomas you get Cruzan rum punch, what a welcome. We collected our bags and got in the car for my first death defying introduction to the roadways of the islands. They drive on the left side of the road in the VI so that is the first thing that that you need to get used to. The second is that the roads are a lane and half wide without emergency lanes. If you go off the side of the road you’re pretty much going to roll down the mountain. Well, the only way I can put it is all the drivers are nuts and the roads are nuts. The inclines are somewhere in thirty plus degree range with convenient stops on the tops of these hills. Then from the stop you have to navigate the one hundred eighty degree switchbacks and ninety degree turns that are one lane wide with two cars trying to use the turn. An explanation really doesn’t do it justice. It’s something that you really have to experience to fully understand the craziness. After a forty-five minute roller coaster ride we made it to the Ritz where we were staying. One of the reasons that we went to St. Thomas is because we got free lodging at the Ritz thanks to Jocelyn’s mom and her fiancé Craig. Not only did we get a free place to stay but the place was absolutely amazing. It was a three bedroom, four bath condo with an amazing view and great amenities. We really were extremely spoiled and can’t thank Craig and Jenni enough for letting us stay with them. We weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the lodging situation. Jocelyn’s aunt and uncle were also on vacation and staying in the condo as well. It was cloudy when we got into St. Thomas but as soon as we sat on the balcony overlooking the bay the sun came out and two gorgeous rainbows came out. It was a sign that this would be a great vacation. We sat on the balcony, had some rum, and enjoyed the weather. Once dinner rolled around we motivated ourselves to get ready and get some food. We went to Duffy’s Love Shack the first night. When they say shack, they mean shack. This bar and grill was nothing more than a garage in the middle of a parking lot. I had a burger and some local drinks and all was good with the world at that point. After that we went back to the condo and had some more rum drinks and enjoyed the night’s ocean breeze. We went to bed pretty early because we were wiped our from the day of travel.

On Wednesday morning we awoke to a gorgeous sunny day. The plan for the day was to take the ferry over to St. John to see some of the flare of that island. St. John has about 4200 people living on it where St. Thomas has 50k. St. J it more laid back, nicer, and is solely a tourist island. We took the ferry over in the morning and rented a car in Cruz Bay. Jocelyn’s uncle Jeff got suckered into the driving duties. We got into the Jeep Liberty and started off on a tour of the island. We started off by driving to Cinnamon Bay. It was a gorgeous beach that had a huge castle/house overlooking it in the distance. While we were there we got a little sun and did some snorkeling. The snorkeling wasn’t as good as Mexico but its still fun to swim around and see the life under the sea. We were swimming around for about an hour and I started to get tired so I headed back in. At about eleven we got back in the Liberty and drove to Coral Bay on the other side of St. John. We stopped at another shack type place called Skinny Legs. It’s called Skinny Legs because the owners of the place have skinny legs. I was in love with the place. It was a dumpy shack that had a canvas roof and a bar. I had another burger and some Virgin Islands Pale Ales (which is a delicious beer). We sat at Skinny Legs and ate our lunch. I could’ve stayed there all vacation, it was great. The sun worshipers wanted to get back to the beach though so we headed to Jumbie Bay. Jumbie is a word that you hear all the time down in the VI and it means malevolent ghost or zombie. This particular beach had a crazy story behind the name. The beach used to hold bowling matches. Not regular bowling matches though. Slave owners would bury slaves in the sand up to their necks and then roll balls at their heads. The ghosts of these slaves are jumbies and hence the name. So after a couple hours of lying on the beach that was once a bowling alley we headed back to Cruz bay to return the Jeep. We had a couple beers at The Beach Bar before catching the ferry back to St. Thomas. Once back at the condo we sat on the balcony until it was time for dinner. This night we went to Agave terrace. It was a fancier place and it was the typical open air eating type of dinning. Their signature attractions were a fabulous view as well as hermit crabs walking all around their decorative areas. For dinner I had lobster and scallops and loved every morsel. After dinner it was back to the condo for more lounging before we went to bed.

It was a pretty busy day on Wednesday so we hung around the resort on Thursday. I walked around the entire place and snapped some pictures of the iguanas and vegetation. Everyone was lying on the beach but I’m not the beach layer so I skipped some stones, playing some pool on the outdoor pool table and built a sand castle. After doing that I had worked up quite an appetite so J and I went to eat at one of the little restaurants on the resort. I had a jerk chicken sandwich with some fries. That was just he fuel I need for a long day of lounging on a deck chair. I was getting sunburn so after eating I traded the beach lounging for deck lounging. I spent the rest of the day there drinking some Cruzan and coke and staring into the blue distance. For dinner that night we went to pizza place across from Duffy’s called Sop Choppy’s. The pizza was great and I ate way too much. After the pizza it was back to the balcony to breathe in that warm ocean breeze and relax the night away.

What would a vacation in a tropical paradise be without a trip to the local tourist trap bazaar? We went to the St. Thomas market area on Friday which is right by where all the cruise ships dock. There was one ship docked and every time I see those massive ships I am in awe how such a huge structure can float. This market place is strategically placed and caters to the tourists and docked ships. If you’ve ever been to Mexico or any other tropical destination the markets in St. Thomas are identical. Jocelyn and I got bought our wedding bands from a little jeweler called Ballerina II. Talk about some high pressure sales tactics. The shop salesmen started out by offering me a beer while I waited for the ladies to look around. Talk about catering to your clientele. If more jewelry stores gave the men beers I have a feeling men wouldn’t be as reluctant to go browse the local jeweler’s shop. So the shop lackey went in the back and got me a cold can of Budweiser. What started off as a complimentary beer turned into “What are you looking for buddy, something nice for you?” So I started looking and ended up buying my ring and Jocelyn found one for herself. After the jewelry store we went to a couple more shops. For lunch we had a VI Pale Ale at The Happy Buzzard and at some authentic island food at Cuzzin’s. From there we headed back to the resort. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging until evening. That night we went to a gallery night type of event. There were a bunch of local artists and they were serving champagne and hors’dovres. We looked around and met up with a couple people that Craig and Jenni knew from the island. While we were in the gallery a torrential down pour started outside. We ran through the drenching rain to the car and drove off to the Toad and Tart to have dinner. This place doesn’t even rank as a dive bar on my scale. It was a flat out dump. The food we had was pretty good and a drink is a drink but the atmosphere was somewhere between garbage dump and homeless shelter. The TT is a fantasic place! After dinner we went back to the resort. Once we got back we sat in the car and waited for the rain to let up but it wasn’t so I made a dash for it. Everyone got soaked to the bone but we were safely in for the night. We listened to music, had some rum drinks and talked the night away.

On Saturday I wanted to head to St. John early so I could explore Cruz Bay. J and I packed up our stuff and headed to Marissa’s place to spend the last day because Craig and Jenni had already checked out and were on their way home. Conveniently Marissa lives only a block away so we wheeled our stuff over there. I dropped off my stuff and Chad and I took the ferry over to St. John. Once on St. John we headed to a little bar called The Quiet Mon. It’s a tiny little place up some steps. Kenny Chesney is a hero in St. John and this bar is in one of his songs. We had some beers there and then headed to Woody’s to get some lunch. We got a bunch of appetizers including spicy shark bites which were very good. After lunch we went to another bar and shot some pool and waited for J and Marissa to come over from St. Thomas. Once they arrived we shot a little more pool, went to Joe’s Rum Hut, Cap’s Place and then back to The Quiet Mon. Chad took a little nap on the bar while we had some VI Pales. After Chad rallied we went to the Beach to get some food and see a band that was playing. I was a little bored with the band and went to a place called Lizard’s that is actually owned by a Sheboyganite. The bartenders were cool guys and I talked to them the rest of the night and waited for the band to get done and others to come over to meet me. They finally made it over to Lizard’s and we had a few final drinks before we jumped on the ferry and headed back. Once back on St. Thomas we went back to Duffy’s Love Shack. I was completely fine going to the place but we got a fish bowl drink called the Shark Tank and it killed me. Once we left Duffy’s and got back to Marissa and Chad’s I was feeling a little under the weather. This “sickness” lasted throughout the night and took me into the next day.

My final day was a hurtful one. I couldn’t move. The drinking and lack of hydration had made me quite sick. I managed to power through it and was able to take the forty-five minute roller coaster ride to the airport. We caught our flight at about one and headed back to the states. We flew to Philadelphia and then to Chicago. We got in about nine thirty and made it home about eleven, the end of our vacation.

It was TONS of fun and a great vacation, even with the last day. I would highly suggest St. John. It is gorgeous and a lot of fun. A huge “thank you” to Craig and Jenni for letting us stay at the resort with them as well as Marissa and Chad for their hospitality. Thanks everyone!

Ah, Christmas vacation. My mom came to down to Milwaukee to pick me up on the 23rd. Jocelyn went to Illinois to spend the holidays with her family and since she took the car I had to get a ride. On the way home we stopped by my Aunt Linda’s to drop off an iPod I had to pick up for her. We were there for a couple hours and sampled some of the holiday food that she was making. After that I dropped my mom off and headed to Falls. I stopped by Randy before going out to drop off all the Christmas presents. I got a hold of Marti and met him and Pyrek and their significant others at The Other Place. We were there for a drink and then we headed back over to the O. I spent the rest of the night there. I ran in to Kotnik who I hadn’t seen in a while so I talk to him for the remainder of the night.

Christmas Eve day was on the couch by Rich’s. About five I was finally able to pry myself off the couch and get ready. It was the usual Christmas Eve routine this year. We headed over to my uncle Jimmy’s for a little Christmas Eve festivities. My godmother Terri gave me my usual gift of Bloody Mary mix. I used to love drinking the stuff as a kid, and I still do, so Terri makes sure I get my yearly fix. She also bought me a very nice baseball display case for the foul balls that I caught. The rack is huge though so I’m going to need to get about fifteen more balls somehow. I guess I’ll have to go to forty Brewers games this year. After watching some Christmas Story, eating some dips and meatballs it was time for midnight mass. Mass was nice as usual and it really gets you in the spirit of the holidays. After church my mom dropped me off at Rich’s and I got to bed immediately so Santa would come and visit.

I didn’t do much on Christmas day. I had Randy pick me up at about three for our family gathering. I must have been a bad boy this year because I got a lump of coal in the form of an awful Green Bay Packer team losing yet another game. After the bitter loss I washed the taste away with some Christmas wine. Dinner was very good. We had prime rib and a whole bunch of other side dishes. After that we exchanged gifts. It was the normal craziness of paper flying everywhere and toys being strewn all over the living room. After the gifts we headed home. It was pretty early, about ten, but I needed some sleep so I decided to just call it a night instead of find something to do.

The day after Christmas I had some work to do so I had to get back to Milwaukee. My mom, Randy and nephew brought me back. We stopped by Kopp’s on the way down so I added to my holiday weight gain with a burger and some ice cream. Once I arrived home I did my work so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the rest of the week. Adam and Stacey didn’t have to work the next day so they called and asked if I was up to anything. The came over and we watched the tube and had a couple beers. Jocelyn got home about nine but because she had to work she really just wanted to relax. So Adam and I got out of her hair and headed to Flannery’s. Stacey didn’t want to go so it was just the two of us. We sat there for a bit and they headed over to My Office to close out the night.

It ended up being a big mistake going out because some mongrel gave me the nasty cold bug that has been going around. I could’ve gotten it at Kopp’s or at home and it was just incubating but either way I was now sick for my week off. I planned on doing a whole bunch of stuff but Tuesday through Friday I didn’t do anything. My week off was super boring because I couldn’t do anything. I ran a couple errands to get some fresh air but for the most part I just kept my butt planted on the couch. I watched about two movies a day because daytime TV is so awful. All these channels and there is not one thing on that I would even think of watching. So, boring week off, and a wasted week off.

Love those long weekends, and I love them more when you know there’s going to be a massive meal involved. Jocelyn and I headed up to ‘boygan after work on Wednesday. I stopped off at Rich’s house and got the turkeys started. I was responsible for the turkeys this year and I went a bit overboard. I bought about thirty pounds of turkey. I deep fried one with Cajun marinade and brined and roasted the other. Once the turkeys were ready to go we went out to eat with Rich and Billie. We went to Brisco County grill on the lakefront. After that we headed to Falls for “the biggest bar night of the year”. The Thanksgiving night out was a little more exciting this year. It’s still nothing like it was when I was in college but the downtown had a good crowd. I didn’t see a lot of my friends out but the ones that I did hang out with were some of my best buddies. Bill surprised me and showed up at the O and Marti showed up as well. So we all hung out the entire night. We went to The Other Place for my traditional Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire karaoke. The night was spent bouncing all around and talking to Fallsians.

Thanksgiving day I woke up nice and early. That was a mistake because I was tired all day. That is the one negative of having a job, not being able to change your sleep schedule if you want. I had plenty to do though. I spent most of the day trying to set up Rich’s computer while also making roasted root vegetables and chopping up some other stuff. Come dinner time I was famished and more than ready to eat. The roasted bird turned out great but we had a little incident with the deep fried bird. Rich and I followed the instructions to the t but when we pulled the turkey out of its peanut oil bath at the 39 minute mark it was a black, charred bird. Rich and I turned and looked at each other and started busting out laughing. We took the bird inside and showed everyone and we all had a chuckle. It ended up that the sugar in the jerk marinade caramelized/charred in the cooking process. Once we cut open the skin the inside was done, moister, and more flavorful than the other bird. The meat was by far better than the brined one. The only thing that we had to do to the bird was remove all its skin. After that little incident we had a normal Thanksgiving dinner. The whole family was there and everything was delicious as usual. After dinner Terri and John stopped over for a bit. We had a bit of loud revelry then in a flash everyone went home. J and I sat and relaxed for a bit. We put in Star Wars and tried to watch it but the tryptophan, wine and horizontal position knocked me out at about ten. A pleasant Thanksgiving this year.

Friday J and I drove back to Milwaukee. J was headed to her mom’s place in Chicago but I felt like some little chill time. So she dropped me off and headed off. I watched the Badgers beat Hawaii during the day which wasn’t very exciting. After that I went to the store and picked up a frozen pizza and watched some movies. Lights off, shades down, and pillow fluffed. That was pretty much my day and night.

I watched some more football on Saturday while I got caught up on some of my side work. Not a very exciting day, but hey, it’s a long vacation weekend. At night I headed over to Chappy’s to celebrate his birthday. There was a nice gathering over there. Chappy has fabricated a very nice bar in his apartment the bartender running it, sometime times me, made great old fashions. I bellied up and celebrated Chappy’s birthday on a comfy bar stool. About midnight we decided to head to My Office for an end of night round. We played some darts, drank some cheapies and had ourselves a good ol’ time. At closing time I asked Kondo if he wanted to stay over since he had to walk about two miles to get home and I had Rau Braus and some new movies. Kondo and I watched a flick and drank some night caps. The late night was unnecessary but I had to end vacation the right way. Back to work on Monday, crap. How many days until Christmas?

Short week for me this week. I took off Friday because this weekend I flew to Florida for my cousin’s wedding. Thursday night after work Rich and Billie came down and drove us to the airport where we all caught a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. The flight was smooth and without incident. We changed planes in Atlanta and ended up getting into FtL about midnight. We took a cab to a cheapy hotel by the airport and spent the night. On our way to the hotel we saw a lot of damage from the hurricane that had rolled through the weekend before. There were tons of broken signs and a lot of dark places that still didn’t have power. I was a little worried because I wasn’t able to get an answer from our hotel when I called them during the week I was pleasantly surprised when we drove up to the place and it was still there. The weather was hot and humid and so was our hotel room. It smelt very musty and extremely damp. The four of us were only going to be there for a couple hours so we dealt with it. We cranked the AC and went to sleep.

Friday morning we woke up early and took a cab to downtown FtL where our nice hotel was. We dropped off our luggage at our hotel and started to do some site seeing. The site seeing lasted about four blocks when we decided we were hungry and needed some breakfast. We stopped at a little diner and got some breakfast. I had some delicious huevos rancheros. The problem is my meal was huge and had lots of salsa. This would normally not be a problem but having this meal sitting in your stomach isn’t very conducive to walking around all day site seeing, I was worried how this would work out. After we finished eating we walked toward the ocean. On the way we passed a bunch of intercoastal waterways. These waterways all had mansions up and down them but the amazing part is these mansions were dwarfed by their mega-yachts parked in front. These mansions and yachts continued the couple miles that we walked to the ocean. Once we got to the ocean we happened upon the international yacht show that was in town. The FtL marina had hundreds of mega-yachts tied up that you could walk around on and dream about some day being able to afford the anchor. I keep using mega to describe these yachts because they were. You haven’t seen anything like these yachts on Lake Michigan, these things were huge. We looked at the yachts from a bridge for a bit and then continued on to the beach. Once at the beach we snapped some pictures and walked in the sand a bit. It wasn’t all that exciting, more water and sand. Just across the street from the ocean there was an open air bar/club that we went to and had a couple beers and looked at the ocean vista. The scene was very nice but the beer was very expensive. So after a couple drinks we walked by the yacht show again. We were actually trying to book a riverboat dinner cruise and their office was right by the entrance to the yacht show. Once we arrived at the office of the riverboat cruise we found out that they were shutdown due to complication from the hurricane. A little disappointed we turned back and headed to a little German themed bar that we passed on the way. I really enjoyed this place. It was literally a hole in the wall. It was hidden down an alley but amazingly there were plenty of others there that found this little bar as well. The bar had no doors and was a typical warm climate open air bar except it served fine German lagers. This bar was the definition of vacation. The wind whistled through while we sat and relaxed. Rich and I played some pool and I kicked his butt all over the felt. I could’ve stayed their all weekend but we had to head back to the hotel and meet my dad, Randy and Becky. We headed back, checked into our hotel and met up with the rest of the family. We didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon. We sat around, showered up and got ready for dinner. For dinner we walked to a Mexican restaurant a couple blocks from the hotel. The dinner was pretty good. Since we were in a tourist trap the prices were expectedly expensive for what we got. After dinner we walked down along a waterway and looked at some of the moored yachts. We then went to a couple bars and watched the Lamborghini’s and other assorted luxury cars cruise the strip. This whole time we were actually waiting for our cousin Steve to call but due to hurricane complications the cell phone network was temporarily knocked out for three hours. Once the phones were back online we headed down by the ocean to meet up with Steve. We met up with him, my other cousins and aunt at a steak house. Since we had just eaten and we were dressed worse than the FtL homeless we really didn’t want to sit around and watch them eat their forty dollar hunks of meat. Conveniently there was a bar right next door that was more our style so we waited for Steve over there. Once he was done eating he came over and we sat at the bar the rest of the night getting caught up and talking stupid. A little after midnight we took a taxi back to our hotel and got rested up for tomorrow’s wedding.

Saturday morning we woke up refreshed in a hotel that didn’t have 200% humidity in it. The wedding was at three so we had some time to burn but we really didn’t know what to do. We figured that by the time everyone got their stuff together and showered up that it would be noon so we decided to start getting ready. So everyone started getting dress but J who wanted to go lay by the pool for a bit. The rest of us got dressed up in out finest duds and a couple headed to a restaurant down street from our hotel. I had a nice sandwich and then we sat at the bar for a bit and tried to find out exactly where the church was. We found out the church was actually back in the direction of the hotel so we walked back toward our hotel. We met up with the rest of the group at a bar that was across the street from out hotel. After a couple beers it was finally wedding time. We put the women and my dad in a cab and the three brothers walked a couple blocks in the heat to the church. The wedding was nice. It was a full catholic service so it was pretty long but the priests kept it pretty interesting. One of the priests was a monsignor that the Counsells knew from Notre Dame. After the wedding we all piled in a cab and headed to the reception. This was actually a secondary reception hall because the initial venue was wrecked in the hurricane. I don’t envy my cousin Jen having to find another reception hall and getting it set up in less than a week’s time. This place was really nice though. The Atlanta Falcons were playing the Dolphins that Sunday and they were staying at the hotel. Five buses filled with massive guys got a police escort to the back door. They closed off the whole lobby and roped off an area for the team to walk through. I tried to snap an incognito photo of Michael Vick but it turned out blurry. After the Falcons excitement we tried to find the Badger v Penn State game on the lobby TV but it was nowhere to be found. We even tried to find it at a seedy sports bar by the hotel. Their cable was out so they were even worse off than the hotel, we could at least watch the Notre Dame game there. So instead of watching football on TV I had fun in the cocktail party with the family. My dad appeared to be having a good time himself as he bounced around from conversation to conversation. Finally it was time for dinner. We sat down and did the whole wedding routine, speeches and whatnot. For dinner we had a chicken breast with some vegetables, it was good. After dinner the grooves started up the cocktails started flowing a little faster. It was an open bar and I saw a guy get a Johnnie Walker and water so I got the same and continued to for the rest of the night. For about ten minutes everything in the reception hall went completely black and it wasn’t because of the whisky. The aftermath of the hurricane had struck again. They must’ve been fixing the power and cut off power to the hotel. They either fixed the problem or had a backup generator because the lights came back on and stayed on for the rest of the night. The night went by very fast. I don’t get to see the Bennett cousins very much so we had tons to talk about. My cousin Jeff had to leave the reception very early because he was running the New York marathon on Sunday so I really didn’t get to talk to him very much. Steve always makes for great conversation and a good time. The reception ended very early. It was ten o’clock when the lights came on and it was time to leave. We hailed a couple cabs and went to the same bar that we were at before the wedding. We spent the rest of the night there, just the fam. Everyone left at different points of the night and surprisingly the last ones standing were Jocelyn, me and my dad.

Sunday morning was rougher than rough. We got up at six to get a taxi to the airport. As soon as we got to the airport I laid on my bag and slept until the final call for us to board. We make it back without any problems, we had a layover in Cincinnati and got in about one. We made it just in time to see the Packers lose to the Steelers. A great extended family weekend, they don’t happen enough.

Final tally on exotic car sightings. 3 Lamborghini’s, a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Bentley, an Aston Martin, countless high end Benzes and BMWs (the Ford Escorts of FtL). I haven’t seen this much excess and filthy richness in my life and I only saw a two mile stretch of FtL. I’m really disappointed in myself because for the first time in my life I felt a little jealousy being around all the haves and I have always tried to be thankful for what I have. But seeing all the excess and knowing that I will never have a fraction of their opportunities got me thinking for the first time about material goods as a measure of a person instead of a person’s ethics and morals. I haven’t had any material jealousy since we left and I am back to just worrying about being a good person but for the first time I could see how one could be driven throughout their life by material worth instead of self worth.