Get The Plate Number on that Conga Line?

Friday night we headed to Madison with Todd and Steph because we both had weddings to go to. We arrived at Graham’s on the West side about eight. We had a couple bloodies there and then did the Madison bar crawl of all our old hangouts. We got a small bite to eat at Johnny-O’s, then drank a Real Thing at the Red Shed, drank some stiffies at the hot as blazes Monday’s, cooled off at Brothers and ended up at faithful Church Key. After we finished our crawl we headed to our respective pizza joints and met up post grease for the ride home. We had our trusty CDL carrying driver Graham to take us home so we had no worries. Once we got in the car to go to Graham’s, T and Steph passed out cold. Once to Graham’s we tried to wake everyone up but Todd was straight passed out so he got to sleep in the car all night. I think he said he ended up waking up about five and actually coming in the house. Day one down.

Saturday we had our wedding. Angie Sampson got married to Nick Krey. The whole day was great. We went to the ceremony and it was very nice. We did learn later on the church was actually robbed the night before. The thieves didn’t do any damage to the main part of the church but they trashed the offices and took some computers. Someone was watching out for Angie and Nick because the thieves also left the dresses and tuxes behind. Once the ceremony was over I had a little party to go to that my buddy Tyler was throwing. I was in town and I would’ve felt bad if I didn’t pop in. So J and I went there for a drink and checked out Tyler’s pad in Verona. We had to leave after about an hour to meet up with the wedding at The Great Dane South. Once there we talked, played some Golden Tee, and a little shuffle puck. After a couple beers we all headed to the nights final destination, the Radisson on the West side. This really is the way to do a wedding. The reception and our hotel room were under the same roof. Once at the reception we did the normal wedding things. Ate a good dinner, drank some cocktails, danced and met some new people. I did have a traumatic experience at this wedding that will forever scar me. I had had a couple beers so I needed to use the lavatory. These were really nice spacious bathrooms and I happened to be the only one in there at the time so I was taking my time, enjoying the flow, when all of a sudden the door flies open and I see Jamie Thomas leading the conga line through the men’s bathroom while I’m doing my business. The surprised look on my face must’ve been priceless. I had my pants zipped up in 1/10th of a second and I was done. The only problem is I could move anywhere because I was trapped by the damn conga line. So finally the line passed me and I was able to get to the door. At this point everyone had already congaed by me once so I was a nice guy and held the door open for them, oh the humanity. The wedding went until about 12:30. After everything wound down we headed to the hotel bar where we thought everyone was going to be but apparently everyone went to bed after the wedding because we were the only ones in there. We spent the rest so the night conversing with a very funny, very openly gay bartender and listened to his stories. We also met some cool bike builder guys some South Carolina. We stayed there until bar time and then took the elevator home.

I Too Blister In The Sun

Friday after work Jocelyn and I went to the zoo to “Feast with the Beasts” and see the Violent Femmes. It was a good time. We walked around the zoo and ate items from some different restaurants. The food was ok but I was really there to see the Femmes. Their entire show was awesome and they entertained from beginning to end. The thing that made it weird was I hung out with the lead singer a couple times in New York. Gordon was a regular at The Blind Tiger in NY, as was I, so we had talked to each other a couple times. Don’t get me wrong here, we weren’t bosom buddies or anything. We were just a couple of the privileged few who got to stay after bar time and have a few extra drinks while the Tiger was being cleaned up. So most of our encounters were about 5 in the morning with a belly full of beer. The craziest was the time that Gordon, Chris and I went to see a band at The Knitting Factory. It a good time but I felt very awkward the whole night for some reason. Anyway, I got to see the Femmes at the zoo and they absolutely kicked ass. Shout out to Wertz, The Blind Tiger, and Gordon.

Saturday morning was the first step on my quest to get back in shape. J and I signed up for the 5k Sausage Race at Miller Park. We got up about 7 and made our way to the race. I did my pre-race ritual of sitting around and waiting to start. Finally at nine the race started. If all of you thought being one of those racing sausages is nothing but fun, think again. The sausages all had to run the 5k with us. They all got to start in front and it took me a mile to catch the Polish. The course was fairly easy and towards the end of the race you run into Miller Park and do a lap around the field. I finished and had way too much left in my tank. I ran it in 22 minutes. Not what I wanted but it’ll do for my first race back. Jocelyn on the other hand kicked major booty and ran the race in 25 minutes. When it was over you received a free brat or hotdog. So I ate J’s hotdog as well as my brat for breakfast. When the race was over we cruised home. The day was gorgeous and with your entry in the race you also received a ticket to that night’s game. We were going to go to the game at six but the weather was too nice so we headed the park at three. We met some nice people next to us in the lot so we talked with them and grilled up my marinated tenderloin and a can of beans, delicious. We went into the game about the third inning. The Brewers blow. We stayed and watched them lose until the seventh and then we headed home. We were going to go out but we both laid down and fell asleep. We woke up at midnight and decided we really didn’t need to go anywhere.

Sunday we actually had a good time too. Luedke’s parents invited J and I along for a boat cruise on the Milwaukee River. It was the margarita boat tour. We cruised down the river and into the marina while sipping some boat drinks and listening to the tunes. After the tour the whole clan went to Mo’s for a couple pints. When that was over we wrapped up the weekend. A thanks to the Luedke’s for taking us along!

How Would You Like Your Steak… Large Please

Friday we took off for the PGA championship festivities up in Sheboygan. I thought the traffic would be awful but we were actually able to fly right up. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for at least a month and it’s not because the golf tourney, who care about golf, it was the steak. I’ve had my fair share of steaks at my fair share of restaurants and the world’s best (and cheapest) steak is right in my back yard. Schwarz’s in St. Anna (it’s a crossroad in the middle of nowhere, seriously, nowhere) has the best steak ever. Once you find the crossroad you come upon your typical crossroads town. A church, a couple bars, and some houses. This boonies town happens to also have Schwarz’s and it is always packed so be prepared to wait at least an hour. You can’t make reservations at the place, in fact the have a sign “If you want a reservation, you’re at the wrong place.” and the whole process isn’t like your normal supper club meal. The normal crowd (this time was no exception) has farmers who just finished their daily chores to dressed up businessmen in their beamers. Now when you walk in the door, or should I say squeeze in the door, you are greeted by a large bar and some waitresses with menus. You place your order at the bar and then sit there and suck ’em down until your table is ready. I ordered the porterhouse ($22) and Jocelyn got the petite NY strip ($13). So once our order was placed we sat at the bar, watched some golf, and sucked down some of their world famous $2.90 Old Fashions. A couple drinks later and our table was ready. The whole dinner part of the experience only lasts about thirty minutes. When you get to your table they have your salad sitting out for your and a veggie platter with bread. Once you get your salads done the waitress swoops in with your steak and you’re ready to go. When my steak came even I was amazed and I’ve been there a good amount of times. My porterhouse had a little umbilical cord that was attached to another steak that was bigger than Jocelyn’s NY strip. The steak had to be somewhere in the 35 oz. range. I dug right in and it was done perfectly and tasted great as usual. Their seasoning and melt in your mouth tenderness is something no other restaurant can compare to. I polished off the steak, felt gluttonous, and loved every second of it. I paid the bill, a whopping $38 and was once again able to bask in the glow of my meat high. Once we were done we headed back to Falls. It was the same old thing except this time everyone was wearing PGA Championship clothing instead of NASCAR and Packers gear. The O and Firehouse had a band so we checked both of those out. We pretty much did the Falls bar crawl and hit up all the fine establishments as well as the new bar across from the post office. It was a good time. We headed to my brothers a little before bar time and got some sleep.

Saturday was the 1st annual Murray family picnic. I haven’t seen a lot of my cousins in a long time so this was a fun time. We rented a park and set up shop. The day was full of drinking, eating WAY too much, and every lawn sport that you can think of. I played (and dominated) bocce ball, horseshoes, wiffle ball, and threw every kind of ball and saucer you can imagine. Really not much more to say other than it was a good time with the fam. My uncle Tommy did put on quite the show when he made his tacos on the grill and told his story and how he served in the military with Elvis, funny stuff. The picnic was over at about 8:30. We were planning on going out but we couldn’t get ourselves going, we were spent. So we staying in and watched the Olympics on Saturday night.

Tuesday we went to the Brewers v. Cubs game. Jocelyn’s dad and her sister came up from Peoria for the festivities. We grilled out in the parking lot before the game. Once we were in the game I met up with my cousin Steve who also came up from Chicago for the game. Steve came up with some of his buddies from work and a couple of guys from India that he works with, it was their first game. I sat with Steve and his buddies and booed the Cubs. I got heckled at my own stadium but I didn’t care because the Brewers won! Go Brewers! Wednesday we went to the game again but this time the outcome wasn’t as good. The Crew lost in 11. The one positive about this game is that I don’t have to see the damn Cub fans taking over our stadium any more this year. GO HOME CHUBS!

Congrats to by bro Randy and his wife Becky. They had a baby girl on the 16th so now I have someone to celebrate my birthday with!

The Skipper Too… Was Wasted

Friday after work I went to state fair to do the whole eating thing. J picked me up and we parked outside of the grounds so we didn’t have to pay for parking. We got in to the fairgrounds for free too because you could use a Cubs v. Brewers ticket stub to get into the fair for free. Since we went to every Chub game we had a stockpile of free tickets so we got a couple for Deli and Steph and we met them at the fair. It was really crowded and we really didn’t do anything but eat. I had my pork chop sandwich (best food at the fair), a Swiss n’ rye, a big pickle, a couple glasses of flavored milk, and a couple ears of corn. We went into the main expo hall but I really didn’t feel like listening to all the Brits pitch their wonder mops. We also signed up for the dream home again so I have my fingers crossed on that one. We spent a majority of the night in the micro brew tent. They have different beers from the micro breweries in WI. If you kill a keg there you get a “keg killer” t-shirt with Paul Bunyan on it. J and I tried for about four hours to kill one last year but we didn’t get one. This year was different and she killed a keg on her second beer and received the coveted t-shirt. We hung out there until elevenish. My brother was there so it was a good time hand by all.

Saturday we took the Milwaukee microbrewery boat tour with Chad and Emily. For $18 you go to Rock Bottom, Lakefront, and the Milwaukee Ale House on a pontoon boat. The boat tour started at one at Rock Bottom. We had a good time sampling the brews and being stupid. A word of advice if you take the tour, don’t have the Ale House as your last stop. You only get one beer there and after having an unlimited source of brew up to this point it is tough to scale back to one beer an hour. Once we were done with the boat tour we headed back to my apt for a bit. After relaxing briefly we went over to Chappy’s apt and joined them for a cook out. I, being the manliest of all the men, took over the grill and cooked up the brats and chicken. We chowed down and played some darts. Chappy and his crew were going to hit up some of the bars but I didn’t feel like going out yet. So Chad, the girls and I headed back to my apt. We had some brews and watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD, funny stuff. Then Chad got a call from his brother Paul and he was at a house party just up the street from us. So we headed up there and spent the rest of the night there. It was a lot of fun being at a true house party again. We headed to Mykano’s at midnight, ate our gyro fry and called it a night.

It’s Where the Water Animals Play

I had a full week these past couple days. It started out on Tuesday with the buckethead game, Crew v. Cubs. I had gotten these tickets about a month ago and was looking forward to my first buckethead game of the year, boy was I disappointed. When we got to our seats I thought we would be in the only Chub free section in Miller Park, we were so wrong! Somehow the damn Cubs fans were even in the buckethead section so we still had to put up with the stuck up, no baseball intellect, snobs. The game was awful too. Ben Sheets was pitching and got shelled the first couple innings. We were down 6-0 in the sixth and I was sick of hearing cheers for Chicago so I did the unthinkable and actually left the game early. This is unlike me but when you’re essentially in an away stadium it is no fun watching the other fans gloat. Cubs fans are by far the biggest gloaters and biggest whiners in the majors so I was out. No fun, even worse game. Something has to be done about these Cubs games to get the Cubs fans out of OUR home park.

Thursday was Jazz in the Park. J and I hadn’t been there in a while so we decided we really needed to make an appearance. We went a little later than usual so we weren’t able to get our regular spot at stage left. We managed to find a spot stage right and we plunked our chairs down and got one of our four bottles of Jazz in the Park wine. Later on L and his girlie showed up so we had someone friends to hang out with and take in some good tunes.

Friday was quite the day. Jocelyn had planned this getaway weekend for my birthday (not to late for you to send presents). She had me pack a back the night before and said that we were going somewhere a half hour away. I kept telling her to just tell me where we’re going because there is no place a half hour from Milwaukee that I want to spend the night. No matter how much I begged she wouldn’t tell me so I had to wait until after work. She picked me up after work and we were on our way. This whole surprise thing really put me in a bad mood and I was straight pissed for the entire ride. Finally we got to my bud Delahunt’s house and the secret was finally revealed, we were going to the Dells with D and Steph to celebrate the men’s birthdays. The reason Jocelyn said a half hour away was because I actually guessed where we were going the week before. So we packed up the Montero and we were off to WI-Dells. A couple hours later we arrived and checked into our motel just off the downtown strip. We had a couple adult beverages in our rooms and hung out. Then we met a group of guys in another room from Manitowoc. They asked us if we wanted to go by the pool and play some drinking Jenga and of course we said yes. So we sat around the pool until about nine when we decided to go get a bit to eat. We went to the Riverwalk bar that was right by our motel. It was a nice new lodge-type place. We ordered some drinks and got some grub. The food and drink were both cheap and very good, we would be back. After a couple games of darts and some jager bombs we went up to Nig’s on the strip. We sat there, had a couple and talked dumb. As part of my b-day present J got me a “I Had A Swig At Nig’s” shirt. D and I were getting antsy at Nig’s so we took off to go a different bar while the girls finished their drinks. D and I went to the Sandbar and had a beer there and shot some pool. We ran into a couple locals and shot the breeze with them for a bit. Then we realized we should probably go to the bar that we told the girls we would meet them at. So we headed to the Showboat and met the ladies. Not only were the ladies there but the group of guys from the motel were there too so we all had some drinks and sang karaoke. D and Steph went home at about one but I had to stay and sing “Ring of Fire” so we stayed until twoish and then headed back.

Saturday we woke up at about eight and got ready for Noah’s Ark. We arrived at the park about ten which I guess is the ideal time to go to NA. The longest line that we stood in was maybe fifteen minutes. The weather was sunny and in the mid-80s so we had a perfect day. We got to go on all the slides we wanted to before noon and then we had lunch in the parking lot. We ate our sandwiches and headed back in but the park got really crowded and the lines turned into an hour fifteen wait time. We didn’t feel like standing in line so we headed to the lazy river and floated around for an hour. Once we were done with that we decided to call it a day at NA. We dried off and decided to take a ride on the army ducks. We took the hour tour. It had been a long time since I’ve taken the tour so it was fun to see the rock formations and cruise around on the duck. It was fun but the end was lame when the driver tried to sell us postcards and asked for tips. Then they tried to peddle a $17 dollar picture to us. That really stunk considering we just paid $20 to go on an hour ride. It was a small hiccup in an otherwise perfect weekend. After the ducks we went back to the motel and showered up and took a nap. We woke up around seven and took one of our eighty acquired Moose Jaw Pizza coupons and went to go get some dinner. It was crowded so we had to wait at the bar. While there I thought I would make the most of it so I ordered their 10 point buck sampler which was 10 – 5 oz. samples of their brews. We had some pizza and my sampler and it was all very good. From there we headed back to the motel to relax some more. We decided to go bar to the Riverwalk bar and play it low key. Once we got there we all hit a brick wall and we just couldn’t stay out. We ended up heading home around 10:30 and calling it a night. We all had too much excitement for one day.

Sunday we got up early again and checked out of the motel. From there we went to Paul Bunyan’s all-u-can-eat family style breakfast. The breakfast was only about $8 a person and was tasty for being served in army mess hall fashion. From there we cruised back to MKE and went to the Brewers game to wrap up the day. We got free tickets from Craig and the weather was perfect so what better way to wrap up our weekend. The Crew won in the bottom of the 9th and the weekend was officially demeaned perfect. Thanks to J and Steph for the planning and thanks to Mother Nature for summer, finally!