It's a very, very, very fine house! We finally got our piece of the pie. We closed on our first house today! Come visit!

Jocelyn had to head to Illinois this weekend so instead of sitting on my butt I went with Luedke and one of his co-workers and wife to Ann Arbor for the Badgers v. Michigan game. Luedke picked me up at work at noon and we carpooled in his friend's van. The drive to Michigan was long and uneventful. We got to the hotel, checked in and immediately hit the hotel bar for a couple drinks. Luedke and I played some pool while we waited for everyone to settle into their rooms. After everyone got settled and met us at the bar we hung out for a bit and continued shooting some pool. We then cabbed it downtown and had dinner at Ann Arbor Brewing. I had a burger and a brew sampler, the food and beer were both delicious but be forewarned that when they say their Cajun burger is hot they mean it. After dinner we hung out there about an hour when everyone wanted to go back to the hotel. L and I wanted to get crazy so we stayed out. We met this dude at AAB and he took us to a hard to find bar that he thought we would like. We walked for quite some time and the dude didn't even really know how to get there. The more we walked the more I thought he was going to lead us down an alley and have his way with us. We finally found the place and I admit it was a hard place to find. It was a really cool bar in the basement of what looked like an apartment building. We stayed there for a bit but we wanted to ditch the dude who brought us so we took off. L and I walked around and found another brewery. We ordered up another round of samplers and those lasted us until bar time. After the bars closed it was impossible to get a cab so I started asking people at the stop signs for a ride for $10. One guy said he would give us a ride but he had to drop his buddy off, we gave him the old "yea right." So we continued our search. There were drunken Badger fans everywhere so we were hooting and hollering with them. One car we saw full of Badgers went through a stop sign and proceeded to get t-boned by another car, not a fun weekend for them. The cops were there in a second so we continued on our way. We kept on walking around and then out of nowhere that guy that said he had to drop off his friend drove up to us and asked if we still needed a ride. We did, so we hopped in and he took us back to our hotel for the night. L and I woke up super early and trekked to the gas station to pick up some beer. Of course they didn't have beer…

Another week that started early. This time instead of Jazz in the Park being the culprit it was one of Rock Bottom's Mug Club events. Rock Bottom Brewery holds tapping events every month where members of the Mug Club can go to RB and try the month's new beer for free. J and I went to the Oktoberfest celebration. They had a polka band and waitresses in durndels. We had our fair share of free beers then went inside and had one at the bar. After that we went to Jazz in the Park but didn't stay. We decided to go to My Office "for one". We ran into some interesting Irishmen and spent a couple hours talking to them. They were both unbelievably drunk. The one was almost unconscious but then the semi coherent one wanted to sing some Irish ballads. So the bartender turned down the jukebox and the guy snapped out of his coma and blasted forth this voice and song that brought chills to my body. They sang this great song and then the guy fell back into his coma. We would've loved to stay longer but we had to leave so we could get up for work the next day. We didn't do anything on Friday. We watched a movie and build a home theater PC for my cousin Steve. On Saturday we headed to Chicago. I had to drop off Steve's computer. Steve wasn't there when we arrived and I forgot a power cord so I ran to Best Buy to get the part. On the way back I stopped at The Weiner Circle for a top notch Chicago dog. Steve was back when we returned. I gave him his computer and helped him set it up. J and I had brought our bikes along and joined Steve and his girlfriend for a bike ride down the lakefront. We started in Lincoln Park and biked past Navy Pier to Soldier Field. We had to get to J's mom's so we turned around and went back while Steve continued on. When we got back we broke down our bikes and headed to the Chicago burbs. It was only about a half hour drive. The rest of the night was pretty low key. We got some delicious Chicago style deep dish pizza for dinner and I ate way too much. It was an exhausting day and I was sleeping by 11. We stuck around all of Sunday as well. I spent the day watching football and losing in pool to Chad. For dinner Craig cooked up his special filets and we had a great dinner and some wine. We shot a little pool after dinner and then we headed back to MKE. We made it back at about 10. A long weekend but very fun.

We packed an entire weekend into one Saturday this weekend. J's old boss Gina and her husband Bob invited us to come along with them to the Badger game. We met them out at the Sports Dock at and took the LS to Madison. We went to Margaritaville on the West side and got some lunch before hitting downtown. We got downtown about two hours before game time. We went to Buck's for a drink because that is my favorite place for Badger pre-game fun. After that we went to the Stadium bar and spent the rest of the pre-game there too. We actually spent almost the entire game at the bar too. We never made it into the game. After the third quarter we headed back to Buck's. We met Luedke and some others there. We watched the end of some other games that were on and then headed back to MKE. Bob stopped drinking a while ago so he was our dd. We made it back to the Sports Dock safe and sound. We had "one drink" at the SD so we ended up staying there for about two hours. After that we met Luedke and the rest of the clan at Rascal's. Schwenker came out of hiding so it was a special night. We didn't stay at Rascal's long. J went home and Schwenker and I broke off from the group. We drank our way back to our apartment. We went to the Nomad and another new bar that just opened up down the street from us. We made the traditional Myk stop to end the action packed day.

This weekend started unexpectedly early. Thursday J and decided to go to Jazz in the Park and out of nowhere I see my high school buddy Justin Gigstad walking around. Apparently he comes down from Falls fairly often to check out the concert. So J and I hung out with G and drank some wine. J went home but since G didn't have to work and there was a holiday weekend coming up I decided to show him some of the Milwaukee haunts. We went to the Lodge for pitcher and a pizza. Then went to the new Brew City and our final stops were My Office and Myk's. It was a great time but an unexpected night out. Friday after work we headed up to Sheboygan for the county fair. J and I stopped at the O and waited for G to show up so we could return his hat that was left by my place the night before. After he showed up we gave him his hat and headed to the farm to pick up my moving boxes for our upcoming move. I said hello to Randy, my nephew and my dad. We chatted a bit and then I headed to Rich's new house in Plymouth. We headed to the fair to get some Hot Wisconsin cheese, watch some tractor pulls and drink some Leine's. The fair was the same ol' fair but I had a lot of fun. I ran into to some of my high school chums so we talked stupid for a bit and reminisced about the days when we used to harass the carnies. After the fair we went to Antonio's for a night cap. When we got home we had a shot of moonshine and went to bed. We got to bed at a decent time on Friday so we were up pretty early on Saturday. Rich was roofing his garage. We stopped at a discount home supplies store and from there J and I embarked on the longest drive from Sheboygan to Milwaukee ever. We started by driving around looking for someplace to eat. We wanted pizza but all the places we wanted to go to were closed. We ended up going to Ella's Deli in the beautiful torn up downtown Sheboygan Falls. I forgot how good the subs from Ella's were. From there we stopped by Terri Andre State park. It has been ages since I've been there and once again I forgot how nice one of the gems of Sheboygan was. The water was so blue for Lake Michigan and the wind swept beach and dunes were gorgeous. J and I walked down the beach to the shelter house and looked at some of the teaching displays. Once we were done at the beach we headed to MKE. We got sidetracked on the way again and tried to stop at the Cedarburg winery. The winery wasn't what I expected though because it is right in the downtown. I was expecting…