I Give Thanks For This Alternator

This Thanksgiving wasn't that wild and crazy Thanksgiving weekend that I'm used to. J and I drove up to Falls after work to take part in the biggest bar night of the year. I could really care less how big of a bar night that it is I just like hanging out with all my old cronies. We hit up the Osthelder and the normal crowd was there. The thing is I'm used to seeing the "normal" crowd. Usually on Thanksgiving there are a couple people that you run in to that you haven't seen in a while. This Thanksgiving that didn't happen. So we did the "normal" circuit instead. Went to the Other Place and hit up Big Jimmy's. I did a little karaoke action at the OP and that was probably the highlight of what turned out to be a below average Thanksgiving-eve night. Thanksgiving we did the normal Thanksgiving thing. We went over by my brother Randy and had dinner. We ate late this year which was a little different than our normal mid-afternoon time. We drank a couple bottles of wine and I played with my nephew. Once the food was ready we dug in and it was delicious, how could it not be. After dinner we laid around and got tired. We headed home and gave in to the tryptophan. The day after Thanksgiving I had some things that I had to buy. I know the stores are crazy packed but I really didn't have any other time to do my errands. I headed to TJ Maxx to look for some dress pants. They didn't have any pants but I did find a great deal on an acoustic guitar. I have wanted one for so long so I finally bought one and am going to learn how to play the axe. If you aren't on my good side right now you might want to start sucking up because I might just forget you when I'm a rock star in a couple years. We went to a couple other stores but I rushed through them so I could get back to my brothers and start jamming on my guitar. Once we got back to my brothers house my jam session was further delayed by a quick burger from On the House bar down the street. Finally, I was able to start living my dream. I quickly noticed that my dream would take a long time because it was extremely hard to play the guitar without a tuner or a pick. I figured I would get a tuner on eBay but I could buy some picks now. So I hopped in the hoopty and drove to the music store to buy some picks. On my way to the store I noticed instantly there was something wrong with the car. Whenever I stopped at a stoplight the radio would turn off and the lights would dim. I knew I had some power problems but I would not let…

Whoa is Me, Badgers!

On Friday J and I went to eat at Zyang Asian Grill here in downtown Milwaukee. The food was very good and I recommend it to all. The prices were very reasonable and the sake was very good. Not much more to discuss on Friday. We went home after that and vegged out on the couch. Saturday I was going to watch the Badger game at my place but I called Luedke and found out that a bunch of my peeps were going to be watching the game at the Miller Time Pub. During the walk to the pub I was feeling really good. There was a nice football crisp in the air and Ohio State had just beat Michigan so a win by Bucky and we were heading to the Rose Bowl. Well the optimism faded as soon as the ball was kicked. For the second week in a row the Badgers got it handed to them. They looked like a high school team and ruined what could have been one of the best years in Wisconsin football history. The not having had a bite to eat all night really turned me into a mess. We left Miller Time and headed to a friends house where I met up with Jocelyn. From there we went to a bar called Lava. I would elaborate on the night but to tell you they truth I don't really know what happened after we left Miller Time Pub. It's been a long time since I have been in a state like this. I guess we all had a good time because my wallet was empty and I had mysterious charges on my bank card from that night. Badgers disappoint! Sunday we didn't do much. I usually just skip the Sunday entry because it involves sitting around watching football. But this Sunday I took a little time from watching football and went to see Jocelyn's new place of work. For those of you that don't know, Jocelyn started a new job this week with Stark Investment. It's kind of the same thing she was doing in NY but she's on the other side of the business, I don't know, have her explain. Her building is in St. Francis and is very modern and fancy. They get their own gourmet chef who cooks for them every day. Their lunch is paid pretax for get this, $2 a fancy gourmet lunch. Cheaper than my damn microwaved Smart Ones. The whole place was super nice. On the lake, has a full gym, and that chef in Le Cafe. So props to my woman, wish her luck at her new job. The Packers won another barn burner Sunday night with a yet another Favre comeback and another Longwell field goal. The Pack is back! Happy Turkey Day!

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…

Sponge Bob Again?

This Halloween was a pretty tame one. On Friday Jocelyn and I hit up Turner Hall for a fish fry and then went to go see a movie at a massive cinemaplex in New Berlin. There were twenty some movie theaters but the theater we were in was ironically the smallest movie theater I've probably ever been in. I've seen some home movie systems that rival the size of this theater. The reason the theater was so small is because we saw a movie that nobody probably ever heard of. We went to see a movie called "What the Bleep Do We Know!?". It was a Discovery Channel type movie that discussed quantum physics and theory and asked questions about why we perceive things the way we do and what makes us us and is there an us. It has a bit of theology mixed in as well. It was a great movie and really makes you think about life and the universe. If you are a thinker, questioner, and ponder go see this movie tonight. If you aren't, go see it tomorrow, it's really good. After the movie was over my brain hurt too much and I didn't know if I actually existed or thought I existed so I took my non-existent ass to bed. Saturday we really didn't do that much either. There was a party going on but I didn't feel like going so Todd and Steph came over and hung out. We all sat around and drank some sangria and watched "The Lady in White" which is a movie that scared the crap out of me as a kid. It is a hard movie to find and is currently out of print. I tried to get the DVD on eBay last year but it was going for $100+. I managed to get a copy this year for $25. It was obviously a bootleg and I was going to send it back but it would be more trouble doing that than it's worth. Anyway, the movie wasn't scary at all and was cheesier that I expected. It would have been good back in the day but the awful special effects and bad acting took all the horror out of the movie. When that was over Todd and Steph went home. Jocelyn and I felt like going out so I slapped on my Sponge Bob costume and we went to Flannery's for a couple drinks. We headed home about midnight and hit the hay. I haven't had this calm of a Halloween weekend since I was bobbing for apple at my aunt's house. Oh well, there's always next year. Sunday was an unexpected crazy day for me. I went with Jocelyn to her bar, the Sports Dock in Pewaukee, to watch the Packer game. I had a couple Bloody Marys and some beers and talked with the locals while the game was going on. The Packers rolled to another victory and I was feeling pretty good. Jocelyn got…