Getting My Milwaukee Culture

Back to back weekends with the Marti clan, a dangerous yet eventful endeavor. When we were up North last week Paul had mentioned to me that he was going to the Food and Froth festival at the Milwaukee Museum on Saturday. The festival consisted of 200 beers and a bunch of Milwaukee area restaurants positioned throughout the exhibits for sampling, both culture and beer. Jocelyn was going to go to Chicago so I thought that meeting up with Martis would be fun. The festival started at seven so I walked to the museum at about quarter after six. When I got there the lobby was packed with people waiting to get in with their sampler glass. Once the gates open I strolled around the streets of old Milwaukee and the Sahara desert sampling beers. The Martis were running late and I met them at about half past. The group consisted of mister and missus Marti, Paul and his wife, Craig and some of Paul's friends. The event was very cool. It was fun to stroll through the museum and drink some samples. The event museum was packed and I had heard that the event sold out. We drank and sampled until ten when the event shutdown. So after twenty plus mini beers we decided to go to Wolski's. It took us about an hour to get out of the parking structure. By the time we got to Wolski's everyone was geared up for a beer. The group got crazy and had fun and those are the most details I can tell you. I walked home from Wolski's at an unknown time and got home at an unknown time. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for this one next year, it was great time.

Up Nort’ ‘ey

Last weekend wasn't even worth writing about. The weekend was Doomed from the start. By Doomed I mean I spent the entire weekend playing my new video game Doom 3. I like to just waste weekends on video games instead of spending every night during the week doing little by little. I did solve it so I can have my life back. The other highlight was I switched my computer back to a tower case from my little cube case. I need more space for storage so I'm back to the full size. Nothing really even worth mentioning last weekend; boring and geeky. This past Monday was worth mentioning. We had our tasting for the food that we're going to have at the wedding and my is it good. We're having too much to list so all I can say is everyone will be pleasantly stuffed when it is over. That brings us to this weekend. I was finally able to make the trip to the Marti's cabin up North in the Crivitz area. Chad has invited me to about ten of these trips and I've always been busy on the weekend that they go up. I finally got to go along. Chad flew in Friday afternoon and Pyrek picked him up from the airport. After work I went home, packed up my long underwear and went over to Darren's apartment to meet up with Chad and Ryan. Ryan drove us three and a half hour drive up to the Northwoods. We met Telly (who I haven't seen in about six years), Chad's dad and brothers at a bar/restaurant in Crivitz. The bar was your typical up North snowmobilers watering hole. We had a couple drinks there and some pizzas. While we were warming up in the bar the weather was getting colder and colder and dropped to -10 without the wind chill. After we finished eating we drove north the additional twenty minutes to get to Amburg which is the actual town the cabin is in. Amburg has two bars and we split our night between the two. The bars were your typical up North taverns with your typical up North clientele. There was a nice mix of the hick locals and the snowmobilers taking a break from driving eighty miles an hour to the next bar. After the bars we headed to the cabin and staked out where everyone was going to sleep in the cabin. There were ten guys staying there and there was enough room for all of us, barely. So after eating some more pizzas to soak up all the Miller Lite I hit the floor to get some sleep. Friday night was the worst night of sleep I have ever had. I actually didn't get any sleep, not one wink. Craig has a new dog and the thing stayed up the entire night whimpering and yelping. The thing did not shut up for one second. I was so irate and I thought the thing…

He’s An Island Boy

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…

Too Much Weekend Work

I skipped last week's entry because I did absolutely nothing. Nada, zip, zero. The only thing I did is watch a lot of football. This weekend was a little more exciting but not much. Friday I went out after work for a going away party at the Ale House. I stayed there for a couple hours and then headed home. Once at home I ate and watched some movies. Saturday I had to wake up early to go work on L's network. I should have stayed home because I messed up some of the network permissions. I got a little accomplished but not nearly as much as I wanted to get done. I got home about one, at a burrito and watch the next playoff game. After that game was over it was time to get ready for the ASQ holiday party. I probably wouldn't have gone but it was two blocks away from here at the Astor hotel. I figured why stay home and have frozen pizza when I can go a block and get a real meal for free. J and I headed over there a little before seven for the cocktail hour. We had our free drink and mingled with some of my colleagues. At 7:30 it was time for dinner. For dinner we both had the sun dried tomato chicken. The food was pretty good, nothing overly special. I was probably the first one done and the first one out of the ballroom and to the bar. The second football game was on and there was no way I was going to miss it for a work related function. After a couple minutes some other people started to trickle out to the bar. I sat and watched the game with J and some work folk. After the game was over the place started to clear out. A couple of the friendlier people from work were going to County Claire for a couple more drinks. So we went the block to the CC. J was pretty tired so she headed home after about ten minutes. I was having a good time so I stayed out a bit longer. I had another Guinness and headed home about midnight. Pretty low key year up to this point. No drama thus far though so that a bonus. Next weekend probably won't be too special either but next week I head off to St. Thomas! Oh yea!

Not A Productive Year, So Far

Happy New Year all! This was a wild New Year. This past week I had that nasty cold/flu bug that has been going around. I tried my hardest to get rid of it in time for the New Year weekend. Friday I took it easy and started to get things ready for the New Year dinner that I was throwing. I was feeling significantly better so that was a good thing. A couple people asked if I wanted to go out but I didn't want to have a relapse. So Friday night I took it easy and got ready for the last day of the year. Saturday I woke up feeling about 85% to 90%. That was enough healing to get excited to have a good time. Jocelyn and I didn't feel like standing around at a party so we decided to have Todd and Steph over for a nice dinner and then go out after that if we felt like it. I spent almost all day Saturday cooking. The menu was bruschetta, salt and horseradish encrusted prime rib with horseradish sauce, quintessential roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach, champagne Jell-O, and tapioca pudding. Todd and Steph arrived at about five. We had some drinks and the bruschetta and waited for the prime rib to finish up. We dug into the good stuff at about seven. Everything turned out great. The prime rib ended up being a little salty due to the salt paste that was rubbed on it but it meat inside was wonderful. After dinner we had our champagne Jell-O which ended up having a little more kick too it then we expected. Due to that little kick things started picking up and getting fun. Luedke and Anna came over to join us in our celebration. We turned on the tunes and played Cranium. It was the first time I played the game but it was very fun. It's a cross between Pictionary, charades and Trivial Pursuit. Jocelyn and I ended up having beginner's luck and pulling out the victory. After that we watched a bit of the New Year's celebrations on TV and waited for our countdown. The New Year came in with some picture on the Canon and some more champagne. After that we got a call from a motley crew coming downtown from the other party. They stopped in by us and we managed to find room for ten more people in our little place. The tunes were pumping and we were having a great time. The party started to thin out as people headed home. There was a pretty good size core group left though that wanted to head out. So some time after two we headed to the bars. We went to My Office and spent a good amount of time there. At about four thirty we decided that we had had enough and headed home. On the way home were needlessly sidetracked and ended up going to another bar. We went to…