Ba Hum-flu-bug

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…

There’s a Tear In My Beer

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To those of you who were lucky enough to enjoy the wonderful Tiger with me you can help feel my pain. A key cog in my New York memories were created and the Blind Tiger on 10th and Hudson. I feel some sadness that I will never be able to go there again. The story below is a Tiger eulogy. For those of you that never made it there is still hope for finding an unpretentious New York bar. My buddy Chris, the bartender mentioned in story 4, has opened another bar not far away. If you're in New York go visit Professor Thoms and tell Chris "Ryan sent you." Last Call for A Tiger by Patrick J. Sauer Tale of the Tiger #1: Three weeks ago. One of my best friends from growing up in Billings, MT, stand-up comic Auggie Smith, moved to New York after years of occasional visits and constant prodding on my part. We go out to celebrate and hit the Blind Tiger on a Sunday night. We settle in, get a beer and Auggie says, "Oh yeah, I remember this place it smells like piss and malt vinegar." I was perusing my weekly "the-sky-is-falling" newspaper known as The Villager with typical skepticism of its drumbeat that the neighborhood was always better than it is today when I came across an item that gripped me in angst for a not-so-distant-past. The corrugated tin ceiling really was falling. They're closing my bar. On December 27th, an unpretentious bar on the corner of Hudson and 10th known as the Blind Tiger will shut its doors, leaving the city with one less great place to knock back a few. The reasons why are as common these days as $12 cocktails, suffice to say "luxury condos" is a central theme. Downtown housing prices and hipsters being what they are, it isn't surprising that the Tiger is closing down, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing. Tale of the Tiger #2: Holiday season, 2002. My wife Kim, my buddy Leo and myself decide to get a drink on a wintry December before putting up our Christmas tree. Kim wants one of Louise the bartender's all-world Bloody Marys spiced up wit her homemade pickles. She brings a jar and shares them with other bar denizens. It's a brilliant combination, equal to your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter, and the pickles don't last long. Hours later, a crooked tree with lights and ornaments all weighted to one side is erected, leading to a second tree-decorating-correction-celebration the following night. The shuttering of the Blind Tiger means very little and a whole lot. Given the economic realities of living life in regular New York, one less tavern isn't going to provoke the boozy masses to revolution, nor is it going to spark bittersweet pining on one of the "Great Walks of New York" shows WNET breaks out during pledge week. The Tiger doesn't qualify for Greenwich Village pathos because it wasn't forced out, the owners decided not to renew…

T’was The Week Before Christmas

I'm actually doing something out of the ordinary and staying up-to-date with my blog. It's Sunday night and all of the weekend's craziness is fresh in my head so no detail will be left out. This may be up to the minute but there isn't much craziness to document this weekend. Friday I had a half day so I had a little time to get some things taken care of. I went to an optometrist to try to find some prescription Oakleys. No luck though. I need some new specs but I can't seem to find the ones that I want anywhere. After that I headed to the Ale House for some lunch. Post cheese steak and stout beer I headed home in the blistering cold. It was so cold that my iPod literally froze and stopped working and now I can't get the piece of junk working. Please click on the link on the left side of the page to help me get my iPod back. They've roped me in and now I won't be able to live without the thing. After the Ale House and the frozen iPod I got home and took an afternoon nap. J and I went grocery shopping, she took a "sick day" as well, so we picked up some stuff for dinner. We stayed in on Friday and I cooked a nice meal. I made some homemade pasta and some delicious sauce to go with it. We stayed in and had a bottle of wine and enjoyed the radiation of our radiators, pretending it was a fireplace. I had to wake up early again this Saturday to help out Luedke. Up at six and off to Germantown. I worked on the network and did riveting group policy setup. At noon we had had enough and we had a couple beers and watched the UW-Whitewater championship game. For the second half we went to a nice bar in G-town called Barley Pop. I had probably the closed thing to heaven on a bun that you can get. It was a steak sandwich with mozzarella cheese, bacon and ranch dressing, oh man. We watched the second half of the game, played some Golden Tee, some pool and headed back downtown after seeing Whitewater lose a close one. I took an hour nap after I got home to refresh the batteries. When I woke up I tried something new. The hair is getting a little shaggy and in need of a haircut but I thought that before I trimmed it I would try something different. I got a hair highlighting kit and put some streaks in my hair. It looks ok actually. I doubt it will be something that I do on a regular basis but for the time being I like it. After that we got ready for a holiday party that our friend Tasha was having. We headed out there with Luedke and Anna. The party was a good time. Laid back with good…

Fa La La La La La – La La – La La

We had a very festive weekend. On Friday we headed out to Jocelyn's swim team Christmas party. The party was at Thunder Bay Grill out towards Brookfield. The setup was nice. There was a small menu of four different entrees that we could choose from. I had the steak and J had the pork chops which I ate one of so I can vouch for their deliciousness. There were tons of raffle prizes given out during dinner. The prizes include such wonderful prizes as salsa, small novelty gift sets and some nice swimming gear for the swimmers. After dinner a lot of the team stuck around but J and I ducked out quick to go see the Christmas train which was about ten minutes away. The train was supposed to arrive at 9:30 but it was over an hour late. Luckily there was a shelter we could stand in to keep warm. While we waited around the kids sang carols with some teacher type lady. Finally the train arrived. It was so cold and windy I didn't get to look at the train as much as I would've liked to. The train was the Canadian Pacific and it had every car decorated with Christmas lights. It also had one boxcar that opened up and acted as a stage for a band. I got to hear one song but it was so cold we had to get back to the car and someplace warm. After that we headed back to the swimming party but everyone was leaving and going to play poker at a team member's house. That really wasn't our cup of tea so we headed home for the night. Still in holiday mode I got a majority of my Christmas presents wrapped during the day on Saturday. At night we went to go see the Christmas Carol at the Pabst Theater. I hadn't been to the Pabst since grade school so I was looking forward to it. If you want to get in the holiday mood or like the Christmas Carol I highly recommend seeing the play. The actors were great and did an outstanding job. It is one of those events where you walk down the street and are singing Christmas carols on the way home. After the play we headed to Nick Richard's party, singing Christmas carols of course. He and his girlfriend had rented out their condo's party room for her birthday. The whole crew was there. We stayed there for an hour and then headed to Flannery's to keep the party going. After the bars closed a couple people came over to our apartment for some Rau Braus and some late night movie watching. The movie watching was briefly interrupted by a pull-up contest. I bought this new bar that mounts on the door frame and you can do pull-ups on it. I have never claimed to be strong but my pull-up ability is nonexistent. Due to the weight that I gained back after my…

The Bears Still Suck

No brainer for this weeks title. Friday was a pretty cold one. Jocelyn and I had already made the decision on Monday that we wanted to go out to eat so even though it was chilly we walked to the Pasta Tree. The Pasta Tree is a quaint restaurant that is a couple blocks from where we live. Once we got there it was fine because the fire and wine made for a warm and cozy environment. The food was fabulous and it comes highly recommended. I got the shrimp and broccoli cream sauce and J got a vegetable type pasta. It was very satisfying but that satisfaction quickly faded as we stepped outside for the cold walked home. Once back at home we cranked up the radiators and popped in Star Wars III. We sampled some of the wines that Jocelyn got and enjoyed the warmth. I had to help out Luedke so I woke up very early on Saturday and helped him out until about one o'clock. After I got home I was pretty tired so I took a nap. J and I both needed some stuff from Wal-mart so we headed there about three. We left at the absolute worst time because as soon as we left a blizzard started. We made it to Wal-mart, picked up a little Christmas tree and made it back ok but the weather was awful. This bad streak of weather really took away my desire to leave the house so J and I got some gyros from Mykono's and had a repeat of the night before, with a different movie of course. Sunday I was feeling a little stir crazy so I met some of the guys at Rosie's for the second half of the Packers v. Bears game. The Packers managed to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The sting was further compounded by the jack ass Bears fans that came out of the woodwork and were watching the game as well. I like how every single one of them was also a "life long" White Sox fan, typical FIBs. After the game I had to go meet my live in Bears fan at Borders to pick up some books/Christmas gifts. On the way home we stopped at Flannery's for a burger to conclude the events of the weekend.