Family and Food

This weekend we had the annual Murray family picnic. This annual picnic is only in its second year but is a must attend event due to the copious amounts of food. Jocelyn and I headed up to Sheboygan Saturday morning. We got to the park and immediately started digging into the vast variety of food. As usual there was a ton of food to sample, all delicious. The entire day was spent eating, drinking, listening to aunt and uncle stories, and playing yard games. We had a good time and when our stomachs were about to bust we headed back to MKE. We met up with the clan and headed to Rosie's to celebrate my birthday as well as Delahunt's. The shots were flying and I had more than my fair share. We headed to My Office for a night cap and some gyros to complete the night.

Baseball and Beats

The leg is getting better but I still have a long way to go. The bruising is absolutely disgusting. I have a bruise from my butt to my knee covering the rear 180 degrees of my leg. I can at least walk in a quazi normal fashion. But the leg wasn't going to keep me from going to the Brewers game. The D'backs were in town so I got tickets from Craig for all three games. On Monday Jocelyn and I went early and I got to see my first batting practice. We talked to Craig for a bit before the game and got caught up on everything and I told him my back to back foul balls story. The game was a victory for the Brewers. Tuesday's game was a normal Brewers experience. Jocelyn and I tailgated pre-game and then watched the Brewers win. It was actually the best of the three games because the Brewers won and Craig got three hits, perfect. Wednesday was a day game and I decided to take a half day. I hadn't been to a day game during the week for a couple years so this was a good reason to go. Jocelyn was going to go but couldn't get off work so I called Wians and Luedke. It was a perfect afternoon to catch some baseball and some rays. The game was pretty boring and the Brewers lost but the weather and time off made up for it. Friday was yet another Brewers game. I didn't even know I had tickets to until the night before. This night was a carbon copy of Tuesday except we sat in the beer pen and grilled marinated flank steak and potatoes. Saturday was Evraets's reception for his Mexican wedding in February. I was an integral part of making this reception fun because I volunteered to be the DJ. I have been working on my playlist for the last two weeks so that was set and ready to go. Early on Saturday I had to drive to Kenosha to pick up all the equipment that I needed to play some pumping music. So after I got the speakers and lights I headed back to Milwaukee to get ready. After we got ready we headed to Port Washington to set everything up. I set everything up and learned how to work the lights and the mixer. After that we went to meet up with the wedding party at a little supper club to have dinner before the reception. The entire wedding party wore their same outfits that they wore in Mexico so everyone was pretty overdressed for a Random Lake supper club. After dinner we went back to the hall and started things off. My list started with some 60s and then progressed in years as the night went on. The lights were going and the music was blasting. Throughout the night there was a good amount of people on the dance floor. I did learn that…

Overlooked Summer Festival: Kondofest

Happy Independence Day everyone! I love the holiday weekends. This past fourth weekend was quite chill for a usual party weekend. Friday I stayed in and wound down to go into full relaxation mode for the weekend. Saturday was Kondofest. For those of you that don't know Kondofest is a party held each year in conjunction with Summerfest. It is put on by one of my friends Mike Kondracowitz, or something like that. Any who, this year it was held at a new location because Mike now lives downtown and it's easier to get to Summerfest than from Brookfield. This year Mike went all out. He got a permit from the city to shut down his block to through traffic and he also got a huge pig to roast up for the carnivores. The party always has a lot of people so it's always tons of flying quarters fun. I was planning on pulling the all day party but I got a call from my brother saying he and Billie were coming down to see the Brewers. As fun as Kondofest is it isn't often that my brother ventures to Miller Park so I decided to go to the game. Jocelyn stayed at Kondofest because she and a couple other girls were going to see Kenny Chesney at Summerfest. So I hopped into Schwenker's Jeep and we headed off the park. We found my brother and we tailgated and enjoyed the perfect weekend weather. We headed into the game and although the Brewers lost we were able to enjoy the game. It was pretty cool after the game. Everyone stayed in the park and you were able to watch fireworks from your seat at the park. They turned all the lights off for ultimate effect. It was kind of weird seeing a full, dark, Miller Park. After the works we tailgated a bit more in the parking lot and then headed back downtown. We got a couple calls from some Kondofesters and they wanted us to meet them at the bars but I was too tired so I headed home and called it a night. Sunday I woke up to a full house of partied out Kondofesters. We debated on going to the Brewers game but we decided to just pull the lazy day and watched it on TV and ordered pizza. That night we watched the lakefront fireworks and concluded the day. Monday we did absolutely nothing and loved it.

Showing the East How the (Mid)West Was Won

Holy cow what a week this was. The Yankees came to town to play the Brewers this week and I had bought tickets to go to all three games. Monday I went with Jocelyn. The weather was nice and the roof was open for a night game which seems to be a rarity. The Brewers did great and took the first game from the Spankies, one of my least favorite teams in the world. Tuesday I went with Luedke to the game. Since I get out of work at four and he is taking the summer off we got to the park early for some tailgating. We had a few more beers than I was expecting but it was worth it because the Brewers won again. Wednesday is when this already crazy week went into overdrive. My friend Chris from our old hangout The Blind Tiger in NY decided to fly in for a couple games before going to see his beloved Red Sox take on the Cubs in Chicago. This was Chris's furthest trip West in the US. The furthest he had been before this trip was Pennsylvania. He isn't a NY city hermit refusing to leave the "friendly" confines of Manhattan Island. Many New Yorkers are like this. He lived in Austria and Europe for a bit. So I took off about noon and met Chris at my apartment. After I got changed we headed to the Milwaukee Ale House to get a bite to eat and take in the city of Milwaukee's ambiance. We walked in and took a seat and low and low and behold Tyler was there. He was waiting for his girlfriend Angela so we had him join us. Chris also knew a group of guys from the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES). They were a group of people doing a reality TV show for the station. A group of 4 people get to follow around the Yankees to all 162 games. Chris was their tour guide when they went to Boston so he already had a rapport with them. A couple of them met us at the Ale House and we set up a tailgate for them. We headed to the park after the Ale House. We started up the tailgate and got the party rolling. These NY people don't understand what a real tailgate is all about so I was under pressure to show them a good time. The tailgate went over well. I had plenty of beer and brats for everyone including the cast and crew of the show. It appeared that they had a good time and I was even civil to the Yankees fans. We shut down the tailgate and headed into the park. Chris knows another guy named Paul from Pewaukee. Paul was one of the nicest guys I've met and I'm not saying that just because he got us third row tickets behind the plate. The seats were some of the greatest seats I've ever had.…

Enjoying “the Offical” Summer Weather

I had a very fun weekend this week. On Saturday I had Greg's bachelor party. I took it easy Friday night and cruised to Sheboygan on Saturday morning. I spent most of the morning driving around Sheboygan with Rich trying to find a place that could lathe the Montero's rotors so I could get the brakes fixed. We were finally able to find a guy to do it so we had the brakes fixed by noon. After that I went to Randy's and played with the nephew for a bit. Then it was time for the party. The party was held at Rochester Park in Falls. We had some beers and some brats and played yard games. I dominated the basketball court taking 5 of 6 games of 21. I also did well in the bean bag toss and the nut toss. I pretty much dominated all the games. After the festivities we headed up to the O and spent the night pinballing between there and big Jimmy's. We got Greg pretty shined up and it's always a good time watching him when he's a wet noodle. After some world famous root beer shots we called it a night. I woke up early Sunday to take advantage of the holiday weekend. I drove back early to get ready for the mini tailgate party I had planned. We got all the gear together and headed to the park early. We had a tailgate crew of about fifteen so there was lots of fun to be had. We had a gorgeous day and plenty of food to grill. We enjoyed the parking lot and then headed into the game. The outcome was a 2-1 loss v. Houston but the day was going great so we weren't about to let a loss pull us down. After the game we went to Kelly's Bleachers for a little post game Golden Tee. I did ok but it wasn't my best GT showing. After that we headed downtown the Eastpoint Pub. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and part of the evening being rowdy at the EP. We headed home, had a bite to eat, and went to bed early. It was one of the more fun days that I've had in a while. Everyone was in a good mood and everyone was happy and just having a good time. Sunday we woke up, went on a bike ride, and relaxed the rest of the holiday away to get the batteries recharged.