A Great Day For The Badgers DeBruins

This weekend one of my best buddies, Jeff DeBruin, was getting hitched in Minnesota. Friday I took my first ever paid vacation day and used that day to drive up to St. Paul. The weather was crappy the whole drive but it didn't affect my superior driving skills one bit. We arrived somewhere around one in the afternoon. I dropped J off at the hotel and hooked up with my boys to go get our dapper tuxes. We went to the tux joint and everyone's tuxes fit except for mine, of course. I came out of the dressing room and the pants were a good three inches over my ankle. So of course I had to come back the next day and pick the thing up. After that we headed back to the hotel and went through the ceremony rehearsal. It was a great rehearsal because it was short. Then it was time for a little fun to start. We had the rehearsal dinner at Buca's in St. Paul. We all hopped into a bus and went off to have some family style fun. Copious amounts of food and wine flowed and I proceeded to have too much of both. After that was over we waddled out the door and the bus took us back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel a group of us, including the groom, headed off to a little bar down the street. We had some cocktails and discussed DeBruin's last hours of freedom on earth. We had a good time but J and I split from the group around midnight to head to another friend's house to catch some shut eye. Saturday I woke up and went and got my tux, stupid Pee-Wee Herman pants. Then J and I checked into the hotel and I got ready for the wedding pictures. I had pictures from eleven to twoish but it was nice to get them out of the way before the wedding. We were going to take some outside pics by the Mississippi but the weather was pretty nasty so we only got to snap a couple outside. Then the big moment, the Badger v. Purdue game Jeff's wedding. The wedding was very nice, and it wasn't only because I was in it. The wedding was simple but very well done. It was also nice and short compared to many of the weddings I've been to. Another nice thing about this wedding was everything was centrally located. The wedding was in one room, the cocktail hour was the room next to it that was a little bigger, the dinner was in a large ballroom next to all that, and we were all staying in the hotel that these rooms were in. Once the ceremony was over instead of going to the cocktail room all the groomsmen headed up to Luedke's room to watch the Badgers take on Purdue. There were a good twenty people up in the room having some cocktails and waiting…

My Truncated Life

I've fallen way behind on my journal so here is a quick update to catch up. Went to Madison on Saturday for Badger game verse Central Florida. Badgers won, we boozed at Bucks. Sunday of Labor Day weekend we went to the chef's table at the Hyatt. Luedke's parents won a dinner where there serve you a killer meal in the kitchen of the Hyatt, we were lucky enough to be invited along. Had some good grub, received a free room, thanks a ton to Luedke. Enjoyed Labor Day and my day off. Weekend of the 11th Angie Sampson, Jamie Thomas and Erin met up with us on Brady St. Drank, danced, had fun. Weekend of 18th we had people over for the Badger game on Saturday. Had a good time. Had some refreshments and made some spaghetti for everyone. We were going to go out after but everyone was too tired to go. J and I went to My Office for one and came home and slept. This past week I had training in Chicago. I had my first company expensed trip. I also received a promotion and a raise at work. This past weekend we went to Madison for the Badger game. We all tailgated at in the Merriter Hospital packing lot. There was a bunch of us along with J's boss and some of her friends. The game rocked. The new Camp Randall is awesome! Thanks to L for the tickets, enjoyed a Bucky bucket. Went out after, total craziness. We're all caught up! I'll get back on track after this one.

Get The Plate Number on that Conga Line?

Friday night we headed to Madison with Todd and Steph because we both had weddings to go to. We arrived at Graham's on the West side about eight. We had a couple bloodies there and then did the Madison bar crawl of all our old hangouts. We got a small bite to eat at Johnny-O's, then drank a Real Thing at the Red Shed, drank some stiffies at the hot as blazes Monday's, cooled off at Brothers and ended up at faithful Church Key. After we finished our crawl we headed to our respective pizza joints and met up post grease for the ride home. We had our trusty CDL carrying driver Graham to take us home so we had no worries. Once we got in the car to go to Graham's, T and Steph passed out cold. Once to Graham's we tried to wake everyone up but Todd was straight passed out so he got to sleep in the car all night. I think he said he ended up waking up about five and actually coming in the house. Day one down. Saturday we had our wedding. Angie Sampson got married to Nick Krey. The whole day was great. We went to the ceremony and it was very nice. We did learn later on the church was actually robbed the night before. The thieves didn't do any damage to the main part of the church but they trashed the offices and took some computers. Someone was watching out for Angie and Nick because the thieves also left the dresses and tuxes behind. Once the ceremony was over I had a little party to go to that my buddy Tyler was throwing. I was in town and I would've felt bad if I didn't pop in. So J and I went there for a drink and checked out Tyler's pad in Verona. We had to leave after about an hour to meet up with the wedding at The Great Dane South. Once there we talked, played some Golden Tee, and a little shuffle puck. After a couple beers we all headed to the nights final destination, the Radisson on the West side. This really is the way to do a wedding. The reception and our hotel room were under the same roof. Once at the reception we did the normal wedding things. Ate a good dinner, drank some cocktails, danced and met some new people. I did have a traumatic experience at this wedding that will forever scar me. I had had a couple beers so I needed to use the lavatory. These were really nice spacious bathrooms and I happened to be the only one in there at the time so I was taking my time, enjoying the flow, when all of a sudden the door flies open and I see Jamie Thomas leading the conga line through the men's bathroom while I'm doing my business. The surprised look on my face must've been priceless. I had my pants…

I Too Blister In The Sun

Friday after work Jocelyn and I went to the zoo to "Feast with the Beasts" and see the Violent Femmes. It was a good time. We walked around the zoo and ate items from some different restaurants. The food was ok but I was really there to see the Femmes. Their entire show was awesome and they entertained from beginning to end. The thing that made it weird was I hung out with the lead singer a couple times in New York. Gordon was a regular at The Blind Tiger in NY, as was I, so we had talked to each other a couple times. Don't get me wrong here, we weren't bosom buddies or anything. We were just a couple of the privileged few who got to stay after bar time and have a few extra drinks while the Tiger was being cleaned up. So most of our encounters were about 5 in the morning with a belly full of beer. The craziest was the time that Gordon, Chris and I went to see a band at The Knitting Factory. It a good time but I felt very awkward the whole night for some reason. Anyway, I got to see the Femmes at the zoo and they absolutely kicked ass. Shout out to Wertz, The Blind Tiger, and Gordon. Saturday morning was the first step on my quest to get back in shape. J and I signed up for the 5k Sausage Race at Miller Park. We got up about 7 and made our way to the race. I did my pre-race ritual of sitting around and waiting to start. Finally at nine the race started. If all of you thought being one of those racing sausages is nothing but fun, think again. The sausages all had to run the 5k with us. They all got to start in front and it took me a mile to catch the Polish. The course was fairly easy and towards the end of the race you run into Miller Park and do a lap around the field. I finished and had way too much left in my tank. I ran it in 22 minutes. Not what I wanted but it'll do for my first race back. Jocelyn on the other hand kicked major booty and ran the race in 25 minutes. When it was over you received a free brat or hotdog. So I ate J's hotdog as well as my brat for breakfast. When the race was over we cruised home. The day was gorgeous and with your entry in the race you also received a ticket to that night's game. We were going to go to the game at six but the weather was too nice so we headed the park at three. We met some nice people next to us in the lot so we talked with them and grilled up my marinated tenderloin and a can of beans, delicious. We went into the game about the third inning.…

The Skipper Too… Was Wasted

Friday after work I went to state fair to do the whole eating thing. J picked me up and we parked outside of the grounds so we didn't have to pay for parking. We got in to the fairgrounds for free too because you could use a Cubs v. Brewers ticket stub to get into the fair for free. Since we went to every Chub game we had a stockpile of free tickets so we got a couple for Deli and Steph and we met them at the fair. It was really crowded and we really didn't do anything but eat. I had my pork chop sandwich (best food at the fair), a Swiss n' rye, a big pickle, a couple glasses of flavored milk, and a couple ears of corn. We went into the main expo hall but I really didn't feel like listening to all the Brits pitch their wonder mops. We also signed up for the dream home again so I have my fingers crossed on that one. We spent a majority of the night in the micro brew tent. They have different beers from the micro breweries in WI. If you kill a keg there you get a "keg killer" t-shirt with Paul Bunyan on it. J and I tried for about four hours to kill one last year but we didn't get one. This year was different and she killed a keg on her second beer and received the coveted t-shirt. We hung out there until elevenish. My brother was there so it was a good time hand by all. Saturday we took the Milwaukee microbrewery boat tour with Chad and Emily. For $18 you go to Rock Bottom, Lakefront, and the Milwaukee Ale House on a pontoon boat. The boat tour started at one at Rock Bottom. We had a good time sampling the brews and being stupid. A word of advice if you take the tour, don't have the Ale House as your last stop. You only get one beer there and after having an unlimited source of brew up to this point it is tough to scale back to one beer an hour. Once we were done with the boat tour we headed back to my apt for a bit. After relaxing briefly we went over to Chappy's apt and joined them for a cook out. I, being the manliest of all the men, took over the grill and cooked up the brats and chicken. We chowed down and played some darts. Chappy and his crew were going to hit up some of the bars but I didn't feel like going out yet. So Chad, the girls and I headed back to my apt. We had some brews and watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD, funny stuff. Then Chad got a call from his brother Paul and he was at a house party just up the street from us. So we headed up there and spent the rest of the night…