It’s Where the Water Animals Play

I had a full week these past couple days. It started out on Tuesday with the buckethead game, Crew v. Cubs. I had gotten these tickets about a month ago and was looking forward to my first buckethead game of the year, boy was I disappointed. When we got to our seats I thought we would be in the only Chub free section in Miller Park, we were so wrong! Somehow the damn Cubs fans were even in the buckethead section so we still had to put up with the stuck up, no baseball intellect, snobs. The game was awful too. Ben Sheets was pitching and got shelled the first couple innings. We were down 6-0 in the sixth and I was sick of hearing cheers for Chicago so I did the unthinkable and actually left the game early. This is unlike me but when you're essentially in an away stadium it is no fun watching the other fans gloat. Cubs fans are by far the biggest gloaters and biggest whiners in the majors so I was out. No fun, even worse game. Something has to be done about these Cubs games to get the Cubs fans out of OUR home park. Thursday was Jazz in the Park. J and I hadn't been there in a while so we decided we really needed to make an appearance. We went a little later than usual so we weren't able to get our regular spot at stage left. We managed to find a spot stage right and we plunked our chairs down and got one of our four bottles of Jazz in the Park wine. Later on L and his girlie showed up so we had someone friends to hang out with and take in some good tunes. Friday was quite the day. Jocelyn had planned this getaway weekend for my birthday (not to late for you to send presents). She had me pack a back the night before and said that we were going somewhere a half hour away. I kept telling her to just tell me where we're going because there is no place a half hour from Milwaukee that I want to spend the night. No matter how much I begged she wouldn't tell me so I had to wait until after work. She picked me up after work and we were on our way. This whole surprise thing really put me in a bad mood and I was straight pissed for the entire ride. Finally we got to my bud Delahunt's house and the secret was finally revealed, we were going to the Dells with D and Steph to celebrate the men's birthdays. The reason Jocelyn said a half hour away was because I actually guessed where we were going the week before. So we packed up the Montero and we were off to WI-Dells. A couple hours later we arrived and checked into our motel just off the downtown strip. We had a couple adult beverages in…

It’s My Rheumatoid Arthritis

This weekend was very much a carbon copy of last weekend. I had the relaxing Friday followed up by the Saturday that more than made up for me staying in the night before. On Friday I was going to go out but after lounging around and getting comfy on the couch I decided that I was going to stay in and get some sleep. Saturday I got together with a boat load of my friends and we played that wonderful childhood game, kickball. J was at Angie Sampson's bridal shower in Madison so I was flying solo. Kickball was a good time except that instead of playing normal three outs rules we played the "everyone wins" rules. With these rules everyone in the line-up gets to kick once an inning and the first out after the last batter ends the inning. I hate these new fangled "Johnny needs as much time on field as Timmy" rules but the gym teacher we had on hand insisted playing by these rules. These bunk rules didn't prevent any of us from having a good time. I was pitcher and my wicked spinner and medium bouncer were unkickable. Surprisingly nobody injured anything. I did injure a couple feelings with my unbelievable pitching. I did also hit one of the girls square in the face with a rocket that I threw trying to throw someone out. She really wasn't playing attention and after the guy swerved out of the way the only thing that was there to stop it was her face, sorry Lauren! After kickball we headed over to the volleyball court where my team got their asses handed to them by the ringer team. They were in league and I was drunk so it wasn't even close to fair. I headed home about 6:30 to catch COPS for the second consecutive week. I washed up and caught a quick nap. The only thing I shouldn't have done during this time was woke up but my lunatic friends kept calling me and finally drug me out for an unnecessary night on the town. After a couple games of pres-ass at Lauren's we went to Flannery's and then to the Lodge. We did the normal bar stuff, the stand and drink, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sunday was vicious on the legs and groin. All those muscles that have atrophied throughout the years got used to the extreme and the only way they could fight back was hurt. I still can't walk normally but hopefully by next week's post I'll be back in my normal atrophied state.

No Strings Attached

This weekend I actually got to stay in Milwaukee and do whatever I wished. There was no Summerfest, baseball games, birthdays, concerts or anything else that I had to bind to. Friday I stayed in and built a computer for my parents. J and I kind of watched a movie while I drank a couple gin and tonics and built the computer. Nothing exciting but I got to sit at home for a change. Saturday J and I went to the Milwaukee Ale House to see KB from WLKH play and watch the Brewer game. We sat and had some beers and watched the Crew get trounced by the Cincinnati. Then Luedke and Wians showed up and things took a turn for the worse, we started drinking at more of a rapid pace. I brought some cards along so we played some euchre and ordered some apps. We stayed there until about 6:30. At that time I had to run home and watch COPS which I haven't seen in about two months. Once back at my place L, A and I played some cribbage, drank some stiffies, and watched the white trash get tasered. Everyone was having a good time until J threw me her phone and I missed it. The thing bounced off my hand into a glass of water. We tried to get it to work but the thing wouldn't turn on so she was a little pissy for a couple hours, I can't blame her but it really wasn't my fault. Luedke tried to smooth over the situation with his anecdote on how he washed his phone and the thing finally turned on after couple days. When we finished up our final cribbage game we headed to Flannery's for a couple drinks. We decided after a bit we needed a change of atmosphere and cheaper drinks so we went to My Office. We played a round of Golden Tee and hung out with our people, the downtrodden, outcasts who like cheap drinks. At oneish we headed to Mykano's to top off the night with some gyros. Nothing beats the Sunday gyro mouth, that wonderful taste of cucumber sauce and onions that no matter how much you brush or gargle seems to stay with you. Another weekend over. For those of you wondering, Jocelyn's phone started working again on Sunday a la Luedke's experience and prediction, he truly is a guru.

Wastin’ Away Again In East Troy

I thought now that 'fest was over I was going to get some much needed rest but no such luck. Since almost everyone had Monday off we did some pre-planning and bought some tickets to the Brewers v. Cubs on the day after the 4th. The game was fun and went as expected. We got drunk and watched the Brew crew beat the Cubs with a first inning Counsell homerun. What I didn't expect was buying tickets to the next two games on drunken whim. So I ended up going to the next two games as well. The games were not the drunken debauchery that one is used to but they were still too much fun to explain. Why can I not explain the games you may ask? Because there is no better feeling than sweeping the Cubs right out of Miller Park and back across the southern border of Wisconsin. [INSERT FAVORITE EXPLATIVE] THE CUBS!. Thursday was finally a well deserved day of rest. Friday we headed back to Miller Park to see Brewers v. Reds. The main reason we went was because of the Beer Pen tickets. $10 for a t-shirt and a ticket is a great deal. It's my second such shirt but can anyone really have too many t-shirts. J and I went to the game with Delahunt and Steph so we had our drinking buddies. We hung out and drank up a couple of Wisconsin's largest jager bombs. The game was awful and I have to say one of the worst games I saw of the year. We ended up staying at TGIF until one drinking yards. That was way too long because I was able to snatch up a couple Jimmy Buffett tickets on eBay so we had to be prepared to be waste away again tomorrow. Saturday was a perfect day. It was the first summer day I think we had all year. Mid to high 80s with plenty of sun. We left for the show about one. We met Jocelyn's boss from the Sports Dock in a Wal-Mart parking lot outside of East Troy so we could park together at Alpine. Once at Alpine we set up camp and did tons of people watching. People watching is always half of the experience and this concert was no exception. To our right there was a passed out fifteen year old who had too many margaritas with his mom and now she was taking care of him. To our back there were some guys that had a weed whacker blender with a sombrero and hula skirt on the blender. Once we scoped out the lot we settled in and got to the eating and drinking. Jocelyn's boss and her husband were all kinds of fun. Besides those two there were two other guys who were friends of theirs. Gina's (Jocelyn's boss) husband is a cop and one of the other guys was a detective. They had some great stories. Gina's husband was also a…

Color Me Exhausted

I believe I left off on the Tuesday of 'fest. Tuesday J and I were going to go see the Midwest Operas stirring rendition of Pink Floyd's The Wall and then go to see Kenny Wayne Shepard. We made it down to the fest ground in plenty of time and got a good seat for what we thought was going to be a cover band doing Floyd. Instead it was absolutely the worst thing I've seen in my life. We weren't the only ones that thought that this "rock opera" was going to be worth watching because there were tons of hippies waiting to see them as well. Since the hippies had their senses dulled/heightened they couldn't process how much this rock opera sucked. J and I as well as handful of people were able to determine how awful they were in about two minutes. So we left which really threw a wrench into our plans because now we had 3 hours to kill before KWS. So we decided to walk to get a beer and I ran into my good pal Gregory. He and his woman were down for the night. In the process of getting the beer we learned that you didn't need a wristband to get into the main stage. J and Greg's woman both loved Jessica Simpson so we did what any whipped man would do, take them to their free concert and then hold it over their head that we went to the JS concert. We sat there for a couple hours and watched the concert. I think Greg and I were watching different things on stage than the rest of the audience so we were able to block out the music and prepubescent screaming. After that was over we headed on home. Thursday was our next day and was going to be the last. I biked down to the grounds and got wristbands to see The Bodeans and Steve Miller. We headed down to grounds pretty early and grabbed a bite to eat before the show. We went in and got some pretty good seats for the show. The Bodeans put on a really good show. I've seen then a couple times at Lakefest in Sheboygan but I can honestly say I don't "remember" seeing them there. We then stayed for a handful of the Steve Miller songs. It was getting late so we headed out of the concert. On our way out we got to check out Paul Oakenfold. We watched him for a bit, admired the trance scene and glow sticks, and then started home again. On the way home we ran into another stage and heard Peter Frampton doing "Do You Feel Like We Do." No true rock n' roll fan could pass that up so we had to stop and listen to that. Finally we got out of there and made it home. Friday I went to a house warming party at my buddy Chappy's new place. It was going…