Taking The BIG Plunge

The weekend has arrived that Jocelyn and I have been furiously planning for what seems like years, our wedding. Leading up to the wedding I wasn't nervous at all. I unfortunately was sick and spent the entire week trying to get over my cold. Friday after work ended the running around and craziness started. I was able to relax for an hour at home before I had to run to get the DJ lighting from a couple establishments. There was a mix up on the lighting that I had originally ordered and I spent Thursday frantically calling around trying to find some lights. I think I found the last two sets in Milwaukee, a huge disaster narrowly averted. Rich and I hopped in the Montero and drove around Milwaukee picking the stuff up. A spring snow and rush hour traffic made for crappy driving. After we got the lights I took Rich to pick up his tux. Once we got back downtown I stopped by Luedke and DeBruin who were having a couple beers at Mo's pub. Rich and I had one and headed back to my apartment. Once back at the apartment I got ready for the rehearsal. Jocelyn and I didn't feel like driving so we got a ride with her mom. We were a little late but being the bride and groom we had the right. The rehearsal was actually pretty long. The pastor took his time in explaining everything very thoroughly. After the rehearsal we headed to Turner Hall for dinner and drinks. Many had the classic Friday fish fry and the food was great. Once dinner was over we stayed at the Hall and had a couple more beers. Jocelyn went home early to get her beauty rest but my job as the groom was to go out and enjoy my last night as a single man. So I went out with a couple of the Marti boys, DeBruin and Luedke. We went to the German beer hall that is right by Turner Hall. We had a couple more beers there and a five person shot on a snow ski. I was home about one and to bed at about two after I did some wedding day chores. The day of reckoning. I woke up about eight and got my stuff together, checking and double checking. At nine I headed to Kenosha to pick up the rest of the DJ equipment. On the way I stopped at McDonald's for a wedding day sausage egg McMuffin and a breakfast burrito. I got back to Milwaukee just after eleven. As soon as I got back to the apartment everyone started showing up. Todd and Greg showed up followed by Marti and my two brothers. Everyone just sat around, drank a few beers, got ready and waited for 1:30 to roll around. We got to the church on time and accounted for. The groom and his men hung out in the basement and watched the Brewer game on…

Opening Day the Mexican Way, With Tequila!

I went over to Luedke's to watch the final four games on Saturday. We hung around and had some beers. After the first game was over we went to Cans for a couple drinks. Luedke and Anna left so I hung out with Hand and went to BBCs for a couple drinks. They have my favorite beer, Hoegaarden, on tap. It's the first time I've seen it on tap anywhere outside of the east coast. I had a couple of those and hiked it home. I stopped at Mykano's to some late night grub. Baseball season is here and opening day was Monday. This wasn't as crazy as the last couple opening days have been. I left work at noon and took the bus to the stadium. This was the first time in a couple years I didn't meet up with the Random Lake guys from Booze-Inn. Instead I met a couple of the Falls guys there. I hung out with them for a bit and then met Luedke at Lef's Lucky town tailgate party. I had some food there and a couple beers. After that we headed into the game. The game was sold out and the Brewers won. When the game was over we were going to go to Lef's but it was packed so we ended up at a Mexican restaurant next door. Anna met us there and we hung out for a while. Anna drove us back downtown. I went to My Office for a night cap and headed home. Stay tuned to a very special post next week as I get to give you all the play by play of my wedding, scary.

The Greater Chicago Links, Fore!

This entry should be much longer but once again there are just too many details that should be included that there is no way I can remember them all. That combined with a booze haze makes what should be a long story short. I had my Chicago bachelor party on Saturday. I drove down with my brother, Evraets and Billy. We drove to Chitown and checked into the Hyatt Regency in downtown. I got a steal on Priceline.com at $100 a room. After we checked in we took a cab to the Cubbie Bear in Wrigleyville where I met up with a bunch of my friends from Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Once there we started our game of bar golf. Bar golf is scored like regular gold with one drink at a bar being par and each drink after that being one under. We had a scorecard and itinerary all made up so we were well prepared. We all started on our way wandering from bar to bar. Some of the bar events that occurred during our wandering were cigar smoking, wooden Indian posing, other party food raiding, batting cage swinging and Fat Tire Ale (imported from Colorado) drinking. We were doing really good until about hole number nine. We stayed there a little too long because one of our friends from Madison worked there. So we camped out there and since there was a Qdoba across the street some people went get something to eat. After that, the group got pretty split up and it was everyone for themselves after that point. I tried to plod on with my cousin Steve. About a half hour behind was my brother, Evraets and a couple other friends but as far as the golf game was concerned it was over. I was -11 after nine so I'm pretty sure I was winning. We continued drinking at various establishments throughout the night and we ended up at an after hours bar someplace in the Chicago with a skeleton crew of about six of us. Everyone was a mess, including me. I was super tired and drunk so my brother and I left a couple diehards and cabbed it back to the hotel. We got back around four so I was pretty mad when Billy started thrashing around the hotel room at seven. I was pissed but I knew he wanted to get home so we woke up and drove back. I was home by noon which was nice because I could rest the rest of the day. It was a good time.

A Baptism, St. Patty and Beer

Hey there Patty! St. Patty's landed on a Friday this year which makes for a guaranteed crazy day. After work I headed over to the Milwaukee Ale house to meet a couple of the guys that had the day off. The Badgers were playing in the NCAA tourney and got their butts spanked. Never-the-less, that didn't prevent Luedke and Wians from having a few. We stayed at the Ale House for a bit to have some happy hour pints and shoot some darts. After a couple hours there we went to meet Jocelyn and the Delahunts at Flannery's. I was bound and determined to get a sampling of the world's largest rueben at the Wicked Hop. On the walk to Flannery's I stopped and paid my $5 for a slice and was it huge. I gnawed on the thing the entire walk to Flannery's and I barely finished half of it. I never throw away food but I was stuffed and out of time so once I got to Flannery's I had to throw some of it away. Once in Flannery's I joined the "happy" crowd. We stayed there for a couple hours sampling the Jamison and Guinness. After Flan's we went to My Office for the smaller crowd ambiance and a couple more festive St. Patty's drinks. I woke up on Saturday a little groggy from the night before but nothing to severe which was good because Saturday was the Riverwest Pub Crawl. I went on this last year with Luedke and Anna and it was a blast. This year Jocelyn and Erica came along. The crawl started at Onopa and we had good weather again although it wasn't quite as warm as last year. There are really too many details to describe this event packed day. We snaked our way through the Riverwest area of Milwaukee drinking beers at the nineteen bars on our map. A couple of the bars have food to eat. One thing that every bar does have is an interesting cast of characters because Riverwest is a very bohemian area of Milwaukee. The five of us had a great time. From one until about ten we ventured around the neighborhood. At our final stop, The Squirrel Cage, Luedke, Anna and Erica took a cab home. Jocelyn and I probably should have as well but we decided to walk home. We thought that the walk would sober us up. The problem is you don't really sober up if you stop at bars on the way home. It was a very long walk home and we stopped at The Nomad on way home for a beer, some rest and warmth. After a drink we headed to Mykano's for a gyro to soak up some of the toxins in our stomachs. Sunday was a pretty rough one. J and I had to drive to Sheboygan for my nephew's baptism. We weren't in the best of shape but we made it. Sitting through church with tons of crying…

Bachelor Bore

On Saturday I had the first of my two bachelor parties. This party was for my uncles and Falls friends because I knew that most of them wouldn't want to make the trip to Chicago for my main one. I pretty much repeated the beginning part of my previous weekend. I went to Rich's, helped my mom make some of the bachelor party food, packed it up, drove it to the VFW, and set it and the music up and waited for the people to show up. A majority of my uncles showed up, some cousins, and some Falls friends. A bunch of Rich's friends also showed up, I guess it was his bachelor party too. We sat around, drank some beer, shot some dice, and ate some food. It was pretty close to the tamest bachelor party I've ever been to; sad part is it was mine. A bunch of people took off back to Falls but I stayed in Sheboygan. My buddy Fudge stuck around so at least I had one person to hang around with. Rich, some of his buddies, Fudge and I went to Hops Haven. We stayed there the rest of the night and had a couple beers and smoked some cigars. It was the world's tamest bachelor party ever. I've been to sweet sixteen birthday parties that were more exciting. Oh well, I have one more shot and I really wasn't expecting too much craziness from the Fallsenites.