My Waist Is Size XX-XL

Not much doing this weekend. Friday low key and Saturday we ran up to Sheboygan to get Jocelyn’s car fixed at my brother’s. We didn’t stay overnight though and after a stop at the Golden Chopsticks buffet and Piggly Wiggly we were back in MKE by seven. Sunday was action packed with my third annual Super Bowl party. Chappy, Katie, Adam, Stacy, Todd and Steph were the party goers at Apt 54’s XL party. I spent Saturday night doing some of the food prep work. Sunday morning I woke up early to get all the food made. This year’s menu included BBQ Pork on Sheboygan hard rolls, chicken wings, potato skins, cole slaw, taco dip, French onion dip, and black bean dip. As is tradition I made way too much food. Everyone rolled in right before kickoff and I immediately started shoving food down their throats. The game was probably the most boring Super Bowl that I have ever seen in my life. The Steelers beat the Seahawks by a final score of something to something. Even though the game stunk we had a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed the food and it’s always fun to get together with friends for some revelry. Steph made a Steelers football cake that looked very professional. I wouldn’t allow anyone to stop eating after the cake though, I had wings to get rid of. Even after the force feeding of my guests I still had a ton left overs. After the game everyone headed home and we cleaned up. It was another good time to add to the book of good times.

Too Much Weekend Work

I skipped last week’s entry because I did absolutely nothing. Nada, zip, zero. The only thing I did is watch a lot of football.

This weekend was a little more exciting but not much. Friday I went out after work for a going away party at the Ale House. I stayed there for a couple hours and then headed home. Once at home I ate and watched some movies.

Saturday I had to wake up early to go work on L’s network. I should have stayed home because I messed up some of the network permissions. I got a little accomplished but not nearly as much as I wanted to get done. I got home about one, at a burrito and watch the next playoff game. After that game was over it was time to get ready for the ASQ holiday party. I probably wouldn’t have gone but it was two blocks away from here at the Astor hotel. I figured why stay home and have frozen pizza when I can go a block and get a real meal for free. J and I headed over there a little before seven for the cocktail hour. We had our free drink and mingled with some of my colleagues. At 7:30 it was time for dinner. For dinner we both had the sun dried tomato chicken. The food was pretty good, nothing overly special. I was probably the first one done and the first one out of the ballroom and to the bar. The second football game was on and there was no way I was going to miss it for a work related function. After a couple minutes some other people started to trickle out to the bar. I sat and watched the game with J and some work folk. After the game was over the place started to clear out. A couple of the friendlier people from work were going to County Claire for a couple more drinks. So we went the block to the CC. J was pretty tired so she headed home after about ten minutes. I was having a good time so I stayed out a bit longer. I had another Guinness and headed home about midnight. Pretty low key year up to this point. No drama thus far though so that a bonus. Next weekend probably won’t be too special either but next week I head off to St. Thomas! Oh yea!

Not A Productive Year, So Far

Happy New Year all! This was a wild New Year. This past week I had that nasty cold/flu bug that has been going around. I tried my hardest to get rid of it in time for the New Year weekend. Friday I took it easy and started to get things ready for the New Year dinner that I was throwing. I was feeling significantly better so that was a good thing. A couple people asked if I wanted to go out but I didn’t want to have a relapse. So Friday night I took it easy and got ready for the last day of the year.

Saturday I woke up feeling about 85% to 90%. That was enough healing to get excited to have a good time. Jocelyn and I didn’t feel like standing around at a party so we decided to have Todd and Steph over for a nice dinner and then go out after that if we felt like it. I spent almost all day Saturday cooking. The menu was bruschetta, salt and horseradish encrusted prime rib with horseradish sauce, quintessential roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach, champagne Jell-O, and tapioca pudding. Todd and Steph arrived at about five. We had some drinks and the bruschetta and waited for the prime rib to finish up. We dug into the good stuff at about seven. Everything turned out great. The prime rib ended up being a little salty due to the salt paste that was rubbed on it but it meat inside was wonderful. After dinner we had our champagne Jell-O which ended up having a little more kick too it then we expected. Due to that little kick things started picking up and getting fun. Luedke and Anna came over to join us in our celebration. We turned on the tunes and played Cranium. It was the first time I played the game but it was very fun. It’s a cross between Pictionary, charades and Trivial Pursuit. Jocelyn and I ended up having beginner’s luck and pulling out the victory. After that we watched a bit of the New Year’s celebrations on TV and waited for our countdown. The New Year came in with some picture on the Canon and some more champagne. After that we got a call from a motley crew coming downtown from the other party. They stopped in by us and we managed to find room for ten more people in our little place. The tunes were pumping and we were having a great time. The party started to thin out as people headed home. There was a pretty good size core group left though that wanted to head out. So some time after two we headed to the bars. We went to My Office and spent a good amount of time there. At about four thirty we decided that we had had enough and headed home. On the way home were needlessly sidetracked and ended up going to another bar. We went to a place called Brio Trattoria. The group had thinned down significantly but J and I were still kicking. We ended up getting home about six thirty which was very late/very early and a little ridiculous. It was very fun but I ended up paying the price.

I woke up at noon on Sunday for the Packers’ last game of the year. I was able to watch the first half through one eye but I was not in the best of shape. I watched the second half in the bedroom and struggled through the game. The Packers beat half a Seahawks team to finish a dismal 4-12. I really hope Favre comes back. I don’t want him to go out like this. Todd and Steph had stayed at are place to watch the game and they headed home after the game. I drifted in and out of consciousness the whole day and wasted the very first day of the year. Not a good start.

I had off Monday as well but didn’t do much. J and I watched TV and wasted the second day of the year. I’m two for two. Happy New Year everyone! May it be more productive than mine is thus far.

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 hors d’oeuvres and friends, very holiday. After the party we were going to go out but this dang winter freeze prevented us going out again and we all just decided to go home. This week, the week for Christmas, ho ho ho!

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 leg injury I have some extra pounds again and trying to pull that up is impossible. Right now I can do two. Jocelyn ended up beating everyone in the contest, even the guys, with five. Nothing beat after bar fitness. We finally closed it down pretty late which made for a rough Sunday but the fun was worth it.