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.

Still Love My Pack

My boy Chad Marti hooked me up with a ticket to the Monday night Packers v. Vikings game. I took Monday off for the festivities. I hitched a ride with some old Falls cronies, Ryan Pyrek and Darrin Miller. We drove up to Falls and went the rest of the way with Ryan’s dad in the family mini van. We made really good time on the way up and parked in our normal parking spot to the west of the stadium. The Marti males had all been up North hunting so they met us at the game all scraggily and Daniel Boone looking. The tailgate was fun as usual but you could tell that it was missing the woman’s touch. We had chips, beer and a subway sub, all which were delicious. We were missing some key amenities that a woman would remember such as a table and silverware. So we used the cooler for a table and cut the sub with the same knife that hours earlier had gutted a deer, that’s manly. No matter, the sub tasted great. My portable Milwaukee boom box that I brought for tunes was a big hit and we managed to make some friends because of it. Some revelers on the other side of the parking liked the tunes and invited us to join them. We ventured to their tailgate and had some chicken wings and other grilled and fatty foods. Finally it was time to go into the game. Lambeau is always an amazing experience win or lose. Unfortunately my last couple trips there have been losses. It was another close game for the hapless Packers but they lost it in the end. I brought my camera along and I was able to get some great pictures during the game. I love my new camera. After the game we piled in the van for the long ride back. We spent the night at my brother’s house in Sheboygan and then drove the rest of the way in the morning. Not the result that I had hoped from the trip but I still love the world’s greatest team, the Packers.

Showing Bucky My Love, In Person

Can you believe it, this week is my first Badger game of the year. We have been so busy with weddings and other events that we haven’t had the chance to make it to Madison this year. This weekend the Badgers played Purdue for their homecoming match-up. Luedke being the great friend that he is hooked me up with a ticket. We left Milwaukee early in the morning on Saturday and made it to Madison before ten. The weather on the way was pretty crappy. It rained for a majority of the drive but once we got into Mad-town the rain stopped and then it was just cold and windy. We parked by the Kohl center and had a couple beers while we waited for everyone else to get into town. Todd, Steph, and Ham showed up about an hour later so we packed up the tailgate and retreated to a more hospitable climate. Is there really a better climate than Buck’s tavern on Regent? We spent the rest of the pre-game there. When it came time for the game some of the group, including Jocelyn, went to the KK while the rest of us with tickets went to the game. The game was fun and the Badgers’ D really stepped it up. They scored two defensive touchdowns in route to a Badger victory. After the game we headed to Brats to meet up with everyone else and enjoy some of the lovely State St. atmosphere. I ran into some of the Evans Scholars so I talked to them a bit. The rest of the night was spent bouncing around from Mondays to the Pub, to Mondays to the Pub. At the end of the night Jocelyn got a call from her cousin Ethan. We went up to Bullfeathers to meet him and a couple of his buddies. Once there we ordered a drink but the day officially caught up with me and I wanted to call it a night. We finished our drink and then headed to Ian’s to get some pizza. After our late night munchies we cabbed it back to the hotel and concluded our homecoming weekend.

The Marathon That Wasn’t

This weekend was low key for me. Friday we stayed in and watched a couple movies. Nothing exciting, but relaxing.

Saturday I woke up and made some waffles with my new waffle iron that I got from Amazon.com for $7. The waffles I made turned out great and making waffles is a lot easier than pancakes. I had some extras waffles left over and froze them so I can have toasted waffles later. After breakfast we watched the Badgers destroy Indiana. It was a great game and it was enjoyable to see the Badgers steamroll a team. After that Jocelyn’s dad and her sister came up from Illinois. Jocelyn and her dad were doing half of the Milwaukee marathon. We watched TV until dinner time and then but we really couldn’t determine where we wanted to go eat at night. We ended up going to Edwardo’s. My meal was pretty bad. I had some pasta with sausage and the sausage tasted rancid. It was very disappointing. After dinner we just went back to our apartment and watched some TV and Saturday Night Live and called it a night.

Sunday I had to wake up at 6:30 to take Jocelyn and her dad to Grafton where the starting line of the marathon was. It was kind of a downer taking them to the start because this was the day that I was supposed to run the marathon but my dumb hamstring prevented that. Oh well. They had a great day to do the marathon. I dropped them off and picked them up about three hours later at the halfway point. After that we went back to the apartment, got cleaned up and went to Rock Bottom for lunch. Jocelyn’s dad headed home after that and we spent the rest of the day watching the tube.

Monday after work I brewed a batch of beer. The Packers played on Monday night and lost again! 0-4, sigh.

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 the job of a wedding DJ isn’t that easy. The crowd was very tough because they were mostly bar going beer drinkers so they camped by the bar all night and you couldn’t move them from the free tappers for anything. I also learned that there are a couple people who think that they know the magic song to get everyone dancing and whooping and hollering and they won’t leave you alone until you play the song. I also learned that every time you play the song they have to hear they are usually the only ones dancing. Also with the ability to create playlists on your laptop the job of the wedding DJ is much easier because you don’t have to switch CDs and can pretty much set it and forget it. Finally people love slow songs. Put on anything that people can dance cheek to cheek and the floor will fill up. The whole experience was a very very fun one. I think everyone had a good time and I got to experience something new. There were a lot of shots of tequila and some pretty sauced up people so I know at least they had fun. After some heavy hitting house requests I played the final slow songs and shut it down about 1. Everyone helped me break down the equipment and we headed home. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday we headed up to the Brady St. Artesian Festival. There were a bunch of tents with crafts and food. We ate some cheese and checked out the beaded jewelry. Nothing beats the people watching of Brady St.