Showing the East How the (Mid)West Was Won

Holy cow what a week this was. The Yankees came to town to play the Brewers this week and I had bought tickets to go to all three games. Monday I went with Jocelyn. The weather was nice and the roof was open for a night game which seems to be a rarity. The Brewers did great and took the first game from the Spankies, one of my least favorite teams in the world.

Tuesday I went with Luedke to the game. Since I get out of work at four and he is taking the summer off we got to the park early for some tailgating. We had a few more beers than I was expecting but it was worth it because the Brewers won again.

Wednesday is when this already crazy week went into overdrive. My friend Chris from our old hangout The Blind Tiger in NY decided to fly in for a couple games before going to see his beloved Red Sox take on the Cubs in Chicago. This was Chris’s furthest trip West in the US. The furthest he had been before this trip was Pennsylvania. He isn’t a NY city hermit refusing to leave the “friendly” confines of Manhattan Island. Many New Yorkers are like this. He lived in Austria and Europe for a bit. So I took off about noon and met Chris at my apartment. After I got changed we headed to the Milwaukee Ale House to get a bite to eat and take in the city of Milwaukee’s ambiance. We walked in and took a seat and low and low and behold Tyler was there. He was waiting for his girlfriend Angela so we had him join us. Chris also knew a group of guys from the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES). They were a group of people doing a reality TV show for the station. A group of 4 people get to follow around the Yankees to all 162 games. Chris was their tour guide when they went to Boston so he already had a rapport with them. A couple of them met us at the Ale House and we set up a tailgate for them. We headed to the park after the Ale House. We started up the tailgate and got the party rolling. These NY people don’t understand what a real tailgate is all about so I was under pressure to show them a good time. The tailgate went over well. I had plenty of beer and brats for everyone including the cast and crew of the show. It appeared that they had a good time and I was even civil to the Yankees fans. We shut down the tailgate and headed into the park. Chris knows another guy named Paul from Pewaukee. Paul was one of the nicest guys I’ve met and I’m not saying that just because he got us third row tickets behind the plate. The seats were some of the greatest seats I’ve ever had. We were able to heckle the Yankee players (Bostonian Chris especially like this) and Jocelyn almost got killed by a flying bat. One of the players let go of his bat and it came right at us. It hit J in the back but she didn’t get to keep the bat because it hit the guy behind us in the nose. Not only were we able to sit in these great seats but Paul also had access to a suite! So in the seventh inning we headed up to suite and had some free drinks and some sandwiches, what a perfect baseball game experience. The YES network people met us in the suite and we had a great time. It would have been a perfect experience but the Brewers lost. They still took 2 of 3 from the Yankees so all was not lost. After the game I showed Chris the Safehouse. We had a drink there, watched the magician bartender and headed home, some of us have to work in the morning. Thursday wasn’t quite as crazy but still fun. I met Chris for lunch at Potbelly’s. Chris was looking for a souvenir and ended up buying a pipe from the Milwaukee’s historic downtown smoke shop Uhle’s. After work we went to Jazz in the Park and had a couple bottles of wine and smoke our pipes. The weather remained gorgeous throughout the night. After JitP we went to the Lodge and got a couple pitchers of beer and a couple pizzas (Pizza and a pitcher $10 on Thursdays). After that we went to the Harp and had a beer and headed home. Chris left Friday when we went to work. It was great seeing him again. We had a great time and it was well worth the lack of sleep.

Friday after work we drove down to Peoria for the 4 mile Steamboat Classic race. We were pooped so once we arrived in Peoria we fell asleep as soon as we were horizontal. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for the race. The start was at 7:45 so it was another early morning. It was my first race of the season and also the kick off to my marathon training. There are a couple thousand people that run this race each year. There are Olympians and Boston marathon winners, it’s quite the event. I started in the eight minute mile grouping because I didn’t know what kind of pace I could sustain. I finished the four mile race in 28:31 which is about 7:09 mile pace. Not a bad start but I still have a ways to go to get to 17 minutes to compete with the three Kenyans that swept the podium. Jocelyn’s aunt and uncle did very well. Her uncle took third in his age group but her aunt showed everyone up by taking first in her group. It was a lot of fun and a good start to the summer’s race season. Aside from completing a marathon I also want to get my 5k time under 20 minutes, stay tuned. After the race we headed back to J’s dad’s apartment, watched some tube, and got caught up on this week’s lack of sleep. We headed over to J’s grandparent’s house at about two to sit with the family. At about five we went to have dinner with the family. After dinner we had dessert back at the house. The dessert and craziness of this week caught up with me. J wanted to go out but I was paralyzed and forced to call it a night. We headed back to her dad’s place and called it a night.

Sunday we woke up early again and met with J’s mom’s family and went for a hike on a really nice path. The path used to be an old train track bed so it was really the ideal surface for walking on. After the latest physical activity was complete we went to lunch with J’s dad’s family and then headed back to Milwaukee. This was quite the dyslexic weekend. I had all the partying and fun during the week and the fitness and physical exertion on the weekend. Either way the whole week turned out to be a fun one, even with the exhaustion.

Sign Me Up!

Last night we went to the Brewers game. Jocelyn had gotten some 300 club tickets from work so we scooped them up and headed to the park. It was a nice night and we tailgated and had some gourmet Metro Mart brats. I added the habanero Monterey jack and the Buffalo chicken brats to my repertoire. Both good but I’ll probably skip the Buffalo chicken next time and substitute it for one of the others. We headed into the game and made our way to our seats. There were two other people sitting next to us that got the other set of tickets from Jocelyn’s work. We sat and talked and watched the game. Then in the sixth inning I had a life accomplishment. Victor Santos was pitching to Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe. I don’t know what the count was but Hawpe fouled one off and was right at me. The ball had some zip on it, but with my beer in my left hand I bare handed the ball and made the catch. There was some cheering and a couple guys were hooting that I spilt a couple drops of my beer. So I sat down and basked in the glow of my accomplishment. The next bit is a blur really. I know I was sitting down and talking to the others about my “great catch” but I must’ve been paying close enough attention to the game because the very next pitch Hawpe fouled another one right to me again. I don’t know how I did it because I was still holding my newly caught ball and my beer but I caught the second ball and cradled it like catching a football. I now had just caught two balls in two straight pitches! Mind you I am sitting in the third deck of Miller Park so the chances of two straight foul balls being caught by the same person that far up has to be small. I was dumbfounded and really didn’t know what to do. I had never caught one ball at a major league game before and I just caught two in two pitches. I took my baseballs and held them up for everyone to see and a bunch of the crowd cheered, it was a great moment. The rest of the game really didn’t matter to me because I was on a high. I was just hoping that another ball wouldn’t come my way because I would probably drop it or it would hit me in the head and didn’t want to ruin this moment. We stayed for the rest of the game and a bunch of people said “nice catches man” and “there is the guy that caught the two foul balls.” It was awesome AND the Crew won 6-1. Go Brew Crew!

A little side note, the Bucks also won the draft lottery. They had a 6.3% chance of getting the #1 pick and they hit the jackpot and will be drafting #1 this year.

Unexpected Chaos

Crazy weekend this week. Friday I went to go see my old boss Chad DJ at Mr. G’s in Kenosha. There was an unexpected cover charge when we got there but the drinks were cheap so that made up for it. Plus I was there to check out Chad spin some phat beats. I met another one of my ex-colleagues Jordan there. Jordan quit ASQ and is getting his masters in a wilderness program. Jordan and I are eerily similar in many ways and we always have stuff to joke around about. He is also one of the few people in my life I am able to let loose with and talk some true geek speak. So J, Jordan, his girlfriend and fellow ASQ employee Kristen, and some other ASQ folk spent most of the night at Mr. G’s. I don’t know how to describe Mr. G’s. I could see it fitting in in the Sheboygan area but there was a weird hick ghetto folk feel to the people there. There were way too many stretchy cloths for the way to much body mass there. We were having a good time but we had to get back to Milwaukee so we headed out about midnight. J had a meeting in the morning so I went with Jordan and Kristen to the Metro. We spent the rest of the night there bitching about ASQ and trying to practice separation of work talk and weekend. Once we got off that subject we had a great time and I got to anoint some new folk into my Metro fold.

On Saturday I called Adam to see if he wanted to go to the Javon Walker Celebrity Softball Game. He and Stacy had said they planned on going so I tagged along with them. They were nice enough to pick me up some gourmet brats from the Metro Market and we went to the park and tailgated. It was a beautiful sunny day and I got pretty sunburn on my arms. We went into the game in the third but it really wasn’t anything special. It was a bunch of third string Packers playing some other no name people. All the celebrities that were supposed to come canceled. Ethan from Survivor and Tara Reid were the only real “celebrities”. So all the hype was for not. Drew Rosenhaus who is Javon Walker’s agent was allowed an at bat. This guy got booed like I have never heard someone get booed before. You know how some people get so many cheers they have to come back for an encore or a curtain call. This guy got the complete opposite of that. It was like Elton John at Harley fest. Javon Walker got his fair share of boos as well but that was really the only thing worth mentioning at the game. Someone, I’m blaming Adam, had the bright idea to go to My Office post game to have some beers. So we went there and played some Golden Tee and talked with the bartender. I left around seven and went back home. I had something to eat and drank a ton of water and we watched Jersey Girl which was surprisingly a good movie. Jocelyn wanted to go out so I went along and we spent the rest of the night at the Metro. It was a long unnecessary day of drinking and I really paid the price for it on Sunday. Next weekend I’m going sober Sally.

Spring Is Here… I Smell The Hot Dogs

Friday was a great night because I got a great meal and didn’t even have to leave the comfort of the couch. Jocelyn was cooking a nice meal and she insisted that I didn’t help with any of the cooking. So I sat on the couch and drank Riesling (which was very good and ended up being from Aldi’s of all places). So I watched movies while J made fillets w/ mushrooms, crab stuffed poblano peppers, roasted veggies and dough balls with berry chutney. It all turned out very good and it was delicious. After that we had a couple bottles of wine and watched Sideways which was a very suitable movie. It was a great night and some great relaxation.

Saturday was a pretty eventful day. It was spring madness at Miller Park so Todd, Steph, Adam, Stacy, Chappy, Katie, Dave, Erica, J and I headed to the park for cheap tickets and most importantly $1 hot dogs. We got to the park pretty early to have a couple brews and enjoy the scenes. The weather wasn’t terrible. It was bit windy and when the sun went behind the clouds it did get a little cold but we can take it. We didn’t do any grilling out because we had hot dogs to eat. Once in the park the game within the game began. The hot dog contest was pretty much dominated by yours truly. I was able to get down my goal of thirteen hot dogs. Dave O was doing pretty well but fell off at eight dogs. I’m glad I reached this year’s goal but I think my hot dog eating days are numbered. I think my limit will now be ten hot dogs or less. The game was actually pretty crappy through the sixth inning but then the Crew fired up. They chipped away at the Reds four run lead and tied it up. Then in the ninth Damian Miller knocked in the go ahead run and we all left as winners, Crew 6-5, Ryan 13-8-7-6-1-1-1. We went home and got in a nap before the night. Saturday night we went to Port Washington for Craig, Feyer, my brother and Amy’s birthday. I really struggled to wake up from my nap. I was comfy in my post hot dog glow on the couch and could have easily called it a night. I pulled it together and J and I went to Port to meet the crew at Foxy’s. There were about forty people and they had rented a bus to take the partiers from bar to bar. We knew we weren’t going to be out all night so we followed the bus. The party wasn’t really my brother’s party or Feyer’s or Craig’s, it was Amy’s. I didn’t know anyone but the three birthday boys and I think they were put on the list as a courtesy of sort. We had a couple drinks at Foxy’s and then headed to Booze Inn in Random Lake. We stayed there for one drink and then went to McCarthy’s Irish pub in the Saukville area. It was a very nice little bar. We had a couple drinks and stayed there when the bus took off. We headed back to Milwaukee and most of the people I knew headed home as well. Back in Milwaukee we went to the Metro for a little while and called it a weekend.

Tuesday we went to our first Buckethead game vs. the Cubs. J and I grilled out some gourmet brats pre-game. The park was obviously filled with Cubs fans which was fine because the Crew won and sent the Chub fans home with a tear in there eye. The Crew went on to sweep the series and are currently riding a seven game win streak. Go Crew!

My Sausage Dreams Shattered

This weekend the Brewers were back in full swing and that means fun at the park. Friday we hit up the first Beer Pen of the year. J’s sister’s boyfriend was in town from the VI. He works for Miller in St. Thomas and was in Milwaukee for the yearly meeting. We stopped at the Milwaukee Metro market on the way to the game to pick up some brats. These brats really put a damper on my great plan for the Brewers season. I was planning on getting a sausage maker and making my own brats and sausage for the games this year. I was going to make good funky sausage like Cajun jerk and turkey. But the MM had all these sausages already and they were awesome. We grilled out before the game and I had a bell pepper and mozzarella brat as well as a spicy Hungarian brat. There are tons more to try and I plan on eating at least one of each before the all-star break. I would like to say that Chad saw a good game and the Brewers kicked butt but it was a very boring game. The Crew only got a couple hits and got their butts kicked by the Cardinals. After the game we headed home.

Saturday was Wians’ tailgate. I’ll start by saying Adam did a bang up job. He organized a tailgate for 50 people and setup the tickets, food and drink, and bus. We all met at A’s around 10 and boarded the bus. We set up everything once at the park and that is when the craziness ensued. I manned the grill and had a good number of Bloody Marys. I talked with a bunch of people about every topic under the sun. I got so caught up in the conversation that I forgot to eat any of the ten plus pounds of meat that I grilled. We then headed into the stadium. We got lucky because the weather was gorgeous and the ever unknowing weatherman said it was supposed to rain. A couple of us sat in the lower level and enjoyed the game and the radiation of the sun. The game flew by and the next thing I knew it was the seventh inning. Needing another beer I went with Ham to TGIFs to get a brew. This is where the tragic event of the day occurred. It may have fallen out of my pocket but I believe that someone stole my camera out of my pocket. I had just taken a picture with the things and I put it back in my pocket. I think when I was getting a beer the cord was probably hanging out of my pocket and someone just yanked it. Once I realized that it was gone I went into an immediate funk. I didn’t have much fun the rest of the day but it was time to go back to the bus anyway. We got back to the bus and headed back downtown. One small bit of fun I did have was I played some Metallica through the bus speakers using my iPod FM transmitter. The Metallica was a hit with the patrons of the bus and everyone got a rockin’. Once we got home I surveyed the scene and there were a bunch of messed up people. I don’t know how they did it but Adam said many of them went out that night. I wasn’t about to do this so we walked back to my place. Ham, Jessica, Todd and Steph were all staying with us. I was still in my funk and everyone wanted to go eat at Bucca’s. I didn’t feel up to it so I stayed at home, watched COPS and ate a couple ham sandwiches. I was sober as a judge at this point when I got a call from Schwenker. He was on his way downtown and wanted to go out. I told him he could chill by my place until everyone got back from Bucca’s. The big man came over and I played him in mini-shot checkers that I got from my brother. I somehow lost but my heart wasn’t in it to begin with 🙂 . Everyone finally got back from dinner and they were unbelievably drunk and everyone, but J, ended up passing out almost immediately. So Schwenker with no one to party with headed home and we watched some TV and stayed put for the night.