Tour de ‘Boygan III

This Saturday Jocelyn and I biked to Falls for our close to annual Tour de ‘Boygan. This was the first year that we both had road bikes for the trip. I thought we would bomb up there in no time but a month and a half of not biking and ten miles an hour headwinds made for a slow five hour bike. It was way more brutal than I was expecting. Once to Randy’s house we showered up and met my mom and cousin Terri for dinner at Firehouse. The pizza was delicious as always and I ate way too much. After dinner my mom dropped J and I off at Hops Haven. We watched the first half of the Badgers game there. Since they had a live that was going to start during the second half we walked to The Skybox to watch the game in a better atmosphere. After the game was over Randy picked us up and dropped us off in Falls. We hung out at the O and caused a ruckus until bar time. Sunday, too sore to think about biking home, we had Rich drive us back. Sunday we watched in amazement as the Packers beat San Diego to start 3-0, amazing!

Football and Fall

We went to the Brewers game on Friday. We skipped happy hour this week. The game stunk, the Brewers were down five after the first inning. Sheets is a bum. After the game we went to The Pub for a couple burgers. We hadn’t been there in a while and they scratched an itch I’ve had for a while. Saturday was a gorgeous day. You can tell Fall is right around the corner. I’ve missed the last two Badgers games since I was in Canada so I wasn’t about to miss this one. I headed out to Luedke’s parents’ house to watch the game in their media room. A bunch of the guys went out there. We had a couple beers and watched the Badgers struggle to beat Citadel. I haven’t been overly impressed with their play so far this year. At least we’re not Notre Dame. After the football game we headed to Adam’s for Chappy’s bachelor party. There were about twenty guys there. Everyone played cards but I wasn’t overly interested in playing so I watched football and drank beer. We played some drinking games, at some pizza and smoked some cigars. It was a good time. Chappy’s single life is quickly melting away.

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.

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…