Color Me Exhausted

I believe I left off on the Tuesday of 'fest. Tuesday J and I were going to go see the Midwest Operas stirring rendition of Pink Floyd's The Wall and then go to see Kenny Wayne Shepard. We made it down to the fest ground in plenty of time and got a good seat for what we thought was going to be a cover band doing Floyd. Instead it was absolutely the worst thing I've seen in my life. We weren't the only ones that thought that this "rock opera" was going to be worth watching because there were tons of hippies waiting to see them as well. Since the hippies had their senses dulled/heightened they couldn't process how much this rock opera sucked. J and I as well as handful of people were able to determine how awful they were in about two minutes. So we left which really threw a wrench into our plans because now we had 3 hours to kill before KWS. So we decided to walk to get a beer and I ran into my good pal Gregory. He and his woman were down for the night. In the process of getting the beer we learned that you didn't need a wristband to get into the main stage. J and Greg's woman both loved Jessica Simpson so we did what any whipped man would do, take them to their free concert and then hold it over their head that we went to the JS concert. We sat there for a couple hours and watched the concert. I think Greg and I were watching different things on stage than the rest of the audience so we were able to block out the music and prepubescent screaming. After that was over we headed on home. Thursday was our next day and was going to be the last. I biked down to the grounds and got wristbands to see The Bodeans and Steve Miller. We headed down to grounds pretty early and grabbed a bite to eat before the show. We went in and got some pretty good seats for the show. The Bodeans put on a really good show. I've seen then a couple times at Lakefest in Sheboygan but I can honestly say I don't "remember" seeing them there. We then stayed for a handful of the Steve Miller songs. It was getting late so we headed out of the concert. On our way out we got to check out Paul Oakenfold. We watched him for a bit, admired the trance scene and glow sticks, and then started home again. On the way home we ran into another stage and heard Peter Frampton doing "Do You Feel Like We Do." No true rock n' roll fan could pass that up so we had to stop and listen to that. Finally we got out of there and made it home. Friday I went to a house warming party at my buddy Chappy's new place. It was going…

Big Gig I

Well the 'fest is here again. This year we took our Big Gig cards and headed down to the grounds on the opening Thursday. J and I went down there fairly early so we could get in for free. We thought that we were going to have four hours of boredom while we waited for the Big Wu to start things off at eleven but we ran into some of my old college buddies, Steven Herman and Kyle Barton. I guess they always meet at the same spot at the Miller Oasis and I was just lucky enough to stumble across them. We had a couple beers and caught up with each other. It was good to see them again. Then around nine we decided to take a lap around the fest. Once we made it around the huge line of people waiting to get into Prince we were able to double back to our stage and see the ekoostik hookah. ek was, eh, and they played up until the fireworks. After the big bang we did the hippie bounce to the Wu and felt old until midnight and went home. Friday the acts at 'fest weren't that good but more importantly I wasn't able to get my wristband so I couldn't get in for free. Instead of spending tons of cash at Summerfest I decided to meet J after work at the Wicked Hop and spend tons of cash there. We had a slew of different beers and some food. We sample beers there until eleven and then swayed home to get some sleep for Kondofest on Sat. Saturday was the annual Kondofest party. I have to admit that overall you can see that the ol' wreckin' crew is getting older and a little more docile. Don't get me wrong here, the day still had the usual yard nomads wandering around playing boce ball, 3 hours of volleyball, and some quarters. It also lacked the beer bong and casual chug off that in the past made barrels, plural, evaporate. It could be that in their old age people just prefer the mixers and that's why only one barrel was enough for the crew. Either way, I still had a good time and got to head butt a girl in the face while putting my Swisher Sweet out on her cheek. That's what she get for trying to D up the big dog on the blacktop. Once Kondofest was finished everyone headed downtown as usual. This year I split from the group because everyone and their mother were going to see O.A.R. and I wasn't going to deal with the massive crowd. After stopping for some unneeded liquor at the store Marti, Graham and I went back to my place. While there we proceeded to drink Captain and Captains as well as Gin and Gin drinks. We played some Euchre listened to some tunes and got ready to go to the Metro. This unnecessary trip turned out to be a…

It’s 1… 2… 3… Brewer Games

This weekend was the first time I have ever been to three Brewers' games in one weekend and it was definitely a lot of baseball. Game one was on Friday after work. I was going to be flying solo to the game after work but J got off of work at the last second and she ended up meeting up picking me up and we went together. Once we got to the park we met up with the other 25 people in our group and tailgated and had some brews. After we got our free throwback hats and found our seat we had neglected to the keep track of another important ingredient, our brew. So we made our way to TGIF which happens to be my new favorite place to watch a game because you see some crazy characters in there. This day was no exception. We found some off duty sheriff who sells memorabilia and replica/counterfeit baseball cards. I ended up talking to this guy for almost the whole game. I made it back to my seat once to partake in WI largest jager bomb that come in a bone glass. Once the game was over the Brewers won game one. I remember seeing a couple of the Packers in TGIF too so that was a bonus. I think after that we just headed home and went to bed. Game two was going was one of the first tailgates that I was actually a part of the planning process. J's dad and her sister were coming to Milwaukee to go to their first Brewers' game. We had the whole thing planned out except one little wrinkle. Somewhere some wires were crossed and J told her dad the wrong start time for the game. Since there was no way they would be able to make it to the park on time we headed down ourselves and had a mini-tailgate and saved the major one Sunday. While at the park I remembered some of my high school buddies were down at the game for a bachelor party. So I gave them a ring and met up with the lushes. Once again we all hung out in Friday's and this time I stayed fairly sober. This game the entertainment was watching the slow deterioration of my friends as they drank themselves stupid. The crew was getting their butts kicked all game but J's fam arrived in the seventh and the crew rallied to tie the game back up. Her dad and sister got to see the best part of the game, well her dad did because Arianne was watching the inside of her eyelids most of the time. My aunt and cousin were up from Florida watching Craig play so I got to talk to them for a couple innings of the game. Once the crew won game two we headed home and rested up for game three. Game three was on dad's day so there was no better way to spend…

Peoria Dreamin’

Not much to report this weekend. J and I went to Peoria to visit her family. Friday was spent driving there after work. We had to go through Chicago to pick up her sister at O'Hare. We arrived in Peoria around 9ish. We ordered pizza and went to bed. Saturday was a long day. We woke up at 6:30 because J and her sister were running in the Steamboat Classic. This race is dubbed as the fastest four mile race in the world. I don't think I've heard of any other four mile races so I think it's the only four mile race in the world. Jocelyn tried to get me to run the race but I'm not paying $25 to someone so I can kill myself and then receive a t-shirt reminding me of the torture. It was a hot sticky morning so it was more of a steam bath classic. It was 80 and humid. The humidity didn't affect the crazy Kenyans who finished first through fourth. They finished the race in 17:30 sec. It was kind of cool seeing a couple people who are headed to the Olympics in Athens. Jocelyn's uncle did very well finishing the race in less than 24 minutes. Jocelyn's goal was finishing the race and she did. I don't know her time so I can't post it for you. We'll just say that Jocelyn is more of a water animal than a land animal. I give her and everyone else who ran the race props for finishing though, good jog. We stayed by the riverfront until ten and then we had to get home and get ready for lunch. We had lunch by the aunt's house. After that we had to run home and get ready for dinner. We had dinner with her grandparents, aunts, and uncles at the country club. The dinner was delicious. After a brief stop at her grandparent's house to look at some pictures we hit the Peoria nightlife. There was an Elton John impersonator down by the riverfront so we headed down there for the beer. I say the beer because why the hell would someone want to see an Elton John impersonator? Any-who we met up with some of J's old high school friends. Once pseudo-John was done performing we went to some bar down the street. It was a really nice place and I had a great time talking to Jocelyn's old friends and wasting the night away. We headed home about one and got some much needed sleep. I actually had an event happen during the week. J and I went to the Brewers game on Tuesday. We tailgated a little and had a couple yards from TGIFs. Nothing crazy but a good time none-the-less.

Riding America

This weekend was out of the ordinary because it didn't involve a Brewer game. It was a normal weekend in that it did involve drinking in a parking lot. It also had high adrenaline racing and blistering sunburns. This weekend we went up to Road America in Elkhart Lake to see the AMA Superbike races. On Friday, J and I went up to the Log Cabin Inn to get our fish fry base and have some Old Fashions. We really didn't know what we were going to do that night but that all changed when Ervaets called and said that he was being kick out of the house by his woman so she could have a girls night at their house. Craig wanted to hit the Elkhart bars and check out the race scene so we decided to meet in the Fleet Farm parking lot. I needed a few things from Speedy Barnyard anyway so I went and got a key made and picked up the blowtorch that I've been needing. After waiting a bit for Craig we finally spotted the M3 and piled in for the trip to Elkhart. The first place we went was pretty laid back. Besides the cool swings you could sit in at the bar and Donkey Kong the place wasn't worth the one drink we had. So we cruised to the Road America hot spot, Siebkens's. Sieb's didn't disappoint. There were a ton of motorcycles and plenty of people to make fun of and question, why the mullet with black jeans. We met up another group of guys there and shot the breeze all night. Also for the second week in a row I got the opportunity to inhale toxic rubber smoke. One of the riders smoked up the entire beer tent doing a brake stand inside the inside it. From there we had the bright idea of hitting up some of the townie bars in boondocks. We started out at Nap's place. Named after the drunk owner with nappy hair. We walked in and got he usual, "Who the hell are these out of towners?" stare. Nap was working and Craig came up with a fun new game for the night. He asked Nap every 10 minutes if the grill was open. So we hassled the locals and admired Nap's wife as she drank brandy out of a shot glass with one ice cube in it. Nap's was closing so we headed to Richels for on last one. Craig walked in and asked it the grill was open while I did a shot of tequila that one of the townies bought me. As much fun as this was we called it a night and headed home to get some rest of the big day tomorrow. I have to admit that this race Saturday didn't hold a match to the previous ones in terms of sheer craziness. J and I woke up at 9 and headed to the farm to pick up some plywood…