I had a good Memorial Day weekend. Not as good as these two, but still pretty decent (BTW, congratulations!).
While those two were getting married, I took my nephew and niece to a Brewers game against the Twins. While the Twins won, I had fun with them anyway. For me, it was something new. I had never taken them anywhere without at least one of their parents. I had never gone anywhere with kids being the adult in charge before. I have to admit to being a little scared at the idea, but I think it went well. It helps that they are not little kids anymore.
The next day, I met this guy. I enjoyed hanging out with him (as well as Mr. D) at MOA, and it was nice to meet one of the first supporters of this little adventure. A little heavy on the Bears gear, but hey, nobody's perfect. We saw something that was pretty shocking when we were there, but I am sure Gino will fill us in himself (he took video and everything).
Interspersed with these activities were a couple of nights out in the Warehouse District and another Twins win over my Brewers. I have a theory on why the Twins seem to beat the Brewers with regularity (and no, it's not because the Brewers suck). I may have to put my theory out there for peer review.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Is this irony, or just funny?
This would be one of the funnier buyouts we will have ever seen if it happens. I think this is a good opportunity to come up with as many one-liners, jokes, quips, and the like as possible. Play along at home!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Trebek!!
Just saw the latest "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketch from last night's SNL. It was actually one of the best ones of these, and there have been a lot of good ones. Check it out.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
My nephew Vinny
So I was going to post about my new nephew, but because others can apparently blog at work while I, you know, work at work, I was beaten to it. All you need to know is here.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
30
So it's my blogging buddy Amanda's birthday today!! She has reached the beginning of a really fun decade (well, my 30s have rocked so far). So that she can see how much fun turning 30 can be, I will relay the story of my 30th birthday. Warning, this is a long post...
12:00 midnight (1/1/06): I am in Neenah, WI at a bar whose name escapes me. I am with my good friend Sean and a bunch of his friends ringing in the New Year (for those who don't know, I am a New Year's baby). Being that I am in Wisconsin, the bars do not have to close at the usual bar time. So, we stay at this bar until 3:30 am.
4:00 am: The Neenah bar we were at got lame, so we piled into a car and headed north to Appleton (really Grand Chute), with high hopes that we could continue the celebration at a bar called The Bar. Unfortunately for us, they had just closed. Being that we are in Grand Chute, there are no other real options nearby. So...
4:15 am: Sean and I are walking up railroad tracks bellowing "More than Words" by Extreme. We are on the way to his place. I received a couple of happy birthday calls at this point.
4:45 am: We arrive at Sean's place. He grabs each of us a beer, and we put in "Back to the Future." I should note that Sean and I have done this same routine many times back in the day when I still lived back in Appleton.
5:30 am: Around this time, I pass out. Apparently Biff Tannen was boring me.
8:00 am: I am jolted awake to a phone call that went like this:
Me: Hello?
Sister: Mike!! Where the hell are you?!! The drunk bus leaves at 9!!
Me: Huh??
Sister: We're going to the Packer game today, remember?!!
Me: Oh shit!! I am at Sean's!!
Sister: Your brother is coming to get you.
8:15 am: My brother arrives and runs me back to his house where I am staying. I shower, get ready, then get a lift back to The Bar, which was not there for me four hours ago.
9:00 am: I get on the drunk bus, get handed a beer, and we head up to Green Bay.
10:30 am: The drunk bus drops us off at The Bar on Holmgren Way. I am running on fumes, but a Packer game demands my full attention. So be it!
12:00ish: We walk into Lambeau Field and watch the Packers play a Seattle Seahawks team that was largely resting their starters. Meanwhile, the Packers were at 3-12, and we were thinking we may have been watching the last game of Brett Favre...little did we know what would happen over the next several years.
1:00 pm: I am dragging ass, so I stop drinking beer for a spell and switch to Coke. I need caffeine...bad.
3:00 pm: The Packers beat Seattle 23-17. We wonder if we saw the last of Brett Favre. Back to The Bar.
4:30 pm: The drunk bus hits the road heading back towards Grand Chute.
6:00 pm: Nap time...and trying to decide whether I should go out that night.
7:30 pm: Decision made...it's off to The Bar (on the Avenue). I hang out with my sister and anyone else hanging around.
8:50 pm: Goodbye, 20s. I officially turn 30. I celebrate the moment by taking another pull off of my Miller Lite.
2:00 am: I can't believe I closed it down....good God, something is very wrong with me....phew, what a birthday!!
OK, so that is my 30th birthday. It was a great way to begin my 30s. So, while Amanda's 30th might not be this event-filled, hopefully her 30s are as good as mine have been so far.
Happy birthday, Amanda!!
12:00 midnight (1/1/06): I am in Neenah, WI at a bar whose name escapes me. I am with my good friend Sean and a bunch of his friends ringing in the New Year (for those who don't know, I am a New Year's baby). Being that I am in Wisconsin, the bars do not have to close at the usual bar time. So, we stay at this bar until 3:30 am.
4:00 am: The Neenah bar we were at got lame, so we piled into a car and headed north to Appleton (really Grand Chute), with high hopes that we could continue the celebration at a bar called The Bar. Unfortunately for us, they had just closed. Being that we are in Grand Chute, there are no other real options nearby. So...
4:15 am: Sean and I are walking up railroad tracks bellowing "More than Words" by Extreme. We are on the way to his place. I received a couple of happy birthday calls at this point.
4:45 am: We arrive at Sean's place. He grabs each of us a beer, and we put in "Back to the Future." I should note that Sean and I have done this same routine many times back in the day when I still lived back in Appleton.
5:30 am: Around this time, I pass out. Apparently Biff Tannen was boring me.
8:00 am: I am jolted awake to a phone call that went like this:
Me: Hello?
Sister: Mike!! Where the hell are you?!! The drunk bus leaves at 9!!
Me: Huh??
Sister: We're going to the Packer game today, remember?!!
Me: Oh shit!! I am at Sean's!!
Sister: Your brother is coming to get you.
8:15 am: My brother arrives and runs me back to his house where I am staying. I shower, get ready, then get a lift back to The Bar, which was not there for me four hours ago.
9:00 am: I get on the drunk bus, get handed a beer, and we head up to Green Bay.
10:30 am: The drunk bus drops us off at The Bar on Holmgren Way. I am running on fumes, but a Packer game demands my full attention. So be it!
12:00ish: We walk into Lambeau Field and watch the Packers play a Seattle Seahawks team that was largely resting their starters. Meanwhile, the Packers were at 3-12, and we were thinking we may have been watching the last game of Brett Favre...little did we know what would happen over the next several years.
1:00 pm: I am dragging ass, so I stop drinking beer for a spell and switch to Coke. I need caffeine...bad.
3:00 pm: The Packers beat Seattle 23-17. We wonder if we saw the last of Brett Favre. Back to The Bar.
4:30 pm: The drunk bus hits the road heading back towards Grand Chute.
6:00 pm: Nap time...and trying to decide whether I should go out that night.
7:30 pm: Decision made...it's off to The Bar (on the Avenue). I hang out with my sister and anyone else hanging around.
8:50 pm: Goodbye, 20s. I officially turn 30. I celebrate the moment by taking another pull off of my Miller Lite.
2:00 am: I can't believe I closed it down....good God, something is very wrong with me....phew, what a birthday!!
OK, so that is my 30th birthday. It was a great way to begin my 30s. So, while Amanda's 30th might not be this event-filled, hopefully her 30s are as good as mine have been so far.
Happy birthday, Amanda!!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
17
This is how many consecutive times the Brewers have defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates (they won 8-5 tonight). This is difficult to do in any sport, but in baseball it's hard to string together more than a couple of wins consecutively against any team.
Way to go Brewers....see you on Friday!!
Way to go Brewers....see you on Friday!!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Davey Z has a point...
It's not very often that I agree with Dave Zwiefel of the Cap Times in Madison, but he is dead-on about the people who still run with the whole "Obama isn't native-born" thing. Give it up, he's an American.
Meet and Re-meet
If you can step back from your day-to-day life and reflect, it's truly fascinating to think about the people who cross your path from time to time. On the East Coast trip, we encountered a particularly interesting person at The Tombs in DC. We were just hanging out, having a few beers and plotting the next day of our vacation when we encountered this person. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University named Chris Hull.
A little background before we continue: On our South Bend trip last fall, and driving down the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, we got to talking about the mechanics of Presidential elections, from primaries and caucuses to whether the Electoral College is still necessary. My stance is that primaries are preferable to caucuses and that the Electoral College should not be junked. My travelling buddies tend to disagree. At some point, I may explain my view on this here.
Anyway, as soon as we found out what Mr. Hull did, we started talking to him about our prior discussions. He tended to side with me on the Electoral College, but not on caucuses, although my primary argument for primaries is that there is no peer pressure in a voting booth, but groupthink can definitely take hold in a caucus. Hull actually seemed pretty impressed with the three of us as far as our intelligence level. I ended up educating Hull about the Progressive movement that was prevalent in Wisconsin which led to Wisconsin being one of the first states to have primary elections. So, I thought that was a fascinating sequence of events.
The story above happened on the night we arrived in DC. Two days later, we went up to Baltimore to see the Orioles at Camden Yards. The Yankees were in town for the opening series, and two of us had never been to Camden Yards. Baseball fans know Oriole Park at Camden Yards as the first of the new ballparks to go for the retro look, so it was interesting to see the original park that started it. It is a great ballpark, although other parks that followed definitely improved on the concept. The crowd was somewhat bipartisan, so that was an interesting dynamic. As for the game, the Orioles jumped out to a big lead. The Yanks made it interesting in the 9th, but the Os ultimately prevailed. As for Baltimore itself, the Inner Harbor area looked cool, but the rest of Baltimore (at least what I saw) was not terribly impressive.
OK, so at the game I reunited with a friend from college whom I hadn't seen in years. She lives in Baltimore and works for Johns Hopkins University. We sat together and basically laughed with each other for most of the game...which was pretty much where we left off when we were both in school back here in Minnesota. She was great to be around, and it was definitely good to see her. So, there is a lesson here...Facebook gets results! This would not have happened if it wasn't for Facebook. I was pretty skeptical about Facebook, but seeing my friend in Baltimore is one of a few rekindled relationships I have as a result of setting up a profile.
Like I said at the beginning, the people who cross your path can be fascinating. Even if you only meet someone once, they can teach you a thing or two, or vice-versa. Also, they can prove to be people that turn out to be great friends, even if you don't see them all that often.
There are probably a couple more DC-trip related posts I can squeeze out of this, so hang tight.
A little background before we continue: On our South Bend trip last fall, and driving down the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, we got to talking about the mechanics of Presidential elections, from primaries and caucuses to whether the Electoral College is still necessary. My stance is that primaries are preferable to caucuses and that the Electoral College should not be junked. My travelling buddies tend to disagree. At some point, I may explain my view on this here.
Anyway, as soon as we found out what Mr. Hull did, we started talking to him about our prior discussions. He tended to side with me on the Electoral College, but not on caucuses, although my primary argument for primaries is that there is no peer pressure in a voting booth, but groupthink can definitely take hold in a caucus. Hull actually seemed pretty impressed with the three of us as far as our intelligence level. I ended up educating Hull about the Progressive movement that was prevalent in Wisconsin which led to Wisconsin being one of the first states to have primary elections. So, I thought that was a fascinating sequence of events.
The story above happened on the night we arrived in DC. Two days later, we went up to Baltimore to see the Orioles at Camden Yards. The Yankees were in town for the opening series, and two of us had never been to Camden Yards. Baseball fans know Oriole Park at Camden Yards as the first of the new ballparks to go for the retro look, so it was interesting to see the original park that started it. It is a great ballpark, although other parks that followed definitely improved on the concept. The crowd was somewhat bipartisan, so that was an interesting dynamic. As for the game, the Orioles jumped out to a big lead. The Yanks made it interesting in the 9th, but the Os ultimately prevailed. As for Baltimore itself, the Inner Harbor area looked cool, but the rest of Baltimore (at least what I saw) was not terribly impressive.
OK, so at the game I reunited with a friend from college whom I hadn't seen in years. She lives in Baltimore and works for Johns Hopkins University. We sat together and basically laughed with each other for most of the game...which was pretty much where we left off when we were both in school back here in Minnesota. She was great to be around, and it was definitely good to see her. So, there is a lesson here...Facebook gets results! This would not have happened if it wasn't for Facebook. I was pretty skeptical about Facebook, but seeing my friend in Baltimore is one of a few rekindled relationships I have as a result of setting up a profile.
Like I said at the beginning, the people who cross your path can be fascinating. Even if you only meet someone once, they can teach you a thing or two, or vice-versa. Also, they can prove to be people that turn out to be great friends, even if you don't see them all that often.
There are probably a couple more DC-trip related posts I can squeeze out of this, so hang tight.
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