Brewers? why not...

I've spent some time checking out the local JSonline brewer blogs over the past couple weeks. According to the city of Milwaukee the Brewers are gonna be a joke this year. Here are a few of the more frustrating comments.

alright lets start things off with DavidB...

1) Yost used six relievers today? He has no clue as to how to manage a bullpen. Why didn't he have someone warming up when Cassidy got into trouble?

-My god. That's like watching the first Packers preseason game and being like... WHO ARE THESE GUYS! MCCarthy is playing AARON RODGERS for half the game! oh my god the packers are done this year.

Ok lets see what else we got here. Oh YostisToast wants to chime in.

2) The crew has got to start losing these games so Yost can get canned before the season starts.

-This arguement always bothers me. So called fans who'd rather watch their team lose so they can justify firing a guy. I don't know, I hope the brewers win games with the current manager but that's just me.

This is just getting ridiculous... what do you think pjschmann?

3) PERFECT lineup ... PERFECT bullpen management ... PERFECT managing by Ned! It is so nice to know we have the BEST manager in baseball. I don't see how we can't win 115 games. Yost should win 15-20 by himself with his superior managing. (See how silly it sounds from the other side?)

Oh ho ho ZING! Wow PJ, you really got me thinking there. I have never watched a brewer game and thought that! Usually when the brewers win I think about how the players themselves performed on the field. That comment has never been said about any manger, ever. Mangers get no credit for winning and all the blame for losing. That's baseball.

Eh, I could keep going on this but I won't. Here's some random thoughts...

1) I really hope the brewers can find a pitcher with the last name Dome. Then we could all laugh everytime Fukudome of the cubs comes to the plate.

2) Anyone catch that Daytona 500 this year? That late yellow was definetly a nascar conspiracy to bunch them up for the home stretch. How about that push that Newman got at the end. Looks like Tony Stewart was running the better individual race but Newman had the teammate at the right place at the right time. Would Nascar be more interesting if it was an individual sport? Who knows, it is kind of cool that Penske was able to finally get the win. First team to have the formula one and Nascar title in the same year. INCREDIBLE!
- That was me watching two guys talk about nascar then using their opinions as my own so I could sound like I know racing. Think I could hold my own at daytona? If that doesn't win over the nascar fans my authentic rainbow colored jumpsuit will!

3) Anyone else sick of this "is brett favre retiring" stuff? Favre, you know what's going on. Just announce it already. UNLESS, this is some awesome well thought out conspiracy between Ted Thompson and Brett Favre to confuse teams come draft time. No one would no our strategy if we were "unsure" about our qb situation. Brilliant! nope... ANNOYING!

4) More people need to take my polls. Maybe I have to make my polls interesting/relevant.

5) You guys know the NBA is going on right now?

6) Go brewers? YES! GO BREWERS!

Greg, you're gonna love this one...

http://thebiglead.com/?p=4772 Poor guy.

My weekend

Just got up today and hit Zaffiro's for lunch with my mom and Jon. They're heading up to door county from chicago to check the cheesewood's remodeling operation. Should of gone with the pizza but I was in the mood for some sore of pasta thing. Got the ravioli and was given an insane platter. No one could put down that much food. This is coming from the ten chili dog champion here. We're gonna head to portage tonight after work to visit Katie's family. I plan to do a little skiing up there, hope to hit cascade or devil's head. It will be good to get back out there again. Then we'll get back and start getting ready for the big move. Looking forward to it but god, I hate moving. GO BREWERS!!

So... Who was it?

The who farted poll has been completed with some interesting results. This is what I think happened. It looks like someone farted... someone who people wouldn't suspect. 3 people are convinced it was me but these accusations are false. Now I believe the person who farted doesn't want to take the blame but they don't feel it's right to let me go down for this so they toss up the "maybe the room just smells this way?" excuse. 8 people are willing to go along with that. So who was it? It has to be someone who is embarassed to admit it was them, yet nice enough not to let anyone take the fall. In my mind that person is Katie. Katie farted, not cool.

Prince is a Vegetarian?

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=720531

So apparently Prince Fielder read one of those books about how we beat up our cows and load them up with delicious hormones. So he's getting sentimental and is becoming a vegetarian. I DO NOT LIKE THIS!!! No slugger of mine is gonna be some pansy vegetarian. This just screams Major League 2. Let me refresh your memories. Season 1 Pedro Cerrano looked like one of the baddest/toughest slugging prospects to enter the league. There is just one problem, the man just can't hit the curve. Luckily for the Indians, manager Lou Brown never lost faith in Pedro. Through months of practice and endless faith in his Voodoo deity Joe Bu, Pedro conquered the curve. He couldn't of done it at a better time, after all he did start the rally that won the Indians their first pennant in years. Those were good times.

Well some time went by. The players enjoyed the offseason and many of them went through some changes as many of you would. The sudden onset of fame can do that to a man. Wild thing Rick Vaughn cleaned up, Willie Mays Hayes seemed more interested in his film career than baseball... But no one changed more than Pedro Cerrano. He changed faiths! The once voodoo worshipping stubborn slugger became a cheery hari chrisna type whose priorities have changed. Hitting the curve was no longer his number one priority. He became interested in all things living. No more meat for this guy. He loves all of god's creatures. Well we all saw what resulted. Not only couldn't he hit the curve, he couldn't hit ANYTHING and it didn't even seem to bother him! Thank god for the free agent acquisition from Japan -- Isuro "Kamakazi" Tanaka. Tanaka questioned Cerrano's manhood throughout the season yet it seemed to have no effect. Then it happened. He told Cerrano he had no "marbles." It seemed as if nothing could phase Cerrano but there was something about this... something that made him think. Then BAM, homerun. Cerrano was back. No more of this Hari Crisna stuff. The Indians then went on to win it all.

See what I'm saying here? This vegetarian stuff has to stop now. If this isn't just a phase then we have some serious issues here. We need a Japanese outfielder to question his manhood immediately, or this season is at a loss. You heard it here first.

Benji's!

I can't believe I've lived in Milwaukee for 20 years and I've never stopped at this place before. Katie and I were busy driving around shorewood searching for some for rent signs so we could find Ben a place to live. We were hungry and started driving down Oakland looking for something to eat. Then there it was, an oasis in a desert of bad chinese food. Benji's Deli. I went all out, started with their chili... awesome. Then I got the mother of all sandwiches -- The Hero Israel! This sandwich consists of corned beef, pastrami, salami and pepper beef piled high with swiss cheese, cole slaw and thousand island dressing. Incredible. Katie started with their reuben soup and the Gonzo -- corned beef, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, thousand island and cole slaw. This too was awesome. Thought it was a little pricy for a sandwich shop but it was worth it. Oh man, I'm about to move just down the road from this place. My quality of life has just improved ten fold. GO BREWERS!

Hillary revisited...

Obama just owned Hillary but whatever... we got pictures!!!! So here they are.

The Social

Higgins, Katie, and I hit up some restaurant called "The Social" for dinner last night. Let me tell you why it sucked. Outside the place looks super trendy. Inside they got that retro design deal going on. Basically they had crappy 1950s tables with ugly things hanging all over the walls with wierd lights all over. Next to us there is a projector playing the new willy wonka movie followed by some woody allen thing. I don't think woody allen films are interesting when the sound is off. I don't think they're interesting anyways... I don't know, I've never even seen one. This is considered cool. We get a seat and the waitress asks us what we'd like to drink. 15 minutes later we get our drinks. Then she tells us, unfortunatly we are out of some things tonight. Then goes on to list half the menu. Well we finally get a chance to order. We start out with some calimari and escargot. Wait it wasn't the escargot, they have an image to uphold. I got the "S car GO!" WHOA! I get it! Calimari was dry and bland. They didn't even give you a lemon with it. There weren't even salt and pepper shakers on the table. Escargot was nothing but butter and snail. No real taste to it. I also tried their soup of the day -- the lobster bisque. It tasted like water and the peice of shit on top that was supposed to resemble lobster... but it tasted like a peice of shit. Well we choked that down then got our entrees. Higgins got the kobe beef burger, the best thing ordered that night. Can't really screw up a burger, looked pretty good. Katie ordered the Seared Ahi tuna... over cooked. They drizzled some green stuff on it but we couldn't figure out what it was because it was tasteless. I ordered the "bistro steak" done rare. They got the temperature right but the cut of meat sucked and they teriyakied the hell out of it. It was like I was eating solid soy sauce. All for 105 bucks. So yeah... if you're ever in milwaukee, don't go to the social. It sucks

Mexican Pizza update

Oh man that was a bad idea. Never have a mexican pizza for breakfast. Trust me, no stomach can handle that. Gallardo is out for 4 weeks, torn cartiledge or however you spell it. He'll start the year on the DL. GO BREWERS!

A COUNTER! Hillary Clinton?

I figured out how to put a counter on this site so I can see how many people look at it. Apparently it's coupled with some random send money overseas link. Don't click on it... unless you really want to send some money overseas and have no idea how to go about it... then I say go for it. It could be quite informative.

Katie just hosted Hillary Clinton and her campaigners at Shakers last night. She grabbed a couple unflattering shots but didn't get one of her and Hillary together. I'll post the pictures as soon as Katie throws them on her computer. It was kind of a cool scene. They had secret service scoping out the building. The city super plowed and salted the streets and alley way. Wish I was able to check it out but you had to be on a list to get in. Apparently Hillary just stopped in and spoke for a few minutes then took some pictures and left. I wish she just got plowed and had some horribly embarrassing night. Then I wish Katie took pictures of this and we sold them to cnn or something for thousands of dollars. I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat that mexican pizza we got in the fridge. We'll see how that goes.

POLLS!

I just found I can do polls on this thing. I'm really excited, lets do some polls!! Saw Obama in waukesha, then saw him in Milwaukee. That was fun. Everyone have a happy valentines day? Katie and I really didn't do anything because we both worked all night. We did check out the original pancake house on downer for breakfast. Never thought I'd go to a place that made a Webb's look good. I got the benedict and katie got some eggs. Food was kind of bland and overpriced and the place was borderline awful. There was no background music and it looks like Target was in charge of the decorating. One thing I hate about all breakfast places is the size of their drinks. Who the hell can eat a plate of pancakes with a half cup of milk? I ordered the large too, I'd hate to see what the small is like. That "large milk" cost me 2 dollars. The gallon of milk in the fridge cost me 2 dollars. I'm sick of being thirsty at breakfast places! I know people are gonna say how do you go to the pancake house and not eat pancakes? I guess that's where I went wrong. I'm gonna make some polls!

seriously?

Roger Clemens is ridiculously busted. How can you possibly weasel out of this. He just resorted to the, "I didn't take HGH, my wife did?" What the hell? Then he claims he was unaware of these injections. Come on dude, this is just ridiculous. Blame your wife for taking the HGH? Why would she take this? I guess the procedings just started but come on. For Clemens to claim he never did any HGH or roids is ludicrous. He is using one hell of a conspiracy theory defense. You're busted, should of retired 5 years ago. Hahahaha, my wife was shooting up on HGH behind my back with my trainer. COME ON!!!

Oh man now this is getting horribly awkward. Pettitte's testimony just owned him. He is stammering and trying to dodge the subject. It's getting hard to watch. Clemens is a fool and should of never gone this route. This Elijah E. Cummings guy is just destroying him.

Katie at Bosley

Katie just got hired at Bosley. We're working together again. She'll be keeping the job at Shakers and taking part time shifts at Bosley. This bears well for me because I'll actually have someone to talk to at work now. Currently I sit in a corner and look at a wall when I got nothing to do. In other news, Daninmilwaukee.blogspot.com will like to announce it's support for Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential race. Katie and I are attending a rally tomorrow in Waukesha at 11:30. Anyone in the Milwaukee area can pick up free online tickets. Check it out at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/waukesha . That is all the politics that will be discussed on this site.
Back to the Brewers. After an exclusive one on one conversation with local Brewer expert Ben Suesskind, I was told that this Kendall pick up sucks. He claims we might as well brought back Chad Moeller and feels that if we start the season off and Kendall is batting second, the season has already been Yosted. Kendall barely beat .300 for his on base percentage, can't throw batters out, and isn't even close to being the star we was "like 8 years ago." Interesting thoughts Mr. Suesskind. Maybe next time you have these views you should post them. Ass.

Need to talk Brewers to keep my sanity...

I think the offensive moves made by the brewers this year are enough to get them 5 more wins and that should be enough to get them into the playoffs. Topics up for debate include...

1) Eric Gagne - Used to be a dominant closer and had trouble getting back into the spot light. Mental toughness plays a larger role in the effectiveness of a closer than any other position in baseball. Gagne got chucked into the Boston pressure cooker immediately after recovering from injury and understandably had trouble adjusting. I think a lot of closers succeed in Milwaukee because of the lack of pressure put on them by the fans and media. Remember, there was a time when this guy was considered one of the best closers of all time. It would of been nice to keep Cordero around but come on, the Reds just made that impossible. 4 years with a 5th year option on a closer? That was just an impossible offer to match. Good riddance. As for the HGH thing... lets just hope that kind of goes away.

2) Mike Cameron - By far the most interesting move by the Brewers this offseason. Although the guy has to sit out the first 25 games this year because of the roids his presense dramatically changes the Brewers offense and positioning. I watched the Dennis Krause show where he had Doug Melvin as a guest and it was quite insiteful. They discussed this Cameron pick up and brought up some key points. The obvious of course is this puts Bill Hall back into his natural position at third base and moves Brewer phenom Ryan Braun to left field. Bill Hall apologists last year claim that Hall's numbers dropped because he was over concentrating on his defense and not spending enough time addressing his woes at the plate. Hopefully tossing him back to third allows him to focus on his bat. Braun was definetly a defensive liability over at third base and from what I understand, anyone in baseball can play left. With "should be" DHs like Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez being parked there, I don't see him having any trouble adjusting. It will be nice to see his bat in the Brewer lineup for the entire year. If he puts up numbers remotely close to last year, he'll be a serious MVP contender. And now there's Mike Cameron himself. Heard a few intersting facts about him on this Dennis Krause show. Even though he's getting older, he's still an excellent career centerfielder. He does strike out too much but he will take a lot of pitches. Averages over 4 pitches per at bat. He's got a little power and a good on base percentage. Over the past 3 years, nobody in baseball has made it from first to third more often then Cameron. That means he's not reckless on the base paths -- no easy outs. Finally, he's played a lot of baseball. Always nice to have that experience in the club house especially after losing Jenkins' veteran leadership.

3) Ricky Weeks - I'm gonna have to credit the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal for this knowlege. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=716113. Interesting exerpts include... "Finally recovered from surgery on his right wrist performed in August 2006, Weeks went on a tear over those final two months. He batted .327 in August, then rediscovered his power stroke in September, with nine home runs and 14 runs batted in... Weeks compiled a .500 on-base percentage in August and .409 OBP in September to finish at .374 for the season. At the end of July, his OBP was a putrid .279, so Weeks bumped it up nearly 100 points in the final two months." So we have reason to be excited here. It seems his lack of production has been attributed to his recovery from that wrist injury and rookie jitters. Considering the possibility of a patient batter like Cameron going in the number 2 spot, Weeks should have a shot at increasing those stolen base numbers as well. We've been told this kid should be a superstar for some time now, this year there are no excuses. Lets see what he can do.

4) Almost wrote this thing without mentioning the Jason Kendall signing. I guess the best thing about signing Jason Kendall is the fact that Estrada is gone. No one could hit a single on the first pitch then get thrown out on the bases better than Estrada. Never worked the count, was never clutch, and apparently he was no fun to have around. According to Melvin, the pitchers love throwing to the guy. He's not the same hitter who used to kill the Brewers back when he was a pirate but I think he'll be a solid player and I'm excited to have him. Also nice to have another veteran in the clubhouse.

5) Last season is behind us. From the players to the managers, the Brewers had no pennant race experience whatsoever. I usually claim that this is the most overrated topic in sports but I think it might be worthy of discussion in this case. I mainly believe this because I don't think Yost could of done a worse job towards the end. From the relentless faith in Turnbow to the beanball wars with Pujols, that was a terrible performance. I can only hope he learned from that mistake. Finally getting close, and getting every possible chance to make it, yet consistently failing... that couldn't of felt good. I hope the players never want to feel that again. Hopefully we can step it up in August and September.

All that should be enough to bump us into the playoffs right? Anyone have an arguement as to why we'd be worse? Is there anything I'm not mentioning? Let me know. GO BREWERS!!!!!!

weather...

I've been through a lot of Milwaukee winters but this one is getting pretty ridiculous. After getting hit with 10 inches of snow we get more snow last night. Today it's 31 out. Looking pretty nice. Was planning to go skiing tomorrow but guess what... At some point tonight it's gonna get to -4 degrees doubled with 30 mph winds. We got a high of 1 tomorrow. Maybe I can ski next sunday. No one is getting hit harder than the restaurants right now though. NO one is going out. I'm surprised people aren't just sick of being cooped up inside for weeks. Seriously, -4... 30mph winds. That is horrible. We got 3 more months of this. Going to Florida late March. It is the only thing keeping me sane right now.

update on snow post

As I was typing that snow post we somehow got 5 inches in like 10 minutes. Pretty crazy.

Snow!

we were supposed to get upto 16 inches of snow over night. They declared a winter storm warning. This means the city can go up and down any city road that has a bus route and tow every car on it. The tow lot is going to be a very busy place today. I've been there twice, and it took about an hour to get my car out. There were 3 people in front of me. It has to be absolute angry chaos there today. Oh, and we got about 2 inches max. I hate this rule. It is a horrible inconvenience on so many people. Last year they did the same thing when we got about a half inch. Then they don't even plow the sides of the streets where the cars would of parked. Katie and I posted signs in our apartment building warning people. Wonder if anyone was saved by that.

Loved the Superbowl by the way. It was kind of boring till the very end when you realized the Giants could actually pull it off. You got to give the Giants credit. They did make a heck of a run and least the Packers were knocked out by the champions. It was good to see brady have to make quick decisions and get pressured a bit. He just dealt with the same conditions that all the other qbs in the nfl deal with and he became exactly what he always was -- a slow average quarterback. I loved it. Best story out of this was the fact that the Patriots tried to trademark the phrase 19-0. 18-1 and 2007 runner up just doesn't sound so great does it?

Why do any doctors ever prescribe Oxycodone? Is that how it's spelled? They say that heath ledger guy died of an overdose of vicodin xanax and oxycodone... They were prescribed to him, amongst other medications like ambien. What kind of doctor prescibes all these pills to someone? I think it's pretty ridiculous. It's like the guy's on a drug to change any undesirable emotion. The life of an actor is just so hard!

Awesome idea

crossword puzzle book in the bathroom.

interesting story

only took 10 years for this one to come out. What you think?

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=713518

So there it is...

hundred times bigger than the place we got now, the kitchen is the size of our first floor. 200 bucks less than this place too. Not too bad. Favorite feature of the place is those large front windows. They're on hinges so you can open those up during the summer and have fresh air throughout the house. It will be nice to get out of the city too. Less chaos and smashed car windows. What do you think? You guys are really lacking in comments here. Comments make me happy.

final apartment pics

apartment pics