stuff

couple add ons to the xmas list for late shoppers. Still never got that fat head of me eating a chili dog. Also want one of those slap chop things from the infomercials. I'd also like to build a bar in my basement but can't find anything on the internet that tells you have to do this. I can't create things with my mind. I need some sort of plan, so if you find something that's doable let me know. Just want to put up a standard bar. No plumbing or power or anything.

No one ever told me how to copy pictures on on a mac yet.

Katie and I are having a bunch of people over for the packer bear game tomorrow. Just made an enormous pot of chili for everyone. I provided the chili, they can provide everything else... I hope. You won't get any predictions from me. I love football sundays, they are the most relaxing/entertaining days ever.

Anyone ever watch the nfl network? It's terrible. All they do is show old football games. Then they have sterling sharpe and joe theisman talk for an hour, then they show more old football games. Who watches football games over again? I've never even rewatched the packer super bowl win. It's got to be terrible when you know exactly what's going to happen.

I listened to a Dave Matthews CD today and he said something about being 23 in it. Then I was thinking, man I was like 14 when I liked this song. Then I was thinking damn, I'm 27 now. So I enjoyed that lyric when being 23 was 9 years away... Now 23 was 4 years ago. Probably makes no sense to anyone but that shit freaked me out.

God I am so sore from going to the gym the other day. I intentionally did really light weights forseeing the possibility of horrible soreness but I'm still in incredible pain. It's so bad that I think it makes my whole body sick... That or all those miller lites I drank after work yesterday.

My cat is trained to keep away from our christmas tree 23 hours and 59 minutes of every day. He only likes to jump into the thing and knock of ornaments at 8:00 AM every day. Then I come down stairs to spray him with the spray bottle and he hides under the dining room table. I move chairs to get him and then he runs away again. When I finally grab him I put him in the basement and shut the door. He meows for 5 minutes then realizes what he's done. Then I go back to bed. That is how I spent the past 4 mornings.

I hate cleaning the house for company when I know the company is just gonna trash the house again tomorrow.

One thing I hate about the holidays is the horrible Kay/Jared jewelry commercials.

That's all the random junk my brain can spew out at the moment.

ok it's been too long, random thoughts

1) I spend a lot of time wondering what song I'd come into the ring in if I was a boxer or ultimate fighter. Right now I think I'd go with top yourself by the raconteurs but i'd love to see what kind of reaction shiny happy people by REM would have on the crowd. That or Love Shack.

2) This guy has now made me interested in UWM basketball... what the hell? How do you copy and paste pictures on macs? Joe? Well anyways, they got some hilariously fat guy on the team.

3) Thinking about starting another one of those healthy stretches. Last time I did it it lasted about three days. This time I plan to be realistic -- the diet thing is just not happening. Hoping to cut down the after work cocktails and hit the gym four times a week. I have these thoughts all the time, usually nothing comes of it. On a side note, I did cut out a lot of late night crap food and I weighed myself for the first time in months and was down a good 12 pounds.

4) WINTER STORM WARNING! LOOK OUT, CHAOS! one inch of slush. Thanks for panicking yet again wisconsin and shutting down the city for nothing.

5) My Pandora stations in alphabetical order. Bob Marley, Cold War Kids (wife), Decemberists, Gaelic Storm, Iggy and the Stooges, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Radiohead, Robert Johnson, Sam Cooke, Sleater-Kinney, White Stripes. I know gaelic storm kind of sucks but it's the only thing I could think of to get me into the irish genre. Need anything else?

6) Does anyone else's gums hurt when they run too much?

7) This 80 year old woman across the street shovels more than I do.

8) Katie and I ordered mama mias for the first time in ages last night. Oh my god that stuff is so incredibly good.

9) Oh wow, 80 year old woman who shovels more than I do is doing so with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

10) Remember when we thought the Bucks would be worth watching for 1 month?

11) "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black" is one of the most disturbing rock quotes ever. I wonder what he meant by that. The onion told me the song come as you are is about kurt cobain admitting that he did nothing but rip off the pixies... Anyone else figure that one out?

That's what I got for now but I'll keep better track of my pointless insights and post them more often. Note how I said nothing about the packers or predicted nothing about Wisconsin sports. I have learned my lesson and will never try again.

sorry about the hiatus

I was depressed because absolutely everything I thought or predicted was wrong. Damn Vikings. OK, now it's time for my annual blogged xmas list.

1) Home depot gift cards. We really need these. Planning to redo our basement soon and this could help.

2) A 5 int playoff performance from Brett Favre.

3) Nintendo Wii

4) Itunes cards.

5) All the usual clothes gift certificates, been kind of partial to Eddie Bauer lately. And Katie likes American Eagle.

6) Katie and I have become wine dorks lately. Fans of big california cabs and zins. A fodor's travel guide for Napa valley would be cool too.

7) A snowblower. Skipping that purchase this year and going with the shovel option. Probably going to really regret that but snow blowers are stupid expensive.

8) There are some big Milwaukee restaurants that I'd only go to if I had a gift certificate. Looking at anything by the bartolattas, maybe one of the 7000 steak places we've seen open up around town.

9) I need a lot of ties, been having to wear those at work more often and would like to add to my 4 tie rotation.

10) Caphalon cooking gear.

11) A food processor, in white.

12) A fleece that I can zip into my winter coat. Black or Grey. XL

13) Surround Sound.

That's all I have for now. Might add to it some more, if I think of anything else.

WRONG!

couldn't have been more wrong about that one... wow.

Big game coming up

My prediction... based off of 16 years of watching brett favre... Favre will suck a lot this game. Hiw first two passes will be 200 mph and 10 feet high. He'll do the ole sit back and HEAVE! Then sit on the sideline confused. Why do I think this? Because it's a big game. Brett Favre was and always will be terrible when the game counts. Packers 34, Vikings 10. Charles Woodson with 2 picks. Go Pack!
I actually don't get to watch this one in the comfort of my own home. I have the bartending shift at work this Monday. At least I'll be able to watch the entire game though.
In cat news, my cat plays fetch, barks at birds outside the windows, and knocks down anything that can possibly be knocked over. He sleeps maybe 2 hours a day, the rest of the day is spent in complete spaz mode. His favorite thing to do is to jump up on top of the couch. Sprint across and leap to the top of the chair. Then try to attack the strings from the blinds that are conveniently out of his reach. Intense.
I just figured out I pay over 500 dollars a month in property tax. That sucks, man do I just hate that Obama guy.
Oh man, ATT customer service SUCKS! Two months ago I got a notice in the mail saying I was past due on a payment from our old place from shorewood. I immediately call ATT asking what I can do to pay this. The person on the phone tells me the notice was a mistake and I can discard it. Four days ago, I get a notice from collections about that same bill. I WAS ANGRY! So I call back. I get put on hold for 20 minutes. A guy picks up. I tell him my story. He transfers me to accounting. Accounting says they don't have access to both my u-verse service and my phone service. They transfer me over to someone who does. This person apparently has the job of picking up transfers and giving me the phone numbers of other people to call. I repeat the number she gave me back to her. She says, yes that's the one to call. I call that number, I get the island nation of Trinidad and Tabago. Then I start from square one. Get put on hold for another 20 minutes. Scream at the poor incompitent prick who was lucky enough to get my call, get transfered, get transfered, finally I'm able to pay the bill. Get transfered over to customer service... Talk to them for about an hour, find out I might be getting double billed but they aren't sure. In 2-4 business days I should expect a call from someone who is looking over my case. ATT!!!!!! My favorite part was how everyone described to me why I had to pay that bill and that the bill was not a mistake. As if I was arguing that. I'd literally interrupt them mid sentence and say, that's what the last 4 guys told me, and I told the last 4 guys that I have no problem with the amount you're asking me to pay. SO Please, shut up and take my money, I'm holding a credit card right here, I want to give you my money. Then they'd transfer me to someone. The worst part about this is the internet and tv with ATT is SO much better than time warner that I can't threaten to cancel. I just have to eat it.
My lunch of chef boyardee is making me nauseous. I'm gonna go sit on the couch and replay the packer viking game on madden for the 17th time. Packers keep winning but the madden version of Favre is a disgrace. ROCK ON!

LAST DAY - PLEASE HELP!!!!

Hey guys.. only one day left to vote for Bosley as Best Seafood under the Great Meals category on wisn.cityvoter.com.. please vote and spread the word around!

Great Start

Packers started the year off beating the bears at home. Some things worried me a bit though. I thought the packers were going to win this one in a blow out. Nothing about the bears is good this year. Our offensive line really struggled, the officiating was borderline pathetic (the illegal contact call on Harris,) and our offense was really struggling. Hopefully we can all attribute this to early season jitters. We got the lowly bengals coming to town next sunday. Should start us out at 2-0. I also freaked out yesterday and bought two tickets to this game. So look for Katie and I in lambeau.

In other news... we got a cat. His name is Cosmo and this thing is off the wall. We decided we wanted a fun playful cat but this guy is borderline absurd. In a matter of 2 minutes I've seen him chase his ball through the living room, then attack the curtain strings, then he'll go claw the carpet in our hallway... Pause... then attack the ball and continue the cycle. It's a non stop spaz out. I woke up today with him walking on top of my face. Here's a picture!

ADORABLE! GO PACK! Next blog post... me discussing this horrible rash that is consuming my body. Finally made an appointment to see a dermatologist. Can't get in till tuesday. Itchy. Hope it doesn't spread to my face.

Why I Want to Own a Restaurant.

"Inarguably, a successful restaurant demands that you live on the premises for the first few years, working seventeen-hour days, with total involvement in every aspect of a complicated, cruel and very fickel trade. You must be fluent in not only Spanish but the Kabbala-like intricacies of health codes, tax law, fire department regulations, environmental protection laws, building code, occupational safety and health regs, fair hiring practices, zoning, insurance, the vagaries and back-alley back-scratching of liquor licenses, the netherworld of trash removal, linen, grease disposal. And with every dime you've got tied up in your new place, suddenly the drains in your prep kitchen are backing up with raw sewage, pushing hundreds of gallons of impacted crap into your dining room; your coke-addled chef just called that Asian waitress who's working her way through law school a chink, which ensures your presence in court for the next six months; your bartender is giving away the bar to underage girls from Wantagh, any one of whom could then crash Daddy's Buick into a busload of divinity students, putting your liquor license in peril, to say the least; the Ansel System could go off, shutting down your kitchen in the middle of a ten-thousand-dollar night; there's the ongoing struggle with rodents and cockroaches, any one of which could crawl across the Tina Brown four-top in the middle of the dessert course; you just bought ten thousand dollars' worth of shrimp when the market was low, but the walk-in freezer just went on the fritz and naturally it's a holliday weekend, so good luck getting a service call in time; the dishwasher just walked out after arguing with the busboy, and they need glasses now on table seven; immigration is at the door for a surprise inspection of your kitchen's green cards; the produce guy wants a certified check or he's taking back the delivery; you didn't order enough napkins for the weekend -- and is that the New York Times reviewer waiting for your hostess to stop flirting and notice her?"(Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.)

I just picked up a bachelors degree from Colorado State and was planning to use a simple serving job to help pay the bills through grad school. I do feel some people are dissappointed that I'm not putting my ridiculously expensive education to proper use and I understand. Honestly though, going through college I had no idea what I wanted to accomplish. I started taking a few biology classes and noticed it was something I was good at. Except for a disasterous stint in Iowa city, I kept my grades up. When I graduated from CSU I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do, so I went to more school.
This is when my spoiled ass got cut off. I had to pay my way through this one. After searching for a couple weeks I saw Barbiere's Mama Mias was hiring. I figured what the hell. I know the place, Joe worked there for a bit. I'll subject myself to this life to pay my bills. After a few weeks at the place I found out I actually enjoyed the work. I asked to be put on more shifts just because I liked being around the place. After a year or so my future wife and I were promoted to managers. That was one of the best years of my life. From here on out I started contiplating a future in this business.
Katie and I got big headed, looked for other working thinking we could just shoot up the ranks. Started at Turner's... Pure hell, thank god I got out of there. In desperation we moved to door county and worked 6 months at the summertime in fish creek. I wouldn't change that experience for anything. Only problem was I couldn't live in mom's house and work in door county forever. Katie and I decided it was time to move back to milwaukee.
We saved over $12,000 in door county. Moved back home and figured we could take it easy. Did a quick road trip to colorado, then swung around through ohio to visit some family. Then we went home and started applying around the city.
NO ONE wanted us. We got desperate. God you should of seen some of the shit holes we were willing to work. Yet they denied us. Finally I got a call back from all places "Bosley on Brady."
I never even heard of the place when I applied. When they told me to come in for an interview I actually thought I was interviewing at Balzac up the block. Drove past Balzac and was surprised to see the awning didn't read bosley on brady. Had to call Katie, get the address of the place and then show up.
I thought the interview went well, went home and waited.... and waited. Finally a call from Bosley. They saw Katie sent in an application and they wanted to interview her. I cursed up a storm knowing that that meant I didn't get the job. Low and behold, I got called back 2 hours later and was told I could come in and start training.
I've learned so much about the business here. Katie and I are able to make a decent living as servers there. Of course the monotony of the work gets to me but I just can't see myself doing anything else. I love this business, I love this life, there is NOTHING short of managing the brewers that I'd rather do.
What gets me is everytime I tell someone I want to get into this business I get the same line... You know how hard the restaurant business is? The answer of course is NO! I've never owned a restaurant before... How could I? One thing is for sure though, I know more than 95% of the fools who've done it before me. I study this every day. I think about it constantly. I know exactly what it is that I'm getting into and I'm willing to bear down and attack.
I wrote all this with no proof reading or prior thought. Just a bunch of rambling some I'm sorry if it's in a language that's difficult to understand.
Time to shower and put on that damn apron. Another friday happy hour is about to start. Rock on!

One more thing...

Joe McNamara just turned 30 today. Congatulations. I'd be there soon but I decided I'm going to remain 27 until my wife catches up to me in age. Rock on!

He Has RETURNED!!!!

My god, did you guys see him at the press conferance. "I'm Brett Favre! I'm a cute little goofball... Look at everyone else trying to look decent for their press conferances. Not me, I wear a cut off t-shirt and a dirty hat! Why? Because I play football like an adorable child. You just can't help but giggle every time I take the field." Brett Favre is just to DIE for isn't he!

So Favre gets to skip the preseason workouts. Has the owner fly him into town on his own private plane. Has Childress himself pick him up from the airport and drive him to camp. Seriously, what the F#$!%#!. I think someone in the journal sentinal said something along the lines that he may have not been bigger than the Green Bay Packers, but he sure as hell got bigger than the Minnesota Vikings. You think the team is going to embrace this crap? I think the mutiny has already begun.

Now lets think about this from a pure football perspective. Everyone is pretty much thinking the same thing. Favre has Adrian Peterson. All he has to to is drop back and hand him the ball. Maybe a dink or dunk pass here or there. Easiest job in sports! Unfortunatly for Minnesota, they're they're talking about Brett Favre. The guy's a spaz. There's no way he'll just sit back there and be obedient to the all powerful Peterson. He can't play a single game without just chunkin one up there. Packer fans are way too accustomed to it. Then there's the Vikings receiving corps. Name one! Do it! I can't.

It's like they downplay the importance of a quarterback on this team because their rushing attack is that good. If that's the case why sign Favre in the first place? Any qb can just sit back there and hand it off 60% of the time. I'm sure Sage Rosenfals or Tvaris Jackson would of been just fine. They're a hell of a lot cheaper too.

Oh but now we have a guy who can perform when the game is on the line. When they really count! 6 picks vs. St. Louis. Game losing interceptions vs. the Eagles and Giants. Getting creamed by Michael Vick and the Falcons. Favre can be blamed for 5 post season failures. Remember that huge matchup between the Packers and Cowboys a couple years ago? Favre went out there and completed spazzed. It was a joke! Then he goes and gets hurt and Rodgers comes out and at least established some order and control to that offense. Favre is not the guy you want on your team when the game is on the line.

Aaron Kampman said it best. "The red shirt comes off." Minnesota, you are about to start the most embarassing season in your franchise's history..... oh wait, there was the orgy on lake minnetonka. Make that the second most embarassing season ever. Oops, there was that time Onterrio Smith got busted in the airport with the whizzinator. Ok fine, Minnesota, get ready for your third most embarassing season ever.

In 6 months, take a look at this picture Childress. This is why you got fired.

Password Nightmare

For some reason this thing changed my login email/password on me. Took me forever to figure this mess out. This is what I think happened. Katie hates it when I give my email -- brewcitydan@whatever.com to people during important meetings so she tried to set up a more professional sounding account. I can kind of see why she gets embarassed hearing that during loan consultations. So, I guess she jumped on this site and set some danielrmcnamara@whatever.com as my default email. Unfortunatly I never knew it existed. That's why I've been gone for such a ridiculously long time.
While I was gone Katie and I bought a house. I'm sure you're all aware and annoyed by my constant discussions of our new home... So I don't really have much to write about that. Oh except that there's a house warming party here on the 23rd.
There's the brewers? Man have they been sucking it up. They did just grab two of three from the dodgers in LA. Maybe a little hope is left? I don't really see it.
Packers started training camp, Brett Favre isn't a Viking, Michael Vick is done killing dogs, and the Bears still suck. Could make for an entertaining football season. I think I'm going to get a little more into the nfl this year. Last year I was still watching baseball during the first half of the season and didn't know what to do with myself. I actually experienced some sort of sports overload. I never thought that would happen.
Haven't talked about work in awhile... I guess because there's nothing to really report on that front. Food's still good and the people still give us money.
Oh, one thing has been really bothering me lately -- the amount of people using the phrase "hot mess." As in, I'm so embarrassed, god I was such a "hot mess" last night. It's everywhere. Anyone else notice this? I offer you a challenge. Well actually it's two challenges in one. Challenge 1 = Watch VH1 or MTV for 15 minutes. Challenge 2 = Finding a 15 minute window where someone doesn't say "hot mess." It's impossible. God, I hate it!
Well, password nightmare is over... I'll continue to change the world with my fascinating insights for days to come. Or until I forget my password again. Now it's off to Conejitos because that's where Katie and I go when we don't work. It's just too perfect. We actually tried to think of somewhere else to go instead... impossible. Rock on, GO BREWERS!

fat, tired, and hungry

I brilliantly convinced Katie that we should go on a diet together. I'm like two days into it and I'm fat, tired, and hungry. This is miserable. Why would anyone subject themselves to this? I want 5 beers and some real chili so bad right now. That or a qdoba burrito. Oh man that'd be good. The worst part is, this thing was my idea. So I can't quit. I made a joke to katie about how we should just quit. She didn't find it funny and yelled at me for whining. Today I had a sandwich, a cup of soup, and two potatoes off of someone's salad from work... (it was a fellow employees salad, i wasn't diving into the bus tubs.) I haven't even tried to hit the gym yet like this. How would I muster up the energy? Is muster a word? Well I know mustard is. Mustard goes great on hot pastrami with some swiss cheese. Benji's has one of those. Oh! and they put fish tacos on the specials at work today! I've been asking them to make me fish tacos since I started there. Now they made them and I can't eat it. God Katie is sitting in the living room all happy like, "tee hee, I ate a bowl of cherios and some grapes for dinner:)" Your acceptance to this lifestyle is making me more miserable. I'm gonna go drink a carnation instant breakfast and watch golden girl reruns with my wife. Rock on, go brewers.

That was an awesome game

Man I wish I could have watched that entire game last night. Unfortunately I was stuck at work. I do find excuses to be in the bar during key moments in the games though... so I was able to see the following.

-Aramis Ramirez busting his arm up. I know you never want this to happen to anyone but god, this guy kills the brewers. Anyone Brewer fan who claims that they weren't slightly happy to see that guy go down is lying to you.
-Meltdown Bradley blasting a solo shot. He sure stood in the batters box for awhile after that one. Impressive shot Bradley.
-Braun blasts a two run shot in the 8th. If I was not a brewer fan I would absolutely hate Ryan Braun. He is so damn cocky. He was in no hurry to start running the bases after that one. Then running to first with your tongue out? Cubs fans have to absolutely hate this guy... but they can't be mad. Bradley did the same thing. So that just makes it worse.

In other news, just talked to mortgage people. It's looking like Katie and I are going to be approved for the price point we were looking at. Good news for us. The house hunt is starting to get more exciting. We're trying to set up a time where we can look at some houses next week. If there are any we're fans of I'll post the links up here. Tell us what you think.
GO BREWERS!

WEEKS!

That was an awesome game last night. Looks like Weeks is turning a corner here. Nice bat to have further down in the order isn't it? I believe I said that before this year began... Where's anonymous guy now?
People in New York City and Italy are retarded. Let me tell you why... I tried the pizza hut tuscani pastas. They were horrible. I prefered Chef Boyardee. How anyone could have considered that food to be halfway decent is beyond me.
Today is my one day off for the week. I think I'm gonna sit at home and watch a brewer game from start to finish. Haven't had the opportunity to do that this year too often. Looks like we're gonna trot out Jeff "the ace" Suppan again. He's been hitting his spots the past couple games. Lets see if he can keep it up. One thing that is bothering me about the brewers this year... How come we go the first 6 innings of every game with no more than 1 run. Why can't we just start hot.. once. Maybe tonight will be the night. Lets make it 17 in a row over pittsburgh.
Finally, I'd like to apologize to rickey weeks for ruining his current hot streak. Everytime I blog about a single player they go on a horrible slump. Sorry weeks. GO BREWERS. BOO TUSCANI PASTAS!

NO GOD AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOD, I JUST SPENT 3 F'N HOURS TYPING UP THIS DAMN TASTING NOTE THING AND THE COMPUTER ERROR MESSAGED ME OUT OF NOWHERE! ANGRY, SO ANGRY, THIS IS THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER!!! AHHH!!!!!!

Very long hiatus

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. No real reason except for laziness. What should I write about? The brewers? The fact that I just noticed I'm fat? House hunt? Bachelor party ideas? My wife's birthday? I should probably start with the wife's birthday just to play things safe.

Happy birthday Katie. We went out last night after work to celebrate. Knowing Katie, one celebration just won't be enough. So I'll probably be out somewhere again tonight. WHOA! Massive lightening strike just hit shorewood. Intense! Sorry, back to the birthday. Katie is turning 23 today, April 25th. Seems like there was mass family confusion as to the exact date of her birthday. I think things are figured out now. I like to joke with her that right now, she's as old as I was when I met her. Then it makes me feel really old and I stop.
Brewers! Crappy start but things are shaping up. Braun is starting to look unstoppable. I know the numbers aren't showing it but I like Rickie Weeks this year. Manny Parra sucks but Yovanni just had an awesome ace like performance last night against the Astros. Even Suppan got his stuff together last week. Once Hoffman jumps into the closing role and we dump that Julio guy our bullpenn will start to shape up. How about that Todd Coffey? Didn't see that coming. I know it's early but he's looked great. Every year there's some brewer who fits the mold of funny fat white guy who shows random comedic success. I think Coffey will be that guy this year. Other members of this club include Bob Hamlin, Matt Stairs, Brooks Kieschnik, and John Jaha. I think Rob Deer might of started the trend. Anyone else able to think of any more?
That's all I got for the brewers so far, now we will talk about how I just noticed I'm fat. Actually there's not much too that. I just woke up and looked at the mirror and was like, damn it, I got fat again. So now I got to try to do something about that. Changing my diet is the absolute last resort. Got some new running shoes 2 weeks ago. Maybe I should take those out of the box.
Bachelor party ideas! As part of my best man privelege I get to be involved with bachelor party planning. So ben, this is what I got.
1) Camping with beer, paintball guns, and bonfires. I don't see how anyone could get hurt there.
2) Renting a limo and cruising down to chicago for one of those renaissance fairs. Why? I say why not. Those giant turkey legs look good.
3) Pink Floyd laser light show
House hunting! Katie and I have gone through about 10 houses in the shorewood area. We liked two but of course Katie likes one better and I like the other better. We're going to head out again tomorrow and check a few in the whitefish bay and glendale area. I'm looking for a big back yard, finishable basement, unfinished attic or closet that I can convert into my secret room, and a full kitchen. Not really asking for much. I'll put up links of our favorites after we look tomorrow.
Has anyone besides Joe bought the newest decemberists album? I love it, Katie hates it. But you should love it. If you're iffy, check out "The wanting comes in waves/repaid" on itunes. You won't be dissapointed.
OK that's all I got for now. Katie's still sleeping and I'm too lazy to check for typos. So it is what it is. GO BREWERS!
That's all I got for now. Katie is still sleeping and I'm too lazy to check for typos. So this is what you're gonna get.

updates

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Here's some updates.

1) On March 13th I acquired my first niece on the McNamara side. Lila Alice McNamara.
2) I bought an iPhone and had it making fart noises in no time.
3) Katie made a near perfect batch of skyline. It is all I have been eating for two days. My body is upset with me.
4) Work had been pretty slow during the week but the weekends have been nice and chaotic. March and April are notoriously slow but things should really take off come summer.

Here's some NCAA tournament thoughts.

1) This NCAA tournament is the best thing in sports. Marquette hung on to beat utah state in round one. They did not look good but a win is a win. I think the game came down to a battle of the prophets at the end and Jesus owned um... is it Brigham Young? John Smith? Whoever that guy is that could talk to god through sheep. That's who jesus owned. This is going with assumption that everyone from Utah is a mormon. Does secret underwear fit under baseketball uniforms? Go Marquette!
2) Products I hate due to over advertising during the NCAA tournament include... Coke Zero, mini burger king burgers, the navy, new james bond movie, geico (except those googly eyed money commercials. Those are hilarious.) McDonalds, not miller lite, the evironmentally conscious CEO of exxon mobile, and every single terrible show that's about to be on CBS.
3) Wisconsin pulled off a big win yesterday. Had to watch the end of it as I was closing up at work but apparently during half time the brilliant cbs sports team said this game was over and declared it a blowout. An 11 point halftime deficit means the games over in March I guess. God, I just really hate cbs right now. Everything about them.
4) Towards the end of the Marquette game I was forced to see the ending of the Ok st. vs. Tenn. game. Something I could care less about. I'm in Milwaukee, I'm watching the final 2 minutes of the one game I actually care about. DON'T CUT TO OKLAHOMA STATE! With that said, what's even in Oklahoma. All I know about Oklahoma is that they have two colleges and half a federal building somewhere. I'm pretty sure the rest of the state raises hogs.
5) TWO MORE DAYS OF BASKETBALL! FOLLOWED BY MANY MORE DAYS OF BASKETBALL!
6) GO BREWERS!

Random stuff

Went to the sports show with my boss. Picked up some new lures -- the same ones that were catching me the big fish in canada. Also bought some Sham-wow's. The seen on tv shammy things. Mainly bought them for Katie because she kept saying how she wanted one. They're pretty amazing. Ate some beef jerky and tried to catch some fish in the trout pond. That's about as exciting as that got.
The weather the past few days is absolutely miserable. 35 and rain. Better than snow.
No real Brewer updates. Gagne got released and Suppan helped shut out the cubs. Also read somewhere that Weeks is batting .077 in spring and committed an error on a double play ball which lead to a 7 run inning. Good old Rickie Weeks. I know it's early in spring and all but does anyone else think we'd be better off just throwing Counsell at second? You got to be pretty bad if that seems like a viable option. I think he'll have a short leash. We'll see how Macha handles it.
We had our car window smashed yet again. They failed yet again to remove my stereo. They did find my faceplate sitting in the door of my car so now that's gone. They also left with katie's cell phone and makeup. Good score guys. I can't stand the people that do this. I can't believe it's so easy to accomplish without getting caught. The car was parked on water st. Definately not the slowest street in milwaukee. I called the cops, they said to call beack tomorrow if I needed a report for insurance. Thanks guys. That's about all for now. Most boring blog update ever.

TV

I am absolutely hooked on this big love show on HBO. If you have the opportunity to find some dvds and start with season one... go for it. No reason why I should like this show but I just can't stop watching it.
Since sports is on a little hiatus right now I am forced to find another means of entertainment. Thank you VH1. Digital crack. Whatever you do, do not watch one of their shows. You will spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch getting dumber. The stuff is impossible to turn off. Katie and I are inexpicably excited when we come from work and see the dvr loaded with various treasures such as, "Rock of Love with Brett Michaels." Or then there's "I love money." Can't forget about the ingenius "Tool Academy." They all pretty much run under the same theme. Find a group of the world's most undeservedly narcissistic people... then force them to make complete fools out of themselves in front of a national audience. What intrigues me the most about these guys is the fact that they just don't get it. I honestly believe they feel they're accomplishing something by being on these shows. Like some form of celebrity. Why be famous if you're only famous for being that incredible loser on VH1? Yet like I said, I just have to watch.
Then there's the rest of TV. The Office is still good but not as great as it used to be. The whole adorable Jim and Pam saga is making me sick. No one is that perfect. 30 rock is sometimes watchable. Otherwise what's left? Oh, I forgot... only the best show on television -- America's Funniest Home Videos. You have to be a fricken dvr guide expert to find out what times they're actually going to air new episodes. If you're a true fan you can record about 6 a day off of wgn and abcfamily.
So that's what has been occupying my time until baseball season starts. Then it's a ball game every night... and I annoy my wife and employers for the entire season with my unbelieveable devotion to seeing every minute of every game. GO BREWERS!

Congratulations to Myself

I got promoted last week to a server management position. Small increase in pay, huge increase in hours. The highlight of this promotion is going to be the free education in the art of owning a successful restaurant. The owners have agreed to work with me and show me how the business is run from the office... Seeing how everyone knows it is Katie and my dream to eventually own and operate a restaurant we see this as an incredible opportunity to start moving towards our goals. I've said it many times, I truly believe we work for the best restaurant in Milwaukee. There's no one else we'd rather learn from. So congratulations Dan, you're awesome.

Brewers and Steroids

Thank god baseball is starting up again. I do have to say the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's coverage of spring training is fantastic. Jsonline.com is the first website I go to every morning. So here are the updates. Brewers sign $uppan's clone. Gagne's back. Capuano's rehabing and Gallardo and Gagne are going to skip that World baseball classic thing. None of these updates are exciting enough for me to have an opinion about yet I find myself sitting here for 20 minutes reading what 200 Brewer bloggers have to say. Baseball is the best sport ever. Nothing can even come close.
Then there's A-Roid. This thing is getting absolutely hilarious. Everyone gets all excited for the big A-roid press conferance and the pansy gets up there and cries. Blaming youth and one evil evil cousin. Complete coward. He kept whining about how rough it is to be in the big leagues so young and have to grow up so fast. Shut up you loser. The guy was like 26 when he tested positive for the roids. The best part about this is Jose Canseco. Everything the guy said has been proven true. I find it funny because everyone wants to hate him so much but he just ends up being right. About everything. Here's a list of my top 5 steroid moments.

5) Barry Bonds gets busted. I kind of like Barry Bonds. He is what he is. The most selfish asshole in sports. Even after he steals the McGuire roid record of single season homeruns he decides to give america the finger. He hangs around until he takes the most important record in all of sports -- the Hank Aaron homerun title. Since in America someone is considered innocent until proven guilty... he made us celebrate it. How about that Hank Aaron hostage video. That looked real sincere. The guy's head and feet grow at 40. His power numbers explode when all players in all sports are supposed to decline. Goes from a speedy lead-off type to a monster longballer. AT 40! But there's no proof. If you think he cheated, you're racist.

4) Sammy Sosa can't speak english anymore.

3) Palmeiro's emphatic denial of steroids. The guy points into the camera practically screaming his innocense... Then is the first moron to be busted during the random testing. What an idiot.

2) Roger Clemmens. No one could of handled this worse. The guy took everyone down with him. He gets to capitol hill and what's his defense? I got the HGH for my wife. Then you have to see the woman just sit back there and eat it. Then he stumbles around 2 hours of questioning. Who did he think he was convincing? He looked like an absolute fool.

1) A-Roid. He's number one because this one is far from over. I guarentee this story explodes before the start of the baseball season.

The onion has had great material on this. These are by far the best two articles.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/turns_out_craig_counsell
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/fuck_rod_wondering_what

Anonymous guy lays into Brewcity Dan

I got some anonymous dude laying into me about the brewers right now. Check out the comments in the state of the brewers. This guy's intense. I appreciate the enthusiasm. If only I could get any of my other 5 readers to post their thoughts on this site I could be a big deal! Guy knows his baseball and takes the time to write a page of numbers that anyone with a normal attention span would ignore. I enjoyed our battle anonymous dude, I hope it continues with later posts.

I just switched from Time Warner to ATT Uverse. Absolutely love ATT. I got some package that gives me every fsn network from around the country. Baseball season is going to be incredible.

In other news A-Rod did steroids. Man NY has a lot of money invested in that pile of !@#%. Enjoy this year New York. You spent to much and will fail yet again. I love this now salary cap thing. I don't get why others don't. I've said it so many times. It's absolutely hilarious to watch teams spend so much and accomplish so little. Buying free agents isn't the way to build baseball teams. There's only a handfull of baseball clubs who still buy into the big spending philosophy and they're going to continue to get burned. I enjoy their failures almost as much as I enjoy our success. Come on, the cubs getting swept in 3 games after arguably their best regular season ever? This was their year! nope... I say let them spend and let them fail. Enjoy A-Roid for the next 10 years. HA get it? A- ROID! I better trademark that one. GO BREWERS!

BUSTED! loser

Real Chili Hangover

How come my two favorite spots in Milwaukee are also the two only spots capable of creating the "food hangover." Had real chili late after work last night and I feel like I may as well of tried to digest a bottle of pepper infused mineral oil. Total digestive failure. I'll live. Just need a prilosec and an immodium and I'll be destroying that meatball sandwich I got in the fridge in no time.
Three people said the brewers suck on my poll. Tell me why. I need to talk sports with people. The only guy I work with who knows anything about sports is a complete ass who gets angry when people speak to him. All I got is the 15 minutes driving to and from the gym with Suesskind. Speaking of Suesskind, he doesn't want to go to the gym right now. He's citing digestive failures. If I'm willing to make this trip he has to too. He's not getting out of this that easily. I'm calling him now. DUKE PRIDE!

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State of the Brewers

It seems like the Brewers are finished with their offseason signings -- at least until spring training. This is what we got.

1st Base - Prince Fielder

2nd Base - Ricky Weeks*

3rd Base - Bill Hall/ Mike Lamb

Shortstop - JJ Hardy

Catcher - Jason Kendall

Left Field - Ryan Braun

Center Field - Mike Cameron

Right Field - Corey Hart*

*assuming they'll be signed soon.

Our rotation is looking like

Yovani Gallardo

Manny Parra

Dave Bush

Jeff $uppan

Seth McClung

Key Bullpen players

Trevor Hoffman, random crap.

Nothing pisses me off more than reading various brewer fans on blogs who say, "Spend some money Attanasio." I'm sure Mark A. loves hearing Chuck from Sheboygan's financial advice. Fact of the matter is before Mark Attanasio, the brewers had a payroll of 27 Million. So shut up Chuck. Appreciate what we got.

Most fans seem to agree that we need one more quality starting pitcher to sure up this team. Although I do agree, I'm going to argue otherwise. Who's to say Yovani Gallardo isn't a number one starter? He has been great everytime I've seen him throw. Last year he had the freak LEG injury, by no means injury prone... Came back in the playoffs and proved why we shouldn't have started $uppan. Remember $uppan? He'll be back again for another 10 mil. What were we thinking when we signed this guy?..... Exactly what we're thinking now -- We need to sign some random over priced veteran 3rd starter to sure up our rotation. Look how that worked out. God, we have this guy for 4 years. That is a mistake I don't want to repeat. Manny Parra. Last year everyone said he was young. You can't over pitch him or his arm will get tired. Yost over pitched him. His arm got tired and he sucked at the end of the year. He's got a full major league season under his belt and that usually brings more stamina for the following year. Look for him to be just fine. Dave Bush? Eh he's Dave Bush, sometimes he's good, sometimes he sucks. $uppan... we've already delt with that waste of space. McClung? I guess. I actually really liked this guy out of the bullpen at the end of the year. He was pitching with some anger. Fun to watch. A 5 starter just isn't the right role for him but I guess it's what we got. We also have a very reliable closer. The most experienced closer to ever play the game. I think Torres was an absolute fluke last year and I thank god we don't have to continue on with that experiment. If we're ahead in the 9th, 95% of the time we should get the win. That will be comforting.

Now there's the lineup. Nothing has changed at all. This is the lineup I'd like to see on opening day.

Hart

Cameron

Braun

Fielder

Weeks

Hall

Hardy

Kendall

Gallardo

Now everyone is going to say I'm retarded but I'll explain. We need someone to act like a lead off hitter. It is not Weeks. He has showed us that for 2 years yet we never learned. So I say we toss in Hart. Hopefully his end of the year collapse is behind him and he can start making some contact. When he gets on base he creates havoc for the opposing pitchers. He's probably one of the best baserunners I've ever watched. Then we follow it up with Cameron. Yes he's a high strike out guy but he's patient. This should allow Hart time to do what he does best. He'll also get some good pitches to look at with Braun and Prince coming in behind him. He also runs the bases with the best of them. If he strikes out, there's still a good chance he leaves the plate with a man on second, one out, braun and prince to follow. Having Braun bat 3rd and Prince bat 4th is a no brainer that doesn't need to be explained. Then I put Weeks 5th. I want to totally change this guy's role in the lineup. I think weeks should be considered a double/power guy. Lets let him go out there swinging. None of this bunt the ball and get on base crap. That's not his style. Don't go for the single Weeks, go long. Bill Hall batting 6th. He got Lasik eye surgery. Look what happened when Rick Vaughn when they fixed his vision. MVP candidate for sure. JJ Hardy. I forget, does he bat really well at the bottom of the order or at the top? I think it's the bottom. Good spot for a .250 power hitter. Kendall is batting 8th, where else you gonna put him? Then there's the pitcher spot.

Finally, we have to take into account the absense of the Yost effect. Lets see what the new management can do with these guys. Think about it... a well managed team. Total relief. That's the big X factor this year. That and the possible impact of some young players -- Iraberren, Escobar, and Gamel. I guess Gwynn Jr too?

I'd love to hear people's opinions on this one. Why am I wrong? With that said, GO BREWERS!

Our Honeymoon

Alright, I'm gonna try to write about everything that happened on our honeymoon. This post could go on for an incredibly long time so it's not for the weak attention span. So here we go.

Day 1: Travel Day. Miraculously, everything was on time. Crisco was nice enough to pick us up at 5:00 AM and drop us off at the airport. One hell of a favor. Our original flight plan was to fly from milwaukee to cincinnatti... Have a 3 hour layer in cincinnatti... allowing us 3 hours for some chili. Got a call about a month ago saying delta changed our flight plan for our convenience and forced us to accept a transfer in Atlanta. I judge my airports on one criteria -- what food they serve. Atlanta is one of the worst. I sucked it up and grabbed a cold sbarro while katie ate a banana and some yogurt or something. Well we fly out on time and land in Miami. We have an hour to find our bags and locate our hotel shuttle... thank god we were given a full hour. Miami has two seperate baggage claim areas. 1-10 is in one part of the airport and 11-20 is in another. Here's the fun part. The signs just say baggage claim this way! So you follow those all the way to some basement corner only to realize "how come there's only baggage claim 11-20? Where's number 4?" Then you go upstairs thinking you must of made some mistake. You go back up and check the signs... they say baggage claim this way. No mention of numbers? We look at maps posted around the airport. They only tell you where food and shops are. So we back track about 15 miles and find another sign for some other bagge claim... that one works. Now we go try to find our shuttle. No signs for this thing, just a family of about 12 arabs sitting ont he sidewalk next to their 75 bags. We ask them if they are waiting for the same shuttle we are, they say yes. YAY! We see the shuttle, the guy pulls up and goes, I leave in 20 minutes. Sit here, I'll be back. This is an incredibly small shuttle, and I'm sitting next to 12 people who are very intent on making this trip. Everyone is looking for the thing to pull up so we can sprint ahead and hop on, otherwise we got to wait 2 hours for the next one. While we wait, 2 gigantic senior tour busses pull in front of us... making it impossible to see anything else. They take about 20 minutes to unload while everyone is lobbying for a better position so they can beat these arabs onto the bus. The bus pulls up, everyone comes running... screaming, pushing in front of people. Whining about how long each person has been waiting and who deserves to go first. Long story short, we all fit on the damn thing anyways. Lets go!
Our hotel is called the chesterfield, looks like a total dive from the outside but then it shocks you when you go in. It was some art deco hotel that looked way too trendy for Katie and I but whatever. Katie and I check out south beach, eat at their finest johnny rockets. South beach is kinda cool. They had signs for happy hours that included 5 dollar beer specials! Fun people watching and you see some pretty incredible cars. Walked around a bit, saw shops that we wouldn't be allowed in, looked at the beach, headed back to the hotel. They had a free happy hour from 7-8. Drank some rum and pineapples in little plastic cups. Karoake started, so we went to bed.
Day 2: We grab a cab to our cruise ship. We wanted to get there early so we could change our dining time and possibly use the honeymoon to grab a room upgrade. We get in line with our fellow cruisers and start to notice something. Everyone here is old. Not just old, I mean incredibly old. Everyone. We try to be optimitic. I say, oh well we're here really early. That's probably when all the old people like to check in. Things should look better once we start filling up... NOPE! This was the geriatric party express. Loads of old people who get hilariously upset when things aren't set up exactly how they want. We're checking in and we ask to be switched from the early dining time to the later one. he tells us the Maitre D will be able to help us once we get on the boat. Two old ladies hear this and latch onto us for dear life. They were given the late dining time and they just weren't having it. We stay by their side for the next hour as we eat lunch and find the maitre D. There's already a line of upset old people trying to switch their dining times too. When it's our turn to talk to him, the ladies say they found us and would like to switch tables with us. Maitre D says things are crazy right now and asks if we will eat at our scheduled time today and switch tomorrow. We agree and leave. We head to our state room, pretty nice. We enjoyed the bottle of champagne that my dad and Jean had set up for us. Then we headed to dinner. That dinner was a fiasco. Old people are screaming at these maitred Ds who seem to have an impossible task. One was driven to tears. We sit down and think, thank god we're not at this table for the entire cruise. Very weird people. We check out the ship, then head to bed.
Day 3: Cruising day to Labadee, Haiti. We walk around and figure out the boat. We're told they'll switch our dinner time but we strike out with the room upgrade. Hang out on the top deck, read books and sit in the sun. Order a couple fruity drinks. 8 bucks a peice. No alcohol what so ever. Not doing that again for the rest of the trip. Fun relaxing day. We check out the lunch buffet where I got accustomed to eating some sort of stew, and some sort of pasta with a mini sandwich every day for lunch. We grab a couple drinks and get ready to head to our first formal dinner. We're about to walk in and I have a total deja vu. There's a line of old people just waiting for those doors to open. I couldn't help but be reminded of the days where I'd visit my grandparents when they used to manage a retirement home in cincinnatti -- sem villa. Total blast from the past. We sit down, the new tablemates also suck. We try to make forced conversation. For example, two people sit down and they order some fruity blue cocktail to have with their dinner. They tell the couple across from them how good it is. The couple across orders the same thing. well kinda, they order one and split the thing by pouring it into a water glass. They say to us, "they make a really good summer breeze." I reply, "they make an excellent crown royal on the rocks too." They nod... 20 seconds later they say, "well you can't really screw that one up can you." Welcome aboard buddy. Maybe in the next few minutes you might realize it was a joke. After dinner we watched a comedian and some introductory show deal. Ordered room service, because we could. Then went to bed.
Day 4: Labadee, Haiti. Stopped at some private beach owned by Royal carribbean. We watch some local fire eating/ acrobat show where they pass a hat around every 5 minutes asking for tips. Of course and I didn't bring any cash to the island so we sit there being awkwardly cheap everytime that hat goes by. We hung out on a pretty incredible beach. Dumped some drink all over my lap. Went swimming, headed back to the ship. food. bed.
Day 5: Cruising to Cartagena, Columbia. Another day just hanging out on the ship. Katie checks out some books from the library. We sit on the pool deck that has signs saying do not reserve deck chairs. About 50 chairs are reserved with towels. 5 fully clothed old people actually sitting in the things. If I was in charge I would have picked up all the towels and books from the unused chairs and tossed them in a bucket. But no. Katie finally finds us a spot, right next to the european speedo party. She's a total pervert. I think we saw a comedian this night, maybe it was day 3 but whatever. Good stuff, enjoyed the show then went to bed.
Day 6: Cartagena, Columbia. We were only given till noon to check out Cartagena but Katie and I were pretty interested so we got up right away and jumped off the ship right into a cab and headed downtown. I'm guessing things are more entertaining there in the afternoon than at 8AM. We walked around the city. Interesting town. The roads were very narrow and confusing and the buildings seemed to be built around the 1700s. We later learned that the roads were intentionally designed that way to make the town harder to invade. They were successful in fending off a couple British attacks way back when. Katie and I walk around a bit, get bored, decide to try to find an authentic columbian lunch at 10 in the morning. We were successful. Ate at a cool little spot in the middle of the city. Drank some columbian beers, forget what they were called and ordered some meat dish... forget what it was called. Food was awesome. Then it started getting really hot out. Dan gets cranky when it's really hot out. We grabbed a cab back to the ship and cooled off. I think this night we played some game called"quest." Not a family game. You pair up in teams and basically do whatever the game show host tells you for points. Example... the host will be like, I need a guy up here with his pants on inside out and backwards. So one member of every team has to take off his pants and turn them inside out and run up there with your team's number to get the point. I unfortunatly was that guy. But at least I wasn't the guy who had to wear a bra and lipstick. Our team didn't place but good times were had by all.
Day 7: Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is actually a man made lake that is around 10 stories above sea level. Your boat goes through a series of water filled locks that raise it up to the appropriate level so you can pass on through. Apparently these locks are incredible. So incredible that you have to get up at 6 in the morning to look at them. So we went ahead and did that. I guess they were cool? Katie was really interested but could really care less. That and the fact that it took like 20 hours to get through the damn things. I could of woken up at 8 and checked them out. That or waited till we left the canal and checked them out then. There was one bonus, we were up in time for the breakfast buffet. Pounded some eggs sausage and cornbeef hash then took a nap. (By the way I'm pretty sure I put on at least 10 pounds on this trip. I'm heading to the gym this afternoon. I'll find out then.) Woke up again, we left the canal and docked at some city a few miles away. It was pretty much just a flee market in a warehouse. BUT, this flee market had $1.50 beers! Score! Katie and I put down a bunch of those before heading back to the ship. We got dressed for dinner and I think this was the night we discovered the champagne bar. Every night before dinner you could head to this little place and order a cocktail/champagne and you'd get access to their free caviar buffet. We thought this was pretty cool so for the rest of the trip we went to this spot before dinner. I guess we like caviar.
Day 8: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. This was one of the best days of my life. We went ahead and booked an excursion here before boarding the ship. Just some lazy river tubing thing we thought would be interesting. We had to get up early to hop on a bus. We get there and we notice that everyone who's boarding seems to have a ticket. We didn't get any tickets. We felt retarded. Apparently at the beginning of the cruise they leave these tickets in your room. They weren't kind enough to do that for us. Pretty funny in hindsight. Katie and I are sitting watching everyone join their excursion groups thinking, "wow, they aren't checking anyone off a checklist of anything. You could totally just hop in one of these groups and act like you were supposed to be there!" Not so much. After about ten minutes of confusion and calling supervisors we hop on the bus. No problems. We get a pretty informative lesson from our tour guide Javier about the history of Costa Rica. Interesting country to say the least. This bus ride was insane. We drive over bridges I'm pretty sure aren't meant to be driven over. One bridge had no more than an inch of clearance on the left right and top. Another bridge was like 6 inches under water in a river. we just drove over it. We went passed the Dole banana farm which was more interesting than you'd think then parked in the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus and walked across a not so sturdy bridge over to a tractor trailer. We put on our suits, hop in this trailer, and the tractor drives us through an indigenous community in the middle of the rainforest. We picked up two kids no older than 8 and gave them a lift up a hill. Apparently these little guys walk two hours up this hill to go to school every day. This is no easy walk, it's in the rainforest so it's constantly raining and they had to go through knee high mud. Anyways, the tractor takes us into the middle of the rainforest to the most beautiful river I have ever seen. This was no relaxing little tubing adventure either. They were like little whitewater rafts for two people. We took some pictures of this with a waterproof disposable camera, we'll see how they show up but I guarantee the pictures don't do that river and scenery any justice. It was the coolest place i have ever been. The river guides were some of the most friendly people I've been around. I noticed that Costa Ricans are incredibly proud of their country. Our guide even said on the bus ride back that the best thing you can do for conservation in Costa Rica is to go and book these eco friendly tours. The guides we had used to have no choice but to grab a machete and work in the banana farms for the rest of their lives. If they start to realize it's more profitable to keep these forests than to destroy them, then things should work themselves out. Oh, and we saw monkeys.
Day 9: Cruising to Grand Cayman. Just another day on the ship. More sun. More reading. Oh, and another Formal Night.
Day 10: Grand Cayman. I hate Grand Cayman. I think it is the most boring stop ever. There is nothing there but duty free shops. You can find those in airports. We booked some snorkling deal. Not impressed. It was funny when the guides chucked bread at Katie causing her to be swarmed by hundreds of hungry flapping fish. I've done some dives in grand cayman that I really enjoyed but this was not too exciting.
Day 11: Cruising to Miami. If you can't beat em join em. Katie and I wake up early to throw some stuff on a couple deck chairs. It's 8 am, they're all reserved. GOD! eventually find a spot, sit in the sun until it gets cloudy. We went upstairs and played UNO for 5 hours. We actually planned to find somewhere where we could play and smoke a couple cigars but they only have a couple designated smoking areas on the ship. People in the smoking areas scared me. No cigars that day. We ate our final dinner. Packed up. Went to bed. Kinda sad the trip was over.
Day 12: Day at South beach. Got off the ship too early to check into our hotel. They did take our bags though. We grabbed our suits and headed to the beach. Spent about 30 minutes arguing over where the hell we should change. Katie found a disgusting port-o-john to change in but when she was done, some guy came in a truck and took it away. So I had nowhere to change. We then argue for the next few minutes as to where I should change. Katie said I should ask one of the south beach restaurants or hotels if I could use their bathrooms. I said no, they'd hate that. Then we debated trying to change while she held up a towel around me at the beach. Not gonna do that. Finally like 300 yards down we spotted one of the most disgusting public bathrooms I've ever seen. I changed in that. Sat on the beach for a few hours then it got cloudy. Went to the hotel. Played some more UNO. Ordered one of the best pizzas I've ever had and drank some heinekens. Excellent end to an excellent trip.

That literally took me an hour to type. We got a bunch of pictures I'd like to add to this post but right now the camera's being stupid. I'll see if Katie can fix it now.

Honeymoon is over

The honeymoon is over. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a blog post describing everything but for now... conejitos.

Random Thoughts

Back when I was in High School I had the amazing ability to do an inverted pushup against a wall. That's that thing where you do a handstand and then touch your head to the ground and go back up. I wonder if I still have the ability to do this but I'm terrified to find out what the results would be if I failed.

A lot of people make the new years resolution to work out more. Then they start the first day of the year incredibly hungover. I think that is why most resolutions fail. The goal is subconsciously linked to the horrible memories of that new years day hangover. With that said, I went to the gym today... but was pretty lazy. I was able to drive home without stopping at one of ben's favorite restaurants. In the 10 minute drive home ben suggested we go to Rocky's, Qdoba, dairy queen, kopps, and culvers. We did have a very interesting discussion about how I've eaten at a ton of burrito places yet I've never gone to chipotle. Ben said that was ok because chipotle is like a qdoba with a crappy selection. So that's good to know.

Grape juice should come in gallon containers.

More and more houses are for sale in the northshore, yet none of them seem to be selling, and the prices aren't going down yet.

Katie is pretty good at cutting my hair.

A salary cap isn't needed in baseball. I thought that post leftmuch more room for comments than the previous packers post but only one guy had something to say. I thought his argument sucked but I do thank him for posting.

I think I got ringworm but how come it doesn't look anything like the webmd photos of ringworm. I guess I should be happy because the webmd photos of ringworm are pretty gross.

That's all i got for now, happy new year.