Shake Weight

I was at my brother, Dan's, house the other day. As I was leaving I noticed the "shake weight" on the countertop. "What is this?" I said. "That is Jody's." He replied. I just started laughing, not because she has it, but because of the SNL commercial. I tried to explain it to my brother, but didn't do it justice. So here it is so you know what I am talking about.

New Pair of Jeans

I know a lot of my Minnesota friends were pretty disappointed Sunday night. But here is something to cheer you up.

Mr. Kaker Comes to Town

Saturday night I got a chance to meet up with Kaker. It is rare that he is in town, but we made it a point of Matt, Justus and I getting together at least for a couple drinks. So here we are down at the Delafield Water Street Brewery. This is Justus, Mandy, Mandy's friend (Here name, you know I don't really recall. Starts with an "S". Swim, Swami, Slippy, Slappy, Simmon, Salmon, Simmon, Swanson, Swenson, Swanson...maybe it is on the briefcase. Oh yeah, it's right here. Sampsonite. I was way off. I knew is started with an "S" though.") myself, Caroline, and Matt. It was probably a little too much of talking about old times for the girls liking, but it was still fun. I think there was a story or two that were blog worthy, but I can't remember them. If you look closely you can see a $20 on the table. I offered it to Sampsonite if she would get up on the table and dance. She wanted $100. My plan was to continue feeding her shots until her price came down to $20, but she left before I could put my plan fully into action.

Ethan's Game

Saturday I went to Ethan's soccer game in the rain. Here are some pictures.This is my favorite picture of them all. Ethan was close enough to yell at so I yelled to him, "Keep your head in the game!!!" So this is Ethan trying not to smile.

The Led Zeppellin Experience

Wednesday night I headed down to The Riverside Theater to see The Led Zeppelin Experience, here is my review. Jason Bonham, son of legendary Led Zeppelin Drummer, Jon Bonahm, has put together a Led Zeppelin tribute band. Next to The Beatles, I think that Led Zeppelin is the greatest and more influential band in the modern era of music. Would you like to debate that? Bring it on. Seriously, just put in the Zeppelin Box set, 4 discs, and not one bad song. However, I highly recommend listening to it with head phones on to get the full effect. But back to the show, the band was as good as can be expected. No one will ever compare to the original band. Jason would grab the microphone about every 3 or 4 songs to talk about his father and the original band. But I thought Jason was very humble. He even said, “We are just a group of guys who really love Led Zeppelin music, but it just so happens that my dad was in the band. And because he was, I can put on a show like this.”

Bonham's band included singer James Dylan, guitarist Tony Catania, bassist Michael Devin and keyboardist Stephen LeBlanc.
I can’t recall the entire setlist, but here is what I do remember:
Your Time is Gonna Come (Jason Bonham told the story of how one day at a very young age he heard this church organ music in the house as the band was working on this song. He said it was one of his first memories of the band. “Lying, cheating, hurtin’, that all you seem to do.”)





Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You
Dazed and Confused (Tony Catania comes out with a violin bow to play the guitar. The first time Jimmy Page came out with the violin bow, that had to be just surreal.) (And the bass at the beginning of this song just sets the tone for the entire song.)
The Lemon Song (I have always loved this song, I can remember listening to it in my parent’s basement on my brother’s stereo.)
What Is and What Should Never Be (My only complaint here is that they didn’t switch the guitar sound back and forth between the left and right speaker like in the studio version.) Like I said before, this is a song to listen to with headphones.
Thank You
Moby Dick (with an incredible drum solo) They had video and audio from an old Zeppelin show from the 70’s where Jon Bonham was performing his drum solo, and then Jason joined in live on stage. I guess technically that would make it an incredible drum duet. I would say easily the highlight of the entire show. To quote Slater from Dazed and Confused: “I’m not believing that about Bonham’s 3 hour drum solo. You couldn’t handle that on acid.” Here it is in almost its entirety.





The Ocean
Black Dog (I love this song, actually the whole Led Zeppelin Four Album is great. As Demone says in Fast Times at Ridgemont High “And if you really want to score with the ladies make sure you put in side 2 of Led Zeppelin Four.” Even though in the movie when Rat picks up Stacey, the song is Kashmir which wasn’t on Zeppelin Four)
When the Levee Breaks (I never thought this was their best song. However, after seeing it live, it has moved up the charts for me. I think this was my favorite song of the night)
Over the Hills and Far Away (This was a bit of a crowd sing-a-long song. “Hey lady, you got the love I need, Maybe or is that enough, Oh Darling Darling Darling, Walk a while with me, Oh you got so much, so much, so much. Many have I loved, many times been bitten, many times I’ve gazed along the open road. Many times I’ve lied, many times I’ve listened, many times I’ve wonder how much there is to know. Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings, I live for my dreams and a pocket full of gold.”)
Stairway to Heaven (For some reason I didn’t think they would play this song either) By many, it is considered one of the greatest Rock and Roll songs of all-time. The only problem is that Dave Grohl has wrecked this song for me. Here is the link to the YouTube to his performance. I don’t think Dave Grohl is mocking the song, but for some reason I like his version better and it makes me laugh. That being said, I was laughing at the concert last night when they started playing “Stairway”. I just love the part where it goes into “…And as we wind on down the road, Our shadows taller than our soul, There walks a lady we all know, Who shines white light and wants to show, How everything still turns to gold, And if you listen very hard, The truth will come to you at last, When all are one and one is all, To be a rock and not to roll.” I have no idea what all of that means. But I like it.

Kashmir (Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream, I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been. Sit with elders of a general race, this world has seldom seen, the top of days for which they sit and wait all will be revealed. An open song from tongues of building grace, the sounds caress my ear, not a word I heard could I relate, the storm was quite clear.)

Whole Lotta Love (This was the encore song. Not what I was expecting, I have never considered it their most popular song. A second listen of the song, and yes, it is encore worthy.)

According to on line sources they also played: Immigrant Song, Celebration Day, I Can't Quit You Baby, Friends, Since I Been Loving You, The Song Remains The Same,I'm Gonna Crawl, Rock & Roll
The band was very good, but I won’t say incredible. The singer, James Dylan, was good, but how can you live up to Robert Plant. Robert Plant can’t even live up to Robert Plant anymore. Guitarist, Tony Catania, was much better than I had expected. The bar to live up to Jimmy Page is pretty high, but I think he got there. The production of the show, with the lights, fog and multimedia was great. At one point during the show, I was just marveling in the set. The vibrant red Riverside curtains hanging from the ceiling, the fog slowly crawling across the floor. It just seemed like the classic concert atmosphere. Oh and they had the bass really cranked up. I don’t know if you can tell from the video of the drum solo or not, but my chair, and therefore my arm, was vibrating and shaking from all of the bass. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The show is an absolute must for anyone who is even remotely a Zeppelin fan. I wish they were playing another show in the area. It was just 3 hours of live Zeppelin songs. I could have easily watched another hour. I really wanted to hear “In The Light” and I was expecting them to play “Ramble On”. For the majority of the show, it was a sit down concert. I am cool with the sit down concert, it seems to take less out of you. The only other drawback was that it was on a Wednesday night. It made me behave a little better than I would have on a Friday or Saturday.
I counted it up the other day, this was my 18th concert of the year, shattering my old record of 13 concerts in a year back in 1996. However, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is going to be performing at The Riverside Theater on December 11th and I am thinking of going to that. Normally I wouldn’t even think about a show like this, but they are going to cover Pink Floyd, including the entire “Dark Side Of The Moon” so it may be something worth checking out. Any takers?

Clearwater Revisited

I got an email from Nate the other day. He was cleaning out his garage and found this picture from our 2004 trip to Clearwater Florida for the Jimmy Buffet concert. Nate labeled this as a classic case of find joy in others suffering. It is so unlike me. It is hard to tell if Eric is as miserable as I am happy.
Here is a quick run down of that day/evening. At least the parts I can tell you.
We got to Andy and Julie's place at 11:00 in the morning the day of the concert. At 11 it seemed like a good time to start pre partying for the concert. We sat in the garage and drank beer until Andy finally came home around 4, even though he said he would be home by 1. We went down to the St. Pete’s Forum in Tampa for the concert, which started at 8:00. We lost Nate right away and no one saw him the entire concert. The concert was good but it sucked that it was indoors. Jimmy Buffet was meant to be seen outdoors. After the concert we all ended up at a bar across the street. Things started to get out of hand there. I recall Nate buying 4 Nates (a Nate is a drink that Nate invented one night at The Eagles Ballroom, basically a slow screw and Jagger Bomb combined) and then just leaving them on the bar, so I took care of distributing the drinks. Later on, right before the picture above was taken, Eric went up to the bar to order some water and ended up buying 8 shots. Then I bought Andy a horrible birthday shot with gin in it that I made up on the spot. The bartender couldn’t believe that I would order someone a shot like that. Andy refused to drink it, but Nate didn’t feel the same way and he drank it without a second thought. We eventually got kicked out of the bar; the straw that broke the camel's back is when Nate was walking behind the bar showing the bartenders how to make drinks. The bouncers were pretty insistent on Nate leaving. And the rest is classified.

Bucky

The Badger game on Saturday night was one of the better games I have seen in a while. I was more into that game than any in recent memory. I watched the game with my brother, Dan, at the 5 o'clock Club where Dan's wife, Jody works. They had $1.50 bottles of Pabst, which was great. But they were in serious need of some big screen HD TVs. 42 inches doesn't cut it in a bar. Anyhow, I was really into the game and jumped out of my seat a number of times. I was also kicking myself the moment the kickoff was returned. I was invited to Madison for a birthday party, but decided against going. I was just in Madison the week before. It looked like quite the scene. But my decision was probably a good one in retrospect. I talked to my buddy, Mick (Man Crush), who was down in Madison just to be down there for the game and didn't even try to get a ticket into the game. He said it was crazy crowded and it was just a joke getting into the bars.
Leading up to the game, I was telling people how I was there the last time Bucky beat the Buckeyes when they were No. 1 back in 2003 and the crowd stormed the field. Well I was wrong, it was 2003 but Ohio State was only No.3. But I was there. I went with Joe and Rob. We parked by La Bambas and grabbed a burrito before the game. We couldn't find any tickets to scalp and ended up sneaking in through the field house, which you can't do anymore. The only seats we could find were the first row behind the visitors bench. It was an absolute downpour and we ended up leaving at halftime because we couldn't see and were miserable. We went back to La Bambas and grabbed another burrito then drove back to Milwaukee. We walked in my front door, turned on the TV to see them interviewing Barry with everyone on the field. Leaving was a huge mistake. Anyhow, if you don't believe the story, here is a picture of me at the game.

Zack's Game

I went to my nephew, Zack's, football game on Saturday. I think they lost 26-0. Here are some pictures from the game. I kind of like this one, and it might give some insight as to why they lost. You can see the ball is in the air, and the only players who are in the frame that could possibly catch this pass are in white shirts. Yes, I did crop the picture, but I did not crop out the receiver in blue, he was no where to be found on the play at all. Zack's dad told me that Zack does not like playing on the offensive line. I hope for his sake he was tanking it so he wouldn't have to play on the offensive line, because if that was his honest best effort, he has to do much much better. Am I critical? Yes. But I am also correct. Here is Zack #52 just getting bulldozed into the backfield on pass blocking. I believe his man got the sack on this play. Don't believe me, ask Zack's dad, Chucker. Oh and Zack, if you are tanking it on offense so you don't have to play there anymore, that is not a good idea, unless your goal is to be riding the pine.This was the very next play. I told Chucker that he son is nothing more than a turnstile. Zack, when you are run blocking you should not end up in the backfield.Here is Zack in a more comfortable position on defense.I think Zack has a similar problem as his cousin, Jared. No killer instinct. Here is Zack closing in for the tackle. He made this tackle. The play before he missed a similar tackle. Just like catching a pass, if you can get your hands on the guy, you should be able to tackle him.Here is Zack closing in for the tackle. But this little guy was quick, got the corner and scored.I also think these kids are spoiled. Look at what a great field they get to play on. I would think they would be excited to play on such a field. What they need to do, is get a couple games on some dirt fields to help them appreciate how lucky they are. I go back to Nick's soccer game under the lights at Hart Park. If I was 12 playing under the lights, I would have been so fired up to play, and yet they lost 10-1. Yes, I am critical. You want to shut me up? Show up on the day after Thanksgiving for some football.
Here is Sarah climbing under the bleachers during the game. A bit of an impromptu foot race broke out on the sidelines during the game. Look at this Sarah beating two boys, one of whom was still in his football uniform and another in his soccer uniform. Apparently Sarah has some wheels.More Sarah pictures. Sarah was suppose to ask me, but her mom asked me for her. Sarah has a dance performance that she will be doing also on the day after Thanksgiving at halftime of the Wave game. It is an 80's theme and she needs a partner. I have heard it is suppose to be her father, but Chucker is unwilling to step up, so her uncle will be filling those shoes.80's themed. I am going to try and find a Michael Jackson Beat It jacket with the zippers on it.

Pickle

Real quick, Happy Birthday to Pickle. He turns 13 and is officially a teenager today. By the way Pickle, I stopped by Saturday to drop off that power point presentation of the bridge pier demolition, but for some reason your computer would not recognize my travel drive. That is why your travel drive was laying out on the desk and not in the computer. But as I was putting together that presentation, I was thinking if there is a career day, I would be willing to show up and give a 15 minute presentation on the finer points of how a movable bridge works. Although Pickle has informed me that he wants to be a civil engineer like his uncle. I wouldn't recommend it. I find it to be some rather boring work. Plus 4th semester calculus (Linear Systems Analysis was a bitch to pass) so was Reinforced Concrete Design and Thermodynamics.

Old Old Story

This is one of the oldest stories that I have to tell. This goes way back to the 70's, or nearly as far back as my memory goes. And before you read any further, let me tell you, for most of you this is a gross story. As you may or may not know, my father is a retired butcher. And I doubt their are many who were better at it than my father. From time to time when I was growing up my father would slaughter and butcher cattle for farmers in the area that we grew up in. At the age of 6 or 7 there really wasn't much that was cooler for me than watching my dad slaughter a cow. But the opportunity to go along with my dad rarely arose. I had come home from school that day at nearly the same time that my dad had gotten home from an 8 hour day of standing on a hard concrete floor in a cold meat department cutting meat for the store that he worked at. The phone rang and it was the farmer who lived next door, Hal Roberts. Apparently one of the kids while driving around one of the barns had accidentally ran over one of their cows and broke one of it's legs. Hal wanted to know if my dad could come over and butcher it up for him. My dad agreed. He sat back down on the fireplace and laced his work boots back up. Then headed to the garage to get a couple of knives. He went to the gun case and pulled out his shot gun or rifle. (I know about as much about guns as I do about fish, so I had no idea which he was going to use to kill this cow, and I still don't.) At this point, my brother, Jeff, and I are begging my dad to let us come along. He said no, like he almost always did. Then we finally told him, that if he didn't let us come with him that we were just going to walk over there anyway, so he agreed to let us come along. We hopped into my dad's old green ford pick up. I am sure my sister and brothers remember that truck. Jeff was holding on to my dad's shot gun or rifle. I got to hold on to the bullets. I was as excited as if it was Christmas morning. My dad pulled the truck into Hal's driveway and as he did we noticed two of Hal's kids washing off a chain saw with the garden hose. What is going on here? We get out of the truck and Hal meets us and then walked us over to the cow, which was now laying on the ground in a large pool of blood, dead as a door nail. We were a couple minutes late to what would have been an even better slaughter than what my dad had had in store. Apparently the kids put the cow out of it's misery buy slitting it's throat with a chain saw. So while I didn't get to witness the killing, I did stick around and watch my dad at least gut the cow. I can still recall the image of the cow getting raised off the ground by the hind legs that were chained to the front end loader of the tractor and my dad pulling all of the guts out. And that hot smell of the cows insides as they dropped to the ground. I think they ended up burying the guts in one of the fields. But that smell of hots guts is a smell you never forget.
I stopped by my parents this past weekend. And on the way over, I drove past Robert's farm and grabbed this picture. Right here in front of the milk shed is where they slaughtered and then my dad gutted that cow.

The End Of The World

Well it is upon us. So whatever you have left on your bucket list, I suggest you get out there and do it, because the end is hear. How do I know this? Let's just say I have seen the sign. First, last Friday while in Madison, Preston got engaged. After 12 years of dating and one child, Preston bought the cow he was getting the milk from for free. (that is a figure of speech and in no way a reflection on Jessica, who is a saint for taking Preston in) That I kind of saw coming, in fact I had even heard rumors of the engagement. But that is not the sign that I am talking about.

No the sign I am talking about is that Justus has gone and bought a cow of his own. According to reports, Justus up and proposed this past weekend as well. I suppose that if Preston jumped off a bridge, Justus would be right behind him.

The fact that the world is coming to an end means I might not be updating my blog as often as I usually do because I have cleared my bank accounts, cashed in my 401Ks and I am headed to Amsterdam to have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames. Alright. Alright

Jump Around

You have seen it before. But I don't think it ever gets old. Jump Around in the Student Section.

Badger Game

I got into Madison around 8:00 Friday night and met Joe at the Big Ten Pub for a fish fry. Borky eventually met up with us and then we went to Traci's Bar where we ran into Jay. Towards the end of the night it was just Jay and I. Here was a young lady who jumped on the bar to sing a song to her friend. I was a little slow with the camera. Although this time I didn't get a drink thrown in my face or get into a fight, as has happened in the past.Saturday morning we headed to Dexter's for breakfast. It is a staple for us for the Badger / Gopher game. We strolled in at 8:30 a.m. and were the first one's there. I always order the "Dog Pile", which consists of eggs, cheese, potatoes, bacon, toast and left over prime rib from the previous night. The cook says that it weighs 5-7 pounds.Borky couldn't finish a Dog Pile, so he got the Puppy Pile. For the record, I didn't even come close to finishing the Dog Pile, but the Klinks showed up and helped me finish it.Dexter's also has a bus that takes you right to the front door of Camp Randall. Another plus for going there. Here are Preston and Jessica on the bus. They got engaged the night before. Then didn't even want to come out and celebrate with their friends at Traci's Bar. I realize that they probably wanted to do some celebrating on their own, but that really only takes, what 10 minutes? I asked Jessica if she contemplated accepting the ring. She told me that if she didn't take the ring she would have to throw Preston out of the house.We got dropped off for the game, but there was still 20 minutes until kickoff, so Borky and I decided to have a drink before going in. One turned into two and then Nate, Michel, Jay and Shelly showed up and next thing we knew it was halftime and we were still at the bar.Here we are just before going into the stadium.Dawn, Joe's wife, hooked Borky and I up with student section seats. It was easily the hottest Badger Game I have ever been to. We ended up leaving before the game was over.Back at the Big Ten Pub after the game, I ran into Donnie Roberts. He was real thrilled to talk to me.Then we made our way over to the Regent Street Retreat where we again ran into the Klinks.We also found Flo there.And Sweet Melissa, Jill and Liquid were also there.It is pretty hard to have a bad time in Madison. Let me get some quick thank yous out. Joe and Dawn for putting Borky and I up at the Magnusson Hotel. Dawn for the tickets. Preston and Jessica for not meeting us out at the bar Friday night. Justus for pulling a Casper and not showing up at all. Nate for deviating from "The Plan". The General for paying his debt from July. If there is anyone I am missing. Well sorry about that.

Weekend Ahead

Well it is the weekend of the Badger Gopher game in Madison. I anticipate a fairly rowdy time. I bet I know 20 people going to the game. Although most of those attending are coming with their significant others, which should keep things a bit more toned down. But I will do what I can to get people in trouble. Nate. Borky is my wingman for this game for the 4th or 5th year in a row. Last year we ended up in Doug and Liquid's hotel room and Liquid got locked in the bathroom the next morning. Look for updates next week. And enjoy the weather this weekend, it could be the last nice weekend for a long long long time.

Jared's Game

The third game on my schedule was Jared's football game. Jared plays mostly offensive line and is #50. I went to his game last week and was disappointed to see a lot of what I call "Paddycake Paddycake" football. Jared is arguably the biggest kid out there and from what I can see, is unable to knock any of the other kids to the ground. True, you don't need to knock someone down to be an effective blocker. But if you don't get them to the ground at least once over the course of the game, you aren't doing your job. Jared did play some defense and was credited with 1/2 a tackle.Oh here is a good one I learned about Jared at the game from one of the other parents. Jared was on a cub scout camping trip and had quite the appetite while on the trip. This led to the nickname Ra-Coonen.Jared should be playing much better than he is. He needs to take football a bit more serious and start playing physical. But what do I know, I have never even played a single down of organized tackle football. So who am I to talk? I guess I shouldn't, but then again I have played my fair share of pick up football games. Want to call me out? Name the time and place and I will be there to play. In fact I am planning on a day after Thanksgiving football game with my nieces and nephews. Any takers? Chances are, I will be down at the football field kicking field goals by myself.
Oh and I did find all of the words to Paddycake Paddycake. In fact that is the lyric of the day:
Paddycake, Paddycake, baker’s man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Roll it, pat it, mark it with a B,
Put it in the oven for baby and me.

Brewers Contest

Well it looks like we will not have a winner this year. The Brewers finished 3rd in the NL Central with a record of 77-85. The closest was K-Mart who predicted 76-86. But as I stated in the posting you had to hit the record exactly correct, and no one did. So I will be eating a Gyro by myself. It isn't like I haven't done that before. For the record, I had the team at 81-81. But let's check my other predictions.
Hoffman gets 35 saves.
Not quite, he had just 10.

Doug Davis will lead the team in wins with 13.
Again, not quite, Gallardo led the team with 14 wins. While Davis had just 1.

Braun and Fielder will both be all-stars and will combine for 85 home runs.
Only Braun, Hart and Gallardo made the All Star Team. And the two heavy hitters only combined for 61 home runs.

The Brewers will go 7-8 against the Cubs.
Nope, they went 6-9.

The Brewers win 4 out of 6 against the Twins including stealing 2 in the new ballpark.
I was right about this, 4-2 against the Twins, but only 1 win in the new ballpark.

So no winners, but I am pulling the Twins in the playoffs. After all, the only baseball playoff game I ever saw in person was a Twins game with Borky.

Zack's Game

Second on my schedule Saturday was Zack's game. He is #52 and plays defensive line.Zack likes to fall down a lot, most often right next to the pile after the tackle has been made. Stay on your feet Davies!!!Here is Zack just missing knocking down a pass. Zack played OK. I think this was the his first tackle football game in which he saw significant playing time. As my memory serves me, Zack had one tackle and one sack. And I just missed getting a picture of the sack. I was walking around the track to get on the side of the field that Zack was lining up on, and got there one play too late.Zack isn't in this picture, but I thought it was just a cool football picture, especially with the newly named "Vock Field" sign in the background. On a side note, Coach Vock, recently had the field named after him. How is this for a coaching resume, he took both the boys football and the girls basketball teams to state titles. Find me another coach who can boast that.And because I am going to bust Jared's chops about this tomorrow, I have to give Zack a hard time as well. Here is Zack playing "Paddy Cake Paddy Cake" instead of getting off the block.Lyric of the Day:
I went down to the Chelsea drugstore. To get your prescription filled. I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy. And man, did he look pretty ill. We decided we would have a soda. My favorite flavor, cherry red. I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy. Yeah, and he said one word to me and that was "dead".