M.K.A. Bucky and The Brew Crew

It was a pretty busy weekend for me. However that needs to change. Friday I went to see a physical therapist to take a look at my knee. Her diagnosis is either severe tendinitis or a torn lateral meniscus. Based on how I felt this morning I am leaning towards the meniscus. Probably not a good thing. But we decided to give it a couple weeks and see how things feel. Friday night I went to the opening game of the Whitewater Football season. I met up with the Shermans in the parking lot and we tailgated then headed into the game to see M.K.A. in action. It was a much closer game than I thought. The final outcome was 24-9. I was convinced into doing push ups after each score by Whitewater. So 24 push ups wasn't too bad, although there was a guy in the same row as me who told my cousin, Pocahontas, that he thought I wasn't going to make it. Everyone was rather pleased with the outcome except my uncle who wanted Whitewater to kick a field goal with 20 seconds remaining. I have thought about this and come to the conclusion that my uncle is totally wrong in his opinion. Please follow me here. I understand that there was only 20 seconds left, but it is possible, not likely, but possible that the kick could get blocked returned for a touchdown, 2 point conversion, on side kick recovered, hail mary, 2 point conversion and Whitewater loses. That is 3 plays in 20 seconds. Could happen. Taking a knee and giving the other team the ball all but secures victory and takes even the slightest chance of a loss out of the picture. Sorry Sherman, but after thinking about it Whitewater did the right thing.
After the game M.K.A. had a house party at his place. I was Frank the Tank at the party. The oldest person there by 10 years. Then we went to a bar downtown for a bit. At 1:45 Saturday morning I dropped M.K.A. and Katie off at M.K.A.'s place. It was at this point that I was at a cross roads. The Shermans had been trying all evening to get me to go to the Badger game with them Saturday afternoon. I had the Brewer game to go to Saturday night and as I was driving to my brother's place I realized I had no real good excuse not to go to the Badger game later that morning. Rather than wake up early, I just decided to head straight to Madison. I arrived at my buddy, Joe's, house at 4 in the morning. I had left him a voicemail but didn't want to wake him up by ringing the doorbell, so I just went back out on his deck and slept on this sofa deck chair. At around 6 in the morning, Joe got my voicemail, came downstairs and let me into the house. Let that be a lesson to all of you, I can show up at any time any where. I am highly unpredictable. I met the Shermans down at Big Ten Pub around 10:00 in the morning. Shortly after the kickoff I made my way down to glorious Camp Randall and was able to relieve a poor student of his student section ticket. $10 for a student section seat. It is just too easy. Being that the Badgers fell behind early it made the game all that more exciting, at least for a little while. I finally tracked down Tom Brady and Pocahontas in the student section just before Marshall scored their second and final touchdown. I left the game about halfway through the fourth quarter and caught a cab back to Joe's place.
I followed Joe to Milwaukee and we met Preston at my old house. Then we proceeded down to the parking lot to tailgate. We were a bit mellow while tailgating, but then Nate showed up. And while we didn't get too crazy Nate was in full story mode. Anyone who has been around Nate when he is in story mode knows how entertaining this can be. And I have to admit, it was good to have story mode Nate around for a night. We didn't get to our seats until the 4th inning. And it was a good game to watch. After the game, Preston ditched us and Nate and I went out for a drink. I ended up staying at Nate's that night and headed back home to Appleton, first thing in the morning. I spent all of Sunday on the couch watching football and nursing my knee. All of that running around really took it's toll on my knee. While it was a fun and eventful weekend, in the future I need to make better decisions concerning my health and maybe take things a little easier. I realize that my brain is still young, but my body has a lot of miles on it. And I had been contemplating going to the Packer game tonight, but based on how I feel, that just is not in my best interests. However, there is still an excellent chance that I head up to Green Bay Friday night and attempt to scalp some Neil Diamond tickets. Anyhow enough of my rambling, here are the photos from the weekend.
While we are tailgating for the Whitewater game, two girls from the gymnastics team came by selling raffle tickets. I told them I would buy some if they did hand stands. I wish I had gotten M.K.A.'s address before the game because there is a chance that I would have had a couple of the gymnastics team over for the party. Not likely, but a chance. For the future, M.K.A. is at 1128 Carriage Way. I think that is right.
My aunt Marilyn pounding down the Boones Farm. Because no tailgate party with the Shermans is complete without Boones Farm.
Here is M.K.A. doing what M.K.A. does and that is "kick ass", his words not mine.
After the game at the bar M.K.A. continued "kicking ass" by taking me on in arm wrestling. You can see that M.K.A. is barely trying. Oddly enough, he lost to me. And it really wasn't that hard either.
Here are Pocahontas and Katie arm wrestling. Tom Brady in the back ground.
Saturday morning the Shermans at the Big Ten Pub. The view of one of Bucky's touchdowns as seen from the student section.Here is what is one of the greatest college football traditions of all time. Jump Around.

Here are Tom Brady, Pocahontas, Justin, P.O.E., M.K.A. and Katie. This was just as I was leaving to go and meet Joe. You can see M.K.A. is still a bit salting from getting his nachos knocked out of his hands. When it happened, he had a bit of Roid Rage going on. Relax, they were on $4 nachos.

This was the final pitch of the Brewer Game Saturday night.Some quick thank yous to people who made my weekend what it was. Jon and Julie, Joe and Nate for allowing me to sleep at their houses. The Shermans for inviting me to both football games. Mom and Dad for the pizza brats. The dumb alcoholic freshman for selling me his Badger ticket. Joe for inviting me to the Brewer Game. Nate for the Brewer tickets. Bubs for ditching me. If I am missing anyone, I apologize for not acknowledging you here, but thank you for whatever you did.

Half Marathon Follow Up

It has been nearly a week since my run and I have not recovered very well. I have a lot of pain on the outside of my knee and under my knee cap if I am walking for more than a couple minutes. I am going to the doctor today to have them take a look at it. Best case scenerio, they just cut it off today. Here is a picture that Julie took right after the race.I was packing my clothes for this weekend and I had yet to unpack from last weekend. I had this shirt and these shorts in one of the pockets of my bag. When I unzipped it, well let me just say, that was pretty ripe. It was like smelling salt. I will give you an update after I see my doctor. You know, when a horse has a bad leg, they shoot it. The horse, not the leg.

Packer Prediction

In all of my excitement of posting the Gyro contest, I forgot to post my own prediction. I was looking back at last years picks and realized that I did a game by game break down. This year I am picking the record for the Packers 9-7 and working backwards determining which games they will win. Here is how I see this year breaking down.

Week 1 vs. Minnesota
Win. Minnesota sucks and Borky, K-Mart and Myra are just too proud to admit it. They have no quarterback. (1-0)

Week 2 at Detriot
Win. Detroit just is not a good team. They will never win with Matt Millen running the show. I hope he never gets fired. (2-0)

Week 3 vs. Dallas
Loss. The Pack never wins in big D. It will be close, but still a loss. (2-1)

Week 4 at Tampa Bay
Win. The Bucs defense is just too old. This game the Pack will rush for over 200 yards. (3-1)

Week 5 vs. Atlanta
Win. The rookie quarterback for Atlanta gets sacked 7 times and throws 3 picks, one for a touchdown. (4-1)

Week 6 at Seattle
Loss. Holgren finally gets a victory over his old team. I hate to say it but it will happen. Last second field goal. (4-2)

Week 7 vs. Indianapolis
Loss. This game is over before is starts. Manning throws for 5 Touchdowns. (4-3)

Week 8 bye
Loss. Some how we will lose the bye week. (4-3)

Week 9 at Tennessee
Loss. This game is full of turnovers. Very low scoring. Afterwards you will look back as a game we should have won. The Packers dominate the statistics but still end up with a loss. (4-4)

Week 10 at Minnesota
Loss. Again turnover kill the Pack in this game. Minnesota scores a defensive touchdown and Peterson runs for 150. (4-5)

Week 11 vs. Chicago
Loss. Just like the last couple of years, the Bears and Packers win at each others house. (4-6)

Week 12 at New Orleans
Win. Another hurricane comes to town, it is Arron Rodgers who has his best game of the year. 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brett Favre will throw 3 picks in his game on this day and comparisons will continue. (5-6)

Week 13 vs. Carolina
Loss. This game will be like the Tennessee game, the Pack should have won but somehow this didn't. (5-7)

Week 14 vs. Houston
Win. The Packers defense wins this game. (6-7)

Week 15 at Jacksonville
Win. Packers win with a late field goal. (7-7)

Week 16 at Chicago
Win. Orton and Grossman each throw 2 picks. The game isn't even close. (8-7)
Week 17 vs. Detriot
Win. A win here gives the Packers the division. With some much on the line and playing at home, the game isn't even close. A big blow out and it snows 4 inches during the game. Snow globe game number 2. (9-7)

The Half Marathon

I saw a good portion of my readers this past weekend, or at least I think I did. So this may be a repeat. Before I get into how the half marathon went for me, I would like to tell you a little story that relates to the half marathon. Mid way through this summer I was at my sister's house. My nephew, Jared, had just signed up for football which started in August. The coach sent out an off season exercise program for each player to follow leading up to the first practice. I saw this schedule and said that I would help Jared out with his training. The sheet said that on the first day of practice they would perform the following drills: Push ups for a minute, sit ups for a minute, a 40 yard dash, a 20 yard dash backwards, and a 1/2 mile run. Every time I stopped by my sister's this summer I went through and did these drills with Jared. He did OK with all of these except the 1/2 mile run. Every time we did the 1/2 mile run, he would quit and walk after 2 minutes. It was the fifth time I had stopped by over the summer to train with Jared. He had been telling me that he could do the run without walking. So we went for the run. But it was the same thing, 2 minutes in he said he couldn't run any more. I told him too bad and grabbed him by the arm and basically dragged him for the next 3 minutes making him run that entire 1/2 miles. Jared didn't like this at all. He was crying the whole way. But you know what he was able to do the run just fine. I asked him later and he agreed that it was the worst experience of this life. Keep this story in mind as I tell you how the half marathon went this weekend.

My one disclaimer I would like to mention is that in telling my half marathon story, that I am in no way making any excuses for my time or how I performed, these are simply the facts of the race. This half marathon was merely a training tool for my full marathon in October in Minneapolis. Two weeks ago I was also working on my training for these runs and ran 17 miles. At about 14 miles in to that run, I could feel my left knee get a little sore, it sort of felt like I had hyperextended it, but I didn't. I didn't think too much about it and kept running on it and finished my 17 miles. Like I said I was a little sore, but not too bad. In the time since that run and leading up to the half marathon, I took it somewhat easy on my training with my longest run being 3 miles. I also had a little soreness in my left knee after that run. Again nothing too bad that I couldn't run through. So let's fast forward to Saturday and the half marathon.

My goal for the race was 1 hour 45 minutes (that is about 8 minute miles). Realistically I was thinking it would be closer to 1 hour 50 minutes, but I knew I could break 2 hours. The race starts and I knew I didn't want to start out too fast. I started in the front 1/3 of the 700 plus racers. I got into a good pace, and following some advice I got from my buddy Kaker. I found a good looking girl keeping a good pace and ran behind her so I had something to look at plus I was clipping along at the pace I wanted. When I reached the 1st mile marker the time was 8:38. I thought to myself, "See you later sister, I got some work to do." and I went flying by that girl. The next mile I ran in 7:40. At this point I started to get some mild soreness on the outside of my left knee. Still I kept the pace up. I completed mile 3 in 7:56. My knee was feeling a little worse but still I was OK and holding decent form. Mile 4 was finished in 7:57. It was at this point I had scheduled myself to walk for a minute, eat some Gu and grab some water. I started walking and within 30 seconds I could feel my left knee tighten up and it felt like it was going to lock up in the straight position. I told myself if I don't start running now, I would be able to after a minute. So started running again. The pain went from about a 2 on a 1-10 scale before I started walking to a 5 after the walk. But I muscled through and finished mile 5 in 8:35. Mile 6 was 8:20. Mile 7 was 8:45. This is where the pain increased to about an 8. My body couldn't handle the pain and I had to slow down my pace. At this point I was 58 minutes into the race with 6 miles to go. The pain was killing me and I wanted to walk so bad, but two things were running through my mind. 1. If I started walking I wouldn't be able to run again. 2. I made Jared run, if I didn't run, I would by a hypocrite. With my pace slowed the rest of the race went as follows: Mile 8 was 9:54, Mile 9 was 9:57, Mile 10 was 10:03, Mile 11 was 10:42, Mile 12 was 10:24, and Mile 13 I felt a bit of adrenaline and crossed in 9:16.
It was a very disappointing race for me. Up until around mile 6 I don't think 5 people passed me, and I passed easily 100 other runners, maybe more. Once I had to slow my pace to 10:00 miles, everyone and their brother was passing me. I would just stare at their knees as they ran past, wishing I could switch knees with them. And once I slowed my pace, I wasn't even breathing hard. Yes it was a disappointing race, I really do think without knee problems I would have finished in 1:45, but as it was I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 58 minutes.
I would finally like to send out a special thanks to Julie, Nick and Ethan. They are the only ones who came to cheer me on and watch me cross the finish line. When you put in the hard work and training, it is nice to have someone there to appreciate it when you cross the finish line. Just the presence of being there and the little bit of cheering can make a big difference for a runner and help you to dig down and get a little more out of your body. So again thank you for showing up.

Packer Oakland Gyro Contest

Well kids it is that time of year again. Packer season is upon us. Sure I will say that I am excited. But what gets me the most excited is that this is the one posting that I do each year that yeilds the most comments. And why is that? Because you are all cheap and want a free meal. Last year I didn't have to pay up because no one won. The Packers played way above everyone's expectations and finished 13-3, the closest prediction was 11-5. Here we go, leave a comment and your name with what you predict to be the Packers final regular season record. Whom ever has the correct prediction (not the closest, but correct prediction) gets to join me for lunch or dinner or if we go early / late enough you could call it breakfast. But I will buy you an Oakland Gyro sandwich with an extra peta bread (that is how the experienced patrons order) and a larger rootbeer. If you behave yourself, I will make it a platter, but you won't be able to eat it all. I was at Oakland Gyros last week before the Eddie Vedder concert and it was out of this world.

Wiffle Ball Tournament

Here is my weekend recap from last weekend. It took me a little time to get to it, but I have been busy, plus I have had a couple of postings saved up. Friday night I came home and had dinner at my brother, Dan's. We watched the Brewer game and played the cup game with his kids, Josh and Abby. I also go in a little Fitness Wii. I am addicted to the ski jump game. Although I will tell you it makes a huge difference to have the board facing the right direction and also calibrated for your weight. One very disappointing thing about the Wii was that when it did the fitness test on me, it said that based on the tests I took, I have the body of a 54 year old. While my body often feels like it is 54, I would like to think it doesn't look like it. But I have been wrong before. Saturday morning was the 2nd Annual Legends Wiffleball Tournament. My high school friend, Mike Braun, hosts a wiffleball tournament at his parents place. Last year was a blast and there wasn't a chance that I was going to miss it this year. The rain held off and it ended up being a beautiful day. We played best of 3 and then switched up teams. I was on the losing end of the first best of 3. I think the games were 12-13, 39-15 and 20-37. Or somewhere in that range. We then switched up teams to be the Gehreds vs. the Brauns/Klosendorfs. I was on the Gehred team. We won both games. And in the first game I pitched a complete game and only gave up 7 runs. Which was the lowest number of runs given up in any game. We played 5 games in 7 hours. It was just like being a little kid all over again. Although it was disappointing to me that I did not have the home run power that everyone else seemed to have. I think I only hit 3 out all day. After the games we grilled out by the pool. Unfortunately I had to leave when the Home Run Derby started. But as the day light was being lost to the night, and the beer was starting to run out, it appeared that the level of play was running out as well. Saturday night was TT's wedding. I made an appearance. I am still in shock that TT is now married. It was the first time I had seen TT in about 2 years. When I did get a chance to talk to him, I told him that he needs to make himself available for sheepshead more often. He informed me that it is hard to do that as he is working 6 days a week. I said "Big deal. I am working 5 days a week." He called me an idiot and said that it isn't the same. Good to see that TT hasn't changed. Sunday I was extremely sore. It was spent on the couch falling asleep while watching the Brewer game. Here are the pictures.

Part of the history behind the wiffleball tournament is that Mike's older brothers used to play all of the time. Every year before the tournament they have a ceramony that they perform. When they were kids, and Thurman Munson died, they took his baseball card, put it in a shoe box and buried it out in the woods behind their house. So now we go out to that spot before the tournament and place a flower on the shoe box grave. Here is Joe giving the speech and note the flower in his hand.Braun brothers, Paul and Bill were captains for the first best of 3 series. Oh and here is a little side note, I was picked dead last when we picked teams. I was the uncoordinated fat kid.Here is Paul going yard. Here is Jon bringing the heat to Joe. It was 97 feet down the left field line, 100 feet to dead center, and a short 88 foot poke down the right field line due to the flower beds just beyond the fence.
Here is Bob (my old roommate from college) about to give Mr. Spalding a ride.Bob finishing up his trip around the bases after yet another home run. I think it was either Bob or his brother in law, Brad, who finished first in the number of home runs. Mike and Paul weren't far behind.
Joe with a mighty swing and a miss. There were two strike outs on the day and the kid who was picked last didn't have either of them.

I learned in the one game that I pitched that if you made a mistake and got the middle of the plate with any pitch it was instantly over the fence. I think I grooved 6 pitched by accident over the plate, 4 of them ended up in the trees. The key is tight inside on the right handed hitters and way outside to the lefties. It is just like they say when you watch the Brewers and they say "The pitcher made a mistake and left it out over the plate, and the batter made him pay." Those words ring true for wiffleball as well. On a final note about the wiffleball tournament, yes Borky, I know we play with the fat bats and we aren't real men like those that are in your wiffleball league. We suck compared to you, so I will save you the time of actually typing it out.
I didn't have my camera out too much at the wedding. In fact this is the only picture I took. TT and Papa Preston.

Eric's Engagement Party

At times I like to be confrontational. Often I do this to prove my own intellectual superiority. You may recall the instance where I called Borky a hypocrite and he finally agreed with me. If you check out the posting on the "Worst Movie of All Time", Eric made a comment that the party that we attended, was in fact Anna's birthday party and not their engagement party. I would like to refute this statement. Here are the facts. While it was promoted as a party to celebrate Anna's birthday. It was the first time that Eric and Anna publicly announced their engagement. There wasn't a cake with candles that Anna blew out. But there was champagne and a toast welcoming Anna to the family, during which Eric's mom cried. I have to call it an engagement party. But as so often the case, in circumstances where I do not care what the outcome is, I call on my loyal readers to decide. Here a poll. But first here are some pictures from the day helping to prove my point that this was an engagement party.
Anna with Champagne, not birthday cake, during the welcome to the family speech. We didn't even sing "Happy Birthday". Also no spanking machine, check that, I left around 2 in the morning, there might have been a spanking machine later on. Eric, do you care to field that one?Note Eric's mom, second from the right, crying. Also see Michel in the back, wearing black, laughing.Eric, two fisting it. And here is what seals the deal, it isn't an engagement party until there is a dog crapping in the yard.

Based on the facts that I presented, was it an engagement or birthday party?
	Eric's right, a birthday party
	Eric is wrong, an engagment party
	You are both wrong, dog crapping party
Free polls from Pollhost.com

1/2 Marathon

The days are ticking away, and I need to get moving along on my training. Many of you probably know that I am going to be attempting to run the Twin Cities Marathon on October 5th. I have said it before and I will say it again. This is very close to the dumbest thing I have ever done. The training is such a waste of time and I really don't think it is all that good for your body. How has my training been going? Just O.K. in my opinion. Last weekend I ran 17.4 miles. I have a 5.8 mile loop that I do. My pace for the first two loops was right on if I want to finish in under 4 hours, right around 52 minutes. But the last loop was around 57 minutes. But I would like to stress that in my training, I do take walk breaks. Something that is highly stressed to do in the book I have read on marathon running. For the entire run last weekend, I was running 6 minutes then I would walk 1. Training this way is suppose to help with recovery time and reduce the chance of injuries. Obviously when it is the real race, I won't be doing quite as many walking breaks, but I do plan on doing a couple of them. One of the milestones I set for myself in the marathon training was to run another 1/2 marathon. This is the purpose of this post. I am going to be running the Lake Country 1/2 Marathon this coming Saturday.
If you would like to come and cheer me on, you can see by the above map that the race is basically around Lac La Belle. The race starts at 7:00. My goal is to be crossing the finish line somewhere between 8:45 and definitely before 9:00. As far as I know there aren't any train crossing on this race course, so I shouldn't have any excuses. I hope to see some of you there.

Worst Movie Ever

This past weekend, while at Eric's engagement party, conversation turned to movies. The question was, what was the worst movie you ever paid to see in the theater. Off of the top of my head, I came up with Sphere, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and the second Lord of the Rings. Please leave a comment telling me your worst movie. Did you walk out of the movie? Why was it so bad?

The Olympics

I hate the Olympics. I hate them because I get addicted to watching them and all of the good stuff is on at such a late hour. All last week I was up until 12:30 a.m. That doesn't make it really easy to wake up at 5:30 a.m. The swimming has been great. I was talking to my brother, and he mentioned to me that in the 50 meter freestyle, he noticed that they don't take a breath. I am certain I could not swim that far without taking at least 5 or 6 breaths.
That is one thing I would like to do, is go over and compete in the finals off all these different events. I will be honest, I am actually in pretty good physical condition, and these athletes would blow me away in every sport. I caught some badminton this weekend. I thought that was cool. I am pretty sure I wouldn't score a point. I think the ping pong finals are one of the next couple nights. Again, I doubt I would get a point. I saw some of the biking. They were going 42 miles per hour, on a bike. Just crazy. I was running this past weekend, training for my marathon. I ran 17 miles in 2 hours and 42 minutes. Now mind you that is just training, but the first place finisher in the marathon won in 2 hours and 25 minutes. That is 20 minutes faster and 9 miles further. I watched some of the gymnastics. How those guys can do that hand stand with their arms way apart is just crazy. I can't even do a regular hand stand. Or how do you do a back flip on a balance beam? It is only 4 inches wide. Let me talk about the men's 100 meter dash. The winner came across the line in 9.69 seconds. That translates to running 23 miles per hour. Or let me put that in to perspective for you this way. If I am lucky, I might be able to run a 40 yard dash in 5 seconds. Like I said, if I am lucky. If I had been running in that race, at that pace, I would have finished 3.98 seconds behind the winner, which translates into being 44.91 yards behind him when he crossed the finish line. So I would be just past the half way point when the winner crossed the finish line. And just like the challenge that I threw out for the rollerblading, I don't think any of my readers can beat me in a foot race either. So you guys would be even further behind.

But I have been wondering about this. If I had enough money and time, could I go and gain citizenship in some obscure country, start training for 4 years and make the Olympics. Just make the Olympics, not medal. Suppose I moved to and gained citizenship in the African Country of Togo, and all I did all day was train for the men's Kayak. Do you think I could make the Olympics?

Eddie Vedder

Last night I went to see Eddie Vedder in concert at the Riverside. I drove down to Milwaukee right after work. My first stop was at Oakland Gyros for a little dinner. After getting a good meal in me, I headed downtown. I went to Moe's Irish Pub but it was way too packed, so I headed over to Rock Bottom Brewery until the show started. I caught the first two innnings of the Brewer game, and it looked like things were well in hand when I left, but I was wrong. I was pretty excited about the concert until I got to my seats. I was in the very last row in the upper deck of the Riverside. But it is still a pretty small venue, especially as far as Eddie is concerned. So I dealt with it and enjoyed the show. I am a pretty big Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder song. While I don't always agree with Eddie's political views, I think you know my feelings on politics (I could really careless), I give Eddie a ton of credit because he is using the platform that he has to make a stand and a statement. And there is actually some rational and educated thought behind his political rants. Unlike some bands, I.E. Rage Against the Machine, who just say "F" the establishment. But really give no support or direction to their arguements. All night Eddie was very talkative with the crowd. He dealt with and put hecklers and those that were yelling things out, in there place as well as any stand up comic I have seen. Very quick with his comebacks. At one point, he said to a loud heckler, "As I said before, I am the captain of this ship and I will throw you off, so shut the 'F' up!!" All in all, I was very happy with the show. In case you were wondering, yes I was solo on this show as well. My friends all suck. I asked a number of people if they were interested in going and no one was on board. I guess it is no big deal any more. I just go and make new friends.

I was able to snap off a couple of pictures before the camera police went crazy. This one of the few I took that turned out. This was during the encore song "Hard Sun".Here is the set list

MAIN SET:

Sometimes

Trouble ( Cat Stevens cover)

Girl From The North Country

I Am Mine

Deadman

Man Of The Hour

Setting Forth

No Ceiling

Guaranteed

Far Behind

Small Town (Sing along with the whole crowd, pretty cool. Probably the highlight of the show)

Millworker (I believe this is a James Taylor cover)

Soon Forget

Broken-Hearted

Gone

Rise

Driftin'

Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)

Porch

1ST ENCORE:

Here's To The State (I have never seen/heard this one live. A great song and a Phil Ochs cover)

Blackbird (Another Beatles cover. I would have liked to see him do this one a little slower)

Forever Young

Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover)

Wishlist (One of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, cool to see acoustic)

Society w/Liam

Throw Your Arms Around Me (Cover of a Mark Seymore song, he plays this on tour with Pearl Jam occasionally. I have seen and heard other versions, and I would have liked to see this one done a bit slower. But still a great song and I am not complaining that he played it)

No More

Arc (I had read on the internet that this was something to see. And it was pretty cool to see Eddie really getting into it while singing this.)

2ND ENCORE:
Hard Sun w/Liam and EJ

Here is part of the encore song, Hard Sun, that I video taped. I was too lazy to tape the whole thing, but I am sure you get the picture.

I ran into my friend, Liz, after the show. She talked me into going to Moe's for a beer. I finally said that I had to go at around 1 in the morning. I didn't get back up to Appleton until 3 this morning. Which made getting up for work this morning quite the chore.

The Death Bridge

Up in the northern part of the state, my bridge made news this past weekend.

Apparently a dead body was found floating near my bridge. Here is the story from the paper.
"An autopsy will be conducted today on the body pulled from the Fox River on August 16.
A passing boater reported a man's body floating in the Fox River between the Wisconsin and Oregon Street bridges at about 4 p.m. The man was already deceased and officers believe that he had been in the water for quite a while.
Donna Francart, Winnebago County deputy coroner, said the body is of a young male in his mid-to-late 20s, possibly from the Oshkosh area.
Cause of death has not been determined yet, Francart said. A positive identification would be available in the next couple of days following the autopsy.
"All we have right now is circumstantial identification," she said.
The incident remains under investigation, said Sgt. Todd Wrage of the Oshkosh Police Department. Wrage said the police are definitely looking into the possibility that the dead man was a reported missing person.
"We have to investigate every eventuality and possibility," he said.
"When somebody turns up like this, we are going to look into the missing person reports which were entered into the National Crime Information Center and state Crime Information Bureau."
This was the second time in one week that a body was pulled out of the water in Oshkosh.
The Winnebago County Sheriff's Department dive/rescue team recovered the body of Joseph Friedauer, 60, of Neenah on August 13 near Asylum Bay. Friedauer accidentally drowned while fishing the day before.

Here is the link to the TV News story:

http://www.nbc26.com/news/local/27054899.html

The World is Coming to an End

I have been saying for a while now that nothing that my friends do can surprise me anymore. And I still hold that to be true. I expect anything to happen. But recently there has been a series of events that are shocking, I am not surprised by any of them. And the collection of these events has made me believe that the end of the world is upon us, because while these events do not surprise me, I thought the world would end before they happened.

#1. TT is getting married this coming Saturday. TT is getting married. The guy who can eats mayonnaise like it is one of the four major food groups is getting married. By the way, I am not invited to this wedding but I will be crashing it. Anyone interested in going with me, let me know.

#2. Roman has a girlfriend. And it sounds like it is pretty serious.

#3. Staying with the Klink theme. Preston is going to be a father. December is the due date. Another generation of Klinks. Can this be? I know Preston is a loyal reader and checks in nearly daily. Maybe we can help him out with baby names. Leave a comment and I am sure he will take it under consideration.

#4. Eric is engaged. I was at this girlfriend / well now fiance's birthday party and found out. My first reaction was a disheartened "Really?" But then I started thinking. Well at least there will be a bachelor party. That night will be fun.

But as my loyal readers. I think most of you know these characters listed above. To you, which is the most shocking.

Which event is the most shocking?
	TT is getting married
	Roman has a girlfriend
	Preston is going to be a father
	Eric is engaged
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Dave Matthews Concert

One last note on the concerts this weekend. A number of people have asked me why I would go to the same concert two nights in a row. Don't they play the same songs? Not even close. This is one of the many reason why I like going to see this band. They don't play the same setlist every night.

Here is Saturday's set list:
Dancing Nancies
Seek Up
Proudest Monkey
Satellite
So Damn Lucky
Bartender
Corn Bread
Spoon
Eh Hee
Burning Down The House (Talking Heads cover)
Louisiana Bayou
Anyone Seen the Bridge?
Halloween
Water/Wine Jam
Out of My Hands
Crush
Money (Pink Floyd cover)
You Might Die Trying
Ants Marching

Encore:
Don't Drink the Water
Two Step

Here is Sunday's setlist:
Warehouse
Granny Pantala Naga Pampa
Rapunzel
Old Dirt Hill
The Stone
Crash Into Me
Gravedigger
Rhyme And Reason
Stay Or Leave
Dreaming Tree
Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel cover)
Stay (Wasting Time)
Lover Lay Down
Jimi Thing
Grey Street
So Much To Say
Anyone Seen The Bridge
Too Much Intro
Lie In Our Graves
Too Much
Tripping Billies

Encore
I ll Back You Up (tease)
Corn Bread
Thank You (For Letting Me Be Myself Again)

So they only played 2 songs both nights. Over the two nights, I heard nearly every song I wanted to hear from the band. Again two great concerts. I was very surprised by the energy that they came out with on Sunday night.

Dave Matthews Concert

First let me start with the start of my weekend. I guess it was on Wednesday. I finished work and then drove down to Milwaukee and stayed with Nate and Michel. I had dinner there and stayed the night as I was flying out of the Milwaukee airport the next day. Thursday morning I had a meeting with my new boss. I think it is safe to say that I walked away from that meeting knowing that he was highly impressed by me. I caught my plane and was up to Minnesota. I met up with another engineer from my company. We had to drive to Stillwater to look at another bridge that my company is working on, then we were down to Prescott to inspect my old bridge. The testing and inspection went until around midnight and everything checked out OK. I got dropped off at Krum's place and spent the night there. The next morning (Friday) I went for an 8 mile run through the nature preserve along the Minnesota River. After a shower, I took the light rail to the Mall of America and saw Pinneapple Express. The movie was far less than I was hoping for. I probably won't do a full blown review on it, but I will give it a 4 out of 10.

After the movie, I headed to Borky's. We had some drinks food and some ping pong, then went to get our bowl on. I did get the high score of a 156 for the evening. Saturday morning I was up early and headed out. I got my flight back to Milwaukee and went to my brother's for the water volleyball party. Around 5:00 I left the party for Alpine Valley and the meat of my weekend. The Dave Matthews concert. Saturday was an incredible show. Excellent set list. I managed to find some great seats in the reserve section. No complaints there. Sunday was a family reunion with the Brantzegs. I left Brian and Nancy's at around 5:30 and headed back to Alpine Valley. Here is where my greatest disappointment of the weekend lies. I asked a number of people to go to the concert with me, and as it turns out everyone backed out on me. I ended up having to eat my extra ticket because I couldn't sell it in the parking lot. I wouldn't be that disappointed except that the people that I did ask to go to the show, would have loved the concert. I didn't think that Dave and the boys could put on a better show than they did Saturday night. But you know what they did. Sunday was a much better performance than Saturday. This is what makes me so irritated by those that didn't want to go to the show with me. In my eyes, those that I asked are all lesser of friends for not going. But when adversity hits, we must rise above. I decided not to let the fact that I was solo at the show stop me from having a good time. I actually had quite a bit of fun walking around the parking lot trying to sell my other ticket. I met a lot of cool people. Once inside the show, I was able to find some great seats in the reserve section, actually I was within on a couple of seats of where I was the night before. As I said, Sunday was just an amazing show. Here are the pictures.

This is me with Sharky, the mascot from the aquarium at the Mall of America.
Pool Volleyball. Greg if I set you do you think you can spike it? I would have to be pretty high. I bet you would Panama Red.Life size Jenga in the parking lot. Won't be long until I make a set myself.Sunday I had to go out and make new friends, since mine are all too lame.I might have to get the razor out for next year.Dave on stage.I ended up sitting with these guys most of the night. After talking to them, it turns out they were two rows in front of me on Saturday night.I did move up to the 5th row for a song or two before I got booted, but as you can see I got pretty close.I did a little research last night. Turns out that Sunday was my 22nd Dave Matthews concert.

Weekend Plans

This weekend you can accuse me of having a lot going on. I am headed back to Milwaukee tonight and staying with Nate. I have a meeting with my new boss whom I have yet to speak with Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon I am flying up to Minnesota for work. Thursday evening is the final acceptance testing on my bridge in Prescott. We are hoping to be finished with that by midnight. Friday I am taking a vacation day. I will be staying with Krum. I plan on getting in a run in the morning / afternoon. Friday night I want to meet up with Krum, Trooper, K.O. and Borky for dinner and some drinks, rumor has it bowling might be in order. Saturday morning I fly back to Milwaukee. Saturday afternoon is the first annual Gaylord Focker Water Volleyball Tournament at my brother's. Saturday evening I am headed to Alpine Valley for Dave Matthews. Sunday morning I am going to try my best to get in a long run. Then Sunday night I am back to Alpine Valley for day two of Dave Matthews. I am predicting getting out of the parking lot somewhere around midnight, then driving 2 hours to Appleton. And back to work on Monday.

The Dark Knight

I went and saw the new Batman movie last week. I thought it was pretty good. It had to be, as it is 2 hours and 45 minutes long and the time went by so fast. I was a bit disappointed to see that Katie Holmes did not return in her role as Rachel Dawes, but I didn’t miss watching her talk out of the side of her mouth. But the role of Rachel Dawes came off as so high and almighty that I think that she barely got a little more than she deserved in the end. Christian Bale was highly serviceable in his role as Batman. It is a bit annoying how his voice changes so much between when he is wearing the mask and when he isn't. But the performance that everyone has been talking about is Heath Ledger as the Joker. I am trying hard to decide if people think he did that great of a job acting, or if they are giving him more credit than he deserves just because he died before the movie even came out. I do have to say that he was incredibly believable as a total freak. There were a lot of characters to expand upon over the course of the movie, probably the reason the movie is so long. I will even say that it was better than the first one. And it is rare that the sequel is better than the original. On a 1 to 10 scale it is a solid 8. A movie you should see, and see in the theater, don't wait for DVD.

Weekend Update

There wasn’t too much planned for this past weekend. Friday night I stopped by my sister’s house and put her son, Jared, through his work out. He starts tackle football in a week or two. I have been stopping by when I can to make sure he is doing his training and running to get in shape for the first practice. I stayed at my brother, Jon’s, house as I usually do. I had stopped at my parent’s house on the way, and they ordered a fish fry that looked pretty good so I decided to do the same. On the trip to pick up the food, I crossed a milestone that I had been looking forward to for a while now. My truck turned 200,000 miles. But being the idiot that I am, I was so excited for this fish fry that I left without my camera. How fitting was this, my truck turned 200,000 just as I pulled into the parking lot of the bar. And there I was without my camera. Then again, if you know me, you shouldn’t be shocked that I would screw something like that up. I was so disheartened that I didn't even do the required Chinese fire drill around my truck.
Saturday morning I woke up and hit the pavement for a run. 13 miles. Not exactly my idea of fun. But nonetheless still my idea. I have slowly come to realize that what I will take away from this whole marathon experience will be more negative than positive. Unless there is an incredible exhilarating feeling of achievement, which not even words can describe, when the race is finally over with, I can say without much doubt that this will be my first and last marathon. However, I will say that with in minutes of finishing my run, I felt fine. I got my haircut Saturday afternoon. Thank you Rebecca. I have come to the understanding that the further back your hairline gets, the shorter your hair needs to be.
After my haircut, I picked up all of my nieces and nephews except for the youngest nephew, Joey, and took them to the high school to launch some rockets. My nephew, Josh, had his birthday party this past week and I wasn’t able to make it. Last year I got him some rockets, so I decided that I would take him to launch those rockets this weekend. I invited all of the kids to see if they wanted to go, and amazingly they were all available and wanted to go. I piled all 9 kids into my mom’s minivan and off we went. After the rockets, we stopped at the gas station where I gave them 1 minute to pick out something to drink and some candy. That is quite a site, 9 kids running around with one adult (me) by the check out yelling out, "30 seconds!!!........20 seconds!!!!!..." We then hit the Wales Park circuit, hitting 3 different parks. They were still hungry after that, so off to McDonalds for ice cream. After 13 miles of running in the morning and 4 hours with 9 kids, I was actually pretty beat. I went back to my brother’s house, and I decided that I could use a relaxing dip in the pool. I dove in and caught my little finger on the filter on the bottom of the pool. This resulted in the part of my finger past the last knuckle sticking straight up in the wrong direction. Again, I screwed up by not getting a picture of that. I cracked it twice to get it back into place and decided that I might as well just call it a day. I was in bed by 8:00 that night. Sunday I woke up rather sore. I decided with not much happening on Sunday to just head back up to Appleton. I got to my condo around 10:30 in the morning. I started falling asleep on the couch once the Brewer game started. This got me to thinking that maybe I should just go back to bed, so I listened to the remainder of the game while in bed. I was suppose to have 2 soccer games Sunday night, one at 5:30 and one at 7:00, but they both got cancelled due to weather. Of course they didn’t get cancelled until I drove the 25 miles to the field and not until after I had taped up my foot and got all of my gear on. That just about sums up my weekend.
Here is my odometer 2 miles too late.

Just like the clowns at the circus.

Here are just a bunch of group shots of my nieces and nephews. I am pretty sure I can hold these pictures ransom for big money from their parents and grandparents.To add to my misery, not that I am looking for sympathy, nor do I think I will get any, but last weekend while camping, somehow I got poison ivy on the bottom of my foot.

Crimer Stoppers

Sun Prairie, WI - Police are asking for the public’s assistance in finding a vandal who targeted a home on Westridge Drive. In the early morning hours, from exactly 1:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., of July 19th, the Stegall residence was hit by vandals that “toilet papered” the family home, trees and one vehicle. Exactly 24 rolls of double ply Quilted Northern toilet paper were used. No finger prints were found at the crime scene. What is more baffling to authorities is that there isn’t a history of this type of crime in this affluent neighborhood.

Police spoke with the home owner, Dave “The General” Stegall after the incident. Mr. Stegall was quoted as saying, “I wasn’t really doing much that night. I stayed up late watching World Series of Poker on TV. Is there any better way for a hip lawyer to spend his Friday nights? I had been invited out for drinks with my good friend, Rickie Davies, who was in town for a canoe race. But I am married; my will to live and have fun in life has been sucked out of me. I eventually retired for the evening and the next morning I awoke to the exclamation of my wife yelling ‘That God Damn Rickie Davies!!!!’ I then rolled over in bed and glanced out the window to see toilet paper everywhere."

Mr. Davies was questioned about the incident. He went on record as saying “That is the really weird thing about this crime. I was staying in Sun Prairie the very same night at my friend, Joe’s, house. How I am being implicated in such a crime is beyond me. As I said, I was in the area, but I was sound asleep. I had a big canoe race (The Paddle Portage) the next day. I couldn’t be running around in the middle of the night causing trouble. Maybe it was some neighborhood kids that didn’t think too highly of the candy they gave out at Halloween.”

Mr. Stegall has sworn that he will get revenge. However, a police spokesman warned Mr. Stegall, based on the facts of the case, “it seems that the perpetrator has an abundance of time, energy and resources at his disposal. He is probably pretty good looking as well. Any retaliatory act would not doubt, begin a chain reaction that would result in similar acts against the Stegall household, with estimates of future damage being a ten fold of what they experienced in the early morning hours of July 19th.” The police spokesman went on further to say “resistance would only be futile.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Vandalism Section at (262) 751-1597 (but do not expect anyone to answer). If you want to remain anonymous, a posting can be made on this blog. With your help maybe we can bring this criminal to justice.