In a New York Minute....

Went back to NY for a few days and had some time to take in the sights between work.  Enough talk, onto the sights.

WTC Memorial and the Freedom Tower.

Battery Park

Trinity Church

Wall Street

Yankee Stadium

 See ya next time!!!!

Who doesn't like a June Wedding?

It's been a while since I have been to a wedding, and a relations type wedding even longer.

Alex, my nephew and Crystal got hitched in West Bend on Saturday.  Nice weather, nice ceremony and fun time at the reception.  Another plus, this had to be the absolute closest (to our house) reception I will ever attend.  Turner Hall in Fillmore.  The same Fillmore we used to play all the baseball at.

So Congrats to Alex and Crystal!  On to some pictures!

Chiminea Hunt

I bet you had no idea it was so hard to find a clay chiminea (locally).  Well it seems fire pits aren't in vogue as much as they were in years past.  So the selection has dropped considerably.

I found this out when it was time to replace my 6+ year old clay chiminea that lost it's cover over winter and took the brunt of the snow, thawing and freezing cycles.

I bought this chiminea at home depot so hey lets go back for another one.

2 Different Home Depot - Nothing,  2 Different Steins - Nothing,  Lowes - nothing.  Really?  One Home Depot had no fire pits or rings at all.

Tracy spotted one at Menards.  Said it had a 'face'. Thinking Kokopelli or some Sun face of some sort, you know, Mexican south-westy. Oh well ho bad can it be.

Welcome to the Brady Bunch Happy Time Chiminea:

Yea, its a Tiki.  South Pacfic is what I think of when I think of clay fireplaces.  It's short.  It's also not the best design, but once it gets cooking it isn't too bad.  I got it just in time too:  When I attempted to move the old one...

Congrats to Joel and Kewsaskum Varsity Tennis Team!

Joel and 1  other players had sub sectional tournament wins.  Both move on to state sectionals.

The tennis just keeps on coming

From Thursdays Journal - Preps Plus focus on Tennis.  This was last weeks victoty before the 7-0 Sweep of Waupun. 

 

A little recognition

Its not often the Kewaskum Tennis team see's the JournalSentinal Preps section.  But it's really sweet when it's a team sweep: 7-0 Against Waupun.
 

Ticket Time again

Well its that time of the year where a young mans fancy turns to camping overnight to get Great Taste of the Midwest Tickets.

So Saturday Me and the boys (Glen, Tim, Paul, Perry) headed out to the fine town of Lake Mills and Tyrenena brewery.  Set up camp and waited.  Nothing like early May camping to make you feel young? old?  not sure.  We had a table, ate dinner:

Played cards, drank beer until the told us to go to bed at 4:00 AM.  

Next Morning rise and shine to break down camp and sit and wait, some more.

Mind you there are only 400 tickets to be had and each person can buy 2.  Sad to say some of the later arrivals were not getting any tickets.  The line snaked all the way around the grounds, to my right and down the side of the building behind me.  All seemed well until the storms started showing up.  We all got moved into the actual brewery floor because there was serious lightning in those storms.  

Pretty nice of them to let us do that.  A hoard of people among hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment.  At noon they started selling and we were on our way home.  

Can't wait until next year....

Busy Weekend

Where do I start?  I know, a lovely child-less dinner at Tomasos pizza on Friday night.  Nice.  Saturday rolled around and it was time to brew. Newly educated all-grain brewers, Glen, I and a cadre of wanna-be brew masters all huddled in the chilly Schroeder garage for an afternoon of brewing beer.  Cream Ale.

Being the jet setter I am,  I bid adieu to my craft-brew clan around 2:30. I know they could handle it.... I had another party to attend.  In Ixonia.  Just Kiki and I.   While we munch on birthday cup cakes, Tracy is at a bridal shower (snore).  Joel is off to Prom.

This is Junior Prom so it's more informal for this group of seniors.  Good looking bunch of young adults.

Being the awesome dad that I can be, I let Joel take the Mach Five instead of the Mystery Machine  (some old school cartoon references for ya).  Of course I had an auto cross event the next day.  I hear to Mach Five rumble into the garage around 2:30 (yea that's AM).  Three hours later I am in the garage putting my racing tires on and am off to Miller Park.  I did not even wake Spritle up to help change wheels.  Thanks Pops!  

A long and cold day ensued.  Racer X could only pull a 3rd place in class, with my best run of 72 seconds.  

That's ok, it's all about consistency.  That's how I won this last year:

Yep - all the talk and now I finally picked up the hardware to go with it.  Award winning driver.  That's me.  Anyway, over 12 hours later I get home, tired and wicked wind/sunburn to boot.  Cloud cover and 45 degrees you never even think about sunscreen. Oh and because I am being super awesome, on the way home I picked up a huge bag of Oakland Gyros for dinner. Hero right there.   And that was the end of this busy weekend.

Shout out and thanks to my brother Jim.  He came out in less than nice conditions to watch me make a few runs.  The support was nice to have.  I think we may get him out there in the Mazda this year!

Tennis!

It's Tennis season and Joel has already had 3 matches with 3 more this week.  You want to watch - let me know I will tell you where and when.

What this blog is missing is a FOOD POST

No seriously.

Did some stuff around the house.  Changed the oil in a car, completely overhauled the lawn tractor.  Oil, plugs, filters, blades and pressure washed about 10 years of gunk off the thing.  352 hours on it.  That's enough to let it run over 14 days and nights, straight.  That's a lot of mowing and sweeping and hauling.

Anyway back on task.  Bought 4 pounds of beef tenderloin.  Vacuum marinated it for about 4 hours with some pesto.  On the grill we go.  Then sliced and panini'd with some provolone cheese, I-talian bread and more pesto.  OoooooWiiiiii that is some good stuff.  Melt in your mount beef, crusty bread, and the tang of the pesto.  You know you want this....

Emotional Weekend

Had a nice Friday night and Saturday in Chicago with Joel.

Doing that College orientation thing.  It just becomes more real every day.  Can't stop time.

Saturday was a incredible ride of emotions for both of us and I am sure it won't stop for some time.

First the excitement.  This is such an exciting time so much going on, next stages of my son's life.  Then for me it's a little bit of jealousy.  Wish I was 18 again, wish I had this opportunity, wish I tried a little harder.  I guess I will relive it through Joel, but at a distance.  It's his time, not mine,  I will just sit back and enjoy watching him.  Next is the nervousness.  You know the parental nervousness,  you want them to do well, but this is a huge step and it's a bit scary.  I can't imagine how Joel feels.  Then finally the sadness kicks in.  Not sad that he's moving away for school (although that is hard).  Its the realization my oldest kid not a kid anymore.  Still my little buddy in my mind but not so much in body.  Sad that this stage in our lives is nearing an end, ready to step into the next stage.

Walking to the train station after the day long session, I asked Joel if he would sleep on the train ride home.  "No I don't think so".  Sounding like the same little kid riding the train when he was younger.  Knowing full well he would back then.   He fell asleep this time too.  Still my little boy...

Happy Easter!