The Dead Ticket Chase

We tried hard to score tickets for the Grateful Dead shows in Chicago but a no go so far. Couldn't make the magic on the computer but we'll get some. We've got 4 months to find a decent deal for the 4th of July weekend.

Last night's happy hour at Wolski's was a lot of fun. All four hours of it before we headed to Jamo's for one then back home.

Jen got moved into her place today in pretty good shape. It's a really nice place in a nice area of town.

Coco and I saw McFarland USA at the famous Times Cinema which is a true old school theater. A fantastic movie based on a true story. In fact, the people that it's about are shown at the end of the movie and how their lives turned out. I highly recommend it!

Later

Soldiers Field Seating Chart

Live Long And Prosper

Spock died today. 79 episodes, 3 seasons and 5 decades ago Star Trek aired. Leonard Nimoy is gone at the age of 83. He wasn't merely a legend but a legacy. Famous for the ages. Maybe it was the handshake or maybe it was because he was a helluva nice guy who treated every single fan as a family member. Sure, he did other acting roles and appeared on Columbo but this guy was a living legend who had time for the people who made him famous. He brought us the first Bigfoot sightings in the 70's. He was ahead of his time before Animal Planet. Peace and Prosperity, Mr. Nimoy you were light years ahead of your time. Thank you.

A big welcome to Brazil for looking at my blog. I promise to make it to Carnival someday!

Jenny is moving tomorrow. She will be closer to us so we shall brave the cold and move her without any complaining in this frigid cold. I on the other hand will bitch a little bit so deal with it!

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A Lemonade Day

The morning started out so good and promising. Then things went to crap but I won't delve into details. I've always been amazed as to reasons why things happen or why people do things to make themselves more important than another. I've always tried to rise above the small minded and I've done it quite well. When life gives you lemons it's time to make lemonade. I'll do it again this time also.

We woke up to a few inches of lake effect snow this morning. The afternoon sun melted it away quite good.

Coco back in town after a few days in the Dells. Bruises and cuts all over the place from the waterpark. Gotta love the spirit.

It's Paul Newman night on TMC. Absence of Malice was a brilliant movie in 1981 and an even more brilliant movie in these times of media madness!

Even better is the Verdict released in 1982. Newman plays a wretched soul of an attorney. He's so unlikeable in this movie but comes thru at the end as only Newman could do it. They don't make them like that anymore. Be well.

Later

Thorny Rose

Yes, it's a tough day for Chicago sports fans. First, Derrick Rose needs another knee surgery. Then, a few hours later it's reported that Blackhawk great Patrick Kane is out for 6-10 weeks on a gray area cheap shot.

Rose could be back for the playoffs. Kane will miss the start of the NHL playoffs. Tough breaks but that's sports. Don't count either one totally out there. They are both hall of fame caliber players with some special magic.

I see that Danica Patrick seems to continue being in a lot of race car spin outs and accidents. It never seems to be here fault though.

I've watched Parks and Recreation a few times with Krissy. I've never been impressed. We watched the shows finale last night and I'm surprised it didn't happen after the pilot episode.

The Department of Homeland Security might technically be shut down this week as Congress stands by and literally does nothing. The worst Congress this country has ever had from top to bottom. A totally worthless lot of idiots!

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Not My Mummy

Scientists found a mummy in a 1000 year old Buddha statue. They always suspected one was in there but x-rays confirmed it. It was a self mummification job. Apparently the monks were encased in a statue with a tube for breathing and some tea plus a bell. They would ring the bell every once in a while to show they were still alive. When the bell stopped they were put in storage for 3 years. If the body decomposed they didn't make the high road in the monk world and the ones that didn't were highly celebrated. Makes me glad that my application to Monk school wasn't accepted after all!

The Bulls knocked the snot out of the Bucks last night despite not playing very well. There's about 27 games or so for them to get it together for the playoffs.

It warmed up to about 30 today. It felt like 70 compared to the recent wind chills.

I've gotta run. I need to make 2 deserts for an event tomorrow. Have a good hump day tomorrow!

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Recovery Monday

It's nice to not have anything on the calendar after a weekend like this one. It's real cold today anyway. Coco is on winter break this week so he is on a mini trip up in the Wisconsin Dells. Yes, it's true, they are the waterpark capital of the world or something like that.

An early dinner of leftovers. The Bulls play the Bucks tonight and I'm going to grab a good book also. Thanks again Coco for the delicious homemade cake. Maybe we'll skip college for you and get you a bakery job!

Later

Checking It Out

Bloody Mary Time

At Sobelman's

At Bike Show

Relaxing At Jack's Pub

Mama Tried Motorcycle Show

What a weekend. I'm so tired. We went to the Mama Tried Motorcycle Show with Michelle and Gary last night. Very interesting, both people and machines! It's cold out so I'll let the pictures tell the story. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful weekend once again!

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My Favorite

Cold Weather

Not Getting Better

Hello

Forecast

Nice

Sweet

Classic

Gary and Me

Ice Bike

Old School Night

What a great night last night! Totally old school. We had a wonderful dinner at Butch's Casino Steakhouse. Then we ventured a couple blocks away to Jim's Time Out a true Milwaukee bar. Tom the bartender was great and has been in the bar business for 44 years. A lot of great jokes and old eastside stories. I'll go back just to hangout with Tom someday.

Today we slept a lot. We fit in some grocery shopping and we're making some tacos now. We're heading over to a motorcycle show event with Michelle and Gary soon. Who knows after that, just playing it by ear!

Later

That's A Steak

The Wait

Old School Relish Tray

Pitchers & Catchers Report

Spring training is finally here. The Cubs are contenders and the Brewers are trying to forget last year's epic collapse where it looked like the playoffs were no problem. We hit a high of 14 today when it's normally in the 35 degree area. John and Angela picked a smart time for a long weekend in Los Angeles. A pure genius is Wilson!

Butch's Steakhouse for a huge steak tonight. The bigger the better as I'm starving. It's happy hour at home as I'm typing. Nothing like a coffee and a sea salt Bailey's on a frigid damp night.

Apple is making an effort to get into the electric car market by 2020. They wanna compete with the oil loving Texans apparently. For my money, I'll follow the likes of Apple, Google and Tesla before some old school Texans. No offense Texas but you gave us Bush and Perry with no apologies so you aren't getting one from me!

Be careful who you cuss out in public. I'm talking mainly to myself as I'm not afraid to give someone a piece of my mind just like my grandpa. A guy in England was cussed out on a train. A few hours later he was interviewing the very same man. It's a small world my friends, smaller than we might like!

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All Quiet Now

It's hard to find another human being outside unless it's around the comings and goings to work. The bars are even suffering a bit. It's supposed to warm up a bit the next 2 days then go back to being bitter cold thru the rest of the month.

Just for fun I took a look at the long range forecast. St. Patrick's Day calls for a high of 50 and rainy. I'll take that at this point.

NBA great Jerome Kersey passed away today. He was always a class act and a hard working player.

The NBA tradeline passed with the Bulls making no trades. The Bucks made a nice trade getting last year's rookie of the year in return. Michael Carter-Williams should play well for Jason Kidd.

Butch's Steakhouse is closing on downtown Milwaukee next month. Krissy had been wanting to take me there for a while now. We have a reservation for Friday!

Later

Krissy Driving With A Selfie

Babee It's Cold Outside

Yowzer, it was 2 degrees when I picked up Coco tonight. It was so cold even the construction workers on the 615 E Michigan Avenue project took off early. Although I did see one worker walking around without gloves.

It didn't take long as predicted the Florida Keys are trying to get a ferry service to Cuba going before the end of the year. Conan O'Brien is down there right now filming his late night show. This is just the start. I had always planned on being an outlaw and going there sometime from Mexico but it looks like there won't be a need for that.

I'm making barbeque chicken quarters as I write. It's sure smelling good.

I see where some people are surprised that Rolls Royce is making an SUV. It's like they are going down in class or something. I'm not surprised. When I was in Australia in 1988 they had Rolls Royce garbage trucks in Sydney. Now that's a class drop!

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King Cake Time

I was just talking about Mardi Gras and I'm thinking about ordering a King Cake. I used to work at a place in the late 90's that used to get 5-6 a day. Mostly from the Rondozza bakery which we found to be the absolute best. Most people only ate a small or piece or two. A lot of people thought they were too sweet and didn't eat any. My co-worker Jack and I would get to work early and scope out the freshest ones for breakfast. We'd even hide the good ones in filing cabinets. We ate them for lunch also instead of going out. Then we'd take some home. That's how much we loved our King Cakes!

St. Marcus played their final basketball game tonight and won by about 30 points. The other team was much bigger but they couldn't be stopped yet again.

I'm at the three quarter mark of my book and it's coming together nicely. I'll miss my goal this weekend of finishing the first draft but that's okay. I'm close enough that I'm looking another two weeks out.

Boston is coming to the Wisconsin State Fair on August 6th. It's featuring founding member and hit song writer Tom Scholz. That might be a go!

Later

Happy President's Day

It  doesn't seem to be a popular holiday any longer. Most people have to work and Coco even had school today. Schools used to be off for both Lincoln and Washington's birthdays.  People in general don't respect the office anymore or politicians. Hard to blame people after witnessing the do nothing Congress these last few years.

I watched the first half of the NBA All-Star game last night with Coco. After two minutes he asked me why they play just bad defense. Even for an exhibition game it was exceptionally terrible!

Krissy made a great chicken parm last night. Restaurant quality stuff. Plenty of leftovers for the week!

We each need 27 songs for the Jimmy Buffett set list concert contest. It's the only way to get tickets to the Key West show. People can only enter once. A lifetime of music makes it tough to narrow it down. But we're diligently working on it!

The weather continues to be tough. It looks like it will get back to normal this week. Baseball is still a ways away but we are getting ready. We already have Cubs tickets for May 8th when they visit Milwaukee!

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We Butcher It

Dinner last night at Bosley's was great. Krissy had the brown sugar salmon and I had the blackened grouper. Our waiter was very nice but fairly inexperienced I think. He told me they get the grouper in fresh everyday then they "butcher it." I had a hard time not laughing but it was excellent.

Tesla is working on a new battery storage system for homes. It could be a big game changer. Elon Musk could be the next Edison by the time he is done. He has a big vision with no limits.

It was a 117 years ago today that the Maine battleship blew up in Havana. The Key West cemetery is the main burial plot for those that died in the explosion. I've visited the cemetery a couple times and always stop to gaze at the memorial statue. There's been some scientific speculation in the past few years that perhaps it was an accidental explosion and not an attack after all.

We're in a middle of another cold weather blast that won't give us a break until next weekend. The Ford wouldn't start this morning when the windchill was minus 6. Finally got it started when it hit a balmy 12 degrees. Then we went grocery shopping and caught a few inches of lake effect snow. We're not leaving the house anymore today. Stay warm!

Later

Dinner with my Valentine

Dog playing pool at the Roman Coin

It's V Day

Probably the only day of the year where the florist has a line going out the door at 9:30a.m and I was one of them! It's cold and blustery reaching a high of ten degrees and forty mile per hour winds. Our big dilemma is if we cab it to the restaurant tonight. It's a short three blocks but we might need a stiff drink before hand to brave the cold. King Solomon is playing at Up and Under tonight which is around the block so we might end up there after dinner.

Coco and I played Stratego this morning. I kept my undefeated streak alive but he beat me in Chess pretty bad.

Other than trying to stay warm it's been an uneventful lazy day. Jenny stopped by to visit and I've got about an hour to write and fix a cocktail to brave the elements. Enjoy time with your loved ones tonight!

Later

Mac Is Back

What a show last night! Downtown was absolutely nuts like I haven't seen on a non-holiday in years. We arrived downtown fairly early to eat but could barely make it inside quite a few establishments. We settled for drinks at Ugly's and they ended up opening their rooftop bar and turned on the heaters with some plastic keeping the wind out.

The 24 song set was outstanding. It's amazing how often Stevie Nicks is a backup singer on so many songs. People tend to forget that Fleetwood Mac had 5 huge hits at with Christine McVee singing lead vocals. The band's biggest problem was probably too many song writers. McVee is a good singer but she wasn't real powerful last night. It was their 54th show in slightly less than 6 months.

Stevie Nicks hasn't lost a thing. The highlight of the show was 'Gypsy' as she was center stage letting it loose. She was great all night as was Lindsay Buckingham. The drum and bass line was really loud for the first two songs. We were dead center up from the drums and my pant legs were actually vibrating as I sat there.

We actually ate after the show. Some awesome wings at Who's on Third and cheese curds. It was a late thursday night/ friday morning but so worth it!

Later

no caption needed

Cocktails pre concert at Uglys rooftop bar

Krissy and I at Fleetwood mac

Treat your valentine to a heart shaped ribeye 

Surprise/ It's Fleetwood Mac

Krissy surprised me with two tickets to the Fleetwood Mac concert tonight at the Bradley Center. What a girl! Therefore, I'm typing like a madman on the laptop as the other computer looks like it needs some serious work. This is the classic lineup as Christie McVee has returned from an early retirement for this tour. I can't wait. It's one of the few bands from the 70's and 80's that I haven't seen and I have a large drawer of tickets stubs to prove it. This summer I want to sit down and make a list of who I have seen. I still have a few more out there that I still need to see. I'm praying Tom Petty comes to Summerfest this year. I'm still kicking myself for turning down an opportunity to have dinner with him and a handful of others for a benefit.

The temperature really dropped overnight. It was around 0 windchill. Ouch! But it won't last long and I'm hoping for another St. Patty's surprise.

I bought a Powerball ticket last night and was in a pool that had another 30 tickets. I seldom play unless it gets to be a huge jackpot. It's fairly well known that I'm the worst lottery player in the history of the world. I'm like a lottery jinx. I'm lucky to even get A number on my ticket drawn. Last night on all those tickets I had 5 total numbers. The lottery jinx continues but who cares. I'm going to see Fleetwood Mac with Krissy!

Later

Don't Show Off

The Captain of the Costa Concordia was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was the Captain who ran a cruise ship aground killing 32 people. Reportedly he was showing off a stupid maneuver to a girl. I'm fairly certain she won't be waiting until 2031 for him.

We're having computer problems so I'm using a laptop for tonight's blog. I always have a hard time when I switch machines. Heck, I have enough problems just using the same computer everyday!

It looks like a cold streak is coming to town starting tomorrow. We just have to hang on for 2 more weeks and basically real winter is over.

Jerry "The Shark" Tarkanian passed away. He won a National Championship coaching the running rebels in 1990. That's 2 legendary coaches lost in a week. UNLV was always fun to watch as they were a running team.

Happy Hump Day, the weekend is getting closer!

Later

Don't Die Easy

The Clarion Hotel Casino was blown up early this morning to make room for another new modern casino. However it didn't totally go away despite 4400 pounds of explosives. The elevator shaft dropped about 4 floors but that area is still standing. They have to go back tomorrow to finish the job. Congrats to the original construction crew who built it in 1970!

The St. Marcus Mustangs did it again winning their final home game of the season to remain undefeated for the season and their young careers which started last year. I'm already licking my chops to see how much they improve next year. To top it off they are a fine bunch of scholars also.

The Seminole Tribe in part with the Hard Rock Casino have offered to chip in 220 million dollars for the new Milwaukee Bucks arena in exchange to be allowed to build their casino in Kenosha. It effectively takes the place that the taxpayers were going to pay. This is a no-brainer. Only an idiot would turn this down. Our's is currently in London, England trying to run for President.

Later

Mondays Stink

Monday's have been boring and long lately. It seems like there isn't much to do on these cold monday nights. Maybe I'm just itching for spring and baseball season. Then May comes with playoffs for basketball and hockey. Well, St. Patrick's Day is five weeks from tomorrow so maybe I'll just start a countdown for my Irish friends.

Summerfest announced their 4th headliner and now there's 7 more to go then they will start filling in the side stages. Ed Sheeran is the latest act to join Keith Urban, Linkin Park and Florida Georgia Line. So far nothing that gets me too excited but I'm hearing rumors that the Zac Brown Band might be coming.

I caught a glimpse of the Grammy Awards highlights. It seems like Kanye West thinks he's running the show. Last year he ran on stage and grabbed the microphone because he was upset and this year he started to do the same thing before opening his big arrogant mouth which he did after the show.

Either he needs the attention like his wife or he's doing his best Justin Bieber imitation. Either way he's become a big embarrassment to Chicago!

Later

Vivian Maier Photographs

We watched an interesting film today on Vivian Maier. She was a lifelong nanny who died a recluse and left behind an estimated 150,000 street photographs. They are now being sold and displayed in art galleries throughout the world. A large portion are black and white photographs of ordinary people in ordinary situations.

Each person who employed her nanny services or local merchants each described her differently. She had different accents and even went by different various names at times. It was a most interesting story.

I also watched a documentary on boxer Jack Johnson who was a heavyweight champion more than 100 years ago. His 1910 championship bout was captured on film in Reno, Nevada which had a population of 15,000 at the time yet more than 20,000 people were present for the fight.

Last night was the fundraiser in Jackson which was an excellent time. Michelle did well in poker but none of our group won a raffle prize once again. It's starting to smell like a conspiracy but I'm sure we'll give it another shot again next year.

Legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith passed away. His legacy speaks for itself. Always a class act and he will be missed!

Later

With John At The Casino

Book Browsing

Steve And Holly

Holly And Michelle

Angela And John

With Krissy In Jackson

WE Energies Blues

Make no mistakes about it, I absolutely hate WE Energies. Every single month this winter our usage has been down from last winter but our bills have been higher. Why am I freezing at 3am in my bed when realistically I can't save a few bucks with these crooks. Every rate hike they do has the blessings of the bought and paid for politicians.

At least do us a favor and quit putting on commercials telling us what a swell bunch of fellows you are. It isn't working and besides there is no competition. Even if I went to solar you guys are now getting a surcharge for the people who fork over those dollars for the solar systems. The system stinks in Wisconsin but congrats, you bought yourself a governor.

Apologies for yesterday's post being so late. I ran out of here in such a hurry last night that I forgot to hit the post button.

I did manage to catch dessert at Bosley's. Key Lime pie with a Calypso coffee. It was tremendous.

The Whiskey Belles put on a nice show at the casino and local legend Joe Hite played at the 180 Bar inside the casino and had a huge crowd. I even managed to win a little coin. I 'm surprised WE Energies didn't have their greedy hands out for some of it!

Later

Friday Night Lights

What another fantastic basketball game as St. Marcus remains undefeated. At halftime the referee told me it was the best 5th grade team he's ever seen and he's been a referee for 40 years. Not too shabby of a compliment.

Getting ready to meet up at the Casino with John and Angela tonight. Krissy is at dinner with them while I watched basketball. They had a splendid dinner at Bosley's which I hate to miss but the basketball is just too good.

So, the Whisky Bells are playing and hopefully I'll get a little blackjack in and something to eat!

Be safe tonight and enjoy your friday night like a rockstar!

Later

50 Pounds Of Salt

I'm not sure why we needed a fifty pound bag of salt but Krissy bought it and I carried it. It must have been a good deal. The sidewalks and gangway needed some cause it was like an ice arena.

The St. Marcus fifth grade Mustangs chalked up another win after starting out slowly. They are now 6-0 for the season and 18-0 lifetime. Tenacious defense all the time. No points for Coco but he played well. Going to work on some pivot drills saturday as sometimes he gets happy feet.

No new news from Jim and Joanne out west in the airstream. I guess that might mean no new injuries so that's a good thing. I'm sure they are enjoying the great west!

The book is coming along at a decent clip but I don't think I will make my self imposed deadline of having the first draft done in a couple weeks. I might need another month unless someone starts an 8th day of the week!

Looks like the Casino is a go tomorrow after another basketball game. It also starts to warm up tomorrow just in time for the weekend. Stay warm!

Later

Pick A Set List

Jimmy Buffett is having a contest and it will have 300 winners. He is giving a free concert at the San Carlos Theater on Duval Street in beautiful Key West. It's a theater he played often in the 70's with the Coral Reefer Band. Fans get to pick the set list and he'll play it on April 1st. Details can be found on Margaritaville.com. 

Messy roads and a damp chill in the air today. It's warming up this weekend though.

The Whisky Belles are playing at the casino on friday night and there's a fundraiser in Jackson saturday night. We plan to go to both if I can shake this cold. I rarely get sick but this is my third malady this winter. I started taking vitamins, maybe that's the problem. Or, not enough happy hours!

St. Marcus basketball thursday and friday night also. It's going to be a busy weekend. I better go to bed now!

Later

Harper Lee Is Back

Harper Lee will have her second novel, Go Set A Watchman published on July 14th. It was actually her first attempt at writing before to To Kill A Mockingbird came out. Not a bad first effort as it's sold at least 40 million copies. Much success on your first book in over 50 years!

It's snowing again and rush hour traffic was a mess. Hopefully it stops soon as this past weekends blizzard is still being cleaned up.

There was a plane crash in Denver last year killing two people. The investigative report is blaming selfie photographs as a major factor. They found a camera at the crash site with the pilot and a passenger posing. Unbelievable! I've flown a plane before and it was my first and last lesson. There is so much going on up there in a small plane that I can't believe any pilot would be that irresponsible.

The St. Marcus 5th grade Mustangs cruised to another win to go to a 5-0 record for the year. They are now 17-0 since last year. Even better news to me personally was that Coco made his first bucket and nearly missed a second. The pure excitement in his voice was a thrill. Every first in sports is special. Congrats son!

Later

Say It Ain't So Phil

Happy Ground Hog Day despite predicting 6 more weeks of winter. The Mayor of Sun Prairie was bit in the ear by a groundhog during a celebration as he leaned in to hear the groundhog. The unfortunate Mayor is lucky he has an ear left!

We're still digging out. All in all the city did a good job and the roads were cleared up pretty good. I heard on the news that the city side streets consist of about 7000 miles to plow. That's no joke!

What a game last night unlike last year's pathetic game. On the final play I was positive they would just give it to Lynch for the sure win. Nope, the coach got to cute and was thinking about 3rd and 4th down and leaving too much time on the clock. Needless to say, that backfired very badly.

Three 5th grade basketball games this week. Let's go Mustangs!

Later

A Lonely Job For Me

Getting Hit Hard

We have at least a foot of snow and it's still coming down until 11pm. The wind is real bad. We have more snow already in February than we did for the entire month of January.

We had a great time at Clair's birthday party last night. The food was outstanding. We had a hard finding a good parking spot last night so I got up at 4:30am and moved the car after it cleared up a bit.

More work on the book and we watched a really good movie this afternoon called Mud starring Reece Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey.

We're watching the game tonight and cooking a beef tenderloin. Hopefully the blizzard won't hurt the bars tonight too much.

Even though it's blowing like crazy we saw a man pull up in his motorcycle complete with sidecar to go into a bar to watch the Super Bowl. I'm not sure who you are my friend but tonight you are a legend to me!

Later

Legendary

Our Street

Motorcycle Sidecar