Neither by brother nor my dad have shaved since the Brewers got into the playoffs. I’m not sure why. Some kind of good luck charm? Yesterday they both sent me photos of their beard progress. Looks like my brother is winning in bushiness, but my dad is winning in whiteness! My dad gets bonus points for sending a photo of himself wearing a Brewers shirt, although the Badgers were playing yesterday and maybe that’s why my brother is wearing red. As a side note, yesterday the Badgers killed the Hoosiers, 59-7, and remain unbeaten.
Currently the Brewers are battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League Championship. The standings are 3-2 with Game 6 at Miller Park today. I do not normally cheer for the Brewers, but since the Cubs are way out of it, maybe I’ll cheer for the Brewers as a second team. The Packers play the St. Louis Rams today at Lambeau. I hope WI can win over both of the St. Louis teams! Add in the Badgers, what a great time to be a Wisconsin sports fan!
Who decided on these matchups? I saw this on the side of a big Doritos delivery truck over the summer. I don’t know why I’m drawn to these Doritos trucks.
Over the weekend Dallas and I drove up to Wisconsin to visit my parents. They moved from their house in Waupaca to a new house in Greenville shortly before our wedding in February, but we just have not gotten a chance to get up and see it until now. The area where they live is very nice. The house is newer, the yard is bigger than a city lot, but not too big to keep up. I realized when I got home that I had not even one photo from their house!
When we arrived, we hung around and barbecued. My cousins Dawn and Kelly visited. Kelly brought Mark along and it was nice to finally meet him. We ate tons of food. I can’t even think of it all: Spinach dip, fruit salad, homemade salsa, Kelly brought pasta salad, turkey burgers, salmon, brats, cheddarwurst… We brought down Chicago-brewed Finch’s beer, my dad had some Wisconsin-brewed Central Waters, and there was also the local classic, Miller Lite.
Rachelle & Fang
Fox Cities Stadium Beer
Dad, Dawn, Rachelle, Dallas, Kelly, Mark, Mom
After dinner, my mom and dad treated us to a baseball game at Fox Cities Stadium. This is where the minor league Wisconsin Timber Rattlers play. The stadium was just opened right before I moved away from Wisconsin. I’d been to a game there maybe once or twice, but it had been 10+ years ago.
It was a fun time. Something different to do. The crowd there was really into the game. The Wisconsin Timbler Rattlers were playing the Quad Cities River Bandits. Before the game my dad made me get my photo taken with the Timber Rattler’s mascot, Fang. So, I stood in line behind the 8-year-olds and got my photo taken. I think it turned out cute, though.
From concessions, we drank beer specially made for the Timber Rattlers: Snaketail Ale and Rattler Brau Scottish Ale. Both are locally made in Appleton by the Stone Cellar Brew Pub. The Snaketail Ale was pretty good.
Our seats were right behind Home Plate. At $10, they were the most expensive seats in the park!
Game highlights via TimberRattlerTV on YouTube
Strange bachelorette party in front of us.
Post-game fireworks.
The game itself was pretty interesting. The Timber Rattlers did not get even one run, but it was still fun. Dallas wasn’t cheering for them anyway! We were looking through the program before the game started and he noticed that the opposing team had a player, Kolten Wong, from Hilo who went to Dallas’s old school, Kamehameha, so he decided to cheer for them!
Minor League games are a lot different than Major League. Most notably, everything has a sponsor. Everything. Even the lighting was sponsored by a local lighting company. And in between batting and innings, there were all kinds of promos. Tons of promos. And they, of course, were all sponsored. Dallas said maybe this is to off set the cost of the stadium?
After the game we stayed in our seats for a fireworks show. It was pretty good. We didn’t see fireworks on the Fourth of July, so this made up for that. Mark and Kelly headed home and Dawn came over to my parents to visit just a bit longer, while Dallas attempted to polish off the last of her spinach dip. (He didn’t succeed but we took it home and he finished it the next night!)
Blueberry Hill Pancake House, Appleton, WI
In the morning we got up and went to breakfast at Blueberry Hill Pancake House, a place Dawn recommended to us. She mentioned it was the old Country Kitchen, but it wasn’t until I was inside sitting down that I realized how many times I’d been there before. Late night and for breakfasts and dinners. Total flashback!
Overall a great trip to Wisconsin. Short, but still good. It was nice to finally see where my parents are living. I’m a little envious of their yard and patio off the dining room. I wish we had a bit more grass. Anyway, their place is nice and they seem to really enjoy it and that’s what counts.
On Saturday my brother Richard came down from Wisconsin and we went to see the Cubs take on the Reds. This was his first time to Wrigley Field. My brother is a big Brewers fan and goes to Miller Park many times each season, so the Wrigley experience was quite different.
We took the bus to the train to get to the park and before meeting up with Brian and Jill we took a walk around the park so I could show him the statues of Harry Caray, Ernie Banks and Billy Williams. We even ran into the Cubs Dixieland Band. They were sitting just below us at the game too. Also, I just wanted him to see how different Wrigley is in that it sits right in a neighborhood. It’s not a big parking lot you drive into and tailgate. There people everywhere; streets closed; bars, restaurants, pop-up vendors; Billy Cub, the wannabe mascot; the rooftops. I think of Wrigley Field as very historic, like Lambeau Field. Wrigley is 97 years old. While Miller Park is very nice, it’s only 10 years old, so it just has a more modern feeling.
Richard & Rachelle
The Brewers are leading our division and the Cubs are so far behind that my brother didn’t really feel bad cheering for a Cubs win. And win they did! The Cubs had an 11-4 victory over the Reds. It was their 7th in a row win, which is the longest winning stretch since 2008.
Surplus Money
Irish Car Bombs
Richard’s first Irish Car Bomb
During the game we played the dollar cup game (I don’t know what it’s called!). I think I lost more than I won. I remember Jill getting a bunch of doubles and taking out and Brian got a home run once and emptied the cup! At the end of the game there was a bunch of money left. I’ve only played this game once before and at the end we bought beer and wings. This time Brian suggested shots! We went across the street to Club 162 (the old Harry Caray’s) and were trying to figure out what to get when it was revealed that my brother never had an irish car bomb before. So, that’s what we got. And wouldn’t you know it? He finished first!
After this we walked over to Jill and Brian’s house and got Halle and headed to Retro on Roscoe. More on that later!
One day back in June I was walking by the Thompson Center and came across a whole bunch of Chicago sports team mascots and Valerie Warner and a bunch of school kids. I didn’t really know what was going on, so I just took some photos and figured it out later.
Turns out it was the Salvation Army‘s Hunger Campaign and they were collecting donations. But to make it fun they were having people text for certain mascots. Also, each mascot had a box so you could just put money in the mascot box. These are the mascots who were present:
Not too surprisingly, the Salvation Army is reporting that the White Sox mascot, Southpaw, won. While I was there, it sure looked like Sparky was winning. It’s who the kids liked best, but I guess the kids were not voting with their wallets. More importantly, the Salvation Army raised more than $500.
