Long Weekend in Green Bay and Door County

Dallas had to go to Door County, WI for work so Makai and I tagged along on a mini vacation.

Our hotel is in Green Bay, a block away from Lambeau Field. When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and then we had dinner at Hinterland Brewery a few blocks away. There was a neighborhood night market at the Titletown development where Hinterland is. It was so nice. We walked around with a beer and looked at all the stands, and listened to the band. They are developing so much in this area!

Dallas had to go to work early in the morning. Makai and I had breakfast at the hotel. He LOVED it!

I wanted to take Makai to The Farm in Sturgeon Bay. I knew he would love it. To make it even more fun, cousins Tessa and Margo joined us!Baby chicks and a guinea fowl.

Feeding bottles of milk to baby pigs!

Tessa trying to feed some corn to a cow. Open wide!

Oh no! Trapped in a well!

Lost looking for the rabbits. … I mean… nature hike.
Found them!

Found the horses too!

Last but not least, kittens! Makai loved this kitten sooo much! After the farm we had lunch at PC Junction, where a train delivers your food. Too bad there was an hour wait in that part of the restaurant. Still a good place for lunch though.

We headed back to De Pere to drop Tessa and Margo off at home. Then Makai and I changed and picked Dallas up at work in Sturgeon Bay. This is a random sign we saw.

After picking Dallas up, we headed up Door County more to Sister Bay. Our friends from Chicago, Andy, Simonie, James and Reid moved there from Chicago. They were having a party and invited us, since we were nearby. We couldn’t stay late because Dallas had to work in the morning and we had a long drive back to Green Bay, but it was so great to see them. I loved their amazing house, so close to downtown, but also right on the lake.

Our hotel was a block from Lambeau Field! The Packers were practicing at Training Camp on Ray Nitschke Field. Makai and I met Jeff, Charlotte and Margo to watch.
#23 Cornerback Jaire Alexander was our guy. His bag was right in front of us and he would come and get things out of it. He practiced right in front of us the whole time. We didn’t see Rodgers because he was practicing on another part of the field, but we did get to see Jordan Love.

It was fun to spend time with family. When we got hot we went to get some drinks and visited some of the sponsored activities tents. Ahman Green, Jarrett Bush, and Evan Smith were the former players signing autographs.

After training camp we had some lunch and Kelly met up with us. Then we went to Lambeau Field for a stadium tour. It was so cool to be up in a suite and down on the field. Makai loved the echo! We also got to go through the tunnel all the players go through!

After spending most of our money at the Packers Pro Shop, Kelly took us for shave ice at Ice Clouds!

Fresh outta the Packers Pro Shop!

For dinner we went to T. Bacon’s BBQ.

Then we met Kelly and Margo at the Marcus Cinema to watch Thor: Love and Thunder.

The next morning we ventured downtown for breakfast at The Creamery, which was super good and cute.

Makai had been DYING to go in the hotel pool, so I took him down for a bit.

We met Kelly, Charlotte and Margo at Bay Beach, which gave Kelly and I a lot of flashbacks to when we used to go when we were kids!

Makai stayed overnight at Kelly and Jeff’s house. Dallas and I looked up some nice places for dinner and actually ended up going back to Lambeau to a restaurant called 1919 Kitchen & Tap. The food was good but the service was terrible! I also tried their old fashioned.

The next morning Dallas had to go to work for a while. I went to Kelly and Jeff’s and hung out til he was done. Then he picked us up and we headed back to Chicago.

Oh, and KC was hanging out with Jazz the cat and Maggie the dog (and Rachel, Scott and Otis) while we were away!

The Eve of Christmas Eve in Oak Creek

We celebrated Christmas Eve Eve with my family in Oak Creek. Stephanie had to work until 2 but came over at 3 or so. Makai can read his name very easily now, so he was excited to see a bunch of gifts with his name on them under the tree.

For dinner, Richard roasted a duck. Makai liked it so much, I think he ate like 1/3 of the duck by himself. “More duck please!”. He also made brussels and bacon. Steph made green bean casserole. Mom and dad made cheesy potatoes. Dallas and I brought salad and Hawaiian rolls.

After dinner we opened gifts. Jess and Makai got gifts from everyone. Steph and Larry participated in the adult gift exchange. One of Steph’s gifts to Makai was some coal candy. I got a little crazy and started yelling that Makai was on the naughty list and he got really upset and started crying. Note to self: This Santa stuff is serious business.

Dallas had Richard’s name and got him some fancy beer.

Richard had Stephanie. One of her gifts was some Root Beer he found from her 11th birthday!

Stephanie had mom. She gave her new wine glasses and a gift box of wine and wine accessories.

Mom had Larry. He got all kinds of New England Patriots gifts. Larry had my name and gave me a Packers scarf, the Chrissy Tiegan cookbook, and a gift card to Sephora.

I had my dad’s name. I got him an ugly Packers sweater, a Kauai hat, Kauai coffee and Poo-purri.

 My dad had Dallas’s name and got him all his favorite snacks. Like SPAM! LOL

We tried several holiday beers, including the Hopewell beer that Ashley brought to the cookie party. And mom, Steph and I had rosé with dinner.

Getting the Team Together in Chicago

(null)Bryan (Chicago), Romi (Chicago), Jared (Chicago), Gian (Porto Alegre), Andrei (Chicago), Ujval (Chicago), Rachelle (Chicago), Alice (Porto Alegre), Becky (Chicago), Rodrigo (Porto Alegre), Jeff (Nashville)

A lot of my project team is in Chicago, but a lot of it also works remotely. We have team members in Porto Alegre, Brazil; New York City; and Nashville, TN. Last week almost everyone flew into Chicago and it was so nice to work in person, face to face! Some people I’d met before, but many I hadn’t and it was great to get to know everyone better.

(null)The group photo above is in a different room, but most of our time was spent in our fancy conference room called Millennium Park, which overlooks… ding ding ding… Millennium Park.

We planned an outing to Whirlyball, since it is a really Chicago thing that none of the out of towners had even heard of. (null)Getting instructions! Pete (NYC), Jen (Chi), Romi (Chi), Bryan (Chi), Kate (NYC), Alice (BR), Rodrigo (BR), Eduardo (BR), Jeff (TN), Chris (Chi), Fletcher (Chi), Becky (Chi), Gian (BR), Ujval (Chi)

(null)Pete

(null)Rachelle & Alice

(null)Fletcher & Jared

(null)George, Becky, Bryan, Chris

(null)Game on!

(null)Ujval was very good at Whirlyball. 

(null)Chris & Andrei

(null)Jeff, Ujval, Gian, Pete

(null)Inappropriate?!? Chris & Alice

(null)A line of bored dudes: Romi, Bryan, Ujval, Andei, Jared, Jeff

(null)Chris accusing Gian of who knows what.

(null)To the ladies…… Becky, Kate, Rachelle, Alice

(null)Intense heart-to-heart conversation. Chris, Eduardo, Rachelle, Alice.

After Whirlyball we went to a bar called The Rail by Chris’s house, where Chris is a regular. Before everyone had even settled in and gotten seated, I quick ran up to the bar and set things straight with the Malort. Everyone had to try it!!! No one liked it, except Alice, who drank two! We all had super delicious hamburgers for only $5 and several more drinks. (null)(null)(null)Fletcher, Kate, Ujval, Eduardo, Chris, Alice

(null)Chris’s selfie: Jeff, Alice, Rachelle, Becky, Fletcher, Kate, Ujval, Gian (cut off), Pete (cut off), Eduardo.

(null)And we all had a more palatable shot of Fireball. People were getting drunk and not everyone wanted a shot. No problem! Eduardo drank all the extras!

(null)A chugging contest that was really no contest at all.

We were sending photos of our lunches and drinks over Slack to our friends that stayed in Brazil and didn’t make the trip. So, in return, they sent us photos back. It was fun!(null)Raphael, Diego, Carlos

(null)Alisson, Enrique, New Diego, Old Diego

One of my favorite parts of the week was all of the cultural food and drink exchanges! You saw above how we made everyone drink Malort and Fireballs, not to mention many local craft beers. The Brazilians also brought us much booze.(null)(null)Brazil is known for their cachaça, a popular spirit made from sugar cane. We were given many bottles of cachaca! We were told that these smaller Velho Barreiro bottles ofcachaça are better for mixing.

(null)(null)We were also gifted a few of these larger Velho Alambique cachaça bottles, which we were told were higher quality and better for sipping.

(null)(null)(null)Mid-week, Eduardo used some of the cachaça to make us the Brazilian national drink, caipirinha!! Funny side note: We told Eduardo that there were lemons and sugar in the kitchen. “Perfect!,” he said! Then when he got to the kitchen he was very confused as to why the lemons were yellow and not green, to which we were like “?????????”!

We also opened one of the nice bottles, too, and many people came by the kitchen for a taste!

(null)They also brought SO much Brazilian candy. I LOVED the bowls of cork-shaped Paçoca, which is made from peanuts, sugar and salt.

(null)img_2972.jpgIn exchange, we catered in Portillo’s Italian beef, Chicago dogs and chocolate cake for one of our meetings.

(null)We also go Garrett’s popcorn, specifically the Chicago mix (caramel and cheese popcorn mixed together.

(null)(null)We also made sure that everyone got some deep-dish Chicago pizza from Giordano’s.

(null)A couple of our clients came into our office one day to spend the day collaborating and meeting everyone. One guy lives in a north suburb, not far from Wisconsin, so he brought us all New Glarus beer!

(null)On the morning after Whirlyball, Ujval was running a bit late. I thought it was just because we were all out so late the night before, but it was because he was bringing Indian food to the office! We had two different types of samosa and some really good dhokla. This really hit the spot for a late breakfast, since we were all so hung over!

(null)One interesting thing was that all of the Brazilians were buying things like crazy! They were hitting up Best Buy and Game Stop and even ordering things on Amazon to be delivered to the office while they were in town. Turns out that electronics are dirt cheap here, compared to how much they would pay in Brazil! That’s Rodrigo opening one of his new toys!

(null)We had so much fun with all of our guests, socializing and eating and drinking… but it is true. We DID get a ton of work done too! At the end of the week, I did not want anyone to leave. Jeff comes in fairly often and I always tell him to move to Chicago already. It was great to collaborate with the New Yorkers. I will especially miss the Brazilians, though!

I have used a few of my teammates photos for this post. 

A Wisconsin Barbecue and Family Reunion

This was the third year in a row that we have gone up to Wisconsin to visit my parents and see all of our family up there. The first year, 2013, I was pregnant and hadn’t seen a lot of my family for years. The second year, 2014, Makai was a baby and I got to introduce him to everyone. This year Makai was old enough to run around with the kids and that was a lot of fun too.

I had fun seeing everyone and it was nice to be at my parent’s house in the country, which is not really the country, but is the country compared to where we live! I realized how much I miss open windows. Especially at night and in the early morning. Makai loved running in the grass barefoot, playing with (and riding) the dogs, picking and eating tomatoes from the vine with papa, and just being outside a ton.

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Dad and Dallas manning the grill.

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Dad grilled hot dogs, beer brats, and hamburgers. Dallas made a 10-pound pork roast!

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Typical WI BBQ coolers.

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To all the beers I’ve loved before..

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Jess stayed with my parents for two weeks before the party and made these cookies.

As with the previous years, the kids went wild for the frogs in the back ditch! This year Makai was in there with them. Tessa was so nice about leading him by the hand and letting him pet the frogs they captured.

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Frog Crossing!

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Kids on the bridge looking for frogs – Brianna, my cousin’s daughter is in red. PJ (standing) is a friend of my cousin Kelly’s daughter, Tessa.

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Makai with Tessa (my cousin Kelly’s daughter). Charlotte (raising her hand) is Kelly’s as well. PJ is Tessa’s friend. Penny and Sam are my cousin Tiffany’s kids.

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From the bottom: Makai, my niece Jessica, Charlotte & Tessa (my cousin Kelly’s), PJ is Tessa’s friend, Margo is also Kelly’s, Penny is my cousin Tiffany’s, Brianna is my cousin Melissa’s.

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FROGS!

It was great to see so many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin’s kids, etc!

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My cousin Katrina with her parents, Ali and Dave, and her boyfriend, Gaylin.

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Aunt Deb, Uncle Mike, Uncle Morey, Aunt Connie

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My cousin Bethany’s husband, Chad, my Uncle Rich, my cousin Amanda’s husband Phil. Makai really enjoyed rubbing Phil’s shaved head. A lot. For a very long time. An uncomfortable amount of time!

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Katie is my cousin Kelly’s daughter. No, my older cousin Kelly! Elizabeth is my cousin Molly’s daughter. Nic (with girlfriend Brenna) is Katie’s brother.

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My cousin Anna’s daughter, Brianne, and my niece, Stephanie.

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Margo is my younger cousin Kelly’s daughter. She’s pictured with her grandma, my Aunt Sue.

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My cousin Melissa with her boyfriend, Aunt Ali, Aunt Connie, Aunt Deb, Uncle Morey, sidewalk chalk, Makai.

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My niece Stephanie with her dog, Milo.

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Dallas, my cousin Kelly with her husband Jeff, Uncle Dave and his daughter, my cousin, Katrina and her boyfriend Gaylin.

Now it’s time for some family selfies!

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Cousin Kelly, Me, Aunt Ali

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Me and Kelly. It was so great to spend the day with her and her family. I miss them! And so fun to see Makai play with her girls!

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Me and my Aunt Ali

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Me and my Aunt Sue

Some other photos from the weekend in Wisconsin:

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My mom with Makai and Buddy by the pond in their subdivision.

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When in Wisconsin: New Glarus Spotted Cow + Friday Fish Fry!

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Makai walking Buddy.

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Buddy stretching out and relaxing on the patio.

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Milo and Dakoda in the garage, begging to come back inside.

Wisconsin Barbecue


Milo resting in the shade.


Quarter keg of Spotted Cow.


Rock and Jeff


Richard and Brian


Shorty.


Shorty again. We debated how old he is… 13? 15?


Jason and Jessica


Jessica and Jason


Brian, Sheila, Ashley playing beersbee


Richard and Rock playing beersbee


Fire pit, where the play gym used to be.

Over the weekend my brother had a barbecue at his house. I hadn’t been up to his house for a visit since Christmas, so I wanted to make sure to go. The weather was a little hot at first, but then cooled to comfortable temperature. I played a game of bocce with Jess and played bags with my brother and his friends. Steph had band until 3 and then invited a few friends over. Like typical teenagers, they mostly hung around each other, away from the rest of the party, except when Sheila infiltrated every now and then! My brother and his friends also played beersbee, which I thought at first was the frisbie game, but is not. My brother accidentally made the hamburgers, frisbee style, the way my dad makes them, but redid the batch. Those frisbee burgers would have worked out well for the beersbee game! It was fun to hang out and relax and meet some more of my brother’s friends.

Cubs vs. Brewers @ Miller Park

Last weekend was my 3rd annual visit to Miller Park to see the Cubs take on the Brewers. Sara, Kristin and Cousin met me at my house for the drive up to Milwaukee. Alden was at his parent’s house in the Milwaukee suburbs and was going to meet us at the game. Except, when I went out to the garage to leave, this is what I found:

Ok. Plan B. Kristin drove to my house so we took her car to my brother’s house. Then we switched cars because his fit all of us in it and he had a premium parking pass.


Alden, Sara


Note to self: Don’t place the jalapeno poppers on the grill this way. We lost a few!


Cousin, Kristin


Brats!

My brother also bought and prepared all of our tailgating stuff and we threw in money on it. I was expecting a few brews, a few sausages, some cheese curds… but he went all out! We had fresh, homemade guacamole, brats, Italian sausages, some jalepeno poppers, three kinds of cheese curds, a ton of chips and all the condiments. We had not only one, but TWO grills! Also, not one but TWO kinds of cookies. I made a chocolate mint one and some snickerdoodles.


Wisconsin Microbrews

Also, my brother didn’t just grab a case of Miller Lite and call it a day. He brought so many different Wisconsin microbrews. I took photos of some of them. I think there were a few more that I didn’t get. A Leinies one for sure, but I can’t remember which. These are the ones I know for sure:

Supper Club by Capital Brewing (Middleton, WI)
The Big O by Oso Brewing (Plover, WI)
Bitter Woman IPA by Tyranena Brewing (Lake Mills, WI)
Hard Lemonade by Sand Creek Brewing (Black River Falls, WI)
Wisconsin Belgian Red by New Glarus Brewing (New Glarus, WI)


Mix & Enjoy!

We mixed the Sand Creek Hard Lemonade together with the New Glarus Belgian Red and it was so delicious. It tasted like a tart juice.


Richard, Rachelle, Danny


Caroline, Sara


UFO?

Danny and Caroline were tailgating nearby with Caroline’s parents and they came over to visit for a while. I meant to go visit their tailgate but got caught up in our stuff. Sorry!


Sara & Alden. Check out all the Cubs fans!


Alden, Sara

The weather was perfect. A little windy, but sunny and very comfortable. My brother brought his urban horseshoes/washers game and we played that for a bit. Somebody (not me) managed to toss a washer down the sewer, but otherwise it was a fun game. I guess a sewer hazard is appropriate for urban horseshoes. Sara had never tailgated before and had never played urban horseshoes and had never been to Miller Park, so it was fun to show her the ropes!


AAA to the rescue!

After two games of urban horseshoes it was time to head in for the baseball game. We packed everything into the car and my brother was going to roll the window up… well, I mean press the button that puts the window up. Time for car problem #2! His battery was dead and we couldn’t put the window up. We tried to have the guy next to us jump our car (note to Alden’s mom, he didn’t jump ON our car), but it didn’t work. We tracked down the free AAA service at Miller Park and somehow the guy got our car started. We then had to run it between 10-20 minutes to make sure it would start later on when we wanted to leave. We ended up missing 2 innings of the game, but at least we got it sorted out.


Alden

On the walk to the stadium, we found this file folder on the ground. For some reason it was HILARIOUS. Someone had made this folder, slipped in their tickets, and filed it somewhere up until VERY recently. The 7 almost looks like a 9. Very dangerously close to going on the wrong day! We made up a lot of stories about this folder before throwing it back on the ground.

Ok. Inside the park, finally, we were headed for our seats when we ran into these degenerates:


Lycke, Trent, Biefel

And I mean degenerate! They had been drinking since about noon (it was a 6pm start for the game) and it showed! I ran into them a couple times, actually. They didn’t have seats even. Just standing room tickets.


Miller Park at Sunset


Miller Park Scoreboard


Bernie’s Dugout

Sara had a hankering for some ballpark nachos so we asked a lady where she got hers and scoped it out. They were no ordinary ballpark nachos, though. They were piled high with meat and peppers and everything. We picked up a couple Lites and a couple Leinies Honey Weiss while we were up. Actually, that was the only beer I had all game. One beer, because I thought I was driving back to Chicago.


Miller Park Sausage Race


Miller Park Sausage Race

It was a gorgeous night in the ballpark. I brought a light long sleeved shirt but I didn’t even wear it. During the 6th inning, the sausage came running out right in front of us.


Miller Park Sausage Race

I cheered for chorizo like always, and Sara cheered for chorizo as well. Too bad he got spanked! Polish sausage smoked everyone!


Take Me Out To The Ball Game, Roll Out The Barrel

During the 7th inning stretch they played Take Me Out To the Ball Game, but the people who’d never been to a ballpark in Wisconsin were surprised with the Roll Out the Barrel follow-up song!

A few notes on the players:

1. I really wish the player called Corey Hart would play Sunglasses at Night for his at-bat song.

2. Alfonso Soriano was fielding right in front of us and gave Sara a nod when she was screaming “FOOOONNNNZIIIIEEEEE GO FOOONZIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!” I don’t know much about Soriano, only that he wears the tightest pants in the MLB.


Miller Park Scoreboard

3. I love the scoreboard at Miller Park, which is new this year. It shows a huge photo of each player when they’re at bat and shows the stats so far for each player. Sara taught me what Strikeout Looking is when a guy’s stats said at one at bat he struck out swinging and at another turn he struck out looking. She definitely knows a lot more about baseball and the Cubs than I do, but the big board definitely helped me keep track of what was going on and helped me get to know the players better.


The Wrigley Field Road Tour

In the stadium there must have been a hundred(s?) of people wearing this same red tshirt. They’d biked to Miller Park from Wrigley Field in Chicago for The Wrigley Field Road Tour. I think I’d have been sleeping in the stands if I’d done that.


Click to Embiggen

In the end, the Cubs lost 4-6. They made a rally in the 8th inning when they made 3 runs, but it wasn’t enough. The Brewers actually swept the Cubs in the series. But that’s ok. We all still had a great time.


Miller Park at Night

After the game I had to go to the bathroom so I said I’d just meet people at the car. I didn’t even make it to the car when I found that everyone I was with had made new friends and was drinking all their beer. After the game is pretty much like another big tailgate. We’d run out of beer, so how convenient that these fans were willing to share. They didn’t want to share with the Cubs fans, but they were convinced when I broke out the extra cookies I’d baked. Also, they liked that Alden and I were from Wisconsin. Also, we met a couple from Milwaukee whose daughter lives a few blocks from Alden in Chicago. Alden asked if the guy would put in the good word with his daughter, but the guy said the daughter was getting married in a matter of weeks. He said he’d let Alden know in October if it didn’t work out. He also asked that Alden please refrain from stalking his daughter now that her location had been revealed!


Sobriety isn’t an accident, but getting drunk many times is!

I drove the car back to my brother’s because he’d had a few too many. On the way Alden was texting his mom and she invited us over for more drinks, but I vetoed that plan. My brother and cousin and Alden were all for it. Of course, because they were the drunkest ones! My brother was busy typing Alden’s parent’s address into the GPS and when it was shouting out instructions it was so confusing to get back to my brother’s place! It would have been fun to visit the Almagro family, but it was getting late, especially since we still had to drive to Chicago. At my brother’s house we all made a pit stop. Alden had a special moment with Milo, the dog, and then we were off to Chicago. I thought I’d be driving but Kristin insisted. We all knocked pretty hard on wood and it worked because that car made it home without incident. I think we got home at about midnight? Long night, but so fun! Thanks to all my friends for making it a fun day and special thanks to my brother for organizing the tailgate and getting the tickets for us! A new set of washers in IN THE MAIL!!!

2010 Cubs v. Brewers
2009 Cubs v. Brewers