Happy Halloween!

back in action

We made it back (eventually) last night. Thanks to all of you who left comments and/or sent emails to Kirsten and I wishing us safe travels. The trip was fantastic and I have a virtual cornucopia of information to share. I will work dilligently to get that information up as well as pictures from our trip.

First things first though. Tomorrow is Kirsten and my one year wedding anniversary. Time sure flies. That being said, I need to get my ass in gear and get a gift together.

Also, a very big congratulations to Erin over at Play In The City who is getting married today! I hope it all went well and those of you reading this, stop over at her site and leave her a nice message.

Talk soon.

hoax, elton

I just wanted to personally thank the jackass from Milwaukee for getting the country all riled up with a terrorist threat to blow up a bunch of National Football League stadiums this weekend, including the one we are travelling to in Miami.

Even though it sounds pretty conclusive that it was a hoax between said jackass and another dipshit down in Texas who were having a "writing competition", it still sticks in the back of my mind a little as we make our way to a variety of events via multiple flights over the next week starting tomorrow morning with our flight to Miami via Milwaukee to St. Louis.

From Miami, we are flying direct to San Francisco on Monday morning where I will be attending a conference for the week. Kirsten's tagging along and will no doubt be kept busy with the hustle and bustle (read: stores, shops) in downtown SF. Tuesday night of the conference good old Elton John will be performing. Like many Milwaukeeans, the mere mention of his name makes me vomit in my mouth a little ever since he was brought in as the "secret surprise" at Harley-Davidson's 100th birthday bash but who knows, maybe the SF crowd will be more down with him. Just a guess. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and week next week! I doubt I will be blogging at all as I am leaving my trusty laptop at home and will just be equipped with my iPod. You know how I roll.

Peace Out.

website, rocky, weather

A couple months ago, I purchased the domain TheDeGrootsOnline.com. I've finally begun work on it, starting with the Photo Galleries. Feel free to take a look but don't be surprised if the page doesn't work as I just started getting into it and may be making changes while you're looking. I hope to have it up and complete near Thanksgiving. The plan is to host all our photo galleries as well as a (hopefully) quarterly newsletter-type thing for our friends and family to read, especially those who don't live near to us and we rarely see. Not sure what else will be on the site, but I guess that's a good place to start!

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We had a visitor staying with us this past weekend. Rocky (pictured, right) hung out while her Mom had to go out of town at the last minute. We were glad to have her over, especially since Jen will be watching Olive next week while we're in San Francisco! They got along great and after the initial hour, they both calmed down a lot and played a game of "who can steal the most bones from the other." Good times.!

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Predicted high of 88 degrees in Miami for tomorrow! A far cry from the garbage called weather we've been receiving here in Milwaukee lately. I can't tell you how excited I am to get down there on Friday and take a short vacation away from the gloominess and work. Don't get me wrong, I really like my job, but a vacation is badly needed.

Plus, I'm looking to break my perfect streak of attending Packers games this season and watching them lose. The Dolphins really stink this year so the Pack's got a chance, especially since I'm travelling (with my lovely wife) 2000 miles to see them. Go Pack!

Olive wanted to say hello

full weekend

Happy Monday everyone. Hope everyone had as nice of a weekend as I did. For a move away from the ordinary, I'll work backwards. Yesterday I kept my 2006 streak alive by now attending all three Packers home games and witnessing losses by the Pack in all three. This time, it was the St. Louis Rams doing us in 23-20. Every week they seem to find a new way to lose. They virtually outplayed the Rams the whole game and gave the game away through dropped passes, dropped interceptions and fumbles. Very disheartening to see the team in this state. On the brightside, the tailgate my Dad and I attended was excellent. It was held by a company my Dad does business with who haves this party once a year complete with a band, open bar and food catered by Milwaukee's own Saz's. So needless to say I fulfilled my role as a carnivore and had BBQ ribs, tenderloin and steak kabobs. Delicious.

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Saturday night Kirsten and I and two friends went to The Fray concert at The Rave. It was a great concert and the crowd was REALLY into it, specifically the 10-18 year old crowd of screaming girls. The crowd was full of people of all ages though. I had forgotten how much I like that band. We've had their album for quite some time and I picked up the tickets for the concert a few months ago. The show definitely renewed my interest in them and I listened to their album, How to Save a Life, on the way to Green Bay Sunday morning (their song of the same name is currently #1 on iTunes song list.

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Saturday morning I went golfing in Sussex at the Fairways of Woodside, a very nice course just outside of Milwaukee, with my friend Emmett and a couple of his co-workers. The weather was great for early October and I was happy to get out golfing at least one more time this year. It was a great time. We played as teams of two, alternating every six holes, which is great if one person or more is golfing particularly poorly that day. In my opinion we were all at relatively the same skill level so that made it very fun, and a little competitive. How could it not be when you $.50 wagered on each hole! Good times. Sounds like that may have been the last time I'll get out in 2006 since I see the word "snow" is in our forecast for later this week!

pack, miami, pet parade

Pack vs. Eagles tonight. We're about three minutes in and the Packers are not losing yet so thats a good sign. They're actually moving the ball pretty well at the moment (knocking on some nearby wood). I believe Philly is favored by eleven tonight which is a pretty big number in the NFL. I hate Philly...they're the new Cowboys pf the 90's to the Packers. Very reminicent of when the Pack would have to travel to Dallas every year and get whooped.

[Personal foul - late hit on Favre! Ball on the 6 yard line!]

We'll see. I obviously don't expect them to win tonight, but I have do have some High Life flowing and some homer cheering going on. On a fantasy football note, my team, Lynn's Dickey, has a 70-point lead going into tonight. Pretty good margin, but I don't have anyone playing and the other guy has Donald Driver and Philly's Tight End playing so as long as they don't catch two TD's a piece, I should be good.

[Packers field goal - lead 3-0]

On a related note, we booked our hotel for the upcoming Miami trip. We're staying the Hotel Chelsea in South Beach. Seems like a nice place. It got a lot of good reviews over on Expedia.com.

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This past weekend was the annual Pet Parade down Brady Street on Milwaukee's fashionable East Side. I took Olive and it was a pretty good time. I was surprised at how many people there are in the neighborhood that have dogs. And there are dogs of all shapes and sizes around. I only saw two other pugs around. Olive of course was the smallest and cutest. She got many compliments despite her lack of a costume. Some dogs (and their crazy owners) were decked out in disguises.The parade travelled West down Brady Street and headed South down Cass Street to St. Rita's Church. Once all the dogs and owners gathered outside the church, Fr. Tim (who married Kirsten and I) came out and blessed all the dogs. Pretty cute and now Olive is a blessed pug. You would think this would make her behave better but so far, no luck.