wishing Erin well

Blogs are a funny thing. If you read one (or many) with great frequency sooner or later you feel like you actually know the person. This is definitely the case with our friend Erin over at Play in the City whose blog I've been reading from the beginning. I've only had the pleasure of meeting her once, but through her blog it feels like I've known her. Of course, that could just be because of her numerous wedding posts. Zing! Sorry, Erin. Yesterday however, much to the dismay of her legions of readers, Erin announced that she will be giving up her throne as Play in the City's queen.

For the past 2 years, Erin has been Milwaukee resident's "woman on the scene" helping bring some interest (and hopefully some customers) to some of Milwaukee's lesser known gems and activities like the Eisner Museum, rock climbing at Turner Hall, Sea Dog sailing and the urban tadpole race just to name a few. She even risked her life for the good of the blog by going skydiving!

2 years. Ah how time flies when you're having fun. It seemed like only yesterday I was drawn to this crusader for the common good, defending her honor against those who became jealous of such small and petty things like a free computer and a camera. But, I guess that's what happens when you're featured in numerous publications for your good deeds and praised by the likes of me in MKE Online.

Apparently the folks over at VISIT Milwaukee will be holding a contest of some sort to choose her successor but like Brett Favre, her eventual exit will leave behind huge shoes to fill. Good luck in your next adventure Erin! You'll be missed!

a glimpse into the future?

So yesterday I get an email from my man Ryan Horton asking if I would like to use his pair of season tickets to last night's Brewers game since he'll be there with another friend sitting in his seats. Of course (after checking with the wife to see if she'd like to go) I say absolutely since they are saweet seats with the ever popular Gold parking pass. A necessity yesterday due to the rainy weather conditions. Great, meet at his place at 6:15 and ride together to take full advantage of the parking pass.

Fast forward to 5:15 when I get home from work. I walk in the door of the condo and am immediately hit in the face with the stench of sh*t. Oh Olive, what did you do?! I won't go into details but her kennel ended up soaking in the bath tub. So obviously either Kirsten or I would have had to stay home with her and not go to the game. I called Ryan and we tried to get a taker for the other ticket but alas it was not meant to be. I had to settle for watching the game on TV instead of the sweet seventh row seats. (the Crew won 7-3).

I couldn't help but wonder though...is this a glimpse into the future of what it will be like if/when we have a child? Will I not be able to do the fun things I like to do like attend Brewers games and drink mass quantities of High Life??? Honey, I think we need to talk. :)

a roughing it weekend, sad reminder

This past weekend was my father-in-law's 50th birthday get together. Being that he's an avid outdoorsman, we packed up the Jeep on Saturday and headed north to the small, unincorporated town of Babcock, WI to spend the night at a nice little cabin on forty acres of land that Kirsten's aunt and uncle own.

Ten people, one one-room cabin, no running water, no electricity. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but the sun shown down for a very pleasant weekend of laughs, campfires, some drinks and some good old fashion family bonding. We had a really good time and contrary to what we were expecting, not much drama. Hard to argue with fresh air and temperatures reaching near 60 and a father-in-law intent on making sure everyone had a good time.

Thanks again if you're reading this!

The birthday boy took most of us to the field where I, Derek, the city boy, got to shoot some guns for the first time in my life (other than my CO2 pellet gun). I was definitely apprehensive about it, but it was quite fun, especially having a little shooting contest with the rifle that had the scope. The handguns were another story. Even though those are what I was most looking forward to trying out, they were much louder and quite a bit harder control than I had forseen.

I wouldn't think that they would have been that tough to shoot given that they were "only" a .22 caliber handgun which leads us to...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

... a sad day on the Virgina Tech campus and across the country this week as a student there carrying a few guns, one of which being a .22 caliber handgun I just mentioned shot a lot people for reasons unknown at this point. Terrible tragedy that has changed the lives, and in some cases ended, of many people. Watching the video that some students took of the shooting, you could hear the guns being shot and I was immediately remembering what it was like to shoot that .22 handgun just two days ago. Hard to believe that the damage I was doing to soda cans was being done to people. Very sad and disturbing.

My thoughts and prayers to the families of everyone involved.

Bar Review: Zim's

Welcome to a new feature on High Life Heaven!

I figured that since I am still working towards building The List into something only myths can compete with, I might as well put a little more "elbow grease" into it and share some information about the places I've visited and whether or not I liked them. Don't look for in depth, on-the-street reporting here...just a brief overview of the good, the bad and the ugly. And with that....

First up, Zim's on Milwaukee Ave. downtown. Why is it first? No reason other than it's the latest one that's been added to The List.

Zim's is a self-proclaimed "contemporary sports bar" on the uber trendy Milwaukee Avenue that is also home to the no-sneaker allowing places Eve, Kenadee's and Tangerine (yet to be added to the list). Not to be overlooked, it is also still the location of My Office, a more traditional bar.

I have been to Zim's twice over the past month, both times to watch the NCAA March Madness games. What better place to watch the best basketball of the year than at the newest hip sports bar? Glad you asked. In a word, pretty much anywhere else that has TV's.

Apparently "contemporary" in this case means ultra dull with terrible, terrible service. Seriously, is it that hard to find bartenders that can do more than one thing at a time? My pet peeve at a bar is when I'm standing there, money in hand waiting to order and the bartender comes up and makes a drink right in front of me without even looking up to see who to help next. Come on people, pouring a vodka & tonic isn't rocket science.

In an article posted on onMilwaukee.com, the owner, Mike Zimmer (who won't look at you twice if he doesn't know who you are) says that Zim's is not a "jersey on the wall" place. Well maybe it should be. It had some cool oversized Milwaukee sports photos but they're high up along the ceiling and hard to see in the lighting there.

Just overall and unimpressive place. In the words of one of the people in our group, "I hope this place closes in a month." Amen.

I promise the second bar review will be a positive one.

random thought

You know sometimes you instantly feel happy? You find yourself in a place where you're absolutely comfortable with where you are and what you are doing?

For example, getting to your seat at Lambeau Field on a 75 degree day and you take your first sip of beer. Well today I once again found myself feeling that way. There's nothing quite like walking around a wine store with a shopping cart. Just had a fabulous feeling and sense of pride of what I was about to accomplish...

brew crew, guinness

Opening Day is here!

I'm very excited for the 2007 version of the Milwaukee Brewers. They kick the season off today at 1:05 and the sacrificial lamb will be the L.A. Dodgers. Big Ben Sheets will get the nod which is exciting. He's definitely one of the big "ifs" for this season.

The Brewers will have a good season IF Ben Sheets is healthy.
The Brewers will have a good season IF Ricki Weeks stays healthy (he has yet to play 100 games in a season).
The Bewers will have a good season IF Derek says so.

I definitely give the organization some credit. They've built a team worth getting excited about. With some great young guys like Sheets, Weeks, Prince Fielder and Bill Hall as well as some crafty veterans Craig Counsell, Johnny Estrada and new Brewer and reigning NLCS MVP, Jeff Suppan.

I LOVE the signing of Jeff Suppan from the Cardinals. The Crew gave him a lot of money, perhaps too much, but from the talent and more importantly the Public Relations side, it was a great move for the organization. Hopefully it will open the door a little wider for some solid free agents to walk thru the door.

Wedding Bells

On Friday Kirsten and I headed north to Neenah Wisconsin to attend a wedding. It was very fun, as weddings usually are. We had a great table of friends to hang out with. There was a person here and there that one of us knew, but other than the bride, we were on our own. The happy couple lives in California so this was actually the first time anyone at our table had met the groom. He apparently has something agains midwestern states, but that's another story.

The issue we Wisconsinites had with his snubbing of our lovely land was short lived. He made it up to us (luckily for him) with the beer. He and his family are HUGE into their Irish heritage and thus, tasty Guinness was provided on tap (along with Miller Lite). Yumm...Who cares about Wisconsin anyway??

We had our fill until the dark, creamy goodness was gone which happened to come right near the end of the night. Perfect.

Congratulations again to the happy couple. May your love continue to grow and the Guinness continue to flow.