There’s this Englishman adjacent to my new cubicle. I could sit and listen to him all day long…umm wait…I do. Anyway, in the last 30 seconds he used both “Cheers!” and “Shite!” about which of course, I simply had to tell someone. So far he hasn’t used “bollocks,” but he has used “ever so much.” (Apologies to MG and CM for repeating this but…you know.)

C and I were blessed to be able to spend the weekend at Milwaukee and take part in some tolerably interesting occurances (Thanks to mom and dad for watching the boys).

We drove thither in the Xterra around noon on Saturday and the Xterra turned out to be a better highway vehicle than I thought she’d be. When you say “giddyup,” she gets up and goes; and bumps aren’t as noticable as they could be. Furthermore, the cupholders have a little slot for your mug’s handle.

We ate lunch at the Milwaukee Ale House in the “Historic Third Ward.” The food was below average. C had a rueben whose beef was thick sliced, which would probably make for a fantastic rueben if the beef wasn’t too rubbery to chew. Apparently my hamburger was of the “Certified Angus Beef” brand. It tasted fine I guess but its cylindrical shape and “Certified Angus Beef” brand made me believe it was ground and formed in Chicago or Fargo or Cody and then shipped frozen to Milwaukee.

We spent the afternoon strolling the “Historic Third Ward,” visiting sundry shops, looking at paper, art, furniture, and what not. I found the histories of the buildings interesting.

That evening, we enjoyed the Milwaukee Bucks’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers, great seats compliments of Oracular. Michael Redd scored 27 in the first half but the Bucks came out flat in the third quarter. Anyway, they pulled it together in the fourth quarter and Redd led them to a close win.

More to come…

Today, I ate an apple that had a leaf still attached to the stem. You don’t often see that.

As the old saw goes, “On Saturday we went to the fight and a hockey game broke out.” From J we got some tickets to see the Milwaukee Admirals so we took G and B. The thing that most impressed me was the fighting. The fans came hoping to see a fight or two and the players were laying for the chance to supply one. I wonder whence came this pugilistic attitude of hockey players.

I suppose it impressed me because any sport I am familiar with doesn’t tolerate fighting and the players don’t really care to fight except in extreme circumstances. The five minutes penalty would surely deter any player of basketball but apparently the hockey player would rather fight than play. Furthermore, most sportsmen realize that fighting destroys your focus on the game. It was clear that by the third period the hockey players were ready to try winning so the fighting ceased. Their focus and intensity were clearly improved.

So I was previously aware of the fighting that happens at a hockey game but I wasn’t prepared for how much it ruins a game. I only have one question. If you’re playing a pickup game with friends, do you still have to fight?

A week or two ago, we noticed spots on our kitchen ceiling. At last, we called in the plumber. The plumber came in and it seems that the leak is from a drain pipe and not a water line so we’re doing some diagnostics to find out whether it’s a toilet or sink.

But here’s the interesting part. When I got to work I talked to a couple of people about it, and found that this problem is more common than one would think. KA had a finish carpenter drive a nail through a hose in his tub. Others have had drywall screws driven into drain pipes. The screws rust away two years later and now you have a leak. I think this is what happened to us; our house is two years old.

Waterskiing (MW)

Wakeboarding