Club G’s pulled out a win against the evil Guerillas on Wednesday night, with a solid 10-3 win. It wasn’t Tripp this week that got himself in trouble with the other team, it was Tim… who asked the 1st baseman on their team if they ever stopped bitching. To that, she replied: “I don’t see you out here f’n playing…” The conversation went on, as I’m sure you can imagine. I haven’t heard if Tim has lost any windows in his car yet, so I’m assuming all is well.

With one game left, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3rd, at 6:00pm, I figured posting the SEASON stats would be a good idea so you too can track the race to the batting titles.

I bolded who is leading in each stat category going into our last game next week (which is WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3rd at 6:00pm if you’ve forgotten)… so we’ll see if they can hang on to those totals.

Here’s a headline to grab your attention:

Dead woman shot in casket, mourners flee

I initially got a good chuckle out of it because, duh, she’s already dead. Why shoot her again?

After reading the story though, it turns out the bullet was a stray bullet from some gang fight in a slum next to the cemetary.

“This is just too sad. My God, to get shot after death,” Extra tabloid newspaper quoted da Silva’s sister, Maria de Lourdes Pereira, as saying.

Hey de Lourdes. I’d rather be shot AFTER I’m dead than before. That would be sad. Getting shot after you’re dead is borderline funny…

Ladies and Gentlemen, Santiago Calatrava is at it again. The same man that brought Milwaukee the famous Art Museum and the same man that designed the Athens Olympic Sports Complex is designing the newest skyscraper in Chicago. Take a looksie…

The building would be 115 stories, topping out at 1,458 feet to its roof. A spire on top would reach about 2,000 feet, making the building the country’s tallest. The Sears Tower, at 1,729 feet, is now the tallest when antennas are included. The Burj Tower in Dubai, under construction, is said to be planned at 2,300 feet, which would make it the world’s tallest.

Donald Trump isn’t too happy about it either.

Trump had plans for a 150-story building in Chicago but cut it back to 90 stories shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Nobody in his right mind would build a building of that height in today’s horrible world,” Trump said Monday.

While I somewhat agree that building tall buildings are risky, what happened to not backing down to terrorists? Even at the World Trade Center site, they are building a 1776 ft tower called the “Freedom Tower” . So, if NYC isn’t afraid to build another huge building, why should Chicago be afraid?

On a slightly different note, I liked the last quote in the article:

Still, while on a trip to visit the architect in Zurich, Brian Carley said Calatrava’s wife, Robertina, turned to him and said, “You know, Brian, whatever you call the building, it will be still be known as the Calatrava.”

How true! Yes, Milwaukee calls the Art Museum the Art Museum, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve also heard it called just “the Calatrava.” I can’t wait until I’m rich and famous and people just start calling things “The Tara.” Some day…

Sunday night, I returned from Sin City. 4 days of non-stop HEAT, casinos, liquor and buffets. All things that I LOVE. I believe Amber enjoyed herself too. Spent some times at lovely places like the Casino Royale (gotta love the “Roman Coin of Vegas”), Club Rio, Studio 54, and of course, the lovely Tropicana!!

Had a great time, ladies. Click here to see my pictures, and I’ll be sure to add on any other pictures that you ladies send to me.

Oh, and Bonnie, the Casino isn’t outside–I swear.

Congrats to Glendale’s very own Sprecher Brewery for being named the nation’s “Most Deserving Small Business.” Because of this, Xerox is giving them a complete document technology and design overhaul!

Neglecting its own technology and design needs while giving back to its community, Sprecher is an award-winning microbrewery and maker of gourmet sodas that aims to be a model corporate citizen while succeeding as a small business.

“Straight from the 1970s, Sprecher’s main office is as appealing as a bad batch of brew. It’s time to spruce up Sprecher and give them some fizz!” says Thom Filicia, interior design specialist on NBC/Bravo’s Emmy Award-nominated show Queer Eye. He will give Sprecher a whole new look as part of the grand prize.

“Sprecher is a model American small business that’s been dedicated to its community. We can’t wait to go in and brew up a sleek, functional office so the company can continue to do great work.”

And it gets better: “In addition to these office upgrades, Sprecher will receive a three-year subscription to Entrepreneur magazine.”

Life is good! Congrats, Sprecher!!

This just sucks. What starts off as a normal dive, turns into Chelsea Davis pulling a Greg Lougainis…

And then having to look like this…

No good in the hood! And she didn’t win, oddly enough…

I wish I had more time to expand on this, but damn the man for putting me in 112 degree heat for the next 4 days. Ah well. My choice.

Anywhoooooooooo….

CONGRATULATIONS, TRIPP!!!!!

Last night in a very competitive game of co-ed softball, Kevin TRIPP took his FIRST WALK OF THE SEASON!!! It only took the other team’s manager to yell out to his team, “this guy hasn’t taken a walk all year!!” to motivate Tripp to wait it out. Atta boy, Tripp. We’re proud of you!!!

Aaron Karo’s “RUMINATIONS” today had some funnies on it, so I thought I would repost them for your reading enjoyment. If you like them, sign up for this guy’s mailing list on his website (link is above or on the side of this page). He sends this stuff out every other week and it is always a good laugh.

As always, here are some random things I’ve been ruminating about lately…

Sometimes, if I’m in J.Crew and the person ringing me up asks if anyone helped me with my purchase, I’ll pick a salesperson at random and say, “Yeah, he did” even though no one really assisted me. That’s just the kind of guy I am.

You should always be wary of products made by companies that don’t specialize in them. For instance, my friend has a DVD player made by Polaroid and a Kenneth Cole watch. They’re both just a little off. Of course, I didn’t even follow my own advice and bought sneakers made by Lacoste last week. They rubbed my ankles raw to the point where I’m limping around in them. Sure they look pretty pimp with the little green alligator on the side, but I walk like Kevin Spacey in “Usual Suspects.”

I don’t think I should have to request water at a restaurant. The waiter should just bring water. Just bring water! Bring water before you even bring the menus. And don’t just bring one person water because they’re the only one who specifically asked for it. It should be assumed that everyone wants water. Just bring water - no, no, not bottled, not sparkling, just regular fucking water. For the love of God, earn that 12-15% tip.

Ever get an email from a friend that’s so long you almost wish they never wrote it in the first place because now you have to reply with a lengthy email of your own?

I bought some Healthy Choice microwaveable meals. They’re healthy, which is good. But I eat two of them at a time, which is bad.

Watching the Tour de France makes me really tired and not want to ride a bike ever again. Which I’m sure is the opposite effect they were going for.

Friday night, Neill, Greg, Jon and I all headed across the Milwaukee River to check out Lakefront Brewery. I’ve been there before and remember it was a good time, but I forgot just HOW GOOD of a time it was.

On Fridays, Lakefront not only has brewery tours at 6 and 7pm, but they have a great fish fry from 4-9pm, completely with a polka band.

If you haven’t been to Lakefront’s tour, I highly recommend it. Normally, it’s $5 for the tour. This gets you the tour, a very nice Lakefront Brewery pint glass (for you to keep), and between 3-5 pints (depending on how quickly you can drink) of FREE Lakefront beer while you are on the tour. On Friday nights, however, the price jumps up to $10. You still get everything I listed, but the price also includes a $5 voucher to use either for dinner or another pint of beer. So, for my fish fry, I paid $10, but with the $5 voucher, it ended up being $5. So, $15 TOTAL for 4 pints of beer and a fish fry? Sounds like a good night to me.

Give it a whirl sometime. I mean, look at Greg’s face. That is pure joy….

Main Entry: pop·u·lar
Pronunciation: ‘pä-py&-l&r
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin popularis, from populus the people, a people
1 : of or relating to the general public
2 : suitable to the majority: as a : adapted to or indicative of the understanding and taste of the majority (a popular history of the war) b : suited to the means of the majority : INEXPENSIVE (sold at popular prices)
3 : frequently encountered or widely accepted
4 : commonly liked or approved (a very popular girl)

Was it just me, or does the concept of popularity not exist in college? In high school, everyone strived to be part of the popular crowd. You know, to have people look up to you and actually have someone wish they lived YOUR life. I didn’t see that in college.

In college, everyone is starting new. No one knows what you were like in high school and most people could care less if you were hot shit in high school. You come to college, you make new friends and you go on with your business. I can’t remember looking at a group of friends in college and saying, “wow… they are cool” or “what losers!” We were all just there, looking to get an education, to make friends, to play sports, to go to parties and to join clubs. We were all equally important.

Why do we emphasize popularity as some sort of societal importance? It’s something that you either have or don’t have. You can’t pay a fee to get it, you can’t take a test… it’s just the luck of the draw. Or am I just living in some sort of bubble and this is not the norm? I’m interested in your comments, as this is intriguing to me…

Yet another guest post from your favorite coach, Tim Z.

Well, for those of you readers who know me at all, you probably know that my favorite band is by far Collective Soul. I have skipped many important social gatherings this year to attend concerts in various places (such as Fort Wayne,IN, Chicago, and Atlanta). In total I have seen them in concert 6 times, but I never had the chance to meet them.

That all changed this past Saturday at Summerfest. They were scheduled to play at the Miller Oasis at 10:00pm, so to make sure I got there in time to get a decent spot, I got there at around 6:00 (I actually planned to get there at 4, but the pre-party at my house went a little longer than I had anticipated). So after having 1 beer at Summerfest, I already had to break the seal. Pathetic, I know, but please consider that I had already drank 5 beers at my house before going down to the grounds. Also, had it not been for my need to urinate, this story would be nonexistent.

On my way to the bathroom, I walked past the Miller stage, and noticed that 2 Collective Soul band members (Dean Roland and Joel Kosche) were standing by the stage talking to their roadies or something. However, I had to pee so bad that I decided to go take care of that business before going up to meet them. Besides, the need to urinate plus meeting them would have surely made me wet myself.

So anyway, I went back and grabbed the people I was with and went back to where Dean and Joel were standing. I shouted Joel’s name (Dean had disappeared by this point) and he looked over at me and smiled and waved. I asked if he would be willing to take a picture with me and he said that would be fine, but to just give him one minute.

He finished up his conversation with whoever he was talking to, went backstage, and came out with Dean. Both of them came to the other side of the barrier and introduced themselves to all of us. In their thick southern drawls, they talked to us about how they had just flown in this morning and haven’t had a chance to see Milwaukee, and that they would be flying to Muskegon,MI right after the show as they had a show there the next day. I know we talked about other things too, but I was in such a daze (not alcohol induced either) that I honestly can’t tell you what else we talked about…but they were there talking to us for probably 10 minutes or so.

They then took a picture with me, and took off walking through the Summerfest grounds.

At that point, my day was already made. Little did I know it was about to get even better. Matt Vosberg noticed Ed Roland (the lead singer) standing in the same spot as Dean and Joel about 15 minutes later. So again, we all walked over, shouted his name, and he did the whole smile and wave thing, and then a minute later he came out and talked to us. I think he may have been a little liquored up because he was walking down the stairs verrrryyy slowly and seemed a little “out of it”. But, he was still very pleasant to us and again agreed to take a picture with me.

So that is my story of getting to meet Collective Soul, and I can now die a happy man.

Congrats Tim. You are a real American hero.

I realized that the reason some of you might not have been able to get to my softball/volleyball games is because you didn’t know the schedule ahead of time! Well, even though it’s 1/2 way through the summer, I wanted to get you all my schedule of events. Here’s a key. Click on the links for directions to the field.

MONDAYS: Women’s softball at Saratoga Field in Waukesha, WI.

TUESDAYS: Co-ed volleyball at Fat Daddy’s in Walker’s Point (Milwaukee).

WEDNESDAYS: Co-ed softball at Sijan Field in Bayview.

Here’s a story from nearby West Allis, WI that isn’t getting nearly enough attention in the news. I know it’s a little lengthy, but well worth the read.

Charlie,

My local Home Depot store had arrested my son for shoplifting. They claim he stole a $9.90 skill saw blade. Let me give you a little more background. My son is 29 yrs old, he had just purchased my house for his family, and I told him to go to Home Depot and buy whatever he needed to make changes to the house and charge it to my Home Depot credit account. We figured two to five thousand dollars should be enough to get it ready for his wife and kids. This was his third major purchase. This purchase totaled $868.00.

While shopping at this Home Depot store, he was using a large push cart, not the kind with the basket but the kind with the flat bottom, because he was planning on buying kitchen cabinets and related items. When he arrived at the checkout line a clerk came over, and said he could help him at a different register. My son assumed it was because he had such a large order, it would speed up other shoppers checking out. As the clerk began scanning the items he notices a crack in one of the crown moldings and suggested my son get a different crown molding, which my son did. When my son got back the clerk scanned the molding and gave my son the receipt to sign.

As my son was leaving the store, he went through the detectors and the alarm sounded. My son stopped, asked the clerk if everything was checked out. To which the clerk nodded yes and motioned for my son to leave. My son left the store, unloaded the items into a truck, and was returning the push cart to the cart corral when he was grabbed by the shoulder and told he was being arrested for shoplifting. He replied that there must be some mistake, and was told that since he didn’t know how to pay for the saw blade he sure knew how to unload it. My son still didn’t understand but figured he go back in and get this straightened out. The West Allis police were called and he was arrested for shoplifting a $9.90 saw blade after spending $868.00 on other items. Remember this was all going on my charge account and he wasn’t paying for anything, so why would he care about another ten bucks. He would have spent another hundred if he could have fit it on the cart.

What’s the big deal about a shoplifting ticket? You pay the $262.00 and forget about. Right? Not in this case. You see my son was medically discharged from the Air Force. He qualifies as a service-disabled veteran and as such also qualifies for certain small business government set-asides. He has started a small business, as a distributor and prime contractor, and had started servicing his first government contract as of 1 July 05. He has at least two dozen current proposals for other contracts in the works. Future contracts will require a Top Secret clearance, which will be impossible to get if his record contains a shoplifting arrest. He is currently negotiating the installation of a video surveillance system for a military installation. What if they check his record and find a shoplifting arrest?

So we decide we have to hire a lawyer to initially try to clear this up. We’re a thousand buck into it and we really can’t afford more, but it will cost more. If we decide to sue for false arrest our legal bill will be over $20,000(A rough figure given by an attorney). Those hours add up at over $300/Hr. This will not be a high judgement case so it’s not very attractive to most attorneys. Any suggestions?

John Gaidosh

This is just NOT right. Home Depot is out of their minds for arresting this man. If they used their brains, they’d see that this man has NO MOTIVE for stealing a $10 saw. What do you think?? (Thanks to Dad for telling me about this story and to Neill for sending me the actual link).

Update: ‘TMJ News reports that this guy has suffered again - he cut off three fingers while doing the remodeling.

I came across a last name today that got me thinking.

Supple.

After I giggled, I realized that I didn’t know what other context to use that word in besides saying someone has “supple breasts.” And with that, I don’t even know what supple means!!

My challenge to you, my faithful readers, is to use the word supple in a way other than the one above. Enlighten me! Entertain me!

Remember a few weeks ago when I was all excited because we got a house? Well, you can retract that excitment that you felt for me, as we lost the house. Nothing that was our fault. Turns out there was like $10,000 of damage in the basement and the sellers refused to pay for it.

So, anyone that came to this site looking for information on the house at 3882 N 87th St in Milwaukee, WI, there is DAMAGE IN THE BASEMENT.

So, back to the drawing board for us…