Courtesy of the Milwaukee Brewers’ website…

Dude, Braun–LAY OFF. Prince just hit two homeruns in the game. He doesn’t need you trying to eat his head.

It’s been nearly a 7 month hiatus, but I think I’m ready to get back on the tarapfeifer.com train! Softball season begins tonight, the Brewers are winning, there’s still crazy people to talk about in this world, and it’s almost summer in Milwaukee.

Welcome back readers… I’ve missed you!

7 years ago, I signed up to be on the season ticket waiting list for Packers tickets. I figured that by the time my name came up, I’d have enough money to be able to afford them. Well, at the rate I’m going at, I’m not sure I’ll be alive by the time my name comes up.

I don’t remember what number I was when I got my name on the list, but in 2005, I was #52,500.

2007 priority #: 51,225.

That’s a movement of 1275 spots in 2 years. At that rate, it will take 80 years for me to get season tickets. That puts me at 108 years old. Sure. That will happen…

I’ve been playing softball with the Ball Busters/Club G’s/Jonny Hammers for just about 6 years now and that’s how long it took to finally pull in our first ever league championship!

Mother Nature finally cooperated (barely) and we got in our makeup makeup games last Wednesday. Although we split the double header 1-1, the first game was the one that counted. We were pitted against the team that we’ve been tied with for 1st place for much of the season. The scenario was simple. Win the game and win the championship. Lose the game and at bare minimum, tie for the championship. We pulled together a strong game though and won solidly 10-4. Sure, we might have lost the 2nd game, but we really did let our guard down since we knew the championship had already been won.

So, congratuations, Jonny Hammers, on a 12-2 season and the 2007 co-ed softball league championship. Our final stats are below. Some solid seasons by everyone.

As always, Coach Z’s comments…

Well, congrats again on by far the best season we have ever had. We were able to beat Aurora pretty easily and clinch the championship, which allowed us to relax a little bit against the hated Guerrillas since the game didn’t matter as much… Again congrats and thanks for your dedication this summer.

Lastly, I know there are some of you that didn’t get a chance to come out and see us play this summer and you’re probably quite sad that the season is over. Well, I have good news for you: The fall softball season is upon us starting this week! The schedule is below and the location is the same. Hope to see you at some games–they are Mondays AND Wednesdays in the fall, so no excuses!

Wednesday, Sept. 5 — 7:30pm
Monday, Sept. 10 — 6:30pm
Wednesday, Sept. 12 — 7:30pm
Monday, Sept. 17 — 6:30pm
Wednesday, Sept. 19 — 8:30pm
Monday, Sept. 24 — 8:30pm
Wednesday, Sept. 26 — 7:30pm
Monday, Oct. 1 — 8:30pm
Wednesday, Oct. 3 — 7:30pm
Monday, Oct. 8 — 6:30pm

While I’ll be posting softball stats sometime this weekend, I had to post about the status of my leg. You see, I slid into 3rd base in the game last night (which, we ended up winning) and I tore up my leg in the process. About 3 years ago, Neill also tore up his leg playing softball and I thought mine was just as bad. Hardly.

MY LEG, July 2007	NEILL’S LEG, August 2004

I guess Neill wins.

Last night, it looked like it was going to be a repeat from last week… have the lead going into the last inning, blow the lead, lose the game. Luckily for us, this week, we had the last at-bat, so Jonny Hammer’s pulled out the win on a solid RBI walk by Dan Bengs. This brings the team to 5-1 and in 2nd place behind Auroras (who we have yet to play).

On to Coach Z’s comments and the season stats. It wasn’t a pretty win, but we’ll take them as we can get them…

It was a hard fought battle against the hated Guerrillas, and in the end we prevailed, 14-13. Both offenses were clicking pretty good and it came down to whoever had the last at bat, which luckily was us. We are now 5-1 and have a firm grasp on 2nd place behind Aurora. Next week’s game is at 7:15 against Demarinis Slicers.

Season Stats, leader in each category is bolded; we’re 6 games in… it’s time to see who is making a run at the batting title, even though it’s pretty obvious. Oh, and congrats to Lou for getting her first hit(s) of the season last night!

Thanks for your votes everyone… I couldn’t have done it without you.

Round 68: It Could Always Be Worse
Posted: April 19, 2007
The third time was the charm for It Could Always Be Worse, a blog that was in the running April and November of last year.

The blog belongs to Tara Pfeifer, a self-declared sports fanatic. As such, the bulk of her entries seem to be sports-themed, but there’s also a good mix of local headlines, news of the weird and assorted rants on life that she delivers with a good dose of wit.

Pfeifer admits to slacking in the blogging department in an entry last autumn, writing that she’d be commiting herself to blogging again. Here’s hoping she catches a second wind.

Archives date back to June 2004. And even then she was blogging about sports.

If you live in or around Milwaukee, you’ve heard of the recent scuffles at Mayfair Mall and how police are trying to figure out a way to deal with it. Well, as a “normal” shopper/movie-goer at Mayfair, I’m highly turned off by their soon-to-be new policy.

Mayfair to Require I.D.’s , Target Gangs
WAUWATOSA - Mayfair Mall plans on taking a dramatic step to cut down on violence by requiring people to show a photo ID at the door.

The program will be implemented in April and will likely be enforced on Friday and Saturday nights.

TODAY’S TMJ4 has learned most people under 30 will be carded. Those over the “required” age will be given a wrist band and allowed inside the mall. Mayfair has not decided what the “required” age will be.

People who do not meet the “required” age will have to be with an adult who is 21 or older.

So if the required age is 18, a 19-year-old would be allowed inside the mall. But the 19-year-old would not be able to bring in a 16-year-old friend. The 16-year-old would need to be accompanied by someone 21 or older.

The rules also require anyone underage to stay with the adult the entire time. Mayfair plans on posting security guards at every entrance. Shoppers at Macy’s or Boston Store will not have to show an ID to enter, but will need to show an ID once leaving the department store and entering the main mall.

So, I’m ok with getting carded at a bar still. I’m almost 28 years old and I can see that I’m still “close” to 21 and they are just covering their butts. Alcoholic consumption, afterall, has strict laws regulating it. I’m even ok with getting carded for an R movie at the theater (although that is pretty rare nowadays).

But getting carded to enter a mall and possibly having to wear a wristband to do my shopping? They’re out of their minds! Mayfair is the closest mall to my house, but I’m tempted to drive the extra distance to head out to Bayshore or Southridge if this gets put in place. No, I suppose in the scheme of things, it’s not that big of a deal to be carded for yet another thing, but it’s an extra annoyance that I don’t think I need to deal with. Are there laws against me shopping at a mall like there are at bars or the theater? I didn’t think so. I also get that I’m not the person they are trying to target with this new law… and I don’t have a solution to the problems at Mayfair. I just want to complain.

Does this bother anyone else?

I saw this headline/teaser in the paper today:

MMSD to study source of fecal matter
MMSD will spend up to $450,000 to expand its investigation into the sources of human fecal bacteria found in storm sewers discharging to local Lake Michigan beaches and the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers.

I can tell them exactly what the source of fecal matter is–people going to the bathroom. Do I get the $450,000?

I heard on the news last night that Bo Black was in critical condition in an Arizona hospital. I knew she had been sick, but I guess I didn’t realize she was THAT sick. Turns out she had a stroke and has had a few surgeries now to try and replace it.

My thoughts are with her and her family (gotta cheer for her husband, former Brewers coach, Tom Trebelhorn!). Bo Black brought a lot to Milwaukee in her tenure with Summerfest. Being such a strong, powerful woman in a time when women leaders wasn’t very common, she’s really laid the path for future woman leaders. So… get well. The party in Milwaukee won’t be the same without you!

Last night recapped another Christmas Dinner with the Carroll College crew. 7th Annual this year–hard to believe we’ve been doing this for that long. Our theme this year (As you’ll see in the pictures) was ugly sweaters–so we requested that everyone come in just that–an ugly sweater. There were some classic sweaters. Most people came wearing a sweater of their choosing, but the Carroll “girls” did an exchange and we were forced to wear whatever our Secret Santa gave us.

You be the judge (vote in the comments below)… who had the ugliest sweater?

Mandy Tomaro	Bonnie Schulz
Amber Roemer	Jenny Hawes
Erica Peterson	Marcia VandenHeuvel

And then there’s the group picture (which you can see my ugly sweater in):

Click here to see the rest of the pictures. Thanks for a great night everyone!

I saw an ariticle today that talked about how the state of Maine is banning a certain brewery’s beer label because it shows a picture of Santa’s butt and him enjoying a bottle of beer. From what I can tell, the state is just pissed off because they think kids will see this and either want to buy the beer because Santa is on it, or they will get a bad image of santa in their heads. The beer company says that the state is ruining their first amendment rights. The article (including a picture of the beer label) can be found here if you want to read more about it. I think it’s petty of the state to do… but that’s just my opinion.

That got me to thinking though, about cool names of beer, because I’ve seen a lot before. I did a search, and here’s some cool ones.

1. Aass beer (this one is introduced to me in college, actually. Can you imagine the fun you could have with the marketing campaign of that one?
2. Full Sail’s “Wreck the Halls” Christmas brew
3. Lagunitas “Hairy Eyeball Ale”
4. Terrapin’s “Wake-n-Bake” Coffee-Oatmeal Imperial Stout
5. Rock Bottom’s “Ale Mary, Full of Taste.”
6. Dunkel Sam
7. I’ll Be Bock
8. Salopian Brewing Co Entire Butt Ale
9. He’Brew Genesis Ale
10. Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

Can you think of some funny names of beers that I’ve missed?

This past weekend, Neill and I went down to Chicago for the Chicago Marathon. No no, sillies, we weren’t running in it. We were volunteering, which basically consisted of standing by a cop during the race and doing “crowd-control.” If I wasn’t there, I’m pretty sure utter chaos would have ensued.

Anyway, I knew we were going to be down there, so I gave my friend, Matty Vag, a call and asked if we could see him. He manages a restaurant down there called Bistro 110. Matt couldn’t get off of work, but invited us to come have dinner down there, so we did. I wish we had brought our camera to take a picture of the meal, because my description won’t do it justice.

Neill and I had the same basic dinner.

1. French Onion Soup
2. Steak Aux Poive et Gallette de Pomme de Terre
3. Some crazy dessert with this chocolate cake with a toffee coating, these little cream puff-type things that had ice cream in the middle instead of cream, and then some Creme Brulee.
4. A few drinks, ranging from bloody marys to beer to mixed cocktails.

The soup was awesome–lots of cheese and not watered down like some restaurants do. The steak was crusted in this pepper stuff and was an awesome cut–a little too much pepper for my liking, but it was still good. It also came with this potato that Matt said they cut into 150 tiny slices, then throw a ton of butter and garlic into it and bake it. It was awesome–like nothing I’ve ever had before. Then the dessert, even though we were full, was a special surprise from Matt–I guess it’s not something they normally serve. Quite tasty though.

Something else we didn’t get that sounded good were this pumpkin soup. Real basic recipe. Pumpkin, stick of butter, salt and pepper. Served in an actual mini-pumpkin. Neat presentation idea.

So, I definately recommend that everyone stop down to Bistro 110 if you are in Chicago. Great restaurant with great service as well. Thanks for having us, Vag!

On the top of my gmail account, there are different links that always pop up, and oddly enough, one of them is always the “Ask Yahoo” feature. For those of you not familiar with it, Yahoo! basically has a page where you can submit all the questions that have ever puzzled your mind. Like what exactly IS Victoria’s Secret? Can a cow really be tipped? Is there a McDonalds in every country? Does Tripp have ever spit glands?

Anyway, one today was what was the first thing every sold on ebay… interesting…

Dear Yahoo!:
What was the first thing ever sold on eBay?
Ken
Detroit, Michigan

Dear Ken:
Once upon a time, many wondered if a company like eBay would even work. Since then, the online auction house has silenced the doubters. While it’s technically a rival of ours, we can’t help but admire its inventory — everything from fake vomit to Lamborghinis is just a click away. Ah, but of all those millions of sales, which was the very first?

EBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Though he’s now a billionaire (of course), Pierre started AuctionWeb (as it was then known) as a simple “side hobby.” In late ‘95, Pierre made history when he sold eBay’s first item — a broken laser pointer he had originally bought as a cat toy.

Amazingly, the buyer paid $14.00 for the kaput pointer. We imagine it was about this time Pierre realized he was on the cusp of creating something great.

It’s true that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if it is broke, maybe you should forget about the repairs and just sell it.

So now you know…

As you’ve probably seen from past posts, I have a slight obsession with bathroom etiquette, mainly in the workplace.

Anyway, for some reason, I was looking up bathroom etiquette online AGAIN the other day and found out that there is actually a non-profit website dedicated to this. The International Center for Bathroom Etiquette must be a semi-legit organization, because they have a .org webaddress, and they don’t give those out to just anyone.

They do have some great information on the site though for just about any bathroom circumstance that you can think of. Like men, do you know the proper etiquette when you come across a “Kiddie-Sized Urinal?” Do you check your email while on the toilet? What is an acceptable amount of time to do this? 5 minutes? 1/2 hour?

Anyone have any good bathroom stories from lately?