From Mayhem to Misery

We went up to Green Bay on Saturday night to take part in the pre-game celebration. It was cold!! But everyone was so pumped up about Sunday's game and of course, Packer nation was so confident that we would beat the Giants and head to Arizona for the Superbowl.



We have to thank the Packers for a great season and also the Giants for beating the Cowboys to bring the NFC Championship to Lambeau Field. The economic impact for Green Bay was incredible. It also gave people, like this girl, something to be happy about in mid-January when it was 0 degrees!!



We had fun in Green Bay. Very glad that we didn't spend oodles of $ to spend hours in the freezing weather. It may have been worth it had the Packers won, but I am glad we stayed home to watch the devastation in our own little world.

There's always next year!

NFC Championship Bound!

What a great weekend! The Green Bay Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks coached by former Packer coach, Mike Holmgren on Saturday in a snowstorm at Lambeau Field. The game started out dismally as the Packers turned the ball over twice and Seattle capitalized on it with two scores putting the Pack down 14-0. But the Pack came back and took over! Final score 42-20.

Then yesterday we watched the New York Giants beat up on the Cowboys to win that game. Now the Giants come to Lambeau to play the Packers in the NFC Championship. It's going to be great for Green Bay and surrounding communities. It's going to be pretty chilly though - probably in the teens. But I am sure there will be some silly souls who show up shirtless in the stands with big Gs painted on their bodies. Go Pack Go!




The rest of the weekend was nice too. Friday night we met an old friend of ours at Mitchell's Fish Market in Brookfield. Was good to catch up. It is amazing how fast time flies. Mike and I caught one more at Fleming's Steak House in Brookfield as well. We'll have to go back to check out the dining. Both places are nice additions to Brookfield and even though they are chains, we'll give them a chance. They are both "classy joints" and the staffs are well trained. We'll still be more supportive of the independent guys though!!

Saturday afternoon we went to the Milwaukee County Zoo to catch up on what's shaking there. It's nice to have a Zoo Pass - we go often and enjoy the walk. Plus we can decide what animals we want to see each time so we don't get overwhelmed. Each time we go we seem to learn something new or see a new addition. This time we got to see the baby Siamang that was born in November. Still clinging to her mother - very cute! The little brother was a riot as he was swinging around and then grabbed a pillow case and kept playing with it, twirling it around and shaking it with his feet. We spent 15 minutes just watching his show - makes me think that he may have been the inspiration for Cirque du Soleil! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture because of the glass and flash. I did include a picture of the Elk though - rather majestic rack he is sporting! We ended the visit with a chest pounding demonstration from Cassius, the gorilla. He's quite the show-off.

Saturday night after the Packer win, we went to a neighborhood party. The hosts put out quite the chocolate dessert display. Good times. We really like our neighborhood and the people in it are all very nice.

Sunday morning we decided to catch an early flick at the AMC theater in Mayfair. Being big Johnny Depp and Tim Burton fans, we went to see Sweeney Todd. Ghastly!! Definitely not a "feel good" movie. Critics are raving. It's not for everyone though...

Happy Monday!

Green Bay Packers

One of the best things happening early in 2008 is having the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Playoffs. On our way back to Milwaukee we stopped at Lambeau Field. Mike hasn't been in the stadium since the newest renovation. They did a really nice job and we look forward to going back to have dinner/cocktails in Curly's Pub. The Pro Shop was buzzing with lots of people. We laugh every time we are in Green Bay at the sheer number of people wearing Packer apparel. If you want to be in a successful retail business, pretty much sell anything Green & Gold (or Pink for Deanna Favre) and the word Packers on it! The Pro Shop has almost everything you can think of, including shower curtains and hangers. It would be funny to know who the person is who has the most items that you can find in the Pro Shop. Their world has to be ridiculously green and gold.

Looking forward to the next game - hope they go far. If not, it's at least been a surprisingly fun year to watch the Pack. Go Pack Go!!

Santa is a biker?

We ran into Santa bikers on Saturday afternoon in The Third Ward. Not sure where they were or where they were going, but it was a funny sight to see. Another snowy day in Milwaukee. I have become a superb shoveler. We did a little bit of shopping (lots of looking) and had lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market - love the gumbo at St Paul Fish Market -before heading out into the snowy, slushy world. And we finally got our tree!

It's getting down to crunch time for xmas shopping. I've been picking up a few things here and there and so far am happy with my choices. I always prefer the "giving" to the "receiving" at xmas time.

Yesterday Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's record for career passing yards - he's thrown an equivalent to like 35 miles! Packers are 12-2 and have played well enough to get a bye in the playoffs. Very exciting times for Packer Nation. Earlier in the day, we checked out the movie, No Country for Old Men. As usual, I bought into the incredible hype to be somewhat disappointed. I think I am going to stop reading movie reviews and go with my own gut feeling. I thought it was good, but not "unbelievably incredible, best movie ever" like some of the reviews.

I decorated the tree last night and now need to start the wrapping!

Packer Loss Friday

So, like everyone in Packer nation, I was all ready to watch the Packers take on the Cowboys with hopes of a big win. Both teams were 10-1 so it was destined to be a real shoot out. I was a bit nervous as the game was in Dallas and we don't have a good track record there. I was also nervous that they were going to try to take out Brett Favre. Well, my nerves were right. We didn't quite get it done and Brett Favre got hurt. I think this quieted alot of the boastfulness and Superbowl talk and brought everyone back to reality. I still have faith, but I am not betting the farm on championship talk...

I was told recently that the difference between a Packer fan and a Bear fan is that the Bear fan will say "Who are the Bears playing this weekend?" whereas the Packer fan will say "Who are we playing this weekend?" - we take real ownership in our team. It's good to seem them back to winning ways, the rollercoaster of wins and losses is no fun.

Yesterday I had a meeting downtown - before and after the meeting we met at The Knick in The Knickerbocker Hotel. This is one of my favorite areas of the city. There is so much charm in the architecture and I love the lakefront. When I moved to Milwaukee in 1991, I lived on the corner of Kilbourn Ave and Prospect Ave right on the lakefront. (Now our "grassy knoll" is home to two huge condo skyscrapers.) At that time downtown was still pretty "lame" - not much going on, you hardly saw anyone downtown at night or on the weekends. Water Street had a few bars - Rosie's was the major hot spot. Brady Street was a bit scary. The Third Ward was dark and all Cathedral Square had Elsa's and some dark smoky bars. We used to go to Walker's Point for our kicks. It has come a LONG way since then. At that time though we used to like to go to The Knickerbocker Hotel for breakfast - they had a great little diner - I don't remember the name but it was your typical greasy spoon diner with lots of white and stainless steel. And then they kicked it up a notch with a huge renovation and turned The Knickerbocker into an awesome stylish metro restaurant. We took everyone who visited us there. And then as more and more cool places opened, our visits to The Knickerbocker were limited. Then they did another renovation and renamed the place The Knick. Still very stylish, very popular and a great place to bring people as it has really good food and is very comfortable.

Wednesday was a "networking" day - I went to a small networking get together at Brew City Tea in the morning and then another larger networking get together at The Bavarian Inn. It's always interesting to meet new people at these types of events and you typically find out about businesses that you didn't know even existed. It's been a while since I was at The Bavarian Inn - it's a fun place. Good German flavor. I used to take senior groups there for good German food and music. It has a nice dining room and probably could get a little racuous if the beer was flowing. We were thinking that it had a better feel than the Hof Brau Haus in Las Vegas. I wish more people would revel in some of the German traditions. Was nice to run into an old friend that I worked with back in the '90s when I was at The Grand Milwaukee Hotel. He happened to be with a fella that Mike worked with one summer back in his high school days who also worked for his Uncle. Small world...Milwaukee is a big city, but you sure run into alot of people you know or have some connection to.

While I was "networking", Mike went to a couple of shops on Silver Spring in Whitefish Bay. He bought a couple of cute Christmas presents for Bailey's dog cousins at Hounds Around Town. I will have to go back and check it out for myself as he got some really funny dog toys.