We had a nice visit from Mosley, his mom and Auntie Chris on Saturday. He's certainly a big boy - all 16 pounds of him!! He looks alot like his Uncle Mike, minus the facial hair :)
It finally warmed up on Sunday, so it was time to take Bailey out of hibernation and let her go for a walk in Veterans Park. She was happy to get out from under the blankets. It will be nice again today but will dip back into the single digits tomorrow - we'll enjoy a little bit of a thaw before the cold returns. We took a drive along the eastside just to see what's happening and how things are progressing. Thursday night I attended an event hosted by Historic Milwaukee to hear UWM Dean of the Architectural School Bob Greenstreet talk about recent and future Milwaukee developments. Seeing cranes in the city is a good sign. He focused alot on the future of MacArthur Square in front of the Courthouse and what can be done there. It certainly needs some help as they made it a complete eyesore probably in the 1970's. The Milwaukee County Courthouse is such a grand building and it has been blighted by a hiddeous parking ramp with a misused park square. Dan McCarthy from the Pabst Brewery Project which Joseph Zilber is undertaking gave a good report on all that is happening with the old brewery as well as another gentleman Kevin Mantz (sp?) talked about the sustainability study and the landscaping plans. All in all very informative and I am glad I attended.
Friday, I toured the Tripoli Shrine Temple on Wisconsin Avenue. A fabulous building. They recently completed a million dollar renovation which cleaned up the tiles (and there is an unbelieveable amount of tile - it took 3 years for a family from Italy to lay all of the tile in beautiful patterns throughout the building), fixed the lighting and just did an overall sprucing up. Milwaukee should be incredibly proud of this building as it is a one-of-a-kind. I look forward to bringing groups here on tour or for special events. Check out the rental section on the website to see pictures of the dome. I was a dope and didn't take any pictures!
After the Shrine tour, I met with some colleagues at The Knick to discuss some of life's possibilities in Milwaukee especially regarding the Pabst Brewery. Then Mike and I went to Zaffiro's for pizza. What a crazy place - making pizza since 1954 and consistently getting awards for Milwaukee's best pizza. It doesn't look like much, the wait staff looks like they've been working there for years, it's somewhat smoky, but people dig it. Nice and casual with really good super thin crust pizza. Gotta love it.
We then moved on to have a couple of pints of Guiness at the new Irish pub in town, Brocach. Just when you think we've had enough Irish Pubs in Milwaukee, someone comes around with another very cool addition to the city in an up and coming area along the river. I love this place. Brocach is Gaelic for Badger Den. This is appropriate as the bar is built into the side of a bluff. Very narrow so you better not have an affliction to people bumping into you. Great job with the decor. Looking forward to the next visit and a sampling of their food.
