28. Make a surprise visit home for a holiday.
Another one that we can cross off the list. After much scheming and a bit of quick thinking on my sister’s part I was able to quite thoroughly surprise my parents and much of the rest of the extended family by showing up unannounced in Wisconsin for Labor Day Weekend. I actually had planned to surprise my mother on her birthday the Wednesday before, but due to some car troubles we didn’t quite make it in time. (As one of those strange coincidences that sometimes happens in life my mother’s birthday always falls right near Labor Day; Her sister’s birthday is right near Memorial Day; and her brother’s birthday is right near Veteran’s day)
My sister and I had planned for Cass and I to show up at a dinner at her house to celebrate mom’s birthday and my nephew’s first day of kindergarten. Unfortunately Cass’s transmission failed about 4 hours from our destination so we didn’t make it that night. We finally got a rental car the next day and thanks to some fast talking, my sister convinced my parents to meet her in downtown Madison. Of course my sister wasn’t there but Cass and I were. We walked up from behind them and when I was about 20 feet away, my mother turned around and looked right at me. She didn’t recognize me at all. She was not even remotely thinking that I might be around. It wasn’t until I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her for the time that she recognized me. She was completely surprised and very happy to see us.
For whatever reason (or excuse), the Ford dealer in Osseo, WI was unable to get the car running again for two full weeks. Despite the car still being under warranty, they couldn’t take the time to even diagnose the problem for a full week. Nobody at Ford’s national service office seemed to want to help either. I think Ford lost Cass and I as customers forever. It is too bad too. I had sort of hoped that the rumors were true that Ford was getting their act together. As far as I’m concerned Ford motor company can go bankrupt and disappear from the face of the planet forever.
Because of the delays with the car we ended up having an extra week in Wisconsin to visit with my family and friends. We tried to make the most of it and did some very funny things. Cass went to her first Division I-A college football game as we saw the UW Badgers beat San Jose State. We spent a Sunday afternoon with my extended family at my aunt and uncle’s cottage on the lake. (Cass got to meet the whole family: a little bit of payback for my going to her brother’s wedding this summer.) Cass developed a taste for frozen custard. We toured the Sprecher brewery. (I love their Russian Imperial Stout, but in the gift shop before the tour we found this treasure.)
Despite the car trouble we had a great trip and a lot of fun. It was great to see everyone. Happy Birthday Mom!
36. Visit 5 friends / groups of friends that I haven’t seen for 10 years.
During our drive east, we drove all day on the 31st of August to reach Minneapolis, MN at a reasonable time so that I could meet up with my friend Ed. He’s another of my friends from Villanova that I hadn’t seen in about twelve years. Ed lived in Simpson hall, which is where I lived for most of my freshman year. He’s also one of the people who knew me not as Mike but as Du. Like most nicknames there is a rather lengthy story behind the name Du. Perhaps I’ll share it some day, but not in this post.
We got to Ed’s house around eight and since his kids were sick, his wife was happy to have us take him out of the house for a while. We went to the local chain restaurant just down the road to have a couple of drinks. We caught up on the old times and what we’ve each been doing for the last 12 years or so. It also turned out to be trivia night so we jumped in on that. I figured we’d do pretty well in light of the vast stores of basically worthless knowledge that both Ed and I tend to carry around with us. The game was broken up into 3 rounds each with a different category: Famous Minnesotans (We were both ashamed that we didn’t know that John Madden is from Minnesota), One hit wonders, and the Emmys. As I expected we did very well. In fact we won the second and third rounds getting Ed a couple of free drinks to come back and enjoy with his wife. We also won the whole darn thing. Ed got to answer the bonus question worth $50 and just missed it.
As with Kevin a couple of months ago, it was great to catch up with an old friend. I look forward to seeing Ed more often in the future as I pass through the twin cities area on my way to and from Wisconsin.
As an aside, Ed lives fairly close to the Mall of America. Since neither Cass or I had ever been to the MOA before, we decided to check it. (As a matter of fact, before this trip Cass had never been east of Bismarck, ND) We walked around a fair bit and I was impressed how small a footprint it actually took up despite it overall size. I expected it to be sprawled out all over the place. After a bit of acting like a small child I talked Cass into riding some of the roller coasters in the amusement park in the center of the mall. I love those sorts of rides, but Cass is still acquiring a taste for them…. I hope.
25. Take my father to at least one ball game each year.
Once we realized that we were going to be stuck in Wisconsin for a while, we decided to make the most of our time and do some fun things. On Tuesday, September 17th we decided to catch the Brewers game against the St. Louis Cardinals. We checked stub hub and were able to find some really good tickets at a really reasonable price so Cass, my dad, and I decided to go see the game.
We arrived at Miller Park in Milwaukee after immersing ourselves in some Wisconsin culture during the drive from Madison. We stopped and had dinner at the Delafield Brewhaus and listen to my dad’s favorite radio station which plays a reliable offering of polka music. (I’m sure some of you are re-reading that. Yes there are still radio stations that play polka music. This one even has streaming audio on the web. Check it out here.) We got to our seats and as I had hoped when we picked out the tickets, we were seated in the section directly in front of Bob Uecker’s broadcast booth. Some of you may know Uecker as announcer Harry Doyle from the Major League movies. Some of you probably remember him as the “I must be in the front row!” guy from Miller Lite commercials back in the day. Some of you may even remember him as the dad on the old sit-com Mr. Belvedere, but Milwaukee Brewers fans know him as Mr. Baseball, the radio announcer of Brewers games. We caught a few glimpses of the legend and even managed to get a couple of pictures of him on a camera phone.
Mr. Baseball
The game itself was an interesting one. Four people were thrown out of the game by umpires. The Brewers manager was thrown out by the second base ump and the home plate umpire threw out the Cardinals pitching coach, a brewers batter and most oddly a fan sitting behind the plate. Nobody I’ve talked to can remember ever seeing that many ejections or an ump ever throwing out a fan. About half-way throw the game I noticed a banner above the outfield fence with a picture of a pitcher and the number 599 below it. I haven’t been following the brewers or baseball very closely this year so I didn’t know what it was all about and I didn’t really dwell on it. Well, during the break between the eighth and ninth innings I figured out what it was all about. Brewers closer, Trevor Hoffman, was coming in to try to get career save number 600. He faced 3 batters and got 3 outs earning his 600th. It was pretty cool to see and to experience the excitement in the building when it happened. What I didn’t realize until a couple of days later was that Hoffman was the very first pitcher to earn 600 saves. So we stumbled into a little bit of baseball history.
