hello harley

the place that miranda and levi were most excited about going to in milwaukee was the harley davidson museum. (dont worry, the place wasnt on fire, they just bring in some of the fire equipment to show it off on the weekends!) both of them are big motorcycle people and come from motorcycle families. as for diana and i? well, we werent all that excited about it, but were willing to try anything once. turned out to be a lot more interesting than i would have thought! we had a fun time learning about the history of the company and seeing all the really old motorcycles and stuff. the coolest parts were seeing the motorcycles they manufactured for the wars. we all ended up having a great time there- i know my dad would have been jealous!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4. we even ate at the museum restaurant!)

tasty buca

when diana heard that milwaukee had a buca di beppo she announced that we just had to go there! never one to turn down a really delicious meal, i agreed. after heading back to the hotel from our visit to the third ward, we made a reservation and headed over to the restaurant. now, if you have never gone to buca di beppo, then you are missing out on an amazing time! its an italian restaurant that serves their food family style. that means that you really only need to order two things to feed three people. well, we ordered three things, and boy were we full- and we had tons of leftovers!
(more pics)

old milwaukee

one of the places that diana found while researching milwaukee was the third ward. its an old part of downtown that has been rejuvenated recently and is filled with cool little shops and ends with a great fish market type food commissary. we stopped there one of the afternoons we were in milwaukee, just to check it out. there werent a ton of places for levi and i to check out, but diana and miranda were in their glory! levi and i wandered around for a bit and found ourselves in the food market. it was a really cool place that reminded both of us of the fish market in seattle, it was a bunch of little kiosks that that sold specialty foods and trinkets. levi and i found a seat on the second floor and chilled out for a while and just chatted. eventually when the girls arrived there as well we took a walk along the waterfront and got to see some more cool sights of milwaukee.
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sprecher brewing

one of the things we knew that had to be done while in milwaukee was to go on a tour of a brewery. well, none of us really much care for beer, so levi found a milwaukee brewery that made beer and soda! we went on a tour of the sprecher brewery, which was pretty cool, and then at the end we got all the soda we could drink (and we could drink a lot...) it was a pretty cool tour, but sitting around after the tour just chillin and chatting was even cooler!
(more pics: 1, 2)

blue ribbon mansion

after we decided on milwaukee for our weekend destination, diana quickly went to work trying to find things that we could do while we were there. she found a cool old mansion that we could tour through, its the old pabst homestead, the home of the family behind the beer fortune!
the mansion itself is pretty impressive, its an old house from the 1890's and was built by and for the pabst family to live in. there was some really cool history we got to hear as we took the tour of the home. the decorations and furnishings were really impressive- this place cost a fortune to build! the family had sold it years and years ago, it eventually was purchased by the catholic church and was the residence of the local archbishop. in the 70's it was purchased and turned into a museum. what was kind of cool about the place is that it is still in the process of being restored. only the main floor is completely restored. the second floor is about half way done, but they have to work slowly because they dont have a ton of money or anything to restore it quickly. its interesting to see some of the rooms redone to look like the period it was built, and then one room over see it in its unrestored state, as it was when the archbishops lived there. they havent even touched the third floor of the place, so we werent allowed to go up there at all. it was a really interesting place with tons of cool elements from the time it was built. this was diana's favorite part of the trip- i think she just likes to nose around in other people's stuff!
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hotel milwaukee

over the summer diana and i made plans with her best friend miranda and her husband levi to take a trip this fall for a weekend away. we spent the next couple months thinking of places to go. we originally wanted to go downtown chicago, but soon realized that that was way too expensive! that forced us to get a little more creative and try to think of other cool places that didnt involve too long of a road trip. we decided on milwaukee. i think the deciding factor was that they have a harley davidson motorcycle museum and levi loves harleys. works for us, just so long as we get to go away for the weekend!
miranda and levi came to pick us up nice and early so that we could get up there and be able to enjoy the day. the trip wasnt too bad either, it ended up only taking a couple hours or so to get there which went really quick! we actually got there too early to check in to the hotel, so we wandered around the town for a while before we could unload the vehicle.
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the day the tivo died

the other day i get home from work and diana tells me 'there's something wrong with the tv'. i check it out and cant get the dvr to turn on. after about five minutes the thing turns on, but there is a slight problem: it says that it has lost everything saved on it. what?!? i am completely dumbstruck! everything we have saved on there is gone?!? what a pain! turns out our dvr decided it needed to reboot itself and everything we had saved on there was erased.

after i got over my initial outrage, i calmed down a bit, after all, we only had a few shows saved on there that we hadnt seen yet and most of those shows we could watch on the internet if we really wanted to. the thing that was saved on the dvr that i am saddest about though, was the episode of 'the late late show with craig ferguson' that i was in the audience for. a couple years ago i went out to l.a. to visit a great friend and we went to a taping of the show (it was a ton of fun, which i wrote about here). i had it saved on the dvr since then and would show it off occasionally because you could actually see me in the shots of the crowd. again, i'm sure i could actually find that episode on line too, so its not the end of the world. i did give our satellite provider a call though and share my frustrations... turns out if you ask to speak to a manager you can talk them into giving you a discount on your bill for a year and a free movie channel package for three months! score!

teacher convention

every year we teachers get a couple days off of school to gather together and remind each other why we do this whole teaching thing. this past thursday and friday we had our annual teachers convention in south bend, indiana. its usually a good time of listening to speakers talk about different subjects that pertain to our field and give advice or ideas on how to improve our curriculum. the seminars are pretty interesting, but the real highlight of the convention each year is just getting to sit down and talk with someone who does the same thing as me. talking through some of the things that work and dont work with fellow middle school teachers is always great. hearing others problems or triumphs renews me as a teacher, and its just at the right time: when the newness of the school year has faded away and the harsh reality of three more quarters sets in...

birthday buckaroo

it was mom's birthday last week but diana and i werent able to make it up there to celebrate, so instead we met in the middle! saturday night we headed over to benton harbor, the halfway point to grand rapids, and met up at texas corral with mom, papa, jill, tim, and the kids for a special dinner! it was a great time for everyone, diana and i were so excited to see the family- it felt like it had been forever since we last saw them! the kids are growing up so fast! we got to sing happy birthday to mom (along with the entire staff of the restaurant!) and gave her a few presents too. i know mom always loves it when we make a special event out of her birthday, and i'm pretty sure she had a great time!
more pics: 1, 2, 3

batteries charged

we had a free sunday and knew diana's mom needed a little company, so we grabbed our dog and headed over! barbara had some time off, so she came by too- a mini family reunion of sorts. its always nice to see her family, especially on a lazy sunday afternoon! we got a chance to talk with her mom and david about a few things and just generally lift each others spirits. it always does those girls good when they are together- it recharges their batteries, i think. i guess thats what makes family so valuable: no matter whats going on, they love you. even the stinky dog too.

nothing much

Things have been kind of slow around here lately, which i rather like, to be honest with you. diana and i havent been up to too much, just taking it easy. its these slow times that really make me appreciate the life i have: a good job, a roof over my head, and the love of a good woman. oh, and a stinky dog...
to celebrate the fact that not much is happening, we went out and ate some mexican food- diana's favorite!