A short visit to funny time
Just a few notes and observation from my trip to Milwaukee to visit my brother:
-- Miller Park looks pretty nice from the outside and it really looms large over the highway, although I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. One huge positive is that the Friday's in the park that overlooks left field is open all year round. It was nice to see the field even in November, although I wondered why the roof was open.
-- It's funny that the building where my brother works is right near the student union where I played CBI Regionals seven years ago (and my only real experience of the Marquette campus). It was also nice to see a Jimmy John's again, even if we didn't eat there.
-- In some ways, Milwaukee seemed like a mini-Chicago, especially the neighborhood around Bud Selig's lunch hangout, which if I weren't paying attention could be confused with either Skokie or parts of Rogers Park.
-- It's hard to beat a free brewery tour and better yet, free beer. However, half the time I was thinking I would end up like the guy in this movie. The one thing that threw me about the whole tour was that the introductory video was narrated by the guy who does all the High Life ads, so I wasn't sure whether to take that stuff seriously.
-- Surprisingly, I'd never done any real casino gambling until I went here, which wasn't far from my brother's place. Not like the place is a real hotbed like places in Vegas or Atlantic City, but the whole vibe there (not to mention being short on money and time) showed me why I haven't found a huge pressing need to go to the casino. Or maybe it's because there was a bunch of Winning for Dummies slot machines.

As for the Evanston part of the trip, which was primarily to see this drubbing:
-- I'm wondering when was the last time I went to a home football game when the weather wasn't just plain gray and dreary.
-- I totally miscalculated how many Michigan fans were going to come out for this game. I bought tickets on the "home" side and was surrounded by Wolverine fans.
-- Louis Avant did make an amazing catch, but that's only because John Navarre threw such a horrible pass. He was ridiculously wide open, like most of the receivers on Saturday.
-- I guess I never realized that the old greasy spoon next to my old apartment was a lot like this place.
-- It was very nice to see Mr. and Mrs. Evanston Gerbil and Ms. M again.