Tag Archives: oshkosh

Rest Stop

If this issue with getting at my blog drags out for a while, I thought I might as well have a “backup” of sorts on a temporary basis.  This is it.  If things really get out of hand, I do have means of importing my old stuff to a ‘wordpress.com’ blog.  Really don’t want it to get that far, of course.  And now we’re fixed!

Today, Dave and Andrea are getting married in Oshkosh.  Michelle and I will be heading out of SP around noon, as she has a hair appointment just before 2.  The ceremony is at 4:30.  I haven’t been to a wedding in the fall since Sarah and Dan got married 7 years ago.  I can’t believe that was 7 years ago.

Also, look for another Drama Jock’s SportsCast later on today– since I can’t post it to my regular blog, it’ll be another ‘mp3-download’ situation, but I think that those of you who are interested in it are savvy enough to figure out how to do that.

Things to do; catch you later!

An Awfully Good Sunday

Michelle and I took a ride up to Nordic Mountain today so I could try out my new skis, and we could work on our plan to ski as much as we can [afford to] this season.  It went great.  The new equipment that Michelle got me for Christmas and my birthday is going to serve me well for a good long time.  Jen and Joe were also right about my boots; they were exactly the right size, they’ll just take time to break in.  After a few runs, I had forgotten the agonizing lengths I had to go to just to get them on…

Meanwhile, in the NFL, I went a lousy 1-3 in my Wild Card Weekend picks.  At least the one that I got right was a Vikings loss.  Funny epilogue to that comment– we ate dinner at Fratello’s in Oshkosh after our ski day.  We had missed the end of the football game (they had it on in the bar at the hill, but we left part way through the 4th quarter), and I asked our waiter if the Vikings lost.  He told me they did and I gave him an enthusiastic, Borat-style, double-thumbs-up.  “Yeah,” he said, “I’m from Minnesota.”  Haha.  Don’t worry about it; we tipped him well…

But now I’m tired and I’m going to bed.  I did fall once today too (trying to stop too fast at the end of a run) and I think I sprained my right thumb.  That’s my spacebar thumb, so this typing kind of hurts.  Sleep tight!

You Can Really Actually Call Off the Dogs Officially This Time– No Kidding, I Am Absolutely Certain

I’m going to be moving into the place I looked at yesterday afternoon on Ardmore Avenue in Shorewood.

A few of the major features that sold me on it:

  • Less money overall per month than the one I saw on Knapp the day before, and more space
  • wood floors– look nice, easy to take care of (the other one had carpeting)
  • I am dead serious– the storage unit in the basement is about TEN FEET by TEN FEET.  It’s frakking huge.
  • Parking readily available, and cheap
  • Month-to-month.  If it becomes necessary, I can check out at will, with a scant 28-day notice.

More on this as info becomes available.  To my peeps in Osh Vegas: stay the course, good luck bailing out, things will get back to normal.

See you at the Brewers game later if you end up there…

Commencifying and Biogas

I just read an interesting little article about the use of “biogas” (basically natural gas harvested from rotting manure) in India.  Found it via New Scientist.

Also wanted to quickly take this opportunity to mention commencement and open houses for next weekend.  I didn’t just start thinking about it, but I’ve been slowly working on a post about this graduation stuff for about a month now, and it’s too late to finish it.  So:

  • I will be “commencing” in anticipation of a summer 2008 graduation from Oshkosh next Saturday, May 17.  All are welcome.
  • All are also welcome the following day, Sunday, May 18, at Jen and Joe Mundschau’s house at 6425 W Wisconsin Ave in Wauwatosa for an open house event to recognize Joe and me, both “commencing” this weekend.

I understand that is very short notice.  What’re we gonna do?

Additionally:

Uploaded some more photos today.  I now have a galleries for Oshkosh, Eagle River, and Milwaukee, as well as for a few of the vacations I’ve taken in the last few years.  Take a look as you will.

Michelle and I were talking about it recently– I don’t think I ever actually put photos from our Glacier Nat’l Park trip on the web last summer.  I’m gonna work on those next, be watching for it in a few days…

In other breaking news this evening, I guess Tom Crean is leaving Marquette.  How bout them apples?

All Over (Again)

Well the first part of the move is completed.

I had assistance from the Mundschaus, and also a little from Lorch and Knitt, and I left Oshkosh once again at around 2pm on Saturday. I made it to the Public Storage joint on the same day, so we unloaded immediately (rather than taking Sunday to get that done).

There was a little drama at the P.S.  In the evening, the gate is supposed to remain accessible between the hours of 6am and 9pm, but when we were ready to leave shortly after 6pm, the gate wouldn’t open. The area is controlled by a code-accessed gate, much like you might see in a parking garage or what have you. There was a small mob of people who wanted to get out, and a slightly larger mob trying to get in. This is in West Allis. It was a recipe for disaster.

There’s no 24-hr contact for the office, and when I tried to call the corporate toll-free number, I got cut off as soon as I finished explaining what was going on. By that time, a few of the other people had taken it upon themselves to dismantle the chain-and-motor mechanism that operates the gate. So, it was open, and we got out, but I’m not the one who left that chain in a jumbled mess on the asphalt. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be one of the people working at the Public Storage on Sunday.

Jen and Joe and I went to the Tischer’s house in Menominee Falls after that, and we watched a silly movie that sort of deconstructed the slasher genre. It was OK. I laughed a bit. We also ate food from Saz’s.

On Sunday, I spent the majority of the day trying to figure out where to live. I focused on places that I thought I might like that are vacant right now, or available in the very near future. I’m going to look at a place after work today that is really close to campus and seems to be reasonably priced. It includes parking, which seems like it would be a real bitch in this neighborhood, and when I drove by this morning, the street seemed to have well-kept houses on it for the most part. I’m not sure about living among a lot of college kids, but that is sort of the bed I’ve made, isn’t it?

Couple last words on Oshkosh:
I sat up for a while on Friday night contemplating the last 3-and-a-half years, and how much has changed, once again. I thought about how, even though Oshkosh is nothing like it was when I lived there the first time, and even though there may not be a lot going on over there on a day-to-day sort of basis, it’s not that bad a town. Once you get yourself a decent job, the rest of “where you live” is kind of what you make of it. I’ll miss living close to the Knitt’s, Lorch’s, and Schrubbe’s, but I’m looking forward to having Michelle and all sorts of family close by. I’ll miss my nice and (now I realize) obscenely cheap apartment, but I’m sure I’ll find something else I like in time.

I was just sitting on my couch in the dark on Friday night, staring at the walls and the ceiling, hoping that the future will be worth the sacrifice of the present. I think the toughest hurdle for my mind to get over right now, today, is that so much about what will happen next is still unknown; so much remains unsettled. Then there is a nagging doubt about making the best decisions; is this where I should be? How long should I stay, and when should I think about trying something else again? These thoughts, too, can probably be traced to the uncertainty hovering over my head right now. I’ve got a lot that I’d like to have settled sooner than later.

Thanks to everyone that helped me along the way during my 2nd round in Osh Vegas, and some advance-appreciation to the folks I hope can help me adjust to Milwaukee. It’s another leg of the journey, just getting started.

I Wouldn't Mind a More Regular Schedule, Either

Howdy.

Had a nice weekend of baseball on Friday/Saturday. The Bock-fam & Co. tailgate went off without a hitch. I’m going to look at putting it together again next year, per the encouragement of a number of folks in attendance. The Brewers also won both the games I saw, and quite convincingly at that.

I realized last Thursday that I really need to watch the alcohol consumption now that I’m living in this town again. The opportunities for libations seem greater somehow in the MKE area, so I need to remind myself that a decent night’s rest, my (relatively) healthy weight, and low credit card balances are all predicated on OCCASIONAL social engagements involving intoxication. I’m going to keep myself more aware of the amount and frequency that I’m drinking, because I don’t want any of the aforementioned areas of my life to suffer.

Had the last two days off so I could get packing and stuff done up in Oshkosh. Originally, I had asked off for Thursday and Friday this week, but I’m glad things worked out as they did, because it turns out I need a lot more time than just two short days. I will be commuting for the rest of this week, and I think with those extra few hours in the evenings, I’ll be able to finish. Most of what needs to be packed is packed, but I haven’t really cleaned anything yet. I should disassemble some furniture when I get home.

I should also really get some work done, since I’ve been gone for two days.

Next Step

I did mostly housekeeping sort of stuff up in Oshkosh this weekend. I had some stuff that I needed to pick up, some I needed to drop off, and just being at home was nice, of course.

I canceled my cable earlier in the week, so I had to drop the modem off at the Time Warner office. It’ll be nice to not pay that bill this month. I really wish the Interwebs were cheaper.

Starting next week, I’m going to get on the packing train. It’s hard for me to get ready to move when I still have no place to move to. What am I going to do if my lease runs out and I still have nowhere to go? I mean, like where will I even forward my mail? I am tiring of the whole situation, and I feel like I don’t have the time to make a good decision about how to proceed.

Right now, I’m at the Mundschau’s, cuz there was some stuff I needed to do online, and of course, that didn’t happen yesterday/this morning.

Best news of the weekend: Brewers finally win a series, ya-ay.

Back to it.

Short Entries

I wanted to pop in and say a little something in here today, for the simple reason that I’ve been lax in doing so most of this week.

Moving to Milwaukee and starting a new job is going to be an adjustment. I really really can’t wait to find a place to live down here. The commute is longer than I’m used to, processes and stuff at work are (of course) different, and I feel a little out of my element in general. I want to sleep in my bed.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s going just fine, and everything will come together eventually, but this period of transition is going to weigh me down for a little bit. I felt like I wasn’t paying much attention to Michelle early in the week because I was having a hard time finding myself a place (not to mention a method) to relax.

Tomorrow is Friday, though, and that means I’ll only have five weeks left before I have to move. I should put my vacation requests in right now. Don’t let me forget to do that today. I’m going to the Brewers game with Nick Petters tomorrow. Hopefully being back at home will help get them on the right track again. I’m also planning on going out to a ‘happy hour’ thing with people from work, somewhere around Bayshore Mall.

Saturday, I’m going up to Oshkosh so I can pack, get a haircut, and be at my house. I forget if I told the mailman to hold my mail *through* Saturday, or *until* Saturday. I also wonder if the way I think of those things is the same way the US Postal Service thinks of them.

OK, and the stacks of paperwork around here only get bigger, so I should get to it.