Brewin' while Watching the Brewers

Happy 4th of July to everybody! Once again, our weather forecasters were incorrect with their predictions. We do not have a lovely, sunny day but one that is overcast and rather dreary. Ah well, what can you do? The first picture of this blog is not recent, as it was taken on our Christmas trip to South Carolina (at the Fort Sumter Museum), but it is the most patriotic image I have in my photo files right now. Happy Birthday, America!

Mark, Van & Greg in front of Miller Park

Tailgating

Recent events for us have included attending a Brewers' game and going to a Sunday cookout at our friends' house.

Our spot on the pavement

This was Mark's first game at Miller Park!

The Brewers' game we went to was at Miller Park and was a belated Father's Day treat from Judy to Van. Mark and Greg provided and cooked the food for the tailgate portion of the festivities. The Brewers played the Minnesota Twins and this was the game that Milwaukee actually won; apparently the Twins had throttled the Brew Crew in the rest of the series. Don't quote me on that though, 'cuz I'm not really sure.

Renee & Greg are both avid Brewer fans.

Judy & Greg

Although it was really fun to tailgate and be with the family, this was an extremely HOT day in southern Wisconsin. When we arrived at the park at 5:00 PM, it was 100 degrees. Of course when you tailgate, you are picnicking on pavement and EVERYBODY has a little mini grill with brats and hotdogs cooking. We were lucky enough to borrow Bobby's canopy (thank you, Jim, for dropping that off!), which provided some relief, but it was still awfully hot.

I think Mark and Greg did their best to battle the heat by drinking as much cold beer as they could, but this brilliant idea ended up haunting Mark later. Upon entering the stadium and getting to our seats, we immediately knew that we would have to succomb to the vendors hawking their wayyyyy overpriced beverages. Miller Park is very bright and full of colors and movement inside, but if the air is not moving and it hot and crowded...I found it can be pretty miserable. Thankfully, Mark didn't continue with the beer-drinking method for cooling down, but opted for water and lemondade instead.

My pick, the Italian sausage, lost in this race. The German weiner in the green lederhosen won.

I wondered how hot the poor sausage guys were while they were walking around and then running their weiner race. Same for the other mascot with the mustache (Barnie? Bert? Bart?).

Billy Howard holding one of his many catches!

Ducks on Howard Pond

The second event for us was a Sunday get-together with some of our good friends. The Howards (Dan and Jill have a daughter, Syd, who shows horses. I went to one of her competitions several weeks ago and featured that in a previous blog) hosted at their lovely home in Middleton. They have a big backyard and grilling area, as well as a stunning pond complete with ducks and various fish. Dan, Jill and their 3 kids are HUGE animal lovers--of all sorts--they have 3 dogs, a cat, fish, ducks, a chameleon, 2 rabbits and some other critters I can't think of right now. There is always activity going on there!

Mark with Nina, the chihuahua

Titus, the Neopolitan mastiff

Millie, the Weimaraner puppy

This particular day was also pretty warm, but really windy, so the heat was not as stifling as it had been a few days prior. It was great seeing our friends and just taking a few hours to relax and be social. While we ladies were cooing over Marko and Liz's 3-month old daughter, Tanna, the guys were admiring this 1957 Dodge Power Wagon that our friend, Ron, has fully restored. I believe this is the second Power Wagon that Ron has done. This particular one may be sold to a Hollywood actor who has a large ranch somewhere in the southwest. The actor? Val Kilmer.Ron with the Power Wagon