Scott Ditched Me on Sunday (She Could've Come With)

This morning I got up early and made oatmeal (I really didn't feel that I needed to post another oatmeal picture).  Scott is in Milwaukee again, this time shooting a wedding for a childhood friend.

I picked up Emma and headed over to Theo Wirth Par 3 golf course. I've been playing since I was 16. You would think I was pro, but I'm definitively not. This was Emma's first time ever (unless you count frisbee, mini, or wii). We had been planning to go since I think May, this weekend it finally worked out for the both of us to go.

When we went in to pay, the cashier asked if I was over 17. I guess I should take that as a compliment. Hopefully when I'm 50 I will look 30. I was a little offended that he didn't think the same for Emma.

I have to admit we both could have done better; well, it was her first time so I should say I could have done better. We plan to go back again before the end of summer.

 

I got up relatively late. After the wedding, I went out with one of the groomsmen and his friends. I didn't get drunk at all, but, after photographing for something like 20 hours over two days,  I needed a good night's rest.

I had to borrow my gramps old car for the weekend. He recently passed away, so it was a bit strange cruising around in the Cadillac. 

When I was looking through my equipment, I noticed I lost my flash dome. It's not the most expensive part, but I wanted to see if it was still at the venue on Milwaukee's East Side.

I took the scenic route down Cudahy's Packard Avenue. The building above is home to ATI Ladish, known simply as Ladish when I was growing up. It's a massive complex that once extended an additional 1/8 mile south, not to mention the fenced in land behind the little league park that's become either a nature preserve or a toxic dump. It's really a mystery to the average Cudahyan

After I dropped her off I decided to head to the farmers market downtown. I planned on buying non-vegetable plants so I thought it made sense to take the car. There was no where to park. Thanks to the new Twins stadium all street parking is metered now.

I didn't want to pay so I went back home and got my bike. I'm not too upset that there was no parking, that means more people are buying locally, now if only more people would bike there.

It was so warm. I was sweating just walking around away from the sun. And I hardly ever sweat!

I wish I could say the same.

 On the way to the east side I was talking to my mom, which reminded me of Mama De Marinis. When I was born my family lived in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee. While my parents lived in this middle-class enclave for a number of years they surely ate at De Marinis a few dozen times.

 When I was growing up we often went out to the son's "nicer" establishment around the corner. It wasn't until we were older that we started picking up pies from Mama's. 

While I ate this meatball sub, a small portion of mostacolli and a couple of beers (a Lakefront Supper Club and Sierra Neveda's Summefest) I asked the longtime bartender about the feud. The fight that created two De Marinis within a few blocks is as follows:

Dom and Phil wanted their inheritance early. Their parent's who owned the restaurant would have none of it. The kids "stole" the recipes and opened up a new joint a few blocks north, trying their hardest to put Mama (plus papa, sis and a cousin of course) out of business. Law suits occurred somewhere in the middle, both businesses survived, patrons chose sides and De Marinis times two continue to make amazing Milwaukee-style thin crust pizza.

I don't have a picture, but I talked to a nice couple on the way to a Brewer's game amidst my history lesson. The second they walked in, the bartender knew what they were drinking. 

They let me know that high school sports photogrpahy was extremely lucrative. Though I'm sure it's true, I think shooting my friends wedding was the closest I'd like to get to the starting lineup of any prep sports team. 

At the end of the conversation they told me that I speak very quickly. It's true.

My plan to get non-edible plants didn't exactly go well when I spotted herbs that were on sale. I bought some lavender, tarragon, and okra. Since I biked I couldn't fit or carry anymore plants. Maybe next time.

I also got a few things of produce. This week its red foods. Potatoes, strawberries, and raspberries.

For lunch I had a salad and some strawberries. 

Being a good wife fiance I did Scott's laundry.

Still on my way to the venue, I drove by the Milwaukee Art Museum. There was something dreamy about the overcast sky and the kids playing in the fountain.

When I finally got to the venue it was locked up. I was fine with this. After all, I got to eat at Mama's.

For dinner I had leftover Pasta with no-cook tomato and bocconcini sauce and raspberries. 

We are currently renting out our basement to our friends in the Hollow Boys. Totally slipped my mind to take a photo of them practicing, so I shot this quick as they were walking out.

After meandering my way to the East Side, I made my way south to Racine. I decided I'd take 27th Street as far down as possible. The Pabst Brewery just happened to lie between here and there.

 What developers are now calling The Brewery is finally being redeveloped. A few years back it was supposed to become an entertainment destination called Pabst City. Now it looks like it's going to be a mixed use development, which doesn't seem so short sighted. After a few snaps I headed west towards 27th.

Once the sun started setting and the heat became less extreme I worked on gardening. Our bell pepper seeds never grew after 3 attempts so we went ahead and bought plants. Our seed packet warns not to plant bell peppers next to hot peppers. We purposely put one plant next to our thai chilies in hopes we can make a hybrid hot bell pepper. 

I really wish I hadn't planted the pumpkin seeds in the garden. Last year we made the same mistake with cucumbers. Next year I think I will plant it in the front yard and let it take over the yard. It's hard to see but underneath the pumpkin leaves on the right is asparagus. It's very important that it survives because it takes 3 years to harvest. 

I'm really suprised to see beans growing already considering the plant is only 12 inches tall. 

Emma and Tyler found a bunch of bricks in the their yard while replacing their old fence so we inherited more bricks to finish our herb garden. 

We don't use any chemicals in our yard so I get to pull all the weeds by hand. Well just the ones where flowers are growing.

On my way out of the city I headed south through the bungalow-inhabited Layton Boulevard. Just after a massive hospital complex, on the west side of the street, you’ll run into Leon’s Frozen Custard.

I go a bit more into my love for frozen custard over at the Alleycat tumblr. So I'll leave the blabbering for that blog. Let's just say the blueberry malt was delicious.

 

The trend for kitchens in the past few years has been open shelving. I'm pretty sure the way I feel about kitchens from the 80's and 90's is the same way my kids are going to feel about kitchens today with their no cupboards. The one disadvantage with our kitchen is that there is no blank wall space. It's either covered in cabinets or doorways. 

The one thing I loved about our old tiny kitchen was that everything had to be out in the open since we only had two cabinets. It was easy to just grab what you needed, unless there was more than one person in the room.

Oh man, I was getting chubby. 

 We were waiting for my dad to come up again to help us rip out the cupboards around the sink area and put in shelving. Then I came up with the genius idea to just take off the cabinet doors.

I spent much of Saturday and finished this evening getting everything reorganized. I'm not sure about the cookbooks yet if I'm going to keep them there or not. It seems to crowded.

Now to find a place for all my cake decorating equipment.

 I finally got down to my grandma's house around 7:30. We were supposed to have a memorial for my grandpa, but it ended up being later in the week. I feel like eating his Banquet frozen dinner was a small salute to Grandpa Wojcik.

I don't believe I ever saw my grandparents eat sauerkraut, yet they had a lot of it in the cupboard.

Another reason I came down to Racine was to pick up a couch. I'm sure you'll see it in a future blog post. I wanted to bring more furniture with me if possible, but unfortunately my grandma broke her hip the same week.

While I was unable to take any furniture, I did get to take a bunch of grandpa's books and other random stuff like an old Polaroid camera and electron tubes from the basement.

 I also ended up taking many of the books my aunt and mom read in college.

There was a lot of other neat stuff. My grandma had a booth in an antique mall for years and her main floor looks like a museum. It was cool seeing the stuff that aren't fit for the main floor. 

I had overheard the neighbors talking about a storm coming. I checked the world wide web and saw it was true.

Ever since the tornado I get extremely nervous during storms especially at night when I can't see what the clouds look like. The winds reached 60 mph so I waited in the basement until the died down.

Normally I wouldn't have even noticed and kept on doing what I was doing. Now I want to be super prepared just in case. I really hope I become less paranoid soon.