Wisconsin Day 2

1) I had been awake for 18 hours and driven for maybe 6 of those hours. I crashed in the guest bedroom and slept till 8, despite waking up at 6. Caleb, 1, is still something of a screamer.

2) Nef had a Saturday morning meeting and I got to see Karen preparing breakfast for the three kids and eventually herself! As for me, I read a John Ortberg book as well as George Steinbrenner's biography most of the morning. The weather was remarkably warm for the morning, so I spent most of it outside.

3) Karen and I drove the kids to UW-Madison and the six of us ate outside at the terrace, which overlooks the lake. It's great spot to chill out, study, or eat. Wasn't quite that good at Gordon. As I walked down towards the lake, I noticed a large amount of algae on the shore. There was even a dead fish floating in it.

4) With Caleb getting a little restless, they decided to take him home. I think I went on the back porch and caught up on the sleep that I had been missing over the last two months. I think I slept on the back porch for about two hours.

5) Eventually, I did some more reading and then heard some shrieking and hollering in the yard. Emma and Sophie were clearly having a ball and I heard a few chuckles from Nef too, though I wasn't sure what as going on. I didn't really need to see. The sound was good enough. But Karen came outside with Caleb and I walked over to see what was going on. Nef set up the sprinkler for himself and the girls. They were sliding on one of the those flat plastic slides. A few kids from next door came over and joined in the fun too. I was fine just watching.

6) Then Nef and I took off for Milwaukee. I was happy to see his Iphone had access to WFAN radio and we listened to some of Steve Somers as we cruised down 43.

7) This was disaster Round 2. Fernando Nieve and Oliver Perez were absolutely pathetic. And seeing Corey Hart hit three straight home runs, for seven RBI was just disgraceful.

8) It was amazing how I called three things: 1) Top of the third, Mets trail 5-3. Bases loaded, two outs, pitcher's spot up, a lefty is pitching. Jerry Manuel decided to pinch hit, smart move. I looked into the on-deck circle. The second I saw Gary Matthews step in the circle instead of Fernando Tatis, I yelled out loud "Oh no!" I turned to Nef and said, "Watch, four pitches, he'll strike out." Ball 1, followed by three straight strikes. I knew they were in trouble right there.

9) After Perez allowed Hart's third homer, they Mets were down by four. Against some reliever named Estrada, Ike Davis stepped up with two runners on. I said that Ike would do something big. And he did, swatting a three-run homer to right field that trailed the deficit to 7-6. We were feeling good by this point.

10) The Brewers countered yet again, this time scoring once, extending the lead to 8-6. In the top of the fifth, the Mets loaded the bases on a Frenchy single, Reyes after striking out and the ball getting away, and Castillo on an error by the catcher. In comes Todd Coffey, who gets Jason Bay to weakly ground out to second base. To that point, every inning had at least one run score. I sad to Nef and the Mets fan sitting behind us, "Watch, knowing the Mets, there won't be any more runs in the whole game." Not only was I right, but the Mets never had another baserunner for the final four innings of the game.

11) So we got in around 11:30, and I had a hoarse voice and sore feet. I woke up the next morning and took off around 6:30. I had breakfast at the Machine Shed in Rockford and enjoyed some sourdough French toast with their apple cider syrup, which was amazingly smooth and warm. Three fried eggs and some thick cut bacon rounded out the meal.

12) I headed straight for church and arrived just in time to hear Brain Coffey deliver his message on marriage. And I had a rather large cinnamon roll ready for the group...