14 years of coffee and beer... 10 years of Doc

The Comet "celebrated" 14 years of business last night... turns out it was actually a celebration of 10 years of everyones favorite barkeep... "Doc". A talent show was provided as well as a roast of the guest of honor. We missed the pie and cake, but it was a fun evening!

My Second Porsche

photo from GlennNuijen.be

Whew! So today I test drove my second Porsche. Admittedly, I am much closer to being able to afford it than the last time, tho that's not really saying much and  I won't be buying one very soon. The first Porsche test drive was the large and in-charge Cayenne. I seem to continuing the Cajun theme this time with a short test drive of the Cayman. And like the Cayenne, this is a Porsche I could definitely enjoy owning!

I had no interest in driving the Boxster or the 911 for some reason... I think the fact that there was some practicality to the Cayman appealed to me... it did have a roof rack option after all! Thanks to a lack of a spare tire, and a mid-engine layout, it had generous luggage space in the front trunk and some space in rear, generous in sports car terms at least. The cockpit was fairly spartan and very German, nothing more than you need, nothing less. It was very comfortable and roomy, which was very unexpected, much better than other small sports cars I've sat in. 

Driving, I was surprised how quickly I got comfortable with the controls and how controlled the car felt. On a bumpy road there was some jostling, but honestly no more than the MINI has, so this could be a very nice daily driver. I obviously wasn't on a track, so I didn't get a full performance experience... but there was definitely a fun little beasty lurking underneath just itching for a curvy road. The Cayman is definitely a good edition to my dream car garage! Thanks to Jerry at Concours!

Excellent Opening Day

Didn't get tickets to the game, but that didn't stop us from having a great time tailgating with friends. The wind was cold, but it was a great day otherwise! We watched the dramatic Brewers win against the Cubbies down the block at the Comet! 

MINIs in bloom

Spring in the air... that means only one thing... the MINIs come out! The Milwaukee Minis club met up with people from Chicago for a relaxing spring drive in Southern Wisconsin. I took along my friend Joe who enjoyed the ride... it was a fairly leisure ride thru the country, at least for the MINIs!

Anniversary Stimulus

In our continuing effort to stimulate the economy, we had a lovely dinner at Bacchus downtown. I had eaten there for a seminar, but never for dinner, so we thought we would give it a try since we didn't do our B&B this year. I had the Roasted Chicken marinated in garlic and herbs with Brown Butter Polenta (even though I wanted the Red Wine Braised Shortrib with sweet potato puree, parsnips and pearl onions! Darn tomato based recipes!). It was pretty tasty and filling... was not able to finish it. Of course that could have been all the bread I ate also. Marcia had the Halibut special, which was "pretty good", the fish being much better than the side that came with it. I thought I would be nibbling on Marcia's dessert, but our waiter surprised us with some sorbet... coconut, lemon and some kind of berry. Very much appreciated, despite the spelling error. Not our favorite restaurant, but nice staff and good food! Afterwards we stopped by Buckleys Kiskeam Inn for a couple beers and got to speak with one of the family that own the place, Taylor.... Nice guy and friendly people, will have to try the fish fry there sometime!

Run Down

Had a good trip to Phoenix a few weeks ago. Of course, we visited a few breweries:

Sonora *** Good german beer styles, nothing over the top or incredibly memorable, but good!

Four Peaks **** Some nice tasty brews, such as their Kiltlifter, Hop Knot IPA and Kölsh. Food was good, but the brewery location is the place with the atmosphere. Gotta try the Edamame appetizer!

Oak Creek Brewing *** Excellent Pale ale! Their strong seasonal ales were pretty good too... worth a visit!

Papago Brewing ** Had an Orange Blossom Wheat beer that tasted like fruit loops. Their seasonal Abbey beer was good tho. But you definitely can't beat the bottled beer selection... one of the best!

BJ's Restaurant & Brewery ** Good place for a chain! Had the sampler and most of the beers were easy drinking, no standouts tho.

Other excellent places of note: The Rooselvelt, and the The Lost Leaf are great homey taverns to visit. Matt's Big Breakfast is great diner breakfast food if you can stand the wait (was worth it!).

Of course the was the baseball! Brewer's beat the Cubs, which is always nice... they looked good and hopefully they'll carry that into the season. Maryvale Park was a great time... all the fun from Miller Park but in a much smaller and more intimate, relaxed setting. Everything was there... the Klement's, the tailgating, the Miller, and of course.... the Sausages:

Thanks to Rick and Jeanie for being tour guides!