tobermory's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mad Pee-er Strikes Again! What a weekend. Most of it was fantastic! Friday night we drove up to the Dean Jensen Gallery in Milwaukee to pick up the tattoo flash art that we bought a couple of weeks ago. As part of their price, the gallery frames the pieces and they had to put all that together and also I had to bring in the final payment. I really like this gallery � most of their art is priced pretty reasonably in the $3000 and under � mostly under � range, and they aren�t snooty at all. We hung around for a little while and chatted and then headed up to the Bay View neighborhood to eat. Like the boob I am, I had done some web research earlier and found a Mexican restaurant that looked good, but I left the name and address on my desk at work. Doh! So, I called Walter at home to see if he could look it up for me. He was pressed for time, but managed to fid what I thought was the place. When we drove up it didn�t sound or look right so I called Megan and with some careful search words and the OnMilwaukee.com site she helped me track down Xel-Ha, which was the place I�d had in mind. Luckily it was only about five minutes away so we headed there. It was in a kinda creepy neighborhood � like maybe there was some sort of half-way house or SRO apartment building near there but we managed to score a parking place on a major street and we settled in for what was basically a show with dinner. As we ate our superb burritos (Steve had the meat combo and I had the shredded pork) we watched a never ending stream of weirdos walk past the window. Is it just me or are some parts of Wisconsin trapped in a time warp? I saw more skinny, white-trashy looking guys with too tight jeans and t-shirts, walrus mustaches, and stringy long hair in the hour it took us to eat dinner than I usually see in a year. Also, I saw a great she-mullet on a woman who must have been 70 � dyed a shocking Rita Heyworth red to boot. There were also a goodly number of people who seemed to have mental issues � mutterers, hand-wavers, shufflers and the like. Add to this the shifty looking urban youth we saw and you have some great visuals to keep you occupied during dinner. Just as I was finishing up my burrito I looked down at one of the little chunks that had fallen out as I was eating and what did I see? Valves. Or veins. Whatever, it totally grossed me out. I know the burrito was super excellent, and it won�t stop me from going there again, I�ll just have to order a veggie burrito next time instead of the valve-arito. I swear that the valves just seem to find their way into my food. But, it didn�t put me off so much as to make me not want dessert. Steve and I split something called a Pastel Helado � layers of cookies and lime flavored cream cheese. Mmmmmm. Maybe next time I�ll just order like three of those and skip the regular food altogether. Post dinner we went to the Palm Tavern which was opened up by an ex-Hopleaf bartender. I think he might have vaguely recognized me, but I�m thinking not as I didn�t frequent the Hopleaf on the nights he worked and when I did go I probably only ordered beer from him � no chatting. But his bar is super excellent � great beer list, nice music (and not too loud), and excellent atmosphere. We�ll add it to the list of regular stops in Milwaukee. Saturday I went to the archery range with Megan and unlike the past few visits I actually enjoyed myself. At the suggestion of many of the folk in the Lincoln Park Archery Club it was suggested that I dust off my compound bow and switch over to that for awhile. They described recurve archery as a sport/hobby that is either best taken up as a youth or for when you get bored with compound style. Lucky for me I bought a really nice Hoyt Sapphire compound bow on eBay about a year ago so all I needed were a few tweaks to get me set up. It really is easier � by the end of the day by the time I�d adjusted my sight I was getting groupings that would have made me cry with joy if I�d gotten them with my recurve. So, I guess I�ll switch for the summer when I have to shoot longer distances and then maybe go back to the recurve in the winter when I only have to shoot at 20 yards. I got home from the range to discover the mad pee-er had stuck again � in full force. Toby got the couch again (since I thought the problem was over I had stopped tarping it up when it wasn�t in use) and he got the toilet again. Gah. I was so upset I started crying. I�m thinking this is some sort of territorial bullshit between him and Ivy � a pissing contest if you will. At least it was a nice day so I could wash the couch cover again and be able to line dry it. Gah. I�m hoping that when we move upstairs that will give the cats more room to claim as their own and this will all stop. The space we�re in now is pretty small (900 sq. feet) and it�s shotgun style meaning that there�s one main drag running through the whole apartment and the cats pretty much have to pass each other to get anywhere and then they have their little smackdowns which seems to be the seat of the problem. I�m not ruling out the fact that Toby�s bladder infection is still there � in fact I have to make another appointment so that they can check him again � but the randomness of the incidents seems to point more to some mental problem rather than physical. Saturday night was a blur of parties � my nephew�s graduation fete at my brother�s house and then a Father�s Day bash at Steve�s parents house. Both were fun and had great food. Sunday we had no plans � a total luxury at Chez Steve and Paula. We slept in late and then wandered over to the Hilltop to have lunch. Later Steve replaced the old toilet with the �new� one-piece toilet. Man � was it ever stanky under the toilet � major cleaning was necessary to get rid of the cat pee and hair that had collected there. The whole toilet changing thing created a small problem in our little one toilet house. Steve had originally told me that it would take about a half and hour. Which if the job had proceeded normally, it would have. But once Steve took out the toilet and I cleaned underneath, Steve decided to finish the grout on the base tile and then put on a tile sealer � both of which take some time to dry. A few hours later I found Steve out in front weeding and I gave him the international symbol for �I have to pee�. He was unsympathetic. Tough times call for tough measures. I peed into a plastic cup. And then I went into the alley and poured my pee into the sewer and tossed the cup in our trash. I�m so classy it kills me. Thanks god I didn�t have to make �big potty�. It all worked out in the end � we have a nice one-piece toilet that will be easy to clean and seems to have a more thorough flush than the old one (I�ve only peed in it so far so I�ll have to update y�all on the flush factor after I have a full toilet experience). For dinner we grilled perch fillets hobo-style in little foil packets and made some baby broccoli to as a side � YUMMY! I was going to make rice but I forgot that the steamer takes about 45 minutes. Post-dinner we watched some � you guessed it � Homicide: The Never Ending TV Show. We�re on Season 4 and according to a site that monitors when tv shows come out on DVD, Season 5 is due out in August. Will it never end? Only after Season 6 & & come out too. OK � I�ve gone way over my usual entry length and probably bored y�all to tears so I�ll sign off now. 2:19 p.m. - 2004-06-21 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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