Concertina Bar

Friday night Ryan and I had a quintessential Milwaukee evening. After an exhausting day at work we headed out for a fish fry at Benno's, our favorite West Allis Bar with something like thirty craft beers on tap. I sipped the day away with a pint of Double Bastard, from Stone Brewery out of San Diego. It's got a pretty high alcohol content so Ryan enjoyed teasing me by telling me I drank the equivalent of five PBRs. We enjoyed our cod and french fries and made our way over to Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall where we met our friends Andy and Cindy.

Kochanski's has colorful Christmas lights strung in all the windows, concertinas and accordions decorating the inside and a diverse crowd (ranging from 80-year-olds to hipsters). The owner was celebrating his fortieth birthday so there was a party happening with a predictable Wisconsin style spread including, sloppy joes, pulled hot beef, potato salad, chips and dip, and Planter's puffed cheese balls. Two bands were competing for our attention in a friendly duel, one rockabilly and the other traditional polka. We sipped on Zywiec (Polish import beer) and watched party goers dance polka to In Heaven There Is No Beer. There was a little two year old there with some family member that all of the relatives couldn't get enough of. He kept getting picked up by this grandma and that aunt to dance polka or having his picture taken. We spent a few hours laughing with Andy and Cindy and then headed off to Leon's Custard for an end to our over-the-top Milwaukee evening. You know you're in Wisconsin when you wait in line for custard at the end of January in near-zero temperatures.

Saturday morning I woke up with a horrid migraine and spent the entire day in a black hole. I slept from nearly 11am through to 6am Sunday and still woke up with a headache. We tried to get outside for some fresh air today, but I find nothing has cured the headache completely. My throat feels a bit sore now and Ryan would concur that I'm crabby, so I think full-blown sickness may be coming on.

I still managed to finish my cover letter and application for a position at UW-Milwaukee. I hemmed and hawed over this thing for over a week, even though I clearly meet every preferred qualification. Lord help me when I have to write one where my qualifications don't line up quite so clearly. We also made it to the grocery store and shopped for our abridged meal plan this week. We are heading to Chicago on Wednesday to chaperone an international Model UN competition.

Sunday - Homemade Spinach Feta Pizza (Ryan's recipe)
Monday - Carrot and Ginger Soup (Journal Sentinel cutout recipe)
Tuesday - Potato and Vegetable Curry (Lemlin)

Ryan's whipped out two loafs of whole wheat dutch oven bread and he's working on his "Wacky Cake" - a depression era cake made with flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, oil and vinegar. It sounds like it would be weird but it tastes no different than any other chocolate cake you'd make at home and it's delicious. Ryan's taken to adding a bit of coffee to spruce up the flavor.

Ryan gets wacky:


Research:


We purchased tickets to Mexico City for our spring vacation in April. We rented a sweet guest apartment for our stay.

Since it's almost February we got a new monkey on our calendar: