Are You Ready For Some ----FOOTBALL???

WooHoo!!!  It's preseason...which means "regular" football is right around the corner!

The Packers started off their preseason last night - on a terrible note I may add - against the Arizona Cardinals.

C.J. and I were on hand to witness the slaughter first hand.

Green Bay is about an hour north of us...we planned to stop at the mall in Appleton so we left about 4:00. 

We hit traffic right away!!!  In fact, 90% of our drive looked exactly like this:

And our speed probably averaged about this:

Seriously...I was riding the brakes just about the whole way.

We finally got there about 6:20.  The game started at 7:00.

Legendary Lambeau Field

The recent addition to Lambeau Field which added an additional 7,000 seats.

Upper Seat additions. 

Probably only in Green Bay would 76,000+ people show up for a preseason game.

Scoreboard.  A lot of World Championships!  But only 2 in the last 35+ years.

Trust me...it was packed!  And sitting on a bench for three hours did little to help the pain in my back, neck, and shoulder.  But, I made it through and enjoyed everything except the actual game.

To be fair...Rodgers only played for one possession. And 30% or more of their starting team didn't even suit up.  But it was UGLY!!!

Rodgers leading the opening drive

We left with six minutes left in the game - but then so did everyone else.   It took a little over a half hour to get to the highway (about 1/2 mile away). 

A great night with my son...thank you C.J.

Update

I went to see my primary yesterday morning.  My main reason for the visit was to re-test my blood for liver levels so that I could (hopefully) start taking the Diclofenac again.

The visit turned into a good news/bad news type of deal.

Good News:
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  Yep...that's good news.

Bad news: The medications currently used to treat this are all filtered through the liver and he said would never put me on any of them because of how fast my liver levels spiked last spring.  He said he had never seen a patient go from normal levels to the elevated levels mine were in such a short time.
So...even if my blood tests come back with normal levels, I cannot take the diclofenac as I was taking it before.  He wants me to take it only every other day or every three days. 

He really surprised me when he said that the amount of pain medication I was taking could actually be increasing the sensitivity in my nerve endings thus increasing the pain in my pressure points. 

Tentative plans are to pull way back on the pain medication, start the diclofenac (pending blood tests), and a muscle relaxer at nighttime. 

It may be tricky to find the right balance but...it's a start.  It's an answer.

A Leftover

One of our walks while up north with mom and dad.

It was about 60* out at this time.

Think they spend too much time in Florida?

Too Good to Pass Up

The Brewers stink this year!  I'm talking terrible!

And to compound this stinkiness, their best player has been suspended for the remainder of the season for supposedly using performance enhancing drugs.

Add to this the fact the MLB got frustrated with teams selling tickets for such a cheap price (remember last year when we got our tickets for 75 cents) and set a $5.00 minimum price on all tickets.

Needless to say, with all this, that getting to a Brewers game this year was not high on our bucket list. 


However, desperate to fill seats, the Brewers are giving a $10.00 concession voucher to every ticket purchased. 

$5.00 ticket = $10.00 worth of food.  How could you go wrong?

Food vouchers given to each ticketed person

Then, when we got there and paid $10.00 for parking, I found out the bottom of the parking ticket could be torn off and redeemed for a medium soda!  I honestly don't know how they're making any money.

Once again, we were very fortunate to have great weather.

The game itself was pretty yucky.  Nothing at all to cheer about - no runs with 4 measly hits the whole game.

Bernie was pretty bored this game - no need to go down his slide.

Bernie slides down the yellow slide after each Brewer home run

This is how my boys spent most of the game.

boys texting or on the internet

Really, the highlight of the game was the traditional sausage race.

Our section was not represented

Before each game the boys and I try to guess who will have a home run that game...this was my guy.

Segura - you let me down

Um...yeah...he really came through for me.  Going 0-4 including a strike-out with a man on third and only one out!

It was funny when the sound guy tried to fire the crowd up at the beginning of the bottom of the 9th inning.  It wasn't happening.

But, despite the pathetic game...we had a great time.

Retired Brewers numbers...Rollie Fingers, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron

Other retired numbers...Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. Bob Ueker has been the voice of the Brewers for what seems like forever.

Now for my rant!!!!!!!

People who cannot show up on time for sporting events!!!!!!

This pretty much drives me crazy.

Not only do I think they are rude by showing up in the middle of the game and then distracting everyone and blocking views while they try to find their seats...like these people who showed up at the end of the 1st inning and took a good five minutes to decide who was going to sit where:

They are also inevitably the people who sit directly in front of me!  Like these three who showed up in the 3rd inning.

These rude people are still not in the stadium yet - a whole hour after the game started:

Get your act together people!!!!

Rant over.

Ski Jump

While up north we went to the ski jump.  We probably wouldn't have gone if C.J. were not along.

But he only gets there once a year...and he loves climbing to the top.

The rest of us enjoy the view.


And occasionally my mom meets people she can tell her life story to --- right C.J.?

C.J. halfway to the top



The landing for the jumpers

War memorial

Pine Mountain Resort

Dog In Car

No matter how much time he spends in the car - he is always ready to go again!!!

As long as mama is going along.

Back Again

We just got back from our fourth visit to the U.P this summer.

We spent another wonderful week with the grandparents. 

This time, with all of us there, we had enough people to play our nightly games of this:

C.J. and I vs. Jon and dad

One of my "better" hands.  I didn't get a cut though.

And this:

No money...only chips.

C.J. and Jon took turns winning (2 games each).  Dad and I were the big losers...every night!

And please ignore the blinding yellow drapes...my parent's inherited this place from an aunt who decorated it quite fashionably and expensively - in the 70's. My parents do not want to invest any money in this place (and talk about selling it all the time) so they just leave it this way.

More updates about our trip later.