Meel-ee-wauk-ay: Algonquin for "The Good Land"

So we had a lovely long weekend in the land of cheese and beer and sausage last weekend so I could enjoy my two very favorite bands: The Killers (duh) and Flight of the Conchords.  Here's how it went down:

Thursday night we rolled into town and went for dinner at Karl Ratzsch's. It's a German restaurant and we thought we would have some steins of beer and sausages and sing polkas and be merry, but it's not really that kind of restaurant.  We still had beer and sausages but it was a little more stuffy than clanking steins together and merrily blabbing out the words to the Beer Barrel Polka.  That's my dinner in the picture there.  Mmmmm.  The hot mustard sauce is to die for.  I could have eaten it with a spoon. Paul had a not-so-German pork chop, but it came with sauerkraut so I guess you can call it Bavarian.  Or something. Paul very much enjoyed his massive beer, and I thought I would hold off until the concert to have a beer, which was STUPID, because one beer and one water cost $12 at the Eagles.  Duuuhhhh.  Why don't I ever remember how much it costs to drink at concerts?!

I will spare you most of my Killers pictures because I'm

 sure you've seen them before, but let me pick out a particularly good one... well hello, Mr. Flowers. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something sexy about rolled up shirt sleeves.  Brandon Flowers or not, I mean. So when BFlo does it, it's a double whammy.  Raawrrr.  I couldn't see very well most of the show, but I guess that's OK.  This was my fifth time seeing them and they pretty much did the exact same set they did in January in Minneapolis, but switched around a little.  Plus, because of my horrible view, I managed to guilt Paul into sticking around after the show to see if we could get a picture or something.  Only Ronnie came out, and he chatted for a bit but no one was taking pictures or asking for autographs and I didn't want to be That Girl so I didn't ask either.  Damn BFlo has evaded me once again.  Maybe next time.

Friday we did a lot of shopping... TOO much shopping, judging by my credit card.  But we also toured the Miller brewery.  Three nearly full-sized samples at the end of the FREE tour, peeps. You'd be grinning if you had just downed a Miller Lite, a Miller Genuine Draft and a Leinie's Sunset Wheat in the span of about 15 minutes too.  I LOVE the Leinie's Sunset Wheat, by the way.  Delish. 

We also went to a Brewers game, which was way fun.  I'm officially adopting them as my second team... the Cubs being the first, of course.  There's just something magical about Wrigley.

 But Miller Park is a great venue and I love that fans tailgate before games. I LOVE how much Milwaukeeans love their beer in general, actually.  I wrote a post about the Brewers and Miller Park today so I won't pump you full of too much trivia here.  Suffice it to say that even though the Brewers lost, I had a good time.

Saturday we had tried Real Chili, which is apparently a Marquette favorite.  I could totally see that on a cold day - it's chili with spaghetti in it.  Well, you don't have to get spaghetti, but I'm telling you that you should.  It was yummy.  You also get to pick your sides... onions, jalapenos, sour cream and cheese. Oyster crackers come automatically.  SO GOOD, and so cheap.  You can get it in three levels of hotness and then adjust that to your liking with hot sauce and vinegar on the table.  Medium was sufficiently hot for me... made my nose run a little, it was that spicy.  But delicious.  We also went to the Pabst Mansion and checked that out but no pictures were allowed, so no pictures for you either.  It was pretty interesting, though, and our 85-year-old tour guide started coughing about halfway through the tour and then said she wished she had a beer right about now.  I'm telling you, I think people in Wisconsin are born drinking!

Before we went to Flight of the Conchords, I took Paul to the Safe House.  Imagine you're James Bond or Mata Hari and you're on the run; you need a place to duck into for a while where you can lay low and, hey, maybe enjoy a drink.  What's the point of being James Bond if you can't enjoy a Vesper, right?  I won't spoil any of the surprises for you, except the one in the picture, but it has all the trappings spies need to keep themselves entertained.  We didn't get to use the secret exit but I did find it this time... last time it eluded me. I'm going to tell you that Burt resides in the girls' bathroom, but I'll let you find out for yourself what happens if you try to look under his heart.  Hmmm.  SO!  On to Flight of the Conchords.  

They were awesome and hysterical, but I was a little embarrassed because people kept yelling things out.  This isn't an improv show, people, this is just like going to a concert.  They've prepared a set and when  you yell things you're disrupting the flow.  At first they rolled with it, but after the same guy yelled "I love you Bret" the fifth time, I couldn't hardly blame Bret when he replied, "What?  You said you have to go?  That's a shame."  They were visibly annoyed by all of the yelling, but that didn't really stop people from yelling.  However, they were still awesome, as you can see by my Suga'Lumps video: