Milwaukee

This weekend we went to Milwaukee, WI. "We" being myself, Deanna, and Sam from CSz. Milwaukee Csz was having a regional tournament and we went to represent.

We left at 2:30pm to get Sam's girlfriend from her job downtown...we got to Milwaukee around 6:00. Almost 4 hours.

Other cities in attendance were Indianapolis, Quad Cities, Minneapolis, Houston, and Milwaukee.

It was fun to watch other teams play. There are a couple new games we got. A couple different ways to play games that work great. And a couple games that I can do without.

We played 3 games total, and we went 3-0! No losses!

On Friday night we stayed at the Hilton. We got a pretty good deal through Hotwire, and Sam go the same deal. Here is where I tangent a little.

Deanna and I have been watching this show on TV called "Little People, Big World" on TV. It's about the Roloff family from Oregon. The parents are both Little People. They have a young son, an older daughter, and their oldest kids are twin boys. Of those four kids, only one of the twin boys is a little person as well. This show is great. One, I get to see Oregon stuff on TV (I think they live in Sherwood). Two, it's great to learn about little people. The dad sells kits (Stools, clothes rack extensions, etc) to hotels that help accomodate little people. He also goes to Little people conferences around the nation.

Back to the story. As we were leaving the Hilton on Saturday to get lunch, we saw a little person. Normally if I see someone "different" I stare a little...more because I'm curious than scared or appauled. When she walked by I didn't get that feeling. It was great. THEN I saw another little person. What!? As we got in the elevator to go to the parking garage there were four little people coming out of it. I don't get giddy or starstruck around celebrities much. But I totally got that feeling as we got on the elevator and then headed to our car. THERE WAS A LITTLE PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE IN THE HOTEL!!(I assumed). I wondered if the Roloffs were there. It was a crazy feeling.

From there we went to eat at "The Safe House". If you're ever in Milwaukee, go eat here. It is fun. It is very spy themed. When you go to the restaurant you enter down through an alley. You then go into the "International Export Company" It's a small waiting area that looks kind of like an entrance to a export company. If you wait long enough someone will get on the speaker and ask you for the password. If you know it, they flip a switch and a bookcase opens up to let you in. If you don't, the voice on the speaker has you prepare for your assignment. The room is also displayed on monitors throughout the restaurant so you can see what the people are doing. We watched people: Act like monkeys; do ballet; do the hokey pokey. Once you go through the bookcase you go through a passage and when you step on a certain piece of floor, a panel of wall opens up to reveal the restaurant. The whole place applauds as you walk in if you had to do something to get in.

The Safe House is filled with Spy stuff. Some just being wall displays, but there are some other neat things: The bathroom plays a police scanner instead of music. In the women's bathroom there is a picture of Burt Reynolds in the buff with a metal heart covering his privates. If you try to move the heart you get hit by a burst of air and an alarm goes of in the restaurant letting everyone know what you've done. There's a room in the women's bathroom that let's you see through a mirror out into the restaurant. You can turn a light on in there to let people see you. They had an alibi phone booth that would let you play sound effects over the phone to disguise where you were. The pub on the corner called "the Newsroom" has a special booth that rotates into the Safe House. The neatest little thing we found was a secret exit. You can go through the main exit, or go into a phone booth. Put a quarter in the phone and a voice tells you to enter a code. When you do, the door you came in through locks and says "occupied" to the out side people. Meanwhile a wall slides open and lets you down into a passage that exits the building.

This place was great.

From there we went back to CSz. Did a 3:00 show. Then headed to the Polish Fest for an hour. Luckily we crossed paths with a man and woman who asked if we had our tickets. We said "no". They gave us four tickets. We got in for free! Wandered the grounds. Deanna and I danced one Polka...well we scurried around the floor with other people dancing around us.

Then headed back for the final of our shows.

It was a great time overall. We got on the freeway at 11:01 and made it home by 12:34am. Much better than the drive up.

Today...the Pride Parade is right out our doorstep.