The plans for this weekend included one last seasonal trip to Blondies Sports Bar to watch Northwestern football, followed by the oft-delayed celebratory drinks for my 32nd birthday. No one expected Northwestern to beat no.1 ranked Ohio State but, it's not certain that anybody expected them to lose so badly. With a final score of 54-10, Saturday at Blondies left me with the bitter taste of cold buffalo wings and embarrassment. Good thing we were going to a German beer hall that night — I needed to rinse my mouth out.

Because of conflicts, marathons and midterm elections, we had postponed drinks by a week to promote a larger turnout. The only problem was, we kinda forgot to consult the bar about the date change. Whoops. Did you know that Germany has its own Karneval? Did you know that it's celebrated in November? Because we sure as hell didn't. Beth and I showed up at Loreley's Biergarten only to find it stuffed with German ex-pats wearing warmed-over Halloween costumes and sing at the top of their drunken lungs. Mmmm… I didn’t think so. With the help of Bret and Pete, we quickly relocated and after going through all the numbers on our cell phones, we settled down in a dark, noisy basement lounge hoping that even one person might show up. And for those that did… thank you very much.

But for all the bad luck of Saturday, Sunday made up for it with a visit from our good friend Nat. One of those good friends who you can go without seeing for years and then pick up with like you saw him only yesterday, Nat was in town for his younger sister’s wedding. After a couple of trips out to New York over the years, he finally got a chance to come out to our place. And the Simpson’s quotes flowed…