Sweet Justice in the Upper Peninsula

I had some righteous business to attend at the courthouse in Iron Mountain, Michigan. The arm of Milito justice is long indeed!

Did some blog writing with my free time on the plane. These are some artisan, handcrafted words you're reading right now.

Oh this old thing? It's just a pen I picked up at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo, Egypt. It overlooked the Nile. It's not a big deal.

The plane bathroom had funny fake Delta family photos on the walls. This is truly some hard hitting journalism.

I arrived late enough that all of the rental car places were closed. So I stayed at a crap hotel near the Milwaukee airport and went back and grabbed a car in the morning.

I was thinking about how much more horrible this trip would become if I got snowed in.

So after 2 flights I still was a 3.5 hour drive away from dealing out sweet justice in Iron Mountain.

It was pretty desolate country up there.

Once arrived in Iron Mountain I was on the hunt for some local cuisine. Lucky for me I was in pasty country. Long time readers may recall that I first encountered the pasty from whence it came: Cornwall County, England. At the time I described it as "basically a hot pocket that doesn't make your stomach sad" and I think I will stand by those profound words.

So Cornwall was full of miners and they ran out of things to mine, so they migrated. You may be shocked to learn that Iron Mountain, Michigan had a few things that needed mining. So some of those Cornish dudes settled in the area and brought their delicious Hot Pockets with them. And the rest is history.

This sign was so fun. Not only does it explain how to pronounce "pasty", but it refers to them as Yooper food.

As you can see from the map, Iron Mountain is in Upper Peninsula Michigan, or UP for short. So Yooper describes someone from the UP. I thought that was kind of fun.

The ladies at Jean Kay's had delightful northern accents with plenty of "eh"s for me to enjoy. Eh.

I went with the classic steak and potatoes with rutabaga. It was fantastic.

While I waited for my hearing I did some paper copying at the Dickinson County Library.

It was a cute little library. I had to give them my driver's license to get this internet access placard thing.

I then headed over to the Dickinson County Courthouse. There was a Michigan Historic Site sign out front:

Dickinson County

In 1873, John Lane Buell exposed one of the richest deposits of iron ore in the world. His discovery, known as the Menominee Iron Range, led to the development of the area and the subsequent creation of Dickinson County in 1891. The last of Michigan's eighty-three counties to be organized, it was named for Donald M. Dickinson, a prominent Detroit attorney and postmaster general in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland (1885-1889). Three of Michigan's largest iron mines were located in Iron Mountain, which had an abundant supply of water power and was served by two major railroads. Iron Mountain became a center of commerce and distribution for the range and was the natural location for the county seat once the county organized.

It was fake lawyering time!

Needless to say I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I'd never talked to a judge in court before and it was pretty terrifying. The courtroom seating was very pew-like. It was kind of like being in church except that the potential punishments for misbehavior were very real. I mostly recall uttering a string of "yes your honor" and "no your honor" and then it was over. The first hearing was over. I then realized I was going to have to make this journey at least two more times before this quest was completed.

Welp. Back to Wisconsin!

I stayed the night at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. It was a pretty nice place downtown and didn't cost too much. I was amused because their little "m" symbol was the exact same as the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis. It's such a snooty place that I hadn't realized that it was a chain. 

I decided to check out what this fellow beer town had to offer with a little bar hopping.

I started off real with a visit to Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub, located in the historic Pabst Brewery.

I was hanging out with Matt Iseman, host of American Ninja Warrior just last week so when it popped onto the tv at the bar I was very amused.

I asked "what's the most Wisconsin food you serve at this joint?" and they pointed me to the fried cheese curds with buffalo sauce on the side. They were very rich. I couldn't finish the whole basket.

Next I went to Wolski’s Tavern located on Milwaukee’s lower east side. The place has been open since 1908 and seems to have a local cult following. I didn't really get what all the fuss was about. It was pretty much a neighborhood bar. 

They did have a fun little gimmick: "We’ve become known for our “I Closed Wolski’s” bumper stickers, which end up posted all over the world. Stickers are earned, not purchased, and require a late night at the bar." I had more hopping to do and so was not the recipient of any bumper ornamentation.

Other bars were also in attendance. I don't know. I had a hoot.

Diwali, Voting, and Basketball

I signed up for a lot of the clubs at work. They seem to be taking it well considering I'm none of the minorities nor a woman. Anyway, the Asian club had a fun Diwali celebration at work. One of the best parts was first learning what the heck Diwali is. It is the Hindu festival of light, which seems to in part be about the solstice? Anyway there's oil lamps, fancy clothes, and eating. Sold!

This was the best food I think I've ever had in the building.

Kirin is Japanese but was apparently Asian enough for the festival. On tap there was also a beer that I briefly helped to brew at the Star Shop.

After work Lydia and I became two tiny drops in the blue wave that washed President* Trump's dreams away. I look forward to mailing disparaging letters in envelopes full of glitter to the prison they put him in.

Later we took a couple of friends to a SLU basketball game. The tickets were from AB. Why not?

Oyster Festing

After a long hiatus we are back working RFT events. This time they are more flagship type parties rather than setting up a little table at every piddly fair in St. Louis. I like this situation better.

Our first event was the Shuck Yeah oyster festival at Molly's in Soulard. Not only do we get to go to the events and get paid for it, we get to do a little sampling of samples as well.

We were the ticket takers and the bracelet appliers.

We had oysters for days.

First Week at New Job

My first Friday on my new software development team at Anheuser-Busch was eventful. First we all went to lunch at McGurk's.

One of the guys whipped out this multiple years old package of chocolate covered scorpions he wanted me to eat as some sort of hazing ritual.

Thank you sir may I have another?

Around 3 o'clock multiple beer fridges are all unlocked throughout the building. The guys scurry between the different beer cases looking for the new and exotic before it's all drunk up. This Dust is Dead from Elysian was new and exciting.

Every Friday there's a big department wide meeting. They pick a beer to have then talk a bit about it, do announcements, stuff like that.

Matt Iseman, host of American Ninja Warrior came to the meeting. I can only assume he was there to congratulate me on my new job.

After the big meeting they all go to a little break room that I didn't know about and play pool and stuff. I could get used to this.

Afterwards we went to a dive bar. There was a strange dog on the counter.

Joe Biden, Claire McCaskill, and the Colonel

Election day was approaching so we went to a Senator Claire McCaskill rall at a local union hall. The last time I came here Billy Clinton was the big draw, and this time it was Joe Biden.

Colonel Sanders was inexplicably in attendance.

An added bonus to the speeches was observing how bad people are with their cell phones. I helped multiple people take pictures, including Colonel Sanders. You might say I showed him the Android secret recipe. See what I did there?

After the speeches were all spoke Biden was nice enough to mingle and take pictures with the common folk. Obviously getting a picture with Biden was now my sole mission. He moved a little towards the door with each picture, and there were a ton of people all smashed together trying to get to him, so I put myself where he was going to be rather than trying to beeline at him. It worked and I was proud of myself.

Luckily Joey B's iPhone selfie skills are on point. Not too shabby. I'm still confused how I managed to reach over 20 people to hand him the phone.