Bryan is buying...Duffy's
Sports Pub??? WE HAVE A DEAL! After several months of speculation and
quite a bit of work, I am excited to announce the that as of the evening of May
14th all parties involved have come to an agreement on price to take 50%
ownership in Duffys Sports Pub in Palatine. The actual transaction and
transfer of ownership will happen in early June. My partner in this deal
is Larry Rebodos (younger brother of Leon), and the initial planned management
structure would have each of us as 1/4 owners. However, we are helping the
other current owner plan his "exit strategy", so within 6-12 months Larry and I
will more than likely take full ownership of the business.
This is certainly a
different business venture than our backgrounds would indicate, but
we've both had an interest in this industry for a while, plus as me
being a "professional customer" of Duffys and other similar
establishments for a long time, I offer some solid insight from a
client's perspective. The current owner (Bill Roscoe) has been
quite successful in the bar/restaurant business for 35 years and
will be a tremendous asset, both as a business partner and a mentor.
We're confident that we will be able to balance our current business
activities with this venture, and we definitely look forward to some
exciting times with the bar! More updates as the deal gets
finalized.
Happy 9th Anniversary to
Missy & Steve Berry!
On May 15th my sister celebrates nine years of married bliss...just
wanted to wish them the best.
Congrats to one of this
sites biggest fans!
My buddy Steve May, who is a
regular viewer of this site, and his wife Mindy just had their
second child, a son named James Patrick.
No other info available at this time, but everyone is doing
great.
Condolences to Steve Berry & family
James Berry, the father of my brother-in-law Steve, passed away
on May 7th at the age of 84. He had been in poor health for quite a
while and was in hospice in Tucson AZ for the past several weeks. I
refrained from prior postings on this subject as Steve preferred to keep it a
more private matter, so hopefully this announcement was OK to include here.
New AJ Pics - January
through March 2008
FINALLY the latest AJ pictures have
been posted, covering many events in the first quarter of 2008
that include a California trip and of course lots of winter fun in
this years heavy snow. The pages for niece Isabella and nephew
Rory will follow in the near future - lots more of these to share as
well.
Picture of the Moment Over this past weekend we had a
"surprise" party for Laura's birthday, which tied into her mom's favorite
Chinese restaurant and some additional "Happy Mother's Day" greetings. Laura was
very happy, the company was great, and for once the food didn't give me the runs.
Everyone wins!
Mongo's Musings (formerly knows as
Bryan's Bloglike Bantering) Just a taste of my
postings can be found here - you can read the full stories and leave
your comments at my blog spot:
http://huskerfan1.wordpress.com/
May 2, 2008
Battle of the Ballparks in Chicago
I'm "borrowing" again from the Chicago Tribune for this article, as
it's interesting to baseball fans on both sides in Chicago. At
the bottom is a ranking/comparison of U.S. Cellular vs. Cleveland's
Progressive Park (#1 overall) and Wrigley Field vs. Milwaukee's
Miller Park (#2 overall, #1 in NL). For the most part I agree
with both articles & the rankings, but of course I have a few
comments to share. First and foremost, the articles are
supposed to be about why this is your favorite ballpark, not ripping
apart another one. Listen, I love Steve Dahl and still enjoy
his show, but in his opening comments (and then more shortly
thereafter) he's magnified the glaring weakness that affects most
Sox fans - the inability to carry on a conversation about baseball
without mentioning something derogatory about the Cubs.
I say "most" because there are a scant few that actually realize the
Cubs are not their direct threat and worry more about Cleveland,
Detroit & Minnesota. So this is my message to the majority of
Sox fans - get over it already. You're probably not going to
be the most popular team in the Chicagoland area, ever, or at least
in our lifetimes. So what? You've won a World Series in
the recent past and have a contingency of loyal fans. Be happy
with the accomplishments, as the crazy bitterness reflects badly on
both you as a fan and on your team.
I've been to the
four ballparks mentioned numerous times and feel the rankings make
sense. Miller Park is truly a great place to see a ball game -
excellent facilities, great food/drinks, easy in & out, and
extremely family friendly. Not much else around there, but
it's not in a horrible neighborhood either. Progressive Park
is absolutely outstanding on virtually all levels, and I'd actually
bump them up a few notches on hospitality as I found the fans very
friendly. The Cell ranks higher than Wrigley (8 vs. 15)
primarily due to the better facilities, is more family friendly and
is definitely easier in terms of access (parking, etc.). I
think they rank the atmosphere there a bit higher than it should be,
but I'm a bit biased. On that note, there are few if any
places that will beat Wrigley in terms of tradition, atmosphere, and
the absolute fun of a great surrounding neighborhood. Yes,
some of us do actually go there to watch baseball though the extra
partying certainly helps create a very fun event. In regards
to Fan IQ - funny! Both are in the top third, but Sox rank #4
while Cubs rank #8. What probably drags the Cubs down a bit
are the thousands of people just there for the party...plus all the
extra alcohol kills brain cells.
To give the Chicago
Tribune credit - the original articles that follow can be found
here,
here,
here and
here.
Here's why
Wrigley Field is No. 1 to me By Ron Santo As told to Paul Sullivan
May 1, 2008
....(for the full
posting, click here)
Past Postings
(2005-2007) Includes all sorts of crap, such as my brief, personal summary
of 2007, history lessons, the "F" word, sports, politics, random
thoughts & funnies, and much more. Sorted by date posted so
you may have to scroll a bit to find stuff. Good luck!
Quote of the Moment:
"I get
up every morning determined to both change the world and have
one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day
difficult."
Class of '83 25th reunion:
July 18-20, 2008
For those of you who were fellow Palatine High School classmates of
mine, head over to our official class website
www.phs1983.com for details on
our class reunion and how you can help. The reunion weekend
will be July 18-20, 2008...
Support
McCain for President!
Senator John McCain is a political figure that I've liked for years,
and with his moderately conservative views always thought he'd be a great choice to lead our country.
I'm officially supporting
McCain for
President and without getting into major political arguments
hope that my family and friends will share their support as well.
You can check out the
support site.
My Website Resolutions Everyone makes New Years resolutions, so
here's mine as it relates to this
website...
Leon Rebodos - doing well
since the surgery! One of my very good friends since grade school,
Leon Rebodos,
underwent emergency open heart surgery early morning on Thursday, December 6th.
The surgery was a success and he's
currently on the long road to recovery. All updates are in the news section.
Welcome, Rory Finnegan Berry! As of August 23, 2007 my sister and her husband became new parents
again. Read about it here,
and see pics here.
Dorsch
Family - Moved to AZ
Gene started a new job that had his family relocate to Arizona. Read more here
and check out pictures of their new house at
Dorsch.org.
Pictures of the Kids You
can always find the picture pages for our child
Alexander (A.J.) under the Alex
Pics link in
the left side near the top. These are updated roughly every
couple months. Additionally, on this page there are links to
pictures of my niece Isabella and my
new nephew Rory.
Site Updates
A log of 2008 updates to this site (by week) can be found
here.
This is the
original classic cut from the 1970 "Paranoid" album.
It's probably obvious why I'm posting it - in honor
of the release of the Iron Man movie! From
what I've seen the move got good reviews but if
anyone sees it let me know what you think (I may not
make it out to the theaters for a while).
For prior "Tunes of
the Moment" see the FUN
STUFF section
*Songs are in MP3 format @ 160 or 192 KBs. They are ZIPPED
so you will have to download and unzip in order to
play it!
This site
will be best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution, with either Firefox or
Internet Explorer.
Thanks for
visiting! Click the pic to e-mail Bryan...
...other McGonigal info on the
CONTACTS
page.
In
Memory of my mother... Mary McGonigal 1944-2006
You will always be with us.