• home

Saturday, February 21, 2009

This Cupid's day was one of the most fun I can remember. I've only been in a relationship during two Valentine Day's ever, and the rest I've been single.

This time, I had the fortune to have an amazing person offer me some comps to a hotel near Louisville, KY. No ordinary hotel, no. It was the hotel connected to the Horseshoe Casino just across the river from "the ville". This deal was offered to me since it is pretty much equa-distant from Columbus and St. Louis.

So Kirsten and I were able to have a much nicer Valentine's weekend than we normally would've (due to either poor-college status or in-between-job status that Kirst and I have).

Friday we met in Louisville at my big brother's house. We stayed there friday night and headed over to the hotel/casino on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday we explored what was basically a town unto itself in middle-of-nowhere, Indiana. Saturday night we enjoyed going to dinner and then heading to one of the bars to listen to some live music. We exchanged V-tine gifts. I got Kirsten a thin silver necklace with a small heart for the charm. She got me a belay device and carabiner for climbing.

Because Kirsten is in grad school, and really needed to do some work, Sunday was mostly comprised of her getting school work done. We had room service bring us breakfast, and then I watched TV and read while she worked. It was a very relaxing day. That evening we headed out to the actual casino.

I should mention that it's my first time to a casino, and it was a blast! I took $30 to "waste". First thing I did was put some money down at a black jack table. I played for about 10 minutes. I could've walked away after about 5 minutes and would've been ahead, but I was just having fun playing. Eventually I lost all the money I had put down and Kirsten and I went to play some slots and video poker. At one point while playing the 2 cent slots, I was up $5, and probably should have cashed out and moved on, but I was just enjoying playing the game, and I eventually busted.

The true highlight of the night was Keno. Kirsten saw it and was really intrigued, so we asked the guy at the counter what we had to do. He explained it to us and we sat down and picked out numbers (a lot like choosing lottery numbers) and gave him our ticket. He handed us our "official cards" and we sat down and watched the numbers as they came up. Kind of like the lottery, you have to match a certain number of numbers to win. The more numbers you match the more you win. Well, the first time we played, I won $20 for matching 6 out of 10 numbers. It was fun! We played a couple more times but didn't win anything. So we decided to head back and have some dinner. Kirsten ended up spending $15 at the casino, and I only lost $10 thanks to my big Keno win!

Unfortunately, the wonderful weekend came to a close on Monday morning when Kirsten headed back to St. Louis, and I headed back to Columbus. To add insult to injury, Sunday night, I started coming down with a cold. So I drove home with a cold on Monday and spent the next couple days taking Day- and NyQuil, curled up in the recliner, eating chicken noodle soup.

Many thanks to Kelly and Jamie for their immense generosity! It was such a fun weekend!

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Thursday, January 22, 2009

New Year's Eve
Lexington, KY
I drove down to Lexington to visit some of the old gang down there. Ashlee was having a party and I was pretty excited to see some familiar and friendly faces. Among the many highlights of the night was talking to William and Sam via Skypewho (at the time) were in New Zealand for part of their year of traveling around the world. The party was featured on one of their podcast videos, and I had a little bit of a post traumatic balloon flash-back around the time the ball dropped. I crashed on a friends couch that night in Richmond, had a lovely breakfast, and then headed on to...

New Year's Day - Jan 5
Richmond, KY
...Dustin and Katie's. My main reason for heading south. I had just came down an extra day early for the New Year's Eve Party. I was spending a few days with Dustin, Katie, and their (at the time) four month old baby, Xander. Dustin was turning old... i mean 30, and he was having a big get-together on Saturday. I got to see plenty of friends, some I hadn't seen in a couple of years. One night we went over to Katie's brother's house, where he has a "man cave" and played a few games of Halo 3. On Monday morning, I drove down to...

Jan 5 - 8
Nashville, TN
...see another couple of good friends of mine, Ben and Rebekah. The following things usually happens when Ben and I get together: go to a coffee shop; talk geek; eat sushi; talk geek, etc. In between the geekery and food we have some entertaining times. We went mini-bowling. I'll have to describe this later or something... in essence - shorter lanes, smaller ball, smaller pins, no bowling shoes. Unfortunately my time drew to a close with them, and my trip started taking me back north via...

Jan 8 - 11
Louisville, KY
...Kelly and Jamie's. I was able to spend a few days with them and their daughter Malorie. Bub (Kelly) was able to "meet" my girlfriend via skype. It was a very nice relaxing time with them (as always)... and they always feed me really well. The highlight of the menu was a wonderfully grilled Filet, baked potato, and grilled red pepper, and to drink.. a nice cold beer. Feeling like I had been living out of a suitcase for nearly two weeks, which I had, I decided it was time to head back...

Jan 11 - 16
Columbus, OH
...home. Or at least where home is for the time-being. We got a lot of snow this week. I was able to go climbing a couple times at the indoor climbing gym that I joined near the end of December. Then, on Friday, I packed up and headed out to...

Jan 16 - 19
St. Louis, MO
...visit my girlfriend, Kirsten! It had been since the middle of December that we had seen each other, and decided it was time for another good face-to-face. The first night I'm there is usually low-key since it's a 7 hour drive to St. Louis from Columbus. We ate at an Irish Pub, watched a movie, and called it a night. On Saturday, I "dragged" Kirsten out to a local rock climbing gym in St. Louis, that I had wanted to check out. We took their "first timer" class that most gyms require you to take, and then climbed for a good solid few hours after the class. Of course, with a full day of climbing, one tends to crash pretty hard at the end of the day. Sunday, Kirsten had to do some work for class, and it was pretty low-key again. Monday, we made another trip to the gym to use the $10 off coupons we got for taking the class. *grin*
Of course, Tuesday morning came WAY too early, meaning Kirsten had class, and I had to drive the 7 hour trip back to Columbus.

Jan 19 - present
Columbus, OH
So, now, I'm pretty much doing a lot of rock climbing at Vertical Adventures, eating, sleeping, working on some portfolio stuff, and playing some video games here and there.

It's nice to be home... but on the down side... none of my friends are here.

Labels: fun, geekery, holiday, life, news, random

Friday, August 15, 2008

At the beginning of this week, I took a brief trip to Paducah, KY. "What's in Paducah," you might ask.

Normally, nothing of much importance to me is in Paducah. This past week, though, Stephanie and Chris were there.

They were visiting with some of Steph's family, and they invited me to stay with them. I headed out Sunday night after the performance of Joseph, made it to Paducah, reunion full of hugs, and then crashed about 1:00am.

Monday was my day off, which is what enabled me to make this little mini-vacation, and it was SO much fun and very relaxing. Chip and Sonya (Steph's relatives) have a really nice house with an in-ground pool and a home theatre (not just a really nice tv and surround sound... an ACTUAL home theatre). So as soon as we woke up, we had some breakfast, and then headed out to the pool for outdoor recreation. The highlight, for me, was they have a little Sea-Doo Scooter that pulls you along under water. It was a lot of fun to put on a pair of goggles and see if you could make it all the way around the pool on a single breath of air with the thing pulling you.

When we had our fill of the pool, we came inside to watch a movie or two. We finished up the usable daylight in the pool and headed inside for dinner, and some more movies. Over the course of my 36 hour stay, we watched "Bank Job", "21", "Licensed to Wed", and "Fools Gold".

Tuesday, we ate breakfast, watched another movie, and then just relaxed and watched some of the olympics before I had to head back to St. Louis for the show that night.

It was wonderful to see Stephanie and Chris again! I'm so fortunate to have them in my life!

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Monday, July 07, 2008

Friday, I headed back East to visit some friends for the weekend since I had four straight days off.

That night, I hung out with the group of fine folks that I did most of my fun stuff with in Lexington. Ryan (and Ann) were hosting a cookout. Well, it rained, so it really ended up being a cook-out-then-in. We visited and played some games. William and I ventured out when it stopped raining and threw some frisbee in the street for some one-on-one male bonding time.

On Saturday, I got up and did some coffee-shop-hopping. I hit up Starbucks and used their new 2-hour free Wi-fi policy before heading over to the old apartment (cue Barenaked Ladies' song) to hang out with Logan for a bit. We pretty much acted like we normally do around each other. I got to meet his new lady, too. I grabbed a few things that I had left behind when I initially moved, packed up, and headed over to Common Grounds where I spent the rest of my afternoon in free Wi-fi bliss.

That night Ashlee had a few people over to her house and I got to visit a little more with some good friends. We decided it was too nice of an evening to spend it ALL inside, so we grabbed a frisbee and tossed it around in Ashlee's back yard. There were various neighborhoods shooting off their fireworks from the rained out day before. It was fun. Afterwards we played some Scrabble and ate some ice cream.

I got up early and went to St. Awesome's on Sunday morning. I was really lucky and very happy to see so many of my friends.

After church, I had lunch at Johnny Carino's with Dustin & Katie, and we caught up on our lives as well as all the TV Show chit chat and movie "reviews" like we usually do. Dustin and I are just too similar sometimes to have been born from separate parents. ;)

That evening I started the trip back West by stopping in Louisville to see my "Big Brother", his wife, and their 15-month-old baby. We grilled out for dinner and had a real nice time visiting.

Monday morning came, and I left Louisville to finish the trek West back to St. Louis.

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Friday I'll be heading to Lexington for a couple days. We have an extended weekend off during the July Fourth weekend, and I'm using it to head back and visit with some friends. The very loose itinerary is as follows:

Friday Morning: Leave for KY
Friday Night - 6pm: 4th of July Cookout @ Ryan's house
No fixed plans on Saturday
Sunday morning - 11:15am: go to church at St. Awesome's (hopefully see some friendly faces)
Sunday afternoon - TBA: head back to St. Louis

If anyone's free or would like to catch up, give me a call, email, or send a carrier pigeon.

I'll post how the weekend was when I get back.

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Let's go back all the way to last Tuesday...

Tuesday | April 17
Normal LONG day. Went with some friends to a free stand-up comic that was on campus after my last class of the day. He had high points and low points, but overall, I laughed a lot.

Wednesday | April 18
That night I went to see All The Great Books, Abridged presented by EKU's Theatre Department. The three guys cast in this show had great chemistry and awesome timing. It was a fun night.

Thursday | April 19
I had my first "The Dame" experience. Went with Logan, Lucy, and Chris to see Unknown Hinson. Google him, or check him out on YouTube. He's an interesting character, and a lot of fun to watch.

Friday | April 20
After some quick laundry, I drove to Louisville to hang out with a couple of friends and go to Thunder Over Louisville. Marshall and I played a LOT of Guitar Hero II (on Xbox360) that night.

Saturday | April 21
Headed down to the river at around 10:00am to get a good spot. And get a good spot, we did. At 3:00pm the festivities got going with an air show that was awesome... and loud! When it got dark, the real thunder began... the largest pyrotechnic display in North America! It was amazing! (I'll post photos later) After the festivities were over, we went over to another friends house and played more Guitar Hero II... this time on a HUGE screen TV. We rocked until about 2:30am.

Sunday | April 22
Slept in. Took naps. Had lunch. Drove home. Picked up General Tso's chicken from Tsing Tao on the way home. When I got home, met the girl that's going to be dog- and house-sitting for Dustin and Katie while they're having fun in Paris. That's right, France.

That's all. Now scram.

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Saturday, March 17, 2007

My last official day of Spring Break was a good one. I spent most of the day hanging out at LiveWire. Started around 12:30 to meet Dustin for lunch. After he left, I worked on my design portfolio site a lot. I also played a few games of Lux. Later that day, Dustin and Katie showed up again, and we listened to Shoshana play some acoustic guitar. She's the one that got the Oasis song stuck in my head. Dustin, Katie, and I played some cards while we listened to the music.

The day was really nice. Relaxing and productive. Too bad it's all over, now.

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Friday, March 16, 2007

Day 6 | Tuesday
Woke up and right before I left town to visit my friend Ben in Nashville, I got my hari cut. I felt 10 pounds lighter. The trip down was uneventful (which is actually a good thing in a car). Ben and his wife (Rebekah) and I went to this awesome Italian place for dinner called Mafiosos Pizza. They have pizza slices bigger than your head! (or the same size as your head if you're Patch) I had this awesome fried macaroni with lots of cheese and jalapeños in it. Amazing. That plus the two ginormous pizza slices left me quite full (and a little uncomfortable).

Day 7 | Wednesday
Got to sleep in. Ben and Rebekah had to work. Luckily Ben only had to work until noon, so after a yummy lunch, Ben and I vegged out, and talked a little geek. We got bored and went over the Rebekah's office to keep her company for a bit then walked down to a coffee shop and talked more geek. That night, Rebekah made a scrumptious dinner consisting of chicken, seasoned potatoes, broccoli and cheese, and cheesy garlic biscuits. Rebekah had a party to go to, so Ben and I watched some CSI (original and NY), and of course - talked geek. Ben also introduced me to Lux a RISK-type game for PC. Really fun, and addictive! It's a free download. Check it out.

Day 8 | Thursday
Hung out with Ben and Craig at Bixby's coffee shop. Played around on the internet (yay free WiFi!). Had lunch with Ben and then headed back to the land of EDT.

Labels: fun, geekery, holiday, life, the girl

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Day 3 | Saturday
Worked on laundry a bit more in the morning, then headed to St. Awesome's to volunteer as LD. After church, I decided to stop by LiveWire to just chill out for a while. There was live music that night (since it was a Saturday) and for the sound check the girl play a song that I sort of knew but not fully. That song would end up plaguing me for three days. (gah!) Returned home to continue the marathon laundry session.

Day 4 | Sunday
Actually made it to call-time on time despite the three-week-early "spring forward" to Daylight Saving Time and my inopportune bout of insomnia. Sunday after church, I continued to do laundry (seriously). I took my car to a car wash, came home and cleaned the inside out really well. Used the easy Armor-All wipes all over the place. My car looks mostly clean, now. I just need to vacuum the floorboards.

Day 5 | Monday
Slept in. Ahhh. Then I met Dustin for lunch at Live Wire. We don't get to meet as much for lunch this semester because Dustin is taking three classes and pretty much uses his lunch break for those. Bummer. After lunch I ran some errands and almost got my haircut. I decided I wasn't in the mood, though, and bought some new jeans. Then went home and finally finished my laundry! (Whoo hoo!) That night Dustin, Katie and I had dinner at Rally's (yumm) and then hung out for a bit at Live Wire (of course). I finally figured out the song that I couldn't come up with. It was Wonderwall by Oasis. That night I found tablature to the song and learned (sorta) how to play it.

Labels: fun, holiday, life

Thursday, January 04, 2007

The Family
I actually spent a good deal of time in Ohio this holiday season. First bit was quiet and visiting with my mom. Then the full season kicked in. On Christmas Eve, Mom and I exchanged gifts before heading over to my family get-together. There were probably over 30 people there. It was a lot of fun, except for the stress of the Bengals losing to the Broncos.

On Christmas Day, Erin came over for lunch and met a manageable portion of my family, a few uncles and an aunt. I gave Erin her gifts, and then we went to her house for dinner, and that's when she gave me her gifts. We played some cards (a really fun game called Shanghai) and then hit we all hit the sack.

The next day Erin, her family, and I went to her Grandma's house for her big family get together. She has a really fun family, reminds me of my own, actually.

New Year's Eve was fun with Erin's friend Alexis and her fiance' David. We played a couple games, burned some pieces of paper that had all the bad stuff from 2006, ate 12 grapes and sang Auld Lang Syne at midnight. This was the first time in a couple of years that I've gotten to see "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve", and I couldn't help but mourn a little bit. The end of an era is close at hand.

After Midnight we watched really bad horror movies... so bad you can't help but laugh at how bad they are. We watched until we fell asleep.

In between all these things was more games, food, laughter, and good times than you can shake a stick at... and believe me, I can shake a stick at a whole lot of fun.

Happy New Year! Have a wonderful and blessed 2007!

Labels: fun, holiday, life, the girl

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Recapping the holidays...

The Loot
- The first gift of the season was given by Stephanie and Chris (although it was WAY earlier than Christmas). They got me a nice watch from Fossil!

- Dustin & Katie got me the Friends Edition of Scene It (a very fun trivia game!)

- My mother got me more than I expected - Canon Digital Camera; Memory Card for Camera; a handmade Christmas Pillow; and Dark Hot Chocolate

- My wonderful girlfriend, Erin, got me some Superman PJs, a couple of really nice shirts, a book called For One More Day, and our first date movie on DVD (The Lake House)

- Erin's family got me "Pirates of the Caribbean Game of Life", an Ohio State hoodie, Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban), Devil Duckies, Skip-Bo, A Fleece Blanket, Tuesday's with Morrie, and X-men 3.

Stay tuned for the real meaning of Christmas...

Labels: holiday, the girl

Sunday, December 24, 2006

MERRY CHRISTMAS
and
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season this year. May your days be blessed with abundant love, peace, and happiness.

... and in the words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one."

Labels: holiday

Monday, November 27, 2006

.. is that all you do around here?

Wednesday
I traveled up North to visit the family for the holidays. Went over to Erin's that night to celebrate her birthday with her and her family. We cuddled up and watched a movie together late that night.

Thursday
Went and did the family thing. Had a great time hanging out with my plethora of cousins. It was so nice outside, we were even able to get out into the back year and play some games with the itty bitty ones. Ate a lot and watched a little bit of football. None of the games really interested me, though, so I talked with my cousins most of the time. Went home and crashed hard.

Friday
Slept in until about 10. Another nice day, so my cousins and I went and played a round of frisbee golf in the afternoon. Hit the bed pretty hard again after a good dinner. In Erin-land - she and the ladies of her family shopped all the black-friday sales for about 12 hours starting at 4:30am. (yikes)

Saturday
Mom and my uncles went house-hunting for an uncle who is looking to move to the area. Meanwhile, I spent most of the day with Erin and her folks. Erin has this huge village that she puts up ever year. It takes over most of the kitchen. She's been collecting these village pieces every year since she was in high school, and she has 26 individual buildings. After decorating, we ate dinner, and played some games. Erin and I cuddled up and watched "A Muppet Christmas Carol" before I headed back to mom's.

Sunday
Drove home bright and early. Watched the Bengals beat the Browns (30 - 0)! Chatted about the holidays a bit with Dustin and Katie. Had some dinner, did some homework, unpacked, and went to bed.

Labels: holiday, the girl

recent flickr

random flickr

random design

twitter updates

reader feed

blogs

• Two Guys - World Travelers
• Stephanie
• Patch
• Ben
• Sam
• Frith
• Erin