Ah, the holiday time is almost over and it's once again time to begin relaxing and to start planning for next holiday season at work. Christmas was nice. The kids, especially Katelyn, were so cute this year opening gifts. Katelyn woke up first and saw all the gifts under the tree and started to toddler babble "Santa here, Santa here" and then proceeded to wake up Shawn, Lisa's brother Brad and Lisa's Mom and Dad. Of course there were way too many presents both Santa and Lisa went overboard. I think I may have to finish the basement just to store toys! Spoiled kids I have.

Brad came in for Christmas this year which was really nice. Everyone arrived at our house on Christmas eve and we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of assorted appetizers including such favorites as sauerkraut balls, shrimp, calamari, tuna-dill spread (Ruff family tradition started by my grandmother--I'm the only one that eats it), sushi, cheese fondue, fried zucchini, cheese, big stick-o-beef, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, veggie pizza, chicken wings and assorted cookies. After stuffing ourselves with the aforementioned junk and a few homebrews (delicious by the way) the kids opened gifts from Nana, Papa, Brad, and Uncle Ray and Aunt Marsha.

For Christmas, other than the 2 hours or so spent unwrapping loads of toys, we basically just chilled out. It was a much need relaxed day! Everyone stayed Christmas Eve, Christmas and Friday night, which was easier than driving back and forth and it was nice that the kids could rip right into the gift opening instead of waiting for everyone to arrive.

Back to work on Friday and brewed my second batch of beer with the help of Brad. This time I brewed a double IPA which is loaded with liquid malt extract (9.3 pounds) which is sugar food for the yeast. My airlock has been going crazy the past three days. It bubbles more than one time per second which is much more frequent than my first batch. That can only mean one thing; happy yeast farting out tons and tons of sweet alcohol!

The weekend pretty much was spent getting the house back into some semblance of order and running a few errands. I also installed a hanging television stand in Shawn's room that would accommodate the 19 inch tube T.V. we had in the playroom.

On Monday, I went for my annual eye exam and had a retina scan done. The doctor found an abnormality on my retina and has referred me to a specialist to get checked out further. She said it looked like I may have a couple of small holes and some fluid that she wants me to get check out. They may want me to have some sort of laser surgery but I will have to wait and see. I did purchase a new pair of glasses that are totally out of the box for me. I will post a picture after I pick them up in a couple of weeks.

New Year's Eve will be spent with Jill, Todd and their kids again this year. My childhood friend, John is going to be in Cleveland for New Years and he and my other friend from High School, Brian) are having a small get together on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately with the kids and having to work on Friday we opted out of that invite. I like being close to home for this particular holiday anyway due to all the drunks on the road. I really don't like to drive any further than I need to and Jill and Todd live about a mile away! Can't get much closer than that.

My brother Mike is coming for a visit this weekend, I'm looking forward to that. Over the past couple of years, Mike and I have gotten a lot closer. I'm 8 years older than him so growing up we really had very little in common and once he was of the age that his interests began to be interesting to me, I went away to college. Once our Dad passed away, we really have leaned on each other quite a bit. I wish he lived closer.

Speaking of Dad, I can't believe he's been gone for nearly 2 years now. I miss him as much today as I ever have. I catch myself daily being reminded of him. It's really crazy how a death of a close family member can leave such a lasting and profound change in one's life. And that's enough about that subject.

Have a very happy and blessed 2009!


First Home Brew

Damn Santa

Who's the cute snowman in the middle?

Katelyn enjoying a home brew

Santa?

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Working is finally beginning to wind down for Lisa and I and maybe I'll get back to regular blogging once again. My first batch of home brewed beer is finally finished and is carbonated nicely so let the drinking commence! It really turned out well; much better than my Mr. Beer days. I may post a short movie later of my very first pour from the now hillbilly engineered kegerator. Speaking of hillbilly engineering, that little project was a major pain in the rear-end but it's complete!

On my birthday, the daughter of my boss with help from Lisa trashed my office. Here's a few pictures:



Speaking of my birthday, we ended up at Sakura which seems to have become our birthday dinner restaurant of choice and then pretty much ended up at home asleep early. The next morning I had to do a radio remote for work at one of our locations at work. It was a lot better than I expected. I spoke every 20 minutes for a couple minutes at a time for the 2 hour remote. I don't typically like to speak in front of a group of more than say 25 but this was really okay. I guess according to the demographics for that particular radio station (oldies format) I was speaking to somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 people. I will do it again next year if asked and maybe I'll post the Internet link so others can listen as well.

That's it for now, I do have to get back to work.

Have a Merry Christmas!

It has been a busy past few weeks especially at work. I really haven't had much time at all to think let alone blog. I did however have a great past week. Wednesday I picked up our family Christmas/my birthday present which was a 46" LCD HDTV. When I got home, Brad (Lisa's brother), Bev and Ted were at the house already. Brad and I unpacked the television and hooked it up. The picture in HD is amazing. You can actually see the imperfections on a supermodel's face. After a run to the beer store to pick up our libations for the next few days, we had a few of Brad's homebrews that he brought along and settled in and watched some television.

Thursday morning, I had a bit of a stress meltdown and snapped at Lisa about helping out in the kitchen. As she should have, she pretty much put me in my place. Everyone did their part in making the meal as nice as ever...thanks everyone! Brad and I did our traditional freeze our tails off deep frying of the bird which turned out very well. The turkey may have been the best I've fried so far. After stuffing myself to max capacity and taking my annual Thanksgiving siesta, I watched a bit more tv before heading to bed.

Friday, Lisa and I had to go to work so we decided to hit a few of the Black Friday sales. We ended up at Meijer at 5am, then to Menards for their 6 am opening and finally to Target. All the trips were pretty successful. I picked up a pneumatic framing nail gun for when I finally decide to start the basement and we picked up various odds and ends for the kids. Lisa and I worked until noon and then headed home.

When I got home, Lisa's family and the kids threw me a surprise early 40th (yes I said 40th) birthday party. Since Brad was in town and my big gift was all the equipment to begin my journey in homebrewing, it seemed appropriate to celebrate while Brad was in town. Plus Brad walked me through my first batch of homebrew. Friday evening, Jill, Todd and Skylar stopped by as well and brought me over a couple of growlers full of beer from The Maumee Brewing Company; like I really needed to drink more beer. We hung out and had a few beers and that pretty much was Friday. I spoiled my 30th surprise party which was huge but this time Bev and Lisa really pulled one over on me. Thanks everyone for some really great gifts that will keep giving.

Saturday Brad, Todd and I make my very first batch of homebrew in the garage. One of my gifts was a kit to brew IPA which has fast become my favorite style of beer (I am a self proclaimed hop-head). Everything seems to have went well brewing. The yeast seem to be happy eating up all the sugar and farting out alcohol at a pretty good rate. My basement is beginning to smell like a first class microbrewery. In just about 3 weeks, I will be drinking my very first 5 gallon batch of homemade beer. After we brewed, we went to lunch at Easystreet downtown, stopped at the Woodville surplus store and made a trip to The Anderson's. We were pretty much exhausted by the end of the day and all headed to bed pretty early.

Sunday, Brad took off early in anticipation for the snow they were forecasting for Chicago. Lisa went shopping and I cleaned out the garage, put up the two outdoor Christmas trees and then hung a few pictures, moved some furniture around and put up the tree. Once Lisa got home, she moved some of Katelyn's stuff upstairs to her room and then we all decorated the 12 foot monster tree in the family room. After we put up the tree, I decided it would be a great idea to drop my mobile phone in a glass of beer. Just in case you wanted to try this yourself, I would highly recommend you don't. While beer is fun for humans to drink, cell phones don't like to function after submersed in the stuff. Today, I had to get another phone.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I also got my 2009 opening day tickets last week! There are 9 of us this year. We added a friend from high school and Todd from Toledo this year. Todd has no idea what he's in for!

There's been so much more happen since I blogged last but I am getting tired and need to get to sleep. Here are a few pictures from the past week:

Katelyn and Uncle Brad

Just a couple of Turkeys

Annual TG Siesta

Surprise

Cool Batman pajamas from Shawn (not under-roos)

Wow, that's a lot of gifts!
(Thanks everyone!)

Just a quick picture post to show you my latest endeavor. Katelyn seems to enjoy telling her Dad that she needs to go poopie or potty. Of course I rush to the bathroom and rip her diaper off to find out she just wanted to sit on the toilet and laugh at me. At least she not afraid of the porcelain god! Wonder why she hasn't put Lisa through this farce yet?

The past weekend was both fun and productive. Friday was pretty much spent on starting to get the house cleaned up for our party on Saturday. The house was way overdue for a pretty heavy duty cleaning. I even washed the baseboards! Saturday morning Shawn ran in a one mile race, the goblin gallop, and finished 11th out of 18 2nd grade boys. He finished the mile in about 9 minutes which is pretty good for someone who's seven and only starting running this fall. He was 3 minutes off the winning time but finished strong with 7 others behind him. I'm glad he found a sport that he seems to enjoy.

The party on Saturday was nice. It went much better than I expected; I'm not sure why I had such low expectations. The party pretty much consisted of eating, drinking beer, watching OSU get their rear-ends kicked (not totally unexpected), talking about the kids and their grade cards and listening to constant running around of 9 kids ages 1 to 8. Everyone was pretty much gone by 10 pm except for Jill and Todd who stuck around to watch the 2nd half of the game.

Sunday was a day of relaxation! Nothing but hanging out watching TV with the kids while Lisa went out to do a little Christmas shopping. Sunday evening I ended up making Chicken Paprikash and Spatzle. Both were a first for me and it turned out pretty well. I may have used about a tablespoon too much of paprika but overall it turned out really well. Spatzle making is a blast too. Who would have thought making Spatzle was so easy?

Finally this weekend looks to be one with nothing major planned. I will finish up winterizing the yard and organizing the garage for the winter. I may just be so inclined to build another storage shelf or two in the basement or clean the carpets. We will see. Have a great week and a Spooky Halloween!

Here's a bunch of videos we took of Katelyn this evening. Sorry there's so many but we had problems trying to pick which one(s) we should post. Sorry Lisa, I have a new girl in my life......

I almost forgot to tell you about the most exciting thing that has happened this summer. My long time friend Jeff is a long time entry hog of sweepstakes and he wins quite a few. I decided with a little encouragement and guidance from him to start entering sweepstakes as I run across them online and wherever I find an entry form and the prize is one that I deem worthwhile to pay the taxes if I were lucky enough to actually win one. As luck will have it and after about 3 months or so of heavy entering just about every sweepstakes I could find, I finally won!

I won a 4 day, 3 night vacation in Key West. My trip includes airfare, hotel, rental car and $1000 spending money! We are planning an April trip and have hotel reservations at the Hyatt and they rented a convertible for my use during my stay. I still can't believe I actually won. Un-freaking believable! About 3 weeks later, I also found out that I won a $25 gift cart to Dave and Busters. Now if I could only hit the lottery......

Summer seemed to fly by. Shawn's first quarter of school is over, everything is turning brown and work is starting to get busy once again. Where did the summer go? My blogging has not been as regular as it probably should be but I'll once again tell you I will try and be better.

Katelyn is talking up a storm. She's still the little handful and makes it difficult to get anything accomplished around the house but she's a blast to watch and talk to. She seems to have her Mommy and Daddy wrapped.

Shawn has had a busy start to his school year. He decided that he wanted to join the cross country team at school. Cross country in 2nd grade is a new concept on me. I didn't even know that cross country existed until I was in 7th grade. Shawn really seemed to enjoy running; I'm not sure who's genetic code has the love of running in it but he got it. His practices, which were 4 days a week consisted of pretty much 45 minutes of motion of one kind or another. He typically ran between 1-1/2 to 2 miles at every practice and the races for his age group (2nd & 3rd grade) was 3/4 mile. He started practice about 2 weeks later than most of the other kids but he got better as the season progressed. It was pretty amazing to see 140-150 kids his age (only the boys) run at a meet. They had 5 meets and his school was far and above better than the others. At the diocese meet, each of the divisions for his school won a trophy. I think 6 were first place, 1 was runner up and one was third place. Shawn's group ended up in first place in 4 of 5 meets this year. I think he liked it so much that he will be doing it again this year. Up to this point, cross country is the only sport that he really seemed to enjoy.

Shawn is also involved in piano lessons. Lisa and I have had a piano that was my grandmothers for the past 12 years or so. It has survived 3 moves and has broke my back on 2 of those moves so you can guess that I am thrilled that the piano is getting some use other than the occasional pounding it gets from Katelyn. He seems to be excelling through his first half dozen lessons and I am trying to teach myself as he moves forward.

I just got home from a trade show in Fort Worth Texas. The trade show was downtown and within walking distance of a lot of things to do. We ended going to a Cajun restaurant called Razzoo's one night where I had the Cajun combo skillet. The food was just average but different. I also got to go and have several beers at the coolest draft beer bar I have ever been to except for the time I went to the same bar in Houston for lunch. Unfortunately in Houston, I had calls to make after lunch so I couldn't enjoy the tasty liquid goodness they offer. The Flying Saucer has the best selections of been on tap that I have ever seen in one place. I bet you they had close to 100 beers on tap and probably that many in the bottle. I had an Arrogant Bastard, an Avery's Maharajah, Bear Republic Racer 5 and a sampler flight that included Dale's pale Ale, Maharajah, racer 5, one of the Chimay drafts and a Stone Pale Ale (I think). I would be in serious trouble if The Flying Saucer was in Toledo; I would never leave the bar.

The next night, there were several parties for exhibitors in hospitality suites in one of the conference hotels. One of the suites served Mexican themed finger food along with margaritas, another served up a full bar, another was wine flights and various finger foods and another purely wine and beer. We were also invited to another exhibitor's flight for something he called the underground wine lovers club. This guy was really creepy. He had to be about 50 and he pretty much invited any cute woman under the age of 30 to this party. I have no idea why we got invites but we did. When we got there, he was there with two women and 7 cases of wine. We filled up and took off. The next morning we talked to others that were invited an it seems that there were never more than 12 people at the party at any one time. All this guy was trying to do is lure sweet young things into his suite and then into the bathroom for a little extra circulars. He was really creepy. After that, we met up with a bunch of other exhibitors that were going to another party. This party was pretty cool. It was in an old speakeasy called Scat. Scat was located in an alley and you had to take an elevator from the outside directly into the bar that was in the basement. The entire bar was closed for this function, in which we pretty much crashed, and the bar was open. There was a guy set up with his ipod singing Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra songs who was not only a pretty good singer but entertaining as well. We had several drinks at Scat, saw some of the exhibitors who had booths near ours at the show and then took off. At this point, my co-worker wanted to stay up all night and party away but needed some food first. Where does one eat at 10:30pm in downtown Forth Worth? We ended up at the Fox and Hound. As soon as we ordered food, the Jack Daniels hit my co-worker like a ton of bricks! He couldn't get back to the hotel soon enough!

Other than that, there was a whole lot of other things that took place but I will not bore you anymore and I would have a tough time writing about all of them. This weekend will be about winterizing the yard and getting ready for a small party we are having with some of the families we have met through Shawn's school activities. We are hosting 3 couples and their kids next Saturday for a giant play date (9 kids). I'm sure there will be a few adult beverages and a fire pit involved as well.

Shawn and his CC team at the awards dinner

We're number one!

I've been terribly busy and not good at updating lately. I am heading to Fort Worth for a trade show tomorrow and when I get back I will make an effort to try and be better. I wonder if anyone is even checking to see if I'm updating anyway. Funny how life seems to get in the of something as simple as blogging.

So there I sat on Friday afternoon, just waiting until the weekend would start so I could just hang around the house and relax. Then the first text message came in: "I'm brewing beer on Sunday and you're welcome to come help and drink some beers in the process". Who am I to pass up drinking beer? 8 hours later and Lisa, the kids and Lisa's mom and dad were sitting in Chicago land drinking several of Brad's fresh home brews. By the way, the home brew was delicious; much better than my feeble attempt at brewing beer several years ago with a Mr. Beer kit. I'm convinced my issues were purely in poor sanitation methods and really bad measuring. One day in the not too distant future, I may give it another try since I'm now much better educated in the process.

On Saturday, I watched Brad brew and it really seems rather simple. I can't believe I botched it up so bad when I tried it. Once the brewing was done, we headed over to Two Brother's Brewing Company for lunch. Since I have been watching my rapidly expanding girlie figure I had the grilled veggie sandwich and it was really good. Lisa and Shawn split a pizza that I managed to sneak a piece of and it was good as well. Once we finished lunch we took the brewery tour which was really interesting and the beer samples weren't bad either.

Sunday we headed out to breakfast and then to an ethnic grocery store. We headed back about 1pm. I did make the trip in record time. On the way over my total moving time according to my GPS was 3 hours, 45 minutes. My return drive time was a mere 3:30! Of course actual time was longer due to gas and rest room stop but not by much. With such a short commute to Brad's maybe I will do it more often.

Tonight we're taking Shawn to a cross country practice to see if he likes it. Cross country practices 3 times a week and they have 5 meets this fall. Shawn's grade is classified as junior and their races are 3/4 mile long. I'm not sure how he's going to like running but I guess I will see very shortly. If he likes it, he's going to have to get a quick physical in order to get a doctor's release to participate. Next week, Shawn starts piano lessons. He's pretty excited about piano so hopefully the piano that has been collecting dust in the living room for the past 12 years will finally get some use. Unfortunately, it also means we will have to invest some cash in getting it tuned.

Lisa and I are taking Friday off this week so we have a short work week this week and next week and an extended long weekend coming up. I can't believe we are moving into September soon and the leaves are beginning to change a lighter shade of green. Before you know it, the leaves will be gone, the weather will be crappy and work will become hectic once again. I can't wait until spring already!

Not too much new going on in my neck of the woods lately. Shawn starts school Monday and he isn't too happy about it. I can't believe that summer is starting to wind down, it's beginning to get dark earlier in the evening and winter is just around the corner. I absolutely hate winter!

Last weekend we had Katelyn's 18 month pictures taken. We actually got one decent picture out of the 50 or so they took. Speaking of Katelyn, her attitude is getting worse as the days go on. She's just cranky and irritable all the time now. I'm not sure if it's because she moved into the toddler room from the infant room at daycare and she's now lacking attention or if it's just because she's a girl. I apologize if that last comment sounded a bit chauvinistic but I've heard that girls are just drawn that way and I've heard it from women (I had to qualify the comment so I don't get bashed).

We don't have any big plans this weekend that I know of yet. Lisa has a jewelry party to go to on Saturday and she doesn't even wear jewelry. I will more than likely take Shawn to see "The Clone Wars" on Friday after work and we are going to dinner on Sunday with Bev and Ted as a thank you for watching Shawn all summer long which was a chore at times I'm sure. Between asking Papa what a "slut" was, letting people know that his burp "taste like butt" and letting Bev and Ted's young neighbor that "he likes naked girls" we was probably a perfect little angel....NOT!

I think we're all ready for school to begin. I have a funny feeling that Shawn is going to get in a lot of trouble this year.

This past weekend was pretty busy. Lisa had, or participated, in her second garage sale beginning on Thursday and did pretty well. The sale pulled in over $900 but only about $400 of it was ours. We did manage to sell some larger items that we have been wanting to part with for awhile. We sold an old patio table and chairs, the flowered couch that sat in our living room that we rarely ever sat in if ever, the Thomas the Tank Engine train table, coffee table and end tables as well as other items that were collecting dust. Now that the living room is pretty much cleared out for the exception of a diaper changing table, a piano and a make shift desk we are going to transform it into a home office. So now the task begins to look for a couple of leather chairs and a desk.

Brad also came into town this past weekend. He arrived on Friday and we ended up taking a trip to the adult candy store (liquor/beer store) and picked up a bottle of Red Breast and a six of Mad Anthony's pale ale. The Red Breast is remarkably smooth and other than the fact it is twice as expensive as Jameson's, it is my new favorite Irish Whiskey. Brad, Bev, Ted and I sampled Brad's home brew, the Mad Anthony and some mead that Brad has brewing in his basement. The mead was very good, not that his home brew is not good but the mead was different. I would describe it closer in taste to wine than beer. The mead will probably only get better with time.

Saturday, we all headed to the Woodville Army Surplus store to browse a bit, Titgemeiers for home brewing supplies and then we ended up at The Maumee Brewing Company for dinner and beer.

Sunday went out to breakfast at Rumors and pretty much just hung out the rest of the day.

This week we have a house guest. Jill and Todd's dog is staying with us while they are on vacation. It's strange having a dog around the house all the time again. It's nice but also inconvenient at the same time.

I also booked Lisa and my annual trip to Columbus to act like 21 year old college kids (at least I do). Can't wait for the sweet sound of Heineygate and the cold beer that goes with it. This year we are going to see some singer that Lisa go out to hear in college. I'm sure he won't be anywhere as good as she remembers since she was in a drunken fog every time she heard him sing! Not sure what else is planned for that weekend but I'm sure it will be fun.

Vacation was nice, not relaxing but fun. Traveling with a 7 year old boy and a 17 month girl wasn't what it was cracked up to be. The drive was only about 7-1/2 hours to Franklin Tennessee but when you have a screaming little girl that does nothing but scream for an hour strait, it makes the drive seem like 15 hours. The never ending "I'm hungry" and "are we almost there?" started about 20 minutes into the trip. We left about 4 pm on Monday and arrived in the Nashville area about 11:30 local time. It's really a pretty easy drive other than the kid issues.

Tuesday, we headed over to my Aunt's house and really just visited and chilled out which was badly needed after the long drive. My aunt lives in a pretty cool planned community that has parks, lakes, a community center complete with media room, art room, game room (with free video games) and a huge pool. The community also includes a few shops, doctor's offices and the retail area is expanding to include a grocery store, drug store and other shops. The homes are all less than 5 years old but they were built to look like they have been there for decades. All in all, a really cool place to live it seems. We also took a stroll though the downtown Franklin area which is a quint old civil war town where one of the bloodiest battles of the war took place. There is a ton of history in the area.

Wednesday was site seeing day. We picked up my aunt and headed toward downtown Nashville. On the way to town, we took a little country music home tour and stopped in front of Alan Jackson's house (or should I say mansion) to snap a picture. As I got out of the car, a white SUV was pulling up to the gate and leaving the grounds. Guess who was driving the SUV? Non other than Alan Jackson himself. He just kept driving and gave us a wave as he pulled out of the driveway. After our little brush with a country music star, we headed to The Parthenon. Nashville built an exact scale replica of the Greek Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial celebration in the late 1800s. It was build as part of a large display of temporary buildings for the celebration and was to be torn down after the exhibition. After the celebration was over, the city decided to keep the Parthenon for future generations to enjoy. The temporary structure was rebuilt to be permanent and is now used in part as a museum that includes artwork dealing with the Greek Parthenon. There is also a huge statue of Athena on the second floor which is said to be the tallest indoor statue in the U. S. All in all, it was a neat visit.

After the Parthenon, we headed into the downtown area to eat and to explore a bit. We walked down the main tourist drag and ate at The Wildhorse Saloon. The Wildhorse is also a concert venue and what a coincidence but Hootie and the Blowfish were performing there that night. After lunch, which by the was was not bad but nothing to blog about other than the couple of Yazoo pale ales I had during the meal, we headed down toward Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Tootsie's is a dive bar that is across an alley from the Ryman Auditorium better known as the original home to the Grand Ole Opry. I guess the acts that were to perform at the Ryman would have a couple of drinks at Tootsie's and then warm up in the alley before they performed. My aunt said I had to at the very least walk inside to take a look. I did one better than that, I had a shot of Jack, then looked around. On the way to Tootsie's, we had to pass at least 8 other small bars and all of them had live music and it was only 2:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday afternoon. If we didn't have the kids with us, we could have had a blast going from one bar to the next listening to the bands all day and all night long. In some of the bars, the bands start at 10am everyday! After the walk around downtown which did include a quick stop at the Ryman, we headed back to drop my aunt off at home and head back to the hotel. On the way to drop my aunt off at home, she got a text from my cousin saying they saw Keith Urban and Nichole Kidman at the mall and they got pictures to prove it. The were shopping at Bath and Body Works. Of course, Lisa and I had to go to the mall to see if there were any other celebrity siting to be found and there was not. That evening, we had some very tasty pizza for dinner from Pie in the Sky Pizza.

On Thursday, we were on our own because my aunt had to work a 12 hour shift at the hospital. We headed to Opryland hotel and the Opryland mall and spent the day wondering around. The hotel is as cool of any hotel I've ever been in and the mall was huge. While at the mall, we visited the Stingray Reef. We all got to touch the stingrays and I actually fed them which was a strange event to say the least. We were all exhausted after walking for 5 hours or so and shopping so back the hotel we went. I took Shawn down to the pool and before we knew it, both kids were fast asleep.

Friday morning we went to Dotson's for breakfast. Dotson's is located in downtown Franklin and is frequented by several of the country music industry stars. I had a good ole country breakfast that included, eggs, biscuits, sausage gravy, potato casserole, grits and country ham. The breakfast wasn't bad at all but I could make grits just as good and the portions were smaller than what I am accustom to up north. The big draw for me was the country ham. I had never had country ham and was curious to see what the difference between it an the typical ham I know and love. All I can say is the ham was major salty due to fact it is salt cured. Wow, was it salty. I would compare it to a giant piece of bacon with a bone in it. Not bad but different! After breakfast, we went on a plantation tour of Carton Plantation. The tour was pretty neat. The house was used as a hospital for the confederate army during the battle of Franklin during the civil war. The family was at home during the battle and assisted many of the doctors in treating the wounded. There was so much blood in the house that you could still see blood stains on the floors in the bedrooms! It is said that the morning after the battle they found 4 dead confederate generals laying on the back porch which was the second most generals lost during any battle during the war outside of the battle at Gettysburg. Considering the battle at Franklin lasted only about 5 hours and the fighting at Gettysburg last a few days the loss of life and generals was as bad a loss as the Confederate side saw during the entire war. The entire story is interesting. It is also said that the plantation is haunted to this day. After the tour and since it was approaching triple digit temperatures, we headed back to the hotel to swim for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday evening we had dinner at a place next to our hotel called Jonathan's Grille. Really nice sports bar/restaurant. I had the grouper dinner which was as good as I have ever had and Lisa had a steak which was much better than any of the steaks we had during our Chicago trip last month. The best part of the meal is that we found out there were half price appetizers and 2 for 1 draft beers during the time were were there. I don't think I've seen 2 for 1 happy hours since I was too young to be drinking! I need to move to Tennessee!

Saturday, we packed up and headed over to my aunts to spend an hour or so with her before the long drive home. The kids were much better on the way home by the way. I really want to go back a visit again soon. There is so much more that we could have explored. I really want to take a few more of the plantation tours and maybe a Franklin street tour the next time I go for a visit.

Sunday was spent getting back to normal life. I did a bunch of yard work, Lisa went grocery shopping and did some laundry and then we had dinner over Todd and Jill's place.

Alan Jackson's HouseLisa, Aunt Peggy and I at the Wildhorse SaloonKatelyn eating her lemon ParthenonAthena (more woman than I would care to handle) Shawn and I feeding the stingraysNo FearKatelyn at Opryland HotelFront of Carton House PlantationBack porch of CartonLargest privately owned confederate cemetery at Carton PlantationSlave quarters at Carton

Pretty busy past weekend. I took the day off and went golfing at The Legacy and played very well by my standards considering I have only played 27 holes all season. I shot 85 at a pretty difficult course and beat the others I played with which is always nice considering they play a lot more golf than I do. After golfing, we went to the LPGA tournament that was going on in town and followed around Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer for obvious reasons; not to mention they were playing in the same group and Paula shot a tournament record 60 on Thursday.

Saturday, we cleaned up around the house a bit, did some yard work and began the packing process for our trip. Sunday, I went to work to finish up a project and then we finished up cleaning up and packing. For dinner, we ate at The Melting Pot. The food was decent but the concept was a bit strange for us. I don't think we will be visiting anytime soon. For the money, there are much better places to eat in the area and they do the cooking for you. I'm not sure that fondue is the best food choice for nice restaurant experience. It is also a major pain to sit and watch the time to see when your particular food was finished. The last thing you would want to do is bit into an undercooked piece of chicken because you though you were cooking beef!

Hootie was Da Bomb!!!

This weekend was a little strange. We took Thursday off to extend the extended weekend and relax a bit. Relaxing the weekend was but it was also busy if that makes any sense at all! Thursday was the night of our community fireworks display so I cut the grass in the morning and started up the smoker a bit later than I should have. I decided to smoke a pork shoulder roast and two chickens....what a nightmare. The problem was that I couldn't keep the heat high enough to cook efficiently (read timely). The temperature is supposed to be near 180-190 for smoking and I was lucky to see 135 degrees most of the time. The 4 hours is was supposed to take ended up being 7 hours and still not completely done. At the 7 hour mark, I decided to finish up the cooking on the trusty propane grill. The finished product was still good but the heat issues were frustrating to say the least. After dinner, I put on a small firework display in the driveway and then we watch the community display.

Friday we took a drive to Cabela's. Cabela's has a conversion kit for my smoker that would turn it from a charcoal fueled smoker to an electric controlled smoker. Unfortunately for me, they don't stock the conversion kit at the stores. After Cabela's we headed to wander around Ikea. We ended up buying a few odds and ends, nothing too exciting. Then we spent the evening sitting on the patio watching neighbors shooting fireworks.

Saturday morning began the work part of the weekend. We decided (I actually decided to appease Lisa) to paint Katelyn's bedroom. Lisa's parents took Katelyn for the night on Friday so we could get the painting done uninterrupted. We got the taping done on Friday and a coat of primer and one coat of paint finished on Saturday before we left to go to the Mudhens game. The paint went on extremely light, so light that I sent Lisa out to Lowe's to pick paint that was a couple shades darker. By the time Lisa called me to say she was having problems deciding on a color, the paint on the wall had darkened up nicely so she came home without the new paint. The original paint was going to work just fine. On the way to the game, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up another gallon of paint for the second coat.

The Mudhens lost the game. Katelyn was her usual self and we left before the post-game fireworks began. Once Katelyn got to the car, she relaxed a bit and allowed us to pull over and watch the fireworks display.

Sunday, I put the last coat of paint on the room and Lisa and I put the room back together. That pretty much did it for the weekend.

This week I am golfing on Friday and then heading over to the LPGA tournament being held this week in town. Tuesday we are going to the annual "Jamie Farr Kroger Classic" dinner gala. The entertainment this year is Hootie and the Blowfish. Am I getting old or what? The entertainment at these events always seems to be a singer that I was too young to remember or someone that I remember my parents enjoying. I actually remember Hootie and listened to their music. I must be pushing 40 years old!

Other than that, no big plans other than getting ready for our short Nashville trip next week.

Below are a few pictures that I mentioned either in this post or previous posts:

Basil/Pesto Pictures

Fresh Basil from the garden

Pesto (green food is so appetizing)


Finished product on Pasta

Slowest Smoker ever!

Pork roast on the smoker (at about 5 hours)

Finished Chicken

New Patio Furniture

Katelyn enjoying the patio furniture

Katelyn's new room color

Summer has been pretty busy so posts have been sporadic at best. Since the last post, we attended our trade show in Chicago. One of our salesmen (Terry) and myself went in on Friday, which was two days before the show started, to make sure the booth was set up correctly and to make sure we weren't getting ripped off in labor. Seems that if you are at the show during booth set up, it gets done much quicker than if you're not. We ended up saving almost 50% of our labor cost for set up compared to the last show we exhibited at in Chicago!

Friday after we were done working, we ended up getting lost walking in Downtown Chicago looking for Rush Street trying to find something to eat. When we finally found Rush Street, we ended up eating at Hugo's Frog Bar. I've eaten at Hugo's once before but I was so damn tired by that point, I didn't care what or where I was eating. I had the crab cakes which were by far the best I have ever had!

Being in Chicago a couple of days early with not much to do gave me the chance to hang out with Lisa's brother Brad for a bit on Saturday. I went out of McCormick Place to check on the booth and to finish up what needed to be done cleaning up and Brad headed down to our hotel. Once we all met up at the hotel, I got to have one of Brad's homemade brews which was much better than the Mr. Beer batches that I had done in the past. The fact of the matter is that Brad's beer is as good as any micro brew produced beer I have ever had (don't get a chip on your shoulder Brad)! That afternoon, Brad and I headed out to Goose Island Brewing Company for Lunch and had several of their beers. The Midway IPA was very tasty and went down a bit too smooth. We had a few appetizers, a few beers and a few more beers and then headed back to the hotel where we both proceeded to take a little siesta on the couch to sleep off the alcohol. We woke up just in time to catch the Manager's reception and to have a couple more liquid libations on the hotel. Brad headed back home and I went to the Randolph Street food festival.

The food festival was your typical street fair with a several food vendors and beer carts. The place was very crowded so we had a beer and explored the restaurant scene in the neighborhood. We ended up picking a French place called Marche. Marche was probably a bit too romantic to be there with another guy but the food was great. I had the special that day that was shark on some sort of lentil, fennel gravy mixture and also had a side order of french fries that were the best I have ever had. The fries were ultra thin and fried in animal fat (the secret that the waiter divulged to us). That evening we discovered a bowling alley that was in the same building as our hotel. This wasn't any ordinary bowling alley either. It was more like a really nice bar that just happened to have a bowling alley in it. The bars were loaded with LCD televisions and comfortable seating in the form of overstuffed couches and chairs. Even the bowling alley had overstuffed couch seating and ultra modern chairs and side tables for drinks. We had a couple of drinks there and then I headed back to the hotel for the evening.

Sunday evening was the start of the trade show. I really didn't do much during the day but did take a little walk in the area that surrounded the hotel to see if there was a place for the group to eat that evening that was relatively close to the hotel. I ended up making reservations at Shula's Steak House. The trade show was busy. Brad came downtown to walk the trade show with Lisa who arrived with the others that would work at the booth. Lisa was attending classes. The Sunday trade show hours were 4 pm-7pm and the place was packed. The fact that free food and drinks were being served probably helped fill the exhibit hall. After the show, we headed back to the Hotel for clean up and then off to Shula's. Here it goes....Shula's sucks! Over priced, bad service and the steaks were not all that great. I've had better steaks in my backyard and I could have received better service at McDonald's. I had a "cowboy steak" better known as a big ribeye. The steak was not good. I wouldn't say it was over cooked but it was dry and not what I would have expected for $40. I also ordered a side of creamed spinach and lobster mashed potatoes. The spinach was pretty good but the mash potatoes were just that....mashed potatoes without any flavor of lobster at all. Lisa had a pretty good sized strip steak that was a little better than my steak but still not all that good. Based on the price, the food quality and the $83 tip that was imposed on us because we had 6 or more in our party I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone.

Monday was the start of the full blown trade show. 9:30-4pm. Traffic was good at the show and the conversations we engaged in with the attendees was pretty good compared to other shows I have participated. I think that this show may actually pay off. Time will tell. After the show, we had a few drinks waiting for Lisa to arrive back from a late class and then headed to dinner at Carmine's. We were about 15 minutes late for our reservations and had to wait for awhile for our table. Once we got seated, the menu took awhile to navigate because there was so much to choose from. I ended up with a seafood salad and Lasagna. The seafood salad was excellent but so big, I didn't finish even half of my meal.

Tuesday was the last day of the show. Lisa, however had a late seminar and had another one on Wednesday so she and I stayed Tuesday night while the others traveled home. By Tuesday, we had ran out of a lot of our product samples so I had more sent overnight to the hotel. When I went to the security office to pick up the samples, I bent over and yep, you guessed it, I tore the entire seat out of my pants! It seems that I have gained a bit of my lost weight back and I'm in between pants sizes. I either have pants too big or too small and this pair was just a bit too small. My back was hurting that day so I probably was using more leg to lift than normal and just rip. I though I tore something in my back when I heard the rip but then I began feeling the nice breeze so I knew the back was fine. Thank goodness I over packed and had another pair of pants I could wear.

Tuesday evening, Lisa and I took a walk down Michigan Avenue and stopped in a few stores. Bought a "prize" for Shawn from the Lego store and took a walk through the American Girl Store. The American Girl store is a goldmine. Tons and Tons of little girls getting their doll's hair done, having lunch with their dolls, buying clothes that match their doll's clothes and well you get the idea.

That night we ended up at The Tavern on Rush for dinner. We sat outside and had the best meal of the entire trip. Lisa's steak was very good and my Jambalaya was good as well. After we ate, we took a cab to Navy Pier and wandered around then back to the hotel and to sleep early. Lisa had a morning seminar on Wednesday and then off we went back home.

When we got back, the yard was in a bit of disrepair with all the rain we had while we were gone but the flowers all bloomed and plants grew like weed. The basil I planted needed to be harvested so I did that on Sunday and made Pesto. It's amazing what basil mixed with olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese tastes like!

Last weekend, we made a quick visit to the family in Northeast Ohio. My Mom is now in a condo in Strongsville and my brother has his own place in Middleburg Heights. Mom's new place is pretty nice and Mike's isn't too bad either for his first place. The visit was a bit strange with all the new environments everyone was living in now. Even though I never lived in Mom and Dad's last place, it always felt like home. I just couldn't get comfortable in the new place though but maybe time will help with that.

This past week, we bought new patio furniture. The last patio set was bought as a house warming gift by Mom and Dad when Lisa and I bought our first house about 11 years ago. It was definitely showing it's age. This time we opted for the love seat, lounge chairs with ottoman and coffee table set up. It looks nice but I haven't taken pictures to post yet.

Lisa also found a smoker at a garage sale last week so I'm now the proud owner of a charcoal fueled smoker that I will use for the first time tonight. I'm going to smoke a pork shoulder roast and a couple of small chickens. Tonight is also the night for our community's firework display so Lisa's Mom and Dad are coming over for smoked food and to watch the show. I may head for the boarded and buy a few fireworks as well.

That should pretty much put anyone that is still reading this blog up to date with our happenings! Have a great holiday weekend.

Just a quickie post. With some heavy coxing from a couple of co-workers, we sent this movie (the top one) of Katelyn into American Funniest Videos. We'll see if it's as funny as everybody thinks it is. We also booked a quick vacation to see my Aunt and cousins in the Nashville area. I haven't been there in years and I think Lisa and the kids will enjoy visiting and seeing the area. I'm sure it will be beastly hot and the drive will be all so pleasant.

Shawn completed a little survey about me for father's day. I really got a kick out of the answers.I had a really nice father's day weekend. Saturday, I fulfilled my end of a birthday present and went to a neighborhood garage sale with Lisa. I really don't enjoy looking at other's garbage but it wasn't all that bad. Saturday evening Jill, Todd and the Kids came over for a cook out and we took a ride over the boarder and bought about $5o worth of fireworks (all fountains). The video of Katelyn below was from Saturday night. Todd and I also indulged in a few Irish car bombs which are definitely my favorite shots. Irish car bombs consist of a half shot of Jameson's and a half shot of Bailey's dropped into a half pint of Guinness. You have to chug the drink before the Bailey's starts to curdle with the beer. If you down it quick enough, the mixture tastes like a chocolate milkshake....delicious!

Sunday, we took Shawn for his 7 year old pictures a few month late. Of course, since we were taking pictures, I jumped in with Shawn and Katelyn, Lisa took a picture with the kids and we took a family picture as well. Overall the pictures turned out well; I can't post the pictures here since Lisa hasn't mailed them out yet. I got a few really cool gifts this year that took me by surprise. From Katelyn, I got a neat framed poem with her footprints painted on it, from Shawn I got the cool survey posted above, a Cleveland Brown's logo 25 foot tape measure and a $150 gift certificate from the Brew Kettle in the Cleveland area to brew my own beer.

My Brew Kettle certificate will pay for me to brew at least (72) 22 ounce beers. I think I will brew a IPA and have it put into a keg. Unfortunately, the earliest opening The Brew Kettle has to brew is in January. Oh well, it's something to look forward to!

The past week also was Lisa's birthday. We celebrated with T-bone steaks with her Mom, Dad and the kids. She got a few nice things that she picked out and I bought her an I-Pod Nano (8Gb) and a JBL docking station.

The next two weeks are pretty busy with work. I get to travel to Columbus for a seminar, Chicago for a trade show and I have a Mudhens' game with a vendor. While in Chicago, I'm going to have a little more time to kill than I usually do and will probably hang out with Lisa's brother Brad for the day on Saturday. Lisa will arrive in Chicago later in the week to attend classes while I work the trade show.

We are also in the process of finalizing a trip in July to see my aunt and cousins in Nashville. I've been there once 14 years ago but don't remember too much about the city except the people were really friendly and there were some fun and interesting places to see. Of course it will probably be 105 degrees everyday we're there. Traveling in the car with Katelyn will more fun than a full frontal lobotomy.