Stefblog

BATZ

2008-08-24T10:43:00.002-05:00

No, not BETZ--BATZ as in Brew At The Zoo. This is the end of summer event that has become a ritual for a handful of us for the last 4 years. The usual suspects were there, me (duh), Bean (double duh), TP, Caleb & Annie, new editions to the mix were Annie's parents and M1.

Although I'm not sure, I think Annie's dad had a good time, it was hard to tell at times. Her mom enjoyed herself as well and M1 concurred. I'm told that Rikey and her friends were there, they looked like sluts to me, but M1 enjoyed pointing them out.
There was lots of beer, of which I sampled, lots of food of which I sampled even more and lots of wine of which I did not partake in.

My favorite food item had to be the chicken wraps--they have been there for at least the last three years and I remember them not only for their high quality, but also because the people handing out the "samples" practically force you to take them! They are good though and the "sample" is at least a quarter, if not half, of a whole wrap--good portions! I had some good chicken pot stickers and cheese pizza. I did try beers, but none of them stood out for blogging purposes.

Did I mention the BATZ actually sold out? Oh I guess I just did. Well it did, so maybe you should start planning right now for next year.

Summer's Almost Over 08

2008-08-04T09:13:00.005-05:00

Long time, no bloggy.... excuses trach, beep, honk, etc.

I'm looking for a break from work and ran out of things to look at on the internet, so I thought I'd post a weekend re-cap. Although due to the lack of bloggins, my guess is that no one will see this for three days. And only then it will by accident that someone clicked on my blog. But then again, I think I'm linked up RSS style to trachbang, so maybe it won't take three days... anyway I digress.

I was stoked that I participated in my first Canoefest this past Friday, which is the start of the newly named DuckStock-fest (re: dooleyblog). The canoing was good, the river/creek/etc was fast and high which meant minimal paddling for Bean (cause it's always minimal paddling for me). There was one carcase spotted, two urine waterfalls, a bunch of flipped canoes and a partridge in a pear tree.

Immediately upon returning to the BBQ, the pork chop extravaganza started. I almost got sick looking at that amount of meat. (TWSS)
I ate my fill of potatoes and slaw and promptly took a nap to get stoked for Strassenfest.

The stoking for Strassenfest took a little longer and few more beers than I would have liked, but after a few cups I was there. Good times, although somehow Bean & I didn't get to polka as much as we wanted. It was hot again this year, but not as hot as last year, and as such instead of my typical hot-from-the-oven monster cookies, I had two snow cones in addition to a FREE schnitzel (ya hear that Flamion?).

We chucked it back to the BBQ around 1AM and I called it a night. I believe there was a pork chop food challenge, but I didn't see it; I'll leave that for someone else to blog about.

Saturday morning started with Angie's always good breakfast burritos. Then me, Maxson and Bean headed back to Strassenfest for their homebrew contest.
*Spoiler alert*
There were three categories for the beer: Light, Wheat, and Dark. Bean won first place in the light and dark beer categories and some dude from Indy won the Wheat category.

Immediately after the homebrew contest, we loaded up Stutz and headed back to Memphis. After learning that Mosquito-fest ice cream was now $1 a scoop, it made the drive less zesty and we decided to forgo that portion of DuckStock 08.

For dinner that night, we went to my favorite New Albany restaurant, Joe's OK Bayou. I had my normal crawfich etoufee, but the noteworthy portion of this story is about the girl who worked there that was eating boiled crawfich. She kept saying things like, "I wanted to suck the head longer cause I love the taste, but it was so hot" or "I would have had more, but my lips are swelling".... yeah, it's true, she really did say that and TONS more. I could not stop laughing, although I was trying to hide laughter from her as she was young and, I really believe, did not realize what she was saying. I think the three of us laughed all the home about it.

Sunday night concluded with Maxson and I kicking it to Deercreek (aka Verizon Wireless Music Center) for a kick ass Radiohead show. In addition to already awesome music, they had a stellar light show and grossly inflated beer prices ($10 for 24oz Coors Light). Good times for sure, although the getting out of the parking lot portion sucked verily, but I'm not sure I've ever been to a concert there where it didn't suck!

In conclusion, I had a busy weekend. Summer is almost over. Brew at the zoo is August 23rd.
End Transmission

Hawaii Blog Part 1

2007-12-14T08:18:00.001-06:00

I know, I know....'bout time!

For those not in the know, Ben bought me a trip to Hawaii for my birthday (ok, he bought it for both of us). My bestest bud in the whole wide world, Geoff moved out there at the beginning of the year with his girlfriend Jessica (who is now his almost wife).

Geoff and Jessica live on the island of Kauai in the town of Lihue. They offered to let us stay at their humble abode for the 8 nights we were there. So we did Hawaii on the cheap and got to hang out with them!! Bonus!

First of all, Hawaii is 5 hours behind us here in Indiana, so we had time zone issues to deal with in a major way. We left Louisville in the am (can't member the times), flew to Houston where we then boarded a humongous plane and 8 hours later arrived at Honolulu at 6:30pm local time (11:30pm here), then hopped a short flight (37 minutes) over to the island of Kauai. So it was sorta like we came from the future through a worm hole in the time-space continuum.

Geoff met us at the baggage claim, but our bags hadn't made it yet since we managed to hope an earlier flight from Ohau. So we went out to dinner while we waited for our luggage. Went to this place and promptly ordered a Mai Thai and fish & chips. With a belly full of good food and alcohol, we picked up our luggage and went back to their place where we promptly oatted at 8:30pm.

A Wise Man Once Said....

2007-11-15T11:43:00.001-06:00

…They say a blog is created every second, I wonder how often they die.

Time Flies

2007-09-05T08:09:00.000-05:00

Well here it is already September, see I told you summer was almost over. Sorry for the no blogs lately, I've been busy. Here's a rundown of what has been occupying my time.

1) Strassenfest was the first weekend in August. It was good times except that it was hella HOT. I couldn't even enjoy the ginormous, hot, fresh-baked cookies cause it was so dag gone hot. I did partake in about three snow cones though. The night culminated with Ben almost throwing up in downtown Jasper. Despite all the sweat, he hung in there like a champ and kept it together. In his defense he had been drinking since 8 that morning. The following day mosquito-fest was on, but they really need to come up with a better way to dish up 50 cent ice creams. The Tennis'ss's were in line for almost 15 minutes before they got their scoops.

2) At the end of July I quit my CyberTek job to take a Project Analyst job with Chapman Kelly. And no, I'm NOT Ben's sexretary. It's working out pretty well. We drive together most days which should save us $TEXAS in gas over the year.

3)Ben and I held a Chapman Kelly, Inc. company party at our house in mid August. It was quite amusing complete with a interpretive dance set to Salt N' Peppa's "Push It". Good times for sure.

4) The end of August is always marked by the Louisville Zoo's "Brew At the Zoo" event. This year, we added Dirt to our list of attendees. He was partially stoked until he was in the beer tent, two-fisted, and all kinds of lightening, thunder and rain came pouring. THEN he was stoked! This was followed up by a poor showing of beer pong later in the night.

5) Labor Day weekend was spent in Richmond hanging out with my family by the pool, eating and getting burnt. There was also some drinking and a new drinking version of Trouble. If you thought you could pop a lot of trouble with the pop-o-matic bubble before, wait til you try this version!

6) Ben and I (mostly Ben) have been getting involved with our neighborhood trying to get roads, drainage and empty lots taken care of.

So that's it basically. This weekend I'm off to Lake Cumberland to hang out on a kick-ass houseboat and party it up at a bachelorette party. Maybe I'll take some pics, but not PNP.

Summer's Almost Over!

2007-07-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

Sucks, doesn't it?

But I'm here to blog about the end-of-summer rite that is the 4th annual Brew At the Zoo.

I'm rallying early to get people signed up to join us this year on Saturday August 25th from 4-9pm. Tickets are $38 this year, a slight increase, but still well worth it IMO. In addition to the usual suspects (i.e. micro brews, great food, live music and animals) they are adding a "casino" to the festivities. I'm not sure what the details are since the website only says,
"Parrot Dice Casino and Raffles Baskets:
Do you feel lucky? Cold beer and hot dice are new for this year’s Brew. Gamble with your friends for the benefit of the Zoo. In addition, The Friends of the Zoo will be selling chances to win one of several fantasy raffle packages offered."

You can read about it here. Leave a comment and let us know if you're IN. You are, as always, welcome to stay at our house that evening. Ben will even make biscuits and gravy in the morning!

June Wrap

2007-07-09T12:05:00.000-05:00

Despite the lack of blogs, June was a fairly busy month at the Schy house.
In addition to my previously mentioned "5 States in 1 Day Tour", we did do other things.

The weekend of the 16th was spent in Richmond with a 5K Saturday morning, hanging and cooking out by the pool all day and some competitive mini golf later that night. Sunday we took my dad out the breakfast for Father's Day and then went canoeing on the Whitewater River with some friends. Good times! (pics forthcoming)

Sunday the 24th was marked by our purchase of a 50" something, something, something TV (you'll have to ask Bean for the deets--I'm just a girl). (pics forthcoming)

The next weekend was our not-too-exciting trip to Fort Wayne. What was supposed to be a fun filled Friday and Saturday night excursion, actually only lasted until 3pm Saturday when we had explored everything the city had to offer. Thanks to all of you who allowed us to go knowing the city sucked ass.

5 State Tour

2007-06-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how JCTMH does this traveling thing so much. I mean, I like to travel, but I usually don't have to be anywhere at any particular time, so there's no rush. It's only 6pm, but I've already been in 5 states and I am pooped! Started in IN (obviously), went to KY to catch my 6:30am flight, 1 hour layover in IL (chicago-midway), then onto MO (Kansas City), then drove into KS (Overland Park). 5 states, 1 time zone difference and 1 very confused, tired girl.

That time zone thing really messed me up this morning. I landed, by my watch, at 7:20 and my flight departed at 7:35. So there I was running down the terminal to "catch" my flight. I go up to the lady at the gate and she says, "Where are you going to?" I say, "Kansas City---am I too late?" we can all see where this is going... she looks at me and says "your plane's not even here." I was confused and she could tell because she then proceeded to tell me "it's only 6:30 sweetie." I had to chuckle, I told her thanks and apologized for being an idiot.

When I got to Kansas City I got to see how rock stars live. There was a driver holding a sign with "Schy" on it! Yeah, I'm Schy...that's me. I was a little dissappointed that it wasn't a limo, but only for a second. I thought it was cool that I was one of "those" people. I got in the van and then realized just how tired I was. I wanted to lay on the bench seat and take a nap. I had looked up the distance between the airport and the office the night before and saw that it was a 45 minute ride. I shoulda done it, but didn't.

So I get to office tired and starving, but those aren't the traits you want to exhibit when you're going to a ___. So I sucked it up, drank 1/2 a cup of coffee (those that know me,know I don't drink coffee ever)and proceeded to ___ my ass off. We broke for lunch around 1pm (my time) and I tried really hard to not inhale my food in front of the company. My body was so thankful for the food, I was starting to get shaky and not think clearly.

After lunch they had me do some application tests; doing different things in Excel, Word, Acess, etc. I did pretty well on those, but I had to really concentrate cause I still felt like I wasn't thinking clearly...I didn't feel on top of my game. But I did the things they asked, some of them I didn't quite know how to do, but I finished. At 3pm the driver showed up to take me back to the airport.

There was a storm front heading east at this point and American had already cancelled their flights from KS to Chicago, I started worrying about my Southwest flight, but it was still scheduled for departure as normal. It was a bumpy flight in and out of Chi-town, but I made it home around 10pm. What a freakin exhausting day!

Summer Time

2007-06-11T15:31:00.000-05:00

Short of the meatscuit, there's not been too much excitment in the Schy houshold lately. I, for one, am glad I wasn't home for the discovery of that food concoction. I almost threw up just reading that post and furiously scoured the countertop and dishes associated with the making of said item.

I did go to Kansas City last Thursday, but that was part of a secret mission that I can't blog about (hope Bean's not reading this) right now.

We went out to dinner with Caleb and Annie for her birthday last Friday--lots of Melting Pot goodness. I drank exactly 2.5 Schlitz Light's at M1's after dinner and passed out somewhere around the party at the moon tower portion of Dazed and Confused.

Saturday we got up and went to the Oaken Barrel for lunch, Idaho nachos are the bizzomb! I highly recommend them. M1 & I then split a chicken quesadilla. Then we headed off to the 1st annual (hopefully) Indiana Homebrewer's Brew-B-Q. It was a gathering of homebrew clubs from all over Indiana. Bean, M1 & I were there as representatives of IBADS (Indiana Brewing and Drinking Society). We made some new friends, drank various homebrews and got M1 interested in the craft. We all got a little sun and then Bean and I kicked it back to southern Indiana around 9pm.

Sunday we didn't do much, just did a little gardening and general cleaning of the house. We had dinner with his parents, then called it a weekend. All in all, good times.

Not much lined up for this week, but this weekend we'll be in Richmond. We're running a 5K saturday, hanging out at the parents' pool and canoeing with friends on Sunday.

May the Turtle Gods Smile On Me

2007-05-24T08:47:00.000-05:00

So a couple years ago, I was driving home and saw a turtle crossing the road. Since it was a somewhat busy road, I thought I'd help him out. I got out and as I got close a car came by and ran over him---right in front of me! I was so upset! I heard the crunch of his shell and then saw blood on the road. I couldn't believe someone would do that. There weren't any oncoming cars so the person could have gone into the other lane, but they didn't. I felt I had let the little guy down and knew I had to do something to get back in the good graces of the Turtle Gods.

Time went on, as it always does, and I forgot about the little turtle. But then, on Tuesday I was driving home and, low and behold, I saw a turtle trying to cross a perilous section of road. This was my chance to redeem myself! I pulled over, got out and picked the little guy up no problem! He did pee when I picked him up, but I probably would too in that situation. I put him in my car and put him in our flowerbed until Ben got home so we could decided where to take him. I thought it might be kind of nice to keep him in the backyard, so we left him there over night. The next morning, he was still in the flowerbed, but had burrowed himself under the mulch. He was still there that evening which lead Ben and I to decide that he was in shock and probably not doing well. So we decided to take him a mile down the road to where there is a stream and lots of over growth along side it. I think he'll like it a lot better there.

And then I found $5!

Bier Names

2007-05-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend I brewed my second batch of stout. The first attempt went over well and quickly with a variety of people and I submitted it to the Sam Adams Homebrew contest. Since so many people enjoyed it, I decided to make it again and submit this one to the Indana State Fair Brewer's Cup. But this time, I think it's time to come up with a name for it. The two ideas that have been brought to the board are:
1) Schy High Ale
2) Bierschyster

I like the second one, and I've been playing around with the word order. "The Schyster", "Schyster Beer", "Schyster Bier", or "The Beirschyster". What do you think? For some reason, the first one calls to my mind a light colored beer, so that won't work for my dark beer. Got any other unique beer name ideas?

Holla back yo!

Boulder Post Trip--Now with 200% more pictures!

2007-05-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

Imagine a place where everyone likes to be outside, the thin air stings your lungs as you walk uphill, during certain times of the year you can play golf and ski in the same day and the beer flows so smoothly it must be from the heavens themselves. Where is this utopia? Does it really exsist you ask? I'm here to tell you it does, it resides on the eastern foothills of the Rockies in a place called Boulder, Colorado.

We (me, Ben and Rangoon) flew in to Denver and Stutz (Captain Curt, that is) promptly picked us up in his new Subaru Outback. Mind you, it's not a new model, but new to him. And it actually had enough room for 4 adults compared to his last two or three vehicles. By the way, Subaru's are big in that area; everyone's got one or two.

On our way to Curt's place, we stopped by Buckley Air Force Base where the guys bought ski lift tickets hella cheap with a military discount and we bought groceries at the Commissary--also on the cheap. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I did manage to get a few; just don't tell The Man.

From there it was on to Boulder! Along the way we took note of all the great scenery: mountains, tumbleweeds and prairie dogs. Although some people have said that prairie dogs carry the plague, I just can't believe it. How can something so cute carry something so deadly? We did, however, decide that prairie dogs are a cows most deadly predator. They dig those holes in the ground, then the cow steps in it, breaks its leg, falls and then out come a mass of blood-thirsty prairie dogs! The cow is dead before it realizes what happened. The quickness at which it happens is really a blessing.

Curt lives in the back portion of a house along with two other people and a dog named Bohnam. I only saw the others once, but we did hang out with Bohnam quite a bit. You'll find him in a lot of our pictures.

We got to Curt's place around 2pm (local time) and I promptly took a nap while the guys went to get their rentals for skiing the next day. When they got back, we went for a hike up in the flatirons. What's convienant about his place is that walking paths up the mountain are just a few blocks from where he lives. So we did the Red Rock Trail and went a good ways up (but no where near the top), as we were walking I decided that I was not nearly in as good of shape as I thought I was. My cardiovascular system was in shock, it couldn't believe I would do something like this to it! The view was worth it though, there were the health benefits too, and also the thought that I could be at home sitting on my butt, but I'm instead hiking in the Rockies! All good things :)

By 3pm, after 2.5 hours of hiking/walking around the area, we had built up quite a thirst so we headed to Mountain Sun Brewery! Here are some pics of tasty beers, fries and some LOADED nachos. They have a good variety of craft beers and I was pleased with their Java Porter--it was like a cup of strong coffee only cold. Around 5pm we headed west (into the sun) and stopped into BJs Brewery, to have "one more round". We actually had three or four more rounds, but we were on vacation and no one was counting. I really enjoyed their PM Porter, very roasty and wet-carpety. There we met Lu, a bartender/supervisor who turned out to be a cool person whom we had interesting conversations with. When we were ready to move on, it was about 8pm and Stutz took us to The Attic where they have PBR on tap and FREE pool. You might wonder why we would downgrade to PBR when there were tons of other fine beers around. Well the answer is simple: We were drunk and PBR was cheap! Our first day wrapped up around 11pm with a decent walk back to Stutz's (up a gimormous hill/small mountain).

Day 2 started early with the guys leaving for Eldora Ski Resort around 8am. Here are a few pics from their day skiing. I got ready for my spa day and left around 8:30. I walked 15 blocks to get to the spa at 9am. Between 10 and 4pm, I got a facial, massage, lunch, pedicure and makeup application--it was a good day. That evening we were all starving and got sushi from Hapa for dinner. It was good, but you know, sushi never seems to fill me up unless I get a ton of it and that very rarely happens as I'm not rich. Anyway, Hapa happened to be right next to BJ's so we stopped in there again, this time we really only had two rounds. The guys were exhausted after their day of skiing so we called it a night early and went back to the house.

Day 3 started with breakfast at Foolish Craig's, a trendy little bistro on the main, trendy street. Then we walked up to the UC-Boulder campus and surrounding area. We saw The Onion headquarters and we went to the Dushanbe Tea House for afternoon tea at 11am. Then we headed back to the house and got ready for all-you-can-eat rib dinner at The West End Tavern. But we first headed to Walnut Brewery for some pre-dinner drinks. The bartendress, Tracy, kept our glasses full and offered us all kinds of "samples" of their beers. Rangoon and I got drunk and started talking about birth, death and taxes--it was getting really heavy, but then guess who showed up for drinks??? I finally got to meet the infamous Finch and Jewfish!! They no longer exsist as just blog commenters to me anymore...I finally got to talk to them and ask them the questions that have been on my mind for awhile. It was awesome. We headed out for dinner around 6pm, I personally don't like ribs, so I settled for a great big, tasty burger. I did eat Bean's cornbread and yam chips--they were delicious! I think most of them all got another plate of ribs, but I don't think anyone had more than two. After we gorged ourselves with food, we headed to BJ's for yet another round. This trip to BJ's was more to say bye to Lu than to drink. I was soo full that I couldn't even finish my beer. Not that I didn't want to, but my body was no longer accepting food or drink. I tried to go to the bathroom, but that didn't help. So I left a partial PM Porter and a phat tip on the bar.

Day 4--the last day. Our flight left Denver at 3:15pm so we didn't have to rush in the morning. After we got our luggage loaded up, it was fairly foggy so we headed up into the mountains. Because really, what better time to drive through twisted, windy mountain roads than when the visibility is low? We reached some senic lookout spot and got out. You really couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of you. While the guys were throwing rocks over the mountain into the nothing, I happened to notice a sign informing visitors that bears and mountain lions are active year round in these areas. That was enough information for me and I headed back into the car. After a quick sodoku puzzle the guys came back and we headed back down. Part way down we stopped at another lookout point, this one was just along side the road. Once again, the guys got out and went to the edge to throw rocks and whatnot, everything was fine until Rangoon and Bean came running back screaming "BEAR! BEAR!" "Bean hit a bear with a rock!!" and we all quickly got in the car and drove away. I was freaking out, trying to get them to tell me they were joking...turns out they were. Very funny. We stopped and had some Thai food and then headed back to the airport.

So there you have it. Our fun mini-vacation to Boulder. If you have the means, I highly recommend you visit sometime. I did take a metric ton of pictures, we just haven't uploaded them to our gallery. Pictures forthcoming--promise!

Boulder Baby!

2007-04-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

This Saturday, Bean, Rangoon (yes, YOU Chad) and I are going to Boulder, CO for four days to hang out with Stutz. I think some other blog-reading people (Finch and Jewfish maybe?) live out there too, but I'm not sure if we'll see them.
The guys are going skiing Sunday and I'll be spending that day getting a massage, pedicure and possibly a facial. Color me stoked!
There are plans to go hiking as well, it'll be nice to get out in the fresh air and take in some of that stuff they call nature. I'd like to visit some breweries, a friend recommended Mountain Sun brewery and I trust his judgement so maybe we'll spend some time there. There's also the Walnut Brewery that has delicious looking beers as well. We'll have Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights to enjoy the many different beers and cuisine, and based on my findings on google, there are plenty of places from which to choose!
I've got the camera charging, ready to take ample pictures from this trip. Of course, I say that a lot and then, inevidably we forget and only take two pictures. I'm not going to let that happen this time! I promise you! The guys might end up getting mad at me for taking so many pictures, but I want my next blog to have numerous, quality pics. See you in a few days...

Spring has Sprung

2007-03-27T13:54:00.001-05:00

Spring is here and with it comes the itch to start doing things outside. We are already making plans to break out the camping / fishing equipment this weekend and hope to use them more often than we did last year.

We are expanding the garden (and by we, I mean Ben) to make the outline of the garden match or closely resemble the flowerbeds. This is also the time of year we start looking at what kinds of flowers and vegetables we want to grow. This year, we're going to stick with a couple tomato plants, a green pepper plant, a jalepeno plant (for mo betta salsa makin). We'll also have our third year strawberries and a variety of herbs (oregano, mint, parsley, cilantro and catnip).

As for flowers, I don't know the names of a lot of stuff, I just go by what sparks my intrest when I'm at the nursery or store. I do like browsing around though. I think that hosta's are pretty low maintainance and if so, I'd like to get a few to put around each side of the house.

In conclusion, I'm excited that the warmer weather is just around the corner (and in some cases all ready here).
Prease to enjoy this video of what Ben & I did this past weekend while visiting Richmond.

Got Your Tickets?

2007-02-28T10:00:00.000-06:00

I think it's absolutely insane to see people circling the parking lot (multiple times, mind you) trying to get a close parking space at the GYM! You're going to run 15 million miles and sweat all over the treadmill today, but you don't want to walk the extra 75 yards? I specifically make it a point to not park close anymore.

Why is it that most of the guys leave the free weight area when I get there? I don't think I'm intimidating them with my gun show, but maybe I am.

Happy Birthday to Ben -- tomorrow!

PCS-Fest

2007-02-19T09:12:00.001-06:00

That's right, the Plunge/Chili/Stacie-fest is this Saturday. It's shaping up to be a great weekend weather-wise here in southern Indiana; Friday's high of 59 coupled with Saturday's high of 67 means the fourth year in a row of unseasonably warm weather for the Polar Bear Plunge. The air temperature won't take the bite from the 38(+/-) degree water, but it sure does make it more tolerable. We've added another team member to our plunge team this year, my sister! Surely there are people who would pay to see her jump in the near freezing water--make sure to get your donations in by this Thursday!

After the plunge, we will continue on with the days festivities with the somewhat annual Chili-fest. Still not sure who is coming other than Dooley, Rangoon and Tennis, but a good time will be had for sure. Beer & chili = Stef's house smelling like roses. Leave a comment with the name and possibly a short description of your chili so I know what to expect. Also leave a comment if you're coming and you're not one of the three listed above (the more the merrier).

As the evening draws near and we've had our fill of chili, we will round out the evening by taking my newly-turned-21 sister out for drinks and either bowling or pool. You all are invited to stay for the shenanigans, if shenanigans are to be had. In fact, Stacie wants a big crowd to go out with that night so you should come along. The only bed that has been called is the guest room for the Rangoons, otherwise there's still plenty of room!

STOKED!!

Dos margaritas, por favor

2007-02-07T13:16:00.000-06:00

This Saturday afternoon, Bean & I will be in Tulum Mexico. Staying at the previously mentioned, Aventura Spa Palace for a week. I'm so freaking excited to be leaving all this snow, ice and sub-zero wind chills. Hopefully, since this is a tourist resort, I don't need to know much spanish, since ordering margaritas is the only thing I know. It would be weird if they spoke German, I wonder if I could throw some at them?

So besides eating and drinking all we can handle and getting a massage or two, I've been looking into other things to do around the area. There are some Mayan ruins to check out, Cozumel which I hear is pretty, along with some other touristy type areas with open markets and whatnot. Which, I gotta be honest, I think we were both just sorta "eh" about. We really just want to chill out for once and not always be on the go to see things. But then last night I came upon the Selvatica company who offers zipline "adventures". Holy freaking crap that looks like fun! We're going to do the "extreme adventure" where we go through 11 ziplines (including the longest one in Norf America), then a 1/2 mile bike ride to a cenote to swim around and jump into, then lunch and then back to the hotel. We'll leave at 8am and get back at 3pm. We have two spots reserved for Tuesday.....Consider me stoked!

Locker Room Antics

2007-02-02T08:37:00.001-06:00

Ben and I subscribe to a gym and have for the last two months or so. We go right after work and are done within an hour. But what I'm talking about today is what happens in the women's locker room. This is a good, mid-sized gym with the women's locker area having about 50 lockers, two showers, two sinks and two bafroom stalls. The problem I have is when women decide to change clothes in the stalls. It's really only a problem when I have to use the stalls for their intended purpose and I can't because some chick feels like she can't change in front of other women. I would totally understand if there were dudes in there, but there's not. I normally change at work so as to make good use of company time, but I have changed at the gym before and do so in front of however many women happen to be in there. Here's the other thing, those stalls aren't what I would call roomy. I think one is handicappable so there's some extra room, but still.
So what I want to know is, from my 3 women readers, am I being harsh? And from the 4 men readers: do guys do the same thing?
Actually, after typing that last part out, I'm gonna bet that guys don't go to the stalls to change because, unless you're changing underwear, you're not really exposing anything different than what would be seen at a pool.

Go Jump In the River!

2007-01-23T07:54:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again!

Ben and I will be jumping into the Ohio River on Febuuuurrrary 24th. We've been perfecting our jump strategy and will be ready to go that morning.

This year, we have decided to form a team so you can jump with us. However, since throwing yourself voluntarily into 37 degree water isn't for everyone, you can still help us by making a monetary donation by following this link. Every tax-deductible dollar will help give children and adults with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to grow through various programs.

If you are interested in jumping with us, let us know and we'll get you signed up! Otherwise, thanks for helping us reach our goal and by doing so, you will be helping Special Olympics athletes reach their goals as well.

-Ben & Stef

I Suck at creating titles

2007-01-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year to all of you!!
Better late than never...

Did anyone watch The Office last night? If so, did you notice the use of "tim" in the beginning? I actually watched the trailer at work yesterday, and aboot ell ohh elld in my pants when he said it! Ben didn't get to see it because he's in Snowshoe, WV snowboardin' it up with Contanister (aka Punchy), TP, Dirt, Wisdomblog and a guy named Matt. I'm sure they're having good tims.

We spent New Year's Eve in Bloomington with some of my friends. Went to the Blue Bird and watched the opening act, Autovaughn, produce the longest, most unnecessary guitar solo EVER on their last song. Then the main act took the stage, Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise. A blind guy that sings inaudible lyrics in a very jazz type fashion. By the end of the night, we were convinced he was singin about Jell-O puddin pops. Bloomington offered free cab rides that night which was a pretty sweet deal for everyone involved. Good tims were had by all for sure.

My world series of pop culture team has fizzled out. I'm mildly bitter and don't want to talk about it.

We kicked it at M1's this past weekend for some children's museum shenanigans, YATS, pong and grilled meats (I think there was some football game on as well). I'm happy to say that Welch showed up and I talked to him for awhile, so I can confirm that he is alive and well! I'm also happy to report that Ben and I led to Joe Miller's demise that night. I think he was drunk by 8pm. I AM THE KING!!

I'm looking forward to going to Mexico in a few weeks, in fact I just realized that we'll be there at this time next month! We'll be staying in Tulum, an hour south of Cancun at an all-inclusive resort: Aventura Spa Palace. I've been reading all kinds of reviews and tips on Trip Advisor and I think we'll enjoy our time there. The biggest hurdle will be getting past the time-share people when you first get there. We've dealt with them before though. On honeymoon #1 to Florida, the sales guy kept going on and on about what a great deal this was and after Ben said "No", this kid (he couldn't have been older than 23) ended up saying something condescending like, "Well, alright if you're ok taking your girl to the Motel 6 on vacation". I piped in and said I didn't need five star accommodations because when we go on vacation it's about getting out and doing stuff. Ben's already said that if he gets asked if I'm worth five star accommodations again, he's gonna say No. That should throw them off a bit. ha ha I've read that if you haggle a little with the sales people, you get free massages, shirts, towels, etc. Not a bad deal for 90 minutes of your morning especially if it's raining. We'll find out.

Christmas Cookies

2006-12-21T13:03:00.000-06:00

FYI: I'm currently eating a christmas cookie.

I've just found out that JCTMH will not be able to be on my World Series of Pop Culture team, The Nagheenanajars. He will be at a meeting in California that weekend. I'm currently trying to find out if substitutes are allowed and if so, I'm in need of one. Do you know pop culture? Brad, are you still interested? You will need to be available to go to Chicago Friday Feb. 2--Sunday the 4th. The 4th is SuperBowl Sunday, if that matters to you. It doesn't matter to me, but it seems ironic that a pop culture trivia contest would be held on that day.

It's looking like we won't be having a "white christmas" this year in southern Indiana. Which is perfectly fine by me since my little car doesn't drive well in the snow and ice. We'll be staying here for the holiday this weekend, then going to Richmond next weekend for a late Christmas celebration. Then we're off to Bloomington for New Year's Eve/going away party for my friends Geoff and Jessica. We'll be missing the White Trach Gift Exchange/Casino Night, but we'll be there next year for sure.

I anticpate the next week at work being exceptionally not busy, if it's anything like it was last year and I believe it will be.

Trips in the pipeline for the upcoming year: Snowshoe, Mexico, Florida and that's just the first three months!

As for the cat toilet training; I said it would only take one cat to throw the whole thing off, and I was right. Jake decided he didn't want to use the toilet and he battled with me until I finally gave in. At 10 years old, he is the sterotypical stubborn old fart. I will say that the girls did a great job and were progressing nicely in our quest for litter freedom, but Jake can be an ass at times. I still love him, but DANG! So there's where that stands for now.

Merry Christmas

The Latest and Greatest

2006-12-08T08:17:00.000-06:00

(This blog is dedicated to Bad Andy)

Since I work for a computer consulting company, the boss says we have to be on the cutting edge of all things technical. That, normally, doesn't apply to me since I just answer the phone and do other, office type things. But this week he upgraded everyone in the office (all 3 of us) to Office '07 and Windows Vista. If you're not a Windows type person, you may not want to read this, but you might cheer along in the background if you do.

Let's start with the OS:
Bossman has not been able to install Vista on my computer because my version of XP is defunkt. Right now, Vista can either be an upgrade or clean install, it can't do a repair. So I don't have much to report from a personal standpoint. I can tell you that both coworkers have been struggling this week to do work because a lot of their applications are not vista compatible. Or at least they've been spending a lot of time finding upgrades/patches/add-ons to make their programs run properly (i.e. Dreamweaver, Quickbooks, Illustrator). It doesn't keep your favorites or stored passwords (at least when using IE. Firefox is mo betta, I know, I know, but we're a Microsoft Certified Partner). So right now, I'm not too mad about going back to my broke XP OS. The only thing I notice being wrong with it is that it will occasionally close applications and I sometimes have error issues when I log on in the morning, but that's solved by shutting down my pc at night. So I'll keep it.

Office 2007:
The new office suite is fairly different than what we've become accustomed to for the last ten-ish years. The toolbars are not in the standard long, thin format and it takes a while to find the button you're looking for. I wish I could give you more technical jargon and analogies, but I can't. Here's a screen shot of powerpoint for your viewing pleasure.

Hopefully that shows alright. The buttons seem to be what I would describe as more bubbly than the square, rectangular, cold ones we're used to. Which takes some getting used to at first. In their default setup, some of the standard "file" buttons (new, save, open, etc) are not out in the open and I had to play a pretty good game of hind-and-seek before I found them. Maybe some of this frustration could have been avoided had the boss done some kind (or any kind) of training before unleashing this on us. It's sort of like you have to start all over and forget what you've learned as far as how to operate in the Office '07 environment. I haven't messed around with Access or Publisher yet, but they both open to pages a little different than their predecessors. Word, Excel and Powerpoint are all pretty similar adn Outlook seems to be the least unchanged.

So there you have it. My non-technical evaluation of Vista and Outlook 2007; hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And I know you did you weirdo.

This 'N That

2006-11-29T15:45:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick little ditty about what's been going on lately:

I've been getting ready for the World Series of Pop Culture adventure. Me, JCTMH and his high school friend, Jon Payne are busy finishing our 3 page applications. Chi-town here we come!

Ben & I are are working on training the cats to use the toilet instead of litter boxes. It is a somewhat slow process and if just one of them doesn't cooperate (Jake, I'm lookin' your way) then it won't work. But we're hoping for the best and if it works, that'll be one more tally mark on the never-ending cats vs. dogs scoreboard.

I have successfully survived my gall bladder removal....oh wait, you already knew that. So far the only side effect has been that I can't seem to eat as much as I used to. That may not be so bad in the long run.

We are gearing up for the holiday season. Gifts are being bought and wrapped, decorations put out, but we can't seem to decide where to put the christmas tree.

Shout out to Geoff and his girl Jess who are gearing up to move to Hawaii at the beginning of the year. When's the party? Heck, we'll host it if you want!

GBS: Post-Game Wrap Up

2006-11-17T12:34:00.000-06:00

Well, it's Friday and I sucessfully made it through my gall bladder removal surgery. As far as I know, things went smoothly and it came out of one of the four small holes I now have in my abdomen. But which one?

The only things I remember are getting wheeled into the OR a little after 3, someone asking me to move over onto the table, then someone put one of those big, rubbery masks over my face and I was OTE! You know how you'll watch different surgery shows on TV, and they'll wheel the patient in, and be like, "Are you ready?" then they'll give them some of that white stuff in their IV? And then the patient lies there and talks or counts backwards for a few seconds; I didn't have anything like that happen, at least not that I know of.

Next thing I knew, someone was saying my name and told me I was in the "post-op area" and I opened my eyes and saw a big clock that said 5pm. I told the voice that I was sore and she said she'd give me something for that. I must have dosed in and out for the next hour. This nurse kept giving me ice, and it was the best ice I'd ever had because I have never woken up with such a bad case of dry mouth and sore throat! I think the doctor must have "messed around" and put something down my throat. And by that, I mean something like a breathing tube.

Sometime around 6 I was awake enough to be moved to recovery where Ben and my parents came in shortly after. The next hour or so was me just lying there, I think I talked to them and then the nurse gave Ben my list of restrictions, helped me get dressed and I was sent home.

I've got some pictures, but the card reader on the computer isn't seeing it, so I can't post them right now. I've got a picture of my gall bladder, my appendix (which looks like a bratwurst), some fat (like I didn't know I had any), and a couple other random pics of my innards.

I've spent the last day and a half in somewhat of a drug induced haze. I've got my "special" pills that I take every 4 hours or as needed for pain(sometimes < 4hr) and another pill to help with the nausea, but I don't really have any of that.

I'm going to go and get back to the list of movies I have to watch during this time. There's really nothing on regular TV anymore.

Gall Bladder Surgery Pre-Game Countdown

2006-11-14T15:39:00.000-06:00

As some (most) of you know, I'm having my gall bladder removed Wednesday (tomorrow) at 2:30pm. The hospital has called and we went through all preregistration questions and the do's and don'ts for me for the next 24 hours. I have never been hospitalized for anything before, so I'm slowly starting to get anxious about the situation. The lady on the phone was nice enough and she assured me that "Dr. Brown knows what he's doing and he usually doesn't mess around once he's in there". Thanks lady, that's good to know, but I'm not sure how to take that statement. Do some doctor's mess around once they cut you open and your stuff's all exposed?

This is a laproscopic, out-patient procedure, so unless something crazy happens I should be home later that day. There is a chance that things (i.e. organs) have moved around and in that case they would do a traditional surgery to remove it and I would be staying at the hospital at least over night. But we don't expect anything like that to happen.

So I'm about to head home for my last decent meal before I'm stuck sucking down soup for the next week. I believe we're having pasta with some sort of vodka cream sauce that Steve makes really well (shout out to the Wills's). The camera is charged and ready to take play-by-play photos of the events tomorrow. Dr. Brown has said that some of the OR's are equiped with video recording apparatusi to which I asked if he would record the procedure. He said to remind him of it and he'd see what he can do. Otherwise, he said he would take pictures for me to share. So either way, the next blog should have visualizations for your viewing pleasure!

Well, the time has come and I must shut down my computer and head home. I sure hope this wasn't my last blog ever because it was pretty lame. Just in case know that I love you all. Well most of you anyway. Set a little reminder on your Outlook for 2:30, 11/15/06 and think of me as my organs are being exposed. Habba enjoy and talk to you soon!

Totally Unrelated: For those interested, the team name picked for my World Series of Pop Culture team is "The Nagheenanajars".