Dec 31, 2011

I went to Kate's early and it was a beautiful day out. No way we could pass it up to be outside. We took a walk on the trails behind her house that led to a dirt road and eventually brought us back out to Carmel Rd. It was a nice, long walk.

We were both really hungry after that so we went to Peking Tokyo for lunch and got a few rolls to share. The Crunchy Roll was great. That was filling. And we had an exuberant waiter that kept us entertained.

My dad invited us down to hang out and play pool for a while so we went down there. I didn't beat him at all. I am not that good. I played a few games with Kate and I don't even think I won any of those.

Later, Kate, Chuck, Marsha, and I went up to Jeff and Sam's place to have a New Year's Eve party. There were plenty of veggies and snacks out and Sam was making vegan pizzas so all was good. We stood around in the kitchen talking for a while drinking the variety of beers we brought.

After a while we got down to business playing Telestrations. It got weird during a lot of the rounds. I don't even know what was being attempted here. As always, there was a lot of laughing and looks of astonishment when we found out what was being drawn.

We scrambled to get outside to the fire around midnight. I never really cared for the countdown so much. I don't think we even did one, but we did light sparklers and run around the yard for a while.

We stayed out in the cold for a while until the fire was dying down and we decided we'd like to be warm again and play more games.

We stayed around for a while longer, had another slice of pizza and another drink. This was the lineup of empty bottles when I left. We did pretty well. And quite an array of craft beers at that.

The drive home wasn't bad at all. The roads were clear somehow. Maybe we were too soon after midnight for people to have left their parties yet. Either way, happy 2012!

Dec 24, 2011

Kate and I met Jamie and Nathan at Bob Evans for breakfast. It was a very entertaining breakfast. We laughed a lot. And Nathan and I tried explaining our speech impediment naming idea for kids. Wobelt instead of Robert. But that's how you spell it.. never mind. A bit after breakfast I met Ryan for a run at Parvins. We only did one lap this time.

Later, Kate and I went to dinner with her dad and Marilyn at Carolina Blue again. I tried a few new beers like the Flying Fish Extra Pale, Hop Rod, and a Peche Lambic. The last one was a little too sweet, but the Hop Rod was fantastic. We had a good conversation and a nice dinner; I had crab cakes sans the bun this time.

We went to Kate's cousin's house for a little party when we got back. There weren't that many people out at first, but it began to grow and Santa showed up! He was drinking a little bit.

We played Battle Shots but replaced the shots with sips of beer. That's more my speed. It was fun nonetheless. There was good food, but I was still stuffed from the dinner so I just mostly drank from our Yards variety pack.

We didn't stay too long. I got tired quickly. It was an early evening for me.

Dec 23, 2011

It was a half day at school and I worked at Lakeside in an English class with far too much work for the day before holiday break. They did get to watch a movie and eat popcorn though. I tried my best to read some more, but the other teacher was very talkative.

Dave had a gathering in the evening so we went over there with some beer and talked to people. He wanted to get a fire started which turned out to be difficult. After some gas, blowing, and luck we got it going.

It was nice around the fire since it was chilly. We spent most of the night out there listening to music and Dave's friend's impression of him on CD. It was spot on and hilarious.

Once the party wrapped up and the fire was out we headed home and called it a night.

Dec 18, 2011

I went to the gym with Ryan in the morning to get our circuits in and then met Kate and went to my dad's house for the family Christmas party. I had a few snacks and some pepperoni bread and some less-than-desirable beer.

The gentlemen went downstairs and played pool on teams of two, switching out after each game. We lost a lot. Probably partly because of my poor billiards skills.

We had a proper meal upstairs and I got to hang out with Aiden for a while. We spent most of the time in the kitchen.

We came home and got stuff together for our "party" which consisted of us, Chuck, Sarah, Ryan, and Erika. We played Cranium and drank some Magic Hat. I miss that game.

This was our spread of food that we picked at while playing Telestrations. I think I only ate the carrots and cheese.

Though it was a small party, it was a lot of fun and everyone left happy. We hung out for a little while and cleaned up a bit then I headed home as well.

Oct 28, 2011

I covered study team meetings at Mt. Pleasant all day, going from fifth grade to first to third to kindergarten. It was an experience. One of the classes was taking a test so that was easy. Another class was just obnoxiously running around the room and the other teacher didn't seem to mind. It was a pretty easy day for the most part, ending on a Halloween party in the kindergarten class.

I went for a run after work and headed up to get Christy and go to Creamy Acres for their Night of Terror. We waited in line quite a while for our tickets and then waited longer in a short line before the hayride actually began.

The ride was fun. People kept jumping up on the trailer with chainsaws, mostly tormenting this one girl across from us who was very jumpy. We went through a few buildings with different things in them, including an undead dance party. When we finished we went through a building that was pitch black where we had to feel our way through the walls. It was strange and disorienting.

There was a "cornfiled maze" (that's how they spelled it) which was just a fence maze with corn on it. It was quite difficult to find our way out though. There were two funhouse things after that. One was a pirate theme and the other was a 3-D clown house. The latter was creepy and really cool. There were disorienting tunnels that spun around you while you walked the platform. It was a really fun time so I'm glad we went.

I came home to change into my costume (Chuck from Chuck) and then headed to Kate's for the party. We hung out downstairs while Wolverine and other superheroes played beer pong for a while.

This is adult Halloween. Candy and beer. I got Brooklyn IPA for myself and Dogfish Head for Chuck. I didn't get to any of the candy before we left.

We decided to go upstairs and play cards instead of sticking around the characters downstairs. We played quite a few games of palace and had drinks. It was better than the beer pong party in my opinion.

After the game died down Chuck played guitar for us and we sang along while finishing our beers. I headed home when everyone was getting sleepy and ready for bed. It was a good party.

Feb 18, 2011

I worked for Erika again at Lakeside and Memorial. Everyone was pretty good this time, even though the Music Appreciation class wanted to watch a movie, but they had to do work since they complained about it last time when we put on a video.

My sister came over after work and we took Aiden for a walk by the river. He didn't do so much walking, but it was a really nice day to be outside.

We stopped at the park so he could play for a while. He really likes the slide. There were a lot of kids there playing and enjoying the weather. When it was time to go, he wasn't happy but after we got out of sight of the playground he was fine.

I went to the mall to look for an outfit for the "clique" party that was going on at Alex's house that night. After careful consideration I came out looking like this. Sweater vest and glasses.

Elaina and Christy came as Jersey Shore-ish girls with fake tans. Nicely done, I hardly recognize Elaina.

Caitlin also dressed nerdy, and you can see our excitement. We hung out downstairs drinking as people started showing up.

Alex went for a goth look and Cait added some flair to her eye makeup. Nice tattoos!

Someone suggested playing flip cup so we started a game. We played quite a few but our team only won once! You have to take it easy on the flip cup, Caitlin!

Fore the rest of the night, some people played beer pong, we stood under the blacklight talking and taking photos, then we sat upstairs talking for a while as people started to leave.

The party was a lot of fun and there were some good costumes. I'm much happier with what I got than my original idea. Gooodnight!

Dec 11, 2010

Three hours of sleep later I got up and met Jeff to go to the flea market. I unloaded my truckload of stuff as a few people came to scavenge before I had even finished. It was way too cold to be out there with just a sweatshirt but I didn't have anything else.

I kept moving around to stay warm and because I got bored when there was a lag in people. I sold a good deal of my stuff. There were a lot of random items on the table that didn't go, but I was happy with what I sold.

Jeff didn't have nearly as much as me, but he made some sales. Toward the end of the day we were getting desperate and selling things cheap. Jeff even put up a special. No one took him up on it, though just as we were packing up someone bought his box of comics and someone bought my printer. Not a bad day of work.

We went to Moe's for some much-needed lunch after our seven hours of standing in the cold. I ate that whole burrito.

Later in the evening I went to Sam's for the annual holiday party. She was hard at work making veggie pizzas so we congregated in the kitchen.

We got into our seasonal variety packs of beer to try some new flavors. Troegs has a lot of good winter ales.

When the pizzas were finished we had some slices as we tried to figure out the rules of the game we were about to play for our beer swap.

After much deliberation and re-reading, we got into the game. The beer was all wrapped so one person chose a package, opened it and then the next person chooses a package and decides whether they want to open it and keep it or switch it for what is already opened. It's not that confusing, but it is easy to get it mixed up.

We all opened our packages except Allie, who traded with me. There were some good beers out on the table; Rogue, Troegs, Left Hand.

After the game was over we all traded a beer with each other so all of us ended up with basically the same six-pack grab bag, except Chuck, who got two big bottles of Rogue. It's still fun to play the game..

We sat around post-game trying some of the beer we just got and talking.

I brought everyone to the table and got us started on a rousing game of Scattergories. There we desserts of cake and oatmeal cookies circulating the table as we thought of alliterations to rack up the points.

It was a long, fun twelve rounds. Bob Barker, Chris Carter and King of Queens, which doesn't get points for alliteration, were all answers, along with some clever adjectival placements. It was a good game, but it's so hard to think of things when the clock is ticking. I couldn't think of a president whose name started with K.

After the game we were all pretty tired so we called it a night and headed out. I was ready to sleep as soon as I got home after a long day and little sleep.