Today is the first Thursday in almost four years that I haven't had a column due. It's nice, but of course life has found a way to fill that void with other fires that need attending.

For some reason the Harlan Daily hasn't uploaded my final column to their website. Might be because it consisted of several curse words repeated 1000 times. Who knows. The newspaper industry is a strange and fickle mistress. But sexy. Oh so sexy.

In place of my column here's some pictures from my nephew Zach's birthday party and the totally awesome couples wedding shower that BC and Erika threw for us. Both of these events were a blast. One featured Sara wearing a coconut bra. The other featured her wearing a fake mustache. You can figure out which is which.

Labels: dear diary, weekend

Back home in Kentucky after a long but awesome weekend in Virginia.

This weekend was blog regular BP's wedding to the beautiful and classy MRock. I had the honor of officiating their ceremony.

Jumped in the car early Friday morning for the eight hour drive (it was speeding ticket free this time, thank you very much). I armed myself with an iPod full of music, podcasts, and the audio version of Steve Martin's new book, Born Standing Up. The trip went by really fast.

Once in Virginia I met up with another blog regular, JC Samsonite, and headed over to the rehearsal. Everything went smooth as silk because when Patrick Drury is officiating your wedding nothing is left to chance. Also, because BP and MRock are really easy-going and totally gave off a calming vibe that made the whole thing breeze by.

The next day JC, BP, BP's sister's boyfriend Bruce, and I got up at 6:00 AM to play some golf. This was my first time on a golf course ever. When my buddy BC found out I was playing he insisted on letting me borrow his golf cleats and a golf shirt - which I'm grateful for because it kept me from looking like a total idiot.

Much to my surprise I totally loved golf and wasn't too bad at it. I can definitely see myself playing again. Now, for everyone's enjoyment, here's me in golf clothes:






Later that night was the ceremony. Everything went really well. BP looked great and Mrock was beautiful. MRock's beautiful daughter CRock was the flower girl and I was reunited with the first dog I ever loeved, Farley, who coincidentally was the ring bearer:






After the wedding there was a great reception where JC gave the greatest Best Man's speech known to creation. There was much rejoicing, much dancing, and a good time was had by all.

The next morning I hopped in my car at 4:30 AM!!!! and headed back to Kentucky; specifically to Lawrenceburg for my dad's 60th birthday. About two hours into my trip I had to pull over at a gas station and sleep for 15 minutes. Once I woke up, I drank a red Bull, cranked my music and vibrated back to life as I crossed over into West Virginia

My dad's birthday was great. All of his friends and family were there. We grilled out, ate cake, and played Hillbilly Golf. Happy birthday dad!

Labels: dear diary, weekend

In spite of Sara being gone, I had a really nice weekend. Friday night BC, GG, Charley The Intern, Mantle Mike, and I hung out at Shamrock's for a while. Then the next morning I went to Maysville for my nephew Nicholas' birthday party:




Later that night the Colonel and I went to Freek Fest - a small festival to help WRFL (a local college radio station) raise money to build a new tower. The closing act was Apples In Stereo. The concert was on top of a parking garage. It was pretty cool.

Labels: weekend

Up until this weekend it hadn't really felt like Christmas to me yet. Probably has something to do with the fact that I did all my shopping online this year instead of hitting the malls.

This weekend, though, the season finally descended upon me. It began with St. Awesome's Christmas party early on Friday evening. There was mingling, snacks, dim lights, and Christmas music. I love that kind of thing.

After that party, Sara, Jennifer, Mike, and I headed to our friend Brooke's place for an ugly Christmas sweater party. It was fun. And ugly. We played this game where everybody wore a bell around their neck and tried not to say the words "no" or "know" throughout the night. If you said either word people could take your bell from you. It basically turned into me and Mike handing our bells back and forth.

Here's how ugly we all were:



Then, on Sunday night, Sara and I finally got around to putting up a tree at her mom's house. I got a nice one for really cheap. And isn't that what the holidays are all about? Being nice and cheap? Here's the tree:


And here's my awesome Flash ornament. Eat your heart out James:


So now it finally feels like Christmas. This week will be filled with wrapping presents, preparing for St. Awesome's Christmas Eve service, and planning the Christmas menu. Christmas rocks!

Labels: dear diary, weekend

This weekend was St. Awesome's 20th anniversary. It was a big weekend emotionally and production wise. I spent most of Saturday at the church helping with camera and lighting set-up and then ran a stage cam for the actual service. Stage cam is always fun because you get to be right out there in the middle of the band while they play.

Since St. Awesome's came into existence in 1987 the band did a medley of songs from '87 that included True Colors, Walk This Way, Faith, Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Living On A Prayer, and Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. At the end of Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For a choir came out and turned the song into a big spiritual number, like they did in Rattle and Hum. It was incredible. Here's some pictures from the set-up and practice:






And here's a couple of shots I snuck with my iPhone during the service from onstage:


After church on Saturday night I joined Sara's family at Giuseppe's restaurant for a going away dinner for Sam Handwich and Nathan. We had a reservation but still had to wait 45 minutes before being seated. Then the wait for our food was so long that Jan , her sister, and brother-in-law actually ended up leaving before their food came out. For staying I was rewarded with one of the best steaks I've ever had. Here's a picture before the mass exodus:


Apparently someone had just called me a name or something...

The next day, on Sunday morning, it was back to St. Awesome's for two more services. After church Sara and I went to lunch with GG and then grabbed a quick nap.

That night we drove to Louisville with No Nickname Jen to pick up No Nickname Fred at the airport and have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Like an idiot I didn't take any pictures. We had a blast, though, and it was a nice chance to spend some quality time in the car and over food with the No Nicknames before they both head out to Raleigh for good in the coming months.

Awesome, but exhausting weekend.

Labels: dear diary, jerks, weekend

Friday night Sara and I were supposed to go over to ET and Vlad's for dinner. When we rolled into their place around 8:00, we found out they had pulled a fast one on us and were actually throwing us an engagement party with a few of our close friends. It was totally awesome.

There was food:


There was a Wii:


There was coloring:


There was a question and answer segment apparently:


There were bubbles:


And there were piercings:


Mule was there:


And Dirty held a baby:


Sara and I were completely surprised and we can't think everybody enough for taking the time to throw us a party. We have the best friends in the world:


More pictures below. click to see them bigger:

Labels: dear diary, jerks, weekend

Fun, busy, awesome weekend - update tomorrow. Left my thumb drive with all the pictures in my other pants. Because I only have two pairs of pants, you know.

Labels: weekend

Nice but weird weekend. It started out normally enough. I went to a cookout for the St. Awesome's tech team. Had a good time. Ate some good food. Played some Fooz Ball. Saw some webbed toes. The regular.

After the cookout I swung by my place to see how the installation of my new linoleum floors went. It went terribly. Seriously, some of the worst, laziest work I've ever seen in my life. There shall be a reckoning.

Saturday I headed to Maysville to see the boys play soccer. They both had games starting at 12:00 pm, so that meant walking back and forth between two fields, alternating quarters. Here's some pics of Zach and Nicholas being all Pele-like:



Later that night, after church, Sara and I went to dinner with Bryan, Erika, ET, Vlad, Jennifer, and Mike. Somehow from dinner we ended up crashing our friend Danny's 32nd high school reunion. Don't ask me how it happened, I have no idea. We actually had a blast with Danny and his wife Kim. I'm not sure all of the class of 1975 appreciated us being there, but hey, it's their party and they'll break their hips if they want to, break their hips if they want to...

Here's some pictures of the culture wars:






Oh yeah, there was a magic show, too. Danny got to get on stage and watch a girl get cut in half:


It was the strangest night I've had in a long time and completely welcome. Everybody's lives could do with a little more strangeness if you ask me.

Labels: weekend

Finally got the pictures from this weekend onto Flickr. Besides the one's posted here, you can see the rest of the set here.

Labels: cheese, weekend

Been out of town since Wednesday. First Chicago then to Virginia. Chicago was business, Virginia was pleasure. Not much to say about Chicago except that if you really try hard, you can get there in ten hours even though it's a seven hour drive. Trip was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.

Sara and I went to Virginia for two days to see BP,M-Rock, C-Rock, JC Samsonite and Ian. Had a great time. Got a speeding ticket. Saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Viet Nam Memorial, and the WWII Memorial. Heard Okkervil River in concert but would be hard pressed to say we saw them since we were standing behind a row of 7 foot tall guys. Sara said she has a crush on Ian. I've got some pictures from the weekend that I'll get up on Flickr once I catch my breath.

Labels: dear diary, weekend

Took me a little bit of time to get to this, but here we are. Last weekend Sara and I joined Bryan, Erika, and a small group of friends at a lodge hidden, oddly enough, in a giant ravine right on the outskirts of Lexington. It's so well hidden you'd never know it was there if someone didn't tell you. We ate, fished, relaxed, and watched football (yeah, even me! I'm finally a real boy!). It was a blast. Sara even caught a fish. All by herself! I think someone might even have a picture of it. I'll ask around.










Thanks to Bryan and Erika for putting the whole thing together and being such awesome hosts.

Labels: cheese, weekend

Here's pictures from the long weekend. First up Dirty's birthday:

We bought appetizers from Shamrock's for the party. We did this because Dirty has eaten there so much that his stomach can no longer digest food from anywhere else properly. He and I went to Wendy's once and he had diarrhea for six days.


There was a slight pirate theme to the party. To this end we bought Dirty a plastic sword, which Nathan then used to keel-haul Sam Handwich. He keel-hauled him good.


Dirty requested Red Stripe for the party. Mike, in a show of craftiness that took everybody buy surprise, created a pirate ship and manned it with little Red Stripe pirates, each complete with their own miniature handkerchief on their head. I'm gonna ask him to make some kind of beer dispensing bear for my birthday.


ET made Dirty a cake (although that's Sara handing it to him). It was awesome. ET (and Vlad) also let us have the party at their place and she bought the pirate decorations. Thank Goodness for those Johnny Depp movies, otherwise I can't imagine ever being able to find pirate party favors.


Entertainment for the night was ET and Vlad's Wii.








Sunday night the Colonel family had a small cookout. It was a nice low key evening. The highlights of which were Dirty getting kissed:


And Vlad learning to ride a skateboard:


On Labor Day I hung out with Sara and her family, the highlight of which was when we drove to Springfield to pick up their new puppy.




It's a seven week old miniature dachshund. Extremely cute.

Labels: cheese, dear diary, weekend

Last week was Mrs. GG's birthday (she's the wife of blog regular GG, in case you didn't get it. Although, now that I think about it, GG read regularly but very rarely comments. What a jerk). GG threw her a great party with a ton of people. It wasn't a surprise and was never meant to be, but she still faked it for the pictures. There was cake, and guitar hero, and lots of sophisticated mingling. Pictures follow. Happy birthday Mrs. GG!





Jennifer used my camera to take a video of Sara and I playing Guitar Hero. It's not that exciting, but I just think Sara is so cute in it that I'm posted it anyway:

Labels: jerks, weekend

Sara and I went to Shamrock's on Friday night with our friends BC and Erica. It was awesome. We're just getting to know them and already think they're the bees knees. Most of my friends are kind of an acquired taste and I only hang around them because I feel sorry for them. Bryan and Erica are different. They're not pathetic or losers like the rest of you schlubs.

ET showed up after a while and started a flurry of text messaging. Bryan has a nice internet capable phone but had never sent a text message. Sara showed him how - which only served to convince her that she needs to start paying for the option on her phone. I talked to her reasonably until she changed her mind. And by "talked to her reasonably" I mean "hit her with a bar stool." And by "until she changed her mind" I mean "until she blacked out."


Saturday I spent the day at St. Awesome's video directing. After church Sara and I ate at Miyako and then went to the Kentucky to see a movie called Once. Sara loved it. I liked it. It had really good music but was a little slow in parts. I also took the opportunity to take some pictures of downtown.



Sunday headed back to church for more video directing. There was a big potluck afterwards. I forgot my camera but GG sent me this picture:


After church I took a nap then grilled some pork chops for Sara and her mom. The End.

Labels: weekend