i'm sad

It's been a week and the Skittles have not been replaced in the vending machine at work. I need my Skittles! Taste the rainbow my friends.

more candy for the ears

I'm very much into the Eels right now. Greg and I have downloaded a few of their (or his) songs in the past. I love "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" and "Fresh Feeling." While I was surfing emusic.com, I came across a live album from the Eels. LIVE AT TOWN HALL. It's really great. I could sit and listen to it for hours. Highly recommended. The live version of "Hey Man" is incredible.

a weekend haiku

saturday, i'm off
time not spent at work, just play
comes but once a week

songs in heavy rotation on my iPod

> Fall Apart Again - Brandi Carlile
> Mushaboom - Feist
> Forever Lost - Magic Numbers
> Free Loop - Daniel Powter
> Mission Responsible - Michael Tolcher

back in charleston

Well we arrived back in Charleston, SC last night. After checking in to the hotel, we went on a Sonic Drive In search. We don’t have any back in our part of Ohio, so ‘its always a treat when we can find one on the road. In the dark we got lost and couldn’t find it. We did, however, come across a Whole Foods Market. It’s like the best grocery store in the world! They just put one in Columbus. It’s fabulous. Anywho, we bought some drinks, pizza and past salad and headed back to the hotel for the night.
This morning we finally tracked down the Sonic Drive In. Did I mention, how much our good friend Megan loves “the Sonic?” Well she does, and it’s great fun to call her while you are enjoying the experience. I text messenged her about how good it was. She responded with a simple one-word reply...Evil. It’s true.
After breakfast we strolled through Downtown Charleston. It is so beautiful. There are shops and galleries everywhere. And the southern ladies with the big hair...priceless. Yeah, and I think I’m starting to annoy Greg with my newly found southern accent. I was born in North Carolina, so I think it has always been in me. Just repressed during my 33 years as a yankee.
For lunch we stopped at Jestine’s Kitchen. Our friends Tom and Brett recommended it. Also my favorite, Rachel Ray stopped there for a $40 Dollars a Day episode. It was really good. We got there right as it opened, and it didn’t take long for it to full up. We started with fried green tomatoes (yummy), then we both had pecan crusted chicken (sooo good). After that it was back to more strolling through the city and a stop at Starbucks for my favorite warm weather beverage...the passion tea lemonade. Refreshing!
So tomorrow morning we head back home. I hear that it’s chilly and back in the 30’s. That’s ok...this vacation has my batteries recharged and ready to handle the day-to-day grind again.

art walk on the bay front

Every winter they have a new sculpture exhibit in Sarasota down on the bay front. It's a great setting for these sculptures. My favorite was the box with red tiles. It looks very cool at night when it is all lit up. As you can see, I also caught some hang time on a wave... Oh yeah, temps in Sarasota hovered around 80 just about every day we were there.

sarasota arrival

We arrived at my Dad's place in Sarasota around 6pm last night. On our journey from Charleston we stopped at an outlet mall on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. We did some damage at the Eddie Bauer store. Dad made a tasty dinner, then we all went to Starbucks. After that it was as early night to bed. Travelling is so exhausting. Those are pics of my dad's house and his pool.

i heart charleston

Well we did the dinner thing. We ate at Southend Brewery & Smokehouse. It was soooo good. Greg had a bbq'd pulled pork sandwich and I had the bbq meatloaf with garlic mashed taters. We then strolled through the southend of Charleston, stopping in several of the quaint shops. I, of course, could not resist the Charleston Candy Kitchen...we're going to have to spend a bit more time in there on the our return trip back to Akron. The other shot is of a charming alley that we passed nestled between the shops. There a ton of beautiful manor houses in Charleston, it's like a southern picture book. We hope to do a little more sight seeing before heading to Florida in the morning. As an aside, I had on one of the Rubber City Clothing Company t-shirts today. The one with the word AKRON on the front with the O switched out for a tire. It was certainly a converstaion starter. We were stopped several times by people who were in town traveling from Akron or folks who had moved to Charleston from the Akron area. Small world.

arrived...charleston, sc

We arrived at our hotel in Charleston at about 4pm. We had a really nice drive down. We stopped at the North Carolina Welcome Center off I-77 for a picnic lunch. It is nice and warm down here. The hotel is nice, we have a river view from our balcony. The picture is of the view from our room. We are going to head out for dinner and exploration in a bit. Then tomorrow we are off for another 8 hours of driving to get to my Dad's place.

and we're off...

We are pulling out of the driveway at 5:10 am.

reality ramblings

Yeah, I watch too much tv. It's a problem for me. Here's my thoughts on a couple of reality shows from this week:

>Amazing Race - The Frosties (aka the Glamazons) were the last to arrive to the Pit Stop. I enjoyed the sisters, Lisa and Joni. They made for good tv. Their teary-eyed farewell, made me a little misty too. Now the only team that I really care for are "the geeks" David and Lori. How can you not love a couple when the guy refers to his girlfriend as his "hotty boom-botty with the naughty Pilates." In a word...Priceless.

>American Idol - I'm not into AI as I have been in the past. I still watch it, but it has lost a lot of it's spark for me. And contestants (because I know they all read my blog), please note: I refuse to ever vote for any contestant that uses their fingers to remind me what number they are. It's just annoying to me. Enough with the fingers!

>Project Runway - The finale was last night, props to Chloe. She really had the most beautiful line. I really do believe that her clothes will sell like bagels. I'm a little sad that I will now have to wait another year before I get to see Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. Oh, and by the way, "Where's Andre?" At the Red Lobster, perhaps.

Next week the third season of Blow Out begins on Bravo. It's odd that I enjoy that show, but I do. I can't wait to see how Jonathan invents the showerhead water filter. His hair will surely be amazing!

almost time for...

...vacation, vacation. We're going to be leaving on vacation. Friday at the crack of dawn, we're pulling out of Tallmadge and heading south! See ya!

Click here to take a look at the weather forecast for Sarasota.

this weeks pirate joke

Q. What's a pirate's favorite type of soda?
A. RRRRRRRRR-C Cola.

And yes, that's the background to my cell phone. Sad, isn't it?

where's buddha?

songs in heavy rotation on my iPod

>In the Sun - Michael Stipe & Chris Martin
>How Many Times - Zack Hexum
>First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
>Over My Head - The Fray
>Ruby Blue - Roisin Murphy

smoothie-licious

So yesterday Greg and I decided to stop at Robeks in the Walhaven area of West Akron. We’ve driven by it tons of times and had never stopped. They serve fruit smoothies and healthy eats. Greg and I both enjoy the smoothie. We’re big fans of Jamba Juice (Greg’s been to them in California, and I’ve sampled them in Chicago.) There aren’t any ‘round these parts.
Well, I’m happy to report that Robeks is just as good. Yesterday we both ordered the South Pacific Squeeze - fresh-squeezed orange juice, strawberries, pineapple, bananas and pineapple sherbet. It was yum-tastic and actually good for us.
Also, if you hadn’t figured it out yet, I got a new digital camera. So now I take pictures of everything. It should come in very handy when we are in Florida next week.

game night

In honor of the week-long celebration of Greg's birthday we had a few friends over for snacks, pizza and games. Now when it comes to board games, some of us are a little more competitive than others. Yours truly is included in that group. So I like to win, there's nothing wrong that. Jennie and Ryan also belong to the gloat and win club. In fact, they were talking up quite a bit of smack as to how good they would be prior to the game of "Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture 2." (hum, I believe at the end of the game, the super team had the fewest pie pieces....) Speaking of pie, there are few things in this world better than a good cherry pie.
Anywho, with 8 people at the gathering, we decided to form four teams of two based on where people were seated around the coffee table. (At this point I would like to take a moment to talk about how much I love our new coffee table. We got it in early December. It's much larger than our last one, and fits in the pit of our sectional perfectly. As far as I'm concerned, its the perfect board game setting.) Back to the game... Here are the teams: Greg & Paula, Megan & Alison, Jennie & Ryan, and Me and Michele. Well the game was a lot of fun. It's really amazing the amount of useless trivia we all have in our brains. For example, Greg knew the name of the old lady from the Wendy's "Where's the beef commercial." And believe if or not, I answered several sports questions correctly. In the end, Michele and I won the game (feel free to hum Queen's We Are the Champions in your head now). This is an even more stunning win because Michele would come in and out of sleep and just blurt out the correct answer from time to time for our team. She's like some sort of sleeping-trivia-game savant.
I just want to thank everyone for such a great time. And props to Ryan for an excellent dessert. I can't say it often enough. A group of great friends is wonderful. But to be honest they're more than friends. They are my family. And I love you all.

dropped

Being the reality tv fan that I am, I'm involved in the Survivor pool at work. We all pitch in $5 and randomly select a player. The one who survives wins $80. I've been in the pool each season since the 2nd one. I've never won, came close a couple of times though. But coming close doesn't win you any candy money. Anywho, this season my player was Bob. And as usually is the case, he was voted off the island last night. Again, no candy money for me this season. But it's not an entire loss for me. I want to personally thank Bob for giving me a new phrase that I hope to use regularly for years to come. (You'll get the "regularly" reference in just a moment.) Last week Bob's tribe won the reward challenge. The prize, an outhouse and supply of charmin bath tissue. The majority of the tribe wanted to use said outhouse as a place to store firewood. Our friend Bob had other plans. He wanted to break it in, because (and here comes my new favorite phrase) he needed to "drop a duece." I know it's not classy and kind of disgusting, but I feel it has flare. So don't judge me, it's still better than "dropping the kids off at the pool." I now officially pledge that this will be my first and last post on this subject. You're welcome. :)

akron sky

akron sky
Originally uploaded by thinker594.

Cold March afternoon in downtown Akron. Photo taken from the top of the High/Market Parking Deck.

the countdown begins...8 days!

Greg and I leave on a well deserved vacation in just 8 days! We will be visiting my dad in Sarasota, Florida. We're gonna drive down and spend a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina. I hear it's a nice place to visit. I'm going to do my best to keep up with the blog while we're away, so feel free to check back for daily vacation summaries and hopefully some photos too.
PS...all you home burglars...our mean and frightening dog will be home. He has been trained to attack all home intruders....you've been warned!