Category Archives: Friends

Patty’s 18th Birthday

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Patty’s birthday cookout was a very busy day. There were quite a few people in attendance. Patty, Michelle, and Kristy all showed up together, because Patty is living in Cleveland with her mother now. She is working and going to be starting college there very soon. Eddy and Grandma, of course. Becky and her five children. The triplets are certainly getting bigger every time we see them. They are ten months old. Christi-Anne and her twins and Tim Smith showed up as well. There was plenty of food. It is always better to have too much food than not enough.

There were hotdogs for the little ones, because they are not exactly going to finish a whole burger. Plus they like hotdogs. There were burgers for those that wanted one. BBQ Chicken for people that did not eat red meat. Bean burgers, of some sort, for the person that has decided not to eat meat. Corn on the cob is always a hit as well. Family and friends all showed up over the course of about an hour. The grill was kept going and food was served as each person arrived.

It was a great time for everyone and now the middle child has turned 18. There is only one more 18th birthday left. It is nearing the end of a very long path that got started a very long time ago. Time really flew by. Two kids in college and my youngest is starting his senior year in high school. Next year it is possible I will have three kids in college. Here is to another good school year for everyone. As always all the pictures can be found on the pictures page.

Bunny

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There is a new addition to the house. The kids have named the bunny Cinnamon. My mother actually had a rabbit named Cinnamon. The rule on naming the rabbit was that they had to agree with whatever name they came up with, and that was what they agreed with. The kids have been wanting a pet. We have had hamsters and guinea pigs, but never a rabbit. This rabbit came to me absolutely free. Apparently, a friend of Rick’s is moving and where they are moving they are not permitted to have rabbits so they were more than happy to give them to a family where the rabbit would have kids to play with.

We have plenty of food, treats, bedding, and everything the rabbit could possibly need. The only thing left to do for us was to feed Cinnamon apples, carrots, and whatever else looks like she would enjoy. We are taking her out everyday to let her run around, but always cautious that she does not chew on any wires. We have been warned that rabbits enjoy doing that. We were so excited about the rabbit that we even took a video of her.

Fun on a Farm

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Rick invited Jo and I out to his Grandfather’s farm to shoot his father’s guns on a fairly sunny Saturday. I believe I have fired a shotgun before, but it had to have been a really long time ago, because I only have a vague memory of having done so. On that Saturday I would fire two different shotguns and a rifle. I certainly did not remember how loud guns are, but thankfully after you fire a few shots the sound does not seem to bother you as much. I am sure that is due to your temporary hearing loss.

We went way back into the woods and shot at trees and an empty plastic container that had previously been full of some concoction for luring deer. We learned how to properly and safely handle the firearms and generally speaking we did not miss what we were aiming to hit. It was extremely satisfying. Rick even had me throw the plastic jug into the air so that he could shoot it that way, and he managed to hit it twice with a shotgun before it hit the ground. I think the truth be told Jo is a better shot than I am.

When we were done shooting we went back to Rick’s father’s house and had a steak dinner, with baked potatoes, green beans, sweet peppers, and pie for dessert. We all got to eat as much as we could. It has been a while since I have had any food that did not come out of a box. We spent some time with his father and his stepmother in their amazing house and it was a really great way to end an amazing day. We also got to feed two cows and see their duck pond. The cows were not sleeping and I highly doubt we would have been permitted to tip one of them anyway.

Browns vs. Bengals

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It was quite a while ago now, but I finally got around to getting the pictures off my camera and posting about the Cleveland Browns game that Tim invited me to earlier this month. I believe he got the tickets from a family member, because it was his birthday earlier this month. The only thing we had to do was drive up to Cleveland and park in an awesome spot right next to the stadium.

The game was the Cleveland Browns vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. It is the kind of game that everyone from Ohio wants to go and see. I know that none of these pictures really tell the picture, but we were quite literally surrounded by Bengals fans. I have not been to a game against the Bengals before, so this might be the way the fans are at this game.

The Browns did a decent job, but really they were outplayed for a great deal of the time. I was already a little bummed about going to the game, because this was the game they decided to start Anderson at QB instead of Quinn, and well, now being able to write this post weeks after that game I can safely say that my feeling on that decision was right. It was so hard watching the Browns lose the whole game.

I was really glad Tim invited me, because I have never sat in club seats before. The seats are not even accessible by normal means. You have to actually get access through a door to an escalator to get to the seats. I have always been sitting in the nose bleed section where after hiking up a bunch of ramps, then stairs, you finally reach your seat in time to squint real hard and try and watch the game. The seats were not the only thing that were amazing though – you actually have access to a bar and you do not have to really wait in line when you want something to eat. It is amazing. The price tag on the tickets will probably keep me from purchasing said tickets.

The weather was nice and some guy gave us a bag of popcorn. I think that was pretty sweet. I had a bit of a cold and I sort of just sat there and drank tea and ate peanuts the whole time. I am glad that my cold was not something worse, because otherwise I would have had to miss the game.

That is all I have to say about the game really. It was disappointing to watch them lose and in overtime. They just could not get it into the end zone, and that is ultimately what ended up doing them in. They even managed to block a field goal and an extra point, but they could not get to that next step and actually score themselves. I tapped the girl in front of us on the shoulder and said we will do better next time, but now I doubt it. Field goals just are not going to win games. I wonder how long I have to live to see the Browns get good again.

Trip to Cleveland

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Amazing what you will do when you get free tickets. My sister Becky gave us four free tickets to the Browns preseason game against the Detroit Lions, so we decided we were going to go. The first step was to decide who exactly we were going to invite. Adam does not really know anyone in Ohio any longer, so that part was up to me. I mean, why waste free tickets?

I called up a few of my friends and immediately got Tim and Derek. That out of the way we all just had to decide how we were going to get there. We decided to all meet here and leave for the stadium in one car. This is because otherwise we would be paying parking on more than one car. We all met at my house around 5 and we would have left right then, but I ran into a little bit of a problem.

See my Browns hat, which Jacqui bought for me for my birthday several years ago was on the floor in the basement and apparently during one of the rainstorms we have had recently the basement managed to flood right in that spot. Needless to say the hat was uncomfortably damp and had a distinct bad odor to it. I put it in the sink, ran hot water on it, and used some dish washing liquid. Honestly, I should have just said forget it and just left for the game, but it was really upsetting to me and I wanted to do something. I left the hat smelling better, but soak and wet, outside on a chair. I figured it’ll dry and if it rains that is not going to hurt anything at this point anyway.

We all left and it started raining on the way there. The drive was a bit arduous, since everyone in Ohio basically drives as though they have never seen rain before. We were using the Magellan GPS, and it gave us another way to get there, so we got off the highway and followed the directions, which actually worked out very well. The street we exited the freeway on only had a few lights, no traffic, and basically we were not stuck on the highway staring at break lights, so I think that worked out fantastically.

We found parking and headed to the stadium on foot, since parking close to the stadium is around $25 and parking about a half a mile away is only $10. Not a hard decision when everyone in the car can walk just fine. Adam had checked the weather report and they were predicting rain, but the only rain we saw the whole time was when we were driving in to Cleveland and again when we were leaving.

The first thing we did in the stadium is head to the team shop and I bought a new hat. We bought some other stuff and headed to our seats. We made it to our seats just in time to see the opening kick-off. Joshua Cribbs ran it in for a touchdown, which was promptly called back for holding, but the entire first half had that energy for the most part. It was a lot of fun as we got to see all the Browns players we wanted to see play. It did not go perfectly, but it went really well. I wish it could have stayed like that.

The first problem was we all wanted to hang out and drink a beer, but the NFL has apparently decided that beer can not be sold after a certain time, and that time is apparently after half-time. Lame. The second problem is that the Browns went with the 3rd string QB for the rest of the game, and honestly none of us wanted to sit there and watch him. We left, paid for parking, and started the drive home. Great experience despite that.

Independence Day

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I just found out that the phone on my camera was set to take pictures as a pretty small size, so all the pictures I have from the 4th of July fireworks in downtown Akron are 320×240, which is hardly good enough even to show on the site, but I am going to do it anyway. I don’t really have a choice since these are all the pictures I have. I probably would have made another entry on my pictures page if I had taken my camera.

The fireworks were actually pretty awesome. I took Tim with us, since he was coming over anyway to play Xbox 360 and watch a movie. We got ice cream at a convenience store downtown and some sandwiches from Burger King, since I didn’t have time to get the kids dinner at home.

The fireworks were not the only show to be had. There was another disturbance which led to a whole crowd of people running down the street, thankfully not trampling us underneath them, as the police chased some guys who obviously did something stupid. The guy tried to hurdle a curb, but tripped. Guess he should have pulled his pants up.

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Local Bands

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My friend Leonard apparently started a record label, Digital Xtreme Media, with a friend of his in Columbus. I went to pick them up at the Kent airport to see a show in Kent.

Since I was the driver for the night I got treated to dinner at Rockne’s, which is fantastic. We drove to the place in Kent where the show was being held and stragetically parked, because even though it was doubtful that I would end up getting towed you just never know with Kent. They can be real jerks about it.

We went to the show and it was pretty good. My opinion on the bands does not really matter, but I sort of dug the band that they were here to see. Got to see some local bands and none of them were terrible.

Televisions

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I might have mentioned this before, but my television was acting up. I called Best Buy, because I had the four year warranty through them, in order to get it fixed. A month and a half went by and I had to miss other activities to wait at home for the repairman three times. Finally though the television was deemed a “junk out”, which is Best Buy speak for “you get your money back and you can get a new TV”. This was sort of the answer that I wanted desperately so I rushed to Best Buy as soon as I got the confirmation number to see what I could do.

Derek had to help me carry the old television, which was a 46″ Toshiba CRT projection television, to the store. Customer Service gave me the gift certificate and I started looking at TV’s. I already knew what I wanted to get. I had done a fair bit of research in the past month on the topic and while I would have liked one of the new LED televisions I certainly do not have the funds for it. I ended up getting a Samsung 46″ LCD.

Derek helped me bring it inside and we set it up. It was not long before I noticed that it just did not really fit in how I had the living room setup. This television is much lower, because it lacks that obnoxious cabinet projection TV’s need for the projection. It looked beautiful and we played around with a few Xbox 360 games just to see them on an LCD screen at 1080p. There are so many details in games that I’ve spent hours and hours in that I’m just now noticing.

I went back the next day with my son and we got a TV stand and I also picked up the VGA connector for the Xbox 360, because naturally I want to play with that. They had a TV stand that was perfect for what I wanted to do. Large enough shelves so that I would only need one table in the living room to hold the Wii, cable box, receiver, and Xbox 360, a red wood look that matches the TV’s red tinge (Samsung calls this “Touch of Color”), and it was on sale. We loaded it up and brought it home. I asked the guy with the cart to hold my glasses for a second, because I wanted to try loading it into the car myself and while it made sense in my head he declined and proceeded with much more effort than it would have taken me to do so.

We spent the next 3 hours constructing the TV stand, unplugging everything, and moving everything to the new stand, and then finally plugging everything in. I think my son learned quite a few things. What an optical and coaxial cable look like, how to plug in component cables, and while helping me construct the TV stand some invaluable stuff there like how to use an Allen wrench. It was a great day. I can’t remember the last time we spent so much time together. We did the whole project and then sat around and watched cartoons. We ate chili and both ended up passing out in the living room.

Friends

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I ran into some friends of mine from my days at Best Buy at the University of Akron today. They are doing quite well and I was glad to see it. When you don’t see people for a long time you hate to see them again and them to have fallen onto hard times or something. They are planning on graduating this semester, which means that they will be looking for a job and most likely not staying here in Ohio. I just want to be the first to say that Ohio will surely be a poorer place to live without them here.

Columbus Trip

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Tim and I went down to Columbus this weekend, and I believe the word “finally” fits in here nicely. See the trip has kind of been being planned since November, but at that time I wanted to wait till after finals. Finals came and went, and then I believe I got sick. Then Tim’s Grandfather got sick. Then some other things happened. I guess a month and four canceled opportunities isn’t all that bad, but it seems like it was a long time coming.

I found out that in case of a snow storm I don’t want to be in Akron. Nothing makes this more apparent than driving away from Akron, and then having to come back. It seems that when driving anywhere Akron is always piled beneath a foot of snow, but every where else has snow plows that come out and clear the roads. They even put down salt. It’s amazing what you get when you don’t live in Akron.

It was nice to see Rick and Melissa. They have a roommate currently, from Alabama, who wanted to move up here for a while. She got a job working where Melissa does, and she is experiencing all the freezing rain and snow that Ohio has to offer. At least the driving doesn’t look too bad.

While we were down there they got me cymbals for the Rock Band 2 drums for Christmas. I really do think they are cool, even though I’m not entirely sure how to use them. They are easy to assemble. They seem to work flawlessly. It’s just that you sort of have to retrain yourself to use them. Awesome gift. Tim got a gift card and I have a gift for Jo in my car, but I’m not driving out there till the roads get nicer.

It was a nice trip, and I’m sure in about a month they’ll go ahead and come up here. Then it’ll be our turn again.