I spent some time cheezing out the site a little more. At Scot Buzza’s request, I re-did the header so now it had both people footprints and puppy pawprints. Also, I created an archive page for all the clips that I link to. If you have any recommendations, let me know.
I would like to begin this post by sending out a warm congratulation to Lindsay and Marc Searcy. Our friends, recently married on July 16th, 2005, are now enjoying the fabulousness of Puerto Rico on their honeymoon. Congratulations, you two, and I pray you have a long and wonderful life together.
The wedding took place in Owensboro, Kentucky. Owensboro is an awesome little town situated in northwestern Kentucky with great food and great cows. If you are curious about it, you can find out more at their website and then possibly buy something at their gift shop. Getting there is a piece of cake from Cincinnati. Or so Alex and I thought (and we were right).
Alex and I did not take the route that was a piece of cake. Instead, we listened to our girlfriends who told us Mapquest and Google were wrong and they gave us a route to take. Now, we should have known better. This coming from the gals who, while celebrating Lindsay’s last days of bachlorettehood, got lost more than a few times on the back roads of the state where education pays. (We don’t know what it pays, but that’s what all the license plates say.)
Instead of explaining to you why it took us more than a hundred extra miles and two hours late getting there, here is a map (courtesy of Google Maps). Instead of following the recommended blue line from the green mark to the red mark, we took the red route given to us by our significant others and their cohorts.
Needless to say, it took us a little too far south and even a little too far west.
Once we got there, however, the wedding was awesome. The best part (besides two people eternally bonding themselves together) was getting to see everyone from Xavier. Even Rachel Longest, just back from Micronesia, and Todd Guidry, in from New Orleans, whom I haven’t seen for two years, both made it.
And I now love Kentucky receptions. Everything was just simple and good. There was a nice hors d’oeuvres buffet with great little eat’ns. The DJ wasn’t fancy, but played really good music and kept everyone going the whole time. And instead of some fancy expensive bar, they had a handful of pump kegs and box wine in a side room. Plus, the families were great and needed nothing more than to know you were Lindsay or Marc’s friend to strike up a conversation. As a guy who doesn’t understand most weddings, I digged the whole affair.
Good friends, good food, good weekend. Congratulations, again, Lindsay and Marc.
Unlike most people in this world, I do not have a real job. (Not that anyone really ever expected me to) Well, part of my not real job is the luxury of working from home. This style of career comes with many benefits including working my own hours, showering when I want, working in my underwear, and chillin’ all day with my dog, Storm. The one aspect of an office space career I do miss, however, is working with people face to face. My home environment, though, is never lonesome.
Besides hanging out with Storm, I decided to open my life to a new group. A couple of weeks ago, I duct taped a disposable “Bowl of Noodles†container to a metal post, one sticking out of my window for God knows what reason, and filled it with generic Kroger bird seed.
Not much happened for a few days. I told my partner Rahul of my plan and he recommended leaving a trail to my window from my trees. Well, I improvised on this idea and started throwing handfuls of bird seed onto my lawn. Two days later, I was greeted by a set of field sparrows. There were only a few at first and, in no time, there were dozens throughout the day.
These general field sparrows are the most prominent visitors to my eatery. Watching them has taught me one interesting fact about birds: they’re mean. Besides eating, they spend their time pecking at each other and knocking each other off the feeder. You can tell who nests together because they have no qualms about tag teaming. Their chirps can be quite lovely, but they have this mean gurgle they use when they are being territorial that can wake me up in the back of my apartment. For the most part, however, they are very lovely and fun to watch. Every once in a while they are joined by black-throated finches. Together, they make a neat little collage on the feeder.
My favorite couple out of all my birds is the cardinals. The male is an absolutely stunning red that always catches my attention no matter where I am in my living room/office. Like many song birds, they only eat the sunflower seeds and so I have often thought of putting out a bowl of just those seeds next to my current feeder. The neat aspect of the two is the way the male protects his female. He always flies in first and shoos off the other birds. They then dine together for a short time before the male takes up his guard again while his mate feeds. He perches on the base of the deck and flies up at any bird that comes close to his gal and the feeder.
Do you remember these guys?
The Goodfeathers from the Animaniacs. Well, here they are in real life.
Just like the mafia roles they played in the cartoon, these tan pigeons fly in and bludgeon all the other birds away. They then take turns sitting in the feeder and eating so that nothing else can share in the festivities.
There is a new bird, however, that just showed up this morning. It makes all of the other birds look like angels. Its cry sounded like a dying hawk and woke me from sleeping in my bedroom, two rooms away. It does not have to attack the other birds because they all fly away every time it comes back. I have no doubt in my mind why the crow is always associated with death. This guy even gave me the creeps.
For the most part though, the feeder is always full of life and a joy to watch. Here it is with seven sparrows in it and a finch trying to fly in!
‘Holy anniversaries’ is right! Yesterday, in the car with Alex, Rachel and I realized that next weekend will be our one-year anniversary. Being that we are going to attend the wedding of Ms. Prunty and her wonderful fiancé down in Kentucky, we decided that she would not be very happy if we skipped out of the reception for dinner and date. Thus, we did a mini-celebration last night. We began by doing what all young and exciting couples do: half-price book store shopping. While Rachel continued to fill up her teacher’s shelf with books like “Stuart Little,†I looked at engrossing titles such as “Code Complete†and “The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master.†After wandering around Kenwood mall for a while, we decided we needed to do an anniversary dinner.
For our evening meal, we enjoyed the perfect feast for a young entrepreneur and a college student. We began a two-course meal with incredible six-inch subs from Subway. Subway has been a staple dining-out restaurant for the life of our relationship and, as such, the perfect place for our anniversary soiree. Subway was just a precursor, however, for the true pinnacle of the evening’s meal: Chocolate Mouse cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. If God ever came back as a desert, it would be this heavenly delight.
After a quick pit stop to walk and feed the puppy, we ended the night with the essential date event: the movie. Down at Newport on the Levy, we attended a late showing of Batman Begins. I have to say, it was awesome! I grew up watching reruns of the old 1966 TV series with Adam West, as well as ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ in the 90’s. The aspect of the film that impressed me the most was Christopher Nolan and David Goyer’s loyalty to the original Batman comics. They did a superb job capturing Batman’s history, as well as a terrific job recreating a dark, sinister Gotham City. As one of my favorite movies of the year, I would recommend this to anyone. And if you do not care for the plot, it is worth seeing just for the stellar cast including Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.
After the movie, we ended the date with the scenic overlook at Newport. The vibrant city sparkled on the river at our feet underneath a clear night sky. It was a wonderful anniversary, but mainly because I was with Rachel.
I would like to thank those who made this anniversary possible:
Cliff Brown
Mr. Barnes and Mr. Noble
The New York City Underground
General Cincinnatus
Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes
Like most geeks did on this year’s fourth of July, I celebrated my independence by staying up late into the early morning watching Nasa TV. As most people know, around 1:52am on the morning of the 4th, our space techies hurled a ginormous hunk of copper at comet Tempel 1 at a speed of about 23,000 miles per hour. At that speed, it could fly from Las Angeles to New York in 6 minutes and around the Earth in an hour. Upon impact, the space vehicle obliterized in a brilliant explosion equal to 4.5 tons of TNT. If that doesn’t beat my old M90’s and ground flowers, I don’t know what will.
It was very exciting watching the whole demonstration live as the pictures of the comet kept getting closer and closer. Knowing that the images were from 130 million kilometers from here and occuring almost real time was incredible. It was also cool to know that the years of effort that the ecstatic NASA and JPL crews put into it paid off.
Living deep in the city, however, prevented me from seeing the resulting light from the explosion personally. I did try, but the magnitude just wasn’t there with Cincinnati’s light pollution. Wild Cherry Pepsi and exploding comets, however, were a good way to start Independence Day.
As most days, the rest of my daytime was spent slaving away my shiny box that sits in front of my keyboard. The evening was much more eventful. The gal, Rachel, and our friends, Shannon and Megan, and I all headed out to ‘Red, White, and Blueash’, the largest 4th of July fireworks in greater Cincinnati (specifically, Blueash. Punny, huh?) While Richard Marx peforming was tempting, it didn’t compare to Styx from last year. Thus, we brought my dog, Storm, which prevented us from actually getting into the gated event.
This turned out awesome, however, because we ‘took a wrong turn’ trying to get to the festival. Like all 4th celebrations, you are required to park a minimum of a mile away from the actual fun. Our ‘wrong turn’, however, led us to a random street that had at least 1oo peeps camped out on it. It was somewhat industrial and had a big field to lay our blankets on. Everyone was incredibly friendly and no one had a problem with me keeping Storm off lead.
As it turns out, this was the prime spot for watching the fireworks. With almost no obstructions, the explosions seemed to appear almost over head. Not only did we have a great spot, the fireworks were some of the best I had ever seen. That mixed with great friends and a gorgeous summer night made it an absolutely wonderful evening. As Shannon pointed out, “Yay for kicking the Brits in the shins every 4th!”
Well, it is a gorgeous Saturday in Cincinnati today. The temperature is high-80s, but the breeze makes it feel like mid-70s. I will, sadly, only dream of enjoying the day. I am learning very quickly that such is the life of the young entrepreneur. Besides DispatchThis, I have been offered a pretty cool consulting job up in Cleveland. To the chagrin of my girlfriend and parents, however, I am not allowed to discuss anything thanks to those lovely NDAs us startup programmers are so often obliged to sign. Between the two jobs, I seem to be spending a lot of time getting to know my computer.
Even with work, the last two nights have been pretty exciting. Thanks to my friend, Matt Kelley, being in town, I have been forced to go out and enjoy myself. Thursday night we grabbed a bunch of friends and hit up the Blue Note, an awesome jazz/rock bar here in Cinci. Thursday night at the Blue Note, though, is College Night, which means 25 cent drafts and dollar well drinks. A few of the bands left quite a bit to be desired, but with quarter drafts, who could complain?
Last night, Matt and I went to La Rosa’s and enjoyed a fabulous meal. For those of you who do not know the glory of La Rosa’s, it is an incredible pizza chain here in Cincinnati. While I enjoyed half of their Lil’ Italy covered with spinach and mushrooms, Matt enjoyed the other half covered with the toppings of their famous Montgomery Bar-B-Cue. The best part, however, was their kettle chips. Not only are they made fresh to order, they come with nectar of the gods that they call Diablo Sauce. Not only does this ambrosia embody a wonderful plane of spiciness, it has a rich sweet flavor unlike anything I have ever tasted. If anyone knows if they sell it in stores, let me know and then buy stock in it.
After our gullets were full with Italian awesomeness, we traveled to this café/bar called the Silverton Café. Our friend Brice was DJing the karaoke, so we met up with a bunch of friends to hang out there with him. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised with the place. It was one of those local bars where you only go if a regular invites you. In the back they had a whole graveyard of awesome games from the past four decades. Our favorite was the ski ball bowling that only cost a quarter. Between that, shuffleboard, darts, and video games, all the grounds were covered. If you’re looking for a great little bar in Cincinnati, I would definitely recommend the Silverton Café.
Well, I guess that is enough procrastinating for now. Back to work.