Blog Buffet

My nearly 2-month-long sabbatical is over. For now. I’ve had a lot going on over the past 50 some odd days, and just couldn’t find the time, and/ or motivation needed to sit down and write. As I sit down to think about what to write about, my mind is flooded with options, so why not talk about them all… the blog buffet.

1. I spent the last two months, along with Dan and my sister, planning a surprise 30^th anniversary party for my parents. We contacted just about everybody that my parents knew and invited them over to my house for an ‘open house’ style gathering. It could not have ended up a bigger success. Over 100 people came, the weather was great, the keg was gone 3 hours into the party, there is a ton of leftover chex mix, and most importantly, people have been stroking my ego with “that was one of the best parties I’ve ever been to” comments since. Ego aside, it really was great. To have that many people go out of their way on Memorial Day weekend to honor Mom and Dad says a lot about the relationships they have formed. It was a very cool experience. Below is a picture from the party… Mom and Dad in the middle, most of their wedding party, and my cousin Andy, the ring bearer.

2. When we bought our house 2 years ago, the inside of the house needed little to no work. The outside didn’t necessarily need the work, but it certainly was an area where we thought a few changes or additions would really upgrade our purchase. Anyway, the aforementioned party forced us to begin (and finish) our project. Danielle and her mom finished a 275 sq ft, flagstone patio on their spring break, we mulched, transplanted some grass, and made some aesthetic upgrades to the mulched area and it turned out even better than we thought. I’ll post some different pictures of the patio later, but in the picture above, you can see the beautiful flagstone, and then right behind mom and dad is a built in firepit (my favorite).

3. I’ve also added to my arsenal of reasons why we haven’t been to the moon. You’re telling me we went to the moon 41 years ago, and we can’t stop a pipe from leaking millions of gallons of oil into the ocean, killing uncountable amounts of wildlife etc etc etc… I don’t want to hear that it is a mile below the surface of whatever it is, I certainly don’t have the answer, but nearly 50 days after the pipe burst, we don’t have a solution… truly a disaster.

4. Free agent summit 2010. Who isn’t talking about this right now? It is what I love and hate about professional sports. I love the strategy/ planning involved in running a franchise. It is way more difficult than any of us even know, and really the only way I know it is more difficult is because if it weren’t then my run of 5 consecutive trips to the Super Bowl (4 championships) in Madden 09 would land me a front office position somewhere. What do you mean my acquisition of Anquan Boldin on the Bengals that only cost me expensive player X and a 4^th round pick isn’t realistic?? Anyway, I literally have no idea about Lebron. Which is funny because I find myself telling other people “no way that happens, you’re dumb” and then I think about it, and I don’t even have an educated guess, all I have is a guess. My guess: he stays, but only on a 3 year contract, and most of the other guys do the same. My only reasoning: whenever there is huge buildup like this, most of the time the end result is about as exciting as a 9-year-old-girls soccer game.

5. Where did that come from? More on filming/ watching old tapes in a future post, but while sifting through hours and hours and hours of our old VHS and Hi8 tapes to make Mom and Dad an anniversary video tribute, I came across one of Betsy’s soccer games circa 1997ish. I was filming at the time, probably just thrilled to be running the camera, and I was giving commentary. Two things: 1. Color commentary is tough. Granted I was in 7^th grade, my voice was annoying, and I was commenting on girls soccer, but there wasn’t even a 20 second stretch that I said anything approaching poor commentary, it was all VERY poor. 2. Nothing excites me less than thinking of sitting amongst other parents at your kids games. Especially ones that don’t know a damn thing about the sport and basically insist on yelling the entire time. Terrible.

6. Speaking of soccer. Call me a bandwagon fan, that’s fine, but I love the World Cup. I don’t watch, follow, support, or even enjoy soccer for the 3 years and 10 months in between, but I have always enjoyed the World Cup. I’ve been doing my homework this time around too. I’ve read some articles, listened to some podcasts, and followed the news and I feel prepared to get fully into this starting next week.

7. Who remembers field day (some called it “fun day”) from your elementary years? I had one at both of my schools this past month and they couldn’t have gone better. They are a lot more fun to participate in than plan/ set-up.

8. I voted for the first time in my life on May 4. My whole experience deserves its own post, but lets just say I was thoroughly unimpressed with the voting process. I was even more unimpressed with the results that the Gahanna Schools levy failed. Unfortunately, looking back, I’m not surprised. I’ve looked at it from different viewpoints- community member, graduate, businessman, spouse of a teacher and so on. If I was unable to get information from my wife, and if I didn’t read the Gahanna News (which unfortunately I don’t think many people do) I too probably would have voted ‘no.’ In these economic times, we are going to need to put a little more effort, or at least smarter effort, into asking for more money and getting votes. I’ll happily talk about this for hours on end in person, too much to write.

9. Another first, I attended a baby shower. I’m very excited for Brent and Lindsey to welcome their new daughter, McKinley (spelling Brent?) into the world. I have a couple friends with a child, but this will be the first close friend to take that step in his or her life. Hopefully the child will bring a little more excitement than the baby shower. Note to self: the guys should go golfing while the gals celebrate with wine, cake, and gifts.

10. Sleep update. Yet another menu item that deserves its own post, but lets just say I have a newfound respect for medicine. I feel awake and alert 98% of the time now, and my quality of life has gone through the roof.

I’m certain I have more, but for now, enjoy your plate, don’t forget your silverware , and come back for seconds whenever you’d like.

Until next time,