On October 14, 2008, Kate and I celebrated our 4th anniversary (since we started officially dating on October 14, 2004). Kate and I actually met in early September of 2004 after Kate moved into her 1st apartment with her friends. One of Kate's roommates, Sarah, knew a guy named Colby who was a friend of mine. One night, Sarah invited Colby and his friends over to hang out with her and her roommates. Kate and I hit it off right away. We bonded over the horror stories that I was telling Kate about her new landlord/rental company, Pella. I had previously rented an apartment that was owned and managed by Pella, and I described all of the many problems that she would soon have. She didn't believe me at first, and she thought it was a big joke or that I was trying to spook her, but over time, she witnessed everything that I described that night over the course of her two years at that apartment. Despite the strange conversation topics of that night, we both really enjoyed each other's company. We continued to hang out on a regular basis for most of the next month, but it wasn't until October 14th that we committed to a relationship. "Will you be my girlfriend?" Haha, just kidding. I think the conversation was more romantic than that. We both shared our strong feelings for each other, but my side of the conversation probably wasn't as romantic and smooth as I thought it was. Anyway, we celebrated 4 wonderful years since we started dating (which includes 2 years of living together). As Kate might say, she has tolerated 4 years of suffering through my presence. Moving right along, here's more about our special celebratory evening.
Kate and I have been to many very nice restaurants for our previous anniversaries, but this year, despite the fact that the two of us have more money now than we ever had before, we went to a more reasonable priced restaurant, but an outstanding one, nonetheless. We've both been trying to save as much money as possible, considering the bleak economic outlook, and it just seemed appropriate that at a time like this, we should tone our celebration down just a little.
We decided to go to Columbus Brewing Company which is definitely one of our favorite restaurants. Kate loves their Cosmopolitans and insists that they have the best Cosmos EVER!!! We think that the Finlandia Pineapple-infused Vodka and pineapple chunk (which appears to be soaked in vodka) is what makes it so good.
I, on the other hand, love their beers (big surprise). I love doing the sampler paddle where they give you the whole beer lineup in 4-5 oz mini glasses. It's a really good way to sample the wide tastes and flavors of their different beers.
We ordered their ahi tuna appetizer and their calamari appetizer. We both agree that Cap City and Columbus Brewing Company do calamari better than anywhere else in Columbus. The breading is light and the calamari is served with Thai chili sauce. Those are key. They also do not skimp when it comes to the amount of calamari served. To get the amount of calamari that you get for $10 is a real bargain.
They have a number of salads that sound amazing, but we simply didn't think we'd be able to get salads with all of the other items we wanted to order. We don't skip dessert on our anniversaries, and we both had entrees in mind. Kate got the pecan-crusted chicken, and I got the prime rib sandwhich. Both are excellent, and we'd highly recommend everything we had to anyone who goes to CBC. We've never been disappointed with anything we've had there.
And for dessert, we got the chocolate lava cake/brownie and banana cream pie. Although we were already stuffed, both were amazing and we managed to finish everything. The waiter must have thought we were the two biggest gluttons he'd ever seen.
Kate still likes the Cosmo more than any other drink, but she tried a berries and bubbles martini which was made with champagne and raspberries which was also "amazing".
The best part about the meal (in my opinion) was that Kate picked up the tab for the first time. What an anniversary!!! It only took 4 years (and a lot of $$$).
We had a wonderful time, and we remenisced about the good times we've had so far and the many more we will have in our future. It doesn't seem like 4 years, but I guess, as they say, time flies when you're having fun. I look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with Kate... and I will expect to enjoy her picking up the tab too!
9/30/08
End of the Summer
I guess the official end of the summer was September 21, but tonight it really feels like summer is over. It's too cold to sleep with the windows open anymore. I love summer and being outside at night when the temperature is the same as your skin and the only way you know there is still air is from an occasional breeze. I start to feel gloomy this time of year when I have to start layering my clothes, but Brian loves it. I guess I would too if I got sweaty like he does! Of course I love football season and all the fun and food that comes with it, but in the back of my mind I know that chills and darkness are lurking.
We had some great times this summer. We went white water rafting in West Virginia with a group of friends. Brian and I had our first experience of setting up a tent together (and those of you who've done know it can make or break a relationship!) So, we survived that and had a great time.
We attempted golfing a few times and fit in numerous tennis matches. Brian continued his autocross events, made many improvements to the Neon, and even got me and my mom to sign up and race the BMW. We attended the Ohio State Fair, the Rose Festival (pictured above), the Greek Festival, and too many barbecues and backyard bonfires to count. We went to the weddings of our friends Cole and Lauren (where Brian was the best man and gave a great speech) and Pavlo and Nicole.
Our roommate Liz moved out, so now we have the apartment to ourselves which is nice, but now there's no one else to blame for the mess in the kitchen. Oh well.
We survived a whole summer without cable or air conditioning! We saved some money, helped the environment, and made better use of our time. We would recommend it to anyone even though some people thought we were crazy at first. Now that all the new shows are coming on this fall, I have just started watching them online. I don't think the cable is coming back, but when Brian suggested that we go all winter without heat, that idea was quickly vetoed.
As sad as I am to see summer go it wouldn't be Christmas without snow, and we've got to get there somehow. Maybe my mood is residual from the past 19 years of the fall meaning back to school. Maybe it's because I am not going back to school. At least we have a summer full of memories and some holidays to look forward to.
~Kate
We had some great times this summer. We went white water rafting in West Virginia with a group of friends. Brian and I had our first experience of setting up a tent together (and those of you who've done know it can make or break a relationship!) So, we survived that and had a great time.
We attempted golfing a few times and fit in numerous tennis matches. Brian continued his autocross events, made many improvements to the Neon, and even got me and my mom to sign up and race the BMW. We attended the Ohio State Fair, the Rose Festival (pictured above), the Greek Festival, and too many barbecues and backyard bonfires to count. We went to the weddings of our friends Cole and Lauren (where Brian was the best man and gave a great speech) and Pavlo and Nicole.
Our roommate Liz moved out, so now we have the apartment to ourselves which is nice, but now there's no one else to blame for the mess in the kitchen. Oh well.
We survived a whole summer without cable or air conditioning! We saved some money, helped the environment, and made better use of our time. We would recommend it to anyone even though some people thought we were crazy at first. Now that all the new shows are coming on this fall, I have just started watching them online. I don't think the cable is coming back, but when Brian suggested that we go all winter without heat, that idea was quickly vetoed.
As sad as I am to see summer go it wouldn't be Christmas without snow, and we've got to get there somehow. Maybe my mood is residual from the past 19 years of the fall meaning back to school. Maybe it's because I am not going back to school. At least we have a summer full of memories and some holidays to look forward to.
~Kate
9/14/08
Microbrew Festival... do we drink too much? Don't answer that.
Yesterday, we went to the Columbus Microbrew Festival at the North Market. We got to sample all of the beers we wanted. It cost $15 to get a commemorative beer glass and ten beer tasting tickets. We highly recommend going because it's a great way to sample all kinds of beer for a fraction of what you'd pay at the bar, and since it's at the North Market, you have an amazing assortment of foods to choose from to eat along with those tasty microbrews.
Some friends of ours, Mike and Nate, decided to join us in going to the festival. What a great way to kick off the weekend on Saturday morning... but then again, we actually start off our weekends with our Friday night indulgence/guilty pleasure... 5 for 5 at Whole Foods (which is a wine and food sampling event). We arrived at the North Market shortly before noon, and the festival was scheduled to have its participating breweries tap into their beer and serve at noon. Good timing.
We got in line to purchase the wrist band, pint glass, and beer sampling tickets. By some stroke of the gods, I got an extra strip of 5 beer sampling tickets bringing my total to 15. I think somehow, through a 6th sense, the lady working the booth just knew that I really love my beer, and that she would be doing me an injustice if she hadn't slipped some extra beer tickets in there. In the end, I ended up sharing my extra tickets with Kate, Mike, and Nate anyway.
Some of the participating breweries were Columbus Brewing Company, Gordon Biersch, Barley's Brewing Company/Smokehouse and Brewpub, Elevator Brewing Company, Weasel Boy Brewing Company, and Hoster's. We made our way around to all of them and sampled a significant number of beers between us. We typically shared our samples so that we could all try as many of the beers as possible.
By the time we were down to our last tickets between us, we decided that we needed to try the only non-alcoholic item at the festival - the Hoster's Root Beer. This was, of course, Kate's favorite. What was funny about the root beer is that we wanted to taste the Hoster's Root Beer to see how it stacks up against Jones Soda, IBC, A&W, and Mug. Even funnier was the line we had to wait in to get root beer. They ran out of root beer while we were in line, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We waited for one of the Hoster's guys to return with a new mini keg of root beer, and it was worth it! When the Hoster's guy did return with the new keg of root beer, he realized that there was a ridiculously big line formed by people wanting to taste this root beer. Many of us shared a good laugh about how funny it was that we were at a microbrew festival where there were not typically lines of more than 3 or 4 at the most, but the root beer line was at least 25+. As it turns out, their root beer is top notch... up there in our books with IBC for top dog in the root beer world.
My favorite beers at the festival were the IPA's (no surprise if you know my taste in beers). For those of you who do not know, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. The one that really made my heart sing was the Barley's Hop Envy IPA, and the name is appropriate. It was a hoppy IPA that would make any other IPA envious of its hoppiness. Hoppiness is happiness.
Among the others that we sampled and really enjoyed include:
-Barley's Rasperry Wheat
-Barley's 5 Year Old Barley Wine
-Columbus Brewing Company's Apricot Ale
-Weasel Boy's Brown Stoat Stout (Mike's favorite)
-Gordon Biersch's Marzen
We followed up our microbrew festivities with a trip to Dingo and Adam's to watch the OSU v. USC football game. Neither of us care to talk about the game, but we did have a good time aside from the game itself. Look for my posts about the game in my blog (insert blog link here). They made jungle juice and had jello shots too. Let's just say that our fervor for drinking subsided, but we certainly ate ourselves silly. Dingo made some cheese and venison (deer meat) dip that was outstanding, and we picked up some lemon almond chicken salad from Giant Eagle that was surprisingly good. We finally called it a night around midnight, which ended 12 straight hours of food and alcohol consumption. What a great day!
Some friends of ours, Mike and Nate, decided to join us in going to the festival. What a great way to kick off the weekend on Saturday morning... but then again, we actually start off our weekends with our Friday night indulgence/guilty pleasure... 5 for 5 at Whole Foods (which is a wine and food sampling event). We arrived at the North Market shortly before noon, and the festival was scheduled to have its participating breweries tap into their beer and serve at noon. Good timing.
We got in line to purchase the wrist band, pint glass, and beer sampling tickets. By some stroke of the gods, I got an extra strip of 5 beer sampling tickets bringing my total to 15. I think somehow, through a 6th sense, the lady working the booth just knew that I really love my beer, and that she would be doing me an injustice if she hadn't slipped some extra beer tickets in there. In the end, I ended up sharing my extra tickets with Kate, Mike, and Nate anyway.
Some of the participating breweries were Columbus Brewing Company, Gordon Biersch, Barley's Brewing Company/Smokehouse and Brewpub, Elevator Brewing Company, Weasel Boy Brewing Company, and Hoster's. We made our way around to all of them and sampled a significant number of beers between us. We typically shared our samples so that we could all try as many of the beers as possible.
By the time we were down to our last tickets between us, we decided that we needed to try the only non-alcoholic item at the festival - the Hoster's Root Beer. This was, of course, Kate's favorite. What was funny about the root beer is that we wanted to taste the Hoster's Root Beer to see how it stacks up against Jones Soda, IBC, A&W, and Mug. Even funnier was the line we had to wait in to get root beer. They ran out of root beer while we were in line, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We waited for one of the Hoster's guys to return with a new mini keg of root beer, and it was worth it! When the Hoster's guy did return with the new keg of root beer, he realized that there was a ridiculously big line formed by people wanting to taste this root beer. Many of us shared a good laugh about how funny it was that we were at a microbrew festival where there were not typically lines of more than 3 or 4 at the most, but the root beer line was at least 25+. As it turns out, their root beer is top notch... up there in our books with IBC for top dog in the root beer world.
My favorite beers at the festival were the IPA's (no surprise if you know my taste in beers). For those of you who do not know, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. The one that really made my heart sing was the Barley's Hop Envy IPA, and the name is appropriate. It was a hoppy IPA that would make any other IPA envious of its hoppiness. Hoppiness is happiness.
Among the others that we sampled and really enjoyed include:
-Barley's Rasperry Wheat
-Barley's 5 Year Old Barley Wine
-Columbus Brewing Company's Apricot Ale
-Weasel Boy's Brown Stoat Stout (Mike's favorite)
-Gordon Biersch's Marzen
We followed up our microbrew festivities with a trip to Dingo and Adam's to watch the OSU v. USC football game. Neither of us care to talk about the game, but we did have a good time aside from the game itself. Look for my posts about the game in my blog (insert blog link here). They made jungle juice and had jello shots too. Let's just say that our fervor for drinking subsided, but we certainly ate ourselves silly. Dingo made some cheese and venison (deer meat) dip that was outstanding, and we picked up some lemon almond chicken salad from Giant Eagle that was surprisingly good. We finally called it a night around midnight, which ended 12 straight hours of food and alcohol consumption. What a great day!
9/7/08
Our First Post on our New Blog
We've decided to start a blog about the two of us. We think that this is the best way for our friends and family to know what is going on with us and keep in touch.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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