Tonight, Ben and I headed to Columbus to attend a Silent Auction at Craig and Ashley's new art gallery, The Chop Chop Gallery. I hadn't seen the place since they completely rennovated it. It looks great! Michelle and Ali were selling their work at the event as well. It was fun to see everybody's stuff!
Michelle peddlin' her wares.
Carson shaking his groove thing.
To celebrate ANOTHER beautiful day, Ben and I went on yet another hike! This time we trekked through the ridges behind Monticello Apartments.
View of Campus:
To get into the woods, we had to go down this SUPER STEEP HILL. I swear it was more like a cliff. The pictures do not do justice to the steepness.
Ben found a leaf that was bigger than his HEAD!
We climbed up to some rocks.
From the rocks, we could see campus, and the sun beginning to set.
Time to head back up the CLIFF!
The sunset from Monticello Apartments.
It was beautiful AGAIN today, so Ben and I decided to hike out at Strouds. First, we made some blueberry waffles for energy. Look at that machine overflowin' with goodness!
Power breakfast!
We saw an alligator in the woods, and he was thirsty, so we gave him some Propel.
The sunlight reflecting off the lake, through the trees:
Since the weather was beautiful today, Ben and I went out for a hike. We went up to the Ridges and walked the Nature Trail. Look at this amazing tree and the sunlight!
Ben is a MONKEY!
Mmm! Thanksgiving! Ben and I had a marathon Thanksgiving Day. First we headed out to his mom's house in the afternoon, for Round One. We drank some delicious beers, and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather out on the deck. There was tons of food: turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, twice-baked potatoes, green bean casserole, ham, stuffing, salad, noodles, and MORE! And TWO kinds of pie. We ate a whole lot and then played Apples to Apples.
After that, we headed back into town to attend Round Two, at Gina's new house! Again, there was tons of food! Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffed shells, acorn squash, mushrooms, stuffing, and MORE! And THREE kinds of pie! We ate and had more delicious beers and rums and cokes. And played foosball. And then went home and passed OUT!!!!!! It was a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for it. Yum.
I went to Casa tonight with my family for dinner. While Mom was ordering herself a drink, she noticed a beautiful Bloody Mary that Mikey was preparing for another patron. When she remarked that it looked great, he sais that yes, he always garnishes the drink so that it looks like a wiener!! He said sadly, his work often goes unnoticed. But not today! Behold:
Ed hosted a little celebration at Purple Chopstix tonight, to celebrate Nicole and Jamie's birthdays, and to say farewell to Gabe before he makes his voyage to Hawaii. They cooked up a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! Mmm.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died, but luckily I managed to get one picture. The most important picture of all. A picture of WOODY!!!!! In a BIRTHDAY AND GOING AWAY PARTY T SHIRT!!!!!!!!
Instead of going to The Crystal like we usually do for Euchre, this week Yumi hosted us at her house. She made FANCY hors d'oeuvres!
Mini pizzas with caramelized onions, goat cheese, and tomatoes:
Parmesan baskets with curried couscous:
Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus spears:
Shrimp cocktail:
Here is all of it together. MMM!
And finally, me with PEANUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Peanut sooooooo much. He is SO handsome and so nice!
Tonight Ben and I headed to his mom's house to play some games and eat some pizza. I had no idea I was in for THIS much cuteness. Cheryl has three dogs but this one was out of CONTROL with the cuteness. Behold, Tinkerbelle:
Since today was a beautiful 70 degree November day, some coworkers and I decided to explore the Ridges Nature Hike, which none of us had ever been on! It took us through a few cemeteries.
Hey, look! It's Tom!
Cheryl climbing some trees!
We came upon a stump, and Tom tried to climb on top of it. On his first attempt, he fell right off.
Grass stains!
Tom was discouraged, but I convinced him that this was something he could do. He tentatively climbed back up on the stump.
Quickly he found his center of balance, focused his chi, and began to harness the energy of the beautiful day to create an amazing free-flowing interpretive dance for us on that stump in the middle of the forest. It was a really special moment for all.
