Julie is Leaving; Russell Simmons

Wah! Julie is moving back to Cincinnatti! I am going to miss her! She decided to move home and go to school there instead of here. Wah! We all got together for her last evening in town to eat Casa. I think fate was watching down upon us, because somebody at the bar bought the table next to us an ENTIRE PITCHER OF MARGARITAS, and they DIDN'T WANT IT. So, we asked if we could take it! Awesome! Free margaritas!!









After dinner, a few of us went to Memorial Auditorium to see Russell Simmons speak.

Bike Store Grand Reopening and Mom's Birthday Dinner

Mer and Pete's huge bike store remodeling project is complete, so they had a little party to celebrate and show off the new store! We gathered there for some beers and fun, and then Mer and I took Mom off to the Blue Gator for a girl's birthday night! Dad was in California for a conference, so we hit the town!

Mom's good friends Kathy and Rita joined us, and we had an AWESOME dinner. The Blue Gator just got a new chef, and we heard the fish was divine. Mom and I got the sesame encrusted tuna steak and the asiago encrusted sea bass, and shared each. They were amazing! We also got creme brulee for dessert, which of course was delicious!



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Playboy Mansion Party

Last night, a bunch of us headed to this Playboy Mansion party. It was hosted by Kevin and Amy, and the theme was just "Playboy Mansion." Meaning you could dress up like anyone who would attend a party at the mansion! I just put on a corset and jeans.

It was a great party. There was a bathtub full of ice and beers. Also, there were cakes (it was Amy's birthday)! We hung out, snacked, made new friends, danced, etc. Check out the pictures, they say it all!



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Mr. Studlyhunk: Body Double?

When Mr. Studlyhunk arrives home from his overseas adventures, I imagine he'll be surprised to discover that he has a body double right here in Athens! I wonder if he will be excited, or feel threatened? Behold, Joey vs. Mr. Studlyhunk:

Dayton: Anne's Birthday!

This weekend, I went to Dayton to celebrate Anne's birthday! It was really scary driving up there, because Athens has been flooding for the past few days. Luckily, there was only one scary part of high water. I just followed the car in front of me and did what they did.

It was a super fun weekend. Friday night, we had Subway for dinner, and then played the O.C. and Dawson's Creek drinking games. A nice, low-key night.

On Saturday, we got to go shopping! We went to Gabes and Marshall's. I got loads of awesome stuff. Then we came home and got decked out to go to a fancy birthday dinner with Tim. We went to this French place, and I had tons of firsts! First time having snails, first time having frog's legs, and first time having creme brulee! All of them were awesome.

After dinner, we went bowling, then came back to Anne's for some champagne and hot tubbing. On Sunday I sadly headed back to Athens. It was the first sunny day in over a week though, so it was an incredibly beautiful drive home!



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Happy New Year!

Happy 2005! Adam and I had people over to celebrate the New Year. There were snacks and champagne.



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Ice Storm

Adam's grandma lives in Hillsboro, Ohio, and this winter, the town was hit by an ice storm. Her house lost power, but luckily she has two very powerful wood furnaces. We drove to visit her, and to check out and take pictures of the Ice Storm.



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Merry Christmas!

This has been a great Christmas! First of all, I GOT A NEW CAMERA! I already loooove it. It's a Canon Powershot Digital Elph, and it is amazing.

Uncle Mark and Uncle John came to spend Christmas in Athens this year. That was cool! We had a nice Christmas morning breakfast at Mom and Dad's, and then Mer and Pete had us over for Chicken Chipotle soup for dinner. YUM.



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Embroidery

For Christmas this year, I decided to try embroidery. I had never done it before, but had a feeling I would like it! I did a couple of quick practice projects, but pretty much just threw myself right in. For Mer and Pete, I embroidered renditions of their kitties, Buster, Ed and Lily! Then, for Mom I did an applique/embroidery field of horses. The kind that I've always drawn that she loves. I had a lot of fun making these projects, and am proud of the way they turned out! I underestimated the amount of time they would take to complete, though, so for the last couple of weeks before Christmas, I was up until all hours of the night, putting in 5-8 hour nights of embroidery. Eek! But it was worth it! Here are the finished projects:

Holiday Gathering

Tonight, a bunch of us got together uptown to hang out and celebrate the holidays. It's nice when everyone's in town! We met at Casa, and hung out there for awhile, then went to Tony's to hang out and play darts.



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Talented Barfer

Today, Charlie barfed over the edge of our staircase to the basement. He managed to get it up onto the part of the window where the lock is, down on the bottom part of the frame, on the windowsill, and down between the stairs. Check out these images to see just how far he managed to spread his barf. I have enhanced the second image with arrows, so that you don't miss any barf.

Mer's Birthday

To celebrate Mer's birthday, a bunch of us gathered at her house for food and games! Mer made her delicious feta, pesto and sundried tomato dome appetizer, as well as this amazing Chicken Chipotle soup. YUM! Then, we played a giant game of Pictionary, which was of course SUPER FUN!



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Long Weekend Partytime

This was a fun weekend because there were lots of out of town guests! We decided to meet up at Casa Nueva for some margaritas. After some good fun there we headed across the street to Tony's! There were a lot of townies in for the Thanksgiving Weekend. There isn't much to report, but we took some pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year! We celebrated at my sister's new house. Photos coming soon. The day was great from the minute I woke up. I woke up to my cell phone ringing, it was my sister telling me it was time for PANCAKES! Whole wheat pancakes with bananas and walnuts. YUM. Then I helped Renee make egg nog (mostly I just watched), and went home for a bit.

Then Adam and I returned for dinner at 4. Mer has this Thanksgiving tradition where she, Beth, and Renee (and their SO's) take turns hosting Thanksgiving. This year it was in Athens. Also, Mom and Dad and Kaleb came. We had turkey, and all the side dishes, AND pork. This was the best pork I had ever had in my life! The marinade was basil, cilantro, ginger, saki, soy sauce and heavy cream. YUM. We played a little bit of Dance Dance Revolution. Mostly we all hung out until about 1in the morning.



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When I was little, my favorite thing to do at Thanksgiving time was to make a bird's eye view drawing of the Pilgrims and Indians at their Thanksgiving Feast. Feeling nostalgic, I made one this year!

The Last Unicorn

Hahah look what Suzanne and Anne BOTH got me for my birthday this year!!! Luckily, I got mine from Suzanne just after Anne had ordered hers (and I emailed her "ANNE!! Look what Suzanne got me!!!!!!!") so she was able to stop the order. But it was hilarious, I guess I'm predictable?:

The Golden Cock

Adam plays football on Friday afternoons, and every week the guys choose the person who did the best that day, and they get to take home The Golden Cock, the athlete of the week trophy. Adam got to be The Golden Cock this week!





And then these are some pictures that Adam took of Charlie. Charlie wants to be a rock star!!!

Dance Dance Revolution!

Tonight, Mer, Pete and I went over to Mike and Jessica's house and played Dance Dance Revolution for the first time. It was SO FUN. I think I might seriously need to own it. Here's Mer and Jessica getting down:

I can't believe he lost.

It's so depressing. I went to an election night party last night. There was a lot of good energy in the air, as well as some seriously good chili. The kind where you take spaghetti and put chili, grated cheddar and oyster crackers on top. So yeah, the party was fun, but it sure isn't fun that Bush won. Check out this sign that my friend Craig made for the party:

Here's dad rocking out on the guitar. They played some good music last night: