Look at this TREE.

I took this picture today. This tree is up at the Ridges where I work. SPRING!:

Happy Easter! Featuring: Springtime Cake!

For Easter I decided to make a cake. A SPRINGTIME cake. I made the banana-raspberry cake with lemon cream cheese frosting (dad's favorite), but made it special by dressing it up for spring! I was really excited to make a cake because I finally bought myself a pedestal cake stand with domed lid. I've been wanting one for ages because I just knew how cute cakes would look inside one!

So I took a million pictures. I took the cake with me over to Mom and Dad's house for Easter dinner. Mmmm.

Poker Birthday Night!

Tonight was J's birthday. To celebrate, he and Summer hosted a poker night at their house! It was super fun because it was half poker night, HALF PARTY! One thing that was REALLY exciting was that I finally found the love of my life, Franziskaner! I haven't actually been looking that hard, but I found some when I was in Akron so I stocked up. I've been dreaming of it since San Francisco!

Mmmm. Franzi!

Summer made this kick-ass taco dip. It's totally 70's.

Here's Summer doing a beautiful job applying her lipstick!

And of course, some self-portraits. In the bathroom. WHEE!

Akron Girl's Weekend!

This weekend we had a Girl's Weekend! The lovely Kara was our host. Friday night, we played Trivial Pursuit TV Edition from the 1980's, and Cranium. That Trivial Pursuit game was IMPOSSIBLE. But it was funny. Then we ordered a delicious pizza! And drank beer.

Saturday morning, we went to Dodie's for breakfast. It was delicious as usual! Then we did some shopping at Gabe's. After that we headed to Mrs. Ticklemore's at West Point Market for some tea. It was SUPER fancy. We each got our own tea pot and ordered a bunch of tiny tea treats. After tea we shopped around the market and I found Franziskaner! My favorite beer from San Francisco! I stocked UP! I can't wait to drink it.

Then it was time to head home for showers. We got ready and then headed to 69 Taps. 69 beers! On tap! I got to try one of my favorites, Bar Harbor Blueberry, on tap. They also had Wyder's Pear Cider, which I enjoyed in San Fran. Mmm, and Pyramid Apricot Ale! Kara had won a party there, so we used that and got $2 pints and free pizza.

Next up we went to House of Hunan. Anne and I split some sushi and it was delicious! Then we went to Thursday's for some fun and dancing. They were playing awesome music the whole night. Except it sucked when Beth went up to request Europe's Final Countdown for our group and the DJ was a big jerk about it and wouldn't play it.

It was a great night, and when we got back to Kara's we played Egyptian Rat Screw. The next morning we went to the Mustard Seed for breakfast. They have a natural foods buffet and it was AWESOME. I kept switching between breakfasty things and lunch things. Mmmm. What a weekend!



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Happy 30th, Matt!

My buddy Matt turned 30 tonight! To celebrate, a bunch of us gathered at Casa. Matt was born on 3/30, at 3:30, and he turned 30 today. Isn't that CRAZY? Anyway, it definitely was an occasion for Irish Car Bombs!

Happy Bowling Birthday, Rose!

To celebrate Rose's birthday, we headed to Rollerbowl for an awesome night of bowling!



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JR's Donut Castle/Coolville Ridge Cooldown

Last night at Purple Chopstix, Mer was suddenly struck by an incredible idea. We would leave for Parkersburg, West Virginia this morning at 7 a.m., to visit JR's Donut Castle for some freshies!

The final race of the Gravel Rouser Classic was to begin at 10, so we were hoping to get to the starting line by 9-ish to surprise the racers with the donuts. These are some of the most delicious donuts known to man.

So I picked up Mer and Michelle at 7 and our road trip began! We got to JR's and had a great time picking out donuts. And eating them. Then we piled back in the car and headed back towards Athens. As we were approaching this one car, my sister noticed that the driver had GIANT hair. She was about to comment on how she must be on her way to church when we realized she was a DRAG QUEEN! And so was her passenger! It was awesome! I paced their car so Mer could snap a picture.

Back in Athens, the racers scarfed some donuts then headed off for a couple of hours of riding. I headed back into town to do some errands, and came back to the country for the finish line festivities, and brought Rose.

It was a great prelude-to-spring sort of afternoon. We lounged around in inner tubes on the sunny hillside, with glasses of Blue Moon from the keg. Totally relaxing and nice. I can't wait for spring to get here!



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Irish Car Bomb Weekend!

Last night after the Grab & Git party, I headed over to Missy's party. As soon as we got there, it was Irish Car Bomb Time! Just like at conference last year, the only available Guinness was Extra Stout, so they were a bit rough. But still delicious!

Then tonight, Mer, Summer, Michelle and I went to Purple Chopstix for dinner. Since it's BYOB, we brought ICB supplies! We also got some of the employees to do them with us! Cheers!



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Gravel Rouser Grab & Git

What do you get when you combine the Gravel Rouser Grab & Git with Saint Patrick's Day? A SUPER FUN TIME, that's what! Check out the pictures from this awesome event.



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The Presenter

So in the past couple of months, Emma has started consistently leaving us presents. They usually come in the form of our dirty socks, left soggy in the cat water dish. Or, sometimes she drags them out once they're soaked and leaves them soggy for us in the middle of the kitchen floor. So we step on them. Gross.

Last night, she went into the bathroom and got this roll of toilet paper (still in the bag), and brought it out into the living room and then sat proudly beside it! Haha.

So FULL!

Tonight Mom and Dad had Adam, Peter and I over for dinner. I made a cake! We had steak and a baked potato and then Dad did my favorite joke. The one where he stuffs his shirt with a pillow and waits for us to notice how "full" he is. Hahahah!

ICB's at BW3's!

Today after work, the gang met up at BW3's to celebrate the fact that it was Friday. It was an exciting day because Mike had his first ever Irish Car Bomb! He was skeptical beforehand, but sure did have a second! Hooray! After that, Yumi and I drank this crazy sour $1 apple martini.

Dirty 30!

This weekend was Summer's 30th Birthday celebration. We celebrated with a full weekend full of birthday fun! On Friday, Summer, Maia, Suzanne and I drove up to Columbus. We were staying the night at the Hilton at Easton, so we checked into the hotel and then went to Bar Louie for a martini. We ended up spending most of the afternoon there, having fancy drinks and appetizers.

Afterward, we did a tiny bit of shopping then went to an Irish pub for some fish and chips! Anne, Rabecca, and Heidi met up with us there. After dinner we went to the Shadowbox Cafe to see the Sex at the Box comedy show, which was NOT funny. We had a good time anyway, but we do not recommend the show. After the show we headed back to the hotel, where Yumi met up with us! We got in our fancy clothes and took a taxi to this club, Wall Street. Amy met up with us there!

This whole time, Summer was unaware that there was a surprise underway. Christine was supposed to come down for Summer's party on Saturday night, but was surprising her by coming early, and meeting us Friday night at the club! Christine and I kept in touch via text messaging, and I snuck away at the club to meet her and we went back over to where summer was an SURPRISED her! I love surprises. It was a very successful surprise.

We danced at Wall Street for a long time, then went around the corner to this other club, Fabric. It had two sections - a lounge and a dance floor. In the lounge, there were zero patrons, and on the dance floor, there were about eight. It was DEAD! We had fun anyway though. As we were leaving the doorman was like, "We promise there will be more people here next time!" And we were all like "NEXT TIME!!!! hahahahahhaha!!!!"

We went back to the hotel and crashed.



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Saturday night, Summer and J had a party at their place. It was a low key event, since Friday night was the wild night. It was great, we had some beers and some serious snacks. There was chili, chips, meat balls, artichoke dip, double stuffed oreos, shrimp, cheese, s'mores, and MORE! It was an eat fest. There was also hot tub time and a fire pit. It was a fun weekend. Happy Birthday, Summer!

Family Visit and also Ping Pong

I just got a surprise visit from my family! Mom and Dad and Pete were in a meeting up at the Ridges and they stopped by to see my cube. So they posed for my web cam!





Last night I played some ping pong after working on the Gravel Rouser number plates, and I forgot how fun ping pong is. We figured out a way to play with three balls at once! We formed a pattern, sort of like juggling. We couldn't keep the balls going for very long but I bet if we practiced we could get really good! Here is a diagram. Craig would serve a ball and then as soon as I hit it to Atira, he would serve ball #2: