In the In-between

An article by Don Quixote    3 Comments

This is one of those entries filled with just random “stuff” from various days from the past month.

So, important stuff: Ellery (formerly Dividing the Plunder) will be heading to Fort Wayne to do a show at the Firefly Coffee House on January 7, 2006 at 8:00 pm. If you live in the Fort (or at least close to the Fort) you should make sure you make your way down there to check them out. In exciting news for them, they’ve signed with a new record label and will be putting out a new full length CD soon. Make sure you check them out.

The Orange Box has been passed on. Yep, the era of the Element is over. Kara got a new job working for Parkview Hospital and I wanted to make sure that she had a car that could get her there no matter what the weather. So we took the Civic (I still love that car) that was 3 or 4 months away from being totally paid off and I traded it in on a new Honda Pilot and passed the Box over to Kara for enjoyment. I’m a little sad to see it go as it was a great vehicle, but it will serve Kara and the boys very well. Besides, now when folks from the University ride with me they’ll be able to get in the back without having to deal with the suicide doors. The Pilot is not my dream car, but since it’s only a lease, I’m not really bothered by it, it will fill the niche that I’m looking for right now. It’s kinda cool though because it looks like an Army-mobile and has heated leather seats. Toss in the DVD player for the boys and it makes for a great ride. I can honestly say it is the quietest ride I’ve ever had with Jace.

Some more about Nashville: While we were there we also had a chance to see the Radio City Music Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rocketts. That was pretty cool. The best part was the living nativity scene that they did at the end (I mean they had camels!). The end was very Christ focus and honestly I was a little shocked, but very pleased by the end result. It was a very good show. On a side note Opryland was insane! I’m so glad I didn’t try to drive there myself (we took a shuttle). The parking alone would have killed me.

Finding a place to eat while in Nashville was a very interesting experience. Friday night before the Jason Mraz concert we ate at this really cool little family Italian place called Tazza, which was awesome. I’d eat there again in a heart beat. Saturday we were supposed to eat at the Stock Yard (world famous steak house or some crap like that). We made reservations for 9:00 pm (after the Rocketts) and we even scheduled their free driver service to pick us up. Well, that turned into quite the ordeal. The driver was late so we called the restaurant and they said he was running a little behind (we were only like 5 blocks away or so). So he finally shows up 15 minutes late and then has the never to hint around that I really should tip him. Here’s a tip, show up on time.

So it’s about 9:05 when we finally get there; our table isn’t ready yet. Christmas parties were running a little long, but it should be ready shortly. 9:35 rolls around; still no table. I check with the hostess and it’s not ready yet and they really have no idea when it will be ready. Needless to say I was a little upset. Since they had free car service that was willing to pick you up at your hotel and then drop you off back there or at your next destination, I told them to have their driver drop us at a restaurant that would seat us right away. I know I’m evil. We ended up at a place called Demo’s Steak & Spaghetti House. They got us in right away and we had a wonderful time. So again, if you’re ever in Nashville, check them out.

Let’s see what else.

Oh Christmas came and went. A good time was had by all. The boys racked in a nice haul scoring a Nintendo DS each with about 5 games and this really cool pro-gamer case where they can keep their DS, games and all other goodies in one safe place (that’ll keep the boys from misplacing their stuff). I also got them a helmet and a new Razor scooters which they seemed to really enjoy.

Michelle and I didn’t make out too badly, aside from our trip she got (if I do say so myself) some nice jewelry (diamond & pink sapphire earrings, necklace and a ring) and lots of fuzzy stuff. I got a really cool Sony DSC-H1 camera (that I got to open early to take pictures with on our trip). It’s awesome. The fun part is that Autumn got one as well so we can talk camera shop all the time on the phone. We also started a new tradition of watching Invader Zim’s: Most horrible X-Mas ever which was a lot of fun. The old favorites where there as well as the Soulliere family tradition of having spaghetti and meatballs on Christmas eve. All in all it was a wonderful time with the boys and each other. I

’m still enjoying my time off from work which is one of the MANY things I dig about Saint Francis.

Michelle and I have now been married for a year as we celebrated our anniversary on Tuesday (which I’ll write more about later). I’ve been reading a ton of comic books over the break. Oh and Michelle and I started watching Firefly so we can watch Serenity. We’re totally digging that.

I think the last thing of note as that we had dinner at Takaoka’s with April and Danny on Monday we had a great time hanging out with them. Other than that, that’s all I got.