When will the sneezing stop?

Seriously, when will the sneezing stop? I've been sneezing and coughing since, like, April! I am taking some fake Clariton, but with little luck. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it, with Greenville being one of the worst cities for allergies. (Why didn't I get that memo?) It's been a pretty full month...Erin and I have been having a lot of new experiences..and I have been a very good boy when it comes to trying new things. I had Thai food Friday night, for Pete's sake! (poor Pete, always getting his name used in vain) Anyway, the Thai food was expensive and bland. The restaurant was nice, but nothing on the menu really spoke to me. I did ask them to make my Chili Stir Fry extra spicy, and they delivered, so I have to give props to them for making a food worthy of my spicy pallet :)

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Last weekend, Erin and I went to a Greenville Drive game in downtown Greenville. We got some cheap tickets through ATS and went as a company group. There were only 5-10 ATS people there, so I was a little bummed about that, but we did have a good time!

The stadium and team remind me a lot of the Peoria Chiefs. New stadium, AAA league, etc.

The stadium is a replica of Fenway park, since the Drive are affiliated with the Boston Red Sox. We don't know if they won or not, cause we left early. It was fun, but you know how baseball games are........slllllloooooowwwww.

Erin convinced me to try Moe's. It's like a Qdoba, but much less pretentious. Actually, I found it to be similar to Jimmy Johns in atmosphere. (They yell greetings at you when you come in the door and then make the food too fast for you to think about what you want). Verdict: EXCELLENT! We will be back quite often.
We bought a new dining room table. This one has a butterfly leafe in the middle, so that it becomes huge. It seats 6, which is 4 more people than ever will be at our house.
We ran out of bookshelf space in our music room, so we needed a 3rd bookshelf to fit in a small space and match the stuff I bought at K's 7 years ago. We went from place to place, each one looking funny at us when we asked about bookshelves. I guess they don't read much down here, or buy books, at least. We finally found tons of bookshelves at Jason's, the same place we bought our table. Score!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw another Merkur, like Dennis's at church today. What are the odds???

My baby got some new shoes today! Yokahama Avids. Highly recommended to me on the Internets. Also got an alignment, cause I was el stupido and made a right turn onto a curb.

Erin and I made Ratatouille the last week. The recipe: pretty much everything in the world that I hate, thrown together cold onto a cookie sheet. I was a sport and helped with the hours of labor and then tried a bite. I literally almost barfed. And then I didn't eat for the rest of the night. Verdict: Don't try this at home. Seriously.

Last week, I spent a lot of time at the Bus shop, trying to get a couple laptops connected to the ECM. It reminded me a lot of my work at PPG, except the fact that they were buses, not tractors. (and not even Cat engines)

Sure, 100 degree without air conditioning...you bet your butt I sat outside.

I bet my father in law would like these lifts!

This was what happened to Friday's lunch. I was ready to have a bowl of hot, sweet corn. Grab by the container, not the lid, folks.

My new strategy for Erin's gifts is to snap pictures as she points them out. It's not subtle, but it's better than buying the wrong thing.

Erin and I went to Barefoot Annie's in "downtown" Simpsonville for desert. I really really wanted to like the place, but my drink was terrible and they ran out of the only chocolate desert. The staff were friendly enough, all 8 of them, but the music and atmosphere was good. Verdict: Sorry, but I'm going to go to Starbuck's for $4....

Yesterday was my Chorus's show, which was themed around a tour of the United States. It was a lot of fun, and we also had Stateline Grocery as the guest performer. In case you don't know who they are, they are the International Bronze medalist quartet. They were goooooood.

The Chapman center has a gorgeous (albeit small) theater. Luckily the broken air conditioner was fixed in time for the show!! The afterglow was held at a Chinese Buffet, the Sun King restaurant in Spartanburg. Verdict: Best Chinese buffet I have ever been to in my life!!!!

For lunch today, we tried Jersey Mike subs. I had high expectations (what Jimmy John's lover doesn't??) They were pricey, they didn't have many good chips, and they served on a paper plate. My sandwich was pretty bland and the powdery bread was irritating. Verdict: Even Subway would be a step up, but I will continue to get my Jimmy's on.

Thanks for reading! We seriously hope to see some family or friends down here soon, so if you are in the mood for some warm sunshine and a hairy dog, please keep us in mind. We're cheaper than a hotel, and convenient to Greenville and the rest of the upstate. Peace!

Summertime summertime sum sum summertime

One of the first things we did when Erin came home was to go out for an evening on the town. We went to the mall. Okay, not so fabulous, but we were so happy to go out. After most of the other stores closed, we went to Starbucks, grabbed drinks, and sat down for a spell and listened to a free concert. The mood was perfect...coool breeze, sitting by the fountains.

I don't know who he was, but he was very good! We were so happy to see a lot of people and their families out and about at 10:00.

One Saturday, we went downtown to see the art museum and do some shopping. There is a pet store down there, where pets are welcome, and the customers are welcomed by two beautiful goldens.
"Can't we go outside and play?"

I'll have to sample these brews sometime.

We went to Sticky Fingers for lunch...I was blown away by everything there! Very good.

Things really heated up for the first half of June. That's okay, we knew what we were getting into!

The next weekend, we went out for Mexican. This restaurant is right by our house. (And we had coupons from Bi-Lo.)
I usually didn't go with Erin for Mexican, so she was tickled.

Mine was okay.....the taco was really good, but the rest was...well...soupy.

We went to Spartanburg for a walk through the nature reserve. I wasn't impressed with Spartanburg...at all, but the park was nice.

The smart cars are finally invading the Carolinas.

And this...thing....is Dennis's other car, a Merkur XR4Ti. He says it's fast.

Last night, we went out to Macaroni Grill. It's the swankiest place I've been in a long time. That doesn't say alot, because I'm not the most cultured of restaurant patrons.

I had the Chicken Parmasen. It was incredible. It even had spicy spaghetti! Perfect!

Afterwards, we cruised the strip and got some ice cream. Notice the difference in serving sizes. One is extremely reasonable and the other is a child's size.
Dennis bribed me into going to Atlanta airport to pick up his car. I made him take me to Buffalo Wild Wings. That was a sham anyway, because we never found BWW, so we had Chick-fil-A. Close enough.

What a beauiful city! I couldn't deal with that traffic there, though. I had to circle the airport over and over while he took his car out of storage and then I started the 3 hour trip home about 9:30.
We've been very busy lately, remodeling the music room, and learning more about the Greenville area. Erin found a job, too! She'll be working at Carolina First as a teller for the summer, and maybe part time during the fall, to go along with her music teaching position. Yay! Work at the city has been pretty laid back lately. Calls have been pretty slow, but I have been doing some interesting things in interesting places. Nuff said. I'm just really excited for iphones! Less than a month to go (hopefully, if I can talk my father in law into braving the store to pick them up.) Our cell phone numbers will be changing, too, so I'll keep ya'll informed on that. Well, hope you enjoy your first day of summer!

TLG 2008: Greenville!

Welcome to the 2008 Transforming Local Government conference, hosted by the City of Greenville. This week-long conference is for 500 city and local leaders, to gather and discuss new ideas and success stories for their towns. Vendors are also here displaying their wares and services. Since the city is hosting this year's event, Greenville management asked us to be here to run some Internet cafes and supply equipment and support for the 7 conference rooms. My job was to float around and setup, tear down the conference areas, and to ensure that the meetings were started smoothly and were not interrupted by PC issues. We all know how computers are...and IF it can go wrong, it probably will. The event was hosted at the Carolina First Center, which is like Peoria's civic center exhibition halls. Here is the beautiful ice sculpture displayed in the main dining hall:

The lower lobby entrance.

Here's a view of the main lobby.

Winding staircase!

The CFC was undergoing major renovations this year. They were cutting it close, but most of the interior work was finished for the conference. Here's a picture from a few days before:

Registration Area:

Part of ATS's role was to setup Internet cafes for those who want to check their mail on the Internets.

Our Internet cafes were called The Port. Both of them. I don't get the name, but someone at corporate thought (incorrectly) that it was good. So good, that they printed it on bunch of napkins, too.

Here's one of the conference rooms that I helped setup and support.

ATS had a booth setup to advertise our itWatch product. My old supervisor, Jeff Clendenin, was there manning the sales booth, and he even introduced us during the ATS sponsored breakfast this morning. (Go Us!)

The food here was phenomonal. Lots and lots of fancy dishes and buffets and it was 99% delicious, except for my roast beef, which was probably not even cooked. Here's some lasagna, chicken, orzo, and penne.

Caviar! I didn't try it, though I probably should have.

I had plenty of downtime between the meetings to check my mail and to make blog posts. I carried a radio and was ready to respond at any moment! 10-4, good buddy!
The entire event went very smoothly. It was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace for us field techs. It was also nice to represent ATS values and "sell" our service to lots of different governments who someday will need computer help. And you know they will.

Single man no more!

Well, I am no longer leading the bachelor life. I have a wife again!!! We spent over three months apart and it felt very strange to be without Erin. I started to feel kind of numb...like I knew I wasn't alone, but still felt like I was going to be by myself and that's just how it was. Hopefully, I haven't developed any bad habits that will drive her crazy (actually, I developed a few good ones!) I definitely feel that the experience has helped us to grow closer.

Erin surprised me at work, about 3 days early. (the house was a disaster and my welcome package was not ready but she forgave me). She was due in on late Sunday night. I got a picture on my phone on Thursday afternoon. I was a little confused when I got this picture, but I figured it out. Don't make fun of me, but I still cry when I see this picture. Even right now. Must stop.

We went to my favorite Chinese restaurant last weekend. Mmmmmm.

Erin has been eating healthy and organic foods, so we decided to stop by and check out the local Whole Foods Market. I could probably buy a working farm, machinery, and staff to grow the food and still be cheaper than shopping here.

Mmmmmm. Smells like $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

At work last week, we had a lunch training session for our remote PC management software. Yum: cheese and sugar.

I went on a short trip across town with my boss and the city's IT Manager. I was kidnapped and forced to go to Krispy Kreme. I was told if I didn't eat a few Hot-n-Fresh glaze donuts, I would be punished. (okay maybe not, but I do have to live with the caloric consequences)

Things are getting toasty here. I finally turned on my A/C in my car yesterday.

My friend John's car broke down near my house. We had to explain to several mechanics that he really really did fit a Cadillac V-8 into a Pontiac Fierro. Ouch. That's not going to be cheap.

On that "note", we had our first quartet practice that day. We didn't have a bass (small detail) but we're working on that. We have big hopes for the group. Our chorus has its show at the end of this month. Should be lots of fun. If you happen to be in Spartanburg, SC on the 29th, let me know and I'll save you a seat.

Well, that's all the good news for now! I'll also be posting some info on the TLG conference that I've been working at this week (Downtime+WiFi=Blog Posting). Have a great weekend!