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!