October/Halloween/Fall Extravaganza!

Oh boy, are ya'll in for a real treat. I have been so busy since the last time I blogged. We had more family visitors I took a lot more pictures, so I hope you like looking at pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then there are like, 1000 + 1000 + 1000...wait...no math after 10:00 pm. Sorry, you'll need to count them yourself, you lazy bastages.

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The first pic says it all: Happy Fall Ya'll. Yes, I went to a craft show, and yes I bought it, 'cause I liked it.

Erin's Dad and Stepmom came to stay with us this weekend. We had a lot of fun, of course! They really liked the area and especially Falls Park (I mean, who doesn't?)

The day started a little rough, but it cleared up just in time to snap some great pictures of the park.

Another Falls Park shot.
And "The Falls" of Falls Park fame.

Erin's Dad got a great shot of us on the Liberty Bridge. I wish I had a zoom lens like that!

Erin and I had a birthday party for Barb.

Mmm, what would a weekend be without Bellacino's?!?

No, Sam, you can't have any. Go away!

The big project for the weekend was to install attic stairs and create attic space above our garage. We started at Home Depot. We can do it and they can help.
Tada! Now, we can easily get above our garage.

Look at that great storage space! Alan even installed a light for us. I am still plucking the splinters out of my hands, though. Oh, and watch your head...those roofing nails are SOB's.
Here's the new door from below. Now I have a place to hide.

Ohhhh, my mom is gonna be soooo jealous!

I finally went to Waffle House. "What took so long?", you ask... Well, we have been in line since we moved down here. Seriously, though, the place has like 2 nonsmoking tables. The wait was awful, but the food was goooooood. My sandwich came with mayo. Yes, I did put some on my sandwich. I wanted to see why they did it.
OMG OMG OMG Definitely enjoyed this place.
For dinner, Erin chose Bonefish Grill. I was skeptical at first (actually I was stuffed from the Moe's I had for lunch) but they had a couple chicken items on their menu. (I do not like fresh fish, only white fish covered in crispy, tasty blanket of golden goodness.)

This place was swaaaanky. Like Macaroni Grill!

My Chicken Marsala was yummy. I didn't even eat it all though, but Erin enjoyed the leftovers. Gosh, do I hate mushrooms.

The wait staff was freaking out about the fact that we had to wait 3 minutes and 1 second for a waiter, so they treated us to a monstrously good chocolate cake thing. Went right to my waist.
For church, we all went to Erin's new Employer: Messiah Lutheran. Turns out, someone from City Hall attends there, too. And, we all got earful from the folks who have lived in IL before.

Erin even has her own office! I resisted all temptation to fix the computer, but she has "people" to fix that for her. Well, fine then.
Well, by the time you finally finish reading this one, I should be ready to make another post. Erin's other side of the family is due out at Thanksgiving, so we'll see how that goes. As far as everything else, work is going well for me and well for Erin times two. She's coming down with a head cold right now, so I need to go take care of her. Halloween is fast approaching and we still don't really care. We care as much as we do about football, so you get the idea. We'll probably be meanie heads and stay in and keep the lights off. Kids today have too much candy and sweets anyway, rar rar rar. The temps are dropping below freezing at night, so we are getting our first glimpse of winter weather here in SC. I don't know what to expect, so I'll keep you posted on that. Until then, don't forget to vote!

Fall for Greenville

We've reached the Fall season in GV. The air gets crisper, the bed gets harder to leave in the mornings, the trees start to change colors, and our families begins to arrive on schedule. Greenville has an annual festival called Fall for Greenville. They line the streets with restaurant booths and you get to taste all the different foods for a reasonable price. I haven't figured out why they blindfolded all of the statues in the city, though.

My parents arrived by dinnertime on Thursday. They had a great drive down and the weather cleared up, for the most part, by the time the weekend rolled along. They drove the 'Vette, of course, because wouldn't you?

One of the first things we did was bring the folks downtown and show them around.

Falls Park was a blast, they really liked the park and the entire downtown. The streets were all closed in preparation for the festival, so we had free reign over Main Street.

There were several areas off mainstreet set up for concerts. These guys were doing a rockin' sound check.

Here's a cool family pic over the Reedy.
The special birthday dinner that I asked for specifically was Avanti's Gondolas. Oh man, did they hit the spot. My parents made a special trip to Avantis the day before they left and they wrapped the gondolas up and put 'em in a cooler for me. For all you folks that don't know what Avanti's is, you are missing out on the best Italianish food at the best price.

We had a mini birthday party, where I got to unwrap a lot of presents! Yay!

They have a Sam's membership, so on our way out of Sam's, we filled up the tank in the Civic. I can't remember the last time I paid so "little"*for gas. *Note the air quotes.

At Haywood mall, someone is giving away a Lotus Elise. Now, this is one of my absolute most favoritist cars in the whole world, but they are NOT going to get my name and signature on a card that reads "Submitting the entry form means you waive your rights ...Do Not Call Registry...blah blah blah". They couldn't give enough money away to make me sell my soul to telemarketer calls and junk mail. Heck, the car's only worth $46,000. And a 1:3,000,000 chance of winning? No, thank you.

Just as an example of how easy it was to entertain my parents, we all went to motorcycle dealers and looked at motorcycles all day on Saturday. It doesn't get much better than that! Since all four of us ride, we all had interest in climbing on our dream bikes.

I even got my wife to 1. Sit on my dreambike 2. Finally relent that she would be willing to ride it if we bought it before hers. Doesn't she look great on this FZ6?? I'll look even better.

For lunch, I took my folks to Sticky Fingers, a local BBQ chain. "Took" is loosely used, because they paid for it. But, we did make the suggestion! Dad went all crazy and got the sampler appetizer.

"Joshy, we never want to leave!" *Dramatization

One of our family traditions is going to Sam's. We can spend hours in a Sam's. Long long hours.

Saw this shirt in Mast General Store. How funny is that??


We had such a great time, though, and were sad to see them leave again. Everything felt so normal when they were here. I took them to my church, we showed them our favorite restaurants. (We'll be working that off for months). Sam also got plenty of attention. Too much, in my opinion. The house is empty for another week, until Erin's Dad comes down. You can be certain that you will hear about that when all is said and done. Ya'll stay out of trouble... Go Clemson!!

I'm only as old as I feel. I'm only as old as I feel. I'm only as old as I feel.

Ok, it's now to time to freak out. I turned 28 today. The world's financial system is in a state of panic. Do you understand what this means? It means I'll be 30 in 2 short years.

Prez to the rescue:

Well, Erin and I are going to enjoy our last days on Earth, no matter what happens. We're in the mood for some Mexican food. Let's take a walk down to El Tejano!

The restaurant was great! The staff were very "bilingual"...our server was really cool. First, we started off with some free chips. I was thinking in my head "We should eat the chips and then say nevermind and leave" but that would not be a very honest thing to do :P

The waiter took our order, walked to the counter and before we even started a new conversation he came back with the food. He said "Sorry 'bout the wait. We're short handed tonight." LOL. I think he was joking, but I don't always get the jokes.

Their spicy salsa was phenomenal. Definitely up to my expectations.

Erin and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary Sunday. (+6 for dating!). To Celebrate, we went to Arizona Steakhouse. I was a good boy and got a chicken sammich and beans instead of burger and fries. It was fabulous, of course!

Since I'm too cheap to spend $7 on a dessert, we went to Panera and had some treats there. I got a huge glass of milk with my double chocolate cookie...mmmmm.

Here's a short pictographic tour of our long journey together. In high school, as well as today, we are joined at the hip. "Josh and Erin" was considered to be one entity. We danced together.

We sang together. (And dressed in funny Madrigal costumes together).

We even stayed together when she went off to college without me.

She helped me shop for cars: We've done some really cool things together and plan to do many more. Here's to my sweetie: Happy Anniversary!

One of those cool things we like to do? Order pizza late at night, just because we can.

We finally have gas back in Greenville, now. The selection isn't the best, but it still makes tiny explosions which turns a crankshaft and spins my wheels, so I am satisifed.

For my birthday, we went to Fuddrucker's last night. A-W-E-S-O-M-E of course. Where else can I go where I can use cheddar cheese by the cup and put as many pickels as I like on my burger? I only get the 1/3 lb burger, but someday I might graduate to the 1/2, 2/3, or 1 lb. For now, I like to fit into my clothes so I'll wait.

The other day, I went to McDonald's and asked for a 6PC McNugget meal. She asked me what toy I wanted, Boy or Girl. I said..."huh? None, please, just me." She told me it had to be a Happy Meal. Well, it was still cheaper than the last 6PC meal I got, so I just shut up and ate it. I'm only 28, which is not too old for toys, anyway.


My folks are coming down TOMORROW! I can hardly contain my excitement. It's going to be so much fun, even if it continues to rain like it is today. Please pray for their safe travel! I have important things to go do now (hush hush) to get ready for the invasion.