Thanksgiving in Greenville, Second Edition!

Hello everyone out in radio land! Welcome back to the coolest blog in my subdivision. I've been busy-busy gathering up some cool pictures and stories to share over the last few weeks. There's been a lot going on and I finally have some time and motivation to sit down and finish this post. (Thank goodness for long Thanksgiving weekends!) We got the Christmas decorations out on Friday and are pleased to announe that the new house has been Christmas-tised for for the first time. Erin found Sam's Christmas collar, and in spite of my protests, made him wear it. For his dignity, I insisted that it be removed after the photo was taken. Good sport.

I had to change up my outdoor decorations this year; all of our white lights are in the bushes and in the garland. That garland used to be hung in our old livingroom, but I'm NOT putting all of those holes in the walls again, so I decided to hang it all outside this year.

Erin's Christmas village has really grown, it's got a fancy new home near the kitchen counter. I rigged up a hidden switch that turns it all on and off like that! *click* 

We had an interesting Thanksgiving this year! It was the first time that we either weren't in IL with family or had family visiting, so we decided to host a dinner at church for others who also may need some company. There were about 10 people there and we cooked a 20lb turkey, plus everyone brought the other traditional components of a good Thanksgiving meal. Needless to say, we had a good time and had more than enough to eat.

I've had the opportunity to get out on the motorcycle this fall and grab some good shots with my new camera. I like the following so much, I'm thinking about making it part of a custom banner for my blog. This is Falls Park around November 1st.

A couple weeks ago, I took the fizzer up to Caesar's Head and rode up the mountain for the first time. It was a great learning experience for me, and I also had the opportunity to snap some beautiful pics along the way.

At the top, I pulled into the park and took some time to enjoy the views of Table Rock and the foothills.

It was a beautiful day, sunny about 65 degrees.

This would be a great view to wake up to every morning!

The sky was very hazy (it was nearing sunset, too) but you can see why I like to come up here so much!

 I haven't been on the motorcycle as much this past week because I've been playing on my new Wii! My parents bought us a Wii as an early Christmas gift and I'm so glad they did. It's so much fun. It might not be cutting edge visually, but the ability to get so involved in the gameplay is beyond fun for a couple of video game newbs like us. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Here's Erin, configuring her Mii. It's funny to see our characters on screen look so accurate.

I saw this outside the mall one day; It made me want to snap a picture and submit it to thereifixedit.com...

 

Last month, Erin and I and a couple friends from church attended a special presentation on piano history at the local Steinway dealer in Spartanburg. It was neat for me, because I wanted to learn more about the topic. Erin probably learned more about this stuff in college than I did, being I was a computer-major nerd and not a music-major geek.

There were at least 15 antique pianos on display, some of which were 200 years old. This was my favorite:

We were treated to a ragtime concert after the presentation. I never would have considered ragtime to be my favorite genre, but after hearing it live for the first time in my life, I have to say I really enjoyed it.

I did some major upgrades for my home computers recently. I maxed out the processor in my Dell Dimension 9150 (Pentium D, 960) I then took my Pentium D 830 and installed in my HTPC. Since the newer chip was hotter that the old celeron that powered our HTPC, I swapped out the heatsinks. Here, you can see the stock intel cooler, compared to the new Scypthe Scepter, which is not only much better, but quieter too.  

To help with the airflow in the cabinet, I sealed off the HTPC compartments and installed a couple USB powered fans to draw cool air through the cabinet. So far, it has worked like a charm!!

While doing some shoe shopping in the mall, I spotted these winners. I don't care how much better they may make my workout, I'd rather kill myself.

A friend of mine from work, who is also a Peoria native, ordered some Kitchen Cooked potato chips online and thoughtfully gave me a bag. It was a nice taste of home. Thanks!

Erin and i tried a new pizza place a couple weeks ago. This is a newer place in Simpsonville: Tony's. Not to be confused with Anthony's, which I reviewed last year and was not impressed with.

Their menu system was original...it was scrawled on the wall!

I ordered some cheese sticks and you can imagine my surprise when they brought out something that resembles a friggin' pizza! I should have just ordered these instead of a pizza. They were excellent, though.

The pizza was very good, I have to say. I liked everything about it! It's not as tasty as Bellacino's, but it comes in a close 2nd! We definitely will come back in the future.

After dinner, we stopped over at the Downtown Coffe shop in Mauldin and enjoyed some live folk music.

Last week, I tried a new Chinese restaurant in Mauldin, called.... China. Wow, original name! The interior looked like...spoiler alert.....like every other Chinese restaurant you've EVER BEEN TO IN YOUR LIFE.

Chinese restaurants get a dual tiered review: crab rangoons and General Tso's chicken. Let's try the rangoons first. They were really good!

The General Tso's chicken was pretty good, but not good enough to have again. A good G.T.C. plate has crispy chicken, some spice, and a sweet, sticky glaze. This, like Lin Garden, was kind of cold, soggy, and definitely not spicy. And what's with the giant onions? It was the first time I'd seen it served that way, so I never thought to ask for the omission of the onions! My search for the perfect Chinese place continues!

Just to give you an idea of what else is going on in my life: The first 2010 Alliance Drum & Bugle Corps practice is next weekend! We hope to see a full corps there, and we'll get more information about the 2010 show, uniforms, and more. I have my audition materials ready and I'm plumped. Not only am I excited, but I've gained a little weight since DCA finals, hence the plumped part.  With any luck, I won't be the oldest member of the hornline. When most of the instructional stuff is younger than me, that might be a challenge. The real challenge is keeping my body in corps shape... I'll do better this year, I promise. Just no more chocolate truffles, Erin, organic or not!!

My quartet is still singing, and we've been hard at work for contest, which is coming up in Greenville in March. I'm singing the lead part now, which I do enjoy more than Tenor. Erin and I are coming back to Illinois a couple days after Christmas, so look out for us. We'll have some time to sit down with friends and family and share some more of our adventures. Hope you enjoyed my pictures, here's wishing you a terrific Holiday...er... CHRISTMAS season!!! 

Tis the season for some bloggin'!

Well, Christmas greetings and seasons tiding and holiday wishes and all that to all ya'll out there. We're quickly approaching the best holiday of the year, Christmas! Welcome to a special edition of Lost in Greenville. Since every edition is special, just saying it means nothing. In fact, it's free, so there's your gift. Merry Christmas. The tree has only been up in our household for a week or so and it's the only decoration. I don't have time or energy to mess with that stuff this year, especially since we'll have to redesign our lights and other docarations to suit the new house. Any other year, I am more than happy to put it all up and bask in the warm glow of pretty lights and candles. With our jobs being so crazy lately, and the fact that we're travelling at Christmas, we didn't see a good reason to worry about all of it. And the best part is that there's less to take down and the even bestest part is that we have a nice attic in which to store it all this year.

Erin and I went to my company Christmas party last weekend and had a great time. It was at the Marriott and FREE so of course I went!

Here's my bride. She looked fantastic.


There was a portable dancefloor complete with the annoying dj that makes you do things you don't want to do. The music was pretty good, but I'm not much of a dancer. Neither was Dennis, so we sat and played with our phones instead of dancing. He just got the G1 so it was worth it!


The food was out of this world. The ONLY thing I didn't like was that the filet was way undercooked and I actually had to kill the cow myself due to the annoying mooing sounds. Plus I got free Corona Light FTW.

Just when I thought I was full, they brought out the chocolate fudge cake. Oh man, it was the best slice I ever had.

I recently sang at a swanky mountain golf club/development up north of Traveller's Rest. It's called Cliffs Valley, because (wait for it) it's in a valley. There's another Cliffs development nearby that's on top of the mountain, but this is for the poorer rich folks who can only afford a valley. They mostly play golf all day. Not my bag.

The first thing I saw when I got there was this gorgeous gingerbread house. Every part of that is edible. (I hope they don't miss the part I ate. Can you tell from this picture which one that was?)

Okay, good. Just kidding. That thing is probably worth more than my actual real non-candy house and probably built better, too. Here's the outside of the clubhouse:

You can see a few houses on the hills there.

It's one of those places that you want to come back to. Take the gigantic men's bathroom for example. Those tissues there, for instance, are made from recycled $100 bills.

Here's me in my chorus getup. I've only worn that tuxedo like twice in the last 7 years. It barely fits and it's the only double breasted jacket in the entire chorus, but I don't care. I'm not buying a new one while I have one that works fine!

The crowd was a polite bunch, mostly in their fifties, sipping on wine and enjoying the music from us commoners (one of our group actually lives there). The women all jumped straight out of a Coldwater Creek catalog. The only kids present were the staffmembers. They wouldn't even let us eat the food. It was froo-froo stuff, so I'm not terribly upset. I'll go to Dunkin' instead and get a coolata and sour cream donut. mmmmmmmmmmmm The coolata is tempting, but don't do it. You can take more than one sip per half hour to a severe brain freeze probability. The donut, you can eat as fast as you want. FACT:* The faster you eat it, the less goes to your hips.

*not really

Erin and I went to "The Bee" in honor of our friend Dennis. He likes to wait tables on weekends and the food sounded yummy, so we went. He works at the one out in Greenville. We didn't go to that one. I see him enough already.

I was really impressed with the trio platter. I added fries, but who wouldn't? The hot chicken (barely spicy) shrimp, mini cheeseburgers, fries were all excellent. We have a gift card now, so we're going back tonight.

One of the reasons I have been so busy lately is that I'm working on a big project at the city, where we're converting all of the users and computers to a Windows domain and Microsoft Outlook. Screw Novell Groupwise (Poopwise). The first few weeks were rocky, due to 20 hour days and some other issues, but we are back on track, and I am on a team dedicated to the project alone. I'm even working a later shift, so I can sleep in and still not get my excercise. (but skip a lunch and dinner break) We sit at each computer and do 1-2 hours worth of work. Sometimes I get lucky and can do two from one seat or convert them on my computer via remote desktop.

On one extremely late night of work, Dennis and I went to Steak 'n Shake. Just for your information, this is what a steakburger platter and malt look like when it's 2:00 in the morning and you're the only customer in the restaurant. Ever hear the commercial? "Steak 'n Shake tsssssssssss Famous for steakburgers, but evidently not in South Carolina, since there's literally only one in the entire state."

Hope you enjoyed our adventure. Next time, I will probably have some pictures of Christmas and our trip up to Peoria. If you didn't know we were coming, consider this your warning. Oh, and another warning: If you're going to go see The Day the Earth Stood Still, wait and watch it on DVD. It's not bad, just not worth the $10 ticket. You're welcome.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Welcome to our Thanksgiving extravaganza: A smorgasbord of food and pictures from our big weekend. Erin's mom and grandparents made the journey from central Illinois to spend a few days with us, so now, we've seen most of our family from the Heart of Illinois. Let's meet the stars of adventure. Here we have Erin's Mom, Grandma, and Blinky McBlink, herself.

This is Erin's Grandpa. This was a special trip for them as well, because her grandparents lived in Greenville about 50 years ago, when he was stationed at Donaldson Air Force Base. Things must have changed considerably, because everything was quite different.

And our final star of the show is Dennis, but he does not like to be photographed. You have to be sneaky with him, because if you ask for a picture, this is what you receive:

On Thanksgiving day, Erin and I made a non-traditional, yet traditional, dinner, including: Turkey burgers, Sweet Potato fries (With marshmallow), corn, cranberry cocktails and pumpkin muffins. In other words, it had all of the important elements. It was awesome!!

For entertainment, Dennis brought his Wii. We played bowling, golf, tennis...the whole lot.

The next day, we had a really traditional meal. Erin cooked all of it from scratch. I made myself useful by walking to get donuts for breakfast!

It, too, was awesome. Feel free to come over and help yourself to some leftovers.

After dinner, we took the folks downtown to Greenville. Here's Erin taking a short break.

Downtown was crowded, due to the Festival of Trees that was going on. Falls Park was no exception. The river was still pretty low, but I was impressed with how well my new phone pics came out.

We even saw a snow machine at Piazza Bergamo.

A quick trip inside Mast General store made us feel all cozy inside. (It was 65 and sunny, but hey, it's Christmastime!)

I needed a pickmeup, so we went to Liquid Highway for a coffee treat. I forgot how big these things were. Next time, I'll get the smaller size, I swear!

There was a band and singalongs. Then a big countdown to light up downtown Greenville.

5! 4! 3! 2! 1! ......."that was it?" Most of Main Street is lit up year round, so the few strands they turned on wasn't quite was I was expecting.

Inside the Hyatt, there are dozens of trees setup with different sponsors' ornaments.

On their last day here, we all went out for breakfast. We decided to try a place near our house.

It was a cafeteria style restaurant, with tons of things on the menu.

Here we are, waiting for our food.

I asked for milk, not the cream off the top! Oh well, someone has to drink this whole milk. Ugh.

Here's my breakfast, it was yummy good. It's no Waffle House, but at least there was a lot more seating.

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! We ate enough for sure. The house is quiet once again, and we are in no hurry to get the Christmas decorations up (man, am I a grinch or what?!). I'm afraid I won't be home much to enjoy them anyway. In a little over 3 weeks, we'll be driving back to Illinoise to see everyone for Christmas. Can't wait!