A (Cold) Trip Down Memory Lane

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Erin and I are settling back into home after a nice long trip back to Central Illinois. We had the opportunity to spend time with friends and family (and a lot of time with eachother). Sit back and enjoy the (heavily edited) collection of pictures and memories from our trip.

The entire 750 mile trip takes about 12 hours. We switched driving back and forth to keep things interesting. About an hour into the trip, we are climbing and twisting through the North Carolina mountains. The traffic is light and the weather clear.
At one point, in the middle of nowhere, we went under a bridge with Santa and Mrs. Clause all dressed up, waving at traffic. It was a wonderful Christmas Morning touch. God bless them for taking the time to do that! This is definitely the best part of the drive to and from Greenville.

At about 4:00 PM, we started getting into Illinois. It is a stark contrast to what we've been getting used to down South. The temperature was about 40 degrees lower than when we left Greenville. And the flat landscape brought back some memories!

We finally showed up at my folks' place for a nice Christmas dinner. Sam also got some well deserved affection! He was such a good boy in the car: hardly a sound on the entire trip.


Erin and I. Doesn't she look fabulous?!

I took a few moments to see my parent's motorcycles. Cole jumped on the back for a quick photo-op.


When did THIS happen? Pepsi doesn't look like Pepsi anymore. What do ya'll think about the new design? I think it looks too feminine. I won't drink girly soda.



My sister took me to Pizza Ranch for a belated birthday gift. I haven't found anyplace like it back in SC.


Hanging out with my nephews was fun, too. This is Lucas, Michelle's youngest. We're very proud.

Sam didn't get passed by for Christmas, either. He got some new snazzy fashion accessories...

And some PediPaws since he HATES getting his nails trimmed. Awesome!


Now I can take BWW home with me, since I can't get my favorite sauces anymore.

Of course, I got some chocolate. Actually, it's more like my family wants to kill me. I already put the bulk of it in the freezer so won't feel the obligation to eat it all right now.

For years, I have been talking to Erin about how sad I am that I don't get fun toys on Christmas. Well this year, I finally got some Legos and Erin got a new version of her favorite Cabbage Patch doll. There's nothing wrong with playing with toys at our age!
For church, we went to our old stomping grounds at Northwest United Methodist Church. They just installed a new sign on War Memorial Drive. Can you tell that the address numbers are upside down?

The church was beautifully decorated.

Here's Michelle and Daryl catching their breaths.

What's Sunday without a trip to Quizno's?

A few days after we arrived in IL, we went down to Springfield to see Erin's family.

More festivities.

What's better than Pictionary with family and friends?

Answer: Margaritas and Pictionary with family and friends.

Sam had the opportunity to socialize with Alan's Rhodesians. Yep, they could tear our poor dog to pieces.

The top priority, foodwise, was going to Panda for some orange chicken. OMG I miss it so much.

After lunch, we went to St. John Lutheran Church to see some of Erin's past coworkers.

Ya gotta love this sanctuary! Gorgeous!

While she was there, Erin got some organ practicing in.

They have a nice pipe organ there.

I got a little curious and went up into the organ loft to get a close up view.

Have you ever seen a pipe organ close-up? It's pretty interesting. Lots of different sizes, shapes, and types of pipes make all of those different sounds.

Back in Peoria, I went out with my good friend Jon.

I got some Wild boneless wings, but in all honestly, they are not hot enough for me anymore. Looks like I will have to get the hottest sauce next time.

After dinner, we went back to his place to watch Hellboy II. Pretty good flick! By that time, the temp had dropped, the snow started flurrying, and the wind bit into your skin. It was about that time that I really started to miss Greenville.
Our families were wonderful, providing us with nice places to sleep. It was nice to sleep and relax and think about nothing else while on vacation. This was my first real vacation since August 07. Moving doesn't count, cause I didn't get a lot of rest between the home closings, packing, and traveling.


Mom, Sam, and I braved a cold day to go for a nice long walk. Sam loves walks but doesn't get enough of them back home.

Here's Mom! It was a windy 25 degrees, so you can't really see much of her.

This is where I grew up...a nice quiet country road. Great for walking, running, bicycling, and learning how to ride a motorcycle!

Something really special about Christmas this year was that our whole family was together...and that is quite a feat for me and Chel living so far away.

We had a great time, though and are happy to be home again. I am slowly warming to the idea of returning to work. Not really excited, but it has been a while! I am also taking the opportunity to lose some weight this month, so you'll probably hear me talk a little about that in my blog. I hope you have a wonderful New Year! See you back here soon, for another exciting adventure.

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.