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!

My dreams have come true. Pinch me.

HAPPY DAY! GUESS WHAT I GOT!! I'll give you a hint... (It rhymes with "Eye Foam"). I have in my hands the most bestest gadget in the world...an iPhone!!

Geek fodder

I had been dreaming of this day since I saw the demonstration on Youtube in early 2007. My best friends know that I have been whining about getting one of these forever and some thought I'd never actually do it. Well, "ha", good sir. Match, set, and point.

If you're not familiar with the iPhone, it's basically a small touch screen phone that features Internet access, music, photos/videos, and runs programs that seems to do all sorts of things. It's not cheap, but the new 3G model included a big price cut, which finally made it attractive to normal working class folks like us.

Demon Spawn

If you know me well, you know that I have despised my last phone (White LG Chocolate) almost since the day I bought it, but I hung in there, because my 2 year contract was renewed and Verizon didn't have many phones that were better. For Christmas this year, Erin and I bought eachother the phones and made the switch to AT&T (not without some trepidation, of course, since we have been happy Verizon customers for 10 years). In case you're wondering, Christmas came early for us this year because you can't walk out of the store without signing up for service and we were very concerned about the phones becoming sold out near Christmas. Plus, we needed to get 864 area code numbers soon because Erin was getting alot of calls about her jobs.

What I hated so much about my old phone, were things like: It took 4 or 5 button presses to get the phone unlocked, turn the volume up, find the music player. The controls were so sensitive, that I would constantly make accidental phone calls when I was just trying to change settings. Sometimes, I would press the buttons, but they wouldn't respond immediately and the phone would go crazy and start moving up and down the screen forever. It was an ok camera phone, but loading songs and pictures from the memory card took an eon. Everything about it was slow and clunky. It did nothing well. To make matters worse, people unfamiliar with current phones would ask me "Is that an iPhone?" Ouch! "No," I'd say, "I wish it was..." The best things about it was that is was very small and simple to flip on and off with its slidiness. It was a reliable phone and had good battery life. RIP Chocolate, Jan 2007-November 2008.

I waited patiently for Verizon to come out with a comparable snazzy phone, and they came close with a few zingers, including the newest Blackberry Storm. The main problem with VZW phones is that their data plans are way more expensive and and phones often don't have WiFi functionality. And we told them all that when we politely canceled out service.


Erin and I have spent a lot of time on our phones, loading up applications, surfing the web, and imprting music, photos, and contacts.


Here's the first picture I took from my phone:

The salesperson's name was Ashley and if you are shopping for an AT&T phone in the Greenville area, please visit her. She was tremendously helpful and even stayed 30 minutes late on a Saturday night to help us get setup with our sponatenous and exciting purchase. As you can see from the picture, you can expect awesome blog photos from this point forward!

So far, I have found almost nothing I don't like about the phone or the service. (Lack of video recording, MMS, and cut & paste.) The service strength is great in our area and the 3G service is awesome. If you are even thinking about picking one up, do it now, because you will instantly regret not having it earlier. :) If anyone is interested in a VZW Moto RAZR V3M or White LG Chocolate (Lord have mercy on your soul) please let me know and I will make you a deal, because probably, everyone else I know has a Verizon phone.....

If you think I have become some sort of Apple Phanboi....maybe.

'Blue-stater' out of his element

Well, I've been waiting for this day for 4 years! Election day! We were so excited down here to vote, but were a little worried about the high voter turnout (and high Republican turnout) but we lifted our chin up and braved the crowds. It really wasn't that bad, but thought ya'll might like to see my voting experience was like!

I got up bright and early on Tuesday. The polls opened at 7:00, and I got there right at 7:00. Our precinct was just around the corner from our neighborhood (Erin walked) but it was on my drive to work. I walked over the hill to see the line. Uh-oh.

Ok, now I'm in line. It seems to be moving pretty quickly, though. I worked on my email while I waited.

There was a nice booth with some warm beverages and such to help. I waited until I reached the tent in line, though, because I felt awkward leaving the line and coming back.

Finally I reached the building an hour later. Wait, does the line snake around inside the building?? Well, shoot.

Yep, but at least it was warm!

Finally! I got to use a fancy electronic voting machine for the first time. Even though I can find my way around electronic devices in the dark, I did ask for a little help just to make sure my vote was counted. Even though my vote didn't technically "count", I did my part to make my voice heard. The count in SC was closer than I expected (like 52% Mccain to 47% Obama or something) but in the end my candidate won, by a large margin. That was so exciting to watch. We truly believe that Barack was the better choice, for a fresh new face with a good head on his shoulders. Now, I just have to keep clear of all the Limbaugh listeners down here that are still trying to blame all of our problems on Bill Clinton and Barack Obama!

My boss took our Greenville team out for dinner to celebrate meetng our quarterly contract obligations. I suggested Smoke on the Water, which is a local fancy barbeque place.

The inside was beautiful, of course, restored from an old building in the West End.

Look at those cute little shakers!

They had a nice selection of BQ sauces. They were all very runny, though, so I can't say that I liked them. (I mean, I can technically speak "that I liked them" but I would be lying)

Free cornbread. More please!

I had a chicken sandwich. It was pretty good. Not really worth $13, but it was okay.

The dessert was awesome, though. I had chocolate mousse pie. OMG it was so good. I made myself sick though, I couldn't even finish it!

We have a new ATS site at the Fountain Inn CAT engine plant. Even though I haven't done the job for over two years, they asked me to train the new guy on the deployment processes. The plant is less than 10 minutes from my house (I don't even have to get on the expressway!) so I was happy to work so close to home. To be truthful, I once really wanted this job, but I'm glad I took the job at CoG instead. The area that Mike will be working in is very noisy dirty, smelly, and slippery. I'll take my clean, quiet, city hall anyday!

Erin and I attended a fall festival at Messiah Lutheran. It was mostly for kids and families, but we wanted to show ourselves and meet some new faces. The sign on the door says it all!

There was a balloon guy making balloon animals (I was too shy to get one made). There were also other games and a live praise band.

Here is an example of a balloon animal. It's a bumblebee!

The best part of the night was the food. It was BBQ pulled pork and other dishes. (We brought Erin's famous pasta salad in the lower right hand corner of my plate.

I stumbled upon a secret treasure the other day....another Shell Station! This one is just a couple blocks north of the police station. I never had driven up that far, so I never saw it before. I am so excited! It is tons closer than the one I normally use in the 'hood.

Not only is the station cleaner and more convenient, it actually prints receipts when you ask it to. Now, I'm a happy guy.

It's been a beautiful fall so far, with warm temperatures and bold colors. Erin and I went to the mountains a couple weeks ago, so I will try and post some of the more interesting pictures. Maybe next year, I'll take a nice long motorcycle ride up there (I can only hope!). Erin has been super busy with her new job at Messiah, but she is really enjoying. I have been busy also, with a lot of projects and things to fix at my job. Hope the month of November is treating ya'll well, and to all of you GOP folks, sorry about Tuesday. Peace!

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.

***

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!