Where has the time gone? No seriously, I lost it somewhere. Help me look.

This is a very special edition of Lost in Greenville! In February 2008, I packed my belongings and migrated down to South Carolina. Can you believe it's been 2 years already? Erin and I have truly enjoyed our time in the Upstate and I thought it would be appropriate to mark the occasion with a long overdue blog update. The last time I talked to you, we had just gotten home from our visit in Illinois. A lot has happened since then!

The folks at ALLIANCE revealed the new corps logo, which kinda reminds me of a sail boat. It's still cool, though! I have been super busy with the corps since our open house. We've had several more rehearsals and I've met a lot of new people. We can now play the entire show and I have to tell you: it's awesome! I've also taken on some recruiting responsibilities. In just a few months, we'll be on the field, competing for the first time and I can't wait!

 

Erin and I went to another organ concert at Furman. It rocked, of course. There's something about that organ that rumbles my chest and fills my heart and it leaves me wanting more.

  

The Hartness organ is the focal point of the sanctuary. They didn't even bother hiding it.

  

At work, I decided to shift my desk around so that my back wasn't facing the entrance. One co-worker had creepily snuck up on me and warned me about that, so I moved everything for safety sake.

  

Oh, and I finally upgraded my old desk phone. Welcome to 2005, Josh!

  

I won a contest at work and ended up with a shiny new iPod Nano! It's a truly remarkable little device, but I don't think I have room for it in my Apple world...so if anyone is interested, let me know!

  

We've been seeing some nasty weather lately. Not enough to keep me home from work. Dang. Lots of ice and snow, though! On this Sunday morning, I spent a half an hour de-icing my car (some places had over an inch!) just so that I could crack open my door and get her warmed up. Let's just say that I was late. My choir director cut me some slack, though.

  

  

On one particular Friday night, we had a pretty good snow storm. Of course, everyone's freaking out. Not me, I went to the gym. Weenies.

  

We got a beautiful 4 or 5 inches. It melted the next day, but it was pretty to look at!

  

  

Speaking of beautiful, my car turned over 91,000 miles last week. I caught a special moment when I hit 88,888. That number only comes once, you know! Next will be 888,888 miles! After another season driving to ALLIANCE rehearsals.

  

My car is so special. When I consider that after nearly 7 years, I still stare at it as I walk away, that tells me that I am meant to keep it! I'm sure y'all have had cars like that, where you can't picture yourself in something different.

  

When we were at Erin's Dad's house, we had some nice pictures taken of the family. Here's the most recent picture of me and my wife.

  

When Jimmy Johns closed up in downtown Greenville, I was crushed. A part of me died that day. I learned recently that a new location was opening up near the mall, I had to go see for myself! It's not opening for another month or so, but it's definitely a JJ's! AND it's even closer to my house than before, so WIN-freakin-WIN.

  

We got some sweet shirts for CQ's competition (which is next Friday, by the way!). After this picture was taken, we got our logo put on the front and our name stitched on the back.

  

For Christmas, I got another Lego set, but I hadn't yet put it together.

  

Thanks to hours of Olympics coverage, I spent several nights watching skating, sledding, and skiing while putting together my truck! With my old age, it took me a little longer, but I enjoyed it!

  

Has anyone seet the original GOOGLE search postcard? I guess my grandparents had to fill this out and mail it in to get their answers. Boy, we have it so easy now.

  

After ALLIANCE camp one day, I made my friends go to Jimmy Johns in Norcross. It was their first time, but I created several new JJ fans!

  

As part of our fundraising, we got to go work in a comic book warehouse.

  

Basically, we were organizing thousands of comic books onto bookshelves for processing. The work combines some of my favorite things: books and sorting!

  

As a fan of chicken wings, I was excited to try a new place. There is a wing chain call Taco Mac (which isn't what you think it would be).

  

The inside is what would happen if Applebees and Buffalo Wild Wings made a baby.

  

  

Chips and queso dip and Phillip's thumb.

  

Here are the wings. The verdict? I was very disappointed. With a sauce named "Death", you would think it would be hot! I tried their hottest sauces, but I didn't even break a sweat! I guess I'll have to wait until BWW opens in Greenville to get my hot wings fix. Of course, I still have to try Quaker Steak & Lube...

  

Well, that's all I have for now! Our weather is finally clearing up; today reached 60 degrees and I got a lot accomplished outside. In 6 days, my quarter will be taking stage in Greenville for out first competition. Look us up on Facebook, "Carolina Quadraphonic" for updates. Plus, ALLIANCE has another camp the next weekend. Easter is coming up, soon, also. Man, things are going to be crazy! I'll do my best to keep everyone up to date. Have a great month of March! Savor every moment, because it will be gone before you know it.

Illinois, what did we ever do to you!?!?!

Alright, now that the Christmas season has wrapped up, I've got a lot to share with you! Erin and I had a wonderful Christmas at home this year; the first we've had without family so it was a quiet day around our house. A few days after Christmas, we packed up the car and drover up to Central Illinois to catch up on the family time with multiple families. Here's what we did!

I snapped this first picture as I was playing around with some slow shutter speeds on my camera. This is my favorite part of Christmas: the glow of the lights on the tree. This pic successfully captures that glow the way I see it.

We had an nontraditional Christmas dinner: homemade pizza. It was so good!

 

This is a shot from Christmas Eve service. I was in the back with the brass ensemble, but I managed to snap a picture during the candlelit portion. 

 

We're on the road! We encountered some awful weather on the way back to Illinois, so we pulled off the highway to grab some coffee. I couldn't believe my eyes when we discovered a Starbuck's/Jimmy Johns! I wish we had these at home. Heck, I wish we had Jimmy Johns at home; ours is now closed down :(

 

On the first day up North, we went to Qdoba for lunch. I was curious to compare it to Moe's. 

 

I had a steak burrito, similar to a Joey Bag of Donuts. I didn't like it nearly as well, it was very bland and full of white rice. They didn't have any good hot sauces, either. Erin liked hers a lot because the ingredients seemed to taste fresher. 

 

This is the view back at my old stomping grounds. You can't see how cold it was at this point, but suffice it to say, I could only go out and snap a few pictures before my hands started to sting and the poor camera would get too cold. 

 

I snapped a picture one morning to demonstrate how cold it was. We felt like Illinois was punishing us for something. It was miserable!

 Here's Sam and Komen, my Mom's Yorki-Poo puppy. Poor Sam was constantly being bugged by the little guy. It got to the point where we just let Sam fight him off to see if Komen would get the point. You can see both of them wearing their new Snuggies.

 

 Of course, when Sam is at any of the grandparents houses, he is treated like royalty.

 

 Sam dressed up for the Christmas party in a tie. It was very nice of him!

 

While we were in Peoria, we went to a service at our old Church, Northwest United Methodist. 

 

Here's Keri, leading the worship. 

 

My beautiful mother looking at me with that face "Are you done taking pictures, yet?"

 

Here's a nice family pic with my parents and Erin. 

 

Avanti's was a must-have while in P-Town. 

 

Erin is displaying a new village piece to add to our Christmas Village. Can't wait to set this up next year!

 

Erin wanted to demonstrate how much easier the Snuggie makes daily tasks, such as talking on the telephone...

 

...or reading a book. Suddenly, these are much more fun!

 

Here's mom and Komen, watching my dad out the window. 

 

Here's dad plowing the snow on his four wheeler. When I was a kid, there was a lot of hard labor to clear the driveway. It was not fun at all....it is a big driveway!

 

I snapped this pic of our little Civic while in Springfield. You would not believe how much stuff we crammed into that car!

 

Erin and I went to see Avatar in 3D. Not only was the movie incredible, but she looks so good in her 3D glasses!

 

We brought the Wii with us and we taught Erin's grandparents some new games. 

 

Buffalo Wild Wings was another must-eat. I'm so pumped that Greenville is getting a BWW this summer!

 

My buddy Jon and I went out for pizza at Godfather's. We completely pigged out, of course. 

 

On our way back to SC, we stopped at Erin's favorite restaurant, Lynn's Paradise Cafe, in Louisville, KY. 

 

It's bold, eccentric, and a local treasure. Here's the gift shop:

 

Here's Erin in the dining area. There are funny lamps, nick nacks, etc. 

 

I had a Cheeseburger, it was delicous! Erin enjoys the black bean chili, chips, with mango salsa.

 

I also tasted a chocolate shake. The boot mug made it even tastier!

 

Erin and I had a great time on the trip, but realized again, that we really really like living in South Carolina. Sure, we miss our family, friends, and favorite restaurants, but at least we don't have to worry about constant frostbite or snow down here.

Just to update you on everything else that is happening in my life: Work is still going well down the road, it's a laid back job that suits my personality well. Last weekend's ALLIANCE camp was canceled due to bad weather in Atlanta, but the next one is scheduled for next weekend. I'm so excited to start marching again! Also, CQ, my quartet, will be competing in two months, so we are hard at work perfecting our contest pieces. The weather has warmed up a little, so I plan on spending some more time on the motorcycle  this week. I'm so lucky that I have the opportunity to ride year round. So far, we've stayed healthy and happy during the flu season, so I'll cross my fingers for continued health. I've been on a weightloss routine this month; we're not eating out, I'm hitting the gym everyday, etc. That Christmas trip menu, if you couldn't tell, really did a number to my waist. I'm happy to report that the tide has turned and in the next month or two, I hope to drop about 10 more pounds. We'll see! I hope you enjoyed my pictures, and you can count on some more next time. Thanks for reading, stay warm out there!