Putting a Personal Swing into the Holidays.

When Spouse and I were married, the favors we gave to our guests was a 2-CD set: one was a mix of romantic/mushy songs and the other was a mix of holiday tunes.

Since that year, I've carried on the tradition of just a CD mix of holiday tunes, and gift it to family and friends. While the CDs for our wedding were a mix of his music and mine, my general rule for the holiday mix I do annually, is I can only use "my" holiday music. I've relaxed that a bit, but 92% of the tracks are guaranteed to be just mine....I may whork a little bit (he's got some really choice tunes). 

(The CD is really a present from both of us, as I receive at least 6 "new"* holiday CDs every year from Spouse, so while it may be classified as "mine", he had a hand in a lot of what I have, and use.)

The CD comes in really handy. 

A Little Holiday Music.

One thing I've learned over my time with Spouse is that there is a $hit-ton of holiday music out there. He loves this area of music more than is possible to relate to you using human language. 

With songs ranging from the sacred to the profane, from the morose to absurd, from traditional to extreme - not to mention every single genre you can think of - between the two of us, we have at least a little bit of all types. It's pretty amazing what you can find, when you start looking. 

When people ask what my favorite holiday tune is, I have to request a genre, because I have favorites in every area. 

Novelty tune: "I Want A Hippopatamus for Christmas". I love this song so much, that one year, Spouse found a concrete hippo and bought it for me for the holiday. I named her Gayla Peevey after the young lady that sings the original song. 

This is my Gayla Peevey. 

Holy Epic Weekend, Batman.

Geezy pete: I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. 

Here are the highlights:
1. Friday night: Columbus Blue Jackets game with our BFFs. Our boys lost but in a shootout so we'll kindly take the one point, thankyouverymuch.
2. Saturday afternoon: Craftin' Outlaws at Vet's Memorial and post-shopping nosh at Dirty Frank's. 
3. Saturday night: Dinner at Martini's Modern Italian and Justin Timberlake concert at Nationwide Arena. 
4. Sunday morning: Brunch at Starliner Diner. 
5. Sunday late afternoon: 40th birthday party for Bratty Sister at Casa Nueva, in Athens, OH.

Add in house-guests! And baking! And driving through the horrendous storms Sunday night that swept through the Middle West! (Man, did we luck out around here, comparatively speaking!)

SO.MUCH.FUN. Yet. OY. 

Ohio Adventures: the Columbus Food Truck and Cart Festival

Week #4: Columbus Food Truck and Cart Festival. Initially, we didn't think we'd be going as we had out-of-town guests coming in, they have wee ones and thought they might like to do something else. But then they saw info on it and asked if we wouldn't mind going with them. You had me at doughnut food cart.

Here's my overall impression of this fest: standing in line. 

• We arrived about 4:30 p.m. and left around 7:00 p.m. and most of what we did was stand in line. 
• We stood in line to get beer tickets. 
• We stood in line to get beer (although no line for water - inexplicable. It was hot.)
• We stood in line to get gluten-free mini donuts from Lily's Donuts - which were super yummy and worth it. 
• We stood in line to get tots and fruit shake from Street Thyme - shakes were delicious, tots were ok (greasy). 
• We stood in line to get a hot dog from The Good Frank - well, Spouse did and said it was ok. 
• Our family stood in line to get tasty sammiches from Mai Chau. They really liked the Banh Mi sandwich and it.was.HUGE.
• They also stood in line to get tasty grub from El Taco Petan. Also really enjoyed it and filling to boot.

We did walk all the way around and in-between, did some shopping (got an awesome Dias de los Muertos guitar pick bracelet from What The Rock?! and face soap & serum/moisturizer from Glenn Ave. Soap Company) and generally chillaxed. But there was just a little too much standing in line for me. 

Here are my (unrequested) suggestions:

• Serve only tastes of the food offerings, so you can serve more items quickly and so this allows the festival attendees to be able to try more things. 
• Our cousin that had the Bahn Mi sandwich was stuffed, but had wanted to try other items. 
• I didn't finish my tots because by then I'd had most of one serving of the mini doughtnuts (came 13 to a bag), so tots on top of that was very filling. And they were a bit greasy. Other than water, that's all I had room for in mah belleh.
• Turn the volume down on the music. I know all of the generators and stuff are loud so maybe they think they needed to amp up the tunes, but there are a LOT of people. And we want to talk to our people about what we're eating, and what we're seeing and how hot it is and how long these lines are. I really am interested in the bands and listening to the music, but I also like to hear myself think.
• More restrooms.
• Move the kids' stuff to the SE corner, instead of where it was. This is a really kid friendly area but not everyone has kids or wants to try and maneuver through the long lines of kiddos and parents waiting for the bouncy stuff. 

We did enjoy ourselves, but this was my least favorite festival of our inadvertent four-week festival jaunt. I did enjoy the fact that it was so focused on local, home-grown businesses and resources. It was awesome to have tents there for BMI Federal Credit Union (caveat: my credit union since 1998), Local Matters, Music Loves Ohio, Ohio Art League, etc. And the crafter alley vendors were great too (since I purchased items). But lines were too long, food too filling and full-sized portions and music a wee bit loud for my enjoyment. 

Joe Bob says, one thumb up (instead of two). 

To review, here was my personal enjoyment level, in order, for the four fests we attended:
1. Dublin Irish Festival. Der. 
2. Akron Blues and Brews Festival.
3. Columbus Wine Festival. 
4. Columbus Food Truck and Cart Festival.

Ohio Adventures: the Dublin Irish Festival.

I know you'll find this implausible but it is legitimate: Dublin, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus) holds the title of second largest Celtic festival IN THE WORLD. Yes, the world. We are second only to Milwaukee, WI. 

The Dublin Irish Festival (a.k.a. DIF) is particularly special to me because I went for the first time in 1999, on my third date with he who is now known as my Spouse. I bought my first item with a trinity knot (more on its importance to come). Afterward, in the parking lot of Coffman High School, my now-husband kissed me for the first time. To quote Tom from "Four Weddings and a Funeral", thunder bolt city.