hi·a·tus: (noun) a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process.

Well. Didn't mean to take a hiatus of *quite* that length, but well, you know. Life. 

Been a weird few weeks, I'll be honest, but here we are. You and me. What's been going on? 

Dublin Irish Fest hanging out with We Banjo 3, and friends (one was very much new!) 

Gearing up for hockey season at some fan events. Go Columbus Blue Jackets!! #WeAreThe5thLine

 

 Gallivanting about this summer.....
such a wonderful summer we had here in Central Ohio. 

Adventure: Brewery Ommegang Game of Thrones Release

I'm really behind in adventures, and in looking at what needed blogging realized a huge oversight. Talk about a serious oversight, seeing as it was in MARCH. Egads. 

Have a dear friend, Adam, who I've known since college which was.....a while ago, let's say. He & his wife are beer nerds like us (actually, bigger beer nerds - which is a compliment). They hang out with a legitimately-knighted-in-Belgium-beer-nerd, with whom Brewery Ommegang trusted to hold a celebration dinner for the second Game of Thrones inspired beer, Fire and Blood. 

Adventure: Zauber Brewing Co.'s Maifest

This past weekend was a study in duality: busy about town one day, and nothing but home projects on the other. Needed though, especially that second day!

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 Columbus Wine Festival

Continuing our (unplanned) theme of a fest each weekend, let's move onto the Columbus Wine Festival, which was held on Friday & Saturday, August 9 & 10 at Franklin Park Conservatory. 

Spouse & I went with our friend, JBH, who is a home-brewer of wine and meads. The hours were 2:00-8:00 p.m. on Saturday, and we made the decision to go a wee bit later, thinking we'd only need 2 hours or so to get through it. HA!

Parking was decent - they had valet/security directly people where to park so it was fairly orderly. Nothing worse than traffic anarchy when you just want to get your drink on. 

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. 

Ohio Adventures: Akron Blues and Brews Festival

Spouse and I enjoy micro-brewed beer and we are so lucky to live in a city and state that really celebrates the culture around micro-brewing. Just in Columbus, we have:

• Barley's Brewing Company
• Barley's Smokehouse and Brewpub
• Columbus Brewing Company
• Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus
• Four String Brewing Company
• Hoster Brewing Company
• North High Brewing Company
• Seventh Son Brewing Company
• Zauber Brewing Company

When you widen your view to include the whole state, there are some really good, solid breweries around here. Go even farther, regionally, to Mid West breweries and WOW. Really amazing diversity of brews to fit any taste palate. 

We are also very lucky in that our state celebrates many occasions on which to drink these tasty adult beverages, in the form of beer fests. Nothing on the scale of the Great American Beer Festival, which we were lucky enough to attend in 2007, but decent fests commensurate with the size of our cities. 

My personal lexicon.

I am writing this at the request of one of my favoritest 'Shire peeps, Stephanie, who thinks my lexicon is both hilarious and ridiculous.

Stephanie's disbelief in my lexicon started when she was telling me about her poopy day and I uttered, to be the supportive, loving, caring friend that of course I am: "You poor poochie pot!". She stopped what she was going to say, looked at me like my hair was on fire and stated emphatically, "That is NOT a word". Um, yeah, it is, chica. Yeah, it is. In my world.

I feel like I've always had my own lexicon. Some of it comes from having the variety of brain which combines words, i.e. I will think of two words - for example nice and cute - and the word that it audibly uttered is cice, because at the last possible moment, I couldn't decide which word I wanted to use most so took parts of both words. Or when instead of saying, "That really hit the spot", it came out as "That really hot the spit". 

Side note: sometimes the combining of words comes out in your favor because you create a wonderful new word in the process. For instance fabulous and fantastic becomes fantabulous. Which is a seriously cool word, amirite? Useful in many situations.

Gardening in the 'Burbs, Part Deux.

This summer has been rather bi-polar - for lack of a better term. June was chilly & rainy (had a spate of 20 days straight with at least some rain). July for the most part has been hot, humid, and hellish. The last two days have been absolutely gorgeous: low humidity, lows in the 50s, highs in the 70s, sunny - just perfection in meteorology. 

It's worked out well for *most* of my 'lil plants. 

Garden timeline

• Plants picked up May 15
• Potted late-May-ish

Update, as of July 25
Beefsteak tomatoes: kicking a$$ and taking names. Need to have more next year but take a gander. 

Roma tomatoes: also doing well although not growing super big. 

Lettuce plants: one making a roaring comeback, the other eeking along.

  

Herbs: Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Sweet mint and Spearmint plants kicking it. 

 

 

Shallots: coming along. The maturation period is 90-150 days so thinking late next month, I'll pull one up and see how it's doing. I use these a lot in my dishes as I prefer the flavor over regular onions.

Peppers: there's one red pepper coming along and three jalapenos that are getting there. 

 

Cucumbers: most excited about these because I had no idea what to expect but there are some on the vine. Not sure how big they will get. Next year, I'll be better prepared and have a larger pot - maybe more like a window box or something. 

And then........there are my abject failures: cilantro and dill. 

Wah wah. I normally have much better luck with cilantro. Owel. You win some, you lose some.

How are your gardens faring? 

Smell ya later, peeps.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

I have alluded to the time Spouse & I lived apart for almost a year - not due to marital strife, but job situation - so let me 'splain. Note: it gets a little mushy up in here. 

When you work at a large institution of higher education, there are a lot of really cool and excellent opportunities for advancement. Through a series of wacky adventures I call life, I found myself working for two really cool guys. Not only are they both eminently qualified, educated and professional, they are both also hilariously dorky and genuine, authentic men with huge hearts and silly brains. 

In more wacky adventures, cool guy #1 was recruited away to a smaller, but more eminent, institution in the literal woods of New England. Finding the administration of his area in a bit of a disarray, he started full-court press on cool guy #2 and I to join him.