Cleveland Beer Week

I didn't know Cleveland had a beer week but I was sure glad to find out. Three Floyds Brewing Company was at The Greenhouse Tavern, which happens to be one of my favorite Cleveland restaurants! I went for the food with the beer just being a bonus.

The scotched quail eggs were delicious, as was the duck and beef shin. The doughnuts were colorful - my favorite was the cocoa puffs one.

And since this was a beer week event, there was a lot of beer. We actually had 3 full pints and then 3 smaller tastings. We left full and dehydrated on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, we were back downtown for more. We went to Noodlecat for another beer week event. Thankfully the beers were all smaller and we left full and still relatively hydrated!

Thank you to Suzi, Jon and Andrew to bringing these events to our attention, buying the tickets, and attending them with us.

Cleveland Air Show

Joe and I went to the air show on Saturday. It was pretty awesome to watch the planes do tricks and maneuvers. Here are some of the highlights:

Twilight Golf

Suzi has picked up a new hobby: golf! After taking two lessons she was ready to take on the course. We have gone out and played nine holes quite a few times. Last night we played Twilight golf at Grantwood Golf Course. The deal is that, after 6 o'clock, you can play as many holes as you can before it gets dark. It only costs $10!

I'm glad Suzi has started to golf... it's just too bad her soccer season is going to interfere with her continued improvement this fall.

Happy Dog.

Joe and I met Suzi, Jon and Andrew at Happy Dog on Friday night. There are only 3 things on the menu; hot dogs, french fires and tater tots. It would make ordering easy if it weren't for the 50 toppings you can choose to put on top of your hot dog. For just $5, you can put as many of their housemade toppings on as you want! Here are three of the hot dogs that I managed to get pictures of before they were devoured...

Joe's (chorizo chili, kansas city bbq sauce, and tillamook cheddar cheese).

Mine (caramelized onions, french brie cheese, bacon-balsamic marmalade, and warm pineapple-ginger-currant chutney).

The bottom one was Andrew's which I'm not sure what he had but looks like bacon spiked southern greens and the fried egg?

It was certainly a unique eating experience. It was also a very unique entertainment experience. It was polka night at Happy Dog and DJ Kishka was at the helm! Even though it was a little too loud (couldn't hear anyone across the table) it was fun to watch people sing along and get up and dance!

Weekend highlights

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and Joe and I enjoyed much of the day outside. After getting our morning chores out of the way, we headed to the golf range for our lessons. The two of us are enthusiastic about trying to improve our golf game and have been spending quite a bit of time at the practice facilities. It should make it more fun out on the course.

For dinner we headed to 87 West, a wine bar in Chagrin Falls. We each picked a flight of wine to try and we shared an appetizer and pizza. The food was ok, the wine was pretty good, but the environment was great! We were able to sit outside on the patio and enjoy the humidity-free evening.

Bridgestone Invitational Tournament

I interrupt my PCH vacation posts to announce that I have returned to Cleveland and to my husband!

After getting home late on Saturday evening, Joe and I went to the Bridgestone PGA event held in Akron. Joe has been getting into golf more recently and was excited to see some of the pros up close. It was a fun day and was amazing to see how far they drive the ball in person. They make it look so effortless!

Anyway, I have a few more pictures to post and the second half of our California trip to report later this week.

Jeni's Ice Creams

Sunday, after the US's sad loss in the Women's World Cup, Suzi, Jon, Andrew, Joe and I went to Jeni's Ice Creams to drown our emotions. It worked. Shortly after tasting the salty caramel flavor, my thoughts were on how I didn't ordered a large enough cone. Should have ordered the 3 scoops! Still kicking myself.

Being based out of Columbus, the Chagrin Falls store is new so this was my first taste of Jeni's. It most certainly won't be my last. There are far too many unique flavors I want to try. Next time I think I'll go with Rhubarb & Lime Cardamom frozen yogurt. Yum.

The 4th of July weekend.

Friday was spent with Suzi as we went wedding dress shopping at Pat Catan's. Mother-of-the-bride, Mother-of-the-groom and bridesmaid Kaitlyn came as well to see Suzi in something other than athletic wear... She looked very pretty in everything she tried on - Jon is a lucky guy!

Saturday brought about the end of my pining for my husband. Joe flew in and we stopped to get a cheesesteak before we got home and I put him to work assembling our outdoor dining table. Pictures of that coming soon!

Sunday we pulled a forest of weeds from one of the beds in our backyard. We had done a good job in the front of our house but kept procrastinating on the back. I mean only our neighbors can see them... We were tired but forced ourselves to play 18 holes of golf in the afternoon. I blame the morning labor for my poor performance on the course.

We kept the momentum going on Monday and finished weeding in the backyard. We even started to mulch. I'm sure our neighbors will be glad to see the unkempt beds gone. To celebrate the holiday, we headed over to Donna's for a cookout. Nicole and I were beaten pretty badly in cornhole by our husbands (they even played left handed against us one game). All in all, weather was good, food was tasty and a fun time was had!

Jersey Shore.

I had a great weekend in Sea Isle City, NJ. It doesn't matter where my Spain friends and I go, we always have a good time. We all (minus Olivia) got there on Friday afternoon and the earliest arrivers got to spend a little bit of time at the beach. We spent time catching up before going out to a few bars that night.

We spent all day on the beach on Saturday - the weather was perfect; sunny skies and low humidity. SPF 30 worked well enough and I didn't get burned. We had a nice dinner and went out again on Saturday. We were all headed home on Sunday but got to spend a few hours on the beach again. We ocean kayaked which was a lot of fun. Rachel and I successfully did not capsize the first 2 times we went out and back through the waves but capsized on the 3rd and 4th. We regressed I guess. Can't wait until our next reunion, whenever and where ever that may be!

Third Wheel.

I had a fun night of being the third wheel to Suzi and Jon. We went to Momocho for dinner and it was as good as I remembered from last time! After a wild boar carnita, we headed to the Nautica Pavilion for the Ray LaMontagne concert. I had seen him play in April of 2009 in a theatre outside of Pittsburgh. I think the indoor venue made for better sound but I still enjoyed the open air, overly hot Nautica venue.

Poker Rest Day.

The Joes took a day off poker so that we could golf today. It was the hottest day since we've been here but ended up being breezy and cooled things off. I played pretty well for my standards which made it an enjoyable outing!

Birthday Bash.

On Friday, I was grilling out some food when Bailey and I heard a "meow." I put Bailey back inside and looked under our deck to find this:

This cat was very friendly and was de-clawed so I knew it had to have owners at one point. My neighbor and I gave it some food and water and are trying to find the owners. In the meantime, it is living outdoors - i'm glad it's warm out! Bailey and allergic Joe would not appreciate a new family member.


On Saturday, Joe had bought us tickets to the Indians game for my birthday. They were great seats behind home plate however no foul balls were caught, or even came our way.

The game was low scoring: 2-1 Indians victory! We had hoped for a little more offense.

Afterward, we went to the Tremont Tap House where they have 48 beers on tap! We got to sit outside since it was so nice - it made for a great day!

L.A. Noire

One of Joe and my hobbies is playing interactive video games together. It started with Assassin's Creed and we've already played and beaten the first and second releases of the game.

We needed a new game and just a few days ago we found one of interest:

In this game, you play a detective in the late 1940's. You solve cases by collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. The facial graphics are eerily realistic and make the game fun when you have to read a person's facial expressions when interrogating them to see if they are lying or telling the truth.

We are closing cases right and left and working our way up the ladder in the LAPD!

Pictures from: www.destructoid.com, www.pcgametrek.com, www.mmomfg.com

Airborne Toxic Event concert

I really must thank Jon for inviting us to this concert. It was a very high energy and awesome performance by Airborne Toxic Event at the House of Blues on Saturday night. I love that in many of their songs they use a viola and/or string bass.

The following video isn't the best representation of the concert we had. This one is not as energetic as it was on Saturday and they only have the woman playing the viola and the man playing string bass (no quartet support). It was the best I could find...

Weekend Wedding.

The highlight of our weekend was Chris and Megan's wedding! Chris grew up across the street from me and was like the brother I never had (he used to hang me upside down by my feet). Chris has finally matured (or I have gotten too heavy) and he married a lovely girl on Saturday night.

The ceremony and reception were at Windows on the River in Cleveland. It was a wonderful view of the river and city. The food and drinks were great and I had a lot of both!

Congratulations to the Chris and Megan!

I'm a brick...house!

In order to jump start my attempt to begin consistently working out again, I took a kickboxing class last night at BrickHouse Boxing. It was nothing like the cardio kickboxing classes I took for a few months in New Castle. In New Castle, it was pretty much an all women's class with a few men from time to time. This class was all men with just Suzi and I. I'm really glad she came.

The BrickHouse class focused on form and proper technique which I really enjoyed learning about. However, I was used to kicking the heavy bags with my foot which is wrong. You are supposed to hit with your shin since it is one of the hardest bones in the body. My shin did not like that:

Apparently I am not a brick house, I am a peach. I suppose I need to wear some shin guards or build up a tolerance to abusing my shins.

Weekend Update.

Some of the highlights of the weekend:

• We had a game night with Suzi and Jon on Friday. Suzi brought a new game over, You've Been Sentenced, which was ok but not as good as Boxers or Briefs.


• Saturday night was Megan N.'s bachelorette party. She has a mere two weeks left before she's to be married so we celebrated downtown on East 4th Street. We had dinner at La Strada followed by a dessert drink at Chocolate Bar and then a cocktail or two at Wonder Bar.


• I had my first baby shower to go to on Sunday...gulp! Kaitlyn got a lot of adorable little outfits for her little girl that will be born in April.

Volleyball.

In response to Holly's comment...

Nicole and her husband, Adam, invited us to play in a co-ed volleyball league which has been going on over the past 2 months. Neither Joe or I have played volleyball outside of our High School gym classes and we were apprehensive on how our performance might be. Although we still have a lot to improve on, neither of us have taken a ball to the face and I believe we are getting better each week (some weeks feel like a regression).

Our team, the Yetis, isn't the best in the league. In truth, I think we are battling for one of lowest ranks. We have been having a good time though and are looking forward to our last 4 games before playoffs.

Go Yetis!

All Aboard!

Joe and I had a lovely Saturday afternoon watching the snow covered trees and the ice-laden river go by. We were on "The Grape Escape Wine Train" on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad with my parents. This was a two hour train ride where we got to taste 5 different wines paired with hors d'oeuvres. It was a fun way to warm up on a cold day. Next time we may try "Ales on the Rails."

Urbanathlon!

We did it! Suzi, Katie and I all conquered the 10 mile Urbanathlon! Here are some pictures from the website so I can share the obstacles we faced:

Obstacle 1: Balance over the Jersey Barrier, climb over the monster tire, then high knees through the tires.

Obstacle 2: Under, under, over, over...

Obstacle 3: Without a doubt, the hardest of the obstacles - the army hurdles. The bars are about 5 feet tall. These caused me quite a few bruises.

Obstacle 4: Army crawl, monkey bars, another army crawl.

Obstacle 5: Soldier Field - ascending just over 500 stairs. This actually ended up being easy since it was a bottleneck in the race and we pretty much walked the entire time.

Obstacle 6: Slide over the cabs, climb up the net, over the bus and down the other side. I would not have made it over the 8 foot wall if a nice man hadn't given me a stepping stone with his hands.