aydesign

We had no reservations or plans, just a vague idea of what we wanted to do.

Wednesday night: headed out of Columbus around 6:30 pm, arrived in Charleston around 9:30 pm. Ate dinner at the Tidewater Grill, which we found on the Urban Spoon app for the i-phone. We shared the baked stuffed flounder with a greek salad and garden vegetables and a 1/2 pound of jerk shrimp. It was all delicious. After dinner, we drove around the city for a little bit and found a no-frills hotel room and called it a night.

Thursday morning, we decided to find a pastry shop that came highly recommended on urban spoon, The Purple Turtle Pastry Shop. It is a whole in the wall bakery up near Sissonville. We selected a variety of pasties including a "hot dog", angel bite, apple square, and a neapolitan. They were good, but not the best pastries I've ever had. I leave that to the Crescent Bakery off of Olde Henderson in Columbus, and the apple fritters at DK Diner in Grandview. After we got our pastries, we headed back into Charleston and located a coffee shop, the South Hills Market & Cafe. While Andy finished his coffee and paper, I walked across the street to a gift shop and found a charm for my Pandora bracelet. While in the shop, we found out the sales lady is a cousin to Andy's friend that lives in Charleston, small world.

After leaving Charleston, we head south on 1-77 to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway in Fancy Gap, Virginia. We hadn't really planned on doing anything but drive the blue ridge parkway. But after only a few miles on it, we got pulled into the scenery and decided to stop at the Music Center near Fancy Gap. The Music Center is a small museum dedicated to the history of mountain music and bluegrass. We talked to a park ranger about what we should do along the parkway and she recommended a restaurant and campground where we should stay.  We stayed and listened to a couple of guys playing guitar and violin and singing some original music.  It was fantastic.  We stopped at Cumberland Knob and hiked a 1/2 mile to Fox Hunter's Paradise.  We ate a late lunch at a cafe in Doughton Park and then back tracked a couple miles to the Brinegar Cabin.  We got stuck in a downpour, and waited out the rain on the rickety porch of the cabin.  It was very peaceful. We drove on for about 50 miles and stopped at the Moses H Cone Memorial Park.  We made it the campgound at Linville Falls after 10pm.  We found a campsite and pitched our tent.  We got the tent up just as it started raining and woke up to a cool crisp morning.

Friday:  We got started around 8:30 and hiked out to the Linville Falls.  This was a gorgeous hike and the falls were amazing.  We hiked to all three overlooks, about a 1 mile total.  At third overlook, we started talking with a sweet lady from Germany who now lives nearby.  She makes the hike as often as she can in remembrance of her husband.  She also gave us some more advise about what to see along the parkway and suggested a diner in Linville Falls to eat breakfast.  We took her advise and ate at Famous Louise's Rockhouse Restaurant, it was a good hearty breakfast.  From here we continued on to Asheville.  It was Biltmore time.

We arrived at the Biltmore Estate at 3:00 pm.  We toured the house and gardens first which took about 3 hours, then toured the winery and afterward enjoyed complimentary wine tasting.  We purchased some favorites, got a recommendation for dinner and drove through the Biltmore estate one more time.  We headed to downtown Asheville for to eat at the Tupelo Honey Cafe.  We had to wait about 1hr and 15 minutes for a table, but it worked out great.  We walked around downtown and got to see a lot of action.  There was an open drumming session in the square, there was a big iron sculpture (iron as in clothing iron made out of iron), lots of street performers, and a couple art galleries that were open.  It was comparable to Gallery Hop in the Short North of Columbus.  Back at the Tupelo Honey Cafe, I had the Cajun Skillet Catfish on grits and topped with a sunshot salsa.  Andy had the Chorizo Baked Sea Scallops.  It was all delicious.  After dinner we got a room at a downtown hotel and crashed.  It was a long day.

Saturday:  I woke up early and walked a couple blocks to a coffee shop called Posana Cafe.  I had a delicious Non-fat Vanilla Latte and a bowl of granola, yogurt and fresh fruit.  Got back to the hotel and had to drag Andy out of bed so we could make our way to the Great Smoky Mountains for our long hike.  We made to the Alum Cave trail head about 12:50 and started on our way.  This was the longest hike I had ever done and the most challenging.  The trail to the top is 5.5 miles and rises approximately 3000 feet to a top altitude of about 6600 feet.  Along the way are crisp, cold mountain rivers and springs, beautiful rock formations, and spectacular views.  We made it the top around 4:30 and hung around the lodge for about a half an hour before making our way back down. It took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to get back to the car.
We then drove to Rich's house in Lenoir City, TN.

Sunday was a relaxing day in the sun.  We took the boat out and water skied for a bit before retiring to the sand bar.  An intense game of water polo broke out and we all got sun-burned.  It was a great day.  We went to Calhoun's restaurant at the marina for dinner.

Monday: We were trying to make a canoe trip on our last day, but unfortunately, the place we went to was closed on Monday, so instead we decided to got to the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.  So for the second time on the trip, we got to see some amazing waterfalls.  We ate lunch at the lodge and had some delicious banana custard pudding.  With a quick stop at the Jefferson Outlet Mall and a quick bite to eat in Grove City, we were home.

I am currently working on the wireframes for the Justice website re-design.  This is my first professional website that I will be a part of creating from ideation to production...very exciting.  And it all my own!  No other web-designers.  View the current website which I currently generate the graphics for at www.justicejustforgirls.com
The other website I maintain is  www.limitedtoo.com.  A refresh is launching today!

4/23/08 Plumbing installer are wrapping up with the rough-in.  Calhoun
4/24/08 Purchased shower fixtures.  Got a great deal at Home Depot, exactly what I wanted in the deep clearance section.
This weekend... serious landscaping, gravel pick up.

I'm going to get back on track about posting some Journal entries...

Buying my first home:

3/07            Begin seriously looking for a house
4/17/07      Realtor shows me the house
4/17/07      Write up offer with Realtor
4/19/07      Owner accepts offer
5/24/07      Closing
6/1/07        Began interior clean-up, removing unwanted material (on-going), Angie
6/15/07      Basement re-blocked, Robert Evans
7/1/07        Applied for building permit
7/16/07      Received building permit
8/1/07        Move out of apt.  Staying with Andy
8/17/07      New windows installed, Dave Marcum
8/24/07      Demo & new framing upstairs, hallway & bathroom, Joe Sharp
8/30/07      Concrete back patio, walk, and parking pad poured, Robert Evans
9/1/07        Portion of front sidewalk replaced, gutter drains installed, Robert Evans
11/01/07    Siding and gutters installed, APCO
2/4/08        Furnace and HVAC installed, Favret
3/1/08        Move back into apt, short term lease
3/17/08      Demo & new framing downstairs for kitchen, Joe Sharp
4/12/08      Landscaping begun, formed front flower beds, filled with top-soil, Angie & Andy
4/16/08      Plumbing Installation, Calhoun

Okay, so a lot has been going on since the last time I posted.  But unfortunately I do not have time to post at the moment, I just wanted to get myself back in the groove of posting. 

Today, Lydia and I went to see Disney on Ice: Monsters, Inc.  It was a pretty good show, with one exception.  Lydia and I were lucky enough to get second row seats, or so I thought.   They were floor seats and they were makeshift seats.  The second row was not inclined at all from the first row.  Therefore, we were unable to see about 60% of the ice.  There were 5 adults sitting in front of us, and me at 6 feet was not able to see over them or through them to the ice.  So I can only imagine how Lydia at less than 4 feet felt.  I plan to call and complain to Disney about my experience.  And the fact that a bag of Cotton Candy was $10!  Doesn't Disney have enough money that they do not need to sell their souvenirs at such high prices.

Anyway, I have more to post about other occurences, but all in good time.

Its SUPER BOWL day and I have to get back to the game.

Peace out! 
AY

Yesterday, I went to the AMA championships at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH.  Michael Jordan has a Superbike team simply called Jordan.  The logo they use is the famous Air Jordan logo but it is encircled.  Does this remind you of anything?

I'm thinking about a little old car manufacturer known as
Mercedes Benz?


I know Michael has a Mercedes but what's the real connection here?
Probably nothing.

I got see him.  I had media tower access which is an awesome place to view the races.   So there we are on the fifth floor (top) of the tower.  Michael had the fourth floor for himself and his entourage.  The way the tower is set up, when you look over the rail on the balcony, you can see about five feet into the four floor balcony.  So I was standing about 5 vertical feet from Michael sitting on the ledge, smoking a cigar.  I have a photo, and will post later.  I wouldn't normally get star-struck, but MJ is one celebrity who I would have liked to have met in person.  On another note, I slept in the same bed as he did at Spuce Hill after he had to leave on emergency business.  He said hi to my grandma, and she also showed his bodyguard George around the property before MJ got there. 

So I am peeing at the RPAC....
When I'm finished, I get up and wait for the automatic flush to begin.  It doesn't so I reach down to push the manual button....SPLASH!  My key chain, with my locker key and my apartment key fall into the toilet.  "SHIT!"  I am about to reach down through the pee but right as I am about to, the toilet flushes taking my keys along with it.  (That's one powerful flush).  Here's me ---->

Mouth drops open.....(tick, tock, tick, tock).....SHIT! FUCK! OMG....I stand there watching hoping they will magically reappear or get spat back up.   Nothing!

So here I am no keys, no way to get into my locker.  Good thing I was dressed. hehe

I had to have the desk guys cut my lock off from my locker.  Luckily I had a spare key at my access.

What a way to begin the day.

Hope this makes you laugh or cry.

Due to my good fortune and lack of focused direction I was able to squeeze one more fall quarter out of Ohio State so therefore I got season tickets for this year. If all goes well, it will be a championshiip season, and I will be able to say, "I was there". I think I will have to dye my hair again to scarlet. It was fun while it lasted, apparently when the box says permanent it really means, "Hey, if you don't wash your hair and stay out of the sun, it may last a couple weeks." False advertising really burns my frosting. Have a good one.

I just got done reading one of the worst books ever written. At Risk by Patricia Cornwell. I love her other books, she is one of my favorite writers. I am severely disappointed in this book. Here's why...absolutely no character development, the plot was confusing not to mention boring as hell, the story picks up out of nowhere and ends without any resolution. It was like the story started on chapter 5 and ended on chapter 6. I felt like I was cheated, I needed the first five chapters and then the last 10 chapters. This story had a lot of potential and I was starting to get interested in the crime, but then it just ended. I can only assume that this title is suppose to the beginning of a series. She has other crime series that are awesome. The Kay Scarpetta series is really cool. And the Andy Brazil series are also good reads. They all live in the same world, so at times they cross paths with each other. I have another of her books in my queue, I hope this one isn't quite so terrible. It is the most recent book in the Scarpetta series, Predator.

This is an entry from my friend's Blog about Friday night...(FYI: I am Amazon Queen)...

A night of desperate bumping and grinding ...
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Last night I got my first true insight into the dating & mating nightlife of our fabulous city -- what a bunch of fucking desperate bumpers and grinders. CHRIST.

Amazon Queen, Happy Dick and I went to this club called Spice. All because Happy Dick didn't want to go to my fav gay club -- Q -- because he's such a girly guy that he gets hit on all of the time. BOO HOO, Happy Dick. Grow some fucking hair on your chest!

Anyway ... Spice has a great spread. An open patio area and several rooms to hang out. But for the love of god ... what a freaking meat market. There were WAY too many effing BEAUTIFUL people there ... girls AND guys. Girls with big tas-tas to go with their big fucking hair and dolled up faces, and guys that looked all prettied up with nowhere to go and noone to do.

The first thing we did when we got there was go pee. (A whole wall made out of beads that hang over the door to the women's restroom. How cool is that?) The whole time we're in line, these desperate fucks would keep walking by and looking in -- trying to scope the freaking bathroom out. There's only one guy I don't mind scoping me out when I piss, and he wasn't ANY of them. JESUS. Amazon Queen was doing the pee-pee dance and getting really pissy about the lack of effort the bitches in front of us were putting into making sure the line moved forward. She just about wiped out the dumb ho in front of us. Amazon -- you're fucking hilarious.

We finally made our way out to the floor only to discover that Spice really has only two types of people: 1. the desperate bumpers and grinders; and, 2. the fucking couples who really need to get a fucking room. We started doing our own grinding ... with Happy Dick in the middle ... when I felt this other foreign Dick behind me. There I am having a fab time in my three-way, and I've got some short Latin Lover trying to do me from behind. WHAT the F, Ricko Suave??? I couldn't get Ricko off of me. He started grabbing me everywhere... and I mean my woohoo, my ass, boobs, EVERYWHERE ... Ewww. Just really Ewww. Thank god Amazon and Happy Dick were there to save me. Later, Amazon and Happy Dick determined that if there had been actual penetration, I'd have a little Ricko Jr in about 9 months.... that's how onto me Ricko Suave was. After they said that, I had to check myself twice to make sure I was still a virgin.

2:30AM and we're making our way back to my badass Diesel ... only to come across another desperate douchebag who asked Happy Dick if he needed any help with me and Amazon Queen. JESUS. At that moment, Amazon and I both grabbed Happy Dick's ass and said he would be just fine, thank you very much.

The great part of the night was going out clubbing again with my peeps. Amazon Queen and Happy Dick are fucking awesome to hang out with. Happy Dick -- get a freaking myspace page already. The night was a ton of fun, but not GRADE-A FANTASTIC. And if he's reading this... He KNOWS why. I missed you. I'm saving my desperate bumping and grinding for you.

Kiss, kiss.

Spanky


She left one part out: Happy Dick saw a friend of his that just got back from L.A. and he wanted me to play a trick on him. So as he was passing, I said:

Me: Will?! What are you doing here.
Will: (confused)
Me: Come on, don't you remember me. We hooked up in L.A.
Will: Refresh my memory
Me: Aw, are you serious...No way. (A little body language here) You really don't remember? I'm hurt.
Will: Don't be, I was drunk for five days straight.
Me: Well, I can't believe you forgot me?
Will: Which bar did we meet at...
Me: ah......um...hey, do you know my friend...
Will: Oh my God! You had me going there for a sec...