The Things You Will Do For A "Free" T-Shirt

Tonight Eric & I headed to Old Chicago to finish up our summer mini-tour, "American Craft Brews". The last one was not so good... the Rogue Chipotle Ale. Eric found the taste more offensive than I, as he doesn't really care much for chipotle in any form, let alone beer. But since we were going to get a free t-shirt for finishing our mini-tour we both somehow felt obligated to finish it.

It is even nastier the second time around... if you know what I mean... lots of Tums will be consumed at Janeric Hills tonight.

Beer drinkers beware... if there is chipotle or any kind of pepper in your beer... step away.

Sweet Corn, A Sweetie's Birthday, & The World Famous Chicken

Tonight we had fresh sweet corn for dinner. It was delicious. Eric brought home quite a bit of it from Lodge last week, when one of his Brothers brought in a bunch from his field. He brought home so much that I was able to freeze up several pint bags of corn. I heart sweet corn, and truth be told I am a bit a corn snob. But when you grow up on a farm well that will happen.

Monday was Eric's birthday, but we have been celebrating for over a week. Last Sunday we went out to Mike & Linda's camper to celebrate both Eric's birthday, and his Mom, Linda's 60th birthday. We had yummy kabobs on the grill, birthday cake and broke out the ladder ball aka hillbilly golf. As seems fitting of this bizarre summer we had a campfire at 4:30 in the afternoon because it was chilly... what up with that. It was a good day.

This past weekend we headed to Indy with the Barkers. We celebrated Eric's birthday on Friday with dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery, and birthday cake back at our little apartment for the weekend. Saturday we headed downtown and took in the Indy Indians baseball game. It was our first time at that ball park, and I must admit we rather enjoyed it. The World Famous Chicken (formerly the San Diego Chicken) was in attendance that night and he was great. He is completely silly and ridiculous, but still hilarious.

Sunday the guys took in the Nascar race, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Tara, Kira and I ventured to the Indy Children's Museum and saw the King Tut exhibit. It was really cool, and we all enjoyed it. After the race we headed to the yummy Chinese restaurant for dinner that has now become an annual trek. Monday we headed home, and I kind of felt bad that Eric spent most of his birthday in the car, but hopefully the earlier celebrations made up for it. Overall the trip to Indy was a good time, and even the car ride wasn't too bad. I was totally dreading the 4.5+ hour drive, especially considering that for the majority of my life Indy was usually a short 2 hour trip.

Eric and I are headed to STL this weekend. We had a voucher for two tickets to a Cardinals game to use, and found a cheap hotel on Priceline. We we are looking forward to some relaxing couple time, away from the chores at home.

Geneseo: The Melting Pot... Who Knew?

So I have been meaning to blog about some of my favorite people and places in Geneseo. Every week Eric and I have the lunch buffet at the Chinese restaurant. The food is quite good, but by far the best part of our lunch is Bill. Bill and his family own the restaurant, and Bill prides himself on "service with a smile". We are regulars so he automatically knows our drink order... "Hot tea! Hot tea!"... that is until I started mixing it up with the warmer weather and sometime get a diet pepsi. You could be having a crappy day, but after lunch with Bill everything seems better. He never seems to have a bad day, and is always chatting with Eric (who has been going there for years) about something often telling him to eat more food. Bill has had the day off a couple of times the past month it really just isn't the same without him.

Another one of our favorite places is Parkway Grille. It is just your basic diner, but is owned by a couple from Kosovo, Nick & Nurije. We have never seen Nick, but Nurije is always there running the register and chatting with us. One day after having my hair highlighted this winter, she wanted the number of my hairdresser. Another day I went up to pay and she was struggling with balancing their bank statement... she said something about not liking banks, then asked me what I did for a living... "I work for a bank". We both laughed a lot. The other day she got a hold of Eric and was encouraging him to start a business in Kosovo, with her connections, she said the region is ripe for new business. Then she told us about "her country" and we just stood there rather dumb founded. When she was there she worked with Mother Teresa giving aid to those displaced by the war. She knew a man who had was released from a communist prison after being there for more than 25 years, another one of her friends lost 55 members of his family in the war. I simply can't imagine seeing such horrors.

So here is to Bill and Nurije... they bring sunshine to our day, and are a part of the Geneseo melting pot.