Hammock Epidemic | USWNT USAvMEX

It was a late night for Rob & Dillon last night, so I headed off for the early SonRise service solo to start the day. I missed last week, and so found myself in week 2 of a new series: Prayfull [yes, spelling intended].

Chad did an excellent job standing in for our senior pastor in his absence today, and I left re-set for this upcoming week. 

The boys were barely stirring when I returned back, so I strung up the hammock for a bit while I waited. It wasn't long before they both appeared at the front door; Dillon was packed up and ready to hit the road for the 5-hour trip back to Illinois. We sent him off with safe travel wishes; we'll be heading that way this upcoming weekend for our monthly IL visit, so it won't be long until we see him again.

I lapsed back into the hammock for just shy of another hour, before the natural urge to do something productive got the best of me. I dragged Rob with me for a trip to the hardware store and grocery shopping - quick errands out before circling back home. 

new ropes! you know what that means.... 

After lunch, we decided to put Rob's new ENO up for a trial run in my newly-claimed hammock spot. He... loved it. I'm spreading the hammock epidemic into the few unreached corners of my network, and it's pretty awesome to see the reactions ;). 

#perfect! 

To counterbalance such a relaxing day, I tuned in for the night to the USWNT USA v MEX game, to of course cheer on my favs. I thought this would be something of a routine action, except I forgot that I have Time Warner Cable. TWC is the worst service provider I've ever had, and not only did I miss the game itself as it was airing, I explicitly set my DVR to record it, only to later find that that didn't work, either.

Thank goodness for YouTube... & thanks A-HOLE bunch, TWC. >:[ 

*Sigh. There are worse things, I know.. But c'mon. Messing with soccer? Are you crazy?


At least the game was visible somehow :)

That's all I've got folks. It's back to the grind tomorrow.

Ciao!

xo | cmd

City Flea & Cincinnati Meanderings

Rob and Dillon resolved early on to head out to the river. I voted to go my own way for the early morning, and took advantage of the semi-dreary day to check out this year's showing of The 513 City Flea. I made it down to Washington Park just as a downpour had made its way out, and was greeted by puddles, a drizzling remnant of the storm and handfuls of Cincinnati-enthusiasts who didn't seem to mind the sloshy condition.

Sunny or not, it was wonderful!

rain or shine! 

Becky rendezvoused with me a short time later, and after another few rounds of the City Flea vendors.

peruvian mochilas and kombucha

scavengers! 

It wasn't long before we took off northbound for REI, where Rob and Dillon met up with us. As it turned out, they'd not even made it off the boat ramp as the rain set in. They U-turned back to the house before joining us. The REI sales is still happening; Rob bought his hammock today!

uh oh... the hammock epidemic continues! 

and some yoga... ;) 

We parted ways with Becky and headed down to Findlay Market, where we grabbed Eli's and showed Dillon around the market grounds. There was a pitstop as well at Rhinegeist, where to our surprise, there was some major renovation well underway!

i'm sorry... say whaaaaaaaat?! 

I can't wait to see this when it's finished.

After Rhinegeist, we made our way back home, where the split decision was made to give the river a second chance. We dropped in and took off towards Ludlow. One of Rob's bosses and his fiance joined us for a couple hours, and then it was back up the river to the ramp.

The skies may not have afforded us the sunshine we were hoping, but it was still a beautiful night to be on the water!

beautiful! 

dillon & rob

We pulled off the river just as the rain started to threaten its return for the night, dried the boat off and made the trip back to the house. The boys wanted to venture back out to OTR, for the usual touring that occurs whenever we have visitors. I opted out of that excursion, and set myself up for a night of absolutely nothing on the couch - which I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed ;).

The boys will be back sometime in the early hours, but with any luck, I'll be out cold by that time.

Happy Saturday, folks!

xo | cmd

Dillon's HERE :)

Iiiiiiiit's FRIDAY!!!

womp womp womp

Sydni was thrilled as well that it is Friday, but not so much by the fact that there was still the day itself to complete. Such is life, mini... it'll be okay ;)

At lunch, I took Elisa to REI to take advantage of the REI sale that just started. It was my chance to figure out how I would be taking advantage of my membership, and also to assist her in buying her first hammock! [Eno's are on SALE through next weekend, folks.... FYI!!] While she was scouting out the Single Nest that spoke to her, I made notes to share with Becky:

yesssssss please 

We rounded out the lunch hour with lunch itself - sushi!

yummmmmmm! 

Syd's dad and I traded weekends, a switch prompted by Mother's Day that worked out perfectly given that Dillon arrived here in Cinci tonight! It was just in time to head north to Soccer City, where I'd obliged a last minute request to sub in for Becky's team.

This was Becky and me for the few hours we were there:

goalie / forward

This was the boys [Mike, Dillon, Rob]:

sidelining with popcorn... 

Again, this was Becky and me:

doin' work...

And THESE were the boys:

for the record, they got it. hahaha

All in all, a pretty solid night - there was even a PK that I was able to stick in the lower right - I have to admit it felt pretty good to get some laces exactly where they were meant to go :)

pre & post pk! 

The hilarity continued after the game:

you don't wanna know... hahaha

I'm so excited that Dillon made it here safely - it's about to be a great weekend!

xo | cmd

Summer's ALMOST Here

Hiring Event [Job Fair] Number 2!

thank you, brown mackie college! 

Elisa and I were the only Express reps onsite today, among many other local employers and potential employees. In the midst of the hustle and bustle, Elisa and I determined that these events are definitely the best way to both take a breather from the daily routine, as well as capitalize on marketing and recruiting opportunities!

express onsite - day 2! 

Elisa and I are only so creative on days like this, but when the routine we hammered out is ideal the way it is, there's really no reason to reinvent the wheel.

So that meant day 2 of Coffee Emporium, followed by Ault Park, but this time we were able to track down two trees that were ideal for hammocking! [YIIEEEE!]

I convinced Elisa to try mine out, as she's recently expressed interest in buying one of her own. She loved it!

elisa!!!! i think she's been sold! 

We eventually traded spots; I switched out my yoga mat for my hammock, and spent the rest of our mini break accepting my favorite kind of beauty: the simple kind.

ault park

Summer's almost upon us! I picked up Sydni after work today, after her final field trip of the year.

she's ready for summer, too... clearly .. haha

It's been a relaxing evening at home, which is just what we've all needed at the midpoint of this week. Summer is within reach; I can feel it!

xo | cmd

Wednesday - OWN IT!

It's... JOB FAIR season! I scheduled our first two bigger events of the season for today and tomorrow; we loaded up our gear yesterday to prepare for today and headed off in full Express thunder to see where the day would take us.

First things first though: Let me just say that any day that starts like this... is guaranteed to be a fruitful day, regardless of whether or not we're out hiring:

.... a few of my favorite things!

^ I love that, over and over again!

Sooo... yeah, there was the job fair. It's the first of two that Elisa and I have scheduled this week, and I have to say that it went very well! We even stumbled across Kelly, from the Eastgate office - coincidentally one of my former colleagues from the Days of OLD... aka Clearchannel [that's a different story.. haha]

express cinci central | express eastgate

It's not often that we get out of the office for hours at a time, but it's a fun change of pace, especially when the halls are buzzing with potential candidates and business partners!

fun at our hiring event! 

The job fair came to an end, allowing us a small window to take lunch and whatever else happened to accompany that.

Therefore,
Stop #1: Coffee Emporium.
Stop #2: Ault Park:

catching some sunshine!!
ault park | cincinnati, oh 

We returned to the office and finished off the day before parting ways for the evening. I thought it fitting to continue the evening in like fashion, in the gap between work and volleyball:

sideyard hammocking! 

After a few hours, it was time to head to volleyball [by a few hours, I mean 10:20 PM, *le sighhhhh]. It was tournament week, so we plowed through our games at the back-to-back pace that comes with tourney weeks.

We played, we played and played some more, and a few hours later, we stood as league champs! Given that we're a 4C team in a 6D league, I probably wouldn't have predicted this to go any other way, but it was still a blast getting back into the structured league play of Grand Sands, and I'm proud of my quad team.

Yay, team!

martin. cori. beth. paul
league champs!

It is LATE. I am tiiiiiired, and it's an early day tomorrow. See you then!

xo | cmd

Sunshine, BBQ & Boats [Well, Kinda ;)]

Perks of our centrally-located office [sometimes]:

yay, local swag & discounts! 

^ Rob will appreciate that :) :).

The downside of working in an office is that, when the weather is beautiful and beckoning, we're limited in the amount of time we can allocate in the sunshine.

i. need. [some.] sunshine! 

Elisa and I took full advantage today of the clear skies and traced a very familiar route through the outskirts of downtown to Findlay, where we of course had our free reign of lunch options.

.... I finally settled..

eli's bbq. bare feet. happy heart. 

We ran into Duy, as we often do since he works across the street, and managed a mini convo/catch-up before it was time for us to return to the Express homestead.

The day wrapped up in its usual fashion, and I made my way excitedly home to get Sydni and continue on to the house. Rob had promised Syd she could help, and made sure to follow through on that promise:

this girl 

Happy Tuesday, ya'll :) I hope the sunshine's been good to you today! 

xo | cmd

Namaste .... & Eat Pizza ;)

This came today!

squeeeeeee!! 

It really doesn't take much to excite this girl. Not only is this tank pretty awesome by design alone, it's the most comfortable thing I've ever worn, and when I become a billionaire, my closet will be filled with these things. Goals, amiright? Psshhh...

I spent the day enlightened by this little shirt and its message; the evening brought even more joy as we gathered in Oakley with Becky and Mike for dinner at Dewey's. We came home with full bellies and smiles. 

We're on day one; it's a good week so far! 

xo | cmd