Friends & Family on Friday

Breakfast out of town is usually a far cry from whatever dietary regimen I'm trying to follow, but I can't say I was upset about some turkey bacon and eggs to get the day started. To top it, we stopped by my old stomping grounds to say hi to a few familiar faces, and the new ones I'd not yet met.

Man, I miss these guys!

oh, how i miss these two! [& the rest of that team!]

We didn't plan it, but it turned out we'd see Marc twice today; we ran into him several hours later at Bindy's. We were set for the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Rob's mom and stepdad, which provided the final item on Rob's Christmas wish list. We've now got a new acoustic for the house, and I have to say, it's beautiful.

he's in love! 

A couple hours later, we wrapped everything up at Rob's mom's and headed back to Dillon's to decide how to allocate the remaining hours of the night.

Bindy's it was. The crowd started pouring in as it does every time I've seen the place, and with it came Marc, who we just saw earlier this morning, and even Taryn, who was at a birthday party just before stopping through to see us. There were plenty of other familiar faces, which made for a fun [long, but fun] night!

hi jesse, hi taryn! :) 

taryn :) 

random snapchat? 

I'm not even sure who that SnapChat ended up going to, but if I had to guess, it was probably Ali & Damanji. Either way, it's been a night with these folks and I'm happy to have spent it the way we did. I'm also happy to be home for the night.... ;)

That being said, G'Nite!

xo | cmd

River Rats

For a split second there, I was sure it would be raining today. We didn't really check the weather for the weekend, but had faith in the elements holding out just long enough for us to be on the water for the majority of this Labor Day Weekend.

We may have wondered what the clouds would hold for the day, but by late morning, this was the starting view:

rob, kenny & the bajas

We departed from Dillon's house, met up with Kenny and Taryn, and loaded the Bajas into the water for a day that would be spent with awesome friends cruising the river.

Dillon & Matt hauled Dillon's jet ski's up to the drop-in in Grafton, so we made our way up river to get them, after picking up Kyle & Jesse. It wasn't long before Rob's mom & stepdad joined in, and from there, the day was at our disposal.

relaxing! 

^^ Jesse took this shot; that's Taryn over there on the right laying out, and I... am pretty sure I was asleep lying on the front of Rob's boat. Womp womp. ;)

After we'd lounged on the shore for a few hours, we voted it was time for food, and found ourselves heading to the Big Kahuna. Oh, and the poor little jetter had to be towed; it looks like an update on some wiring is in order!

poor lil jetter.. 

Finally..... 

front row parking & the bk

I have no complaints on how the afternoon panned out. We eventually all parted ways, and Rob and I headed back to Dillon's, where the three of us parked ourselves on the couch to watch part of the American Ninja Warrior marathon that's been on for what seems like weeks now. It was a toss-up on whether or not we'd actually get out and do something, but we eventually pulled ourselves together and found our fail-proof destination: Bindy's. 

and then there's this.. 

^^ Hahahah.. "It's a satchel. Indiana Jones had one!" - I love this guy. 

And that, folks, is how we're kicking off this Labor Day. See ya back on the water tomorrow! 

xo | cmd

I GOT.. My Fried Green Beans

Welp, we made it!

We're here in Illinois now, and this is unashamedly backdated. That being said, here's what yesterday would've sound like, had I been telling you about it... yesterday ;)....

*******

Work ended early today, immediately following our weekly office lunch. The benefit of working for owners who are not only generous in every other regard, but who are also Catholic, is that they wholly support not working on Good Friday. Our business kind of dictates that we do at least some work on Fridays, but none of us were complaining when we locked up at noon for the weekend. (:

I took that time to get an oil change and finish up some last minute packing. Fast forward an hour and Rob had joined me at the house, loaded up all his gear, and the two of us were on the road en route to an Easter weekend in Illinois.

I can say this now, because we're past the point of the weekend, but I'd been putting the final outer layers on a piñata for Ali's surprise birthday bash, but hadn't managed to get all of it done by the deadline of hitting the road today.

What'd that mean? It meant me sandwiched in the front seat between the seat itself and a giant slowly-becoming-green handmade piñata. Luckily, I only had about an hour's worth of work left to be done; I was completed and cleaned up long before we hit the halfway mark of the trip.

We stopped first to see Rob's mom. Kyle happened to make a quick appearance, too, and so we started off our Illinois time with that before we were on to Jesse's.

Speaking of Jesse's, Zeppelin is getting big! I love when puppies start looking more like dogs, but I also always miss the puppy size. Zepp's a beautiful boy, and was super excited to see us.

It wasn't long at Jesse's before we decided to set out for dinner, which had been decidedly Bindy's. You know you've been out of Granite for a long time, when you start planning ..... days in advance .... to go to Bindy's. Haha. Really, all I wanted were some fried green beans.

What I didn't know, until tonight, was that Bindy's gets theirs from the Schwan's guy.
Mind. Blown. 

schwans. they are from schwans!

Anyway, we hung out there for a bit, and in the typical weekend fashion that is Bindy's, the clock ticked into the night and drew out several of Rob's friends.

these guys (:

So yeah, we're here. And to Bindy's we went and came...

fave!

And now, we sleep... haha.
See ya in the morning!

xo | cmd

Lettuce Learn .... & Love!

Woops.
In my quest to continue eating like a rabbit while at work, I've made it a habit now to pick up a new salad mix each week. I've been pretty good about it, and thought I had this simple thing checked off my list for this week, too. Haha.

Welp, folks, here is what happens when you leave salad mix [sans dressing, mind you] in your car overnight and the temperature drops down to -5°F:

gaaahhhhhh.... no. no good.

I checked over this melted mess of a salad that I purchased yesterday, and quickly realized there was no salvaging, unless I was down for some soggy, slightly icy but certainly saturated spinach and greens. Thanks, but no thanks.

*Sigh. Idiot.
Fortunately, Cincinnati has no shortage of groceries, so the first few minutes of the lunch break meant getting a replacement.

all right. let's try this again....

Setting the two cartons beside each other zapped up any remnants of doubt I may've had on the original salad...


nice work, cori. womp womp womp...

Moral of the story: Don't accidentally leave your salad in your car overnight when the temperatures drop below freezing. You won't want to eat it in the morning. Or ever. Say no... to soggy, browning greens, and yes to the cool, crispy stuff.

yummmmm (:

^ And yes... say yes to rabbit food (:
Just kidding. It's delicious if you ask me, and definitely fits in the regiment of things I should be eating while sitting around at a desk for most of my day.

The workout today was one of those grueling days, primarily because my legs are still in protest of any added range of motion. We finally managed to loosen up some and get some work done before I practically crawled out of there. #WHOOPED.

And then home..
And then dinner..
And then caving to my inner helpless-romantic and watching The Vow [or could it be because Rachel McAdams is the perfect portrait of the classic-but-angsty woman?!]

rachel mcadams [#wcw - sure, why not?!]

The dogs were happy to curl up with me and watch this with me; there was a lot of estrogen in the house tonight.. haha. Stella especially, who is usually my stoic, loner pup, seemed unusually clingy and wanted no more than a couple of inches between us for most of the evening. I obliged, naturally, and Sasha managed to wriggle her way into the mix before too long.

couldn't help it. sometimes i can't handle her.. haha ;)

^ She cracked me up. My Stella, the regal beagle [#butnotreally] of the two, literally hugged me for the entire movie. Yes, I was the little spoon to my dog. I captured this selfie of the moment, and quickly realized there was no resisting the Step Brothers pairing. ;)

Speaking of pibbles, Rob was with Kyle tonight and sent me pictures of his new bully, [appropriately-named] Blue. And Blue... is... beautiful!

hi, pretty booooy!!! [blue, that is. blue. sorry, kyle.. haha]

Whew. This day is gonna end early. Tomorrow's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, which means.... a whole bunch of stuff.

Goodnight, from us!

xoxo! love, pitties & me!

Stay warm, friends!
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Entertrainment Junction | Keepin' It Mellow

I made an executive decision today to take Rob somewhere in Cinci that he's not yet been. Usually, I would've reserved this type of field trip for a day when Sydni was also here, but she's already been at least once and he hasn't... so... yeah. Entertrainment Junction it was!

On our way up, we had the fortunately-safe experience of witnessing a high-speed, multi-patrol car chase up Highway 75; reading the newsfeed later on, we found it was a shoplifter who had run over a police officer's foot in her getaway mission from Northgate Mall. The chase ended within visible space just past the exit we took. I've never before actually seen a high speed chase happen.... definitely an exhilirating thing.

high speed chase? uhhh, sure.

We made it to EJ without being witness to any other calamity on the roadway, and when it was all said and done, we both agreed it was a worth a day trip.

didja know?

displays

more displays

me & my love | santa & a window washer ;)

And since we're back in Cincinnati, it meant today inevitably finding some familiar faces for the evening. It wasn't hard. Well, it almost was, after I passed out for about two hours in what felt more like a coma than a nap... but who's counting, right? Rob was nice enough to kick me off the couch and into something better than sweats so that we could head out for a little while. We didn't have any specific ideas, so we defaulted to OTR, land of Neon's, Rheinhaus and Co.

fireside @ neon's

outdoor fire pits & silly friends (:

We found Nader and Keith in no time, and I even ran into some even more familiar faces [Kyle!], and some characters from as far back as college [Sal, Renato & Mischa - hii!!]. Sometimes I forget what and who I'll find roaming around this town now that I'm back. Go figure (:

Easy night though. Church in the morning!

xo | cmd

Fun Little Saturday (:

We started off the day with a very early lunch at Olive Garden... honestly, I don't remember the last time I was there, so some OG salad, breadsticks and gnocchi soup really didn't hurt my feelings at all. From there, we took an impromptu run out to Highland to surprise a certain soooomeone at her work.... hehe..

 

I didn't get to take a picture with Ali today. Instead, I borrowed this off her Facebook from Halloween, which is way better anyway. Haha. Meet my great friend, the adorable lumberjack. I MISS YOU, ALI!!!!

my favorite ginger lumberjack friend

The rest of the day was filled with relaxing, a couple trips out on the bike [sorry, I don't trust myself enough to be phone-photogging from the back of the Harley...] and playing with the dogs. Dinner rolled around soon enough and for that, it was off to my favorite fried green bean venue, Bindy's. It didn't hurt that this gal was working either. And yes, Alicia I promise I will bring Syd back some weekend and we can do a playdate outside of Bindy's with you and little Cam! 

she's the best.

After Bindy's, we found ourselves parked in Kyle's backyard for a bonfire. This right here is my idea of a perfect Saturday - hanging with friends and just relaxing by a backyard fire pit - nothing fancy or extravagant.. just a simple good time (:


fire faces

 Our last stop of the night was to hold up on a promise of swinging by a send-off farewell shindig for Andy, who leaves shortly for military boot camp. THANK YOU in advance for the service you are about to give.. glad we could come and see you off!


celebrate and thank you!

It's always a good time coming out here to visit.
Tomorrow should be a good day, too (:

xo | cmd

Farewell Sunday :(

Kyle opted out of joining us for an early lunch today, but he made up for it by finishing off the leftovers...

From where?

Well.. where else would we go.... Hahaha. 

eli's bbq | cincinnati, oh

Sunny day, smoke pit BBQ, and the best mac n' cheese in greater Cincinnati?
As cantankerous as this place can sometimes be, there are certainly a good share of no-brainers. Eli's BBQ is one of them. We'll call it even, since Rob loves Eli's and I love Bindy's fried green beans. We both use those as selling points to convince the other to visit.. heh. Just kidding.

Anyway, we took advantage of relaxing for the early part of today, before the boys had to head off back to Illinois. I'm here now, a couple hours later, feeling that familiar "down" tinge after an awesome time with awesome people that seemed to have ended too soon. I'm happy though, because I'm reminded every time that I have surrounded myself with some of the best people I could imagine.

proud to say i'm his.

I'll leave it at that: thankful for surprises, for friends, for hilarious moments and random adventures. I'm bummed that the weekend is over already, but Sydni is back here tomorrow so I am absoLUTELY looking forward to that!

Fun keeps on comin'! (:
Here's to the week!

xo | cmd

BOOM. Saturday.

Rob & Kyle are here [I still can only half believe that, for some reason..].
Kyle has never been to Cincinnati before.
Erego, Kyle has never had Taste of Belgium for breakfast before.

Don't worry... we fixed it.

a round for the table, please!

It was a no-brainer this morning when we finally got moving; Kyle never having visited Cincinnati before obviously meant he'd never had the full TOB experience [aka, chicken & waffles, from TOB]. We met up with Catie & Andy in the drab, half-sputtering weather downtown at TOB and introduced Kyle to this magnificent course. They sat us at the kitchen table, which is even more interesting for any trip there.

Plus, this awkwardly-statured gnome?

catie: "nice gnome?"
kyle: "too bad that's not a syrup dispenser"
catie: "that'd be genius. here's what it would look like if it were."

... It really doesn't take much to entertain us. (:
After breakfast, we all parted ways, partially due to the weather being monochromatic and... blah.. and the other part of it being that we just wanted to relax. We knew there would be a long night ahead of us, so we all headed home. At mine, we parked ourselves on the couch and watched Iron Man 3, this time without the descriptive services turned on, thank you very much.... Haha.

We hung out at the house for most of the early afternoon, and finally pulled ourselves together near dinner time. Rob wanted to show Kyle Newport, so we went off in that direction, of course taking a detour/pitstop up to the overlook.

kyle & rob | overlook @ eden park | cincinnati, oh

kyle on the wall lookin' at kentucky
overlook @ eden park | cincinnati, oh

We decided on dinner at Bar Louie Newport, joined by Catie & Andy, and afterwards back up to Norwood to Nader's place. His house is once again the common meeting grounds. Lauren met us there, and the cluster of us made a united decision that we wouldn't miss Oktoberfest two nights in a row.

Listermann Brewery it was!


oktoberfest!
nader. andy. kyle. rob. catie. lauren. cori
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

these girls! ♥ [+ photobombing rob in the back]
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

favorites (:
listermann brewery | cincinnati, oh

ermagersh.. cerggert! ;)
listermann brewery | otr - cincinnati

After Oktoberfest, it was probably the most comfortable decision to head into OTR, to the usual digs.. with the usual people.. PLUS VISITORS! I love that Rob & Kyle are here this weekend!

What I love even more, is how [& we just realized this this weekend] much alike Nader & Kyle are, not only in stature and eerily enough facial features, but in personality, too. They are just about the white and brown version of the same person. I guess everyone's got one, huh? Haha.

.. never met two un-related people who are more
similiar head to toe and inside-out.
rheinhaus | otr - cincinnati, oh

i. love. these. people.
rob. cori. kyle. catie.
rheinhaus | otr - cincinnati, oh

I have some downright knockout people in my life, and I'm so thankful for them. I didn't get to see all of them tonight but it's a healthy start (: It's been a whole day into this and I'm still a little off from the surprise of Rob coming out to see me. What I did to land this guy, I'm not sure, but I've never been anything but myself so I'll just keep doing that and hope he sticks around ;).  

can't get enough! ♥

So that's how we did an unplanned Saturday in Cincinnati. It wasn't entirely eventful, but I think we all had a good time, and that's all that matters. Next time, maybe I'll be able to actually plan some sort of outing (:

Anyway, we're done for the night .. even moreso than this entry is backdated :p

xo | cmd

SURPRISE!!

So, here's a message thread from today [in which I deleted the line of my actual address response, for obvious reasons]:

indications of a surprise visit! ..... that i didn't catch.. at all.

What I didn't realize, was that he and Kyle were about to be en route from Granite to Cinci to visit me for the weekend. Even as I was lazing on my couch at 6:30, I didn't realize he was serious until he seriously instructed me to be available at 2am, which would've been their projected arrival time.

That being said, I figured I'd take the evening to rendezvous with the usuals and busy myself with something other than sitting at home watching the clock move too slowly, in anticipation of their arrival.

So I took a shower.


shower buddy.

Oh, forgot to mention that this house I'm currently renting has produced a couple of critter surprises of its own, thankfully none of which have been harmful, just, well.... surprising. No worries though - this girl grew up in good old MV, OH.. in the sticks.. and is far from skiddish of a little dweller like this guy. I named him Sylvester, and once we finished showering, gave him a quick dry in the towel I used to carry him outside, and re-homed him in a damp tree across the street. Is it weird that I miss forest friends, sometimes?

Anyway, off to Norwood, where the clan was already gathered at Nader's. We originally thought we'd make it to the Listermann Brewery for the craft breweries' Oktoberfest, but we missed that entirely and instead found ourselves down in OTR for a few hours.


leticia. nader. cori. eric. keith.

ping pongers, extraordinaire!
carolina+nader vs keith+cori
rhinegeist | cincinnati, oh

rhinegeist'ers!

sweet girls! [w. carolina & leticia]
japps | cincinnati, oh

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd... [this is backdated]...... Rob & Kyle showed up at 2am, right on schedule! Unfortunately, the digs in OTR close down right around 2, so we all stood assembled on the sidewalk briefly before calling it a night and promising a full-on romp for tomorrow.

So that's that. Rob & Kyle are HERE!!! & that undoubtedly means a fun couple of days ahead of us.

For now.. zZzZzz!

xo | cmd