Quick Hits

There's not a lot going on, but I thought I would bust out a quick update.

Things are good overall. I got the refi on the house taken care of which was used partially to pay down the new car. I'll flip the loan on it early next year and severely cut my payments.

I've been doing some traveling lately. I went to Cincy late last month for Octoberfest. It was my first time enjoying that. It was really cool. All the food and booths were great. There was a limited supply of non-hops alcoholic beverages, but I still enjoyed some rum. I'm definitely looking forward to doing that again.

The first week in October I went to Evansville to hang out with Vic. He recently was assigned there by the company and since its a lot closer than his latest haunts, I went for a visit. Unfortunately, I was a little under the weather and made him sick. I, however, recovered from my illness and had a good time. There was an Octoberfest celebration there also. I picked up a mutton sandwich that was pretty good, but a little small for the money. We also hung out at a Hooters-like restaurant on Friday night and closed it down. I would say, I'll be returning very soon.

I followed that weekend with a wacky trip to West V. I took off after work on Fri (similar to the week before) and got to Charleston in time to grab a quick bite to eat before going out on the town. I met up with Amber (aka Moles) and we went downtown to meet up with Jana (on her birthday-eve) and Mr. Chop. We hit the square block of bars (surrounding a lawyers office) in downtown Charleston before heading back to Amber's to wait for Mark to get home. Amber and I started out the night trying to get a drink. The first place we went to said they wouldn't be open for 20 minutes. The second place we went to wanted us to pay a $4 cover each for a band that was unloading its instruments out of their van. The third place we went to actually served us some drinks, but they acted like they were doing us a favor. When we finished our drinks, Amber got a text message from Jana that they were back at the first bar. On the way to meet them, we noticed the band was still not set up at the second bar. Bunch of wankers. We hung out for a while and then Jana wanted to try a different spot. Everything is within walking distance, so no big deal. We ended up around the corner at a place that had all you could drink (drafts and wells) for $7 till midnight-thirty. We had a couple of hours left on the special, so we went in. Let me tell you, after drinking quality bourbon and whiskey for the last year, it hurts to drink a well rum or bourbon. I felt sick trying to stomach the swill. I think I only had one more drink after that. Plus, I was tired from a long day. So a few hours later after seeing some crazy, drunk chick fall out in the middle of a bar and get carried out, we headed out. Thankfully, I was sober by then, cause the cops have figured out that the bars are all located together. We headed to Ambers and I was ready to crash. Jana and PC had decided it would be a bad idea to drive (good thinking), so they took what was supposed to be my bed (bad thinking). Being the gentleman that I am, I let the couple have the bed and I slept on the couch. But not before Mark got home and wanted to keep the party rolling. I was so ready to sleep, but turned on Sportscenter and tried to stay in the conversation. The G-Men (I have no clue how to spell Mark and PC's last name) wanted to relive the glory days of wrestling, so they took turns giving the Stinger Splash to Amber and me respectively. It was funny the first time, but got old quickly (at least for me and Amber). The G-Men enjoyed the shit out of it. I finally got to sleep around 5am.

On Saturday, we got up around 10 and started moving about. Mark really wanted to spend a couple of hours washing (and possibly making love to) his truck. Amber and I convinced him to head on to Huntington where we were planning on spending the evening celebrating with Jana, PC and some friends. I just wanted to watch the UK/LSU game on a large TV. We took off for parts somewhat unknown and arrived at the hotel about 30 minutes before game time. We checked in and got our stuff up to the room at about the same time Jana and PC got to their hotel. It was only a couple of blocks away, so we hoofed it over there. We watched the 1st half in the room, but the consensus was to go down to the bar to relax in front of a bigger TV. The game was on and things were good even with a LSU fan in our midst. The CATS got behind at the end of the third quarter, but tied it up in regulation. It was great! The rest of the gang was more interested in dinner. Being the only TRUE BLUE CATS fan there, I went back to the hotel room and watched the overtime. There were 3 OT periods before UK finally stopped the Tigers on a 4th and 2. The biggest win in UK history! Very good stuff. The phone was blowing up ever since the close of regualtion and the phone calls and text messages didn't stop when the game was over. It was very exciting to have people appreciating the football CATS as much as they have the basketball CATS in the past. We finally got to the task at hand and headed to the square block of bars surrounding a lawyers office (feels familiar somehow). We started out at Hank's, a favorite of the group I was with. We stayed for quite some time and then ended up trying a few other bars nearby. We probably should have stayed at Hank's. The other bars were overly crowded and some were just down right hot. We actually started to make our way back to Hank's when this girl named Rhe (sp) fell in the street and twisted her ankle. It was pretty bad. She couldn't put weight on it, so Mark offered to piggyback her to the hotel. Things were going good until he tried to shift her weight up and almost dumped her onto the ground. That freaked everyone else out, so Rhe sucked it up and hobbled towards the hotel. Mark convinced her to take another ride a block from the hotel and things were fine until we got to the entrance. The night staff wanted her to walk on her own for liability reasons, so we breezed past them as Rhe swiped a box of pizza left on the counter. We made it to the room and closed a chapter on an exciting weekend. There were a few "you had to be there" moments that night and the next morning at the Shoney's breakfast bar. Good times. Good times. I'll have to make it back to West by God before the black ice hits.