September 18th, 2008 | permalink

Birthday Week

Yeah, I know. Birthday week was last week but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. Since Erika’s birthday is September 11 (not a fun day for celebration) and mine is the 14th, we usually combine them into one night of fun. This year was a little different.

Two large sporting events were going on this weekend. First, Ohio State at USC on Saturday night and then the Steelers at Browns on Sunday night.

On Saturday, Erika’s Mother came up to watch the kids so that we could go out for a nice dinner. We went to Fire on Shaker Square and had a great dinner. We were debating going to Crop or Light Bistro but I did want to catch as much of the USC/OSU game as I could. At least at that point I did.

After dinner, we took the car home and walked to the Purple Shamrock where we watched the game. We were there an awfully long time and Erika, as she always does, made a lot of friends. We played some music on the internet jukebox, I love having the ability play songs not on regular jukeboxes but $1 a song? We ended up closing the place down and walked home safe and sound.

Erika’s Mother was able to get us tickets for the Browns/Steelers game on Sunday night. We were so pumped to be able to go to the game and cheer on our Steelers. We pregamed with Andrea, David and Lee at Flannery’s and then the House of Blues, who have a pregame party/buffet before the home games. The whole day was windy with the remnants of hurricane Ike coming through the Greater Cleveland Area. Shortly after the game started some rain came, but it was off and on and did not put a damper on our evening. We went home after the Steelers completed their 10-6 win over the Browns, the 10th straight win over them. That made for a very happy birthday.

September 3rd, 2008 | permalink

Kade’s first day of Pre-K

Today is Kade’s first day of pre-Kindergarten preschool. He will be going everyday for a half-day. I think he needs it, but Erika is still a little sad he will be at school everyday. He has been becoming more social and hopefully this will help him get over the hump. I think he started getting excited for school to start after meeting some of his classmates at Chuck-E-Cheese last week.

Erika is the parent helper at school today too, so that should help Kade’s transition. Although last year, Kade behaved worse when she was there than when she wasn’t. We shall see how this goes.

Happy start of the school year!

September 1st, 2008 | permalink

Korean BBQ

On Sunday, we were lucky to be invited over to the Lemmons’ house for a Korean BBQ and feast. Brittany, Erika’s sister, is married to Marc Lemmons who is the son of Monty and Han Lemmons. Han was born in Korea and met Monty while he was in the service. They lived in many places before settling into Sandusky where Marc and Brittany met.

The Lemmons’ know how to throw a party, and this one was no different. When we showed up at about 2pm, the Karaoke machine was already set up out on the deck and ready to go. The women were in the kitchen rolling up a massive bunch of eggrolls and Monty was getting the grill ready to BBQ some garbi. Andy brought over a cornhole set so there was plenty of entertainment and food for the day’s festivities.

The food was amazing as always.

Cabbage kimchi

Eggrolls frying

My Plate

The Korean women all know how to have a good time. We all participated in the karaoke and soju festivities.

Marc and I pulled off a wonderful performance of “Sweet Caroline” receiving a score of 99. That score was later beat by Erika and Brittany with a score of 100, but how many times did they sing before beating it? There were not too many songs in English, hence our pick, but there were plenty of Korean songs and they kept the machine busy. There were also professional dancers from New York on hand to provide dancing lessons to anyone who wanted to learn. Check out some of the dancing and karaoke video. Marc also broke out some 20 year old fermented ginseng that all of the emos told us was good for “the man”.

It was a great day of food, family and fun. We were glad to be able to attend the party and it is always nice to spend some time with Marc’s family. They are very welcoming and force some of us out of our shells.

View more photos.

August 26th, 2008 | permalink

Omeka

Today I spent the day at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia at the Center for History and New Media to learn more about Omeka, what it can do and more importantly, where it is headed. I have started using the open source software last year for some projects for Dr. Mark Tebeau at the History Department at Cleveland State University. He set this whole training session up for me, some of his grad students and project leaders to bring us all together and learn more about this powerful web app.

The application itself is pretty simple. It is used by libraries and historical societies to create archives of documents, photos and sounds. You can also create different “exhibits” with the software. It is open source, php software which makes it more affordable to these generally budget deprived institutions. What my role is in all of this is to enhance the visual experience through designing “themes” for the Omeka backbone. We have begun some initial testing through the Euclid Corridor data and based the theme upon the Cultural Gardens site that we did.

Having time to actually sit down with the developers and designers that made Omeka was very inspiring (thanks Jeremy and Dave for your time). It opened up discussions on some topics that I find fascinating like mapping functionality with yahoo or google and the exportation of information in xml format so that I can pull it into the environment that I love, Flash. These sessions will make future development easier as I will be able to comfortably ask for input from the developers.

Hopefully with these training sessions, we are able to tap into more of what Omeka can do and what it’s potential is in the future. It will give me and Epstein Design the knowledge necessary to be the Cleveland representative for Omeka.

August 24th, 2008 | permalink

Liv Ellen’s 2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Liv’s 2nd Birthday Little Mermaid extravaganza. We held her party in our backyard. With a lot of help from friends and family, we were able to seat all of the guests and keep all of the kids entertained. It was a wonderful party, a little warm but thanks to the trees and the tents we set up, there was plenty of shade.

Liv was totally overwhelmed and by the time she opened gifts it looked as though she was going to pass out. She was such a beautiful birthday girl and wore the dress that I picked out for her at Loehmann’s while we were in Chicago.

More pictures from Liv’s party.

August 21st, 2008 | permalink

UCI Golf Scramble

Today was the annual University Circle golf scramble. The event is put on as a fund raiser for the UCI police and this year the event was held at Fowler’s Mill in Chesterland. It is always a lot of fun and we improved our team score this year. The Epstein Design foursome was Anne Toomey, John Okal, Melissa DiGioia and myself. It was a long and hot day out on the course, but it was better than the torrential downpours that we had last year.

Like I said, we played pretty good but the topper for me came on the final hole. The ladies decided to stay back at the club house since we rounded hole #9 and finished on #10. The event was running late, so we were told to tee off from the 150′ mark on all of the par 4 holes. John and I both teed off and they were nothing spectacular. My ball was pretty straight but in the fairway. John was looking for his ball so I waited for him to witness my shot. I used his pitching wedge to chip the ball up to the green but when I hit it I knew it was on a straight line. The ball bounced once, hit the pin and fell straight down into the hole where it stood pinned between the hole and the flag for a second before finishing its decent into the hole. It was the best golf shot that I ever had and provided a great ending to our day.

I hope that luck carries on to my next scramble in a couple of weeks when I play with my Father in law, Grandfather in law and Uncle Woody in the Industrial Nut event.

More photos.

August 21st, 2008 | permalink

Dinner Impossible

Last night’s Dinner Impossible premiere at Bar Cento was a great experience. It is not everyday that you get to taste the food that the chefs on Food Network are making as you are watching the show. Instead of going into great detail about the event, take a look at the Chef’s Widow and Cleveland Foodie’s sites.

More photos.

August 17th, 2008 | permalink

Taste of Cleveland?

So the 13th annual Taste of Cleveland is coming up (August 29 - September 1) at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City and there was an ad in the Plain Dealer that caught Erika’s eye. Among the food selection is White Castle, Claddagh Irish Pub, Dave & Buster’s and Chili’s. I understand that the event probably needs some chain restaurants for sponsorship, but come on, there are 2 Chili’s within 25 miles of the city and neither is within 10 miles. Don’t get me wrong, we go to chain restaurants too. Having two kids under the age of 5 we are pretty much resigned to having to go to TGI McFunster’s every now and again. But this is supposed to be the Taste of CLEVELAND?

A few of the places I would be interested in sampling from include The Willoughby Brewing Company; brewing? yes please, Hot Sauce Williams; if Anthony Bourdain can go here why shouldn’t I, Crepes De Luxe; because street crepes are so good, Battiste and Dupree Cajun Grill; I have always been curious to try this place.

Hopefully there is a good turnout and the confusion that we had about all of the chain’s being promoted is just for sponsorship purposes. But is this truly a Taste of Cleveland? I do not think so.

August 17th, 2008 | permalink

South Euclid Perfect 10-miler

It was a perfect day for the South Euclid Perfect 10-Miler. Erika did a great job, finishing 5th in her age group (Female Age Group: 25 - 29). Her time was 1:21:52 with a pace of 8:12. Erika’s blood glucose was high, around 250 the whole race, but she did great. Kade and Liv were excited to run in their first race.

The kids and I drove up to the corner of Belvoir and Sheffield to see both mile 5 and 7 before driving to Korb Field for the finish. The kids were well behaved and cheered the runners on, very loudly at times, but most of the runners approved and gave their thanks. They also practiced for their race, running up and down the sidewalk. I think Kade was trying to race the participants as he would wait for one to come up on the side and then run trying to beat them to me.

When mama came through, the kids yelled louder and waved wildly.

We made it to the finish to see Erika cross the line.

Then, the kids participated in the Fun Run, a 50 yard dash. Kade acted like he was an old pro and took off running fast through the finish. Liv did not like the fact that mama was trying to help her and started crying about halfway through. They both did great for their first race and all came home with medals. I don’t know if Kade will take his medal off. He wanted to keep running and told us that he is going to run in every race from now on. I think having the kids there and participating with her made Erika happy to pass on something that she enjoys so much.

More photos.

August 16th, 2008 | permalink

It’s in their blood

Tomorrow is the South Euclid Perfect 10-miler and of course Erika will be running in it. The race starts at 7:30 am and we will try to catch sight of Erika at mile 5/7 on Belvoir Road and then see her finish.

This year, the kids are going to participate in the Kid’s Fun Run too which takes place at 9:00 am on the football field at Korb Field, Brush High School’s stadium. The kids are excited and it is fun to see them get involved in a sport that mama loves so much. This could be the start of their running careers too.