Day 242

Blurb: Do work son!

Backstory: I've spent today tackling my outrageous to-do list. It's gotten so long because I'm super lazy on the weekends (this is a decision I'm now regretting). The pressure is also mounting because I get the keys to my new place two weeks from tomorrow. That means I need to set up my utilities and try to find a cable plan that won't made me go broke. Today I probably spent an hour on the phone setting up utilities and calling about couch prices. Needless to say I'm a little drained and disheartened.
I don't need a cable plan that's close to a hundred dollars. I really only watch seven channel(at the max) and use Internet. If cable companies really wanted to make some money they would create some sort of pay $2 for every channel you want. This would allow people like me to just pay for E!, Comedy Central, TLC and ESPN. Because honestly all I want to do is watch Toddlers and Tiaras, Chelsea Lately, The Daily Show and Ohio State games. I managed to get most of the items knocked off my list but I still have a little ways to go.

Day 241

Blurb: This thing is kind of like crack.

Backstory: Today I'm making a formal declaration: the Dairy Queen blizzard you see pictured above will be my last blizzard of the summer. I will not be having another one of these until next year. I make this statement with high hopes, because let's be honest who needs to eat one of these 500+ calorie streets every week.

Day 240

Blurb: Awww look at us.

Backstory: I'm sure you're familiar with this young lady, she's been pictured in my blog before enjoying some margaritas. It's my former DC roommate and grand little Christine "Chrissy" "Chris" Dennis. Right now this little booger is living in Cincinnati and denying me her entertaining in-person conversation. Today I was luckily enough to catch this lady about town after a bachelorette party, needless to say she was hungover when we met.
Because she was in need of greasy food and because I love greasy food in general, we went to one of my favorite old haunts: Jack and Benny's. It's a diner specializing in breakfast and it's right outside OSU's off campus area. During my junior and senior years of college I probably went there every other week. Chris on the other hand had never had the fantastic experience of Jack and Benny's buckeye pancake and butter drenched hash browns. So we enjoyed ourselves today, gorging in food and talking all manners of shit. I miss her little face and hope to see more as the year progresses.

Day 239

Blurb: Yes, this is an owl made from bacon.

Backstory: Today I did something child Bailey would have been really proud of: I went to Bacon Camp. It's a lot like what it sounds like, I ate bacon in many different forms for an hour. I'm just going to get strait to the meat, here's what I had:
Bacon Eclair
Bacon Cheddar Dip
Bacon-Whiskey Jelly
Bacon Pop-Tart
Three different types of BLTs
Bacon Wrapped dates stuffed with Pecans
Bacon Cupcakes with Avocado dressing
Spicy-Sweet Bacon
and some type of Bacon Manwich
Yeah, that was a lot of bacon and it was actually pretty overwhelming when I was done. Did I also mention that there was a big plate of bacon so you could just eat it whenever you needed a normal fix?
I have to give credit to the people who came up with the really unique recipes, which were judged in competition. Most of the restaurants that were there had tasting plates with savory snacks; all of the BLTs were made by restaurants. The competition food on the other hand was extremely unique and the majority of it mixed bacon with some type of sweet.
It was a tie when it came to picking my favorite, it was a toss up between the bacon pop tart and the bacon eclair. When it came to the pop tart I really enjoyed it because the pastry wasn't too sweet, it was a nice balance with the bacon because bacon can be an overwhelming flavor. It was one of the few things I wanted to go back and eat, the only problem was they were eaten every quickly. The eclair had a really interesting brown sugar flavoring that was the most unique in the competition. Plus there were baby eclairs so you could eat more than one. The bacon flavoring in this was very understated and it seems like a very classy desert.
So today I salute bacon camp and that amazing bacon owl structure you see in the picture. No, you could not eat this, or the neighboring picture of Kevin Bacon, but it was totally made up for with the half a pig I consumed.

Day 238

Blurb: This shit is insane.

Backstory: Who knew people in Columbus would get so excited over food trucks? I certainly didn't expect it when I headed out to the first food truck festival. It was so incredibly crowded when I got there you couldn't move. Some of the lines for the trucks were a hundred people deep and there were only two beverage tents at the event (and when I say beverage tents I mean any type of drink). It was a great event for the vendors but when it came to people who actually wanted to eat it sucked.
I don't think the event planners were prepared for the number of people that would show up. One of the local sites says 12,000 people attended the six hour food-fest. It was held on the Columbus Commons and that place was totally packed, children were running around like pacts of wild animals while I was trying to get food. This added to my upset along with the fact that I couldn't get a grilled cheese sandwich from the grilled cheese truck. It was an ok time, so whatever.

Day 237

Blurb: I am now committed to fantasy football.

Backstory: A couple years ago I tried playing fantasy football but a quickly lost interest. Things are going to be different this year, I've committed to playing in a league at work and I want to make sure I have at least a non-embarrassing showing. The best part about participating in fantasy football is picking a name for your team. Guys are pretty funny and come up with a lot of good names; I believe my friend Drew has the most epic name: Hurricane Ditka. I settled on Toddlers, Tiaras and Ditka for my team but here's the list of names I considered:
My Big Fat Fantasy Football Team
DD Divas
One Eyed Dog Wonders
Big Fat Crying Babies
Irish Cream in Your Coffee
Mohawk Street Zombies
Columbia Heights Rejects
The Green Line.
I'm pretty happy with my choice and I found a really creepy picture of a little girl to use as my logo. Needless to say this season's off to a pretty good start.

Day 236

I forgot to push the magazine this month, so that's what's happening today. There are only a few days left in the month so head out today and pick one up.

Day 235

Blurb: If I'm ever gonna land me a husband I better learn to cook.

Backstory: Dad's out of town which means mom and I are not really eating like normal people. What you see in the picture is what I made for dinner: heat up TGI-Friday's buffalo bites and ice cream. Now, originally this is just what I was going to have for dinner but mom's sewing appointment ran late, so she joined in. Here's what she said after we decided to heat up the whole box of buffalo bites:
"So what else are we fixing?
Me "I wasn't going to fix anything else. I was just going to have this and ice cream."
After that mom started laughed and cut herself a cucumber. I was very happy with the meal and she didn't seem to complain. The buffalo bites definitely weren't as good as last night's wings but they got the job done.

Day 234

Blurb: Departing from my normal Hooters experience.

Backstory: For about the last two weeks I've been craving hot wings and the last couple days the cravings became unbearable. Thank goodness mom finally gave in today and went with me to a local place called Roosters. It's a departure from our normal outings at Hooters, but the food is just as good, they even have mac and cheese bites. The wings fulfilled my every wish and the blue cheese on the side was fantastic, leaving me a very happy camper.
What kind of funny about all of this is I didn't start eating hot wings until about two years ago. My family has always loved going out to Roosters but I always got wings with mild sauce, now I can't get enough of the hot stuff. This past year I've found how funny it is that our tastes really do change as we get older. I've started eating salads and spicier food. Hopefully my palate will expand more this year because I really need to stop eating crap.

Day 233

Blurb: Getting a little sand.

Backstory: This is only the second volleyball game I've played in this season. A couple games have been rained out and I didn't show up to last week's match. The rain actually held off and it was a beautiful day to get out on the court. We've kept our losing streak alive; we've only won one game and that's because the other team didn't show up.
Even with that fact we played pretty well today. In my humble opinion it was the best we've ever played, and definitely the best I've played this season. Take this all with a grain of salt because again we are playing at a bar (maybe it was the two beers before hand that helped me). The only bad thing about playing volleyball in the sand is that you end up with little granules in places you didn't think sand could get. I found some on the back of my neck while I was taking a shower, hopefully that means I was trying hard.

Day 232

Blurb: I'm so in love with this couch right now.

Backstory: My move in date on Mohawk Street is slowly approaching and all I want to do is buy stuff. Today Jenny's in town and we went for a little stroll through the Short North. Of course we went into my favorite housewares consignment store where I came face to face with this beautiful couch. I've been looking for the perfect centerpiece for my living room and I think this could be it. Look at the way it curves and the deep seating area. It's so unique and because the slip cover is so nondescript there are thousands of options for decorating.
Now that I've let all this glee wash over me let's get back to reality: I don't move for a month, I don't have anywhere to put it and you should never buy furniture until you've moved into a place. What happens if I buy my one true love and it doesn't fit. I would be $800 lighter and in need of a new couch. Plus, I kind of want to recover this but my mom doesn't know if she can do it. While I have confidence she can it only matters that she thinks she can do it. So right now I'm in love couch limbo trying to decide what to do.

Day 231

Blurb: Look at those, those are vacuum marks.

Backstory: It's official, this is the cleanest my car has EVER been. Back in May I bought a Groupon for car detailing and it was finally my turn today to get my car cleaned (yes, it really was a three month wait on their calendar). Even though I was frustrated with the wait it was totally worth it because my car was really gross. Not only was it just dirty in general, there was dog hair all over and even a little cat hair from when I moved to DC almost two years ago. All this has changed now, my leather seats have been shined so much I slide off them whenever I make a hard turn and my carpets have been cleaned. I can say without a doubt this is the best Groupon I've ever bought because I would have never done something this extensive to my car by myself.

Day 230

Blurb: I'm fighting the urge to buy books about travel.

Backstory: The countdown is on until my trip to San Francisco, and I'm ready to leave right now. I've got about a month and a half until I actually take off, which is a good thing because I like to have time to study up on the city I'm visiting. All I wanted to do today was go a buy a guide book from Barnes and Noble, but I had to be strong and visit the library because buying one of the books is useless; they become outdated quickly and I'll only use it once. These are the three I picked up from the library this afternoon after working a 10+ hour shift. The main thing they all have in common: they all have a lot of pictures.

Day 229

Blurb: Getting ready for Pelotonia.

Backstory: There's a great grass roots event in Columbus called Pelotonia. It's a massive bike ride to raise money to cure cancer; their slogan is "End Cancer. Period." I'm lucky to work with some inspiring people who are riding in the event this year; my editor Natasha is riding over 40 miles and one of our reporters, Maria - who's had breast cancer and survived a second scare, is riding over a hundred.
Both are riding with the same team called "Riding in Stile" and they had an amazing event tonight at the Smith Brother's Hardware building downtown. Thank goodness I actually wore nice close because it was a classy event with booze and small food on plates. I'm happy to support the ladies in their ride because it's a grueling test of strength and will. Good Luck this weekend.

Day 228

Say hello to mom's Rose of the Valley or something flower. It's blooming in the backyard and that's really what's going on in my life. I'm still reeling from yesterday's workout because I'm a wuss. Though, I did make some delicious sweet potato fries.

Day 227

Blurb: Such a pretty place, do bad things went downhill fast.

Backstory: I'm never one to shy away from an embrassing story even when it involves myself. So here's a tale for you to enjoy:
My entire year has revolved around dropping my excess lbs. Today I was feeling ambitious (which I always am on Mondays) and I decided to go out to the new park in Columbus and attend one of the free bootcamps. It was a beautiful day outside and it seemed like the perfect evening plan, plus I was pretty confident that I was in good shape enough to not embarrass myself in public. Boy was I wrong.
The trainers started out by having us run, they specifically said fast as if zombies were chasing you, around a city block. Things went well for the first leg of the block then they slowly went downhill as almost everyone in the class passed me. At this point I still have my wits about me but my chest is burning, so they segway into high knees and butt kicks. I participated in this a little but walked most of the way.
We did a few more running activities then segwayed to doing the wheel barrel with a partner and that's when it all came crashing down. My partner and I did the length of the yard then I became totally incoherent. This has never happened to be before' my world just started spinning, I had to sit down and I knew I had to vomit. So I left the work out, walked over to a trash can and threw up. Luckily it wasn't a scene, no one really noticed but I was a still a little embarrassed.
One girl did come over and asked if I was ok, I sheepishly said yes. She was very kind and told me it was the hardest part of the work out. After that I gathered my wits about me and headed back out and finished the class working at my own pace. Needless to say I won't be going back anytime soon.

Day 226

Blurb: Meat, meat, meat. Let's eat meat.

Backstory: This week it was my friend Megan's birthday and we had a late celebration today. Her husband (and our good buddy) Brian works overnights Tuesday through Saturday so this was the most convenient day for everyone to meet up. As we age it seems more difficult to get everyone together, plus Megan's changed her last name, which is a little creepy. Even though they've been together for eight years when I reentered her contact information in my new phone I still listed her under her maiden name.

Day 225

Update: My iPhone is working please email me or text me your numbers.

Blurb: I love going to the farmers market.

Backstory: The North Market is one of my favorite places in Columbus. There's always something going on and I love the extensive selection of local vendors. I could easily take a hundred dollars in there and leave with nothing and an incredibly full stomach.
Today was the Farmers' Market festival so mom, dad and I took to the market for a big lunch and some local produce. If you ever get the chance to go to the North Market you have to get a Belgian waffle from Taste of Belgium, it's possibly the best thing I've eaten which says a lot. The irons have this weird caramelization on them creating a crunchy, sweet outside and when you bite in there's this not too sweet, thick waffle. My words cannot do it justice just go there and get one. Today I had it with Jeni's Strawberry Buttermilk ice cream and Milkiest Chocolate in the world. It was very good but honestly all you really need with waffle is a good cup of coffee.

Day 224

Blurb: One of the last remaining adults without an iPhone now has one.

Backstory: Earlier this week my phone bit the dust. I have no clue why but the touch screen stopped working, which meant I could only receive call and nothing else. I'd been pretty happy with the second hand Samsung phone, it sent texts and made calls plus I actually liked the keyboard. Now, even though I'd been happy with the Samsung I always kind of wanted an iPhone. What can I say, I wanted to tweet, take instagram pictures of the dog and use Google Maps.
The situation with the dead touch screen meant I actually had to get a knew phone and that's what you see above: my new iPhone. Thank goodness it only took two days to get the new phone because I'm always worried my car will break down or I'll get in an emergency when I don't have a phone. When I opened the box everything was roses and apps, I plugged it in and took a nap. After dinner I got serious about setting up the phone and it went fairly smoothly until it came to connecting to the network.
What was supposed to be an easy set up turned into an evening eating ordeal. When it was all said and done I'd spent an hour and twenty minutes on the phone with AT&T customer service and still didn't have a working phone. While this is extremely frustrating I tried to remind myself that this was clearly a first world problem. Children are starving across the Horn of Africa and I'm complaining that I can't tweet what I had for dinner. Now I have to go to an AT&T store tomorrow, hopefully that experience won't last over a hour.

Day 223

Blurb: Hey fake Woody Hayes.

Backstory: It's been a busy week for me, finishing up my magazine articles. I had a two hour lunch today with a man playing Woody Hayes in a local play. The main difference between interviewing young people and old people is exactly this. On Tuesday my coffee with a local burlesque whose in her 30s only last for 25 minutes. The man said it was so much more conducive to having a good experience, and it was a nice lunch but about an hour too long for me. I don't sit still very well especially when I'm changing my sleep schedule, so needless to say I'm a little grumpy.

Day 222

Blurb: So this is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Not even NYC or LA has a cycle tavern.

Backstory: I'm staying up late today working on a story for 614, it's about the new cycle tavern that just started in Columbus. Unfortunately for the few of you that read this I'm keeping mum because I want you to read the article when it comes out. Let's just say it's one of the neatest things I've ever seen and I'm now looking for events that I could book it for. This says a lot because I've seen a lot of things and am not easily impressed. Might I possilby book it for birthday or morning team bonding, perhaps?

Day 221

I forgot to take a picture this day and I don't want to tell the story without the picture. Will update later in the week. I'm a little frazzled with a couple projects and my segment producer being out of town (Julia please hurry back).

Day 220

Blurb: Happy new shoes Monday!

Backstory: While I like looking at shoes, my feet don't enjoy wearing many different styles. Expensive high heels may be fun to look at, but I'm in touch with reality. I know I'm never going to wear them and when I do I'm going to complain that my feet hurt. Plus, I work at night were people only see what I'm wearing if I point it out and say "HEY, look at this."
If you're not a fan of boat shoes I'm sorry, because I love them. The pair you see above now makes me the proud owner of multiple pairs. They're incredibly comfy and JCrew has teamed up with Sperry to make some adorable limited edition ones. I wear my gold pair almost every day to work but I had intended they be for special occasion, which I why I'm so thrilled with today's arrival. When I wake up tomorrow morning I'm going to be a little more excited because I'll have these babies to slip on.

Day 219

Blurb: If I had a business this is the sign that would be out in front.

Backstory: I'm a sucker for flea markets. It's a little disappointing being in Columbus because there aren't any stand out events like the Georgetown Flea or Brooklyn Flea, which I've been told is epic. Luckily there's a group of people trying to put together an upstanding little gathering in the Short North and they held their second annual event today. I wasn't incredibly impressed but it was a nice start.
There were a lot of vendors selling homemade t-shirts that said something about Columbus or life in Ohio. Then there were my favorite booths, the ones selling the old stuff which consisted of small collectibles. That was my main beef with the event, there weren't more people selling large items like side tables and chairs. I have boxes filled with nick-nacks and my mother has generations of collections in the crawl space; so there was a lot of stuff I'd never buy.
With that said, I do hope the organizers keep up the good work. It was organized, clean and in a good location. Hopefully this thing will grow and that will bring in people who have larger pieces to offer and not just little collectible.

Day 218

Blurb: Manly men throwing bags of hay in skirts.

Backstory: There's a small, wealthy community outside of Columbus called Dublin. There aren't really a lot of Irish people there but they love to celebrate their heritage once a year with a big festival. Today I went with my sister, her boy friend and one of their friends to the festival. Luckily we went in the late morning so things weren't to hot, but this quickly changed as the minutes ticked away.
It was my first time going, and I must say, even though it's very expensive it was enjoyable. Instead of having lots of typical fair/festival nick-nacks they had vendors selling specifically Irish things, and I think there were a few sellers who might have been specifically imported from the Emerald Isle. The most entertaining part of the festival is what you see above, The Highland Games. Contestants do a lot of different things that all revolve around throwing something heavy. That could be a large rock (seriously, that was one of the events) or tossing a little telephone pole. So it was a happy Saturday, but I'm glad we left when we did because it got really hot.

Day 217

Happy Friday! I'm relaxing by enjoying some stuffed crust pizza and beer. It's not a very eventful day but I'm very happy that I just ate and went to sleep. So enjoy your day.

Day 216

Blurb: It's time to eat some expensive food for free.

Backstory: If you've learned anything about me by reading this it's that I like the less than finer things in life. My normal attire is based around yoga pants and I eat food that's similar to what teens enjoy. This is not to say that I don't enjoy the finer things in life; an expensive handbag, seared scallops, a nice glass of wine but they're just not things I indulge in regularly.
I start out by telling you this because tonight I spent some time with the civilized folk at the Taste of Columbus. It's a fancy event where the best restaurants in Columbus present little tasting plates and local spirit makers give out tiny samples. This all raises money for the Ohio Health network, so the fanciest people in town show up to socialize with their friends and semi-friends. Tickets are $50 each, a price I normally wouldn't pay but I got to go for free.
The event was amazing. I had some great scallops in a rich French sauce, corn fritters with basil jelly and lobster and of course my favorite, Jeni's ice cream. Along with the food I got to try some great micro-distillery spirits made here in Columbus. They had a really smooth tasting honey vanilla vodka and I'm actually going to buy a bottle of later. I've very glad I went, but I'm even happier that I didn't pay to go.

Day 215

Blurb: Another day another magazine.

Backstory: Happy monthly editorial meeting from 614 magazine. This isn't going to be a busy month for me, which can be a good or bad thing. The most interesting assignment to come from the meeting is actually for next month, I'll be competing in one of Columbus' many eating challenges for October's cover story. Three other people will be tackling a burrito, hot dog mess and hot wings; for my part I'll be taking on a seven and a half pound omelet at the Hang Over Easy on OSU's campus.
I've always been fascinated by competitive eating for many reasons; the worshipping of gluttony, the people covered in hot messes and the food. It's hilarious and exhilarating at the same time. During my 30-minute contest I must put down an omelet consisting of 12 eggs, ham, sausage, bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, sausage gravy and five biscuits. I'd like everyone to know I don't like peppers or onions and I only like tomatoes on occasion. I'm pretty much doing this because it will be hilarious and I've always secretly wanted to gorge myself.
Needless to say the odds are stacked against me. My normal egg breakfast consists of three eggs, a slice of cheese, ketchup and toast on the side. I would estimate this omelet is about 10 times what I eat. So far 53 people have tried and all have failed, one guy even failed twice. I'll let everyone know when I'm doing this so you can all come and cheer me on.

Day 214

Blurb: Who knows maybe I will leave my heart in San Francisco.

Backstory: It's a pretty big day for me; I've officially booked a vacation at the beginning of October. I will be going to visit my friend Taylor in San Francisco for a short five day experience. Katy Perry says there's nothing like the Golden Coast and I have to say I'm intrigued by this whole west coast place. I've only been west of the Mississippi once to visit Las Vegas so this is a new experience for me.
I don't really know much about the city beside the facts that there are lots of songs about San Francisco, Alfred Hitchcock filled some movies there, they have a big bridge and Full House was set there (you can bet running around that park from the opening shot is on my list of things to do). They also have a prison surrounded by water that I'm really excited to visit, there's nothing like walking in the same steps as criminal. Also on the agenda: riding a cable car, looking for the Full House house and eating some Ghiradelli chocolate. So here's to living my heart and a bit of my wallet in the city by the bay.

Day 213

Why hello there hotness. I didn't realize how funny this picture would be until looking at it in the view finder, I look like a zombie. In reality it's just a way to amuse myself by putting on a clay mask. So I hope you enjoy this really funny picture of me getting an at home spa treatment.

Day 212

Blurb: Why hello there sandy leg.

Backstory: Sand volleyball has officially started with us losing our first game. It's not a big deal because it's pretty much drunk volleyball. I was just happy to be out there hitting the ball around, even though I can no longer serve overhand (this is very embarrassing). What you see above is my leg after falling in the sand, which I did a couple times. I would have taken a picture at the volleyball court but I forgot to, so sorry about that. Here's to hoping the season gets better, but it doesn't really matter because I had fun and I secretly like going to Flannigans even thought it's a little trashy.