Day 272

Blurb: Hello nugget Jeni's.

Backstory: I really don't need a reason to go to Jeni's but tonight I got one. The shop near my house is the only walk-up in the city and that means it's seasonal. Today Jeni's tweeted that my store will be closing for the winter on October 1st, for those of you keeping track that's on Saturday. As I'm going to be out of town this weekend it was my duty to walk the couple blocks and eat some delicious ice cream. I also figured out that you get bigger scoops when you get a waffle cone.

Day 271

Blurb: I'm really good at making friends with my neighbors.

Backstory: Living within two blocks of a pizza place is a good decision wrapped in a bad one. When I lived in DC Red Rock Pizza was only a block and a half from my place, and that's about the same as Harvest Pizza here in German Village. Tonight I convinced myself that I needed to order pizza because I'm going on vacation in two days and I don't want to smell up my house. Last night's cooking incident has made me a little gun shy, which is how I justified ordering the delicious pie you see above.
Overall this was a really good artisan pizza. So far this is the only place I've found in Columbus that uses a special oven pizza oven besides California Pizza Kitchen. Even compared to the fancy pizza places in DC this one was pretty good. I think the best part was the crust. The cooks didn't over char the bottom and the dough had a great flavor. Let's just say I'll be going there again, especially since I realized I can look at the menu on my iPhone then hit the call button and get a pizza.

Day 270

Blurb: First homemade dinner in the new place.

Backstory: When I moved into my new place I had to get new pans because I have a convection stove top. The only pans I could find that would work were stainless steals ones, something I've never used. Tonight I attempted my first homemade dinner using my new plates and stove, let's just say it didn't go well. I've never cooked on pans that weren't nonstick and on a stove that wasn't gas. I burned the fish that I was cooking and left a lot of brown stuff on the veggies. There was just something about the whole experience that I couldn't control. It should be noted that I'm not a bad cook. When I spent a couple months unemployed two years ago I did most of the family cooking and became pretty good in the kitchen. Well, apparently this experience isn't translating. My new goal is to learn how to cook with these pans without making the house smell.

Day 269

Blurb: I'm doing some hearts and minds PR and meeting my neighbors.

Backstory: The best thing about moving to German Village is getting to eat at all the places I used to think were out of the way. It was only a matter of time before I went to Katzinger's Deli. It's one of the main restaurants in the area and it's right off the freeway, so when you're driving home you can't miss it. Tonight mom and dad came over to work on a few little things and they treated me to dinner before they started working. I had a Reuben with no sauerkraut (it's called a Rachael) and some chips. The best part is what you see above, the treats we brought home. My dad decided to get a couple things and I had a few rugalas, which I plan on eating for breakfast.

Day 268

Blurb: Hooray for new toys!!

Backstory: I've been waiting for months to get a new camera. Most of the pictures you see on the blog were either taken by my iPhone or my parents' fancy SLR camera. Now that I've moved out the SLR camera had to stay with them and I need to get something of my own. Months ago I cashed in my credit card points for some Best Buy gift cards and I finally used them today. I bought the Nikon camera you see above. For weeks I've been doing research trying to find the perfect point-and-shoot camera and this model has been at the top of most lists. One of the main reason I finally decided to pull the trigger is that in just a few days I'll be leaving for San Francisco (first time in California) and I want to make sure I can take some rockin' pictures. Now I just have to figure out how to use this thing.

Day 267

Blurb: It's true, Ohio against the world.

Backstory: The Columbus Crew has been in the city for 15 years and I've only been to a game once, about 13 years ago. My friend Drew, on the other hand, goes many times during the year and sits in the supporters section. This may sound surprising, but I actually like soccer and find it very mesmerizing. It's a lot like watching the ocean go back and forth, unless you're there.
Drew and his girlfriend Alice were nice enough to take me to the game tonight and let me sit in the supporters section. Plus, they brought a sign for me to carry, which you see above. There are two words to describe sitting with the hardcore fans: rowdy and intense. When it comes to being rowdy you should know you can drink at Crew Stadium. This helps fuel the fire of people yelling and jumping up and down, because let's be honest, no normal person would do that for 90 minutes unless they were drunk.
As for the intense part there's lots of yelling and dressing up. It was black out the LA Galaxy night so I wore an all black outfit and a headband made out of shoelaces. Let's just say I was woefully under dressed. 85% of the people who sit in the section have a jersey of some type and 10% come in crazy costumes that involve bright yellow spandex body suits. The outfits are only the beginning, next there are the flags. I was on total sensory overload when we arrived because there were so many things going on, I felt like a kid at Chuck-E-Cheese. People bring lots of flags and wave them before the game starts. I couldn't stop watching as other fans almost got hit in the head by these larger than life supporter signs.
Next was probably my favorite thing: the chanting and cheering. If you know me you know I enjoy being loud and look for any reason to shout. These people yell the entire game. They have a cheer for almost every occasion and many times these little ditties involve swearing. My favorite one from the night was "Shit on those bastards below." It's a catchy little song that is about a bird pooping on people as it flies by.
If you have a chance, go to a game and sit the the crazies. I'm pretty sure there's only one game left this year and it's against DC United. Make sure you drink a little before because you'll be doing a lot of yelling and jumping. And don't forget to give the usher a hug as you enter or leave the supports section. He gives everyone a hug and says "Welcome home."

Day 266

Blurb: Shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Backstory: This picture might be of poor quality but hopefully the message gets through. We went out to the piano bar tonight for my friend Alan's birthday. The piano bar is really the perfect place for him because he loves singing along and getting drunk. It's like the big kid version of music class with songs that don't suck. I love going here but I have a habit of racking up major bills, but luckily for my wallet I was on good behavior. So tonight I salute you Alan, I've known you for almost 20 years, here's to another 20.

Day 265

Blurb: Bribing Sadie to like things is the best thing in the world.

Backstory: I feel like I'm writing a novella on my move. Every day I do a few things, just nothing big. Today was kind of a big step because I brought Sadie over for the first time. I've had the keys for exactly a week and she's never paid a visit. Getting her adjusted is probably going to be the hardest part of this whole experience because she really seems to like living with mom and dad. Whenever we're in a difficult situation I like to give her treats to not only distract her but to develop the positive association of treat equals this new place. Hopefully she'll fall for it and this move will be easy.

Day 264

Blurb: Stuff, stuff, stuff and more stuff.

Backstory: Right now I am in a constant state of using my credit card. I could end up in one of those situations were the credit card company calls me and asked why I haven't used it today. This is one of the bad things about moving; there are lots of little things that I need that eventually add up into one big bill. Today that meant heading to the dreaded Walmart where you can unfortunately get everything.
The floor in my new place is covered with stuff, as you can see from the picture. I don't put anything away, I just keep throwing more things on the floor. Luckily this isn't a problem because I'm not sleeping there yet. Hopefully I'll be getting my shit together and actually sleeping there soon.

Sorry for the Delay

No, I haven't stopped posting. For the past week and a half I've been in a constant state of moving stuff. Needless to say it's been very annoying and I didn't have a steady internet connection. My goal this week is to catch up on these posts before I go on vacation so I can get behind again. So click on this one and just keep clicking through.

Day 263

Blurb: Doing some mega shopping.

Backstory: The move that never ends has taken one step forward: I now own the necessary equipment to make food. Unlike 90% of the apartments in the world, mine does not come with a microwave. What you see above are all the expensive things I needed to get my apartment up and running; a microwave, vacuum, and pots and pans. Along with not having a microwave, the stove I have is called an induction cooktop and requires special pans. After looking through all the different sets at the store there was only one that was usable on my stove and that's what you see. So now I'm going to learn to cook on stainless steal cookware. Hopefully I'll use them when I eventually get my shit together and move in.

Day 262

Blurb: Yeah, take a look at this.

Backstory: Tonight Monica and I were planning to go to our favorite restaurant Dirty Franks but when we got there it was closed for employee appreciation night. I was incredibly disappointed because I was really looking forward to having some delicious tater-tots. Instead we went to another restaurant named Tip Top, it's owned by the same person who owns Dirty Franks.
While I was disappointed in not eating hot dogs, I've been wanting to go to Tip Top for a long time because they have sweat potato fries and it's in a really urban part of downtown. What you see above is the Monte Cristo sandwich with sweet potato fries in the backgrounds. The sandwich was a little overwhelming, there was just so much meat, butter, and mustard. If this tells you anything I only ate half the sandwich, and I'm always a member of the clean plate club. If I go there again I'm just getting two orders of sweet potato fries.

Day 261

Today I'm not posting a picture out of choice. What started out as a day of working around my apartment turned out into an awful situation at mom and dad's. There was an incident involving Sadie and one of the family cats, Tigger. Maybe some day I'll tell you about it but right now I'm not there. It felt wrong to take a picture and I'm not sure how much I want to remember what happened. I know very creepy writing.

Day 260

Blurb: Slow and steady wins the race.

Backstory: Of course things have been a little up and down with the moving. We've been trying to decide how much should actually be moved in because there's a contractor who's doing work. Right now most of stuff that's in the house is related to the kitchen or my load of books. This move has taught me that I have a lot of outdated books and that I need to give some away. I've also learned to set loafty goals. For instance, my goal is to have all my stuff moved in before I leave for San Francisco on October 1st.

Day 259

Blurb: This is what was happening last year in DC.

Backstory: Today mom, dad and I moved all my packed boxes over to the new place. These boxes have been packed for almost exactly a year and I didn't realize it until I started unwrapping my glasses. It was kind of funny when I realized all my breakables were wrapped in copies of the Washington Post Express that I had hoarded from the Metro.
I must say, though, it's been a kind of stressful day. My place was missing all the smoke detectors and the tub still hadn't been fixed (even though they knew about it). I had to go over and wait at the house for a handyman to come and install the detectors, but here's the catch, he never came. At least I got the kitchen put away.

Day 258

Blurb: First thing to do when you move.

Backstory: Today I got my keys for my new place. Because it's a Thursday I didn't move anything in, but I did make some ice cubes because you can never have enough of those. Right now there's still a little left to do in the apartment. The shower needs to be re-grouted and a point in the ceiling needs to be fixed. I'm optimistic but I feel like I'll be obsessed with fixing little things and working in the yard.

Day 257

Blurb: A little midweek treat.

Backstory: I know I said I'd never eat yogurt when given the chance to eat real ice cream, but I went back on that statement today. For some odd reason I really wanted to get some fro-yo; mainly because I wanted the toppings. I was a little disappointed because they didn't have the cake batter flavor, which is my favorite. Also, Cuzzins is much better than Orange Leaf.

Day 256

Blurb: Where great decisions are made.

Backstory: If you read Sunday's post you'll know that I spent some time cozying up with the floor this weekend. Because I'm a good hostess, I gave our two guests the spare beds and my sister my bed when they all came to visit this weekend. This meant I slept on a pallet on the floor. At the time it wasn't a big deal because I had a few drinks that evening and my level of pain/knowledge/caring was very low. That all changed when fully functioning me woke up with a stiff next on Sunday.
Today I went to a chiropractors' office and got a massage (sounds weird, I know). The worst part about a massage is knowing the I'm going to be sore tomorrow because I never drink enough water. The best part, however, is going to bed right after and being able to move my neck. I need to figure out a way to keep my muscles from getting so tense, hopefully today's little adventure will keep me in fighting shape for my weekend move.

Day 255

Blurb: The moving machine has been activated.

Backstory: Tonight in the shower I had an epiphany: Mo' stuff, mo' problems. I need to find a way to make sure I don't overload myself with possessions. No, I'm not making some kind of hippie rant with this statement. When you have more stuff you have to move more stuff, and as someone who's getting ready to change residences for the third time in two years this is not fun.
What you see in today's picture is about a fourth of my possessions. When I moved back from DC I didn't unpack the majority of my stuff because I'm living with my parents. So for the past year all these boxes have sat scattered through out their house waiting for the day when it's time for a place of their own. Tonight I achieved my goal of getting all my boxes out of the spare room, this was about six or seven trips up and down the stairs.
Needless to say after going up and down the stairs twice I realized how much it's going to suck when I have to start getting the majority of boxes from the basement. If I didn't have mo' stuff, I'd get to make fewer trips during the moving process. So, from now on when I want to buy something I'm going to think, "do I love this enough to carry it up and down the stairs twice?"

Day 254

Blurb: This was my best friend today.

Backstory: Yesterday's picture might not have shown it but we definitely pushed the limits last night at Amy's goodbye party. In reality we've been pushing the limits all week, drinking every night and eating lots of bad food. Plus we're all old people and we've been staying up too late every night. After sleeping on a plate on the floor last night I definitely had met my limit. The result of all that fun living meant I took an unsuccessful nap on the couch, then moved to my bed when my sister (who used my bed this weekend) left. I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening sleeping in my own bed.

Day 253

Blurb: One last cuddle.

Backstory: News is a revolving door. People move every couple years and it's always very sad, especially when the people leaving are your friends. The lady on the right is my buddy Amy (she's been staying with us this week), and tonight was her goodbye party. We all convened at a great little restaurant called 11 and drank a decent amount of alcohol. A wonderful evening was had by everyone, bye boo.

Day 252

Blurb: There's a first time for everything.

Backstory: It was a great night for baseball, especially because I've never been to Huntington Park. The Clippers opened this ballpark about two years ago, right when I was leaving for DC. I didn't necessarily agree with the park when it was being built because it closed the old Cooper stadium on the city's west side. It was a staple of my youth and I spent many great nights out there feeling like I was on the set of Bull Durham. But after going to this park for the first time I'm glad they built it.
The attendance was so much more than I'd ever seen at Cooper stadium and the facility itself is extremely nice. It feels like a major league ballpark, plus there are lots of open spaces to hang out. My friend Amy and I went there for the last Dime-a-Dog of the year, which is one of my favorite things ever. This is another event I haven't been to in years, so it was extremely exciting to finally get to go.
They only let you buy five hot dogs at a time because they're only a dime and they don't want you to overload and waste. I proudly ate four and a half of my five hot dogs and didn't feel that bad when I finished. My dime-a-dog night record is five, so I came pretty close to meeting it. I look forward to going to some more games next year that don't involve food promotions.

Day 251

This is pretty much what happens in my life: pizza and beer. August and this beginning part of September have been pretty boring when it comes to posts. Hopefully I'll be on my A game in the coming 114 days.

Day 250

Blurb: You can't stop the Ugg boot train.

Backstory: I don't change my wardrobe by season because I work inside and it's pretty much cold all year round in our office. The only thing I change is my footwear; during the spring and summer seasons I wear Sperry topsiders or flip flop. When it comes to fall and winter I only need one pair of shoes: Uggs. By bringing the Uggs out of the closet this marks my change in seasons; once I bring them out they don't go back in, there's no going back. I first fell in love with the sheepskin boots back in college, when all the sorority girls were wearing them. As someone who always has cold feet, the boots were a dream come true because they're the only shoes that can keep my feet warm.

Day 249

When you stay at the Cultice house we like to live big. That means stuffed crust pizza, beer and some scratch off tickets. Amy is in shock with the awesomeness.

Day 248

Sorry I forgot to take a picture today. My friend Amy is staying with us so hopefully we'll find some fun stuff to do.

Day 247

Blurb: Happy Birthday to me!!

Backstory: That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's my birthday. Today I turned 26, please hold your applause. I'm a firm believer that after you turn 21 you really don't celebrate another big birthday until 30 and so on. I stood behind this belief today by going to the outlet mall with my mom and eating at the Japanese steakhouse. As for the outlet mall it was disappointing because they didn't have anything I wanted. That's the way it always is, you go there and you can't buy anything but you find everything. Then if you go and you expect to buy something you can't find anything.
As for the second part of my day the Japanese steak house is always fun and it's very corny. I feel like going to the hibachi grill thing is very tourist thing to do even if you're in your own town. There's just something about watching an Asian person cook my food on an open flame that's still really fun. Plus, I honestly like the food. As my mom said it's like reading Playboy for the articles.

Day 246

Blurb: It's the first OSU game.

Backstory: For everyone out there hoping I'd do something amazing for the game you're going to be disappointed. Because my parents have a 50+ inch tv it's actually really nice to stay at home and worship that thing. So here's my review of this first non-Tressel Saturday: Disappointing. Even though the Buckeyes won there was something missing. I'm not really sure what it was but the game just didn't feel normal. This can be attributed to a couple different factors, first and foremost we were playing Akron and they're an utterly awful team.
Second, Jim Tressel(sigh). I'm sorry, I'm going to be in mourning about this for a long time. Charlotte from Sex and the City said it takes have the time of your relationship for your to get over a break-up. If you're together for two years it takes a year to get over it; translate that to Jim Tressel and I've got five rough years ahead of me.
The game was a little promising, I mean, Joe Bauserman isn't bad. He can actually complete passes and there's that little running back and that guy from Dublin; they're giving us some hope. Coach Fickell just needs to keep adding wins and develop a signature clothing style, then I'll be all for it because the best remedy for my football depression is more wins.

Day 245

Blurb: Hello computer

Backstory: I've decided to expand my limited computer skills by learning Photoshop. Let me say this is an incredibly frustrating program and I know realize why people get paid to make pretty pictures. There are things like layering and adjusting color levels, plus there are tons of buttons. I've spent the evening trying to adjust one picture and I'm going to need some serious help figuring this out. Any assistants welcome.

Day 244

Blurb: I was so excited to get the IKEA catalogue I almost live blogged it.

Backstory: When the IKEA catalogue comes out every summer it's like Christmas comes early. The only problem is it takes forever to get it via snail mail, this little beauty took almost a month to arrive at my door. Needless to say when I opened the mail box I knew what I'd be doing all evening: snuggling up to unrealistic organizational expectations.
The IKEA catalogue is essentially organization porn. Every page is filled to the brim with little gadgets designed to help you find a place for every kitchen utensil and bathroom item you could every purchase. The only problem is these wonderful Swedish ideas for organization are almost impossible for the average person to execute. I dream of kitchen drawers that look like the picture you see above, and who knows I might exceed my expectations and make my new house look like this.

Day 243

Blurb: Just another Wednesday night.

Backstory: For the past month I've been on a hot food kick and this week I took it a little overboard. On Sunday night I decided I wanted to put a ton of jalapenos on my dinner and the next morning it felt like I was breathing fire. The burn lasted so long by Tuesday I'd sworn off anything spicy for a while; but as we know things can change quickly, that's how I ended up at Roosters. Hot wings are just so good, especially when they're with beer. I just made a change tonight hoping to avoid the burn, I took Mylanta to hopefully avoid an awful morning.