BlogOhio.Andy.Com Revisited

I was in Ohio again for the last week and a half so it is time for the obligatory BlogOhio post. Rather than walk you through day by day I thought I would just give you some highlights. Just to mix it up a little. I'm a big fan of change and all that.

Piketon Dogwood Festival
On Friday night it was the Piketon Dogwood Festival. Piketon is a town of about 1,000 people and I guess they have dogwood trees so they festive for them. It was pretty fun, kind of a small town county fair sort of feel. We had a deep fried dinner which included deep fried pickles, deep fried hot dogs, deep fried cheese (on a stick), and deep fried oreos. Total caloric value of 1 million. The deep fried pickles were actually pretty good; they just tasted like dill pickles with breading. The weird part was that the pickle was hot, and nobody likes hot pickles. Except maybe pregnant people and that stork that inexplicably hangs out on the pickle jar. There were a few game booths and the usual booths selling overpriced dog or wood themed trinkets. The festival was in the streets (like a block party) so there were also people selling things out of their front yard. So next to the fried pickle booth was a dilapidated lawn mower for sale. Odd juxtaposition, but so be it.

National Air Force Museum
This is in Dayton, OH and if you are ever near there you should go visit. It is three hangars full of airplanes and other air force gear. It was way cool. I didn't appreciate the size of a B2 bomber or a Blackbird until I stood right next to it. We also got to go over to a separate hangar where they had presidential planes and R&D type stuff. After watching several seasons of 24 I expected the presidential planes to be 6 stories with pools and saunas on every other floor, but they were actually just planes. It was weird because they just looked like the planes you used to fly in the '80's. Not you personally flying them, but flying on them mind you. They had Kennedy's plane and I got to stand in the exact spot Johnson stood when he was sworn in. Kind of cool to be attached to history like that.

Forbidden Kingdom
Its a new movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was okay, but I gave it its own heading because I like to use bold and italics. I normally go to a movie on Friday night when travelling on business just to stay out of the hotel room. I was thankful this movie was out because the last few times I was on business there wasn't anything worth watching. I saw Next (with Nicholas Cage) and the only thing next about it was that it was the next crappy movie that Nicholas Cage made. I also say Road to Terabitheta, which was really sad. I think I wrote about that. But I was glad that Forbidden Kingdom was out so I didn't have to look creepy. Nothing weirder than being a 20ish guy at a kids movie by yourself on a Friday night. Get some odd looks when that happens (a la Road to Terabitheta)

Rental Cars
I have moved from talking about what I did to whatever subject fancies my tickle. I am not sure I will ever buy a car from a rental agency because everybody knows what the phrase "it's a rental" means. Curbs meant nothing to my rental car.

Airplane Middle Seats
From Denver to Columbus I was between a fat guy and an average sized guy. Fat guy felt that the common arm rest was his arm rest. Not cool fat guy, not cool. Average guy was nice enough to let me use that common one while he slept against the window.

Greek Easter
Our friends Dan and Laura have relocated to Ohio and invited us over for Greek Easter on Sunday. Dan is Greek and Laura is a good cook, so that worked out well for me. I had Feta for the first time and not so much after that. Pungent stuff that feta. I also had spanish copida, which is a dish with spinach and feta. Not so much on that one either. We then played some bocce and drove around on his tractor.

So those were the highlights. I hung out with the Hoxworth's a lot, which was a lot of fun. So all those times I said us it was with the Hoxworth's. In fact, everything but the movie and the airplane middle seat was with the Hoxworth's. I also worked a lot, which was less fun. But yesterday when I got back it was great to be greeted by Sarah and Claire at the airport. They are a cute pair those two.

Be sure to check back in the next few days. Big news to post about...