long weekend and lengthy ben hur tavern description

took monday off work so i had a long weekend

ahhh

nick and i were going to head to dayton to see tranimal, but we ended up sticking around

i got in to town and nick was already in bed, so i called up adrienne and we hit up chumley's and then watched some tv and avoided sleep

saturday (after a very nice nap) nick had headed to indy so i picked up adrienne again and we went to windows (being able to afford those martinis regularly is incentive enough to go for being rich :)) and after they closed, i decided i wanted to go somewhere i'd never been, so we went over to 4th st south of the square and found the Ben Hur Tavern

wow...

it appears to be a converted house sharing a parking lot with a village pantry

it was for sale

the room was about 20ft wide and 40ish ft long as you came in the front door

upon entering we saw 2 townies at the far end with their beer mugs and the woman who was bartending

there were cigarettes stacked neatly ready for purchase and assorted cough drops on hand if you needed to add some kick to your beer

bud, bud light, and michelob were the draft beers, with 12 assorted bottles across the top of the back wall that looked like relics of what might have been served there when the bar was in its prime

no mixer bottles or fancy drinks, but the people who were there didn't appear to be interested anyway, except maybe some shot drinks like whiskey or vodka, one brand fits all, tucked under the bar

upon sitting, i immediately fell in love with the wood of the bar itself

it was a cheap wood, not terribly thick, but it was scarred and worn from years of patrons scraping gouges sliver by sliver and sweating and rubbing the result to a driftwood-like smoothness

we got two buds and were served up in frozen mugs, but were warned that they were actually plastic, which was good because i probably would have knocked a couple teeth out if i had applied my huge and manly biceps to lifting the mug that appeared to weigh about 3 times as much as it actually did

after a while some more people showed up (all seemed to fit the bar much better than i did...) and eventually nick showed up

so we sat around chatting, listening to my song selection on the jukebox, when the guy next to us (john, around 45ish) kept complimenting me on the song selection, he was shocked the songs were even on there, he thought i had great taste for someone as young as i am (making my birthday the week before seem a little silly) and we all were chatting and having a grand ol time with the bud
after adrienne said something to imply that he was really young himself i was asked 'is this your woman?, hold on to this one...' which was pretty funny, and later we 4 had a decent arguement about lasagna making a good test for whether or not a girl is a good cook because while it is very easy to make, there is a large step between good lasagna (mmm food) and Great lasagna
so a pretty enjoyable night out

sunday (after more much needed sleeping) was pretty lazy, some tv, some lounging, dinner at spaggedie's (mmm bread), more hanging out, some sleep and on to monday

after waking up much later than i intended i went to the indiana job fair and wandered around, there wasn't a whole lot for me but i tossed out a couple resumes anyway and then got a gyro that was Much more food than i needed, said goodbyes, and came home

now it's hypothetical time: let's say you were giving someone a ride, and while suppressing a cough, they ended up puking on the inside of your car... how do you handle this? is laughter a good response?

lafayette, kevin, more adrienne

the pre-dated-post free-for-all is over and i'm caught up (finally)
went to lafayette this weekend
but as i was heading up i called nick and found he was heading down to indy with a guy he works with and the guy's wife
so i stopped in indy, grabbed something to eat, and met them at howl at the moon (a piano bar)
it was pretty fun, but it jsut wasn't bruce, and everything was really expensive
we sat around there for awhile enjoying the show, i saw lori w (from bedford) which was kinda crazy, then nick and i went to tiki bob's (because nick is crazy) and i went out and danced while he hit on people, and then i brought him back up with me
saturday kevin (nick's dayton roommate) came over from dayton and we all hung out, watch transformers (great movie, a few scenes seemed to drag on a bit, but visually awesome and the more than meets the eye line cracked me up) then we grabbed some red lobster (i had never been) and headed out to windows
i had invited adrienne (from okcupid and 2 weeks before at the coffee shop) to come out with us and she called almost immediately after we ordered, so i went and picked her up and came back, only to find that they had jsut called last-call (they close early if they aren't busy), but j.d. is pretty much amazing so she and i were each able to get a martini before they closed up
then we all (nick, sean, sean's friend (kevin had gone to bed) adrienne and i) went over to nine irish brothers for awhile sitting around chatting, then to the cactus after they closed (at 1am) but she only had 1 id on her so we went to chumley's where i talked to geraci a bit and then we all sat around for a while chatting before they left and i took adrienne home, and after some more chatting crawled onto my futon mattress on the floor and got some sleep
sunday kevin nick and i went to denny's for lunch, kevin went home, nick and i watched some 'arrested development', ate jimmy john's and i left

the marathon

this past week was a marathon of driving, visiting, and events

after spending all of the previous week frantically trying to finish my robot so i could deliver it, we finally got it 'working' (i'm still not terribly happy with it) saturday afternoon

i got it packed into my car (hooray hatchbacks) and immediately began my 2015 mile journey (hooray google maps with drag and drop routing)



i started by driving up to lafayette

i hung out with nick saturday night and sunday we went back to nine irish for dinner, where we were served by the same waitress (molly) who recognized our orders (same drinks, same opening order as last week) we ended up staying around there for awhile out on the back patio

it wasn't terribly busy so she came over and hung out with us a bit (along with the two other people who worked there but were off for the night sitting at the table next to us) we were all sitting around having fun (with her running off to take orders whenever she saw an empty glass) and she accused nick and me of scheming together where i lure girls in and he gets them to stay around (which is more than a little ridiculous and caused quite a bit of laughter from my general direction) after a while we were joined by sean (nick's boss) and we stayed until they closed

monday i met up at the village coffee house with a girl i met on okcupid, it was kinda interesting because i have never met someone in real life that i first met online (especially not in a dating scenario) we chatted for a couple hours until she had to go to work and it was enjoyable so i'll probably see if she can meet up the next time i'm in town (even though i'm not sure there's really a romantic connection there, i'm trying to give people more of a chance instead of dismissing them as (romantically)incompatible right away) after that i changed and went to an interview for a 'business manager' job in lafayette, it seemed like it went alright and my past job experiences line up almost perfectly with what they are looking for (they need someone to supervise their interns and manage their webpages and sales staff) but i was probably the first interviewee so i might have a couple weeks to wait before i know anything

tuesday morning i left to go to martinsville VA for the robot dropoff, but i didn't jsut take 65 south to louisville and then over, no no, i went down to bloomington (so i could hit up oliver winery for some specific wine i had a request for) and then over to 65 (though i stopped at brown county winery since i know the owners (or their sons more specifically) and got a few bottles from them as well) so i got to the hotel around 9pm, stopped at the bar to see if dave was there again, got called 'yankee' by the 4 locals who were there (because the bartender recognized me from 2 weeks before and we all sat around chatting awhile)

wednesday i went in to the plant and showed them the robot and after tinkering with it for awhile they said they were happy with it (even though i'm still frustrated) and i left it with them and headed up to alexandria VA to visit basham, see his wife and kid (charlie - aka 'chuck' by me) and house

thursday nick and i cut down three of the trees in his yard with some manly-bonding chainsaw yardwork, we got them down and chopped into logs in a few hours and then went out for some Pho (prounounced 'fuh') from Pho Kim, it is a vietnamese soup (kind of a beef broth with spices and noodles in the bottom and you can add tripe or intestines or whatever to it, i got plain old beef) it was pretty tasty (but probably more than i needed) and after that i headed over to mclean VA to meet up with alexz
she was meeting some coworkers for dinner so we all went to an indian place and i got the lamb sheesh kabob (and the lamb was the best i've ever had, not that i'm a regular consumer) then we played some guitar hero (it was fun, but i'm still not a video game person) and got some sleep

friday, after getting up ridiculously early, i drove to cherry hill NJ to my uncle's house
i sat around reading and chatting with my cousin danny(dan... it's different when you knew people when they were younger) (of liam and me fame) before meeting my parents at the hotel

saturday we had dinner with my grandpa and then got ready for the wedding (in my wonderful suit), after the full mass wedding (*sigh*) which saw the most excited bride i will ever see and some wonderful singing by her younger sister amanda, we went back to the hotel to sit for a while waiting for the reception
there was a full size drunk-bus which we took to the country club, had some great hors d'oeuvres (mmm big shrimp), some not-real-but-still-good-champagne, danced for hours, had a wonderful meal, enjoyed a speech by my uncle lloyd (he's hilarious) and hopped the drunk-bus back to the hotel
after changing out of the dancing-sweat filled suit i went down to the hotel bar to meet up with the wedding party and other assorted similar aged friends, chatted with the groom some more (pretty cool guy) and eventually went to bed around 2

sunday we went to the brunch at my uncle's, ate, chatted, said goodbye around noon and started driving kent and john home (so we could all get back to work while my parents stayed to visit)
we got to dayton and john called jason and kitten (who had gotten back from a cruise that day) and he found that they were somewhat stranded in indy (they were going to a concert and moaner was supposed to pick them up but he didn't even head up for the concert so they were going to have to borrow a car to get back down and then drive up the next day to return it) so we drove around indy looking for food (it was late so the places we wanted were closed) finally grabbing some white castle, picking up the guys, and heading on home

thus ended the marathon