I got up at the normal time on Friday morning and drove out to the airport. No problems with my flights, although I must admit that the flight from Cincinnati to Dayton was pretty pointless. By the time portable electronic devices were allowed I only had time to listen to one song on my mp3 player before I was tapped on the shoulder and told it was time to shut it down. If it will save me a couple hundred bucks I guess its worth it. Anyway, Kim picked me up in Dayton and we drove over to my parents’ house.

Later in the night we headed down to the Holy Grail with my parents and my brother. We met up with Fighty, Liam, and the Hemmelgarns there and after a few rounds of Guiness we walked over onto UC’s campus for the second round NIT game against Charlotte. Unlike most college’s across the country, UC typically serves beer at the games, but unfortunately the NIT does not allow it. We all had great seats on the end of the court in the student section. At halftime we headed up to the UCATS Club after Fighty heard that it was open to the public for this game. We watched the second half of the game from up there and had drinks served through the end of the game. It made the bearcat victory even better!

After the game we spent a couple of hours at Christy’s and ran into a bunch of family members of mine and Kim’s. And of course, no night in Cincinnati is complete without a late night trip through the Skyline drive-thru.

After hanging out at my parents’ on Saturday we went to my aunt and uncles house for Emma’s 1st birthday party. In case you have forgotten, Emma is my godchild. It was nice to see everyone again, although we could only stay for an hour or so.

My buddy from high school, Jeff, was getting married and we were already skipping the ceremony so we didn’t want to be late for the reception. After picking up Jon, another buddy of mine, we finally arrived at Ivy Hills Country Club for the reception. There we met up with yet another friend, Chris, and his wife. I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, so it was nice to catch up. The food was good, the band was great, the fireworks were a nice touch, and it was a very nice reception. This will probably be the only wedding that I ever go to that has a 15 minute fireworks display. I was a little disappointed by the lack of musical accompaniment, but I guess you can’t have everything. :) Congrats to Jeff and his wife Megan!

Our next stop after the reception was at Million’s to meet up with Amy and some of her friends. That bar has really changed since the last time I was there, but I was just happy that it wasn’t too crowded.

We got up early on Sunday and drove over to the Hais’ house. Kim’s brother Jason had a birthday present to give to me, and wanted to see us before we left Cincinnati. He made a marble mouse pad for me, something he has learned to do at his new job. I also got a bottle of Woodford Reserve from her family. I can’t wait to open that up! It was nice to see everyone again, and meet James, their latest foster child. Kim’s sister Bobbi drove us to the airport, complete with a trip on the Anderson Ferry and a stop at the Gap outlet store. This ended our trip to Cincinnati, but we’ll be back again soon.

I had another hockey game last night to round out the weekend. We won yet another game to finish the regular season undefeated. We don’t count our overtime shootout loss as a real loss. The playoffs start next weekend and hopefully we can win the mini tournament.