So much of this week’s sporting news in Cincinnati has focused on the Crosstown Shootout Beatdown. If you have no idea what I’m writing about, a big fight broke out with seconds left in the annual basketball game between the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University and the game had to be ended prematurely. There has been a lot of finger-pointing since the brawl and now suspensions have been issued and apologies have been made. Hopefully the universities can find a way to continue this great rivalry game without results like this. If you have time for it, UC head-coach Mick Cronin had some good things to say after the game.

In other news, my hockey team has continued our winning ways! I netted two goals in our big win over a team that we have now beat three times this session. I was able to play numerous shifts with both of my buddies from high school, and it was fun to all be out on the ice playing forward again together. I think our line was responsible for most of the points in the game.

Finally I had a pretty brutal week in fantasy football, but fortunately my losses have very little major playoff implications. I lost one game in the consolation bracket and now will battle it out this week for second to last place. I had a big win in another consolation bracket and am still alive for a decent finish in that league. A loss in another league did drop me from a likely second seed in the playoffs to the fourth seed, but I am still alive. And after a bye week in my final league, the action resumes for me as I try to capture a championship. I remain in first place in the pro pick’em game and I am up to fourth in the salary cap game, which is quite an accomplishment since I was in dead last at one point.

Last Thursday after getting our son’s hair cut at a nearby location, my wife and I stopped into Shaan Indian Cuisine for dinner, dragging our almost one year old son with us. We thought we could sneak in a quick dinner, but after sitting down it was quickly evident that the haircut alone had tested his patience and he didn’t want to sit in a high chair. We decided to put in a carry out order and enjoy it at home where he could run around freely.

The restaurant itself wasn’t too crowded, but it was past seven o’clock. The room is pretty small with booths lining the left and right walls along with a few bigger tables in the middle of the restaurant. At the back is an area for the lunch buffet, which I would like to try sometime, and a counter for paying the bill along with an entry to the kitchen. The staff were all very friendly and had no issue with us changing our order to carry out, which was ready in less than fifteen minutes.

Chicken Vindaloo

My choice for dinner, chicken vindaloo, should come as no surprise as it is one of my favorite Indian dishes. I love the spiciness of it and found Shaan’s heat level four of six to be right on! I could have probably ordered a five but I know that my wife wouldn’t have liked it to be that hot and we were sharing our dishes. The chicken and potato mix was good, though I could have used a few more potatoes in my serving.

Chicken Tikka Masala

My wife decided on the chicken tikka masala, another very popular dish. She ordered a two of six on the spice scale since we were going to feed some of it to our son too. The chicken in this dish appeared to have been cooked in a Tandoor oven as it had the trademark pink outside. The taste of this dish was excellent and the tomato, onion, and butter sauce was perfect. I might have liked this dish better than the vindaloo and I loved the vindaloo.

We also had a side of garlic nan ($2.99) that was easily large enough for the both of us and with extra to go with our leftovers the next day. The serving size of both meals we ordered was more than enough and the $10.99 price tag for each seemed fairly priced. Though I’ve yet to try another Indian restaurant in Cincinnati, it will be hard for them to compare to a wonderful experience at Shaan.

Despite the fact that I’ve yet to hang our outside lights, our house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Yesterday was the day for the annual Christmas tree hunt with Kim’s family. Though we lived out of town for eight years we still managed to tag along for a few of these adventures over the time-span. It typically involves stops at a couple of different tree farms and yesterday was no exception.

First we stopped at Pine Achers (11469 County Farm Road, Aurora IN 47001) a place that I immediately remembered from prior visits. To me it seems that the owners of this farm are not planting any new trees, and most of the remaining trees are really big. In my opinion it is not worth stopping here again, though one of Kim’s uncles always seems to get his over twenty foot tall tree here.

24 Foot Tree

After only cutting down one tree at this lot we moved over to the somewhat nearby Mount Pleasant Christmas Tree Farm (21797 Mount Pleasant Road, Lawrenceburg, IN  47025). Again I immediately remembered this place from a visit quite a few years back. Unlike Pine Achers, the owners here seem to be growing new trees for future year sales. At first our group wasn’t finding many good ones for this year, and Kim and I decided to settle on one of the few decent looking bigger trees we could find. Later most in the group eventually settled on a tree from the lot, but overall the selection was again disappointing. Maybe we were just too late in the season, for this lot especially.

Our Tree

With the help of one of Kim’s brothers and one of the employees on the lot we got our new tree on top of the car and secured it with a strap I borrowed from a family member. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have anything to bail it together with, but we managed to get it on top of the car and only a little mud in the car. After a stop at my in-laws house for lunch, Kim and I took our tree home. Unfortunately along the way one of the clips on the tie down strap busted loose and the tree fell into the street. Luckily a couple of passersby stopped and helped me to secure it to the roof again and then we made it home with no further issues.

Decorated Tree

Since this was our first time dealing with a live tree, I was a little unprepared as to how much work it would take to get it setup inside the house. First I had to cut a foot off the bottom since it was a little too tall, even for our nine foot ceilings. Then I trimmed a bunch of branches off the bottom before dragging it through the front door. Once inside I realized just how big the tree was. Funny how seeing them out in the woods they don’t look so big, but once inside they become huge! Anyway, after messing with the stand for a half hour, our tree was finally standing upright. I quickly threw some decorations on it and called it done. Our old star shaped tree topper might not be big enough for this massive tree, and the two strands of lights I had may not be enough, but I think it looks pretty good.

The Cincinnati Bearcat football team had a big win this past Saturday versus UConn, 35-27. It was great to be back at Nippert Stadium, especially seeing a win that gave the Bearcats their third Big East Conference championship in four years. They lost to BCS bid to West Virginia, who shared the championship with the Cats as well as Louisville. However they will be playing on New Years Eve at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis versus Vanderbilt. My parents have already made plans to attend the bowl game and I hope that we can join them.

With all the success the team had it came as no surprise that head coach Butch Jones was named as the Big East coach of the year. Completing the sweep of awards, running back Isaiah Pead won offensive player of the year, and defensive lineman Derek Wolfe was awarded defensive player of the year. I have also seen Wolfe’s name on some lists of All-Americans.

In  other Bearcat news, the basketball team has their annual match-up with neighboring Xavier University tomorrow afternoon. The game will be televised on ESPN2 starting at 12:30 EST.

My hockey team got back to the winning ways this past weekend. I also recently found out that I’m on a broomball team for an upcoming league down at fountain square. My buddy Kenny and I got a head start on everyone by practicing our broomball skills before our latest hockey game. I’m sure this will provide some interesting updates once the season starts after the new year.

Today is the halfway point for the Jenny Challenge. Unfortunately I’m not at the halfway point for the 100 miles, but I’m close. So far I’ve totaled 44.4 miles in 16 days. I need to average nearly 3.5 miles per day to finish the challenge this year. I guess I better get running!

Finally a quick fantasy football update. I had two wins and two losses this past week. The playoffs have started in the two leagues I had wins. In one league I finished the regular season in 2nd of 10 and have a first round playoff bye. In the other league I finished 9th of 12 and am playing in the consolation bracket. The playoffs also started in another league where I finished 8th of 12, and so again I am in the consolation ladder. Finally I am sitting in 2nd of 12 in my last league and playoffs will start next week. A win this week will make sure I make the playoffs, while a loss would lead to all kinds of interesting tie breakers. The college pick’em game has ended and I took home 3rd place! I moved up one spot and sit in first place in the pro pick’em. Finally I’m up to 6th in the salary cap game.

I went to my first Cincinnati Cyclones game in years this past Saturday night. Tickets were only $13 each for just about any seat in the house. With only the lower seating bowl open, there wasn’t a bad seat to be had. Plus drinks and snacks are a more affordable than at other sporting events, especially when they have $1 beer nights or the more regularly occurring food specials. It’s hard to find a better deal around town for a night of entertainment. Plus Santa was there on Saturday. Trey was not a fan of the man in red, but calmed down enough for a quick photo as long as I was in it with him.

Last night Kim and I headed to Music Hall for Great American’s annual Christmas Party. This isn’t your average company holiday party, as they always bring in some big name talent for a couple of special concerts. This was my first time attending the party as we have always lived out-of-town in years prior. Kim did go years ago when she was a co-op student and remembers seeing Wayne Newton. Last year they had Darius Rucker and I think a year or two before that was Michael Bublé. The entertainment for this year was none other than Carrie Underwood.

We were treated to seats in the orchestra pit and even though we arrived just five minutes after the theater doors opened the only open seats we found were in the fourth row. This Carrie Underwood is one popular gal. Immediately upon her arrival on stage everyone had their phones and cameras out taking photo after photo of the stunning beauty. Throughout the hour and half set the audience was treated to a variety of tunes from her three albums and even a couple of Christmas songs. Between tracks the singer often showed her down to earth side with funny stories and brutal honesty. She was accompanied on stage by an eight piece band who all appeared to be well accomplished musicians.

Overall I enjoyed the concert, even though it isn’t normally in the style of music that I listen to. With that said Carrie Underwood does have an amazing voice and vocal ability. She seems like a very genuine person and she deserves all of the success she has earned. It is always nice to scratch a big star like this off my list of bands seen, especially when it comes at no cost. My only regret is that I should have brought a better camera.

Last Wednesday my wife and I met at Andy’s Mediterranean Grille for dinner. I had a coupon from LivingSocial that was basically a $40 gift card after paying $20 for it months ago. I had made a reservation online, but found the restaurant mostly empty upon arrival. My wife actually arrived first and was seated a table in a secondary dining area that may have once been an outdoor area. There were two other occupied tables nearby, and just a couple of other people in the first main room of the restaurant and bar area.

Empty Restaurant

To get things started we ordered the Mediterranean Sampler ($12) of hummus, baba ghannouj, labneh, tabouli & olives (though we asked to substitute the olives for an additional serving of hummus. Looking at the plate we were served I do think we got the double serving of hummus, but I didn’t realize it until now that we didn’t get any baba ghannouj. Bummer! The dish was served with a large basket of warm pita bread. I though that the hummus was pretty standard, still good, but the tabouli was better than any I’ve had before.

Mediterranean Sampler

For dinner I ordered the Shish Tawook ($16), four skewers of marinated & charbroiled chicken breast served on a bed of rice. The chicken had a lot of lemon flavor, which must be a big component of the marinade. Fortunately I had some of the appetizer left to balance the flavor better. The chicken itself was well cooked, juicy and charred on the outside. Four skewers is more than I could eat in on sitting, but the price still seemed a little high for what was served.

Shish Tawook

My wife ordered the Falafel Platter ($16) which provided a large serving of falafel along with a vegetable salad and some yogurt sauce. I stole more than a couple of bites and liked the falafel flavors more than the chicken spice blend. The falafel itself is disc shaped rather than more commonly seen ball. Again we could not eat the entire plate of food, but the price seems very high for a dish that is typically very cheap to prepare.

Falafel Platter

We both enjoyed the food and were happy to finally find a Mediterranean spot in Cincinnati, but with the high prices I don’t know that we will be back. Or if we do I’m sure it will be with a coupon of some sort. I never though of Mediterranean to be an expensive meal, but Andy’s proves that it can be. Had the prices been lower I would have had very few things to complain about. But as is I find it hard to recommend to anyone even if it was a tasty meal.

Fun For All Ages

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend my dad’s extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) made plans to meet at the Pirate’s Den on Saturday night for dinner, drinks, and entertainment from the Rusty Griswolds. In 2010 this west side watering hole moved from their location for as long as I can remember to a nearby strip-mall anchored by Big Lots. I’m not a fan of the location change (though I never went to the old Pirate’s Den), it’s just that locations like these seem so stale. Though something must be drawing the bar crowd in, as Champions Grille has also relocated to just a couple of doors down.

We arrived to find some of our family members already occupying four or five high top circular tables. My family all sat down at one of these tables and decided to order some buckets of beer. This seemed to be the way to go, and the server even offered to hurry the order in so we could get happy hour pricing. I’m not sure if she forgot, or if they were really that busy, but it took a solid fifteen minutes for our drinks to arrive. Once they did we decided to split some appetizers between our group. We ordered nachos, chicken tenders, and a combo platter of cheese sticks, poppers, more tenders, and potato skins.

Nachos?

It didn’t take as long for the food to arrive, and my disappointment was immediate. The nachos ($7) were the first to show up. This consisted of a relatively small offering of chips covered it melted cheese that I wouldn’t call cheddar, and then topped with the worst lettuce I have seen, a few tomatoes, along with onion, black olives, and jalapenos. Normally ordering nachos at a bar will provide a heaping plate of food that can feed a small army. And even though there was so little flavor here, my family of six managed to gobble them down in no time at all.

The fried food was better than our nacho experience, but fried foods are pretty hard to screw up. The fried pickles that we weren’t supposed to get as part of our combo platter, but were given anyway, were the best items available. The chicken tenders weren’t bad either, but weren’t anything special either. I guess anything was better than the nachos we were served. Or at least I though that was true until I saw a salad that one of my cousins ordered. It was the $3.50 house salad, and was a pile of the same lettuce we had on our nachos, with tiny amounts of tomato, onion, bacon, and cheese. I would at least expect some better lettuce as it is the foundation of a salad. I wish I had a photo of the salad, but the room was so dark it was hard to get many good shots.

I would suggest sticking to the drinks at the Pirate’s Den and stay far away from the food. Though later in the night I did see a lady walking around taking orders for the neighboring Empress Chili. So rather than ordering from the Pirate’s Den menu, grab a couple of coneys from Empress. The availability of chili inside really makes me question the food from the Pirate’s Den more than I already have.

Things are definitely looking up in my world of sports. The University of Cincinnati Bearcat football team beat Syracuse on Saturday to improve to 8-3 for the season. They take on Connecticut this coming Saturday at home and with a win will share the Big East Conference championship. This is their last regular season game of the year and I can’t wait to see it all unfold back at Nippert Stadium.

The Bengals also got back on the winning side of things this past Sunday against Cleveland. Their 7-4 record is only good enough for 3rd place in their division, but if the season were to end today they would get the second wild card spot into the playoffs. That’s quite an improvement from last year and for a team that no one, myself included, was giving any credit to in the preseason.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my hockey team. Even though I scored an early goal for our team, we suffered a big loss with a new net-minder filling in for our normal goalie. Both of my buddies from high school scored goals as well, but it was far from enough to compete with the 10 or so goals the other team put in our net.

I won three of four fantasy football games. Unfortunately the one loss came in the league that is my worst. In that league I am still in 10th of 12 teams and nearly out of the six team playoffs. In another league I’m still in 2nd of 10 and I have secured my playoff spot! I moved up a spot in another league to 7th of 12, which would just keep me out of the playoffs, so I need a big couple of week to move on. Finally, in my last league I’ve all but secured a playoff spot with my 9-3 record, where I sit in 1st place in my division. I’m in 2nd place in both pick’em games and remain in 7th in the salary cap game.

Lastly, a quick update on my Jenny Challenge status after the first full week. I’ve logged 21.7 miles, which is a great start! Unfortunately most of that has been walking and hiking. My weather hasn’t been cooperating for outdoor runs very often, and when it has I’ve been stuck at work where I still don’t have showering facilities. At least I was able to get one nice long run in over the last weekend. At this current rate I should have no problem finishing the challenge again.

I first heard last night that the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky would be closing at the end of the year. I just had the privilege of going there for the first time a couple of months ago for Robert Randolph and was looking forward to many more shows in the ballroom. Sure it was dingy and smelly in spots, but the character of the space and the wonderful sound really filled a niche for Cincinnati. Not to mention that it was easily the best venue I have been to of this size (600 capacity).

A note on their website says that they will be opening their business in a new location soon. I read a blog earlier today hinting that the group could be moving into the old IMAX space at Newport on the Levee, but it seems that the theory has been all but officially denied. Either way it is still an interesting move for the Southgate management group. It’s a shame that this historic venue will no longer function, and I hope that the space is re-purposed into something new. It would be tragic for it to sit empty.