My recording of MER‘s performance at this year’s Pig-Fest XVIII is now uploaded to archive.org. This is nearly three hours of new original songs and a wide variety of classic and more recent cover songs, including “Friends In Low Places” with everyone in the crowd singing along. Remind me next year to point the stage mic toward the crowd to pick up the singing better on tape. MER is currently busy recording a couple of different albums that we hope to hear soon. He also has a bunch of music available on iTunes for purchase. Please support him now and in the future.

My wife and I stumbled into Zip’s Cafe a couple of weekends ago after Lunken Aviation Days. We actually attempted to stop in at Terry’s Turf Club, but quickly left when we were told that they didn’t have high chairs and it seemed a little too crowded for our infant son. We got back in the car and ended up at Zip’s, which worked out well since a couple of my wife’s brothers and some guests all joined us for lunch.

Turkey Burger

I had been to Zip’s before but not for many years. They are famous for their hamburgers, but I am not a big red meat eater so I wouldn’t know if they are any good. My wife tried the turkey burger with cheese ($5.75) and she seemed to enjoy it. I also saw a black bean burger on the menu that I may try in the future. She also ordered a side of french fries ($2.25) which actually looked better than they tasted. I’ve read good things about the fries, so maybe we had a bad batch, but they seemed to be exceptionally dry and perhaps overcooked.

Chicken Salad Sandwich

I went with the chicken salad sandwich ($6.00) and a side of onion rings ($3.25). The size of the sandwich was a little small, but the taste was great. Though the real standout from my meal were the onion rings. These large slices of onion had a great tasting batter on them and were perfectly fried. I would definitely recommend these over the fries for just a dollar more. Others in our group had Zip Burgers and they all seemed to enjoy them. Overall I enjoyed the food that I ordered and I hope to go back to sample more of their bar food style offerings.

After the race on Saturday morning and returning home to get cleaned up, we all headed up to the University of Cincinnati campus to tailgate before our second home game of the season versus the Akron Zips.  We spent a few hours before kickoff hanging out in the new on-campus tailgate spot, the GRID. In addition to reserved spots, fans are also allowed to bring their own coolers and chairs onto the campus green. With pregame performances by the band, and the team walking through a couple of hours before the game, it is a good option for pregame activities.

Trey ready for his first game!

We didn’t take Trey to the first game since it was a late start, but the 3:30 kickoff for this game was perfect. Plus the weather was really nice despite a cool start to the day. He really enjoyed seeing the band up close and was happy hanging on a blanket covering the grass during the tailgate. He decided to take a nap shortly before walking into the stadium and stayed asleep through the first few minutes of the game despite the loud crowd and occasional cannon shots.

Trey napping inside Nippert Stadium.

As far as the game goes, it was just as much of a blowout as the first game against Austin Peay, if not more. In the Peay game the score was 42-0 at the end of the first half. This time the score was 49-0 after the Bearcats scored seven touchdowns including three from the defense. The second half the Cats added another touchdown and a field goal before allowing Akron to score two touchdowns of their own. In the end eight different Cincinnati players scored each of the eight touchdowns. Final score 59-14. A bigger challenge likely awaits this Thursday as the team takes on North Carolina State. Be sure to tune into ESPN at 8PM EST to cheer on the Bearcats!

Family photo at the game.

In the world of fantasy football I had a mediocre week, going 2-2 in my four leagues. One of my losses came against my parents team in a league that I’ve joined for the first time this year. I’m still learning the ropes in that one as they only score touchdowns. Standings at this point are 1st of 10 (big money league), 8th of 12, 9th of 12, and 1st of 4 in my division in the last league. I moved up to 2nd place in college pick’em from 8th but dropped from 1st to 8th in the pro game. I also dropped from 3rd to 13th in the salary cap game, so some big changes are needed there. I am still alive in the survival game picking Pittsburgh over Seattle.

To kick off a jam-packed weekend, I ran the Hudepohl 14K Brewery Run on Saturday morning. As I mentioned before, I planned to run the race with my dad and also had convinced a few others to join us for the fun.

Ted, Corinne, me, my dad, and Melissa before the race.

The morning started off cool meaning perfect running weather. Despite a little disorganization, I enjoyed the race very much. It seems that some race volunteers didn’t show up on time, which I think delayed the start of the race about ten minutes. That wasn’t really a big deal, though it threw off the times I gave to our spectators along the route. Also some of the bands were still getting setup as we ran past, but I’ve seen this happen with a variety of races. The biggest issue, though it didn’t impact me, was that they forgot to put out the signs for the 7K turnaround point, or if they were there it wasn’t easy enough to see. I saw many people lost on the course and some ended up running the full 14K even though they registered for half of that.

Me and my dad on the course.

We all started off in a pack together, running even faster than the 8:30 pace that I had told everyone. We also had a few others in the group not pictured above that helped bump up our initial pace. My dad commented that he didn’t think he’d be able to hold the sub 8:00 pace, but we did. For some reason my results from my timing chip aren’t online, but my dad’s results say 1:09:19 total, or 7:59 pace, though according to our GPS watched we ran even faster than that. Since I ran the whole race with him, I’ll assume my time would be the same. This would be good enough for 24th place out of 102 in my age division. My dad’s results say 255 out of 1393, and 12th of 44 in his division. Speaking of my dad’s running, he is officially registered for next year’s Boston Marathon. I can’t wait to see him run this race.

We earned our medals!

After crossing the finish line we were given these nice looking medals. The after party was hard to gain access to at first, as they setup the food and beer booths inside their old warehouse. Eventually we were treated to a couple of free beers, a commemorative pint glass, and some free food samples. I enjoyed running the longer than normal distance and hope they work some of the kinks out and decide to hold the race again next year.

Hanging with the Little Kings mascot.

Last Saturday I attended the Lunken Aviation Days down at Lunken Airport. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this display of aircraft, but Kim’s family wanted to check it out and we are always up for new things, especially if it is right in our backyard. The display was pretty small and it didn’t take long to make our way through it. The coolest thing on display was the large B-17, Aluminum Overcast.  This is one of only a few surviving B-17 Flying Fortresses in existence. Rides were available for over $450 per seat! I was happy to just take a couple of photos. I wish I would have brought my SLR with me though.

I first heard of the Kolache Factory through a coupon we received in the mail, likely from ValPak. I lost the coupon but my wife and I still decided to check them out anyway. For me breakfast is often a disappointing experience as I don’t eat eggs. It is therefore hard for me to find quick breakfast options that still have protein. Our visit came after an eight mile run in the morning, so I needed to find something to fill me up.

Enter the kolache, “a type of pastry that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough. Originating as a semi-sweet wedding dessert from Central Europe, they have become popular in parts of the United States. Often in the United States, kolaches are used for breakfast, stuffed with ham and cheese.” I remembered a picture on the coupon showing bread stuffed with things other than eggs and knew that we needed to give it a try. The Kolache Factory was founded in 1982 in Houston, TX and is expanding nationwide.

Inside Kolache Factory

When entering the Kolache Factory you immediately recognize the layout of the restaurant as similar to a donut shop, with trays filled of the offerings back behind the registers. They have a few of the standard kolaches, similar to what I think you could find in central Europe. However most of the options utilize the same dough, but instead of placing various toppings on top the ingredients are stuffed inside the near baseball sized ball of dough. They also offer a couple of longer varieties with a few different kinds of sausage stuffed inside the pastry.

Sausage Gravy and Pepperoni Mushroom

I decided to try the most popular item from the menu, the filled dough balls. I went with one breakfast selection (sausage and gravy) and one more lunch offering (pepperoni and mushroom). After making my choices the employee taking my order offered to heat them up, to which I obliged. Unfortunately they are just microwaved for a minute and then served. It would be nice if they were heated quickly in an oven, which would make the outside a little more crisp instead of chewy. Regardless the dough was a bit sweet and tasty. The sausage and gravy was just as good as I imagined that it would be, with the dough it tasted almost just like biscuits and gravy. The pepperoni and mushroom also had some pizza sauce on it and was even referred to by the staff as a pizza kolache. It too was very good, spicy, and filling.

Sausage Egg Cheese and Chicken Enchilada

My wife also ordered one breakfast and one lunch style kolache. I didn’t sample her sausage egg and cheese kolache but she seemed to enjoy it. The chicken enchilada was again quite good. There was definitely some spiciness in it from the enchilada sauce. We also split a cinnamon roll for desert. Since they didn’t have any ready, it came fresh from the kitchen a few minutes after we started eating our meal. It was warm and topped with melted icing. It is hard to mess up a cinnamon roll, but this one was definitely toward the top of my personal list. To reiterate what I said before, I think the next time I will get a large variety pack of kolaches to go and then warm them up myself in the oven to see if that makes them even better. I hope that next time is sometime soon.

It’s that time of the year. Time for the return of my weekly sports updates. Though my new hockey team hasn’t started playing yet, we will have our first game on Sunday. That always adds a little excitement to the blog. As far as my own sporting goes, I have been running quite a bit in preparation for the 14k race this weekend. I logged eight miles just this past Saturday, which I think could be my longest run ever.

The football teams that I attempt to cheer on to victory had mixed results this weekend. First, the Bearcats were thumped down in Knoxville by the Volunteers of Tennessee, 45-23. The game started off great, but the bigger and stronger Vols proved to be too much later in the game. The Cats shouldn’t have problems this weekend with Akron before hosting NC State next Thursday. On the other hand the Bengals had a nice win over Cleveland Sunday. The game started off great, was not very great in the middle, and had a wonderful ending, 27-17. I watched the game without sound on the big screen at fountain square so it was hard to follow along at times, but it was nice to be outside for decent weather that day.

I am playing in four fantasy football leagues this year. Things could not have started off any better for me as I had wins in all four leagues. Based on points scored for tie breaking I am in 1st of 10, 5th of 12, 3rd of 12, and 2nd of 4 in the league that has divisions. I am also playing in both college pick’em (8th of 11) and pro pick’em (1st of 14). The college game uses the spread, which apparently I am not very good at doing so far. In the salary cap game I am in 3rd of 13. I’m also alive in the survival game with my pick of San Diego over Minnesota. Four people have been eliminated already.

Last night was my first night ever seeing a concert at the historic Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky. I know that may be hard to believe, but I can now say it is one of the cooler venues in the Cincinnati area. I was a little hesitant at first as the smell of smoke immediately greeted me upon entering the front doors. The building is open to smoking, but according to the website shows in the ballroom are often smoke free. Fortunately the Robert Randolph show was scheduled for the ballroom and was a smoke free show last night.

The venue itself is really great. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The room has a decent sized stage up about four feet from the floor. The room itself can squeeze 600 inside and there is a large balcony that wraps around three sides of the room. The sound was excellent and last night we had plenty of room. I definitely cannot wait for my next show in this fantastic space.

The Cincy Brass

I arrived as the opening act of the night was already on the stage. The Cincy Brass are a nine piece brass band that combines elements of Bourbon Street with funk, hip-hop, and jazz. They mixed some of their own original songs from an upcoming album with New Orleans street music and even some instrumental covers. Their version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” was especially awesome! They don’t have an official website yet, so future tour dates are a bit hard to find. Their Facebook page may be the best place. I definitely want to catch a future performance.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Robert Randolph & the Family Band took the stage after The Cincy Brass and started things off with a couple of tracks from their latest album, We Walk This Road. “Traveling Shoes” was a catchy number that got the crowd ready for some serious dance numbers that would follow. “The March” was played third and the crowd really loved hearing this one. And following it up with “Squeeze” was an incredible combination.

Also played were “Shake Your Hips,” complete with a dozen women from the crowd on stage dancing, standout track for the latest release “If I Had My Way”, the always incredible cover of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”, and crowd sing along “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That.” Robert played all songs but two on his pedal steel, while cousins Danyel and Marcus laid down the beat on bass and drums. Also on stage was “Noodles” on guitar and keyboard as well as Robert’s sister Lenesha on vocals for the newer material.

As always Robert was all smiles while performing on stage. You can really tell that he enjoys every moment of their shows. His pedal steel playing is still incredible. In 2003 he was on Rolling Stone’s list of the top 100 guitarists of all time, and this designation definitely still applies. If you’ve never seen them play before, I would highly recommend it. Their shows are full of a ton of energy and the crowd is full of dancing and smiling the entire time.

After the Queen City Underground tour a couple of weekends ago, I stopped into the Lavomatic Cafe for lunch with my wife and parents. Honestly I probably would have dined somewhere else this Sunday afternoon but all the other nearby eateries were closed. Fortunately the tour guides told us that there was a 10% discount to Lavomatic for anyone on the tour. We figured that it was worth a try.

Inside Lavomatic

None of us had ever dined at Lavomatic before so we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. Plus the name isn’t descriptive in what type of restaurant it is going to be. Their website has the word urban in multiple places, such as urban wine bar or urban food. I’m sure the environment is much different during dinner hours, and there is a separate menu for dinner, but during the day I wouldn’t call this a wine bar. In fact the six or seven solid beer choices on tap and their signature cocktails were more highlighted than any wine.

Jerk Chicken Sandwich

During our visit we could order from either the lunch or brunch menus. I decided to go with the jerk chicken sandwich, which I don’t see listed on their online menu. It was pretty basic with a seasoned chicken breast, slice of cheese, onion and tomato. The chicken was a little overdone in my opinion, coming from someone who always overcooks chicken at home. Also I didn’t feel that the jerk flavoring was there much at all. And the small green salad on the side didn’t have much flavor either.

Omelette

My wife ordered from the brunch side of the menu, some sort of omelette. I didn’t hear any complaints from her about the omelette, but I did find it strange that the same green salad was served on the side. Would some kind of potato have been a better choice? My mother had the same sandwich that I had, and my dad went with a turkey club. Judging from looks alone, I should have went with the turkey club myself. We shared a couple orders of the house cut fries, and though they were much tastier than my sandwich, I felt they were overpriced.

House Cut Fries

On the positive side, our service was excellent! Though the food took a long time to arrive, our drinks were always full and both our server and the bartender were very pleasant to speak with. I also liked the draft beer selections that I had while there, and I’m sure they boast a decent wine selection too. Maybe their dinner is better, but my advice would be to stick with drinks and appetizers at the Lavomatic.

At the end of July I bought discounted admission tickets through Groupon to the Queen City Underground tour. Tickets are regularly $20 each if you buy them online, but the Groupon gave us buy one get one free admission. After the tour you can also buy tickets for any future tours for $10. So I would not pay full price as half price tickets should be easy to come by. My parents bought tickets as well and we all decided to check it out this past Sunday.

Me and Trey on the streets of OTR.

This is a walking tour along historic Vine Street in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. The tour lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours and is probably about 1 mile walking. Along the way our 2 tour guides provided a lot of historical information on the neighborhood and various buildings along the walk. We also go the chance to go into a few different buildings, the highlight of which had to be the old lagering cellars of the Kauffman Brewery, which shut down at the time of prohibition. These old cellars sat 70 feet underground, undiscovered for years.

Me and my dad investigating the cellars.

Also on the tour was an old beer garden, Weilert’s Beer Hall. The first floor of this building was most recently a gothic club, and is uninteresting. The neat part of this building is the beer hall that is up above street level. A set of old stairs leads up to this space which has been relatively untouched for decades. We were also able to see inside some old housing units. With a good imagination I could see and feel what life could have been like in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in this neighborhood.

Over the Rhine

I would easily recommend the tour for anyone looking for a little education and adventure on a Saturday of Sunday afternoon. One thing to note is that the Saturday tours go into the crypt below St. Francis, which I have already seen separately. I think this is much cooler than the old housing units that we were showed instead, so you may want to catch a Saturday tour if possible. We all enjoyed the tour enough to buy additional tickets to the Newport Gangster Tour, which I hope to use soon.

My mom has many more photos of the tour on her flickr page.