A couple of weeks ago I signed us up for Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, a company that provides home delivery of organic produce & natural groceries to Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus. Wednesday our small produce bin arrived on our front porch while we were away at work. Inside the plastic bin was a reusable Styrofoam cooler, and inside that was all of our produce stored with a reusable ice pack. I emptied the contents and snapped a quick photo of all of our goods.

Small Produce Bin

This is a lot of produce for the $35 price tag, especially considering it is delivered to your door. And to make it all better, I had a coupon code for half off my first order, so it only cost me $17.50! I signed us up for delivery every other week, though we may easily conquer it all in a week and may opt to have weekly delivery in the future. I plan to make a vegetable soup soon using the butternut squash, 1 potato, the carrots, 1 onion, and the bunch of kale. The fruit is nearly gone already and it has all been really fresh and tasty. If your new years resolution is to eat healthier, this service could really help you out.

After a disappointing start to our broomball season last week, I am happy to report our team has made some major progress. We had our second game this past Monday and my buddy Ken scored our first goal of the season! We drew up a quick little opening face-off play that worked. He took the draw and kicked it back to one of our defenders. She kicked it up to me and I was able to then center it back to Ken who was wide open in front of the net. GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAL!

Me and Ken After the Game

The team we were both invited to play on only scored one goal last season and lost every game. Well after Ken’s 2 goal game Monday, The Little Kings have their first win of the season! Our goalie also archived his first shutout, which was made better by the fact that he was feeling a little under the weather. Our team has played great defense through both games, and we finally generated a little offense.

Photo credit again belongs to 5chw4r7z. See all of his photos from this season on flickr.

Our remaining games:

• Monday January 16th at 6pm
• Tuesday January 24th at 6:30pm
• Monday January 30th at 8pm
• Monday February 6th at 6:30pm

This past Friday night I headed to the Cincinnati Gardens with a couple of my buddies from high school. Earlier in the week we had decided to go watch our alma mater ice hockey team. This would be the first game we have seen the Moeller Crusaders play since we all played our last games for the team and graduated. When we were playing our home ice was out at SportsPlus and we played in the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League. Now they play their home games at the Cincinnati Gardens and play in the Columbus based Capital Hockey Conference.

Cincinnati Gardens

Friday nights game would be against the top team in their current league, Dublin Jerome. The Crusaders came out full of energy and gained a quick 2-0 lead over the Celtics. Both teams added a goal each in the second period to make it 3-1. After another Dublin Jerome goal in the third, it looked like the game would end 3-2, but that all changed starting with another Celtic goal with just 17 seconds left in the game. With the score tied at 3, the game went into a sudden death overtime period. It seems that the Crusader team is young and full of speed, but that they grew increasingly tired as the game went on.

Moeller Cruader Hockey

The game was quickly over in the overtime period, as Dublin Jerome scored after just one additional minute of play. It was a great game overall, and I’m glad we went. The young team is now 11-9 with about a month of regular season games still left to play. Only two of the remaining twelve games are at home, so it will be a tough end to the season. I hope to attend more of their games in the future though I don’t know if I’ll make it this season. With eleven juniors returning for next season, it could be an exciting year for the team.

Today is Trey’s first birthday, as unbelievable as that might sound. I know that it is definitely hard for me to believe that an entire year has already passed with him in our lives. It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital, not really sure how great this new adventure was going to be. I often hear parents say that they wish their kids would stop growing up so fast, and as much as I can relate to that, I think future years are going to be even more amazing than the last has been.

Give Me Cake

Over on kimandedjr.com I posted a slideshow of photos that my mom took of our celebration party at our house on Saturday, so be sure to check those out. She also posted some videos along with the photos on her flickr page. It was a great party and we, along with Trey, are lucky to have so many caring and helpful people surrounding us.

I Need A Bath

We had a couple of ugly Christmas sweater parties this year, the last one being this past weekend. I wore the same outfit to both. It consisted of a sweater from my mom’s closet, a women’s button down shirt that Kim bought for me from the Salvation Army, a pair of blue pants that I’ve had in our costume bin for a while, and my old racquetball shoes. Pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.

A month ago I was asked if I wanted to join a broomball team and my immediate answer was yes. Though I have never played broomball before in my life, I figured my skills on skates should transfer over to this sport at least a little. Now after playing our first game I think stick handling the ball and shooting are definitely transferable skills, but running on ice is nothing like skating, and not just for the obvious reasons. On shoes it isn’t as easy to get away from players on the other team, so any advantage I may have had no longer applies in a game situation.

First Broomball Game

I was able to get a couple of shots off during the quick thirty minute game, but only one even had a chance of going in the net. Unfortunately no one else on our team was able to score either, and we ended up losing 0-2 despite great efforts from our goalie. We had a quick team meeting (beer drinking session) after the game and have already discussed some strategies that will hopefully allow us to start scoring some goals and maybe eventually win some games. Photos from our first game can be seen on 5chw4r7z.com as well as his flickr page.

Our remaining games, for those who want to come cheer the Little Kings on to victory:

• Monday January 9th at 8:30pm
• Monday January 16th at 6pm
• Tuesday January 24th at 6:30pm
• Monday January 30th at 8pm
• Monday February 6th at 6:30pm

While attending the New Years celebration in Oakley Square, I had the opportunity to try New Orleans To Go. My cousin has been hyping this place since the early summer. I overheard them say that they only brought a very limited menu since they weren’t sure of the attendance of the event. Basically they only had a few options, but even still I had a hard time deciding between the Cajun rice and the gumbo.

Menu Board

In the end I decided to try the Louisiana chicken and sausage gumbo. Upon ordering a hot bowl of the gumbo was quickly handed to me, fresh from the pot. Not only was it hot in temperature, but it was spicy too! It may not look like much from my terrible cell phone photo, but the gumbo was packed with tons of chicken and sausage as well as plenty of rice to soak up all the juice. I was really impressed with the dish and I hope that I can track down the food truck again in the near future to sample some of their po-boys and other bayou specialties. Based on other reviews I’ve read online, all of their food is tasty!

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

While walking into mass this past Sunday morning, I was told that we were on the list of people who weren’t expected to show on New Years Day. I guess that is what having a kid will do to you. Normally I would have agreed, but after barely staying awake past midnight, getting up early the following morning was no problem. To ring in the new year we did bundle ourselves and Trey up in warm clothes and walked up to Oakley Square for the annual party there. They do a 9 PM ball drop with fireworks for all the families in the area and their kids. It’s a nice touch and turned out to be perfect for us. Trey was able to celebrate with us at 9 PM and then fall asleep on the walk back home.

I spent the day off work yesterday putting together our new grill. While packing our things for the move back to Cincinnati earlier this year, I decided to leave our old grill behind and give it to one of our friends out there. So when asked what I wanted for Christmas, a new grill was one of the items on my list. When opening gifts at my parents’ house, one big box for me to open was saved for last and I was surprised to unwrap this beauty. Well it wasn’t assembled, and that took longer than expected, but now that it is together I’m looking forward to getting it outside and cooking up some grub.

Our New Grill

Speaking of Christmas gifts, my brother and his girlfriend got us some really great stuff too. Another item on my long list was a TV mount that can extend out and then rotate. Another friend in Denver had this kind of mount and I loved that he could put his TV away out of sight when not needed and then pull it out when he wanted. Though ours isn’t out of sight, I think it looks pretty good tucked back in our built-in bookshelves that sit on either side of our fireplace. We can then pull it out about two feet off the wall and rotate it either towards our couch in one direction, or towards the kitchen in the other direction.

TV Mounted

Trey received so many fantastic toys as gifts and he loves playing with them all, but we are quickly running out of space for them. My brother heard me complain of this multiple times before and he came up with a toy chest idea that turned out wonderful. He and his girlfriend bought the chest and then painted it (with the help of a very skilled friend) before turning it over to have it stained. The quote on top is from the Dave Matthews Band song “Grey Street.”

Toy Chest

It’s easy to see that we were really spoiled this year, and that’s before I even begin to mention things from Kim’s family such as a remote start for our new car as well as a membership to the Cincinnati Museum Center that we have already used multiple times. This year is already looking great and it has just started. Here’s to another great year for all!