You may have noticed that my website was down last week. For the last couple of weeks I have had intermittent service interruptions from my Internet service provider (ISP). I also experienced a hardware failure with my very old router last Sunday and had to replace it with a new device. Once that was up and running I had some issues with my ISP who didn’t appear to fully recognized my new hardware and were blocking some incoming connections. After multiple failed attempts at contacting them to get the issues corrected, I finally decided to switch ISP’s. Time Warner came out and hooked up our new service over the weekend and now I am up and running once again! I promise more updates starting tomorrow with details on all the things we have done while our Internet has been down.

This past weekend was the annual MidPoint Music Festival that takes place in various bars and venues around downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. As I did last year, I only made it down for two of the three nights. I started off with a strong Thursday night and followed it up with a late Friday night. When Saturday night rolled around I was a little too tired to attempt to do it once more.

Backstage at Cody ChesnuTT

Thursday was awesome since a good friend of mine had an extra VIP bracelet that he let me use for the evening. We started with free beers and food behind the main stage in Washington Park while Cody ChesnuTT brought the funk and soul to the good sized crowd. Throughout the night I managed to see at least seven different bands.

Goodbye June at Mr. Pitiful’s

My personal highlights were Nashville’s Goodbye June who rocked everyone’s faces off at Mr. Pitiful’s along with Vandaveer from Washington, D.C. whose mellow folk sound was the perfect ending for my night. Other bands I saw included Mad Anthony, Ha Ha Tonka, and River Whyless.

Ha Ha Tonka on the Midway

Friday night I got a late start, but arrived at Washington Park just in time to see The Head and the Heart play. I was probably most excited to see this band play after seeing them once before a couple of years ago when they opened up for The Decemberists. Their latest single “Shake” can be streamed right on their website and is a good representation of their sound. Their sophomore release Let’s Be Still will be released in a couple of weeks on October 15.

The Head and the Heart

After their awesome performance I moved over to Mr. Pitiful’s to meet some friends and catch the funk rock band The Almighty Get Down followed up by hip-hop group Eclipse Movement. Both bands featured horn sections, are local to Cincinnati, and are full of energy when performing live.

Eclipse Movement at Mr. Pitiful’s

When your night ends with a keytar solo you know it was a good one.

Keytar Solo!

I think I am the last blogger in Cincinnati to visit Bakersfield OTR, but my wife and I finally did so last week. I had wanted to visit many times before, but our nights without our kids are very limited, and Bakersfield is not child friendly. I would have no problem taking a baby there, as the environment isn’t bad for kids, there just isn’t much that our picky two-year-old would eat.

Inside

We arrived just after 6 PM on a Tuesday evening and were happy to find plenty of available seating. I’ve heard stories of long waits, but our early week visit likely helped. We were asked if we would rather have a seat at a table or at the fairly large bar. When we replied that we would like a table we were shown to one half of a large community table. Later during our meal, three women would occupy the other end of the table and there was still plenty of room for all of us.

Chips And Guacamole

I immediately ordered some chips and guacamole for us to start with ($6). The guacamole was very fresh and filled with large chunks of avocado. Overall it was pretty basic as far as ingredients go, but still quite delicious. I don’t think it’s the best I’ve ever had, unlike many others who do think it is the best around, but it is definitely worthy of ordering.

Bakersfield Margarita

My wife ordered the Bakersfield margarita ($6), which came served in a mason jar. I had a couple of sips from it while we waited for our dinner to arrive and immediately fell in love. It isn’t overly sour and packs a punch with a stiff pour of el Jimador Blanco tequila. When ordering another round of drinks, I gladly switched over from the beer I originally had to get a margarita of my own.

Tacos!

As I hinted at earlier, the menu is not lengthy at all. Basically there are a handful of appetizers and sides, a couple of torta sandwiches, and eight different tacos to choose from. My wife and I split six of their taco offerings: cochinita pibil ($3), mole ($4), pollo verde ($3), fish ($4), pastor ($3), and rajas ($3). The order I listed them is from my favorite to least likely to order again.

The cochinita pibil is a fairly simple combination of achiote braised pork, pickled red onion, Habanero salsa, and cilantro, but the pork was perfectly cooked and tender with a ton of spicy heat from the salsa. The mole taco is filled with Oaxacan style braised chicken, pickled red onion, queso fresco, and cilantro.  The sweet flavors of the mole sauce combined wonderfully with the creamy cheese and pickled onions.

The pollo verde mixes tomatillo braised chicken, queso fresco, pickled onion, cilantro, crema, and radish. The sauce/marinade on this chicken was not as good as the mole, but I still enjoyed this one. The fish taco was piled high with crispy Mahi, Tabasco lime sauce, and citrus slaw. It definitely had the largest amount of protein and the toppings were exploding out of it. I’m not a very big seafood fan, but I had a few bites of this and this would be one fish item that I would actually consider ordering again. My wife loved it and it was probably one of her favorites of the night.

The pastor combines chili marinated pork, pineapple, pickled onion, and cilantro. I do typically love the combination of pineapple with a somewhat spiced meat, but I felt that this pork was little too tough and chewy. It was not shredded like most of the other tacos and was mostly harder chunks of meat. Finally the rajas was our choice from the two vegetarian offerings. It is stuffed with poblano, fresno, and bell pepper, ejotes (green beans), chihauhua, queso fesco, and cilantro. This one was actually a great combination of flavors, but I really missed the meat, so I would not be likely to order it again.

Overall we had a great first experience at Bakersfield OTR. The food was mostly great and the drinks were superb. I wish there was something for our son to eat, that way we could make it down for dinner more often.

Update: I’m told by the owner that they do indeed have a kiddie quesadilla that is not on the menu. Next time we will have to take the entire family down for lunch or dinner.

I watched a fair amount of musical films growing up. My grandmother was a big fan of them and because of that I was exposed to them fairly often. In fact I think I could still sing along to most of the songs from The Sound of Music.

When I was invited to Broadway in Cincinnati’s season opener of Ghost The Musical last Tuesday, I decided to give it a try despite never seeing the Oscar-winning movie that it is based on. I did read the story from the musical’s website, so I had a very general understanding of the plot, but I was still surprised when the major events all took place.

The musical features an original pop score from multiple Grammy Award-winners Dave Stewart, one half of the 80s pop duo the Eurythmics, and Glen Ballard, co-writer with Alanis Morissette on the multi-platinum album Jagged Little Pill, among many other notable credits and collaborations. Adapted from the hit film by its Academy Award-winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, Ghost the Musical follows Sam and Molly, a young couple whose connection takes a shocking turn after Sam’s untimely death. Trapped between two worlds, Sam refuses to leave Molly when he learns she is in grave danger. Desperate to communicate with her, he turns to a storefront psychic who helps him protect Molly and avenge his death.

Ghost The Musical

Aside from the great singing performances and creative acting from the cast, I was most impressed by the visual effects on the stage. Rather than relying solely on a physical backdrop, many of the scenes were created on giant LED screens that allowed the ghostly characters to fly through doors and appear to board and even ride on moving subway cars. I was very impressed with Ghost The Musical and would recommend it even if you have never seen the movie. Performances run through October 6th at the Aronoff.

Yesterday my sister-in-law asked if she should upgrade to the latest iOS 7. I told her that she absolutely should, but as always make sure to do a backup to iTunes before upgrading. I’ve been using iOS 7 since a day or two after its release and have had a wonderful experience with the redesigned user interface.

iOS 7 On My iPhone 5

I did notice one very small issue today. Somehow my phone has downloaded the same exact app twice. I’m clueless as to how it happened since I haven’t tried to download or update any applications since the upgrade. However, I do love the new automatic application updates, easily my favorite new feature behind the control center. Control center allows me to easily turn on and off my WiFi connection and easy access to other common things that were buried in Settings.

The one built-in application that seems to have changed the most is the calendar, and I’m still trying to get used to the new layout, but I honestly don’t use it too much on my personal phone. It seems like it is now designed much more for business purposes, so maybe it will be nice once I am able to upgrade my work phone, which I hope isn’t too far away. Switching between different operating systems is a bit challenging, especially when they are so different.

Over the weekend my family and I ended up at the Yard House after an unsuccessful attempt at attending Oktoberfest on Friday night. We parked the car just as the rain started to fall and decided that our evening would be best spent inside. Fortunately the Yard House was nearby and was on my restaurant wish list.

Inside

The inside of the Yard House is massive! I was expecting to have to wait for a table at 6 P.M. on a Friday but was pleasantly surprised to be seated immediately in a large booth overlooking the covered patio. There were a few other open tables inside but I’m told that Reds games can pack quite a crowd as the restaurant sits just a block from the stadium. The bar area appears plenty big enough to handle a much larger crowd than I saw.

Patio

This wasn’t my first visit to a Yard House restaurant. There are now roughly 40 locations in 15 states with more opening soon. I visited the Denver location a few times in the months it was open before moving to Cincinnati. The large craft beer selection was usually the primary motivator for my visits, though I will admit to drinking a half yard glass filled with light beer on one visit. During our most recent visit I would not be ordering any beers of this size, but I did witness an entire tour group ordering round after round of the tall glasses.

Classic Ranch Salad

I started my dinner with the classic ranch salad ($2.95 when added to your meal). The mix of iceberg and Boston lettuce was topped with tomatoes, carrots, sweet corn, jack, cheddar, croutons and buttermilk ranch. The serving size was smaller than I was expecting. And though I liked the addition of corn to the other standard toppings, I just didn’t love this salad and would definitely skip it in the future.

Kid’s Cheeseburger

Our two-year-old son decided to eat a cheeseburger from the Kids Klub menu. This came served with a choice of side (he chose french fries of course) and a drink ($6.95). Since we usually encourage him to drink water when dining out, I would have preferred to have a cheaper priced option without the drink. With that said the serving size was generous for a kid’s meal and he seemed to enjoy it.

Spicy Thai Chicken Pizza

My wife ordered the spicy Thai chicken pizza, a lovely combination of firecracker sauce, mozzarella, macadamia nuts, carrots, green onion and cilantro ($12.85). The pizza is easily enough to share. I had a couple of slices of it and we still had two pieces left to bring home with us. I really enjoyed the macadamia nut topping, which is something that I have never seen before. The firecracker sauce has the right amount of spice to it and the dough was perfectly cooked with a chewy center and crisp edges. Their pizzas seem popular and for good reason.

Street Tacos

The food menu is equally as lengthy as the beer list, which features over 100 draft options. I’ve sampled their sandwiches before and enjoyed them, but I was looking for something different on this visit. I found the street taco menu that offers two tacos with spicy rice and beans and decided to give that a try. I asked for the carnitas tacos and our waitress kindly pointed out that I could mix and match the two tacos. I quickly decided to try one each of the carnitas and chicken tinga ($10.65).

The carnitas taco was a delicious combination of roast pork with grilled onions, pico de gallo, guacamole and pineapple, while the chicken tinga added a rather bland chipotle tomato sauce with green cabbage, cilantro, feta cheese and cumin crema. I easily enjoyed the carnitas better and should have went with my original order. The spicy rice on the side was actually very good, but the beans were terrible. The soupy bean mix was very bland and barely warm. How they got the cheese to melt on top is a mystery to me.

With a few exceptions, all the food I’ve tried from the Yard House has been great. The beer selection alone is reason enough to visit. With all of that said I think I enjoy the neighboring Moerlein Lager House food and environment better, though the Yard House wins for beer.

Yesterday was Paige’s baptism day! She was baptized at St. Francis Seraph by Fr. David Kohut, the same church Trey was baptized, and where Kim and I were married as well.

Paige Being Baptized

Paige was a perfect little angel for the entire mass. She slept right up until the water was poured on her head. She was a bit startled by the awakening, but she never cried. As for Trey, he definitely wanted to see what was happening to his baby sister.

Trey Looking On

Thanks so much to Paige’s godparents, Melissa and Chris, for helping us out during the day and for many future years of love.

Godparents

We had great weather for a party at our house afterward and were very blessed to have so many members of our families over to celebrate with us.

Tonight is the last of this summer’s Bandstand Bluegrass nights at Washington Park. This has become one of my family’s favorite activities this summer and we definitely will not miss it tonight. Our friends The Turkeys are playing from 7-9 and as always Eli’s BBQ will be there with delicious pulled pork sandwiches. Look for us there with our bottomless stroller of kiddie gear.

Lots Of Gear

I took my family out to the Old West Festival on Saturday for a few hours. I first heard of this fest through Family Friendly Cincinnati, which is a great resource for things to do with the kids. The fest remains open weekends through October 6th.

Welcome Wagon

We arrived just before noon and found that we weren’t the only ones with the idea for the day. Fortunately I had enough cash to skip the credit card line for entry payment, and we were inside the gates in no time. Admission is $12 for adults, children ages 6-12: $6, and children under 5 are free.

Ticket Line

We were treated to a gunfight right away upon our entry. It reminded me a lot of the shootout we witnessed as part of our Great Train Robbery experience last year. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of the actors from the train ride were participating at the Old West Fest. Our two-year-old though it was too loud this time, so we moved along right away.

Gunfight

The town buildings are very cool to look at and each one has a real purpose inside. Some sell arts and crafts, while others serve as a saloon for drinks and food.

Old West Town

There were numerous activities for the young ones, including a sing along band performance, a really impressive magic show, panning for gold, and the always exciting play-set with slides and swings.  We were most entertained by the Pickled Brothers Circus, who we caught on our way out. The combination of fire eating, juggling, and sword swallowing was enjoyed by the whole family.

Native American Weekend

This past weekend was Native American weekend and we witnessed a drum circle performance. Each weekend has its own unique theme, so some specials acts and exhibits can be expected at other times.

Miniature Buggy

We all had a good time at the festival, even though my wife and I thought it was a little expensive. Mainly the food and drinks were not as cheap as I was expecting, and there were a handful of children’s activities that all cost extra as well. I did see people bringing their own coolers with them, so that could be one way to cut down the cost, though I don’t see it mentioned specifically on their website. It is probably best for families with older children.

With Kim already planning to attend last Tuesday’s Reds game with work, I decided it would be fun to take Trey down for another game before the season is over. My father-in-law scored some great seats just behind the dugout for the game, though not as nice as the suite Kim was watching from.

Great Seats

The game was slow and painful to watch as the Reds quickly lost control and went on to lose 1-9 to the Cubs. We made it through six innings before retreating home to get a good night of sleep. On the way out we saw a World Trade Center steel artifact on display. 9/11 was the next day and there were special events and memorials to remember the sad day in American history.

WTC Steel Artifact

We also got our first glimpse at the new Joe Morgan statue just outside of the ball park that was dedicated the weekend before.

Joe Morgan

Even though the game wasn’t a good one for Reds fans, it is always a good time enjoying the park with family and friends.