I traveled back to Cincinnati once again this weekend, but this time it was for a bachelor party weekend. I arrived late Friday evening in Dayton where my brother picked me up and we headed down to his pad. We were both fairly tired and had to get an early start the next day, so decided to head for bed after watching a bit of TV.

Saturday, after running some errands for a good chunk of the morning, we met up with my dad and some others to take a canoeing trip down the Little Miami River. Though the authorities have been trying to crack down on drinking while floating down the river, we didn’t run into any problems doing so. It was a great six mile trip that ate up most of the afternoon and into the evening hours. Since we ended up with an odd number of people, I opted to take out a kayak for myself, which I thoroughly enjoyed and would love to do again.

After that we went back to my brother’s, cleaned up, and started up the grill. Lots of others who didn’t go on the canoe trip came over and we had a great little party out on his back deck. Eventually the party moved indoors as the weather got a little questionable. We had lots of games of Rock Band, a beer pong tournament, and lots of good times. A big thanks goes out to my brother, dad, and all else who attended. Oh yeah, thanks to my mom too for dropping of all kinds of good sides and appetizers!

Another Pig-Fest has come and gone. As always a great time was had and the weather cooperated for the entire day. This year was a little different than the last few years, as there was no live evening entertainment. As I mentioned earlier, our friend MER was not able to attend this year, so we tried a karaoke machine instead. That pretty much failed just as we started it up. Either people weren’t quite “ready” or just not interested, but only a couple of people shared their voices with the crowd.

So I decided to run a flip-cup tournament instead. I formed nearly 16 teams of 4 players each, and drew up a bracket. The tourney went well into the night hours, and provided plenty of entertainment for the rest of the night. In addition, we had both the standard wiffle ball and cornhole tournaments. I also saw a few games of beersbee, along with oversized soccer and badminton. A full day of activities for sure!

Looks like my mom has already uploaded a bunch of pictures to her flickr page, and I’m sure others will soon follow. Keep your eyes on the Pig-Fest site which will be updated soon.

Anyone thinking of hitting up the Great American Beer Festival with us this year? I believe that we’ll be heading to the evening session on Saturday October 10th 11th. Tickets went onsale today, and though I don’t think they sell out very quickly, they always do sell out before the actual weekend arrives. Even though the crowds can be pretty large, I still find the event totally worth the price and hassle associated with it. Three cheers for our third appearance at the fest!

You may recall a flip cup tournament that we participated in last year. Well we attended again this year with a new team but had the same results as last year, pretty much nothing but loses. Our theme for this time was baseball, calling ourselves the “Grand Slammers.” Despite not winning a single match, we still had a blast.

This is going to be a busy week. My boss is on vacation and I’ll be covering many of his tasks for the week. I’m hoping that it won’t be as bad as it has been before when he took extended vacation, since there is another individual in the office who will be doing some tasks, but I guess only time will tell. So far it’s been a really busy day.

Our Memorial Day labor day weekend (I always mix the two up) was good though. We were back in Cincinnati for the wedding of one of Kim’s cousins. Kim was a bridesmaid in the wedding and we’ve known her cousins husband for awhile as well, so it was nice to attend their big day. And since a good number of her extended family was there it gave us a little taste of what our wedding will be like. Everyone better get their dancing shoes out and be ready to swing all the way into party mode! I took some pictures throughout the day and I hope to get them online sometime soon. I’ll be sure to post a link.

We thought that picking a date for last year’s Pig-Fest was hard, but it had nothing on the date selection process for this year. But at least we get to have two big parties this year, Pig-Fest XV and our wedding. The first of which will be held on July 5th of this year, yep that’s right the 4th of July weekend or as we are calling it the “Pork of July Weekend.” The invitations should go out soon, so let me know if you’d like one delivered to your inbox (if you are typically on the list, no need to let me know). Our musical guest for the past few years, MER, is not able to make it this year so we are seeking other nighttime entertainment. Let me know if you have any ideas.

I just got back from taking a lunch trip downtown to watch the National Western Stock Show Parade. I’m assuming that the series of events are similar to the American Royal in Kansas City, which I’ve experienced different parts of in the past. However, I have never seen a parade quite like this. It actually starts with a big group of cowboys driving somewhere between fifty and one hundred (by my estimation) longhorn cattle down 17th Street. Then they have a band or two, lots of horses, and some other standard parade fare. It isn’t very long, but was worth it alone to see the cattle up-close. I took some pictures and will get them online soon.

Edit: Pictures can now be seen here.

As I mentioned last week, we headed to the Finger Lakes region of New York for my buddy Jay’s wedding. This region is the second largest producer of wine in the US, next to Napa Valley. We stayed in Geneva, on Seneca Lake, and explored the wineries around this lake. The wedding itself took place at the Belhurst Castle, and was a wonderful ceremony and an excellent reception. We all had such a great time and wish the newlyweds the best!

Before heading back to Denver, Kim and I made a quick detour to Niagara Falls. It was just over an hour from Rochester, where we were flying out, and Kim doesn’t think she had ever been there before. It was pretty cold for our visit, so we only stayed for a half hour, but we were able to see quite a bit of the area. More pictures from Niagara Falls can be found here, and wedding pictures are located here.

Tonight Kim and I are heading to the holy land, also known as the Great American Beer Festival. We attended this party, I mean event, a couple of years ago, and I must say that it is a must see. There will be 408 breweries on the tasting floor with 1884 different beers available. I have done my research and have put together a plan to hit 43 of these breweries. I figure somewhere around 50 will be the magic number, so I still have some room for suggestions. Here’s the list of participating breweries. Cheers!

On Saturday evening we participated in a flip cup tournament with around 24 other teams. Each team consisted of five players and were required to have a theme and costumes. Since we joined just a few days prior, and weren’t felling too creative, we just threw on some Hawaiian shirts, some leis, etc. and became Team Hawaii or Team Buffet, as we used both names interchangeably. Other teams were a lot more creative and came complete with elaborate costumes, just check out Blades of Glory or Double Dare.

We played against the hosts of the party in a practice round and got beat badly. So we re-arranged our lineup and had a little more success. In our first round match we still lost, but it wasn’t as much of a blowout as before. Not to worry though, there was a losers bracket. In our first match of the losers bracket, we lost the first game, but each match was a best of three competition. We went on to win the next two games and took the match. Unfortunately that was our last game, as the tournament ran out of time and the losers bracket was canceled. I’m not sure who won the tournament, but it was a great time regardless.

I posted a few more pictures on my flickr page.