Washin' Cars, Gallery Hop, & CBC

I slept in until 8:30am. Soon I was downstairs prepping coffee and pushing through my daily regimen of exercise. I was excited to see the day’s forecast had been upgraded beyond what already looked good. Now the expected high was 78 degrees under partly cloudy skies. Wahoo! After completing my exercises, Ykraps & I headed out for a walk. It was already in the low 60s and the cloud cover thinning. It smelt and felt like spring. Back inside I had to decide whether or not to wake Mindy. I chose to let her sleep as late as she wanted. After all, she doesn’t get many opportunities to sleep late like this, and besides, she had a rough night. I spent the next hour updating my blog. Around 10:30am I took Mindy some coffee and shared just how beautiful it was outside. Just prior, the sun was shining brightly. I didn’t want her to miss the lovely weather. But by the time she found her way down the stairs the sun ducked back behind thin clouds. That pattern continued for the rest of the day, really. We talked for a while about our night at Barley’s She didn’t readily recall getting sick or coming home. She also didn’t know that Tara and Doug drove us home. She pretty much remembered everything else. All totaled, she did two or three buttery nipple shots along with drinking two or three beers. But for Mindy, that’s a bunch. While sipping coffee, we discussed how our day might unfold. She sounded interested in doing the Gallery Hop later along with dinner, but she also mentioned hiking at Darby Metro. Cool. Sounded ideal to me. I suited up for my run a little after 11am. I could’ve worn shorts but opted not. The sun was out for most of my run and the temperature approached 70 degrees. It was absolutely beautiful! While I was gone, Mindy decided that she’d rather shop than hike. To that end, I kidded her about being 40. To carry her logic further, she said she wanted to shop at Kohl’s, and then go to Gentiles to get some more of that Sam Adams Imperial Stout she liked so much. My god, what have I created? Afterwards, we’d stop by the Jump’s to see the new baby, Ella Louise. Before heading anywhere, I wanted to wash both of our vehicles. I asked Mindy if we could drive them to the do-it-yourself carwash just up the road. She somewhat reluctantly agreed. Her Honda needed it way worse than my Trooper, ever since the most recent ski trip. We gathered $5 worth of quarters then headed out. Once there, Mindy admitted to never doing this before. We got in line side by side. I got her started on the vacuuming, and once she seemed to have a good grasp I started on the Trooper. Her wash stall became available before mine. I got her started there, too. In fact, I did the entire wash cycle, but turned the subsequent rinse cycle over to her so that I could tend to the Trooper now that my stall was open, too. We met back at home in our driveway. We spent another hour detailing both vehicles inside and out. This might be the first time both vehicles have been squeaky clean at the same time, but hopefully not the last. After washing the cars we headed inside to shower up for an afternoon out and about. I’d guess that we were heading out the door near 2:30pm. We stopped at Kohl’s first. Mindy bought a new sweater and some costume jewelry. I picked out some purple peace sign earrings for her too. She bought me two new t-shirts. And no, they’re not black. One’s pink and the other peach. We made a brief stop next door at Dick’s to see if they had car-top carriers in stock. They didn’t. I glanced quickly at new drivers, too. Why not? It’s getting close to that time! We left Hilliard destined for Gentiles in Grandview. We arrived at Gentiles around 4:00pm. They didn’t have any of the Sam Adams Imperial Stout. Mindy opted instead for Bell’s Expedition Stout. We picked up a four pack of Mojo’s Double IPA for the Jump’s. And once at the counter, Mindy requested another case of Bells HopSlam for her wonderful husband. He’s so spoiled! At this rate, I’ll have HopSlam on hand through summer, easily! Onto the Jump’s. Mindy called to make sure that it was still OK to stop by. It was. We were there in a few short minutes. Mindy carried in the baby gifts. I carried in the beer gift. We didn’t stay long but long enough so that Mindy could hold Ella, and so we could talk for short while. Porter is getting big. He’s definitely not a baby any longer. Time flies! I sampled Jeremy’s home brewed Rye-IPA. It was very, very good. Not wanting to wear out our welcome, we left just before 5pm. I was tired and needed a nap. Almost as soon as we were settled in back at the house I plopped down in the recliner for a brief nap. I’ll bet I slept for no more than 15 minutes, but it felt terrific. Mindy and I discussed our dinner options. We called Martini’s in the short north but they were booked solid. Mindy eventually opted to find dinner while walking the gallery hop. Before heading out, we walked Ykraps and then returned to freshen up. We left for the gallery hop around 6:45pm. Until we got close, we’d forgotten that this was the Arnold Classic weekend in Columbus. That meant that the short north would be even more crowded than usual. We ended up parking on Neil Ave. just west of Goodale Park – not bad. We walked through the park as just darkness set in. There were oodles of people walking up and down the streets of the short north. The weather was ideal for the event. We checked out a handful of galleries. None were more interesting than the gallery showing several pieces done in Crayola tips. Crayons were used like lite-brite plugs to form a picture. We checked out a few galleries off the beaten path, too. In one, we ran into one of the two Lori’s from Time Warner again. This time she was out with her husband. We found it ironic that we hadn’t seen one another in so many years only to run into one another two night’s in a row. How cool is that? Mindy & I enjoyed the art but were becoming increasingly hungry. While Mindy stepped into another gallery on High St that caught her eye, I waited outside and snapped few pictures. Turning around, I spotted nephew Joe and Daniel. We were planning to phone them later and arrange a meeting point for a beer. We discussed as much at the corner. Joe suggested the U bar just up the road in about an hour. Sounded good to me. In the meantime, Mindy & I were determined to find some good food. Our first choice was Betty’s, known for their good food and beer. We went inside and added out name to a list that was 27 groups deep. The hostess suggested we gallery hop but check in periodically to see if we’re up. Are you kidding? I want to try Betty’s but not that bad. No thanks! We left. We ended up at Mac’s, another popular short north pub known for good food. But Mindy didn’t want to fight the crowd there either. Their seating is on a first come-first serve basis. I was getting hungry & thirsty. At first I was determined to make a go of it even after Mindy asked that we bolt for CBC. However, thinking it through, CBC sounded better and better. We agreed to abandon the short north and head for the brewery district and the friendly and familiar confines of CBC. Mindy phoned Joe-Joe to let him know that we were bailing. He understood. Too bad, though. I really wanted to check out the U bar. We took Marconi almost the entire way across downtown to Short St. CBC was more crowded than we’ve ever seen it before, too, but we were able to get a table right away. I ordered an IPA even before we got our table. It was heavenly. Mindy opted for water. Pat was our waiter. Hadn’t seen him there before. We ordered some calamari right off all the while we continued scouring the menu for our dinner selections. The calamari came fast, and it didn’t disappoint either. For our money, there’s no better calamari anywhere. Mindy & I talked with Bella & Jacob while enjoying our appetizer. Mindy spotted Stella, the pregnant waitress, from afar. We met her last summer, the same night we brought Tommy and Courtney out. We’ve gotten to know a little bit about her over time. We wanted to chat with her but never got a chance. She was busy. Mindy ended up ordering the scallops. I went blue collar and ordered their wings. I had Pat bring me another IPA too. Mindy advised me to enjoy. She’d be driving tonight. The wings were delicious, and Mindy woofed down her scallops. We’ve never been disappointed at CBC. We didn’t stay out too late. I think we were outta there by 9:30pm. At home I prepped the hot tub. We got in for a quick soak around 10pm. We didn’t stay in long, however, but just long enough for me to enjoy a HopSlam. Both of us were really tired. We headed for bed immediately after the hot tub.