GC, Spagio Cellars & Barley's

I was up and downstairs by 545am on what looked like another warm clear day. I slowly went about my sit-ups and push-ups then poured two cups of coffee. After delivering Mindy’s coffee and waking her, I checked to make sure Jacob was up. He was. I headed back downstairs for internet and coffee.

I fooled around online for about 25 minutes, or just after 630am. The forecast was calling for a high near 95 degrees under mostly sunny skies. The weekend, however, wasn’t expected to be that nice. The temps would remain fairly warm but there was a strong chance of significant rain everyday through Labor Day, fallout from Isaac.
I planned on working from home all day. And to that end, I gave myself a few extra minutes of leisure. I took my time with meditation and stretching, not getting out the door for my run until 645am. I wore just a pair of shorts, shoes, and a ball cap. It was about 73 degrees and very humid. First time in the 70’s that early in quite a while. Felt really warm. It was trash day, and they’d already been by as I headed out. Our empty can was left lying on its side on the apron. I stood it upright then headed off on my run.

I worked up quite a lather on the run and felt good throughout. I got back from my run in time to catch up with Mindy and Eiknarf out for a morning walk. Mindy left for work a couple minutes later. Before enjoying my breakfast I got my laptop fired up and quickly sent my boss an email sharing my plan to work from home. There wasn’t anything major requiring my immediate attention. I enjoyed my eggs with Bella. Instead of getting a shower between 730-8am I got busy with work. Just before heading to the bus stop with Bella I emptied the dehumidifier on the deck plants.

The bus arrived on time. Chrissy gave me a little grief for still being in my running attire. Back at the house I tidied up the kitchen, poured another cup of coffee, then settled in in front of my work laptop. My boss pinged me around 9am asking for me to give him a call. I didn’t know why but wondered if me working from home caused him some heartburn. That wasn’t it at all. He needed to get some career planning information from me. While talking, he went on to say that I could work from home whenever the need arose. Cool!

I stayed busy all morning long thanks in part to an escalation from one of the accounts I support. That proved to be quite the challenge. Mid-morning I took a break and stepped outside. I was surprised with how warm it was. In fact, it was hot! I spent about 15 minutes cutting back some of the blue May salvia as well as the English Ivy growing vigorously amongst it. The flower beds are looking bad already. In some areas the petunias look completely spent. Frustrating.

Poured myself some ice water and enjoyed a cheese stick or two as I jumped back into work. Spent another hour or so working on that escalation. Took a lunch break around noon and gathered the few tools I’d need to replace one of the broken kitchen floor tiles, something I’ve wanted to get done for a couple years. I planned to replace the worst one, the one that looks like it was smacked with a hammer about a foot in front of the fridge. And now that I have a grout blade for my oscillating tool, the hardest part, removing the grout and old tile, should be easy. I watched a YouTube video of a single tile replacement process. Looked super easy. Not wasting any time, I jumped into the mini-project.

Aside from the grout removal taking a little more elbow grease that I imagined, the removal went without a hitch. The oscillating tool made it so simple. Scraping away the residual mastic was more difficult than I imagined. I later learned that they make a more flexible scraper attachment for removing hardened adhesives. I used my shop-vac to clean up the dust I made from my removal work. I was ready to set the new tile not even 15 minutes into the job. Having never laid floor tile before, I was extra careful when applying the new layer of mastic. Too much might leave the new tile higher than its neighbors. Not enough and it might sit too low or even come loose. Thanks to M/I, I’ve had a box of leftover kitchen tile and grout from when they built the house 19 years ago. I set the tile then placed one of the kitchen stool over the area to prevent foot traffic from moving it. I planned to let it set for about 24 hours before applying new grout. I cleaned up my rather small mess and got back to work.

The afternoon went fast. Around 230p, or just before Jacob got home, I finally took a shower. His bus pulled up around 245pm. Mindy was home 45 minutes later around 330pm, and Bella off her bus near 4pm. I stayed busy at my computer until just after 5pm when I had my out-of-office set to kick in.

I was very much looking forward to the long holiday weekend. Mindy quickly fed Jacob then left to take him to soccer practice. After practice, Mindy was taking he and Bella to Jimaken’s parents to spend the night. This was a Jimaken weekend though he was at a Kiss concert in Cincinnati Friday evening. Jacob had a soccer tournament in Dayton all weekend long. Bella wasn’t looking forward to that in the least.
I headed out to water flowers while Mindy was away. I also spent a little time updating my blog. Mindy was home in between dropping Jacob at soccer and then picking him up and dropping them both at Jimaken’s parents but not for that long. She was back from both by 630pm. We planned on going out, but we didn’t have definitive plans. I suggested we do the Grandview avenue crawl, possibly stop at the Grandview Café, Spagio Cellars, and Matt the Miller’s. Mindy liked the sound of that. We left the house before 7pm.

We parked on Grandview Avenue about a block north of 3rd Ave. We fed the meter with enough change to carry us through 10pm, or when the meter’s become free. We hit Grandview Café first. Haven’t been there since late winter 2006 with Tommy, Bill Gray, and a bunch of Mindy’s teacher friends. It was an unusually warm late winter day. Mindy and I had been out exploring around the new Beach Bridge. She got a little hammered that night at GC.

This time we opted for the ground floor and took two stools on the west side of the wrap around bar. They have a better beer selection than I recalled, though still not spectacular. I opted for a Southern Tier Octoberfest. Sitting at the corner of the bar I noticed the same group of friends that used to come in the GC way back in the early ‘00’s. Like all of us, they’ve aged a bit. The bar still pulls in quite a crowd. Seemed to have a problem with flies. They were all over the place, both fruit flies and regular flies. Mindy and I shared a plate of potstickers. They were good. I had 2nd Southern Tier then suggested we get out tab and head elsewhere.

Instead of Matt the Miller’s I suggested we stop in at Spagio Cellars. I’d been there only one other time – New Year’s Eve – 4 or 5 years ago to look for some unique beers. That was way back when Barley’s fell victim to the hop shortage and wasn’t able to brew IPA’s. Spagio Cellars is more geared towards wine, but does have a nice selection of beers. It looks like a cross between a wine bar that serves tappas and a beer carryout. Mindy order a 3-flight of wine. After hitting the restroom I saw nothing in the beer coolers that jumped right out at me. Eventually, though, I ordered a Great Lakes Pale Ale. Mindy ordered an appetizer, a flatbread topped with roasted red tomatoes, arugula, olives, and balsamic vinegar. It was pretty good.

Unbeknownst to me, Mindy brought the $50 gift card that Rene gifted us 2 or 3 years ago. We finally used it. Mindy covered our tab and picked up a bottle of wine to-go. Instead of Matt the Miller’s, we opted to make a stop at Barley’s. I’m thinking that it was about 915pm. Mindy had a quick little buzz going after enjoying a beer at GC and then the 3-flight of wine.

The usual Friday crowd at Barley’s had already thinned, but there were still some regulars there. Banker Dan, Jim Bosch, and Jersey were sitting at the bar, although separated by many stools. Mindy opted for only water while I ordered a Centennial. Met Christina, a Barley’s server, who was on the customer side of the bar for the first time. Jim Bosch came over and bought shots for everybody – a total of 9. I was a party pooper and gave mine away after acting like I drank it. Mindy drank hers.

I ended up having a 2nd Centennial while Mindy stuck with water. Grandpa Tom and his partner Steve showed up late, which is normal for those two. I’m guessing that we hung at Barley’s until 1045pm or so. By that time Mindy was fine to drive and drove us home. I covered our $11 Barley’s tab. We weren’t up too late after getting home around 11pm. I made myself a snack before joining Mindy who was already in bed and all but asleep.