Here’s your chance Cleveland to get in the holiday spirit with one of the biggest social events of the season. Scrooge’s Night Out!
Get in the holiday spirit with a little fun before all of that stress associated with the upcoming weeks.
For 21 years, the folks at the Ohio Canal Corridor have been hosting this holiday party that’s never disappointed the 1,000+ people who attend.
Take a break from all of the holiday hustle and relax this Friday night at “Scrooge’s Night Out” at the Galleria!
You can find out more by clicking here for the OCC website.
By the way, everyone’s doing it so you should to and the prices are very affordable for what you get that night.
See you there?
The Cleveland skyline shows the holidays are here!
I was lucky enough to get some passes to Winterfest 2008. Narm, his girlfriend and I got to sit on the square and see the parade (of horses). Superior was littered with, well, what happens after horse eat what they eat. After the parade, fireworks lit up Public Square. The show was great. I will say I miss the old tree lighting with carols, the ice skating rink and Santa lighting downtown Cleveland. Francesca somewhat nicely insisted we get some Starbucks. Since when recently am I able to pass that place up? Pfft!, but whatevah! We were also invited to the after party at Cadillac Ranch. The night was nice, enjoy the pictures!
I was up early this morning and thought about getting my favorite breakfast, do I really need to tell you the destination?
While I was driving this morning and at the stop light at West 25th and Lorain, I just stopped and listened how quiet it was outside.
Sure, there was the street sweeper cleaning up Market Square plaza around 7:30 this morning. It was a sign Friday night was over and a new day was ready to begin in earnest.
At the West Side Market, the merchants already had their produce set up ready for the hundreds of people who will roam up and down the aisles looking for the best prices. There was an implied quietness there. No people yelling over other people this morning. Everyone was most likely pre-coffee and still trying to get their arms around the day ahead.
A man stood outside of Bar Cento outside of the patio area. Last night, people having fun and socializing stood at the same spot but this morning, that space was his. He stood there by himself watching traffic go by.
Not too many cars stopped me from getting to where I wanted to go. The lights on West 25th lazily changed from red to green, almost themselves realizing the work ahead after everyone got their morning routine under way.
In front of the Old Angle, two people leaned up against the patio area there. I think the woman was waiting on the bus. She was dressed in a uniform and the man who she was kissing looked like he was waiting to see her off to her job.
Cleveland was quiet this morning. Only two people waited on the bus down the street at West 25th and Detroit. It’s the bus stop where everyone seems to gather but no one actually gets on the bus. One man was inside of the bus stop and another man stood by the fence, both of them obviously counting down the moments until their transportation arrived.
Just two cars drove up the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge, just 24 hours earlier, so many commuters would share the connection from Ohio City to downtown Cleveland over the Cuyahoga River.
At St. Malachi, a homeless man curled up in one of the church’s entrances seeking shelter from any noise and elements. I wondered how long he had been there and the story of his life.
The river was quiet this Saturday morning. No boats had signaled the Center Street Swing Bridge to do its job and allow traffic up the Cuyahoga. Of course, there were a fair number of seagulls who did not even care to disturb the peace. They were just looking for their breakfast and flying around trying to spot something to eat.
Four cars sit right now outside of the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. The employees are already inside getting things ready for people once the city comes to life.
It’s a cloudy day so far with the temperature of 65 degrees outside. There’s hardly any breeze to even make the trees make any noise.
Cleveland is quiet just waiting to come alive… Downtown living, ain’t it grand?
Dear Constantly Backing Up Truck Guy,
I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday as much as I am. I’m nursing a cold but still want to enjoy the fresh [sic] air that Cleveland has to offer. It is 64 degrees out there and I’d like my air conditioner to have a little break.
I’ve opened up my sliding glass door to let the cooler air into my place. Now I have one question, with the sound of your reverse warning signal, by the way, I’m hearing loud and clear, shouldn’t you be close to Canada or Columbus by now with all of your reversing?
I can’t see how you are going forward. I can hear the fact you are going in reverse. That must really tick off your co-workers who must be trying to load dirt or debris into your truck bed. Just when they get close enough, you must put your vehicle in reverse again. I know, I can hear you.
Take my advice, put the sucker in park for a couple of minutes, give me a little break from your noise pollution and allow your co-workers to get some stuff done.
By the way, I’m on vacation and you’re not, so there!
By your antics, you must think you’re one funny SOB,
[with credit to Narm for the writing style, sorry about the lack of Lou Bega references, it’s just so tricky, tricky to figure out a way to include one.]
I got invited to a BBQ thrown, in part, by my friends, Rodger & Rebecca on the Viaduct. The best part, I didn’t even have to drive anywhere because of the proximity of my apartment. I volunteered to bring the dessert, a fruit pizza. I’ll post the recipe later for those of you who may want to try it yourself.
I needed to get the ingredients and a bunch of other things for my place (read: the cupboard was bare.) I went to Steelyard Commons and my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. First, they didn’t have strawberries. How can they be out of strawberries? I know it’s not exactly strawberry season here in Ohio but it’s still very bizarre that they didn’t have them.
After about a half hour of wheeling my cart around the store, I decided to finish up with a trip to the Health & Beauty section to look for some Q-tips. I don’t like off-brands or Johnson’s Cotton Swabs. I want Q-tips. I go up and down the aisles looking for them and to no avail until I ask some saleswoman who points me to her cart. It has Johnson’s, I tell her I want Q-tips, she was a little exasperated that I couldn’t use Johnson’s and finally takes me to them. By the way, they’re in the Baby Care aisle. That doesn’t make any sense to me, I would have never found them there.
I finally arrive at the checkout to find the lines at least 4 or 5 people deep. I secure my spot, wait and realize I forgot charcoal. I tell the lady next to me that I’ll be back and to go ahead of me if necessary. I get the goods, race back and find she’s let someone else in front of us. That was fine but what happened next, wasn’t.
A man (looked to be in his 20’s) with a kid had just scanned through $258.41 (let’s say) of food. I also noticed on the belt, a box of Magnum XL condoms. I didn’t know what to think at this point. The clerk announced his total, he slid his first credit card, it didn’t work. He tried another one, it was declined as well. He told the clerk, he had $180.00 worth of cash on him and he’s going to have to give back some of the merchandise.
At this point, he starts pulling products out of the bags in his cart and the clerk voids them off his bill. I was in a rush but there wasn’t anything I could do. I sympathized with him. I just waited and watched as food came out and was to be put back on the shelf. It was kind of like being on the Price Is Right. I started guessing the prices of each of the products he brought out of his bag. He ended up pulling about $80.00 worth of stuff out of the bags. Milk, meat, cereal, juice, more meat, donuts, bread, cheese, the stuff you really need for you and, I assume, your family. What he didn’t pull out (bad choice of words?) were those Magnum XL condoms. Those were staying put.
He paid up and so did I. I left in a rush to go to Dave’s Supermarket to get the strawberries so I could make up the fruit pizza. I was a half-hour late to the BBQ, which wasn’t a problem, but it was mostly because of Wal-Mart’s lack of strawberries and Mr. Magnum XL man.
I wonder if this is his favorite ride at Cedar Point? Didn’t someone at the park do some fact checking first before they named the ride?
Wait until you see where this post goes.
I love Wikipedia but I hate that I start out looking for information about bumblebees and end up reading about the life and times of Queen Elizabeth twenty minutes later.
The same thing is true about the blogosphere. I wanted to catch up on my blog and everyone else’s today. I’ve been working crazy hours this week and haven’t had time to do much posting. I started going through the blogs when I got to Narm’s.
Ironically, I went to Ro k Bottom with Narm last night. Ro k Bottom is Rock Ottom now. (c’mon Marco, you gotta fix that sign and the wiring) Narm’s just as hilarious in person as on his blog. If you haven’t read the Secret blog, spend 5 minutes or less of your life and read it. It’s one of the funniest posts I’ve ever read. I was happy to tell him apparently there is a new scent of Secret out there that smells more manly. My neighbor bought two of them but then pitched them because she didn’t like the smell. He even made me curious to see what the stuff’s all about. I’ll never tell anyone that I actually used the stuff though. See my comment on his page. By the way, if you go to Ro k Bottom, you can’t order a GLBC beer or let’s say a Miller Lite because Ro k Bottom is a brewery. I’m just trying to keep you from embarrassing yourself. I can never spell “embarassing” correctly.
So back to the Wikipedia connection. I was reading Narm’s blog and his comments on one of his posts and I clicked through to Hebrewhero who had a funny retort. I, of course, read his post about going to the dentist. It got me to thinking about my hundreds (I mean hundreds) of trips to the dentist over the years. I apparently had bad mouth of chompers. I love the dentist over a trip to the doctors.
When I was down in South Texas one of the hygienists told me that people gag all of the time at the dentist and that’s the best part. I don’t need to remind you what follows gagging. I was shocked by this revelation. In all of my professional visits (I can claim professional because I went to the dentist so much, I actually have a degree. One of my procedures actually allowed my dentist to buy a hot tub. I’m not joking.)
Starting over…
In all of my professional visits, I can claim I never gagged once… until that dreaded woman told me of the phenomenon. Now, I have to watch my reflex closely when I get x-rays or impressions taken. I mean, did she really have to tell me about that? It’s engrained in my brain now and I think I have to be like the cool people, kind of like Britney Spears following Paris Hilton’s trend of going commando, and start gagging.
She was nice enough to tell me that the secret to avoid the gag is breathing through your nose. I practice that now and rule the day she ever told me such a thing.
See I told you we were going to be all over the place.
I’m a member of thirtysomething bloggers on ning.com. I know other people are members of twentysomething bloggers (don’t worry, your day is coming!!) I figure we should have our own place to play on ning called clevelandbloggers.
I haven’t used ning very much but I created clevelandbloggers. So if you have a blog and you’re a Clevelander (Northern Ohio applies,) join up today! You might as well, there’s no cost, no effort involved and you might meet some other great bloggers in the process.
Take it from me, there are some great bloggers out there I wouldn’t have ever met if it wasn’t for blogging, let’s get a little organized (Allison, I know that word scares you!) If you don’t have a blog, you should start one, everyone’s doing it.
I don’t know why but this always happens to me.
When Wimbledon comes on, I have to watch it all of the time during the fortnight.
Same thing applies to the Olympics, especially the Summer Games.
I’ve watched swimming, handball (really?), diving, boxing, more diving, tennis (of course) and basketball.
Oh, then there’s gymnastics. Team USA didn’t look like they were going for the gold last night during qualifying rounds. Gymnasts out of bounds, falling off of the uneven bars. I wasn’t prepared to see them fall apart like that.
I’m now watching Olympic boxing. Apparently, Cleveland native Raynell Williams is one of the best boxers on the USA’s team. My TV hasn’t left Universal HD, NBC or any of the other Olympic HD outlets.
I missed the opening ceremonies because I was enjoying a great dinner at Bar Cento but the games themselves have been great so far.
Here’s to more great action,
A couple of Cleveland bloggers hung out last night at Bar Cento in Ohio City.
Allison from Confessions of a Cohabitant arrived on time and was waiting for the rest of us. Allison, one thing you should know about me, I’m prompt but you know what a day I had yesterday so I had to finish up some of the “chores” of being a friend. ‘Nuff said.
Mel from Life, Liberty and Pursuit Of Your Boyfriend and I arrived next. Alexa, from Cleveland’s A Plum arrived moments later. She set the whole thing up in the first place. We missed Narm from White-Collar Redneck for dinner but we got to meet up with him for the impromtu Blogger after-party. Narm, thanks for understanding the Case joke. For the record, I’m a Case IH guy, not a big John Deere fan. I may even spring for a Massey Ferguson first.
We ate, and boy, did we eat. The Chef & his Widow took care of us throughout the night. Everest, what a cool name, was our server and I believe he took away a nice tip for his great service. Bar Cento has some great food. We had pizza topped with eggs, fries with flavored mayonnaise, green beans with cherry tomatoes, pizza topped with blue cheese and a lot more. For dessert, ice cream scoops and a great berry and cream dish. Both were great. Have I shown enough love.
I can’t forget to mention that the Plain Dealer’s Friday section’s photographers were out. Of course, they saw this good-looking table of people and wanted to take a picture of us. Alexa asked how we could make sure it got in an upcoming edition. I quickly added that “We are semi-famous people so you’ll want to make sure it got included.” I think I embarrassed Allison a little bit (err, a lot). I mean come on though. Mel’s like one of the most social people in Cleveland, check out her blog and how many times she’s been published. Alexa’s blog readership is off the charts. Allison knows tons of people. I’m don’t have any of the aforementioned traits, my looks have to carry me. Oh, wait, you won’t get very far with that. Chef Jonathan was around so we had the PD people take one of all of us. His inclusion all but guarantees us a spot in the paper. So keep your eyes peeled…
After we left we went to the Federated Knitting Mills Building which has been converted into residences for a little blogger post-dinner get-together. Narm was there with his girl and we got to meet Allison’s BF. After reading Allison’s About Me section again, I totally feel for her BF because it seems like he’s the clean freak I am. I can’t deal with left open cabinets, open drawers or toilet paper going the wrong way. Clothes on the floor are okay, we all have busy lives. What can I say, I’m neat, not cute.
Alexa organized this meet-up. By the way, Alexa got the official “you’re out of control” compliment from me. She’s crazy (but in a good way). We all agreed to do it more often and even have an occassional get together during the week. I vote for both. They are all good people. Make sure to give them some hits on their pages. They make me laugh.
(i believe i beat everyone else to the punch and i wasn’t even trying. i don’t have the pictures however so you’ll have to click to other people’s sites to find them.)
