Columbus Part I (El Camino, the Workshop, and Dewey)

It's been a while...  

I just got back a few days ago from a trip out to Louisville, Kentucky and Columbus, Ohio.  The trip started a few months back when I met a beautiful young woman in Calgary.  For some reason, she has always wanted to go to Kentucky.  So, we did.  Not too far and possibly on the way to Kentucky is the city of Columbus.  Fortunately, one of my good buddies from high school lives in Columbus and we were able to have a bit of a reunion, if only for a short period of time.  

Here's the first part of the trip in Columbus which includes a night out on the town, a workshop meeting, and Dewey.  Enjoy!

 (The last time I saw Poma was at a wedding and we were trying to figure out the math and came up with at least 8 years since we've seen each other.)

(El Camino, a Mexican place with cheap delicious food and a fun Happy Hour, or at least it was for us.)

 (Amy Holden, another old friend from high school who now also resides in Columbus.  At one point she was slated to be the Secretary of Education...)

 (Whitney, Poma's wife.  It was my first time meeting her and I'm sure what impression I made...)

 (Of course we had to hug it out)

(Whitney and Poma)

(Someone was drinking a beer called Lonestar.  If you've never had a Lonestar the caps have riddles and puzzles printed on them.  So, we had quite a bit of fun trying to solve puzzles after we had had a few drinks.)  

(Whitney headed home for the evening as we headed to a final bar for the night)

 (By this point and only for a brief moment Ivy had control of the camera.  As you can see, her photos leave a lot to be desired.)  

(Another Ivy Photo)

 (Char Bar in downtown Columbus - had a fun atmosphere.)

(Random guy who was met out on the street)

 (Ivy hanging out at the table giving Jonathan the evil eye for something.  At one point, and I believe it was a discussion on the legalization of illegal drugs, tears were shed.  However, I know he loves her!)

 (Barnes, a cool-cat from Columbus)

(Poma had a meeting the one morning with a few of his buddies as they are attempting to get a start up company going.  Not so important.  The important part was the location - a placed called the Workshop.)

(Chandelier in the Workshop)

(Some old luggage and a mounted deer head)

 (A few globes in case you ever get lost or I guess are trying to figure out where you're headed next...)

 (An old bike)

(A nifty looking clock)

(Not sure what this contraption was but it looked old)

(I put in a request while I was in Columbus to ride some horses.  Ivy, as long as I have known her, has always been involved with horses and I figured seeing as how I would be close to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, I should try and get on a horse...)

 (Well, thanks to Ivy, I did.  This is Dewey...)

(This is me wearing a helmet after I signed my life away.)

(Ivy took me through the whole process from bushing the horse down to putting the thing she is putting on now, the saddle, cleaning out the hooves, and everything inbetween.)

(Dewey and I get one last photo while we are both happy with each other and I'm off to ride him)

 (That's me, on a horse)

(We did a walk and a trot I believe, but didn't go any faster.  There were discussions before the evening started of jumping.  That's going to have to wait, at the very least until next time, possibly longer.)

 (Thanks again to Ivy and Dewey, as well as Dewey's owner!)

(Pyyyyyyaaaaahhhhhh!  I did it!)

Polar Vortex in Downtown Harrisburg

Although I'm not exactly sure what a polar vortex consists of, I am excited to see that the weather people of the world are trying to spice life up a bit and make things a little more interesting.  It used to just be called cold.  I was under the vortex just meant cold.  However, I guess with the cold comes the possibility of snow and the like.  Alas, here are a few photos of my experience with the polar vortex in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

(The first storm we got hit on Monday.  Luckily, it was just snow.  Unfortunately, it was heavy, wet snow.)

(This is in the parking lot at K-Mart.  A friend picked me up and we made our way downtown to help out another friend.  A 3rd member of our party needed gloves, hence the stop at K-Mart.  Yes, they still exist, at least here in Central PA.)

(State street which runs run into the State Capitol)

(Harrisburg's Capitol)

(These pictures took place Wednesday morning and after the snow storm, we ended up with an ice storm.  I know the pictures aren't the best but it's the best I could do in freezing rain with an I-pod touch...)

(Capitol at night.  In case you can't tell, the sidewalk is a sheet of ice...)

(My buddy Stocker making his way onto the morning news at 6:30 in the morning.  This storm was definitely news worthy.  About an hour later another buddy made his was on to TV sets across Central PA.)

(Again, hopefully this gives you a sense of the ice that accumulated in a few short hours...)

Happy Korean New Year

Those of you still in Asia who get a chance to check up on the blog, I was fortunate enough to celebrate Korean New Year!  And it was a feast!  And it was tasty.  Sometimes, the food alone makes me want to go back to South Korea.  A friend of mine from high school and I met up last year while I was home for a bit.  I hadn't seen him in forever and it turned out he lived in Korea for quite some time.  Even crazier, his mom was from Korea.  Last year he invited me over to the feast, but for some reason I was unable to make it.  This year, I wasn't going to miss it.  The food was delicious and I ate way too much, which happens.  There's just something about it...  A special thank you to the Werner family for hosting as well as for the invitation.  It was greatly appreciated!

Happy New Year!

(Here you get a sense of the spread.  In addition to all of the food on the table we had duk mandu guk or rice cakes with dumplings soup.  It's a tradition in Korea and is supposed to bring good luck for the New Year, kind of like Pork and Sauerkraut for those Pennsylvania Dutch people out there.)

(There were a ton of little sides, mainly consisting of veggies, mandu, the dumplings, bit sized batter fish, galbi, which is marinated ribs, kimchi, kimchi pancakes, clear noodle pasta, fried zucchini, Korean shish kabobs, marinated tofu, and a lot of other food!  It was AWESOME!)

(Here you can see the fried zucchini, kimchi pancakes, and mushroom pancakes of sorts)

(Here's a plate of the mandu)

(The day before Stevie and I were on Mandu duty.  Here are all the mandu we made.  It took about 2 hours to make about 200 with 2 people.  I don't think we were the fastest mandu makers nor were we trying to set any records.)

(These mandu were stuffed with kimchi, clear noodles, tofu, which I hand pressed, some eggs, sesame oil, and a few secret ingredients...)

(Here were all the mandu wrappers - a bit overwhelming when we first started)

(Here's a close up of the mandu stuffing - tasty tasty tasty!)

Weekend in Central Pennsylvania

Just another weekend in Central Pennsylvania.  It started on a Friday night in good ol' Starchie's garage.  His buddy Phil, who I might add will probably not be a legend in Bali some day, came over and we shot pucks at a mean looking bunny rabbit.  The pucks weren't intended for the bunny rabbit, it was merely there so the garage wall didn't get dinged up.  Instead, we were aiming for some PVC piping sitting atop a bag.

The next day, for some reason, I did not find myself on the pond, but rather hanging with my buddy Chevy.  I called to see what he was up to and he told me to come on over and we'd go snowboarding.  Well, we went snowboarding, in his backyard.  They had a ramp and jump set up.  I went off it, once, with the help of all the guys there as they walked me about half way down the ramp before letting me go.  Not sure if I mentioned it or not, this was my first time ever snowboarding.  I had a blast and to be honest, found myself addicted.  Thankfully, Chevy had extra gear including snow pants, gloves, a baklava, boots, and a board.  A good time was had by all.

More time spent on the pond and the 2nd anniversary of my sister's 29th birthday was celebrated at What If in Hershey.  Here are a few photos from the events that transpired.

 (Here's the angry bunny, or rodent, or creature of sorts.  Phil and Starchibald signed the plywood.)

(Tank takes a few shots to see if he still had the magic touch - he didn't)

(After a few beers and a few stories I was honored when the fellas asked me to put my name up there - JC)

 (Start of snowboarding, decked out and ready to go and yes, that's me behind the glasses)

 (Started off with a longer board until I got the feel)

 (After a few runs I was allowed to use Chevy's shorter board - handled much better)

 (Here's a view of the ramp and if you look closely enough you can see the jump)

(Nice little fire we had going to keep warm - those of you who live around here know how could it's been lately...) 

 (We were lucky enough to get snow the one night we were skating)

(JH having a drink)

 (Set up a few lawn chairs and you're good to go)

(My pops came out and skated the one night and here he is, after he took his skates off.  First time in 3 years he said.)

(And the snow kept coming)

 (And coming)

 (And coming)

(There's a puck in the photo, see if you can find it.  A few times as we were playing it got lost.  It took us about 45 minutes to shovel off the pond and everyone was pretty much shot at that point.)

(Photo from my sister's birthday party!  Woot Woot!)