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Incredible extended weekend, not a dull moment!

Friday (after work, the gym, and buying www.thecapsoffphotography.comwith Tanya) included the DeSales homecoming football game, with a tent filled with free food and drinks for Alumni! Ran into quite a few people I knew there, some I hadn’t seen in weeks, and others I hadn’t seen since graduation.  I got a few good photos with my phone.
[mobile photos]

After the game, which we unfortunately lost, I headed down to Cantina’s in the Arena District to meet up with some friends for Nikki’s birthday! I would say probably at least 20 people showed up for the event in an already overcrowded bar.  Some of the highlights include fun photos, playing Jenga with 2×4 boards, reconnecting with friends (including Jason, Carolina, Kelly, Spencer, Steve & Rachel) I hadn’t seen in a while… and of course there was loosing Kristen (who was celebrating her 21st birthday at midnight).
[Spencer and Nikki's photos]

Saturday morning, I wanted to sleep in because I was up past 3:30am the night before.  When I checked my phone around 11am, I noticed a missed txt and a few missed calls from my brother… it said “We have an extra ticket for the OSU game today, let me know ASAP if you can come (received 9:30am)”.  Crap!! I sent him a message back immediately, before I was even coherently out of bed, and found out they had just given it to someone else.  No worries though, because I already had other plans.

Shortly after I got up, the doorbell rang and a package 3 foot tall was left on my door step with Evan’s name on it. His plans were to do some bottling of the homemade hard cider before going home to Mansfield for the weekend to celebrate his birthday weekend.  We sampled each kind of hard cider and since I hadn’t had breakfast yet, I started feeling it quicker than the last sampling.
[pic from evan bottling in the kitchen]

I was running a bit late to meet up with Matt and Tanya at the Italian festival Saturday afternoon, and I ended up being a little late for the rest of the stuff I wanted to do Saturday, including the gym going to Dave’s for a cookout and having the first ever outdoor movie night at my house.

The Italian festival was fun! I had some AMAZING Italian food and drinks while I was there and played a bit with Mattie and Rachel. It was a bonus that they had a tent set up to watch the OSU game.  I felt a bit rushed, but got to see everything including some Ducati Motorcycles and saw the meatball that broke the North American record for the largest.  It took 46 hours to cook and weighed, I think, 655 pounds.
[tanya's photos from the Italian festival]

Next for Saturday evening was the First annual Wagner cookout, which the weather all day was perfectly planned.  It got up to 88 in the middle of the afternoon (a record setting day for Columbus on 10/9/10), and cooled off nicely for a bonfire and Smores at night. I LOVE Indian Summer Days! In addition to having great food, company, and seeing pics from Dave’s trip to Hydrabad, I got to play in the Jump-A-Saurus! They kids wouldn’t leave me alone after I started tossing and flipping them around in the designed-for-all-ages inflatable fort!
[phone pics from daves]

Made it home around 9 Saturday night to having the house to myself, and perfect weather to have people over for the outdoor movie night.  My neighbor Nate helped me mount the screen and Dustin brought over the Pandorum, which worked out perfectly for Halloween coming up around the corner.  Ever since Dustin and I saw Event Horizon in High School, I have enjoyed Space SciFi/horror flicks.  Having it outside and having a fire going added to the atmosphere. Plus we all enjoyed some of the home-brewed cider.
[outdoor theater pic]

Honestly, I shouldn’t have stayed up so late Saturday night, because I had plans to drive down to Louisville with Matt for a business conference at 5 in the morning.  I think I only got 4 hours of sleep before waking up and the sun still not being up either (I am not a morning person).  The drive down was kind of ruff, but the conference was worth every minute! So many inspiring stories and people moving a head in their lives and businesses!  I got back just in time Sunday night to go to the gym and make some phone calls/emails before relaxing a bit.
[pics from conference]

Monday was Columbus day, so apparently only I had the day off. Even Mike, who works for the government, had to work (but to be fair, he gets the day after Thanksgiving off).  I spent the morning just cleaning up around the house before my my weekly appointment with Bill, which was pushed up to 1 in the afternoon because I had my day off.  It was cool to hear from him that my associate membership into the 3rd Armored Division of WWII Veterans is official, which we had been talking about since the Columbus, GA trip.
[link to Columbus, GA blog post]

I had a date night Monday, which went well, but that was only the start of the evening.  I had some Dave and Busters cards that my friend Wes gave me a while back and wanted to see what was on them.  When I walked in, I ran into my personal trainer Rob, and a couple of girls he was hanging out with.  Unfortunately, there wsa nothing on the cards Wes gave me, while I was there and played a few games with the card I purchased about a year ago.  I started watching the Vikings verses Jets game, and it was just getting interesting when D&B closed at 11, so I went to a sports bar and made some friends there.