Dinner was at Thai Taste up in Castleton. We both had curry dishes (me the panang; Daniel the red) and loved them, followed by mango ice cream and rum cake. Mmm!

Afterwards, we went to see The Mist at the movie theatre. All I’m going to say is that it’s a very, very well-written movie, but I feel messed up after seeing it. It reminds me of when I saw Se7en back years ago.

Anyway, if you like Stephen King, you’ll love this movie. If you don’t like him, well, you should see it anyway since it’s a good film none-the-less.

• My friends Andy P. and Laura N. got married two weekends ago. It was a beautiful ceremony (especially her dress) at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. The electricity went out a few hours before the wedding, but everything came back on literally one minute before Laura was to walk down the aisle. Couldn’t have been better timing!
• I’ve started playing EVE Online.
• Work still sucks, but not anywhere near as bad as it did a few weeks ago.
• I saw They Might Be Giants a few weeks ago. They were amazing! I especially loved the second finale where Dan Miller (the guitarist) rocked out and acoustic guitar for about five minutes before the rest of the band came out to perform Istanbul.
• Went out Saturday night with some friends: Cara, Daniel, and Cara’s friend Katie. We had a nice dinner at Santorini’s and then danced the night away at Talbot Street.

That’s all for now.

The funeral for my cousin Chuckie was last week on Monday. It was nice, but very surreal. I drove Mom and Jake to Connersville, while my sister Lisa and her husband Jim came directly from Louisville to meet us at the funeral home.

One thing you never see here in Indianapolis is everyone pulled over on the side of the road while a funeral procession passed. It was like that all the way through town and down the state highway to the cemetery in Everton.

In other news, I went down to Louisville a couple of weekends ago to hang out with Lisa. Her neighbor Claire has a Kentucky Derby party every year. It’s always a lot of fun because it’s full of artists and intellectuals.

Claire’s derby pie is the best!

This past Saturday I spent the early evening attending my cousin Amanda’s wedding reception. It was just north of Connersville out in the country.

On the way back, I got stuck behind a tractor.

That’s about it! I’ll update more later this week.

This wasn’t just any kind of friendly visit, but a bit of a date — a multi-day date, if you will.

Dan arrived in Indianapolis in time for the tree lighting in downtown, but we were just a couple of minutes shy of actually seeing it in person. Being that we were right there, I took him to see where I work, especially the deck on the roof of our building, which has a great view of Monument Circle and the skyline. It’s choice.

One of my favorite things about having company is taking them out to my favorite restaurants. We got pizza at Bazbeaux’s, Indian food at Shalimar, burgers at the Red Eye Cafe, and Asian cuisine at Thai Spice. Mmm!

Pictures above is Dan sitting across from me at Thai Spice.

We did manage to participate in a bit of nerdery. On Saturday, we met up with Andy and Laura for lunch. Afterwards, we traveled up to Fry’s to buy some parts for a computer that Dan needed help putting together. Fry’s is such an interesting place. I’m quite fond of the Wall-O-Motherboards; it’s just like the one in California I saw back in 2002.

Anyway, I like Dan and I think he’s a nice and attractive guy. We hit it off well, so I’m going to visit him in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, he’ll be able to show me around Columbus a bit since I haven’t seen much of it. And, of course, I am looking forward to getting to know Dan a bit more.

I’m unsure which is worse: the fact that we call White Castle burgers sliders (and knowing why); or the fact that the company itself embraces the use of the name in their commercials.

The baby was adorable, blah, blah, blah, but getting grumpy. So, the mother takes the baby and proceeds to breast feed him right there at the table. I couldn’t help but notice it, being that she was all of five feel from me. Thankfully, she used a cloth napkin to cover everything, though I could have probably seen more if I had tried.

Meanwhile, the father stares me down, as if to dare me to look. You know me! Nothing gets me hot and bothered more than a baby sucking milk out of a woman’s titty.

The whole thing was a bit weird, so I’m glad it ended and I was able to finish my chicken korma.

Brew-Ha-Ha 2006 was a lot of fun.

Probably my favorite of the event were the products available from Redstone Meadery. It seems that their products will soon be available here locally, but I may just go ahead and mail order.

Photo Set: Brew-Ha-Ha – 2006-06-25

Tony, Jason C., and I drove up to Chicago in the afternoon on Friday, making it to Noodles in the Pot in Lincoln Park in time for an early dinner. It’s a fantastic restaurant.

That night I met up with Shane in Boystown. We checked in to a hotel near the Beltmon L station, which was close enough for us to hear the “ding-dong” from the trains as the doors closed. It didn’t bother me. After all, I grew up near the airport and across the street from Interstate 70.

Shane and I started the evening eating some food out. We originally wanted to eat at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, but it was too busy. Instead, we ate at this little falafel shop near the hotel, which turned out quite nice.

The first bar we hit was SPIN. We spent time getting drunk, watching music videos, and such. Before we left, we caught the entirity of the shower contest, in which volunteers take off their clothes, wrap themselves in a towel, march up on stage, and dance under a shower — all in the name of prize cash money. One of the winners (it was a tie, you know) was a big woman with huge floppy titties who was obviously not afraid to show off her junk.

After SPIN, Shane and I made it to Berlin, which was where we got really drunk and started dancing. I’m unsure if Shane was keeping the beat, but he was sure having a great time, and so was I. The music there is fantastic, so I can’t wait to go back.

The next day, Shane and I parted ways, after having breakfast with Jason C. and Jason G. Afterwards, I hung out with Tony in Boystown, and then, in the early evening, we met up with some friends of Tony and Jason for dinner.

I ended up back at the hotel in downtown (where the roommates were staying) and crashed out. I didn’t get out of bed until the next morning, feeling well-rested. It was probably the most sleep I’ve had in a long time.

After cleaning up, I caught up with Tony and Jason at Dunkin’ Donuts. I had some coffee and two glazed donuts. And they were good!

So, after spending forever and a day, trying to find a picnic in Lincoln Park and having a little spat about it, the three of us (me, Tony, and Jason) decides to just eat at Noodles in the Pot, again, and then head home.

That’s really about it.

Man, I’m hungry.

My friend Matt (pictured below) from Davenport, Iowa, came to visit and we had a very good time out and about in the city.

Title: Matt

Uploaded By: mattbarton77

After Matt arrived Friday night, we headed over to McNiven’s on Massachusetts Avenue. Unfortunately, the place was a bit packed and the receptionist said it would be at least 30 minutes before we could have a table. Well, “fuck that,” I thought, so we went over to Bazbeaux’s across the street and had a delicious pepperoni and sausage pizza. Yum! We did end up back at McNiven’s for some drinks, afterwards, and then came back home.

On Saturday, we started out at Thai Spice in Greenwood since Matt had never eaten Thai food. He ended up enjoying it, too. After eating, we went downtown and bummed around for a few hours. We walked around some of the interesting parts of downtown and checked out a good part of White River State Park. Wow! There was so much there I hadn’t seen — and I live here.

Matt also had never eaten good sushi. He told me that he tried it once in Davenport and hated it, but he maintained an open mind while here. We had a wonderful dinner at the sushi bar at Sakura on Keystone Avenue. We both ordered box dinners, but with plenty of nigiri and maki.

After dinner, we were planning to go out with Tony and Jason, but everyone seemed tired so we just decided to watch movies upstairs until we went to sleep.

Sunday was nothing more than breakfast and goodbyes. Oh, I love biscuits and gravy! Sop it up!

I had a good time with Matt and hope he comes again sometime soon.