This ain't the simple life but it's the only life I know

So, I've been reading this investigation stuff that another co-worker found at work when I asked for what the original channel of the Cuyahoga River looked like before there was a dam in Franklin Twp.  It does not have what the original river channel looks like but I have some nerdy history friends who have an old plot book from the turn of the century (the one previous to the one we just experienced) and they are sending me the maps so yippie for that (I have the best friends).

Anyway, this stuff, a 1071 page pdf called "NEW ARCHIVES", is my current obsession at work.  I think it's amazing.  It's full of what my nerdy history friends call "primary sources" dating from 1918 to somewhere after 1950 or later perhaps, I'm not done perusing this file.  And it's def an obsession.  I've been reading it two weeks now.  A few pages here, a hundred pages there.  Printing out the interesting stuff.  I seriously want to write a book.  This file is the life story of Akron Water Supply and the Cuyahoga River and the beginnings of the Metroparks and environmental stewardship.  It's so interesting.  I mean, I know I'm nerding out a bit but....I'm 604 pages in and I can't seem to stop myself.  Would you read a book about it if I wrote one?  I was thinking about trying to write a journal article for AWWA on the history of the Cuyahoga River as far as conservation goes or maybe something on the creation of the Akron Water system.  But...do other people care, I mean other than me, my boss and my history nerd friends?      

Every drink, now without Pollywogs!  You know, this is crazy to me.  People who are still alive used to drink water with pollywogs in it.  There's another article somewhere in this mess that states that Typhoid cases are down with Akron's new water system.  And people complain if the water has a slight taste or odor now to it, what did they do when they had small macro invertebrates swimming in their water glasses and bathtubs?  I'm sure they still complained.  By letter.  Or western reserve telegram.  Or to their horse.  

A completely different river....

I wish I had an alternate reality time machine where I could visit and see this crazy Hiram Reservoir, proposed to hold 46 billion gallons of water and be 11 miles long.  This idea was kicked around for at least 40 years.  Probably even longer, I haven't read that far yet.  Land was purchased, industry wars were fought between private water suppliers and the cities of Cleveland and Akron.  It's some amazing stuff.  

This one is amusing to me because they are claiming that the Akron Water Supply (completely a municipality run water supply) was a "sample reservoir" for the Western Reserve Water Company and that they had anything to do with the quality of the treated water coming out of Lake Rockwell, even if they did sort of suggest the reservoir to be built, kind of sort of, at this point it seems like it's a "he said she said" but with more men and less women argument between the City and the engineers at WRWC.  

I obviously have a loyalty to AWS but I think this stuff is awesome.  I could post a ton more stuff and I probably will at some point.  Maybe I'll just take some points and write really well thought out and articulate articles on my blog.  See, that was a joke.  For lots of reasons.  

FoodieCLE Deck, Brewsters

So, our first outing for our foodie deck was kind of a cheater one, Brewster's is in our neighborhood and we go there occasionally.

We went with Dave and my brother Shig and both of the kids.  Unfortunately my phone freaked out and did not save most of the pics I took, it allowed itself to reset and then wouldn't load for like 10 minutes.  Not sure what happened, perhaps it didn't like the atmosphere.  Or was jealous of how good it was.  Cause it was pretty awesomely good.

Here's a pic of the card we used and the menu, the only pic my phone didn't eat...

I ate the Drunk as a Skunk Beef tips, they were AWESOME.  So tender, cooked perfectly (medium rare), flavorful and just overall really perfect.  I did ask for no onions and they didn't care, onions marring my beautiful button mushrooms, making them taste a little oniony but not ruining it for me.  And the mashed potatoes....chunky and garlicy, perfectly complimented the steak and mushrooms.  A real "man's mans" kind of dinner.

Ry got the philly cheese steak pizza, which he wasn't as pleased with.... his words: Eh...it was okay, I mean, it wasn't bad.

My brother got the Old man and the sea, a ridiculous amount of fried food from the ocean.  I had some of his fish, it was pretty good.

Dave got the Root Beer Chicken.  Their root beer bbq sauce is pretty awesome, I think dave liked his.

I think we are going out again tonight for the foodie deck, I'll let you know.  I had some really cool pictures of the dinner before I ate it.  Okay, you caught me, I lied.  I forgot to take the pics before.  I took some really good ones after I ate most of it but...I guess even phones need to eat.

My score:  Yeah, I'd eat there again.  Partially because it's so close to my house and partially because it's a decent place to eat.  Sometimes we have had not so good nights there, though, so we don't go that often.  But, occasionally, it's a good place to eat.

I've been burned out living with the way you've turned out

Hello world.

Been thinking about new years resolutions.  I'm not that great at them but this is, what, I think my third year of writing this blog so that's at least one New Year's resolution I stuck with.  Should I make some type of health goal, the most stereotypical of all resolutions?  I was thinking about trying to run a 5k this year....but should that be my resolution?  Meh..... I would like to make a resolution to have no more sick children for the year but I think that's asking waaaay too much.  It could be something that I know I would be able to do, like a resolution to continue breathing for the whole year.  That's a bit easy but very obtainable, and if I failed, well, I wouldn't be around to know it... Eh, that's a bit morbid now that I re-read it.

I'll keep working on it.

By the way, the Foodie Cleveland cards came last week.  I'm pretty excited about it. :) Here's what they look like.  There's a Brewster's card, a card for this new wine bar in Hudson, lots and lots of cool stuff.  I'll try to take pictures of the cards and the dinners we order with them as we use them.  :)

Haunted house schedule....whooo scary ghost!

Yes!  It's time!  I already bought a groupon for haunted houses.  I love this time of year.  We will be starting Friday Sept 28th.

Here's some tentative travel nights, no particular order..

Night 1
Rockin R Ranch Spooky Ranch, Columbia Station.  $20 for 4 houses and a haunted hay ride.
Hinkley Cornstalkers haunted corn maze.  $10 with groupon discount.

Night 2
Fairvew Graveyard, Fairview Park.  $8 for one.
Hudson Haunted House $13.

Night 3
Haunted forest of carousel, Sheffield.  $13.

Night 4
Haunted orchard, wooster.  $15.
Nightmare in the wilderness, lodi. $15

Night 5 will be Pennsylvania...

I also started a google map with all the locations on the map, check it out, yo!  Also, if you have any suggestions or want to change anything make a suggestion.  Thanks!  This year is going to rock!

You can be a coffee achiever, you can sit around the house and watch leave it to beaver

So, this weekend was pretty awesome.  Took Asher to Brandywine falls on Saturday where we saw the falls then hiked down into the valley to search for salamanders.  We didn't find any of the fire breathing kind (which is probably for the best) but we did find one black and brown one.  I was so concerned with being able to have Asher see and touch it before it scuttled off that I didn't get a photo of it but I was pretty happy we even found one.  I was getting nervous for a minute.  This weather is amazing.  I keep feeling like it's going to go away like a big April fools joke...



Bottom of the falls

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Daddy and Asher

Mama and Asher's funny faces

It's so much fun to throw rocks in creeks!

Overdramatic action shot!

Sunday we took Asher to Buzzard Day at Hinkley Reservation.  He had a blast.  Give a kid a free pair of binoculars and he is happy for days.  I'm serious.  He wore them all day yesterday and would have worn them to bed if I hadn't made him take them off.  Then, first thing this morning he does is get up and put them on again.  So cute. 

It's been a long time since I've rock and rolled

Wow, I've really been slacking.  I've been super busy at work lately.  Why, you may ask?  Well, because I just got promoted!  Woo-hoo, right?  That's what I said.  I applied for the job but I just thought I was making it a slight bit harder for the other guy (I couldn't just give him the job that easily, could I?).  But it ended up that we both got promoted.  I wonder still if there was only on position if I would have been promoted but I won't dwell on it too long.  Either way you are now reading words typed by a Watershed Supervisor.  Awwww yeaaaa.....

 It's been a busy half a month already.  Ry is leaving today to go out of town for a few days so Asher and I will be entertaining ourselves.  I'm really starting to look (and feel) pregnant.  My friend Jen is in the hospital right now as we speak having her first little baby boy, Charlie.  Hugs and kisses to her and Chuck, I'm about to cry I'm so happy for them right now!

We took Asher to fun and stuff over the weekend for Katya's 8th birthday party.  We have created a monster.  He had a great time, though.  And he was a pretty decent air hockey player, I was surprised to find out. 

We also went to a members only night at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium.  It was nice, not so crowded.  Asher told us that he "just wants to stay at the aquarium all day long" in the whiniest voice ever.  It was kind of cute. 

We still don't have a name for baby #2 yet...Maybe we are trying too hard?  I don't know. 

And I finally got my taxes done.  I usually don't wait this late but with the trip to California and being pregnant and all sorts of little things going on we just let the time slip by us both.  But, they are done now and I'm paying the state (just doing my part as a good citizen). 

You know what?  Have a freaking phenomenal day. 

Non stop fun weekend...I'm still tired.

So, this weekend was filled with fun and excitment, at least if you are nerd family like us.  So, I'm guessing, since you are reading this, you probably are.  First off, this weekend was the 37th annual Scienc Fiction Movie Marathon at Case Western Reserve University.  Wow, that's a mouthful of typing. My first marathon was #25, if that tells you how old I am getting.  I haven't missed a marathon yet, but I had to leave a few and had to miss some movies here and there (having a baby and once I had a job interview and once I had to take the shig home because he had the stomach flu).  This was Ryan's 17th marathon.  That's impressive. 

Anyway, I didn't go to the whole marathon this year, I have been having bad tummy troubles with this baby so I stayed home with Asher on Friday and went all day Saturday.  The marathon was great and I had a lot of fun.  The parking situation was about a mile away from the auditorium this year but...the weather was actually okay this year (for the first time in years this wasn't the coldest weekend of the year) and so the walk wasn't too bad.  But, due to the walk, no one left for food this year, and that was different but not bad. 

Also, I ate a fruit leather that technically didn't expire until 2043, although all the rest in the package expired next year.  I think that it's a sign.  What, you don't believe me?  Here's your proof:

Yeah, that's what I thought! 

So, we had a good time with that.  I am excited for the day when Asher is old enough to go with us.  I hope he likes it and doesn't think it's lame.  I mean, he probably will when he's a teenager, because all teenagers think the stuff their parents like is lame, but what can you do?

Due to a little bit of guilt and a whole lot of excitement over having gotten season passes from the inlaws for Christmas we decided we would go to the new Greater Cleveland Aquarium on Sunday.  

We were aiming to get there right at 10 when they opened since this would be only the second day they had been open ever, and we figured they'd be packed.  But...we forgot about little gym, which starts at 9:15 am.  So, we got to little gym in just the nick of time.  It was Asher's mid year showcase where pretty much everyone comes and the room is super packed with people who don't always come to class and they do a refresher course of all of the stuff they have learned so far this year.  Here's some photos of Asher doing his professional level bear crawls.  I think they are his favorite thing to do at little gym.  

After little gym and a minor melt down about leaving little gym we got on our way to the Aquarium.  It's a little difficult to find since the bridge that google maps told us to take had a road closed sign on it and we had to go the long way around but...we found it.  I think it sucks you have to pay $5 for parking even if you have a season pass.  That is a bit of a deterrent...you should at least get a parking discount...

It's in the old Powerhouse, which is a pretty cool building on it's own.  Theyd did a really cool job of transforming it into an aquarium, I mean, before it was an all male review, which can be classy as well, but I don't know that you'd want that many toddlers in the all male review. 

I want you to keep in mind, I would have lost my child if I had tried to take photos there, so all the pics I'm posting are from the Cleveland Insider's website.  Thanks guys!  Really, I think everyone should go and see it, though I'd suggest waiting a little while so that the masses can move through and you can enjoy it at your leisure.  It's hard to take things in pace when there are a million people everywhere kind of pushing the pace for you.  So, just my highlights...

I really liked the accordian guy who seemed to hang out in the arched tunnels (Which were super cool but kinda creepy at the same time) and the costal room.  Here's a photo of the coastal room:

Although when we were there there was only one girl and she was overwhelmed and didn't have time to really educate people on what animals she was putting in the boxes for us to touch (those yellow ones).  The lady beside me picked up a sea cucumber, took it out of the water and squeezed the bejezus out of it, so that water squirted out of both ends.  I told her that that was a living creature and she freaked out and put it back.

They also had a big section dedicated to local fish, rivers, streams, Lake Erie, it was pretty cool.  A lot of the aquarium wasn't finished yet, though, with missing fish, plants, plaques telling you about the fish, that kind of stuff.  But I can only expect it will get better. 

The last part of the aquarium is the huge walk underneath it shark tank.  Here's a photo, once again, not mine.

It was pretty cool but it made me a little dizzy, maybe the length combined with the amount of people there?  I don't know...Still, pretty cool. 

This is a smaller aquarium than some of the other ones that I've been to, but it's a good aquarium and I hope that it does well here.  I know we will go back again.  :)

Forsaken, Last Cleveland area haunted house review for 2011

Oh, I am sad.  Another fun season of haunted houses is over with.  But, it was a good one.  Lots of good houses and fun with friends. 

And they took our photo for free!

This week we went to Forsaken in Mentor.  And we had coupons again! Talk about a discounted halloween, I think we had coupons for like half of the houses we went to this year.  Score.  Anyway...

This one was really good.  For a first year haunted house, they have really dumped a lot of money in this one.  It's all indoors (even the waiting in line, except for the buying of tickets) and the atmosphere is super awesome from the first step into the houses.  It boasts a larger size than it should, saying it's got 30000 sq ft of scariness, but they are counting the big open courtyard where you can mill about, buy snacks or wait in line.  It was nice, that at this house you could choose which order you wanted to go into the houses.  I think this really helped the flow of people through the houses, instead of corralling people like the herd of cattle to slaughter that they are.  We barely had to wait in line at all.

Also, there were lots of actors working and they were all pretty good.  The props and decorations were high class, I don't think we saw a production value this high in any other house (though the factory of terror was a close second to atmosphere). 

This isn't my favorite of the season but I think we all agreed it was the best house we went to this season, except maybe for Conneaut Lake Park.  But that was so far away it lost some points from the crew. 

This is a house I hope sticks around, we will be coming again next year!

Forsaken gets 9 out of 10 headless statues.

Factory of Terror, Canton Ohio, Cleveland Haunted House reviews, week 4

This week we went to Factory of Terror, Guinness Book of World Records holder for longest Haunted House in the WORLD!!!!  Yeah...

We went here last year, too, and it had been heard that it was rearranged this year so that they could continue to hold the longest title.  It was rearranged in some places, but it was mostly the same as last year.  The areas where it was rearranged were not beneficial to the haunted house, it just made it seem...tedious.  Like the area with the chain link fence.  If you've been here, you know what I'm talking about.  Just tedious. 

Overall, though, this house is pretty good.  It's def one to visit, though I heard that Saturdays hold an impossibly long wait time.  We go on Fridays and we only waited for a little bit. 

So, what's good about it?  Well, it is long, and that can be good.  It has really good atmosphere (as long as you don't have dumb girls behind or in front of you) and the props are really good.  I think they depend on hydraulics a bit too much but, as my brother said, if they had the staff to work the house they could use that as a good distraction for a good scare.  That brings up my main beef with this house.  It was pretty understaffed when we went.  There were some parts where you just walked around and...nothing.  There was no one there.  But, the actors that were there were pretty good.  They have these two huge guys who work there...well, they are freaking huge.  And creepy.  And did I mention huge?  Also, Satan is my favorite actor in the house.  These actors, they have character.  It's pretty cool.

Other good stuff about it?  There was a pre-house before you even made it to the actual line for the haunted house.  Pretty awesome.  And the mirror maze.  It really is pretty kick ass.  The mirror maze was actually better this year than it was last year. 

So, other than some parts of tediousness and the lack of actors, this is a solid house worth visiting.  Make sure you get the $2 off coupon for max discountage and go on a Friday or Sunday night to avoid the lines. 

Factory of Terror gets 7 out of 10 industrial disembowelments. 

Next week is the last week, which is kind of sad.  We are either going to Forsaken, in Mentor, or we might entertain going to Clay's Park, probably forsaken, though...

Cleveland area haunted house reviews, week 2

We only went to one house this weekend, Cornstalkers in Hinckley.  We got a Groupon for buy four passes for $8 each, which is the only reason we went to this one (honestly I hadn't heard of it before and it didn't come up on my searches when I was looking...).  Which ended up being an awesome deal, because admission was $20.00 a person normally. 

Anyway, I definitely recommend this one.  Even if you are paying full price (suckers...).  It was the longest house we have been to so far this year, it took us an hour and some change to get through all three parts.  It's all outdoors, so keep that in mind if you do go.  We had a perfectly beautiful night for it, too, in the lower 60s. 

What made this house good without details that ruin it? Hmm...well, it was long and interesting.  That's always a plus.  And some how they got their corn impossibly tall.  I swear it was 10 feet tall.  Genetic engineering nowadays.... but it was nice because corn haunted houses where you can see over the corn are kind of lame, no offense.  The props and created scenery were a little lacking, but this house is all about ambiance and actors.  We had some pretty good actors, even though they were few and far between. It wasn't that busy so they were able to double back on us and get us repeatedly, but if it were busier they might have been spread too thin. 

Sometimes not having a lot of theatrical props and hydraulically operated monsters in a house is old school and fun.  Ambiance means a lot in a house and sometimes bigger haunted houses rely too much on gizmos and rubber masks and not enough on the basics.  I'm not saying this is the scariest haunted house I've ever been to, but it has the basics down, which is refreshing. And it was fun.  The actors had fun, we had fun, it was a good time.  Could they make improvements?  Definitely.  But were they a decent and sound haunted house which provides a good time that lasts longer than 15 minutes?  By far. 

My score for the Hinckley Cornstalkers Haunted House:  7 out of 10 legless zombie girls.

Cleveland Area haunted houses week 1 review

So, this past Friday we went to North Olmsted's Fear Experience and Elyria's Hauntville (in that order).  Originally we were going to go to North Olmsted and Hinckley but the Hinckley house is all outdoors and we are currently in our fall monsoon season so it was closed due to weather.  So, here is my personal review and opinion of the houses. 

The Fear Experience, Haunting a strip mall near you...

We had a groupon for this and got VIP tickets for the same price as regular tickets so we could have gone through the houses again for free as many times as we wanted (all except for martin who had to buy a regular ticket) and we wouldn't have to wait in line.  That would have been good later, but this early in the season we didn't have to wait in line anyway.  Oh well.  Still, it would have been nice.  This groupon we had to buy for a specific day and they were only offering them for the first few weekends anyway, so they had our number.  Honestly, we weren't even gonna go here, it was the groupon that saved us when Hinckley fell through. 

They also tried to upsell us on this ride where they put you in a hydraulic coffin and shake it around like you are being buried alive.  I passed on that, too.  Not a fan of being put in a box and shaken around. 

These houses were pretty good.  Nothing amazing but they weren't disappointing, either. The actors were okay, the makeup was good, the effects were normal haunted house fare.  I mean, nothing jumped out at me and said, hey, this is super duper cool or scary.  So, nothing left a major impression.  They were fun and amusing and that's all one can really ask for from a haunted house in a strip mall.  I mean, the ambiance is lost a little when the whole second house smells a little like the Chinese restaurant next door.

My overall score: 6 out of 10 mallrats.

Hauntville, stripmall spooks second set....

So, this one was a little harder to find, since the sign was small, unlit and located out in front of a strip mall just like it was a "vote for Hauntville for mayor" sign in the grass.  Lucky for us there was also a giant searchlight above it or we probably would have driven past it again the second time. 

Surprise!  This one is also in a strip mall, conveniently located next to Halloween City, just in case you needed to go get some fake blood to look adequately mangled after your housing experience. 
This was supposed to be three haunted houses but really it was just one house with three separate themes located inside.  We always had a guide show up at the entrance to the next area to tell us we were entering the next area.  The beginning of cell block 13 was interesting but then after the beginning it was all kind of just black hallways and a few rooms, and even fewer actors.  The second one, psycho manor, had a little more decorations and actors happening and the third "house" (if you can call it it's own house...) the dark abyss was kind of swampy but nothing spectacular.  I will tell you, I've been through the vagina tunnel (if you are a haunted house you know what I mean...it has nothing to do with an actual vagina nor does it look like one), they surprised me a bit with this one.  That's all I'm going to say about it. 

The website and the banner at the location claim this is "Ohio's Scariest Haunted House!!!" I politely disagree.  It wasn't bad, it was kind of understaffed and a little dull in spots but it was pretty average for a haunted house.  I had fun but I wasn't convinced on the "Scariest Haunted House" part of the self proclaimed review. 

My review: 6.5 out of 10 vials of fake blood at 20% off retail value.

These houses weren't great but they set a good start for the Halloween season.  I'll see you back again next week with our first Pittsburgh reviews.