Summer Summer Time (sung to the Will Smith song)

As I recently had been reminded I have not posted in a while mostly out of laziness. I can not believe the summer is coming to a close and I will have to put away my white pants and shoes after next weekend. I actually had a pretty eventful summer though it has gone too quickly. Some of the highlights include a visit by the GTBs.
For those of you who do not know "GTB" stands for Good Time Boys. We are all friends who grew up together and now get together at least once a year somewhere to have a weekend that usually involves baseball, sightseeing, enjoying local cuisine, and drinking (not always in that order). This year on the third anniversary of our trips they came to Boston. Let me just say that Nancy is an angel for putting up with the four of us.



I also made it out to Seattle to visit my other friend Mark over 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately I do not have any photos from this weekend since I left both cameras at home. We spent the weekend BBQ'ing, playing corn hole, and discovering the wonders of Hard Creamer (by far the worst beverage you could ever consume).


This is also an interesting summer because two of the GTB's are getting married. Chad got married at the end of July at Pub 222 in St. Charles Illinois.

The wedding was a blast. Stone is getting married in Jackson Michigan next week which means Nancy and I will be road tripping it all of next weekend considering the astronomical prices to fly from Boston to Detroit. The one big advantage is that we will be able to stop in Buffalo on the way there and on the way home to visit friends and maybe have a chicken finger sub from Louie's! If you have never had a chicken finger sub in Buffalo you have no idea what you are missing.

A few weeks ago I got a chance to say goodbye to Jordan as he has moved to Seattle. For one last hurrah on the east coast Jordan had won tickets to the Big Lebrewski at the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown New York. We spent Friday night in the bustling town of Albany New York though we did find a great local brew pub called C.H. Evans. If you are ever in the area I recommend you stop in for a beer. They were all good but my favorites were the Kick Ass Brown and the Pale Ale. The next morning we drove to Ommegang and the weather was not looking very promising since it rained the whole way there but fortunately it did stop once we showed up at the brewery and started to set up our tent. This festival was awesome if you like Belgium style beers. The selection was great and included many unusual brews.

Needless to say considering the brewery tour, four hours of beer tasting, and all of the beer we brought with us I may have over indulged. I will definitely plan on trying to make it to this fest again next year. The rest of the photos from the fest can be found here Big Lewbrewski.

In other news I did get Lasik surgery yesterday. It is the best thing ever. My vision is now 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. If you are sitting on the fence and trying to decide whether or not to get it done--I say do it.

Well that is all for now. I will try to post more frequently (and therefore shorter posts) as we move into the fall. We actually have a few things coming up worth noting: Stone's wedding, My Morning Jacket in concert, Ryan Adams in concert, Night of Funk (Ollie only), and camping with a side trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. Talk to you all soon.