Welcome back,

February was a pretty slow month so I didn’t focus getting anything up. It is also a pretty fast month as there are only 28 days. They also renamed Cameron Indoor Stadium if you didn't know.

We did have a fun trip up to Asheville to visit Ryan and Penina. I’m pretty sure that I spelled that wrong so if I did then I am sorry. I just know that it isn’t spelled like the sandwich so I’m going with that. Anyway, we drove up on Saturday after the gym. It was a quick 2 hour trip; not too bad from Charlotte. I had never been to Asheville so everything was new to me. It was Liz’s first trip as well.

We got there in time for lunch and then went to a barbeque place that was quite good. They had a couple dozen types of sauce which was cool. We then walked around the town. It was a cool day but not too cool to take in the town. Asheville is an interesting mix of big mountain dudes and hippies. For you PC people, it’s not just those people as there are normal people too but the majority of the people could fit into one of those two categories.

We then went back to the Ryan and Penina’s place to hang out. They live in a very cool apartment that was once a car dealership. It iss a large and open apartment that has wall to wall windows. We played a little Wii and took a nap as Shaun White won X-games gold on the TV.

There is one very interesting thing in their apartment. In their guest room, there is a window with blurred glass. You know the glass that you can’t see through. Anyway, this window is in the bedroom and bathroom of the guest room. Every once in a while a light comes on from the other side of this window. The funny thing is that the light is not controlled by anything in their apartment. It is also in such a place that it is not part of their neighbor’s apartment either. It is a mystery. Someone has a switch that they flip and say “I wonder what that does.”

After our nap, it was time to rally up for dinner. After much debate, we decided on the closet place because it had gotten much colder. The Asheville Pizzeria and Pub was our destination. Ryan promised good beer and he delivered. They had a type called Ninja something. Whenever something has ninja in the name then it’s safe to say that it is good. We had several pitchers of that ate pizza and headed home. Here is a shot of us at dinner.

Nothing else too terribly exciting occurred in February. Mom an Dad did come down as Dad was flying out of Charlotte for his golf trip to Florida. Mom stayed the weekend which was a nice visit. It isn’t very often that we just visit with one other family member. We went and saw Slum Dog and went out to dinner. We all left Slum Dog thinking that it was pretty terrible but the more that we thought about the more that we liked it. It was a good movie just a little rough in parts that we didn’t expect.

On to March, this is the month of the year when true geniuses are born. I could list them all but it would take too long. We are heading to Elton John/Billy Joel this weekend which should be a good time.

Until next time . . . go buy something the economy needs you.

Closing Down 2008

I come to you to close down 2008. Overall, it was a pretty good year. I left you last at Thanksgiving which we celebrated in the Greater Greensboro/Burlington area. All of our relatives from West Virginia visited the Allison House and Aunt Susan came down to Burlington. We enjoyed some great food at both houses. Peter was able to join us for both meals as well. He enjoys fried turkey which we were doing at my house.

We had some difficulties this time as the pot boiled over a little. We feel that this was not user error but design error in the pot. As you can see there is a basket and not a normal turkey holder contraption that comes with other fryers. This other turkey holder (not pictured) lines the turkey up vertically so that when the breast cooks it splatters up the middle of the pot and not to the side. The pot boiled over a second time two weeks later when I fried another turkey at work for our Xmas lunch. We are on the lookout for the other type of turkey holder contraption.

Below is Andrew with the turkey and hockey gloves as a precaution. Safety first!



We played our annual turkey bowl. This was the 5th year in a row that we have done that. It seems like longer but it started in 2003 when we played tackle. I believe that only lasted one season and I bought some flags. Ironically, no one was ever injured when we played tackle. This year’s game was competitive. Both teams won a few games. The people below are: top row: Ben, Jamie, Andrew, Jimmy, Douche, Craft, Charlite, Brandon, Mike; bottom row: Peter, Lindsey, Adam, Brian, Walters.


Andrew and I tried to play one game on the same team but it was deemed unfair. Everyone got really pissed off if they were on the other team. We have accepted the fact that we can never be on the same team. I guess that we are just that good. We name an MVP every year after the game but it was pretty tough this year. You have the obvious choices of Peter and Charlie as they are the best athletes and would win if the media picked the winner. However, we try to look beyond that and pick who was the most fun as well. The pick this year for the Turkey bowl was Jamie Kipke. He was very funny and scored a couple touchdowns. The highlight of the whole day came when he kept running and juking in the end zone after he had already scored. It had many of us literally rolling on the ground in laughter. Another highlight occurred at a halftime when Michael’s nephews chased Charlie around with a soccer ball. The 4 little kids were no match for Charlie’s skills with a ball. It was amazing to watch. He should be playing on AC Milan or something.

After Thanksgiving was over we started to focus on shopping. This was pretty exciting for me because it was a video game Christmas. I enjoy video games as most of you know so I got do a good bit of the shopping. I bought 2 Wiis and 2 360s. Wiis are starting to actually sit in stores for a day or two so both were pretty easy to find.

The real challenge was the WiiFit. This is a balance board that goes with the Wii and gives the user special exercises to do that relate to all types of fitness. It was THE item to try and purchase this year. It was like the cabbage patch kids in the 80s. The hunt started after Thanksgiving as we wanted one for Debbie and one for Lindsey. Andrew and I were calling places every day to try and find them. Finally, one day I called a Best Buy and they had them. I got there and they had 3 left. I picked up two and was excited. I called Liz and Andrew to let them know of my triumph. Then it got interesting. I got in line and was about to pay and the Best Buy guy said “I can only sell you one.” At that exact moment 120 miles away in Greensboro, Andrew was thinking to himself: “What if they only let Ben buy one.” Andrew would then have keep looking for Lindsey. I got out of line and started calling people. I was about to call Liz when I saw a co-worker walk in. I grabbed her and asked her to buy one for me and it worked out fine. If you know me at all then you know that I called Andrew and said “Dude, this really sucks but they only would let me buy one.” He said: “Are you serious?” I said: “Yeah, dude it was some only one per person gay rule that they had.” He said: “Crap! I just thought of that; I’ll have to keep looking. Darn it!” The written words don’t give justice to the defeat in his voice. So, I let him off the hook “You’re lucky a co-worker came in and I was able to buy two.” It was great.

So, the video game Christmas came and was a great one for everyone. We packed the week full of activities. I played in a mini golf tournament one day. Charlie and I dominated the field by shooting a 2 under. Second place was 1 over so it was pretty close although everyone cried a lot about our team being stacked. We then had wonderful Christmases at both houses. Here a couple of pictures from them. I have to say that a lot of pictures turned out very poorly for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I believe that it is user error in that we move before the picture is done taking. We have fixed the problem and hope to clean it up going forward.


Here is Ryan and Penina. I really wanted to have a picture of Debbie with the Wii and WiiFit but they failed miserably. The Wii was the most exciting gift of the morning.



Next up are the two Christmas fanatics doing a pre-present opening dance.




The video game Christmas was in full gear on Christmas night as you see here. Mario Kart was played for hours.




After Christmas, we went to the Meinke Car Care bowl which featured my two favorite schools in UNC and WVU. Liz was going to where UNC stuff so I did that with her. There was some concern over this because we were going to sit in the WVU section but it was all right. WVU is definitely more of a football school as they sold 2/3 of the bowl tickets. UNC only had a third and the game was in our state. It’s a little sad if you ask me but UNC is a basketball school. I’m hoping that Butch can change that in the next couple of years and get us up to a Florida level. I guess that we will see.



The whole family drove down to Charlotte from Greensboro. We parked at our house consolidated cars and went to lunch then the game. At lunch, we ran into my Uncle Joe’s brother and his family. It is crazy that we ended up eating at the exact some place. Crazy.


The game was extremely exciting. There were 5 touchdowns in the first quarter. There were some great plays the rest of the game. I also would say that Hakeem Nicks made the most amazing catch this side of David Tyree. You should got to Youtube and look at it if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

WVU ended up winning the game 31-30. Liz realized sitting in the middle of the WVU section, why I love WVU football so much. The fans were very awesome and loved their team much more than most UNC fans. Yes, I’m badmouthing myself but its true. I think that it goes back to the one thing in the state thing that I touched on in my last entry. Some fans were crying with joy and everyone was very happy. You don’t see that often in Kenan. It is just a different level of passion. All of the fans around us shook my hand and we talked a lot during the game. Not one of them talked trash to me and Liz. It was a blast. I also loved yelling underneath the road on the way to the game. I did get in trouble with Will who scolded me for “starting a ruckus”.


We also had the 5th annual Xmas Bowl which was a big blowout this year. Bradon, Peter and I dominated the games and ended up with a 4-0 record. We actually have HD Video of the game but we have not yet figured out how to get that on the computer. I beleive that will be a summer project. Here is a picture of Drew, Mom-mom, and me.



After that, we had a Rock Band/UNC New Year’s with Phillip and Mel. It was a good time. I believe that is it for 2008. I’ll be back next time to chronicle our trip to Asheville and other events . . .

Stay classy Ben’s Friends . . .

The Blog Returns . . .

Well, it never really left in the first place. I just haven't been updating it like I should. I have received many complaints on the lack of posting so I promise to deliver 2 posts a month in 2009.

Towards the end of summer we took on a couple house improvements. We (when I say we I mean us as a home not necessarily me) added a light to the dining room and cut down some trees. Tom, Debbie, Liz, and Ryan attacked the light in the house while Peter and myself chopped down some trees. The light people were very excited at the time to be put on the blog because I was active with it at that time. However, they didn't take very good pictures of themselves so we will honor them with a much sexier picture. Even though you can't see it here. They did an excellent job on the dining room and bath room lights.



2008 was the year to go HD. If you don't have an HD TV then you are really missing out on some great deals out there on TVs. We added our second HD TV as we couldn't pass up on the deals that we found on Black Friday. The 5 AM trip was an attempt to get a Kitchen Aid mixer that failed but we instead bought a TV which is and obvious big win. We have this same TV shown below except ours is located in our living room which is almost complete at this point. You'll have to come visit to see it.

Towards the end of the summer, we took a trip up to West Virginia to visit my family. It was a pretty long trip for a day. For some reason, I thought that I could get there in 3 hours but it definitely took a solid 4 and half. This trip coincided with the gas shortage in Charlotte which is still one of the dumbest things of all time. Gas was everywhere but Charlotte. It's the main reason that McCory lost my vote. Anyway, the trip was great visit. Elizabeth had the opportunity see many of places that I grew up. I have such great memories of West Virginia and it was nice to be able to share those experiences.

The below picture is of part of the Lake. The Lake is a place where we would all go over to feed the ducks, go fishing, or just to play. It's basically a little park within my grandparents community but it is a little more than that to me as it was always a fun time. A trip to visit West Virginia is not complete without a trip to the lake.

Who are those little people on the swings with Liz? Those are my cousins John and Will. There is a better picture of them below. We got to see them a good bit in 2008 as they came down for Thanksgiving and the Car Care Bowl. John like most teenagers loves video games but he is also loves karate and has an amazing hidden talent of playing the violin. Let's hope that he continues to find time for music. After all, Liz was a band geek too. Will is a ball of fun. However, be careful when playing games with him. He is a little sneaky and finds unfair ways to win. He met his match when he went up against Liz. She figured out his little tricks.

This is the bridge across the river to the high school. Yes, that sounds pretty strange but it's true. I imagine that it would be pretty cold in the winter. It's pretty old and little scary but I've also been across it many times. Across the bridge is a football field where Andrew, Dad, and I would always go to throw and kick the ball around. Andrew and I could kick 40 yard field goals on that field. We couldn't make any from longer than that. So, when a kicker misses anything shorter than 40 then they choked pretty bad.

West Virginia was a quick but fun trip. I was able to pick a nice supply of WVU gear as it is hard to come by down here. Liz also noticed that everyone up there loves WVU. It's hard to imagine if North Carolina had only one school. WVU is almost the only school in the state. Marshall is the only competition and it's not a fair one. There is no State, Duke, Wake, App, or ECU. It would be interesting if UNC was the only school in the state. We visited one store that had anything that you could imagine in WVU stuff. It was unlike anything that you can find in North Carolina for any of our teams.

One excuse for me not keeping up the blog is due to having UNC season tickets for the first time since I lived in Chapel Hill. There were 7 home games and we went to 5 of them. It kept us quite busy in the fall. We were either driving up to Chapel Hill on the weekend or doing something around the house because we would be gone the following weekend. We also added in trips to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday and a trip to Morgantown for the WVU/Cincinnati game.

Season tickets were pretty fun overall. We were 3-2 as fans. The first game was a wash because of the crazy Thunderstorm that came in. We ended up leaving after the second delay. We had fun pre-gaming at Ham's in the afternoon as we took in the first games of the year. The Virginia Tech game was pretty good and the team would have easily won had our QB not gone out with injury. The Notre Dame game was a blast as there were tons of Irish in the stadium. I don't understand why UNC will build temporary stands for visiting fans on the field but won't do that for their own fans. It does not make sense. We escaped with that win. We (UNC football team) didn't show up for the NC State game. It's like I said at Thanksgiving "Our team beat all of the good teams and choked against the bottom of the league." Overall the season was fun and we'll be there again in 2009.

The trip to the WVU game was a fun trip. Andrew, Lindsey, Liz, and I went up. I forgot to even mention that Andrew is now engaged. Congrats to him and Lindsey! She is very cool person and I don't think that Andrew could have done better. I will have a picture and more on her in my next entry.

Our trip to Vegas was with the Kipkes and Crafts. I love Vegas. I have to say that I was not very lucky this time. I lost all of the money that we took to gamble with. I did poorly at the tables but hit some football games. I should really stick to the football games but the tables are so much fun. I learned a lot from Kipnasty on the trip. He is a Vegas vet and I feel pretty comfortable playing all the games now. I especially enjoyed craps. I will be better prepared for my next visit out there.

In the next post I'll discuss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Meinke Car Care Bowl. I leave you with one last picture. There is something truly amazing in this picture. It may take a little work to figure out. If you can't see it then you'll have to ask Andrew because he knows.

DON"T TOUCH THE CORAL REEF!

I want to apologize for not updating this sooner. Life has been busy and will continue to be busy until next year with football season being in full-swing. It’s better to not be busy but having season football tickets keeps you moving. I have a ton of stories and updates but I haven’t taken time to update the system but I will; hopefully soon. I will try and do some of that this weekend.

Anyway, I thought of a story that made me laugh out loud just thinking about it so I’m going to share it with you. This chronicles my spring break trip my senior year of college.

It actually started the day after my 22nd birthday. That’s March 11th, 2000 for those of you keeping score at home. We went out in Chapel Hill for my birthday then Kipke and I started off on our journey to Key West the following morning. I was not up to par if you can imagine. Kipke took it easy the night before so he could drive the first leg of the trip starting at 8 AM. I slept in the passenger seat until about noon when I woke up to see a tractor trailer about 4 feet from the front of my green Mazda protégé. I said “What the hell are you doing!?” Kipke calmly replied “Drafting. Watch.” He then backed up and the car shook from the air then he pulled back into the draft and it was noticeably smoother and helped mileage according to him. I told him to make sure not to hit the truck and went back to sleep.

I took my turn and he slept around 2. We stopped only to gas up and eat. We got into Miami around 10 PM. Miami was pretty scary. It would be fine one block then you would be in the heart of the ghetto the next. Interesting zoning that they have there. So, we had to gas up before we headed out to the island roads. We pulled into what looked like a normal gas station. We tried to pump gas but it blocked us until we prepaid. Shortly after that a couple big black dudes with 40s in paper bags came out from behind the store and were watching us. We looked like two preppy college kids in our cargo shorts and golf shirts (mine was likely frat tucked). I wonder if they noticed the NY MAFIA license tag on the front of the car. I went into the bathroom. I stood there for 5 seconds and the light went out. I thought “Oh Shit, I’m going to die.” I then thought, I have to go so I might as well finish up. So, I left and realized that it was just a timer on the light. I went towards the car and Kipke headed to the bathroom. I thought “I should warm him about the light, then I thought no, that’s no fun.” He got as scared as me. By this time, the two black guys with 40s had grown to 4 and they began to fight each other. We quickly got in the car and went on our way. It was pretty intimidating.

We then drove through Miami and on to the Keys. We got in around 1 AM to stay with his cousin. We were staying in a tent in the back yard. No big deal if you’re young. The first night was hard to fall asleep but the rest were easy.

Key West is a cool town. However, I have no desire to go back now that I am older. It’s perfect for spring break but nothing much else is there. I don’t know what I would do.

We would wake up fairly early for us around 10 then go to the beach and hangout and nap. Michael Klett, Troy, Organ, and Johnner were all down there as well. They were staying at Jabronies camp site. It’s not really called Jabronies but it is close to that and that’s what I called it. Jabor’s is the real name I think. We hung out with them the whole week.

They called Kipke and I the ambiguously gay duo the whole weekend because we had a scooter to get around on. Yes, imagine Kipke driving and me on the back of the scooter going around town. I’m sure that it was pretty comical to see. Of course, Key West is known for its gay population so no one ever gave us a second glance but our group made fun of us; deservedly so.

All week we went out to a place called Mike’s; I think. They had a special from 6-10 for all that you could drink for $20. This was an amazing deal so we did that each night. We would go in about 7 and play bubble hockey until the rest of the normal people would show up around 11. Kipke and I dominated but that should be expected. Like most things in life UNC enacts domination over NC State. It’s just life so accept it State fans. We love you anyway. That includes you Andrew. The highlight of bubble hockey came in a game between Kipke and I vs. Chea and Klett (the best NC State team). It was all tied and the time was out so the next goal was going to win. I had the puck in front of the net manned by Klett. I scored the most amazing goal in bubble hockey history. Everyone who saw it agreed so I’m not bragging. Well, I am but it has been confirmed by others as the best bubble hockey goal of all time. I used a crossover move to score. I tipped the puck one way spun around and then tipped it back and slammed it in. I could never replicate it but it was a thing of beauty. We actually acted it out many times over the week.

One day, we were on the beach and a salesman came up to us. He was selling 8 AM snorkel cruises. We all said “No way in hell I’m getting up at 7 to go on a snorkel cruise.” Well, the guy sold Klett on it and Klett sold us on the idea that “we may never be here again, let’s go look at the coral reef, a group of girls signed up for the morning cruise, all you can drink on the way back included” So, $40 later we are all signed up for the following morning. We went out like normal. Did you actually think that we would go easy and prepare for AM snorkeling? Not a chance. The next morning came early and was quite painful. It was a great time to go out on a boat let me tell you.

There was our group and then a group of girls on the boat. It became apparent that the girls choose the morning trip because they didn’t want to be around any guys. Yeah for us! So, on the trip to the coral reef they go over all the rules for snorkeling and they beat into us the main rule. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! If they said it once, they said it at least 37 times. DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! It is a living organism that dies if you touch it. So, we continue on our long ride and finally get there. Did I mention that a boat ride is totally awesome when you drank too much the night before?

So, we get to the reef. We have to swim a half mile to get to it but there are buoys around it so you can find it. The water is pretty choppy that morning. It is white capping in some spots but we make the swim out there. The reef is not very large but there are some pretty fish. Sadly, you cannot see that far because the water is so choppy. It’s also only 20 feet big and maybe 5 feet from the surface so there isn’t much to see.

We swam the half mile out to this little rock to see a couple fish. It’s not that great and no one is feeling good so many people begin to get tired and need to rest. Several of us are just floating there relaxing in our life jackets when I decide to swim around and look some more. I see Chea standing on the middle of the reef and then he starts walking around on it like he’s in a pool. I laughed so hard that I started to choke on salt water. He was not heeding the DO NOT TOUCH THE REEF! warning. It was classic. This is what inspired me to write this story. I can still see his flippers standing on the reef. “Killing it”

The water started to get a little worse so we were called back to the boat. I about gave up life for five minutes on this swim. I was not feeling first-rate. The choppy water made the swim very tough. I began to swallow large amounts of salt water. I then began to put that salt water back in the ocean along with my breakfast. This happened several times over the swim and at one point. I thought “This is it. I’m going to drown, no need to fight it anymore.” I sat there and didn’t drown. The life vest was working. So, I thought “I’m not going to die. I have to swim to the boat.” So, I did. I then slept the entire ride back and got a little sunburn on my back.

We spent a couple more days there but nothing really of note happened.

So, we drove to Jacksonville to stop off and visit our neighbor who was having break there. We stopped on Friday. No one was home so we walked over to a bar to watch the UNC NCAA tournament game. I went to bed around 10 because the people there were driving me insane. I woke up and was going to drive back even though Kipke said he was staying Saturday. I got up at 7 and told him to get up because I was going back due to rain in the area. He decided to get up and we were back in Chapel Hill that afternoon.

I think that we slept until Monday getting up only to watch basketball and then we were back to normal. Good Times.