May 31st, 2009 | permalink

The new definition of busy weekend

Saturday began bright and early with Kade’s last soccer game of the season.

Then, we moved on to his first tball game (rescheduled from Weds.). We played 4 good innings and the boys did pretty good. Looking forward to the next game.

Since Great Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma and Grandpa Kraus came up for the tball game, we ordered some pizzas and picnicked out back.

They brought up a new batting cage/soccer goal for the kids.

Sunday morning. Planning on a dog day afternoon, but that is not very fun. Sit at home and chill or go out and enjoy the day?

Brunch at The Vine and Bean on their patio. Great food. We tried the waffles with peaches, rhubarb and whipped cream and caramel; turkey, avocado and bacon panini; and the veggie egg pie. Their homemade hot sauce is pretty great too. Then, we spent the afternoon at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. Beautiful day for it.

I have to say, that the new definition of a busy weekend suits me just fine. Kade’s last soccer game, his first tball game, mowing the lawn in between, grandparents up to see the tball game and picnic afterward, brunch and botanical gardens on Sunday. We had a great day on Saturday followed by a good Sunday, we can’t ask for much better than that.

May 18th, 2009 | permalink

Not so silly

Great idea… silly putty in bed. All that I have to say is olive oil works well to get it out of hair, nothing helps to get it out of bedding, and Kade is very lucky that Ted survived the incident. His HULK jams were not as fortunate.

May 18th, 2009 | permalink

Taking Back Sunday

Last week we had a lot of fun as Erika’s mom came up to watch the kids for a couple of nights. She stayed with us which allowed us to get out with some friends.

On Thursday night, we were invited to meet up with one of Erika’s old time friends, @NicciReyes at the House of Blues to see Taking Back Sunday. She is the wife of Eddie Reyes who is a guitarist in the band. They left us VIP access passes at will call. It was a really great night. Erika and Nicole were finally able to see eachother for the first time in years and we had a lot of fun catching up with the Karis’s. TBS and Anberlin sounded pretty good live as they were kicking off their tour in downtown Cleveland.

And yes, I did have some of their music since back in 2004 with “This Photograph is Proof”.

We went to the after party at Mecury Lounge where we hung out with the band, which was pretty cool, and we were trying to talk Eddie and Nicole into moving to Cleveland. They would be great neighbors and have two kids around our children’s ages. It was pretty funny seeing Erika, Nicci and Adam all looking at baby/kids pictures while we were having the rock and roll evening.

We stayed out pretty late and it was a weeknight. We paid for it the next day. There is a reason, besides the whole musical ability thing, that we are not rockstars. But we did have a great night and look forward to hanging out with Nicci and Eddie again. More photos.

May 12th, 2009 | permalink

Nostalgic

Sorry to get all nostalgic, but Kade graduates from preschool tomorrow and after watching Parenthood with Erika it makes me think back to when he was just a little guy. In the Fall he will be heading off to Kindergarten and Liv will be entering preschool. They really do grow up so fast.

May 9th, 2009 | permalink

Barbecued Pork Tenderloin

Ever since we have lived in Pittsburgh we have been making this recipe for barbecued pork tenderloin. It was in Cooking Light magazine (circa 2003), along with a few other staples that we make, and we have been toting this old magazine around with us ever since. Seriously, this recipe is great. People always ask us for it, so here it is.

May 6th, 2009 | permalink

We were Witnesses

Last night we attended our first Cavs game in the LeBron era. It just so happen to be a playoff game and the first game after winning the NBA MVP award. He received the trophy the day before and had a press conference at his high school alma mater, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary. Before the game there was another ceremony with the commissioner, David Stern, presenting the trophy to Lebron.

We were able to get tickets due to friends of ours, Jeremy and Amy getting selected in the playoff ticket lottery. Amy put their name in and she was selected. I was amazed that the price was under $40 per ticket. It beats the price of the ALCS tickets that I got when I was selected in the Indians playoff ticket lottery when they took on the Red Sox a couple of years ago.

The Cavs were unstoppable and beat the Hawks in the first game of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. LeBron got his obligatory double-double and put on a great show. I am looking forward to the next game, and the rest of the season for that matter. Could this year finally be “next year”?

April 25th, 2009 | permalink

A new era in our lives

Today was the start of a new era in our lives. We have entered into new territory being the parents of children participating in extracurricular activities. It will be 18+ years until we are out of this time of taxiing kids to and from practice, rehearsals, games, matches, events and performances. If this era is anything like today, that will be fine with me.

It was a beautiful day to start the South Euclid Lyndhurst Kids Soccer League. It was warm and the sun was shining. With this being Kade’s first venture into organized athletics, we were wondering how it would all unfold. He did great. Not that he was the best soccer player on the field, but he participated, listened to his coach and could not
wipe the smile off of his face. He ran all over the field with his grin and even let out a few screams of excitement throughout the game. When it was his turn, he played goalie and actually made two saves.

I was a proud father and tried to give him a few pointers along the way. Having never played soccer, I wasn’t trying to be a coach, but just encouraging him to drive the ball down the field and more importantly pay attention to where the ball is, especially when playing goalie. After some encouragement, I got him to get down in a more “ready” position for when the kids were trying to score. Ok, hands on your knees is not the best ready position but it looks better than having your hands in the net.

Hopefully baseball season will be as much fun. We had the managers meeting last week and I am starting practices next Saturday. Wish me luck!

More photos.

April 19th, 2009 | permalink

Beer Wars, the Movie

Thursday night, April 16 at 8pm EST there was a one-night event at theaters all across the country. The Documentary, Beer Wars, was screened. After the film completed there was a live panel discussion moderated by Ben Stein. I personally had been looking forward to seeing this documentary, so I got my tickets early and could not wait to see it. They were only showing the film in three theaters in the Cleveland area and luckily one of the theaters was right down the road at Severance Town Center in Cleveland Heights. It did not look as though this location was as popular as the west side location as I found other twitterers were there as well as local brewers. We had about eight people at our theater.

Anat Baron who had spent some time in the industry working For Mike’s Hard Lemonade brand, has been working on this Documentary since 2005. Among the people featured in the film were Stone Brewery’s Greg Koch and Dogfish Head Brewery’s Sam Caglione, two of my favorite brewers. They also were on the live panel after the screening.

The Documentary was very informative. It basically focused on the craft breweries and how they struggle to get their product to market. Not only do they have to compete against the big three “behemoths” of the industry (Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors which now is more like InBev and MillerCoors) but they also have to fight against laws, state and federal, that make it difficult to get to market.You would probably be surprised that the beer you thought was an independent craft beer is actually brewed by one of the big brewers. Blue Moon? Yeah, that belongs to MillerCoors. Hoegaarden… Leffe? Yeah, those are InBev. And what may have started off as an independent either gets bought up by the big boys, they rush a cheaper knock-off to market, or the get bullied around by lawsuits.

I learned about the “three tier system” that was put in place after prohibition that was supposed to protect against monopolies but now it basically protects them. Basically, the three tier system separates the brewery from the consumer by adding the distribution tier and the retail tier. Each of these tiers presents hurdles to the small guy, the craft brewer. First, they have to get to market. Getting on the distribution trucks is already a fight because the the distributors have special interests in carrying the Budweisers and Millers of the industry. The second battler comes once the product gets to market. The placement on the shelves and in the coolers is a battle that craft breweries will probably never win. The big boys get prime placement and even get their representatives into the stores to help arrange the shelves. A lot of this battle is fought through marketing. Commercials, give-aways, event sponsorship (even presidential debates). This is not the battle the craft beer industry wants to fight.

One of my favorite quotes from the film…

“Almost all of our beer knowledge comes from Budweiser, Miller and Coors; it’s as if all we knew about food comes from McDonalds”.

~ Jim Koch, Samuel Adams

So where does the Beer Wars go from here? It goes to the beer drinking public. If we truly do “vote with our wallet” we can inact change that the industry is forced to make changes. If the demand by the public is for more flavor and less homogenous beer, the distributors will make the change as well. But how much change is needed? Do we want our craft breweries to become part of the establishment? That was one of the key questions brought up in the live panel discussion.

April 12th, 2009 | permalink

Easter Sunday at the Park

This Easter Sunday we spent at Progressive Field. It was nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, even though it was pretty chilly. We bundled up the kids and headed down to the park early for the Kids Fun Day activities between the Q and Progressive Field. They got their faces painted, danced with the Radio Disney crew, saw Jungle Terry and all of his animals and just enjoyed the activities.

Once in the stadium, we made our way to our seats… five rows from the field down the first base line. Nice. Thanks to Mike Crum (again). We did our usual, hotdogs, candy and nachos and Erika took the kids to the Team Store to spend the money that Grandma gave the kids for the day.

After starting the season 0-5, the Indians were due for a win, and that is just what they did. The highlight fir me was seeing Kerry Wood take the mound and after falling behind the first batter 3-0, he struck him out and the following two batters, preserving the 8-4 win.

The kids were well behaved through the game. I could not believe that we stayed the entire time. We even took the kids down to run the bases afterward. Liv bit the dust on the trip around the bases, but she was a trooper and told Erika that she wanted to keep going… by herself.

More photos.

April 8th, 2009 | permalink

The Greenhouse Tavern, Family and Friends

The time has finally come. The Greenhouse Tavern is a couple days away from officially opening. This is a project that Jonathon and Amelia have been working on for almost two years now. I am just glad that I was able to be a small part of it through the logo and website design and pitching in with some photography.

This photo was taken the first time I stepped foot into the space…

And now…

Tuesday night was the second “friends & family” night and we were lucky enough to get a table at the festivities. The food was delicious as always, but the most impressive part was the atmosphere, the service and the chemistry of the restaurant. It felt like it had been open for years, yet this was only the second event in the new space. The feeling was one of comfort, of familiarity.

Jonathon was pretty much invisible to us most of the night as he was working the kitchen on the basement level, however, each of the dishes that we tried Chef Sawyer was very apparent, rising up from his kitchen sanctuary and filling the restaurant.

We sat on the first floor and later Sin-Jin, the Interior Designer of the restaurant, was gracious enough to give Erika the grand tour. Both the front and rear mezzanines are impressive, the front with a wall of windows that overlooks E. 4th Street and the rear mezzanine has a recycled wooden cabinet with an open back that exposes the rear brick wall.

From the recycled chairs and tables, the cement counters with glass fragments, the Civil War era barn wood siding, lighting fixtures made from LED lights and bicycle rims and also some of the fabric from the chairs, recycled rubber tires lining the many stairs, to the John Carroll University lab tables and cabinets and church pews, the entire restaurant utilizes reclaimed items without subtly without having to shout it.

All of these earth-friendly elements contributed to The Greenhouse Tavern recently being acknowledged as Ohio’s first Certified Green Restaurant.

We enjoyed the four course menu, the company of the other guests and the hospitality of The Greenhouse Tavern and we are looking forward to many more experiences there including Thursday night at the Facebook Funkadelic.

Congratulations, Sawyer, Amelia, Seeholzer, Everest, Keri, Sin-Jin and the rest of the GHT family. You are well on your way to a successful restaurant and following. 500+ Facebook fans and you are not even open yet? Insane.

More Photos.