A Peek at Life as a Natic

On Sunday we headed out to see Alisha’s dad and my parents as I had not seen them for my birthday. 

We headed out to Alisha’s dad’s house to hang out there for a little bit as he was back from Florida for a few days.  We spent some time just hanging out and they gave us 3 boxes of liquor to take back home with us which is now stocked for when we have people over.  After hanging out there for a bit we headed off to my parents house to have some matzah ball soup and potato latkas!  MMM!!!  I could eat that every night of the week.  SO good!  – Speaking of which, we need a good Jewish deli around here that serves bagels and stuff like that.  We then had our normal birthday celebratory cake – Carvel ice cream cake of course!  Those damn crunchies are like little black crack seeds or something!

Now that we have the XC90, it is time to get some of the stuff done that we need to make it our own!  The rear windows were tinted but the front two were not which drove Alisha nuts.  I made an appointment with a tint place in Cumming to have them tint the front two windows on Saturday morning.  I will be posting their information once I am sure that everything is well with the tint job.  They were great people and I am sure everything is perfectly fine, but I want to make sure that it is before I tell my readers all about them.  The only thing holding that up is that it had been so rainy and cold recently that the water used to apply the tint has not been able to dry out which is very normal process when you tint.  It has been hard to not roll the windows down for these past 5 days though lol.  I have intentionally avoided toll booths and going through the parking garages has been a pain because I have to pass the ticket thing and open the door to reach back LOL.

Last week, Heather had sent us an invite to head over to their house to throw a little surprise party for Jarrod with a few of our neighbors and some their friends / family.  We headed over at 12:30 while Jarrod was out with Ethan to get ready to surprise him.  Heather did a great job planning it and picking up lunch for us to enjoy.  It worked out perfectly and Jarrod was quite surprised.  We hung out for a few hours and then headed back home to get ready to go out for Kara’s birthday dinner. 

Kara’s birthday is a day after mine and she wanted to head to Maggianos to grab some much needed birthday dinner!  We headed up to Maggianos at Perimeter Mall with Alisha’s mom and met Kara and Lin for some dinner.  As always the food was delicious and we had a great time.  After dinner we were all heading up to our house to spend the night.  We decided to hit Cheesecake Factory for some dessert before continuing home.

On Friday night we headed into the city to check out a brew pub that I had been keeping an eye on with some of our friends.  It was called Max Lagers which was located right by the SunTrust building in downtown Atlanta. 

We went down with Bobby and Dan to grab some dinner and drinks and met Andrea and Ryan there.  We had a great time just talking it up but I will say I was not impressed at all with the beers.  I felt as though they were very watered down.  It was almost like good beer Bud Light style…I don’t know… there was absolutely no beer taste there.  Let’s put it this way.  We all know Alisha hates beer…. she actually liked this. 

I dont know if we had a bad batch or something, but it was no good in my book at all.  We were one of three tables on a Friday night and that may be why.  The food was okay, nothing great really, but the service was great.  Our waiter really went out of his way for Alisha and that was really cool of him.

It was a chill night with some good company to wrap up my birthday.

On Friday night we headed out to dinner with Jason and Amber to celebrate Amber’s birthday.  Paul, Rickii, Spence, Ash, Nelson, Grant, Jason, Amber, and her roomates were all there to eat some dinner and have a great time. 

Princess Spencer

We went to La Parilla, a Mexican restaurant at Windward Parkway and Hwy 9.  They probably have the nicest staff I have ever experienced for a restaurant and food to match.  I highly recommend it to anyone that happens to be in the area.  Spencer cracked us all up as he ordered wings at a Mexican restaurant LOL.  Who does that???  ha ha.

Paul

After dinner we headed out to Cold Stone for dessert before going to Durty Kelly’s Public House.  It was quite a nice place.  It was layed out very neat and had the typical pub feel.  The only thing that I can complain about is that the band was just ridiculously loud.  You literally could not talk to the person sitting right next to you even if you were screaming and we were as far from the band as you could possibly get in there.  It was rough.  They had the typical pub type beers, and what looked like great food.  I would give it another shot for sure as it may have just been that band…. but it was just so darn loud!

Wings at a Mexican rest???

Happy Birthday Amber!  We are glad we got to celebrate with you!  And how did we not manage to get a single pic of you??  LOL

Holy Taco

Friday was much needed – as it always is!  It was Danielle’s birthday on Thursday so we went up to Alisha’s dad’s house to eat dinner and cut a cake for her birthday.  He had made some pulled pork for dinner and they had a red velvet cake for dessert.  We hung out for a while just spending some good ol’ family time.  Before long we headed out to head back to the house. 

As we hopped onto 400 I asked Alisha if that is where Kevin and Ashley’s new house was and she said yes.  I decided to pull a u-turn to swing by real quick.  We got the tour of the house and hung out for a while.  We had not seen them in about a month so it was great to do so.  The new house is beautiful.  Congrats guys!  We got to see Kevin, Ash, Stan, Kristen, Grant, and Spence.  It had been forever so it was good to catch up.

We ended up leaving not too long after as we had a big day Saturday and we were exhausted.

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Vivi’s birthday party at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

On Saturday morning we had plans to head over to our neighbor’s house to join them in the celebrating their daughter Vivian’s first birthday.  We had a great time hanging out with our great neighbors and eating great food. 

Homemade Cake

Congrats Vivi!!!

Happy Birthday

On Friday night we drove over to Brett and Theresa’s house out in acworth GA (about an hour out) to celebrate his birthday with many of our friends.  It was a fun night!  He definitely had a houseful!!

About halfway into the night and a few beers, Ryan Barlock decided to talk smack about his running speed that he maintains from high school.  Since we all wanted a laugh we talked him and Kevin into racing up the street to see who was faster.  Kevin beat him by a decent distance which we all laughed about in good fun.  Shortly after Ryan started to feel worse and worse until he eventually puked over the deck several times.  Somehow I managed to leave in just enough time so that I did not add to it.  I ran away gagging and coughing ready to throw up myself.  GROSS!

We had a great time eating some food and drinking some beers and then headed home.  It was great to see them again as we dont get to very often.

I was going to wait for pictures, but we left out camera at Alisha’s dad’s house so I’ll just update this post after I get them.

On Saturday night we met up with Mike, Aubree, Andrea, Ryan, Gary, Bradel, Sarah and Nathan for a night out at Maggianos in Buckhead to celebrate Ryan and Alisha’s birthdays.  We had a great time talking with everyone and enjoying the great food at Maggianos.  After dinner we tried to grab some dessert but SOMEBODY bailed on us while I was trying to get us some seats. 

We had a great time though.  It was nice to go out and have a relaxing and fun dinner with everyone.

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of my birthday dinner at pictures.neilnatic.com  or here.

This past weekend we decided to get everyone together to come out to have some dinner and drinks for my birthday.  We had an excellent turnout. We had to make reservations for 20!  Ashley, Kevin, Mike, Aubree, Jason, Amber, Krystle, Phil, Spencer, Shawn, Hector, Reagan, Bobby, Jen, Paul, Rickie, Lauren, and Craig all made it!

We grabbed dinner at Loredos across from the avenue in Cumming.  It was a little tight there but we made it work.  While we were there I got the typical birthday celebration at a Mexican restaurant with the sombrero. 

Is that a Dirty Sanchez??

After dinner, we were sure to show Kevin http://1guy1cup.net.  I know most of you have not seen this and if you are one of our grown folk readers…. I urge you to proceed with caution… as a matter of fact I can almost assure you that you do NOT want to see this video.  Now that your curiosity has the best of you, if you MUST proceed you HAVE to be ready for the biggest shock of your life.  It is not at all what you expected… and you have to watch it all.  It is NOT work safe and certainly not child safe either.  To see Kevin’s reaction check out the photo gallery.  It explains it all.  :crackup:

After that I had Kevin watch the video above.  It is a humorous take on puberty from a talking penis with some nasty adult humor tossed in.  Quite hilarious but you must have a sense of humor

We then headed over to Taco Mac to have some drinks before calling it a night.  Thanks to everyone that came out… and I am sorry to those that could not make it.  We’ll catch ya next time!

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Anthony’s Birthday and the Cumming fair at pictures.neilnatic.com .

Wow.. What a day!  After being a little groggy from the night before, we got up and headed out to Douglasville to celebrate Anthony’s 3^rd birthday at Ryan and Andrea’s house!  He had a pirate themed party which turned out really cute.  It was great to see Ryan and Andrea again (they had to leave early from the homebrew party).  The whole party was very cute.  Anthony got the coolest toy ever!   It was a remote controlled dinosaur that was so awesome!  I want one! 

After the party Alisha called Aubree to see if she had taken a pregnancy test.  Alisha had been saying that she was pregnant for about a week and she was really hoping that she was.  She just wanted to have someone else go through the same things that she is about to and why not make it a good friend!  Aubree had taken the test and guess what.. PREGNANT!  Aubree was pretty skeptical and refused to believe it so they made plans to come to our house, buy some good ones, and have Alisha use the cheap ones that Aubree was using.  Both came out pregnant!  Congrats guys!  This is so exciting!!

After finding out the good news, we headed out to the Cumming Fair to meet up with Hector, Reagan, Bobby, and Jen.  We headed to the petting zoo to see all of the animals there and ended up getting separated from them for the rest of the night.  L  Sucks we were not able to hang out longer, but it was great to see them again.  We’ll have to catch up with them next weekend after Edwin’s Oktoberfest or something.  We spent some more time walking around the fair and checking out the … well… locals and just having a good time. 

It was a fun filled day and we had a great time.  These weekends go by so fast L

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our day in Helen at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

Last weekend we went up to Helen to meet up with Jason, Amber, Matt, Laura, Kevin and Ash for Jason’s birthday get together.  Fortuantely we had enough gas to make it up there and back because there was only one gas station the whole way up and back with gas… and the line was outrageous.  For those not in GA, you could not imagine what this “crisis” looked like.  Imagine waiting up to an hour to fill up your tank of gas… and spending more than 30 cents over next most expensive state in the nation! 

Anyway, so as we got to Helen we parked in our normal parking lot behind a restarant and decided to take a few pictures at the river while we waited on everyone else to come into town from the camp site.  Once they got there, we headed to a restaurant to grab some food and beer.  Like all of the others, they had an Oktoberfest banner on the building… the only thing I dont quite understand is why there was a Bud Light on the banner… how do you advertise for a German celebration with the most American Beer around??  ha ha

We had a great time there and then decided to walk around the town for a little bit.  We then went into a German restaurant for some more traditional beers.  As we were going into the restaurant, we saw a few guys drinking some beer out of glass Warsteiner boots.  I was really looking forward to getting one until i saw that it was $45 with beer.  WOW!  I got the normal beer cup and watched the Florida Gators loose their football game with glee!

After we finished our beers, we decided to head back to the house as we had Envy in her crate and I was exausted.  Happy Birthday Jason!  We had a great time.  Sorry we did not stay any longer

On our way back we went over to Hector’s house to hang out for a little bit.  Bobby and Jen were already over there so it was great to see everyone.  Because it was a long day and we still had Envy in her crate we headed out rather soon.  Plus I had to get home to watch the UGA game… lets not talk about the outcome

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Saturday at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

Saturday was a busy day!  In the morning I got up to complete my project I started in the downstairs bathroom.  I installed the new faucet and was ready to get the day started in no time.  After cleaning up the tools and mess I made during the install, I headed outside to clean up the mess I made last weekend while trimming the bushes on the hill in the back yard.  I put all of the loose clippings into the brown bags and had them ready to be thrown out. 

Once that was complete, Mike and Aubree called to let us know that they were close and wanted to know if we wanted to go to IHOP.  No one can turn down an IHOP breakfast so of course we said yes!

After breakfast the ladies wanted to do what they do best…. Spend money!  They went to Michaels and Wal-mart while me and Mike went to Home Depot.  I picked up some landscape lighting for the front yard like me and Alisha had been talking about and we headed back to the house to get ready to go to Hector and Reagan’s house to watch the Georgia South Carolina football game.

We got to Hector’s house about an hour before kickoff to talk and have some drinks with them and Bobby and Jen.  Of course, there was a little shit talking as Reagan is a South Carolina fan  . Alisha and Aubree were obsessed with Hector and Reagan’s dog Gizzy and as a result i have about a million pictures of him (I’ll get them to you Reagan)

Because we had made plans to go to dinner with Ashley and Kevin, we had to leave before the game was over and head to Rice off of exit 17.  We met Ashley, Kevin, Matt, Laura, Jason, Amber, Craig, Lauren, Kelvin, and Lisa to enjoy a great Japanese dinner!  We were very surprised to find out that Kelvin doesn’t know how to use chop sticks :crackup:

After a great dinner and many pictures, we headed back to Ash and Kevin’s house to hang out for a little while before they all headed down to Shout in Midtown.  We were going to go downtown originally but they had to move dinner to Rice and we decided to do dinner but not head downtown.  Sorry we missed it.  I am sure you had a great time guys!

After leaving Ash and Kevin’s place we headed to Alisha’s parents for about 10 minutes and then headed back to our house to wrap up the night.

It was a great day and to top it off UGA won!

On Friday evening we met up with Spencer and some friends to chill and celebrate his birthday.  We all met up at Atkins Park in Cumming for dinner and drinks and then headed next door to Cincos to hangout at the rooftop bar.

Atkins Park was excellent as usual.  The beer, food, and service were spot on as usual.  It was good to sit down and talk while enjoying a great atmosphere, friends, food, and beer.  After we ate we headed behind Atkins Park for some gelato from Sogno Gelato.  Alisha was a little bummed that they are always out of her favorite flavor but she made another choice and liked it anyway.   After we paid for our checks we headed next door to hang out at the rooftop bar at Cincos.  They did an excellent job with this as they had umbrellas, tables, sofas and lounge chairs all setup to enhance the experience.  

It was a fun night for sure!  Happy Birthday Spence!

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Labor Day Party and Preparations at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

So we had plans to go to Edwin and Geni’s house this weekend to do our annual Labor Day get together by the pool.  We had some great food, and of course, the family!

On Friday Alisha had the day off and took the time to bake up my favorite dessert ever… S’mores brownies!  When I got home from work, the house smelled like mouth watering desserts and she would not even let me have one… I had to steal one and then eat the crumbs off of the two cooking surfaces… and it was worth every homeless looking bit of it.  That is the best thing ever!

After brewing beer in the morning, we headed out to Edwin and Geni’s to chill and have a great time.  We ate delicious food, drank great beer, celebrated a birthday, and had a great time!  It was really great to see everyone and relax finally. 

Happy Birthday Frank!

Last weekend we headed over to Hershey and Susan’s house to join the family in celebrating our Goddaughter AnnaMarie’s 2nd birthday. 

As usualy Susan went all out on this party.  She does such a great job!!!  As we arrived the ponies were getting unloaded from the trailer for the pony rides.  As we walked into the front door, there were two mason jars one filled with M&M’s and the other filled with Starbursts.  We were to guess how many were in each container and the winner took the container that they guessed.  Even though I tried to be slick and Google how many M&M’s were in an ounce, I still lost :crackup:  In the dining room there were real horse shoes that Hershey painted and cleaned up with decorations of all kinds for each guest to decorate. 

The kids totally loved the pony rides which turned out to be a huge hit!  It was so cute!  Alisha was a photographer for a while as Susan was busy trying to keep the party moving and spend time with AnnaMarie.  After the pony rides Susan brought everyone inside to cut a cake and have some ice cream and then we opened presents.  Being her Godparents (BTW, does that make my parents GREAT Godparents??? HA HA) we decided to purchase a Build a Bear that we dressed up and included a button in the foot that when squeezed said “I Love You AnnaMarie, Love Alisha and Neil”.  In addition we opened up an account on ETrade for her and purchased a Disney stock.  We plan to purchase at least one stock per year until she turns 18.  The day she does turn 18, I lose all rights to the account and she gains it to do whatever she wishes with the money.  We will also reinvest all of the dividends that we recieve in addition to what we put into the account.  We thought that it was a thoughtful and great gift for her.  Now go spend money with Disney and make her rich… hell maybe she will even pay me back some day :crackup:

After the party, Dan, Hector, Raegan, Alisha, and I headed out to Atlantic Station to go to Ikea.  Hector and Raegan had never been and we figured that it would be something to do.  What an F’n mistake!!!  We spent an HOUR between I-20 and midtown… how miserable.  I have never been so frustrated in my life!!!  After we got there we did our shopping and headed out.  We then decided to meet at Ted’s Montana Grill at the new Avenue for some food and drinks.  We had a great time, ate, talked, drank, and headed home.