A Peek at Life as a Natic

Check out our photo gallery to see Super Bowl 2010 pictures or click here.

Last Saturday, Mike and Aubree made plans to come over to make New Orleans Saints shirts for the babies to rock for the game.  Kara, Lin, and Bobby also came by to hang out for the day and do dinner. 

Preston's Reggie Bush shirt

The ladies bought shirts, iron on numbers, and iron on logos for to make some New Orleans Saints gear for Sunday’s game.  They came out really good!  Alisha made Preston a Reggie Bush shirt and Aubree made Kaitlyn a pink Saints shirt.  They were so cute.  Alisha and Aubree also made shirts for themselves to wear to match the babies.

On Sunday we headed up Kevin and Ash’s house to watch the big game and hang out with friends.  Alisha and Aubree were sure to get the babies together to take some cute pictures!  The game was so-so in my opinion, but the commercials and half time show were horrible.  Ill start with the commercials.  What happened to good, funny, commercials?  They were so lame this year!  Then we have the halftime show.  What the heck?!  What happened to Aerosmith with Britney Spears killing it up there?  What happened to mainstream music artists?  What is up with these multiple years of boring classic rock artists from before my time???  If you are going to do that, then throw a modern day artist in there from a different genre to get more people interested!  No one wants to see people nearly break a hip on stage in their old age!

Be sure to click the pictures link above to take a look at the two babies together.  So cute!

Last Saturday we had a busy day.  We woke up a little late and scrambled around to head to a neighbor’s child’s birthday party.  We were about 30 minutes or so late, but hey, better late than never right?  We had a good time eating some food and just chilling to celebrate Gabby’s first birthday.

Afterwards, we headed over to Hector and Reagan’s house to hang out with them for a while.  They were busy painting the nursery so we decided to swing by.  While we were there Geni showed up with pizza from Ray’s which hit the spot!  After Hector finished the nursery we just chilled and hung out for a while before heading out to dinner at Marlows Tavern.  We met Ashley, Kevin, Jason, and Amber at the one in Alpharetta for some grub.  I had been to one before in Duluth, but noone else had been to one.  Just like the Duluth location, it was a crammed restaraunt but for a good reason.  They have great food and a nice atmosphere.  We had a great dinner before heading back to the house to relax for the rest of the night.

Well… the day has actually come… the day that we have to say goodbye to our friend Jason.  He is moving back to Maryland and today is his last day to hang out

Taco Mac Thursday is tradition for the guys and he joined us often for beers and a great time.  We decided that it would be most appropriate to meet at Taco Mac for the last hurrah.  We had a great dinner with friends and said goodbye to our good friend.  We will miss you man…. take care of yourself and your family.  We will have to come up to visit you soon!

On Thursday I had no plans to head to Taco Mac and we were having Courtney come over to have some dinner and chill at our house.  I had a rough day in the Kennesaw office and was exhausted and was eager to get back to the house to unwind.  As I got home, I called Alisha who reminded me that I needed to grab some food so that we could cook dinner.  Damn!  I had to pull back out of the driveway and head back to Publix to grab something for us all to eat.  On my way home, I am pulling into the neighborhood when I get a text message from Bobby who was stating that he was drinking Terrapin’s new beer which was just released for the first time.  I had not had it and was extremely jealous.  I sent him a damn you text, brought the groceries inside, and headed off to Taco Mac to taste this new deliciousness!  Damn was it good!  Everything they make is ridiculously good!  I love that brewery!

I grabbed two drinks and headed home to meet up with Alisha and Courtney.  As a matter of fact, I was there before she even was!  That was the plan of course .  We had a nice dinner and chilled and they showed me the awesome gift that Courtney had made for Alisha’s shower.  It looks great!  I was quite impressed!

Thanks Court!  We love it!

Closeup to see detail of each letter

On Wednesday we decided to head over to Wild Wing Cafe to grab some much needed and craved wings.  Many of us had been really wanting some good wings but nothing around us will suffice.  We have some crappy places around and it would be really nice to get a place that had excellent food.  But what can you do?  Drive to Alpharetta of course!

At Taco Mac, Bobby, Jason, and I decided that we needed to go to Wild Wing Cafe to spend some time together and grab some wings.  We invited Mike, Aubree, Danny, Jason, Bobby, and Lindsay.  It was a hilarious night as we stuffed our faces.  As always Mike and I ordered China Syndrome (the hottest wings ever) and convinced Bobby and Lindsay to do the same.  This was hysterical.. Bobby took one bite and just started pouring out sweat LOL.  They are hot as HELL, but he was just dying LOL!!! After wings we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream and then called it a night.

We had a great night talking and bsing around.  It was perfect to break up the week!  Going out on hump day is awesome!

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

Last Friday we headed over to Alisha’s parents house to eat dinner and have dessert for Tiffany’s birthday.  We chilled out there for a while before heading over to Cinco’s to celebrate Ashley’s birthday.  We met up at Cincos with about 25 other people to enjoy the night.  They had a DJ and all of our friends which led to a great time.

Happy birthday Tiff and Ash!

Friday night was a big night for everyone.  We celebrated Spence’s birthday by enjoying some dinner and then headed downtown to celebrate Grant’s upcoming wedding.

Spencer had originally wanted to go to a new bar in the Cumming area but unfortunately they did not get their liquor license in time to be open for the weekend.  Because of this, Spence decided to move the party to Taco Mac – you wont hear me complain!  Alisha was a little less thrilled but came out to spend time with good friends.  We had a nice sized group of almost 20 and had a great time just BS’ing and eating / drinking.  We didnt have the best service (okay maybe the worst ever) but we made the best of it!

After dinner, the guys headed downtown to spend time in Buckhead, the Highlands, and then back to Buckhead.  We started out in a bar that turned out to be the visiting football team’s bar of choice.  We had to get the HELL out of there!  We headed out to the highlands and had a few drinks at a few bars there before heading over towards East Andrews in Buckhead.  They still wanted a cover charge even though they were closing in about 30 minutes, so we decided to head out of there.  On the way home we grabbed food at IHOP before making it to the house.  It was a long night of fun and we made it back to the house at about 2:30 or so.

On Saturday morning we woke up and headed over to IHOP in between exits 7 and 8 to grab breakfast with Mike, Aubree, and Kaitlyn.  After stuffing my fat face with far too many pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon we headed up to see Mike’s dad.  It was great to see him doing so well.  As you may know, they are like family to me… hell, they were a second family for about 6 years of my life and I owe them lots for everything they did for me during that time and it continues all the way until now.  They are some of the most geniune and sweetest people you will ever meet and I am glad to see them all doing so much better.

After hanging out for several hours, Mike and Bree headed up to her parents house and we headed home to spend time with Envy before going out for the evening.  After spending a few hours with Envy and watching a bit of the Atlanta / Detroit preseason game, Dan came over and we headed off to Ashley and Kevin’s house for the night to celebrate Grant and Allyson’s upcoming wedding in Florida.  Alisha was invited to Allyson’s bridal shower while the guys chilled downstairs until it was over.  We had a great time.  I spent a lot of time hanging out with Allyson’s and Grant’s dad talking about everything from sports to beer to sex.  We really had an excellent time!  They were a riot!  Allyson, I love your dad… he was a ton of fun.  I have known Grant’s dad for Y-E-A-R-S now so catching up with him was equally great.

We spent the evening hanging out with many of our friends.  It was a great time and we were glad to be a part of it.  Unfortuantely, I did not grab any pictures as I was just chilling and when I did shoot some, I was using Amber’s camera.

Thanks for having us Grant and Allyson!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Brick Store and Sweetwater at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

The Group

Wow!  What another great Saturday with friends and family!

Phil, Krystle, Hector, Reagan, Bobby, Danielle, and Dan all met at my house in the morning to head down to pick up Amber and Jason before heading to lunch in Decatur.  As you may know, I am in love with Brick Store Pub and this was the perfect opportunity to head down there for drinks and some grub.  We got a table upstairs near the Belgian bar and had a great time talking, laughing, drinking, and eating some great food.  Everyone else seemed to have the same opinion as I as we were leaving.  You have to love that place.  It is excellent.  If you have never been, you HAVE to go.  It is incredible with a great atmosphere, huge beer list, great food, and good prices.  A complete hit!  Check out their site here.  Here is our blog entry of our first time at Brick Store.

Great times with great friends

After Brick Store, we headed up towards Sweetwater Brewery.  As you know I am a huge fan of supporting our local breweries and fortunately we have three great breweries in the Atlanta area that make it easy to support them.  You may have read about Sweetwater Brewery on our blog here and here.  It is an excellent microbrewery with excellent beers but due to some previously tough tour hours, we never made it out to check out the brewery.  After helping out with the blueberries down at Serenbe Farms, we were told about Sweetwater’s new Saturday tour hours from 2:30 – 4:30 beginning today.  They have a live band, excellent atmosphere, great crowd, and of course excellent beer!  For $8 they give you a souvenir glass and 6 tickets to get beer each of which allows you a half pint pour.  They allow you to sample all of their year round beers and whatever seasonal beer is on tap at the time.  We had a blast talking, drinking, and hanging out with great friends.  I highly recommend you make it out to Sweetwater Breweryand encourage you even more to support your local breweries.  Sweetwater as well as the others make it easy to do so by producing beers that are nationally recongized for their excellence. 

At Sweetwater Brewery

After leaving Sweetwaterwe headed back towards the house and had everyone back over to hang out.  Hector brought some games and people played, drank, cooked, and chilled for several hours.  Being that we started the day early, everyone got pretty tired and headed home around 10:30 or so.  It was a great day and a hell of a way to start off the weekend.  If you have never been to Brick Store or Sweetwater GO!  You will not be disappointed.  I don’t get anything for bragging about these great local places.  I love great beer, food, and people and establishments like these keep Atlanta excellent! 

The taps with liquid heaven

We had such a great time today.  Thanks to all that came as well as the guy rapping about “eight ball in my corner pocket” to himself walking around Decatur.  Peace up.  A-Town down homie!  – for our not so urban readers… A-town is Atlanta. LOL

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Matt and Laura’s Big Day at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

Saturday morning we woke up, got ready and headed out to Roswell for Matt and Laura’s big day!!!!

Matt and Laura got married in Roswell at Founder’s Hall on Saturday afternoon.  It was a gorgeous wedding with their friends and family there to celebrate!  A few of our friends were in the wedding party and many others in attendance.  It was a great wedding.  We are so happy for them and wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

NO - She was not really drinking them LOL

Congrats guys!!!

note:  unfortunately we did not get to take many pictures.  We allowed family to be closest to them for their big day and were further away from most of the action.  If they post pics from their photographers I will edit this post and link back to them.

Friday morning I read that Taco Mac was releasing a new Terrapin beer at 5:00 PM.  As you know I am a Terrapin addict and I HAD to stop by and try this new beer.  It was actually being released for charity… and that is the only reason I was going (okay – I lied LOL).  After seeing this beer release, I made some phone calls to see who wanted to join for a quick Friday Happy Hour.  We had a nice crowd lol.  Bobby, Dan, Jason Lucas, Spencer, Paul, and Rickie all decided to meet up at Taco Mac in Cumming at 5:00. 

Once I got work I headed up to meet Dan at the Avenues in Forsyth.  He mentioned that some shorts were on sale so I ran up there to snag a pair.  We did some shopping with my dad and then headed over to get his haircut at Sport Clips.  I love that place, but he didn’t get the same vibe.  He was not a fan of the steam towel and head massage that they give you while washing your hair… he is crazy!  Anyway, after getting his mophair cut, we headed over to Taco Mac for a few beers.  Alisha was still out with Ryan and Anne so we took some time to grab a few beers and catch up.  Terrapin’s new beer was a double white and I thought that it was quite tasty!  A few of the others did not agree completely but I was very happy with it.  It is not a style that I would typically drink but it was good.  Light, different, good!

After grabbing three beers we headed back to the house to make dinner and chill.  Dan rode back with me and Spencer and Jason joined.  Bobby had a date so he did his own thing.  I (yes I not the pregnant one lol) had been craving IHOP all day… but apparently i could not get anyone else to join LOL.  Alisha decided that she was in the mood for french toast so I picked up stuff for that and we did french toast and chilled on the patio. 

We had a great dinner with great company and a few beers.  It was a great start to the weekend!

So Dan has decided to not renew his lease at the apartment that he had in Athens.  While he wants to stay so badly, he just can’t justify the monthly payment for rent any longer when he can stay at my parents house for free.  He needed to be out by Monday so we made plans to help him move some stuff out and then go out downtown to enjoy the city we love so much!

Friday night we got back to the house pretty late, but I woke up (yes I… Alisha is a little LOTsleepier than I am) at about 7:30 and took the car to Acura to get a transmission flush done.  After that, I headed over to the Sport Clips right by our house to get a quick haircut .  Alisha finally woke up while I was there so I headed back to the house to spend some time with her before we headed out to Athens.

We decided to take Envy over to my parents house before going to help Dan and while we were on the way I got a text from Jason Weber asking what we were getting into.  I told him we were heading to Athens and asked him to come along with Amber.  They decided to do so and met us at my parents house, rode with us to pick up Bobby and the 5 of us took Bobby’s truck up to Athens.  When we got there we busted our asses to move out what was left and crammed most of it into the van.  Dan and I took quick showers and headed downtown for some fun!

As always, we went to Copper Creek for dinner and our initial drinks.  I LOVE this place.  It is my absolute favorite place in Athens and my mouth just waters every time I think about it.  If you are ever in Athens you HAVE to go.  Do a search (search bar in the upper right corner of this page) on Copper Creek if you would like some more information from previous posts on this excellent brew pub.  After dinner and a few drinks at Copper Creek we headed to another bar called All Good.  It has an awesome upstairs area where it is open and they also have an excellent selection of craft beers.  We grabbed a few there before heading over to Generals (a redneck southern bar), then to the Globe, then to Trapeze (another excellent bar with a hell of a beer selection) where we wrapped up the night.

We had such a great time.  From laughing at the guy with back hair from hell (look at the above picture – it is hard to tell but this dude literally had just as much back hair all the way up his neck as he did on his bushy head LOL), to watching the guys come out of the bathroom without washing their hands (and Amber calling them out to their face lol), to just kicking back with great friends and family.  Athens just brings a smile to my face… the whole environment is just great!

I love Athens.  Period.  I wish I went to school there, but then again, I most likely would not have made it through college.  I can’t wait to go back again… hopefully we make it soon!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Publix to pick up some waffle mix as Alisha was really wanting them for breakfast.  I woke her lazy butt up when I got back and we made waffles and ate breakfast together.  They definitely hit the spot for me.  I hadn’t had waffles in forever!  Alisha then got ready and headed out with Kara to do some shopping and run some errands while I edited a picture for Mike and Aubree and played a little Playstation 3. 

Saturday night we had plans to head over to Kevin and Ashley’s pool to celebrate Matt’s birthday.  Laura picked up a keg for everyone (but me – I cant drink that beer ).  We had a nice group of people and were just hanging out.  It was a hot day but was more bareable as the evening went on.  This summer has been more than brutal already!  We will just say that as the evening progressed it was nothing short of a cluster.  Eventually everyone  kinda went their own way.  We decided to go with Mike, Aubree, Krystle, and Phil to IHOP at the outlet malls for a late night snack.  We had a great time just BS’ing and catching up which turned out to be the highlight of the evening. 

Saturday was interesting, but hell, I had a good time…

On Saturday Alisha was going with the girls to Laura’s bridal shower in Alpharetta.  Since the girls were all out doing their thing the guys got together at Matt’s pool and just hung out and drank some beer.  Matt’s brother (Will) got a keg so a few people chipped in to just drink off of that for the day.  I picked up a six pack of beer and my cooler and drank my own stuff (you know I cant drink Miller Lite ).  We hung out, talked, and had some beers, before meeting up with the girls back at Matt’s house.  It was a nice chill day in the sun. 

I am normally not one to just sit around and do nothing, but with so many people there it was actually a great time. 

Because Alisha and I were out of the house for so long, we had to leave Matt’s house early.  In addition, everyone was on Matt’s deck and they were smoking, so Alisha could not be out there.  We headed home and I gave Bobby a ring as I saw that he had texted me earlier.  I told him to come on over and we just chilled, caught up, and had a few beers until about midnight.  I tried to get ahold of Hector and Reagan but Bobby thinks that they may have been in Greenville. 

It was a great Saturday.  Hopefully we do something fun today as well!!