A Peek at Life as a Natic

This weekend we made plans to head up to a new pub in Cumming called the Firkin and Crown.  It was a hit for sure.  We had made reservations (after some drama) for 11 people and planned to meet there at 8:00.  Dan didn’t initially plan on going but last minute decided to tag along as well as he was really looking forward to going there soon.  He met at my house as did Bobby, Jen, and Spence had a few beers, and then headed out as planned.  When we got there it was pretty damn packed.  Seems like it has been a hit since it opened.

We sat down and everyone else got there fairly shortly after.  Alisha and I ordered some cajun seasoned chips that were insane!  They were so delicious!  Bobby and Jen ordered these waffle fries covered in cheese and bacon – HOLY CRAP they were good.  We were so impressed with the food thus far and it did not end there.  Alisha got a Reuben which was excellent and I got a mac and cheese with ham that was also excellent!  The beer was a little to domestic and typical for me.  Yeah they had Guinness, and Smithwicks, etc. but nothing you cant get at a decent bar.  I was really looking forward to something different and unique.  I stuck with Boddingtons the whole night which was not my preference in beers.  All in all, this place was excellent!  The food was perfect, the atmosphere was awesome, and everyone had a great time together!  We will definitely be back there again in the future.

If you have not been there yet – and most likely you haven’t, you need to go!

I had seen a few times from Facebook and some professional photo websites where people take a photo, convert it to black and white, and then bring the color through to certain parts of the photo.  I have always thought that this looked so cool, but had no clue how to do it.  Well I took some time this week to figure it out.  Here is a picture that we took in Decatur when we went to the brick store that was originally a color picture.  I converted it to black and white and then brought the color of Kevin and Dan’s UGA emblem and lettering back through the black and white conversion.  This makes for some cool pictures.  Below is a pic of Spence’s eye ball tattoo that I did the same with. 

Whatcha think?

This weekend has been one of the best ever!  We have stayed so busy it is crazy.  On Saturday night Kevin said that we should play golf so Bobby and I agreed and made plans to play on Sunday morning.  We left their house at about 1:00 am and woke up at about 8:00 am to head up to Kevin’s to play at Hampton.  We froze our ASSES off.  Holy crap was it cold!!!!!  It was cold and windy but we still had a great time. 

After playing golf we met Alisha and Ash at Kevin’s house as they returned from their shopping spree and headed out to Edwin and Geni’s house to celebrate Reagan’s 30th birthday.  Her birthday was on Saturday but they had made dinner plans and we did not get to see them. 

This was a great wrap-up to an awesome weekend.  I wish every weekend was this good.

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our weekend with the boys at pictures.neilnatic.com  or here.

There is a video in the post below the comment about the Beverly.  Be sure to be patient while it loads.

Sunday was the final day that we were with my brothers and we planned to go out to eat for lunch (since Zach and AJ sleep so late) and then head over to Edwin and Geni’s for dinner / the Super Bowl.

In the morning I skated out to meet Alisha’s dad up at there house to go to a guys house that brews beers.  Paul had been there the day before and wanted me to see there setup, taste their beers, and meet a few of the guys that go over there frequently.  They had an amazing setup including full three tiered brewing rigs, kegorators, etc.  The whole works really.  It was pretty cool to see.  They were actually brewing that morning as well. 

When I got back to my parents house we had the kids get ready and all went out to Wild Wing for lunch.  We all (but one) had a good lunch and then thought about what to do before going to Edwin and Geni’s  house for the big game.  We thought about going to a driving range and I just didn’t think that Chris would enjoy it so we decided to head down to the Coke factory in downtown Atlanta as none of them had been to the new one.

The Coke factory was really cool.  The movies that they have are great especially the one at the beginning.  I love that one.  The boys loved trying out all of the different sodas from around the world… especially the Beverly :crackup:

After the Coke factory we stopped to get a quick coffee in Centennial Olympic Park and then headed back to the car to head to Edwin and Geni’s house.  There we got together with everyone to watch the Super Bowl and eat Geni’s famous lazy rice!  mmmmmmmm a casserole type dish with white rice and chicken then layered with cheese… I want some right now!  The game was excellent as everyone should know by now and we had a blast hanging out with everyone.

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

I have been wanting to throw a party poking fun at our favorite religion for quite some time.  We decided that we would order 15 yarmulkes (pronounced yamakas), a bunch of dradels, chocolate coins, Hannukah decorations, dradel plates, cups, napkins, potato latkas, matzo ball soup, and He’Brew beer.  It was a total blast!!!  Everyone loved the decorations and the food and had a great time.  Thanks for coming out!

Be sure to take a peek at the pictures to get an idea of the party.

Danny drove in from Chicago on Saturday and was looking forward to hanging out.  I called up Dan and had him join as well.  Danny, Bobby, Jen met me and Alisha over at our house before heading to Taco Mac.  We chilled for a few minutes and then headed out.

We got to Taco Mac and had a great time.  We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed for hours with a few drinks mixed in as well.  We had a great time and were all hoping that Hector and Reagan would be able to meet up with us.  They were tied up at Reagan’s Christmas party.

The night got a little older and the Cowboys game ended (and they LOST!!! ) at about 11:30 or so we decided to call it a night and headed back to our house in hopes that Hector could still make it.  Unfortunately they never did, but we all still had a great time.  Hopefully we will meet up with them today.  If not, we will definitely see them before Wednesday as they are heading to FL for Christmas.

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!

This week we purchased a new bedroom set from Broyhill Furniture in Alpharetta.  We are not sure what their deal as they are having a sale that says everything must go and that they lost their ATL warehouse, but they claim that they are not closing.. maybe the employees are just that … clueless.  Either way we searched around at every furniture store that we could think of and have not been able to find a set that compares to the one that we saw there.  After looking around for a week, we decided to say screw it and picked it up.  We bought a King bed, dresser, chest, and 2 night stands all of which gets delivered on Saturday the 15th. 

While we were out on Saturday we purchased the mattress for the set.  We found one that we liked for about $1,550 at one store.  We went back and forth between two beds and eventually the sales guy tried to aggressively close a sale at $1,158 including delivery.  I told him that I wanted to think about it.  He told me that I had to come back today in order to get that price.  I went home and found that mattresses are called different names in different retail stores so price matching was nearly impossible.  I called a competetor and told them what i was looking for and they had me come in to check out the different models.  When i got there they had the same mattress but it was $1,799.  I told them that i could get the same one for $1,158 across the street and they called their manager to see if they could match the price (which ALL mattress stores do… they are like car salesmen )  While they were doing that she had us lie on an upgread to the one we were looking at to see what we thought.  Of course it was a TON better but was priced at $2,000!  When the lady came back she said if I give you the $2,000 bed for the 1158 will you buy it right now.  I said yep and it was a done deal!  The one we got was a Simmons Beautyrest World Class Line.  I cannot wait to sleep on this thing.  It is SOOOO much better than the one we have now.

After shopping during the day, we called everyone up and invited them to come over to have some food and beers.  Dan, Kevin, Ash, Jason, Amber, Matt, Laura, Bobby and Jen all came over and we just chilled and had a great time!

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Oktoberfest and S’mores with the Raygor’s at pictures.neilnatic.com  or here.

 Saturday was Edwin’s annual corporate Oktoberfest!  We had been looking forward to this for quite some time now and is always a great way to start the great fall weather.  Courtney was in town for the weekend and we took her along with us so that we could spend time with her before she headed back to Mobile AL.

We had a great time eating, hangin out with friends and family, jumping in the bounce house, and of course watching the UGA vs TN game.

After the Oktoberfest, we headed to the house to pick up Envy and headed over to Alisha’s parents house to hang out and roast marshmellows and make s’mores in their backyard fire pit.  When we got there, we realized that Jason and his family and Stu and his family were there as well.  We all had a great time just relaxing, eating, and talking.

It was a busy day but we had a great 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 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!

Today was the day that I had planned to go get my beer brewing kit with the guys.  We had plans to get up and head to IHOP for breakfast, go buy a beer kit, hit the driving range, grab some beers, and then meet up with the ladies to hang out.

This morning I got up and got ready to meet up with Hector, Bobby, and Mike at the IHOP on exit 14.  After a great breakfast we grabbed out clubs and headed out to Beer Necessities to look into picking up a beer brewing kit so that I can give homebrewing a shot.  This took a good amount of time while we looked through the options that they had and had them get the ingredients.  After buying the whole kit, we then thought about how the hell we were going to fit it in the TL with the four guys and a full trunk from golf clubs.  :crackup:

After getting the beer kit, we headed over to a golf club in Alpharetta only to find out that they were private.  They directed us to another golf course that was not and that would allow us in with our very casual clothes.  After arriving there we loaded up on a golf cart and headed to the range.  It was windy as hell out there!  After blowing through the 2.5 full buckets I hit, i believe that i figured out what I may be doing wrong.  Lets hope that is the case.  I would really like to get out to one more range session before I hit another course again, but I am definitely feeling better than I did in the past. 

After wearing ourselves out at the range, we headed over to the Taco Mac on 141 so that Hector can get his Thomas Creek beer that he was craving.  After a shit-ton of cheese dip and a few beers we headed out to meet up with the ladies.

Alisha’s day involved some running around with Kara as well as good amount of fun.  In the morning they went to Old Navy to get some shopping done before taking Danielle to a friend’s birthday party on the lake.  Since they were in the Gainesville area they stopped by Wild Wing for lunch and then went to a Putt Putt gold course for Paul.  Alisha then headed back to the house so that I could meet up with her for the rest of the evening.

Bobby, Jen, Hector, and Reagan came back over to our place to chill for a little while before we took the ladies out for dinner.  Hector had recommended that we grab some sushi at a relatively new Sushi restarant right on hwy 20 called Kaya.  What a great choice that was!  the atmosphere was excellent and the food was even better!  They actually give you stainless steel chopsticks which I found quite amusing!  The Super Crunch Rolls – AMAZING!  They were freaking delicious!  I was absolutely stuffed and could not stop eating them.  Even Bobby, who doesn’t eat sushi, loved them!

The day was jam packed and was a bunch of fun!  We are looking forward to a relaxing and enjoyable Sunday with my parents tomorrow.