Reds Opening Day

I woke up at 8 o'clock on Monday April 1st. I had to be at Allison's by 9:30. I put on my pink Reds jersey over three layers of shirts because the weather man said it would be cold. I also brought a coat that I never put on. In case you weren't there, it wasn't that bad.

Stopped off at Meijer and bought 2 bags of peanuts, 1 can of Pringles, and 2 waters. When I got to Allison's it was 9:45. Apparently I was a little late because Garrett and Aaron were
already there waiting. A taxi came to pick us up at around 10:15 and deposited us at Findlay Market.

I worked at Findlay Market for a summer. I am not going to lie, it was not my favorite job. But I think I needed to work there. It was good character building. I worked at a cookie place. There I would see a whole cross section of clients. From the guys in 98 degrees to the bum trying to sell me a half drunk bottle of coke with the label torn off. Everyday was an adventure. Because I had that job I am no longer afraid of talking to people. I am still an introvert, but I have become very good at pretending I am not.

That day we were there for the annual Findlay Market Parade. It takes place every year before the Red's Opening Day Game. When we arrived we meandered around all of the different floats. My favorite part of any parade are the marching bands. Something about how the percussion section just beats against your chest. I love it. They were all warming up in the same area. It was loud and exciting.

I saw the Budweiser Clydesdales for the first time that I can remember. They are so huge. I just kept looking at them thinking, "How could a beast that big actually exist?" They are all muscle too. I managed to resist the urge to hop on one and ride away. I know I wouldn't have gotten far, but it would have made for an awesome story.

We got on the Findlay Market float, which was the flat bed of a semi truck. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. I know we were probably not the coolest part of the parade. But still, I got to ride to the Reds game in style. I waved dramatically and sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game as loud as I could to my hearts content. It was so much fun!

I am not going to say I have always been a Reds fan. I haven't always been a baseball fan, honestly. I played softball as a kid, and that was okay. But it wasn't until recently that I would drop everything to go to a game. It is mostly thanks to a girl I shared a cubical with at P&G and Allison. Allison would get free tickets from her work, and I would constantly get Reds updates when I would walk to my desk. It was pretty unavoidable.

Before the game we literally ran into Laura Burke. That seems to be the only way I see her. By literally running her over. It must be because she is so short. We hung out with her family in a parking lot while listening to a pretty good band and eating hot dogs. I made Allison and Laura get up and dance with me to try and win some tickets for Opening Night. Apparently our moves were just not sweet enough.


We may have lost the game that day, but I had a ball. Our seats were in the nose bleeds, but you could still see everything. In my opinion there really isn't a bad seat at Great American Ball Park. The sun was shining, my friends and family were with me, and I was watching baseball. The only way that day could have been better is if Joey Votto came up and gave me a hug. It also could have been better if we had won. Joey Votto giving me a hug though would definitely trump that.


That day was full of a lot of firsts. The firsts that day really didn't matter to me. What mattered to me the most was that I was having fun with my friends.

Barnyard Honey

I have been reading a great amount of Sherlock Holmes novels lately. Not the original canon, but spinoffs done by other authors. Right now I am on Laurie R Kings The God of the Hive. Anyways many spinoff writers like to focus on Sherlock's love of bees. Which is great and everything except it leaves me craving honey.

I remember a couple of years ago there was an event at Jungle Jims that involved a huge display of honey. In this display there were mason jars full of honey with a honeycomb inside on sale. I wanted to buy one, but I convinced myself that it was too expensive and I didn't need it. Stupid reasonable me. I've dreamt about what that honey would taste like. If I could travel back in time I would ride a dinosaur. If I had enough time after that I would go back to that point, smack myself in the head and put the honey in my cart.

So for a while I was craving honey pretty badly. Not just regular clove honey. I wanted the honey they described in the books I was reading. The honey from wild flowers. With this thought in mind I stopped off at the honey section in Meijer. There they had a wide variety of different kinds of clove honey. They only had one that wasn't clove. It is called Dutch Gold Buckwheat honey. This is a very brown honey. When I bought it I just thought the bottle was brown. Oh no, the honey itself is brown.

I was so excited to try it when I got home. Allison and Garrett were coming over for a little dinner party. I thought it would be a fun thing to try then. Boy, was I wrong.

Allison said it perfectly when she said, "It tastes like how a farm smells." For a while I tried to fool myself into thinking it tasted good. I had three servings of it. It didn't work though. This honey tastes and smells like a barnyard. There is no escaping it.

So my need for honey went unfilled until I went to Findlay Market with of all people, Allison. There is a booth there called Bee Haven Honey, which come on that name is just too darling for words. Bee Haven is a locally owned honey company. They have a small stall at Findlay. When I stumbled across it I was super excited. Let's just say Allison was a little less enthused about foraying into obscure honey tastes.

Bee Haven does have a Buckwheat honey which we were both sure to avoid. We got to sample the three different types of honey they had. I ended up with a huge smile on my face and a 1 pound jar of wild flower honey. It is good. The taste difference from clove honey is very subtle. The only way you can really tell the difference is if you eat them both at the same time. I have noticed this one easier to spread than most honey. Either way I am happy with my purchase. It is a local honey, made with local bees, in one of my favorite places to shop.

Notice the two pictures I have posted. Honey number one is sitting out in the open. A polite reminder that not all things different are good. Honey number two is in my pantry. A polite reminder to eat it with anything and everything because it is so dang good.