March 31st weekend - some travel for Charlie

After our weekend in Boston, I had the week off and Katie got Monday and Tuesday off as well.  We got back from Boston Monday at around 4PM and picked up our buddy Griffey.  Griffey had a fun weekend, too, getting to play with his friends Bengie and Dallas at "Aunt Patty's" (my co-worker).  We hung out around the house on Tuesday, spending some QT with our dog.

I had a bachelor party the next weekend, so on Thursday I got up early for a flight back to Cincinnati to stay for a day with his family.  My mom picked him up from the Dayton airport, and we met sister Abby at the Cassano's pizza near the hospital she was working at.  Cassano's is a Dayton pizza chain with salty crust and pizza cut in squares - something the New Jersey folk seem to frown upon.  Back in Cincy, Grumpa (grandfather) came over for a game of cards and some dinner at Mitchell's Fish Market.  We happened to run into my friend Jason's mom there, who I hadn't seen since our wedding nearly 4 years ago.  It was good to see family and friends even for a short while!

On Friday the bachelor party crew picked me up from home and me made the 7-hour drive (that should have only been 5 hours) down to Gatlinburg, TN.  We got stuck in traffic about 45 miles north of Gatlinburg, and, with no bathroom in site, me and another passenger had to make the decision to run out to the woods.  Of course, that's when traffic started picking up a little bit, so catching up turned into the longest run I've had in quite a while!

All told, there were 11 of my buddy Travis's friends.  We had 3 doctors and 2 dentists in the group, so we were good to go if anybody got hurt!  We rented a cabin up on the hill and and went to the touristy part of Gatlinburg Saturday night.  We watched some basketball, which involved some local favorites as the Buckeyes lost and Kentucky won.  But the most interesting part of the trip was paintball on Saturday afternoon.  I had never played before, but it was a lot of fun - and tiring!!!  You wear headgear that looks kind of like a dumbed down Darth Vader mask (I bet Vader's helmet doesn't fog up as much, though).  It's a workout, and getting shot sure can hurt!

After the Gatlinburg trip, I flew to Chicago for work for a couple of days.  I met up with my friend Kris Monday night and hung out watching the (fairly boring) National title game which Kentucky kind of walked away with.  Kris' wife Tina is pregnant, too - abut a month ahead of Katie. So it was good to compare notes.  Tuesday night, I crawled back to the airport and finally got home around 1 AM.  It was  alot of fun, but I sure was happy to get home to see Katie and Griffey!