Life

Long day traveling today. Henry and I left Columbus at 10:00 this morning and drove to Cleveland to pick up Sarah. Then we all proceeded on to Pittsford, where Sarah grew up, near Rochester, N.Y. I got to take a little nap on the way. Henry was great, his potty training has kicked into full gear and he hasn't had an accident since Monday. He always tells us when he has to go and we stopped twice today to let him pee in the grass. For some reason, he's reluctant to go in a public restroom and today was one of the first times he went standing up. He liked it and peed about 6 feet. I guess you have that pressure when you're young.

This will probably be my last post for a week. Buck Lake is in the middle of nowhere and we won't have internet service. So check back next week for some great photos of our trip.

Foie Gras

I'm not a big fan but then I've never tried it. I've also never tried snails or sweetbread but don't mind oysters or mussels. The reason I bring it up though is because Chicago's City Council recently banned foie gras from city restaurants. I'll save my rant against big government for another day but this is ridiculous. I hate when politicians go off and do stupid things and this is exhibit number 1 in my book. They supposedly did it because ducks are treated inhumane while being overfed to make their livers larger. I'm sure ducks worldwide are quacking their approval.

I love Chicago, it has many great things. What it doesn't have is very many councilman who have some common sense. I suspect there are more pressing issues in this city.

How I arrived in Columbus.

I left Congressman Regula's office in 1993 and joined East Ohio Gas in Cleveland as a Municipal Affairs Rep. I was responsible for dealing with local governments in Ashtabula, Lake and western Cuyahoga County. In 1994, the Republicans not only gained the majority in the U.S. House but did the same in the Ohio House. The East Ohio Gas lobbyist subsequently decided to go out on his own and I told my bosses that I would like to be the new guy in Columbus. I'm not sure they thought I was ready but they sent me down on a trial basis and here I am.

I actually left Cleveland the same day they told me I would be starting my new job. I went home, grabbed some suits and drove to Columbus. It seems to me that I might have attended Voinovich's Inaugural Ball my first day here.

I would end up living at the Athletic Club, a 1/2 block from my office, for a year. The company had a suite there and I essentially lived there, going back to my home in Mentor every couple of weeks. I had just purchased my house six months prior to going to Columbus and I would continue to own it for the year I was on "probation". Bob Paduchik, a friend who I had met in politics and who had run Mike DeWine's Cleveland campaign for U.S. Senate, moved to Cleveland almost the exact time I went to Columbus and I ended up renting him my house for $100 a month. For me, it was nice to have someone there keeping an eye on it.

This was the view from my window at the Sheraton, with Lake Michigan in the background. I ended up going on my trip but still don't feel 100 percent. We ate at Topolobampo for lunch, a 4**** Mexican joint whose owner I watch on a food show (Rick Bayless). It was okay but I wouldn't go back. I did see Rick though.

Then a few of us went to the King Tut exhibit. It was cool but I don't know if it was worth $25. Yes I'm cheap.

After a nap, we had a big dinner at Custom House, the highlight of the short trip. An old friend went to high school with the chef and he was recently named Midwest Chef of the Year by James Beard. Everyone agreed it was fabulous and we eat at some nice restaurants. It was a 3 1/2 hour dinner and afterwards a few of us went to an Irish bar next to the Sheraton. I made it until 12:30 and felt really good.

Today went well but now I'm thinking I may have to get my tonsils out. I hope not because we are leaving for Canada on Friday and hope to be gone all next week.

Today I woke up with a 102 degree temperature so no trip to Chicago. I'm hoping to get on the 8:00 a.m. flight tomorrow but will wait and see how I feel. I can't believe that with a million cable channels I can't find one thing worth watching. Although my three naps today didn't leave time for all that much tv.

Heading to Chicago in the morning for another conference. Although I have some work to do up there, I hope to go to the King Tut exhibit at some point. I'll be back Wednesday. Hopefully, with photos.

Part VI

We found a decent hotel in Munich and went sightseeing. We went out to Olympic Stadium and walked around downtown a bit. I honestly can’t remember too much of our time in Munich. I know that evening we visited the Hofbrau House and the Lowenbrau beer hall. We took a cab outside the city and something was definitely lost in translation when the cabdriver dumped us outside what turned out to be a brothel. We walk in this place and everywhere you look are girls sitting around in their lingerie. Now we’re not the smartest guys in the world but it didn’t take us long to understand that we weren’t in a bar. So we got out of there pretty fast. Other than that “excitement”, nothing really memorable happened.

The next day we took the train to Memingham, which had a joint U.S./Germany air force base. One of Horner’s buddies (Jack) was stationed there and we thought we would spend a night there. We arrived, went to the local store for beer, and consumed some of the best I’ve ever had. Germany is heaven for beer lovers and we enjoyed it. Later at the bar on base, you could buy a German beer for 50 cents or an American one for a buck. Easy choice there. I think we went to some dance club later and ended up sleeping on Jack’s floor.

We were on to Zurich Switzerland, the end of our 16 day journey. We holed up in some little hotel and went sightseeing. Zurich is not that large but it’s nice. We were all pretty worn out from the trip and the partying and also broke so we decided to play it low-key that last night and be good. Well, one thing led to another which led to us sitting in some bar throwing all the loose change onto the middle of the table to see how many beers we could buy. We all came home with a souvenir glass from that evening, at least those of us who didn’t throw theirs out the window on the way up to our room. I ended up getting locked inside a room I was sharing with Shepherd and George ended up getting some stuff stolen out of his room while he slept. Our low-key night turned into a familiar one but it was time to go home. Our flight home was uneventful and the trip of a lifetime was over.

Henry turns 3 on September 5. At that time, he'll be ready to move up to the next class at daycare. But first he must be potty-trained. He's never been afraid of the potty but he's never been very interested in going on it. But today he had his first successful day. He wore underwear all day at school and didn't have an accident. Then tonight he pooped on his potty at home, a first. Needless to say, we are happy. I didn't take a photo though, sorry.

Does anyone really believe this idiot in Thailand killed Jon Benet? Seems to me he is just looking to link himself to a murder that he is obviously obsessed with. Regardless, the guy needs to suffer some serious pain for either murder or subjecting this family to more pain. I bet the Thai authorities could help us out with that. I wish they would just leave him over there until the DNA test is complete.

The Diversity Council at my company had some contest about childhood memories that I entered. I was driving from Toledo to Cleveland so had some time to kill and jotted down the following. Alas, I did not win the contest...

catching lightening bugs, ice cream after little league games, running through the sprinkler, cheap seats at Municipal Stadium, stepping on a bumblebee, sound of the ice cream truck, summer camp, fishing with dad, swimming in a lake, making a tent with a blanket and the clothesline, schools out.

Just my luck. I spoke to some people this morning who were still in Nashville last night and guess who was at Tootsies last night? Pam Anderson and Kid Rock. A bunch of my friends happened to be in there which means I likely would have too. The chances of that are so bizarre, this place holds about 50 people total.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock said "I do" at a fabled Nashville honky-tonk in the early hours of Thursday morning.
A Nashville judge performed the ceremony - one of several around the world - just after midnight at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, said Kirt Webster, The bride and groom both wore white - hers a minidress and his a tank top. Kid Rock, who owns a condo in Nashville, later took the stage at Tootsie's and sang Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and Hank Williams Jr.'s "Family Tradition," Webster said.

Here are some photos of the Gaylord Opryland Resort where the conference was. I didn't stay here this time but it's pretty amazing. 9 acres under roof with a river and 44 foot waterfall. 7 restaurants and a food court and probably 5 bars. It's pretty incredible, maybe moreso than the grand resorts in Vegas. Hope these photos give you an idea how large it is.

While in Nashville, I hung out at the world famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge downtown. It is the definition of "dive bar" as this photo shows. I got the image off the internet so no, I wasn't hanging out with these people. Tootsies is a true honky-tonk bar and it was fun listening to the live music.

I'm back from Nashville. It was a fun trip and we had a great dinner last night at a steakhouse called The Stockyard. I would definitely go back. And most importantly, I was a good boy on the trip.

I've decided to quit drinking as much. I made the decision last week after PIB. I'm too old and can't recover so I'll just enjoy a few beers from now on out. I've probably started down this path before but believe this time it will take. Saturday night all my buddies were over and I didn't even have one beer. And then I was on my best behavior in Nashville.

Lobbying and drinking go hand in hand. We are surrounded by it and its just part of our businesss. I'm just going to manage it better. So there.

I saw Little Richard yesterday in our hotel and said hello. He doesn't look as well as he does in this photo but he answered with a strong "how you doing?". Tutti Frutti and Good Golly Miss Molly to you.

Nashville is hot. I just walked up to the Museum to see a Treasure of Egypt exhibit and almost died. Then I found out its $17 to get in so I walked to the library instead. I'll be in Chicago next week for CSG and they are having a huge King Tut exhibit so I'll spend my money there. I'm returning to Ohio tomorrow morning after a big dinner tonight with some legislators. I'll miss Ohio Night but can't stand to be away from Sarah and Henry another night. NCSL is a nice conference and the Gaylord Opryland is pretty incredible. It's entirely enclosed and has huge rooms with rivers and forests and walks through shopping areas. I'll post some photos when I return.

I love public libraries and the free access to the internet. I can see the Tennessee Capitol Building from my station and think I'll walk up there since this shirt is already wet. I collect visits to Capitol Buildings so I better get this one while I'm here. So far I've been to:

Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Connecticut
Louisiana
Utah
South Carolina
U.S.
Saskatchewan

The gang at PIB at the Roundhouse. Everyone was having fun.

Sarah suggested I post a photo of my dinner tonight on the blog. She is very supportive so of course I will honor her request. Chicken on the grill with some Asian BBQ sauce from Wegmans, corn from the guy on the corner of Old 161 and Hamilton Road, grilled on the grill (first time I have ever done that and I loved it) and the peppers are from my little garden in my backyard.

All in all a fantastic meal. I'm heading to Nashville tomorrow morning so no new posts until Wednesday night.

Here is Henry driving Rep. Beatty's boat at Put-in-Bay. I'm probably not allowed to post any of the other photos. PIB can be way too much fun but there's not a lot to do up there except visit bars. It's still beautiful though.

My Grandmother passed away on Thursday. She was 93 years old and a special lady. Here is her obit:

Thelma E. Cassler
Click on an image for larger version.
Born: November 25, 1912
Died: August 10, 2006
Services:Funeral services will be held Saturday at 11:00 A.M. at the Paquelet Funeral Home in Massillon.
Visitation:Friends may call Saturday from 9:00 A.M. until the time of the services.
Thelma E. Cassler, age 93 of Massillon, passed away Thursday August 10, 2006 at the Windsor Medical Center. Thelma was born November 25, 1912 to the late Edward and Lena (Rich) Biery. She retired from Doctor's Hospital and was a member of the Richville United Church of Christ. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by her husband, Ray A. Cassler in 1965; daughter, Cora Briggs in 2005, a great grandson, Colin Smith in 2002 and a sister, Ruth Smith in 2004.She will be sadly missed by her son and three daughters: Richard (Wanda) Cassler of North Canton; Barbara (Dave) Smith of Green, Shirley (Jim) Crawford of California, and Sally (John) Higgins of Massillon; and 15 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren. Funeral services will be 11 AM Saturday at the Paquelet Funeral Home, 1100 Wales Rd. N. E., Massillon. Burial will be at Union Lawn Cemetery in Navarre. Friends may call Saturday from 9 AM until the service at the funeral home. Contributions may be made to the Richville United Church of Christ, 6125 Richville Dr. S.W., Navarre, OH 44662.

We are heading to Put-in-Bay for two nights on Wednesday. Tomorrow night there is a fundraiser on Kelley's Island and Thursday night there is one at noon for Sarah's boss and the big annual Redfern event that evening. I'm going to take my camera so there should be some good shots on the site starting Friday.

Things I have no patience for: My neighbor has been parking in front of my house lately. We don't have big lots where I live, too pricey in New Albany I guess, but we have enough room for a couple cars out front. Yet my neighbor chooses to park in front of my house instead of his own for some reason. This causes a problem on the weekend especially because if I also park in front of my house then I have to block my mailbox. And the kicker is this. He only has two cars. He has a full garage like everyone else and a perfectly fine driveway. The Briggs family has three cars and 1/2 our garage is jammed full of stuff like bikes, wagon, etc.

I guess I should ask him to park in front of his house. But I don't know why I have to get myself in this awkward conversation for something I'm not responsible for. I'm thinking about just parking in front of his house. I think he'll get the picture then.

Part V

We arrived in Nice early in the morning and walked around looking for a hotel. We probably weren’t too much over or under budget at this point, we had spent zero in Figueres and had caught some trains at night which had saved on hotels. So we ended up staying at the nicest place we would the whole trip: The Ambassador Hotel, only a block off the beach. Current reviews are pretty poor but it was nice in 1992 and the location was great. I won’t get into any names but us Massillon boys don’t see too many bidets in Tigertown and our rooms had them at the Ambassador. One of the guys didn’t know what it was and ended using it as toilet. That’s about the furthest I’ll go here, ask me for specifics sometime and I’ll share.

We hit the beach after check-in. Nice has a great beach for everything except the actual beach. There is no sand; it’s all flat rocks that people just lay on. But it is topless, so you have that going for you. We enjoyed the sites and sounds and BG actually met a girl who was a flight attendant for Air Canada and she agreed to go out to dinner with us. She joined us for dinner in Nice then went over on the train with us to Monte Carlo. We had all brought along some “nice” clothes for the casino. They have at least two casinos in Monaco, the famous Monte Carlo Casino and the one we went to. Which was fine for us, they had all the games we wanted. I remember that the minimum bet was around $25 and that was a lot for us then (see my story below about New Orleans to see how things change) but we played a little blackjack. Shep sat down at some horse racing game I believe and ended up winning a bunch of money but not knowing it because it was in whatever currency they have in Monaco. At the end of the evening when we were anxious to leave, he bet crazy and lost it all. Seems to me he had around $300 or so before losing it. BG’s girl was nice, she actually took a bit of a liking to Horner but Mike didn’t take advantage. There is a code, you know.

Somehow we got separated when we got back to Nice and Horner and I were together. We found out they had a casino near our hotel and went in there and I sat down to play blackjack. Now in Europe you can actually stand behind someone and bet on his hand. Maybe I wasn’t playing well or maybe the guy behind me just didn’t like my luck but he was yelling at me for doing different things wrong in his opinion. I felt like punching him; I wasn’t forcing him to bet on my hand.

The next morning BG had a hilarious story. He took this girl down to the beach and was apparently trying to kiss her. She pushed him away and said something to the effect of “Why are you so threatening to me? Why can’t you be more like your friends?”. Of course, he exploded at the thought that we would have been any different.

We may have hit the beach again the next day but I know we walked around old town for a bit. We were ready to move on. We had a big discussion about where we were going to go, to Italy or Germany and ended up deciding to head to Munich.

Ah, the fair. Where there are welcome sights and sounds and unwelcome ones. The fair is really about fried food, let's face it. It's a 12-day celebration of cheese on a stick, smoked turkey drums and fried elephant ears. I love it but can't imagine how every one of the vendors is making money with so much duplication.

Those shaken lemonades get me every year although Henry drank most of my drink. I had a coney dog and a corndog; Henry stuck with a regular hotdog and fry.

We only went on one ride, the merry-go-round. H still won't sit on a horse for some reason, we have to sit on the bench like old people.

We saw the steer, lambs and roosters. There was also a petting zoo that had a lot of unusual animals. It was fun and Henry was asleep before we got on I-71.

I don't have a lot of time to write anything because Sarah is out of town and I am watching Henry all weekend. And he's a handful. We are going to the Ohio State Fair this morning and probably the zoo tomorrow because there is a new exhibit that we haven't seen. Here I am in 2002 with my new boat and new SUV. This was taken on the maiden voyage of the Eye of the Tiger. I sold it last year but wasn't too sad. I never really used it much-Central Ohio is no boater's paradise. It is a beautiful boat though, a 22+ feet Bryant.

Part IV

Montse picked us up at the train station and took us to her hotel, the Hotel Figueres Parc. http://www.hotelfigueresparc.com/ It’s a small hotel but it was nice, a bit outside the town. We were all starting to feel better by this point and they offered us drinks when we arrived so who could turn that down? We noticed that there was a big white tent set up out by the pool and there were a lot of preparations going on but that didn’t seem so unusual for a hotel. What was unusual was that it was all for us.

They had prepared this big party in our honor and invited many of the couples from the cruise. There were probably 20 people that came over for what I have always called “the feast”. Now, we were all 26 year old kids and very unimportant in the grand scheme of things but these new friends had gone way out of their way to welcome us. The hotel chef was manning the grill and the party began with drinks (of course) and appetizers of seafood. I remember this octopus sitting on a big plate and people would just come up and cut a big chunk of tentacle off it. That was about the only thing that I didn’t eat. The rest of the dinner was first class, steak, lobster, sausage, shrimp, etc. We found out later that lobster is very expensive in Spain and that people normally only had it during Christmas and on very special occasions. We all had a great time and the feeling was “I can’t believe they did all this for us”. We often had a difficult time talking to our new friends but I did my best to translate for everyone and Shep remembered a little bit of Spanish and Horner swore he could speak it when he had a few cocktails in him. Our friends spoke Catalan, which is a dialect of Spanish but different then what I learned while in Madrid. Besides the beer, they were pouring wine for us and they had this glass container with a thin spout on it that they would pour wine into our mouths with. It was almost like a glass bota bag and it was fun. They also made us drink whiskey and coffee but none of us enjoyed that. But we did it.

We relaxed after dinner but things were just getting started. They wanted to take us out on the town and we all piled in a bunch of cars. I had one of the crazy husbands and he drove like a maniac. I was pretty sure that my life would end in Figueres but that was okay. When we got down to this little bar someplace by the ocean, the Mayor of the town was there and he presented each of us with t-shirts from the city. I still have mine somewhere, I need to find it. They read “Terra, Mar I Pau” which loosely translates to Earth, Sea and Peace. I think. We all put them on and drank some more beer. They had something neat there and we would see it again on our travels. Meters of beer came in a long wooden tray and there were 9 draft beers on it. Which was perfect for us, we would each grab one and split the 3 remaining. Our amigos wouldn’t let us pay for anything.

Next up was a nightclub. They had a pool inside it and we all got separated. There might have been some dancing; I know there was some drinking. They gave you a card when you came in and you put all your drinks on it and paid for them when you left. Pretty neat but our friends wouldn’t let us spend a dime. Or peseta in this case. We left for the next place, two guys shy of six. We didn’t know where they were but we were on to another bar, this time more of a neighborhood place as opposed to a disco. I did my best to dance flamenco or whatever it was with one of Montse’s friends but that probably wasn’t the prettiest sight. George’s neck almost snapped off when he passed out/fell asleep in the bar. I still can’t believe a neck can go 90 degrees like that. At some point, it was time to call it a night and they drove us to a hotel in the city. I understood it to be Montse’s dad’s hotel and the four of us shared two rooms. They wouldn’t even let us pay for our hotel room!

The next day, Montse came and picked us up and took us back to the Hotel Figueres Parc. The two guys who went missing from the night before were there, they had slept outside near the pool. To this day I can’t believe they found their way back. We lounged around the pool before getting into the cars for a trip into town for lunch. Flora, one of the other ladies, apparently owned this restaurant and she led us back to the back patio where they had another big table set up. It was certainly not as big a party as the night before but she pulled out all stops. The food kept coming and we stuffed ourselves. But no drinks. What’s a guy to do? I told them we hadn’t tried Sangria yet so they started to bring out pitchers of it. And pitchers. Later I made the mistake of saying that this was better than the stuff we had in Barcelona and we were busted. Of course, they wouldn’t let us pay for anything. We had a blast and eventually walked down near the Dali Museum and got our photo taken in a plaza. Did we stop in a bar down there?

It was time for us to head to Nice. Figueres was a blast and we were treated like royalty there. Montse drove us back to the train station and I remember the Chris Cross song “Jump” coming on the radio. It was popular a few years before the trip and it was mostly him rapping and people dancing to it would jump and jump. But this version went like this “Chris Cross dice levanta levanta” instead of Chris Cross says jump jump. So we had to jump out of Montse’s car and jump. She wasn’t happy but what’s a few guys to do when they have had a couple pitchers of Sangria?

We had to wait an hour for our train to Nice. Someone broke out a bottle of vodka and we found some mix somewhere. Problem was we didn’t have near enough mix so in the end we were sitting there drinking straight vodka. It’s a wonder we even found the train. French Riviera, here we come.

I went to see Animal House last night at the Ohio Theatre. It was part of the summer movie series and it was fun because they tried to do it the way they did in the old days. They had an organ player tapping out some tunes and he introduced the movie, which was preceded by a short cartoon. After an hour of Animal House, they had a 15 minute intermission before showing the last half. All for $3.50.

Let's face it, Animal House is a classic, maybe the best comedy ever made. I learned last night that Donald Sutherland took an upfront payment of $40,000 for his role because he didn't think the movie would be a success. Had he taken a gross percentage, he would have earned between $30-$40 million. Oops. Anyway, if you are in Columbus, go down to the Ohio Theatre and catch this flick tonight or Friday night. It's worth it.

Here I am in 9th grade, circa 1980, preparing to go to a dance. Lisa Berens is the girl with me, she doesn't look too thrilled to be stepping out with me. Who can blame her with me wearing that suit? Gotta love the ruffles though...