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Welcome to the Schenkenfelder Home Page!

This is the home page for Brian and Jenny Schenkenfelder. Here you can read about the trials and tribulations of our family. So if you want to know what we are up to then this is the place.

January 2009

Jan.27-30: Ice Storm of 2009 A storm people will remember for a long time coming. Western and Central Kentucky were drilled with a torrential ice storm. Several inches of freezing rain, ice and sleet coated everything. We were unable to get out of our house for 3 days. Thankfully we never lost power. Our family and friends in Frankfort and Louisville and Western KY were not so lucky. Jenny's mom and dad both lost power in Frankfort for 3 days. Forcing them into her grandmother's and sister's houses until it was restored. Brian's parents and several friends in Louisville all were without for several days as well. The worst news came out of Western Ky where high tension power lines were toppling over and tree limbs were slicing and dicing their way through electric lines. Thankfully all of our family was safe, albeit not in their own homes. All told 700,000 Kentuckians were without power and the storm was dubbed the state's largest-ever natural disaster. Time news article

Jan.16-18: Gatlinburg trip. For Brian's birthday, we went down to Gatlinburg with his parents. Stayed at Zoder's Inn, a Best Western right as you come into downtown Gatlinburg. Great little motel that straddles a creek and has an indoor pool and spa. They even had a talking parrot in the lobby and wine and cheese every night. It was absolutely freezing in Gatlinburg that weekend! We walked the strip on Friday night and nearly froze to death, after which we drove up to the Apple Barn for dinner. Unfortunately we were served cold meals that ended up turning some of our stomachs later, but at least the apple fritters were good. Saturday we were up early to hit the outlet shops when they opened, finding new running shoes for Brian. After shopping, Brian, Bernie and Jenny hit the Alum Cave Trail in the Smokies National Park for a little winter hiking. The trail was snow covered and even icy in places, but it made for a great hike on a chilly day. That night, we dined at the Cherokee Grill in Gatlinburg and had a fantastic meal. Brian was pleased with the perfectly cooked steak he'd ordered and the deliciously cheesy potatoes on the side. Jenny and Mary both had the seasoned sirloin which was the best they'd ever had. Their server was even gracious enough to bring us the score of the U of L game every few minutes, until U of L won it in the end. Sunday we started the drive home, stopping again at some outlet stores where Jenny found some super comfy shoes and Brian got some snazzy bright yellow Merrell trail shoes. You'll be able to see him coming from a mile away! Super great trip with super great parents and in-laws!

Jan.10: Went to see Wicked! at the Ky Center for the Arts courtesy of Jenny's dad and wife Carol as a Christmas present. It was a great show and production even if we didn't come away singing any songs really. We just kept saying "Toss! Toss!" for some reason :) Before the show, we had stopped by the B.Deemer Gallery to see Jenny's Aunt Ellen's newest work which was all very impressive and since her aunt was staying in town for the evening we made plans to join her and Jenny's not too distant cousin, James Brady, for dinner at Proof on Main at the 21c Museum Hotel. James Brady and his wife had flown in from Wisconsin specifically for Jenny's aunt's gallery show. We had a wonderful meal at Proof, made all the better by the company, even though we had trouble hearing over the loud din in the dining room. Man that place is loud! But Proof and the hotel are truly unique, for Louisville at least. The two way mirrors in the bathrooms and the original art and installations throughout the lobby, restaurant and the entire hotel for that matter were intriguing.

early Jan: Brian's birthday! Celebrated Brian's bday at the Cattleman's Steakhouse in Shelbyville. The steak wasn't too bad for an in-town steakhouse.

December 2008

Dec.31.: New Year's Eve at the Heath house. Years ago we stopped going out and started doing pot lucks at everyone's houses. Usually whomever had the newest house would have the "honor" of hosting. This year it was at the Heath's in their gorgeous new abode in Louisville. They even upped the ante and provided cajun food for dinner. They put the cherry on top though by purchasing and installing a disco ball for the dance space in the basement. Evidence of massive amounts of fun are here.

Dec.24-25.: Merry Christmas!

Dec.22.: Our 7th wedding anniversary. We celebrated at Rafferty's in Louisville thanks to a generous gift card from Jenny's boss. Their honey slathered croissants hit the spot on a cold cold night. Thankfully it was in the 60's when we got married 7 years ago.

Dec.21: A Schenkenfelder Family Christmas in Louisville. Brian's uncle and 3 of his cousins, along with their significant others drove down from Northern Kentucky for an afternoon and evening of eating, drinking and most importantly family togetherness. Jenny concocted a chocolate buche de noel in honor of Winter Solstice.

Dec.19: n+1, Inc's annual Christmas party at RichO's. A wonderful event that we look forward to annually. It was small again this time, just Brian, Jenny and Brian's partner in all things Linux, Rob. We feasted on the best pizza in the world, RichO's upside down style, and had several delicious beers to wash it down. Jenny even tried an Italian microbrew that had been brewed with myrrh. And then only after mentioning it to people was told that it was used in the embalming process. Great :P

Dec.6: Our friends Shari and Keith, after much nagging, hosted another of their semi-sorta annual bourbon tasting parties. We took a Michter's Single Barrel for people to try. Our Brown-Forman source, Kelly, brought a bottle of Woodford Reserve's new Sweet Mash that Jenny loved loved loved! And Brian dove into the bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 year that Shari's boss had graciously brought. His most favorite bourbon by far. And apparently everyone else's as well since bottle was nearly finished off by the end of the evening.

Dec.5: High school football semi-final game, St.X vs. Trinity. We figure St.X must be cursed when it comes to playoff games with their arch rival Trinity or something. St.X lost 21-28. The game was made less than enjoyable by a group of Trinity fans who insisted on being on the St.X side of the field and sat directly behind us. They proved to be utterly low class and disrespectful. One of 'em was none other than the Heavy Hitter, the ambulance chasing lawyer, Darryl Isaacs. We think that says it all. Maybe next year St.X will be able to redeem themselves. We hope!!!!

early Dec: Jenny's 35th birthday. The years keep ticking by! Enjoyed an evening of yummy hors d'oeuvres and crafts at Aunt Jerry's country club.

November 2008

Nov.28: St.X wins 3rd Round of playoffs against duPont Manual, 53-0

Nov.27: Thanksgiving The Schenkenfelder contingent traveled north to NKY to celebrate Turkey Day with Brian's uncle and cousins. Jenny took a huge crock pot of super creamy mashed potatoes since we had joked that there hadn't been enough the year before. It was a fantastic meal with entertaining company and the crock pot was practically licked clean!

Nov.21: St.X wins 2nd Round of playoffs against PRP, 48-6

Nov.14: St.X wins 1st Round of playoffs against Nelson County, 72-7

Nov.4: Sigh

Nov.1: Traveled to Hotlanta to see Brian's favorite football team, the Florida State Seminoles, take on the rambling wreck of Georgia Tech, with our friend Rob, a Ga Tech alum. The night before the game found us at the 5 Seasons Brewing Company in Sandy Springs where Jenny had a delicious Flanders Ale that was one of the best beers she's ever had. Saturday morning we tripped over to the MARTA station to catch the train downtown for the game. Got hit up for money by a well dressed panhandler who had an extremely elaborate story. He said he needed money for the train but had a Marta pass hanging around his neck. Crazy! Made it (safely) t campus and took in the game day college crowd. A ton of Florida State fans were on hand. Unfortunately they didn't bring the Seminoles any luck, as they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on a last second fumble in their own end zone that allowed Ga.Tech to somehow win with their lame option offense. After the game we trekked to a Taco Mac to drown our sorrows, or in Rob's case celebrate. Taco Mac saved the day with a huge collection of beers. A fun trip that would have been made better by a win. Maybe next time!

October 2008

Oct.31: St.X over Central, 36-13

Oct.24: St.X beat PRP 57-6

Oct.11: Camping at Green River Lake in Taylor County. After getting bitten by the camping bug the weekend before, we set out for Green River Lake. We took Brian's dad's Poke boat with us since the campground is right on the lake. Only had to walk the boat down a few feet to the water. We had a great time paddling around, even managed not to get run over by the non-manually powered boats on the water. Even more fun was coming home via the GPS directions which took us on rural roads in Nelson, Spencer and Shelby counties. Passed an old covered bridge that had seen much better days. It was just interesting to see parts of the bluegrass that we'd never traversed before.

Oct.10: St.X beat Butler 63-0. Trend continues...

Oct.4: Shelby County campout. Our friend Cindy offered the use of her dad's fishing cabin & lake for the lot of us to hang out in & near for an afternoon and evening. We took fishing gear and S'mores fixings and had a great time chatting by the fire late into the evening.

Oct.3: St.X-Trinity game THE game of the year. There were 38,872 people in attendance this year. NFL Films was there to tape the rivalry for a series that's airing on CBS next month. They got quite a show. The St.X Tigers won in a rout over the Trinity Shamrocks 30-6. Brian got to borrow a media pass and was able to stand on the sidelines for a good chunk of the game. Even stood next to Victor Anderson, a St.X grad who's tearing up the field playing for U of L this year as a red-shirt freshman.

September 2008

Sept 27: Trip to our favorite pizza/beer place, RichO's in New Albany. Dragged along our friend Allison for her first ever experience. Hit Stevie Ray's Blues Bar afterwards for some live music, unfortunately it was more rock than blues. Should have gone to Zena's down the street. They're more authentic.

Sept 26: St.X beat Manual 57-0. Starting to see a trend here...

Sept 20: Kentucky Bourbon Festival Drove down to Bardstown to check out the Bourbon Festival. Jenny found a "barrel" of bourbon flavored things to buy from Bourbon Barrel Foods: bourbon vanilla sugar, bourbon barrel aged vanilla, bourbon apple butter. Bought some kettle corn which wasn't bourbon flavored but was still delicious. Also toured the gorgeous Bourbon Heritage Center at the Heaven Hill Distilleries.

Sept 19: Jefferson County schools were closed due to the power outage caused by the wind storm so the St.X-Male game was cancelled.

Sept 14: Windstorm of the century. Louisville was pounded by 75 mph gusts from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Shelby County had 50+ mph winds as well. Our power was only out for 2 hours while some of our friends and family in Jefferson County were without power for almost a week.

Sept 12: St.X beat Lexington Catholic 59-7.
Sept 5: St.X beat Oldham County 44-6.

August 2008

Aug 29: St.X's first football game of the season against Ballard High School. Brian's favorite time of the year. St.X got off to a great start winning 63-0. The first win of the season was followed by our usual stop at Dundee Tavern for our post-game beer.

Aug 23: Co-ed quads volleyball tournament. Thinking we hadn't had enough sand volleyball this summer we signed up with some friends from Shelbyville for a co-ed quads tournament at Juniper Hills Park in Frankfort. It's good we showed up because we provided practice for all of the teams. Losing every single game really isn't all that much fun. Live and learn!

Aug 16: KY State Fair and Brad Paisley concert: State Fair time is always a good time in KY. Where else can you get your fill of deep fat fried food items and gawk at the enormous assortment of farm animals? We dragged our friend Rob along with us because he wanted to see how his beers had "faired" in the homebrew beer competition. He won 2 blue first place ribbons for his English Pale Ale and German Wheat beers and also a 2nd place ribbon. Woohoo! Way to go Rob! Brian and Jenny had also been dared by their brother-in-law to try a deep fried Twinkie, which we did and ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the massive intake of calories and fat grams. It's a Twinkie that's dipped in funnel cake batter, deep fried and then coated in powdered sugar. Ick! Jenny wishes she'd just gotten a corn dog or a funnel cake instead. After touring most of the exhibits, we made our way over to Freedom Hall for the Brad Paisley concert. Opening acts included Julienne Hough, Chuck Wicks and Jewel. Julienne was pretty good, she just needs some better songs. And Jewel rocked it! She'd just gotten married apparently so was in her honeymoon afterglow. Jenny wants to learn how to yodel now after she finished her set with it. And then Brad came out and gave an amazing show! He switched to a different paisley covered guitar for practically every song. We didn't realize what an awesome guitar player he really was. The best song was probably 'Whiskey Lullaby' with a cameo by Allison Kraus. Great concert and we were able to sing the words to just about every song.

Aug 8-10: Great Taste of the Midwest Our friends Rob and Nick were lucky enough to win the mail-in ticket lottery for 8 tickets to attend the Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival in Madison, WI. It's a yearly event put on by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild and includes over 100 brewers and an average of 500 beers that are available to taste-test. We road-tripped up to Madison on Friday, stopped to set up camp at Lake Kegonsa State Park, and then drove into downtown to meet up with the other carload of our friends who'd made the trek as well. Dinner was at the Essen Haus, a German-styled restaurant and bar. We slurped down a couple of Spaten Oktoberfests with our beer-battered fish and took in the fresh Wisconsin air. After dinner we wandered around the beautiful capital city of Madison, mostly heading down the throbbing pedestrian artery that is State Street, with its stores, museums, bars, restaurants & coffee shops. Our friend Jacob had Googled for the closest ice cream store and that lead us to the heavenly Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, that had ice cream to die for. It was obvious that this was a favorite place in Madison due to the line out the door. Their nutritional information on the wall consisted of, "Don't even ask...it's not low-fat, low-calorie or low-anything". Jenny tried their Zanzimint flavor and instantly fell in love with it's chocolatey-mint goodness. Brian tried their Peanut Butter Cup, a chocolate ice cream with PB ripple AND peanut butter cups. The place also had an awesome mural on one wall that had intricate detailing. After satisfying our sweet tooth, we walked back up State Street towards the Capitol, taking in an exhibition of Capoeira, or Brazilian dance fighting.

On Saturday, we were up early to hit the showers since the campground was packed. It was Jenny & Brian's first experience with "push button" showers, where instead of on/off handles you get a button that is pressed and out comes about 5 seconds worth of water to shower under. After considering the 5 second interval showers and the pit toilets by our dusty campsite, we decided that Kentucky campgrounds were the Ritz compared to ones in Wisconsin. After laboring to get showered and dressed, we made our way into Madison, first stopping to pick up some emergency ponchos since the chance for rain kept increasing. Luckily this act insured that it would NOT rain on us! We parked next to the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co, which was a shuttle stop for the Great Taste, and walked up to the Capitol building which is the site for the Dane County Farmers' Market every Saturday morning. It was completely mobbed but we joined in the procession that was circumambulating around the capitol, stopping occasionally to try some yummy cheddar cheese and to look at the various protesting booths that only a liberal college town can produce. After completing our tour around the market, we headed back to Great Dane to grab lunch. Reluctantly deciding NOT to pre-game, we had a beerless lunch of substantial sandwiches that would hopefully help us through our Great Taste experience. After lunch, we zipped to the car to grab our folding chairs and some waters and then stood in the line for the shuttle, which ended up being a school bus with the word School covered up. We started calling it the beer bus. A short wait and 2 buses later, we boarded our beer bus for the maybe 5 minute trip to Olin-Turville Park, which was the site for the Great Taste. Already the line snaked down from the entrance into a big field, making us a little leary of having to wait in the hot sun. Our worry was for naught, only an hour or so later we were ensconced within the festival with our tasting glasses and programs, trying to decide what to try first. Unfortunately the program made it intensely difficult to find what beers the brewers were offering since they were listed by what state they were from. Now we know everyone's got state pride and everything but it makes for a horrible categorizing method because you'd be looking at a brewer's name and then you'd have to look up what freakin' state they were from, and only THEN could you find them in the program.

Even with the program problems, Jenny managed to hit up every brewery that had a pumpkin or blueberry beer to try; her favorite being Lakefront Brewery's Pumpkin Lager. Brian began a very smart and logical tent-by-tent operation, where he worked through several porters and stouts. His favorite, and Jenny's overall favorite as well, ended up being the Viking Brewing Co's CopperHead lager, which was a dunkel marzen. Jenny tried several meads and ciders that she normally doesn't get to drink. There was a bubbly blueberry mead concoction from the White Winter Winery/Meadery that was crazy with blueberry flavor. We each tried many, many beers. Unfortunately so many that they started running together. Unless you took notes, you'd pretty quickly forget what you'd had and if you liked it or not. Our friend Cindy devised a clever method for keeping track of at least how many beers she had, if not exactly what. If we go again, we'll definitely print our own list of brewers, ignore what state they're from, and come up with a complete game plan before we even get to the festival.

We did have a great time with our friends though. The park was a beautiful setting right on Lake Monona and everyone was fairly well-behaved considering the amount of beer that was available. When the festival was over at 6pm, we filed out with everyone else, making a beeline for our beer bus back to the Great Dane Pub. Obviously not wanting to drive right after taste testing several beers we made our way down State Street looking for sustenance. We stopped at practically the first place we came to, Nick's Restaurant. We laughed that it was fate since it had the same name as our good friend Nick. Nick's ended up being a complete throw-back diner, with crazy black and white wallpaper and art deco designs on the vinyl booths. Jenny had spinach pie and Brian had a turkey club. Nothing to jump up and down about but it filled the requirement of soaking up some of the beer. After dinner we decided to hit the Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream shop again, this time trying their French Silk and Cookie Dough flavors while our beer buzzes faded into the twilight. Full of beer, dinner and now ice cream we wandered back to the car to make the trip back to the campground for the night. Waking up with no hint of a headache, we packed up, said goodbye to lovely Madison and made our way home.

Aug 2: Fancy Farm 2008 It's August so that means time for the hot and heavy politics of the Fancy Farm picnic in Western Kentucky. This year was the 128th year for the picnic, which in truth is a Catholic church fundraiser but has come to be known for it's stump speeches by politicians running for office. This year we went down Friday night to the Kentucky Dam Village campground so we could get to the picnic early the next day, since the latest thing to do at the picnic was to bring your folding chair and camp all day for a good spot to watch the speeches. Brian live-blogged the event again and sitting with a clear shot of the stage made it infinitely easier. Lunch consisted of the best pulled pork BBQ ever! The picnic makes all their BBQ on site in long BBQ pits the length of football fields. The politics got going late in the afternoon with everyone fanning themselves in the West Kentucky heat and humidity. Brian lamented that it had become almost a civilized affair with everyone sitting down, but there was still a lot of heckling and yelling throughout the speeches. The speeches went pretty quick, especially since this year they decided to have the band cut off the speaker if he went over his time. After the speeches wrapped up, we packed up to head out, but not before buying a 2 lb. box of BBQ to take home and enjoy. Long live Fancy Farm!

July 2008

July 18-20 Trip to St.Louis Our friend Kelly, who is a huge St.Louis Cardinals fan, had never been to Busch Stadium to see them play, so a group of us devised a July trip to St.Louis, mainly to see the Cardinals play, but we also made time for various tourist activities. We stayed at HoteLumiere in downtown St.Louis on the riverfront. The hotel, a refurbished Embassy Suites, was part of the brand spankin' new Lumiere Place casino and restaurant complex. It had a great location- a block from Laclede's Landing with it's myriad bars and restaurants, a stone's throw from the Metro Link rail stop, and just a hop, skip & jump from the Gateway Arch.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to tour the Arch before the hordes ascended it, but nature threw us a curve ball and forced a rain delay, so we opted for the Budweiser Plant tour instead. We were the first tour group of the day to go through, which made for a smaller group and better picture taking opportunities. The plant was immense to say the least. One of the coolest things we saw was a beautiful chandelier made to look like a hops vine. Not surprisingly, the best part of the tour was the tasting room at the end. Since we were the first group, we each got 2 tastings. Brian tried their porter and Jenny tried the Shock Top wheat first, and then we both followed up with clean, cold, fresh Budweiser. Almost like drinking it right out of the tap! :) While we usually don't subscribe to the macro brews it was interesting to see an American giant in action. Of course now that Anheuser-Busch has been sold to InBev, it's no longer a purely American company, which is a bit of a shame. Oh well, guess that's just globalism in action. After our breakfast of beer, we hustled back to the hotel and ate at the Burger Bar, which is one the restaurants associated with Lumiere Place casino complex. Delicious burgers all around helped to dull our stomachs sloshing with beer.

After lunch, we thought we'd try the Arch again. BAD IDEA! We stood in the line just to get through the security checkpoint for at least 30 minutes in the hot blazing sun. Then once inside, we found out the next available tram ride up wasn't available until 2 hours later. Doing some fast thinking we ducked out of line and made our way to the Museum of Transportation instead since Kelly's husband Jim is a big train fanatic. It was a good museum for train buffs, but there wasn't much on the other modes of transportation, only a few old cars and a plane or two by the entrance. After sweating ourselves silly looking at the immense locomotives, we treated ourselves to a stop at Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard stand that Jenny had heard about from her sister, whose college days were spent in St.Louis. We each had a "concrete", which looked to be the forerunner of the DQ blizzard, and savored each cold bite in the shade while watching a wedding party sweat through their rented tuxes and shiny dresses. Apparently someone else had heard about Ted Drewes too!

Slogging back to the hotel, we rested awhile and made dinner plans, which entailed hopping the Metro Link rail line to Union Station and then walking to the Schlafly Tap Room, a microbrewery we had heard much praise about. And what an ado! Schlafly's was mobbed! Apparently it was their Belgian & Mussell Mania weekend, where they were pairing their Belgian based brews with plate loads of mussels. Content to wait the hour we were given for a table, we sidled up to the bar, eagerly anticipating some real beer. Well, the bartender didn't share our enthusiasm unfortunately. Our friend Rob asked for a schwarzbier that he'd seen on the beer list as we were coming into the Tap Room. Channeling all the communication power of a deaf/mute, the bartender jabbed at a chalkboard by the bar and marched off. Apparently they were out of schwarzbier. A good five minutes later he strode back over, stared blankly at each of us as we made our beer orders like good little children. Thankfully the beers came as ordered, because none of us wanted to get on his bad side if all we'd seen so far was his good side. We ordered a few more rounds while waiting, each time more anxious than the next. Kind of took away from enjoying the beer, which of what Jenny and Brian had, was fairly good at best. The whole bar experience culminated when we made the horrendous mistake of actually asking to see a menu, so we could make better use of our wait. Well that just broke the camel's back! The bartender, who apparently had been on his best behavior up until that time, took a stack of menus and literally threw them onto the bar at us. Jenny had been sitting on a stool with her back to the bar and she felt the wave of air as the menus were slammed down. Thankfully Jim's phone rang soon after that, alerting us that our table was ready. Jim even braved the gauntlet once more to get one last beer that he tried to pay for before being seated but the crazy ass bartender just ignored him. Guess it was a free/on the house/Go Away Now! beer.

Finally got to our table, and then the other ordeal began. We ordered beers, appetizers and dinner. We got our beers and then waited, and waited. We watched people next to us finish their dinner and leave, another set of people taking their place and getting their appetizers. We ask our waitress about our appetizers-
waitress: Oh, they didn't come out yet?
Us (rechecking that our table was empty): Ummm, no.
waitress: Oh, I'll check for you, but I usually don't bring out the food.

The appetizers finally come out, we eat them. Then we watch the 5 tables surrounding us have a constant turnover of people getting beers, food, and their checks in a nice orderly succession. We ask a few times to see if we can get the waitress to go bird dog our order. Apparently she doesn't know how to play fetch, she just tells us that it's crazy busy (yes we can see that) and that she usually just works the upstairs bar. About an hour after ordering we get our food. Jenny's grilled salmon on ciabatta and Brian's steak were delicious, of course we're not really sure if that was actually the food or just our empty stomachs talking. We finally leave the restaurant at about 10:00, after we got there at 7:30. We scampered back to Union Station, dodging the panhandlers along the way, to grab the Metro back to the hotel where we all fell into bed so we could get up early for another try at the Arch.

Sunday morning, we were out of the hotel around 8am to trek back to the Arch where we were the only ones in the security and ticket lines. Woohoo! Third time's a charm! We got tickets for the second tram ride up at 8:40am so we toured the museum under the Arch for a bit before getting in line. Brian had been up before, but Jenny hadn't, even after a ton of trips to St.Louis, so waiting in line to step through the 4 ft high doors into the teeny little tram cars was pretty exciting. The ride up was quick, 4 minutes, and we walked up the steps to the top of the Arch for the mesmerizing views. It was a bit disconcerting since you had to lean over and onto the walls of the Arch to get a good view down and out. Very cool though. Saw Busch Stadium, the Mississippi River, the old Courthouse. We snapped some scenic shots and then lined up for the ride back down. After the Arch we headed back to the hotel to pack up and head to the Cardinals game against San Diego. We grabbed a casino shuttle over to the game and stocked up on waters and peanuts before heading into the gorgeous new Busch Stadium. A hot, hot day we made our way to our seats, but didn't sit down until the game started since our seats were in the sun. By the 4th inning we were in the shade, not that it helped matters much. The Cardinals held a lead for the most of the game which they then frittered away at the end, letting the Padres back in it. Luckily at the bottom of the ninth, Aaron Miles hit a grand slam homer and the Cardinals won 9-5. Not a bad ending to a fun weekend! We scooted out of the stadium and made for our cars for the trip home. Happy to have seen what the Gateway City had to offer. Next time we'll come when it's cooler! :)

July 4- July 4th Party at the SchenkenChalet We had a slew of family members over to celebrate our nation's Independence Day. A day of slip 'n slide for the kids, corn hole for the adults, and of course, chowing down for all, ensued. Thanks go out to all of our family members who came and brought the gigantic portions of food and even helped clean up the mess! A special thanks to Brian's cousin, who brought a Jeep-load of fireworks that were launched over our pond, delighting young and old. Happy Birthday America!

June 2008

June 8- Brown-Forman Box Day at the Downs!!! Our friend Kelly, who works for Brown-Forman, had won the use of the corporate box at Churchill Downs for a day at a raffle. She was gracious enough to invite a big group of us along for a day of racing. Wow, what a day and what a way to watch the ponies! We're not sure that we'll ever be able to enjoy the Downs again now that we've been spoiled. We all dressed up, a la Derby style, and made our way to the track. It was one of those gorgeous summer days in Kentucky when the sky is a clear blue and the clouds a cottony white. A absolutely perfect day for the races! At the track, we rode the swanky elevators up to the Brown-Forman suite where we were greeted with a large buffet of food and desserts. The suite was amazing, with an incredible view of the track and, of course, the finish line. We had access to a betting computer in the suite, but we usually would saunter out to the practically private betting windows to place our bets and also to refill our drinks at the bar. In between races you could walk out onto a terrace overlooking the famous Twin Spires and the paddock where you could pick out the next winner (yeah right!). We did manage to make a bit of a profit, thanks to some awesome group-inspired handicapping. Truly a day that we'll remember for a long time to come. Thanks Kelly!

June 7- Bourbon Tasting We attended a bourbon tasting with Jenny's dad and his wife that benefited the Salato Wildlife Center in Frankfort, KY. It was a hot night and the tasting was mobbed, but we were able to try at least 6 or 7 bourbons, each time getting to keep the glassware. Like we needed more barware! Still, it was a very cool thing to be able to get glassware from each distillery. The food was great too! Fried catfish and pulled pork BBQ were among our favorites. We toured the Salato Center after we'd tasted and tested everything, looking at the bald eagles, black bears and even the resident wildcat. The best part was being able to get up close and personal with a beautiful russet-colored screech owl, who looked like she'd rather have her head tucked under wing in her cage than be dragged out to meet visitors.

May 2008

May 16-17- NRA Convention in Louisville. Brian scored media credentials due to his conservative blog so he spent Friday at the convention, a good chunk of it in the media room that was stocked with water, snacks, plus several plasma screens with live feed of the convention speakers and the news. He blogged several times during the event. He and Jenny attended on Saturday and toured all the vendors, with the highlight being the stop at the Glock booth where they replaced the sight on his gun for free, and purchased a snazzy range bag to hold all his gun accouterments.

May 3- Derby 2008 The first Saturday in May in Kentucky is always a fun time and this year was no exception. Jenny's friend Lis drove in from Cincinnati for the festivities. We dragged her around Central KY, starting with a trip through the food line at the annual Derby Breakfast at the State Capitol. Were surprised to see that we shared a table with former Ky governor Paul Patton and his wife Judy. Brian took the opportunity to explain to non-Kentuckian Lis that he's known as the "Luv Guv". Not an especially high point in Kentucky political history. After we ate our fill of eggs, grits & biscuits, we perused the downtown Frankfort shops and then moseyed over to the Buffalo Trace distillery to check out their gift shop. Then it was onto the annual Derby party we go to out in the western part of lovely Shelby County. A slew of food and Rob's homemade dunkelweizen awaited us. We drank and ate the afternoon away to the tunes of the live band. Watching the Derby, were amazed to see Big Brown able to pull out the win from 20th post position. Truly an amazing fete. We were also extremely saddened to see the demise of Eight Belles after she had run such a fantastic race, coming in second behind Big Brown. Night time brought an intense chill though so we scurried home fairly early, but only after Brian defended his title of the fastest time through the kid's jumpy thing.

April 2008

April 12- Thunder over Louisville. Thunder was a week early this year due to Passover and thus landed on a cold overcast Saturday. We usually catch the Louisville bats game in the afternoon and then pass the time people watching and scouting out the best corn dog stand until it's time for fireworks, but this year we decided it was just too cold and we didn't want to spend 7+ hours out in it. Instead we went to a new restaurant in town, BJ's Brewhouse, at Oxmoor Mall. Apparently it's still too new and thus everybody's trying it out, since after being told it would take 45 minutes for a table, we were finally seated 1.5 hrs. later. Thankfully we were able to sample their beer while we waited so that helped pass the time. We sampled their Nut Brown and Hefeweizen and Jenny declared the hefe one of the best she'd ever had. Unfortunately the long wait for a table was only a taste of what was to come. We put our food order in, and then the second long wait began. The food, once it came, was absolutely delicious, but maybe that's because we had to wait at least another hour for it to arrive and were absolutely famished by the time it did. All told, we arrived at 6:15pm and didn't get up to leave until after the echoes of the fireworks of Thunder died down at about 10:15. The beer and food were wonderful but we just don't have the kind of stamina it takes for 4 hrs worth of sitting.

April 26- Indian wedding in Pittsburgh Jenny's sorority sister, Amee, was getting married in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA to a wonderful Australian gent, Dan. We drove up Friday afternoon and met up with Jenny's friend Lis, another sorority sister who introduced us to several of Dan's groomsmen, who were all very engaging especially with their Australian accents. During the day on Saturday, we drove down to see downtown Pittsburgh and to try out the Church Brew Works, which was a former Catholic church that had been converted into a brewery. The altar now paid homage to beer rather than heavenly beings, which gave Brian a little bit of an uncomfortable feeling as he was raised Catholic. But the beer and food were fantastic and deserving of reverance. We bought a six pack of their Pious Monk Dunkel to take back home with us.

Feeling pretty good after our beer tastings, we headed back for the classic Indian Hindu wedding which began at 2:30 with the groom's procession. Ran into several of Jenny's sorority sisters from college in the lobby, most of whom she hadn't seen in either several years or since graduation in 1996. Knowing nothing about Hindu weddings, we were interested to find out what they were all about. The most challenging part was sitting through the 1.75 hr long ceremony that was entirely in ancient Sanskrit. Not that there's a modern Sanskrit, but that just drives home the fact that no one, even the Indians in the room, knew what the priest was saying. But Amee looked beautiful in her wedding sari and Dan pulled off his outfit extremely well, as did the other groomsmen and bridesmaids. After we survived sitting through the ceremony there was the cocktail hour(s) and then the reception began. Dan and Amee had their first dance immediately entering the ballroom and everyone was invited to dance with them, so the party definitely got started early. We sampled all the food, which was all vegetarian of course, but some of it could light your hair on fire with its spicy curry. After dinner, we were taught a dance that was native to Amee's family's province in India which included using dancing sticks, or dandiyas. Brian caught on pretty quickly, but Jenny was a little hesitant to jump into a big group of people waving sticks around. We dubbed it Indian line dancing :) The entire evening was great fun though, catching up with old friends and dancing to Indian pop music that the DJ kept telling people to sing along to. We certainly wish Dan and Amee all the best and a lifetime of happiness.

March 2008

Mar 7-8- Winter Storm of 2008. Winter decided not to go quietly into the night and slammed Central Ky with a boatload of snow. We ended up with around 6-8 inches of the white stuff. We were socked in so we didn't get to continue our Lenten fish place tour on Friday. Instead of trolling for a new fried fish place to try, Jenny pumped up the snow tube she'd purchased on a whim at Kmart and took some runs down our hill in the backyard. Only problem was that the pond wasn't frozen over, so we had a few near misses of sailing right into it. We're sure our neighbors think we're crazy, but we figure you're only young once. Oh wait, we might have missed that boat already. Oh well, at least we're young at heart and what else are you gonna do with almost a foot of snow, besides make snow cream. Pictures of the winter whiteout are here. A video of Brian snow-tubing is here. Also since regular snow-tubing wasn't nearly enough, Jenny got the bright idea to build a ramp so we could gain a little altitude. Hilarious consequences are recorded on YouTube for posterity. Thankfully neither of us ended up in traction or in the pond!

Mar 15- Eastern Kentucky Elk Tour. We traveled with our friend Nick to Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, Ky to take part in an elk tour that the Kentucky state parks had been putting on for a few years. It required assembling at an ungodly time of 5:45am to pack into 2 passenger vans to travel to some reclaimed strip mines where they've released elk over the past 10 or so years. The herd of elk in Kentucky is now up to 6,000 and they are aiming to sustain a herd of 10,000. Our first visit was to the Knott Co. Adventure Park where we saw a good sized herd of elk but the second stop is where we hit the motherload, or should we say "bull load"? It was actually an active strip mine with sections that had been reclaimed and it yielded an entire group of bull elk who stood majestically on the hillsides with their huge sets of antlers. It was amazing to see these large animals completely at home in and among the large machinery of a very active strip mining operation. And probably some of the most fun we had was "mud bogging" in the state van with our expert driver.

February 2008

Feb 1- Impromptu Mardi Gras party at the Schenkenchalet. No one else had a box full of beads I guess, so we ordered some BBQ and cooked up some red beans and rice and kicked up our heels to celebrate Mardi Gras. Our friend Cindy brought along 2 delicious King Cakes, which were the best we'd ever tasted. There's something to be said for fresh baked King Cake! We even managed to find both plastic babies that were hidden in each cake, meaning we get to host the party next year. Not a problem, we've got the beads!

Feb.8-10- OH Ski Trip. Our friends Jen and Brian have been up in the frozen tundra that is Cleveland courtesy of GE for two years now and we finally got organized enough to travel up to go skiing, since they live a whole mile away from the Brandywine Ski Resort. We carpooled up with our friends Jim and Kelly, with Kelly promising all the way that she'd teach Jenny how to ski. This would differ from her previous 2 lifetime efforts of simply snowplowing her way down the slopes and more often than not simply falling over in order to stop. Got up early Saturday to hit the slopes. Of course since we'd planned it for weeks, it warmed up to a lovely 44 degrees, making the slopes a delightful slushy consistency. Jenny did manage to take Kelly's advice though, donning short skis for kids, and finally mastering the S turn that's apparently the right way to get down a ski slope. Everyone had a good time skiing, even though the conditions were less than perfect. Woke up Sunday morning to a fresh snowfall of 3 inches. Of course it would snow after we'd gone skiing! Nothing like a little irony to make you grit your teeth! But as we traveled back home to the slightly less cold and much less snowy Kentucky, we were glad we'd ventured north to visit our gracious friends and partake of wintertime outdoor pursuits.

Feb.15- 2008 Lenten Fish Fest Tour Kickoff We got started a week late, since last week we were riding up to Cleveland, so we had to make do with fish sand's from Wendy's, which actually weren't half bad. Officially started off our fish place/fish fry tour of 2008 at The Fishery in Louisville with our friend Rob. The place was mobbed, just like every fish place in Louisville is on Friday nights during Lent. Did manage to scavenge a table though in order to dine comfortably on a couple of pretty decent fish sandwiches and sides of cole slaw. The portions were huge but the cole slaw was a bit dry. We decided we liked Stan's Fish Sandwich from our tour last year a bit better though, but onward and upward, there's always another fish place to try. Too bad we only do this a few weeks out of the year, or maybe that's a good thing.

Feb.16- Evita at the Lexington Opera House. This was Brian's birthday present from Jenny. We traveled to Lex-town, thinking we'd slip into DeSha's downtown to grab a quick bite. They have the most awesome cornbread ever, that Jenny had been dreaming of all week. Of course with the motorcross event being held at Rupp Arena that night the place was jammed packed and the wait was an hour, so we skipped down to the Cheapside Bar & Grille instead. Had a nice, if quick, dinner, plus a glass of wine and a Guinness. Slipped into the almost packed Opera House a few minutes before the curtain call. The show was really good, even if the lead playing Evita was a bit weak. The actor playing Che Guevara was fantastic however and carried the show. Enjoyed him much more than Antonio Banderas in the movie rendition. All in all, it was money well spent, especially now that we have songs from Evita running through our heads that we can sing to each other. "Don't cry for me Argentina..."

Feb.22- Fish Fest Tour Stop 2: There was a lovely ice storm on Thursday, Feb.21, and with the danger of it all re-freezing at nightfall, we zipped just down the road to the Moby Dick in Taylorsville for our Friday evening fish. Moby Dick is definitely one of our favorite fish places, year round. Yummy fish on rye with sides of cole slaw and hushpuppies hit the spot before we skedaddled back home to hope for spring.

Feb.29- Fish Fest Tour Stop 3: Tried The Fish House in Louisville. They coat their fish in a "Green River" style cracker crumb crust that was simply delicious. Jenny's favorite of the fish tour so far! The cole slaw wasn't all that, and the fish sandwiches came on the teeniest styrofoam plates you could buy, but the fish was the star so it didn't dampen the outing too much. Plus they also have beignets for dessert, which are always delicious covered in a half cup of powdered sugar.

January 2008

Early Jan- Brian's birthday was spent driving up to Lexington so that Brian's sister could join in the birthday festivities. Tried to slip into our favorite place for burgers, Lynagh's Shamrock, but were denied. It was already filled to capacity with young whipper-snappers drinking and playing darts. Alas, Brian had to settle for Marikka's. Not all was lost though, with Marikka's extensive beer list and German food offerings, Brian dined and drank to his heart's content and came away happy. Jenny treated him with a gift of tickets to see Evita, which had been on his must-see list for awhile. Gotta love a man that likes musicals!

Jan 25-26- Trip to Georgia via Gatlinburg. We roadtripped to Dalton, GA to attend a party for Jenny's cousin to celebrate her high school graduation, birthday and college entrance. Drove down early on Friday to Gatlinburg to take in the Smoky Mountain-ness of it all. We drank and dined at a local brewery and walked it off along the Gatlinburg strip, taking in the myriad air-brush t-shirt shops. Got up early to eat pancakes at the Pancake Cabin and then drove into Smoky Mountain National Park to squeeze in a quick hike before zipping on along to Dalton for the festivities. The party for Jenny's cousin was fabulous, complete with pulled pork BBQ and all the fixin's. Held at the house of a family friend, horseback riding and a bonfire were highlights of the evening, along with celebrating the great accomplishments of a young lady stepping out into the world.

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