Down In Front!
2003-11-16,

Just got back from a weekend in Columbus a few hours ago. We visited my brother and sister-in-law with my dad along for the ride a part of my dad's 60th birthday celebrations. He's been down in the dumps lately (it's from him that I inherited my semi-chronic depression, as it happens) so it was a bit of a trial to get him to go. My wife, however, has learned the fine art of negotiations with those of less-than-rational state from her job, so she managed to talk him down - or up, as it were - and get him motivated for travel.

It was a decent weekend, nice and sedate. Had dinner at a mongolian bbq type place on Saturday. Sunday brought us a slow morning and the sharing of our baby situation with part of the family. As expected they were quite supportive, though I think H and I expected them to be more.... upset? I dunno. I guess I didn't expect Lifetime-movie-style two-fists-to-the-sky wailing until fade to commercial, but still. I think we just expected our families to be.. a little more close to as upset, dismayed, hurt, agonized, etc. as we were. My dad teared up at one point (after mulling over the situation on his own for a bit), but then he tears up at bad movies now on his happy pills. I guess I'll take what I can get.

And it's funny, cos crying and a big hullabaloo was exactly what I didn't want, what I was dreading. And yet I was disappointed to not see it happen. I guess when you expect the worst and it doesn't hapen, it's kind of a let down. All that prep for naught. But it makes me a better person. Or some crap like that. Ha.

So after that, we meandered our way downtown to Front St., where H's friend from college, Sean, had just a few weeks ago opened his own caf�. If you click on the given link, please forgive-- they�ve only been open for a few weeks, remember. Never mind the unappealing HTML; the food is, as expected, fantastic. Sean opened the place up just for us to show it off (they're normally only open during the week so far). I had a grand tomato basil soup (with a squirt of pesto) and an apple, brie and ginger sauce panini. Oh lord but it was good. This is a guy who would invite people over to his place for Sunday brunch just so he could cook for people and try out some of his culinary experiments. Just amazing. Desert was one of my favourite combinations, Nutella and cream cheese, in a grilled sandwich. I thought all it needed to be perfect was a dollop of peanut butter in the center. But that's just me.

The ride home was, weatherwise, dreary, rainy and unpleasant. And filled with idiots driving home after recovering from the hangover from partying after the OSU game Saturday night. Go Bucs, my ass. Sporting events should not interfere with my driving enjoyment.

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