SPRING, sprang, sprung!!

Tuesday, April 1 - NO FOOLIN' - The pool opened for 2025 today!! 

We also kicked the month off with some dream-worthy pizza and libations at the newish Tailgate Brewing location in Antioch tonight.   

Saturday, April 5 - Holy Samolies!  Look at these cute little boogers!!  Our newest foster kitten clan are a foursome of sweet babies named Kent (the only male), Joy, June, and Rosa .  Named after some nearby streets where they were found recently.  

We grabbed some dinner and some libations with a couple friends at Cedar City Brewing Company tonight and then our foursome nabbed second place in the trivia contest being held there with a come from behind go for broke last question that we nailed!!  We didn't even know it was trivia night when we got there!

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Thursday, April 10 - Tonight we attended the SOLD-OUT event where Tom Hanks was live in Nashville interviewing his daughter, E.A. Hanks, about her new book, "The 10: A Memoir of the Road," which we both got a signed copy of as well.   It was a great conversation with a lot of laughs and interesting information. 

Saturday, April 12 - After a hard day of spring-cleaning including vacuuming our dirty pool.  I got my first float in afterwards along with a cold beer.  NOW, the pool is really open!!  Ashlee's been all the way in already, but not me and my boys!! 

Sunday (Funday), April 13 - After a quick float in the still very chilly pool, we headed down to East Nashville Beer Works - Wilson County for the Adopt-A-Golden Easter-themed Yappy Hour fundraiser.  We had some great pizza and beer, and Sunny (Bunny) had a ball carousing around with lots of other golden retrievers and other various mutts.  

Sunny (Bunny) scored big in the Easter egg hunt at ENBW-WC's Yappy Hour coming home with lots of treats.  We had friends join us as well and it turned out to be a great afternoon under sunny blue skies with good food and libations. 

Saturday, April 26 - We had a nice time at my (gulp) 40th High School Reunion tonight upstairs at the pretty cool (for Jasper) Redpoint Inn Restaurant.   I appreciated Ashlee coming with me since not everybody's spouse felt it important enough to attend.  There were some adult libations, some good pizza, a little bit of gossip, and a lot of laughs throughout the evening.   We miss you, Brian Griffith!! 

Saturday, May 3 - Our young friend and excellent pet-sitter, Apurvah (AP), graduated with his master's degree from Cumberland U this weekend and is probably leaving us soon to move to Texas with his sister in hopes of finding a job here instead of going back to India.  We wished him all the luck and congratulations tonight with a few libations at Cedar City Brewing where we got to meet his sister and her husband, who are great folks as well.  Thanks for all you help, AP!!  We wish you only the best!! 

Monday, May 5 - Cinco de Defendo!!  We were back at Cedar City Brewing tonight hoping to defend our 2nd place trivia win from a few weeks back and to spend our $15 in prize loot we got for it along with the rest of our team of friends.  We added three members tonight and had a 7-person juggernaut that took down 1st place!!   It was another come-from-behind victory on the last question which we nailed to move up from 4th to 1st!!  Now we've got another $20 credit voucher to spend here in the future.  Heck, maybe next week! 

Tuesday, May 6 - To celebrate Ashlee's 20th anniversary of working at Guardian Insurance, I got her a cool and hilarious Cameo.com personal message from actress, Mary Catherine Garrison, who played Tricia on the (sadly) now-defunct HBO show, "Somebody Somewhere" that we both loved so much.  Congrats, Ashlee!! 

Thursday, May 8 - We attended the fun Night Out for New Leash on Life event held at Alumni Hall at Cumberland University here in town tonight.   We had some great food truck fare from Fried Green Tomato for dinner.  The bar was pouring them strong, and we didn't even use all four of our drink tickets each.  We won three different silent auction items including a fancy new cat tree; an overnight stay and seven days parking at the Nashville airport; and a goody basket with East Nashville Beer Works merch and a gift card in it, plus two full dinners for two at our new Aubrey's Restaurant here in town. Comedian, Brian Bates, was pretty funny too and I even spoke with him before his set about a podcast he was on recently that I listen to.  Nice guy!  

Saturday, May 10 - We were fortunate enough to get tickets along with several friends to attend the uber-popular Savannah Bananas baseball game at SOLD OUT Nissan Stadium tonight.  Their opponent was the equally fun to watch, Party Animals.  It was a great time from start to finish including an amazing parachute arrival by the Army's Golden Nights to deliver the game ball; a player introduction escorted by new Titans draft picks including # 1 pick, quarterback Cam Ward; a fun song by Dierks Bentley; and an appearance by former Titan legend, Jevon Kearse!  This was the Nanners first ever sold-out NFL stadium!  What a night!  We can't wait to go again!! 

Beforehand, we checked out Hoppin' River North - a new craft beer bar where you pour your own and pay by the ounce.  It's about time Nashville got one of these!!  It was awesome with great service, lots of craft beer choices, a beautiful riverfront view and food delivery from the also new Shake Shack next door!  We will definitely be back here whenever possible.  We were also able to park here for a reasonable amount and Uber to the game and then walk back while traffic thinned out.  A great day out from start to finish! 

Monday, May 19 - Happy 24th Anniversary to us!!!  We kept it low-key this year with just a great dinner at the new Aubrey's Restaurant here in Lebanon.  The wait wasn't too long, and you couldn't beat the drive time!  We were also able to use one of our two "dinner for two" gift certificates that we won in a silent auction a couple weeks ago.  Our $85 worth of free steaks and baked potatoes were tasty.  The service was a little jittery (forgot our salads) but probably just because it's new.  We will definitely be back...at least to use our other gift certificate! 

(kinda) CANCELLED

Saturday May 24 - Monday, May 26: Cooler than normal temperatures squashed plans for a true Memorial Day Weekend Pool Party.  Ashlee's cousins from Cincinnati came in anyway and we still had a nice time with them.  We also had a few friends stop by on Sunday (5/25) and we did some grilling and hanging out along with some pool floating.  You take what you are given!  

 REFURB is the WORD!!  When our old patio glass tabletop inexplicably shattered last fall, we decided not to buy a whole new set, but instead to have the top replaced with a custom-made sheet from Bluegrass Glass and Mirror here in town and they did a great job!   Martha Stewart (Living) would be proud!! 

Saturday, May 31 - We closed out the first May in a long time without temps getting above 90, so it was also the first May in a long time where we didn't get in the pool regularly either.  But that never stopped Sunny!  But she's still waiting for summer temps to get here too.  (great pic by Ashlee).