April 2026

Can you tell? That I’m trying to get caught up on blogging? It’s almost as if something is coming up that I’m going to want to blog about. But before that happens (and it hasn’t happened yet!), let’s look back at April!

The month got off to a great start with Mom, Dad and Emily coming out for General Conference weekend visit to see the new place. Friday night we welcomed them with pizzas from two of our favorite local spots — Sexton’s and Pizza Nerds — and I do not have any pictures of that. But Saturday morning we went to German Village for Fox in the Snow and Pistacia Vera and I DO have pictures of that!

After the afternoon session of General Conference, we took the family to walk around Blendon Woods a bit.

And then, after the evening session of General Conference, we headed over to the Top Steakhouse for a nice little supper. And a meeting of the loafer gang.

Sunday morning we started out with a walk at Taylor Farms but it was a bit. too. cold.

Between Sunday sessions we had a taco feast with all the Columbus family and there were also nice desserts. And later we drove Emily to the airport. And then the next day Mom and Dad drove home.

A strange thing that happened in April was we went to an out of the way gas station to pick up a U-Haul and the entire U-Haul network was down. You couldn’t pick up a rental anywhere in the United States, perhaps the world? But another day the network was back up and we were able to eventually pick up some patio furniture from the Gardner’s house because guess what they bought a new house, too.

Here are pictures from some walks, a trip to the peach cobbler shop, around the house, a trip downtown to see Liz sing at the Ginger Rabbit, more around the house, another walk, ice cream we had when Cher visited (oops should’ve got a picture of all of us together when Cher visited) and two visitors to our animal feeder.

And then, as often happens, on the last day of April I celebrated my birthday. Because it was my birthday. Like 2025 before it, we started the day with a trip to the Waffle House.

And then after work we went to dinner at the Cobra Bar as their Asiany, funky menu had had my curiosity for quite a while.

And then we took a nice walk around nearby Schiller Park before heading back home and there … I logged back into work to take care of some things, which I don’t usually have to do, just one of those special birthday things, I guess. Anyway it was a nice end to a nice month!

…and now…in a few real life days…Liz and I go visit New York! And then in a few blog weeks, I make a New York post!

Hoods and Moods

Tricky title for this post, right? Really trips you up, doesn’t it? Trips me up, at least.

If you know me (you probably know me), think about what kind of music you think I like. Think about what kind of music I might listen to the most. Ok now let me tell you something. The music I listen to the most is music that does not distract me when I am studying, reading or working, and I’ve found the music that best fits this description is droning music where nothing happens. Just long sounds that change every now and then. And one of my favorite makers of this type of music is a band called Sunn o))) (which I’ve learned is pronounced “Sun”, so prepare for me to be as annoying with my pronunciation of “Sunn o))) as I am with my pronunciation of “Kierkegaard.”) It’s these two guys who play long droning heavy guitar “songs” where almost nothing happens. It’s the music equivalent of a lot of my favorite books.

Imagine my surprise several months ago when I found out that Sunn o))) was coming to Columbus! I snatched a ticket right up and then, on April 9, I found myself at that very concert at the Bluestone downtown, which clearly used to be a church. Here are the pictures of the sonic druids in “action”, and at the end of the post, some more words:

So, the thing about Sunn o))) live shows is that they’re known for being incredibly loud. I mean, look at all those speakers! And it’s true, it was very loud. I had my ear plugs in of course! But their droning noise just rattled by body and the room. The funny thing is a couple of times I took my earplugs out to “see” how loud it really was and I thought “Hmm, that doesn’t seem that loud.” It wasn’t painfully loud, just consumingly loud, if that’s a thing. I think the loudest band I’ve ever heard was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a million years ago at the DV8 in Salt Lake. That was painful, everybody was plugging their ears with their fingers. As you can see from these pictures, people weren’t plugging their ears at Sunn o))), they were vibing out, enjoying the sonic journey. Honestly after about 10 minutes I was like “ok I get it” and could have just left because not much changed because not much happens in their “music” but I stuck it out and eventually started roaming the venue.

After the show, though, heading home I was like “what is that rushing sound, am I by a river?” I mean it’s not awesome to write this but basically my hearing was functionally gone. I’ve left a lot of shows where my ears were left ringing, but never left, uhh, not working? I wound up even taking a sick day the next day because I need to hear to do my work! But by that night things were back to normal and by my next workday I was listening to Sunn o))) on my headphones again. Their droning really helps me concentrate! I’ll keep them in my rotation for a long time, I think. But I probably won’t see them live again. Probably. I think.

The Rest of February and All of March

It’s time to get caught up again! Here’s pictures of things that happened since Liz’s birthday trip. (And a real big thing that happened is we moved into our new house but I don’t really have pictures from moving day because we were all busy moving!)

Liz sang at the Old Worthington Library!

One Monday night we got dinner at the nearby Gahanna Grill because the Gahanna Grill is nearby and Boy I am glad the Gahanna Grill is nearby, it’s one of the best restaurants nearby to us!

We have taken so many trips to the old house thinking it would be the last trip we needed to take and then there have been so many more trips after those trips but I write this post just days (fingers crossed) before the old house is officially on the market and (we hope) will soon become someone’s new house.

We went to Blendon Woods Metropark because we live so close to it! They have a legendary snapping turtle there called Cornelius.

A few pictures from around the new home:

Liz went to Michigan for a work trip. I was going to surprise her by spending Saturday picking up all the sticks in the yard while she was away. Instead, I was surprised to find two trees of ours knocked down by a windstorm. So I spent Saturday walking to Home Depot to get a saw and sawing up those trees into pieces. It was a good day’s work! And I tried the new McDonald’s burger while I was at it. They should’ve called it the Mustard McMac.

Pictures from walking around our neighborhood, pictures from around our house:

Liz had a gig! Playing with some of her coworkers and with some more coworkers in the audience.

There’s this big interesting looking park on the way to church so one Sunday morning we went and walked around that park on the way to church.

And then another day we walked down to this river path near our house where we saw an albino squirrel buy you may not be able to see the albino squirrel in the one picture with her in it because she’s tiny.

March 25! Liz and I celebrate our Third Anniversary with a walk around German Village and dinner at Lindey’s in the German Village.

A few days later … we meet up with everyone in Mt Sterling for a little dinner and to make our first visit to the Gardner’s new house and then we go watch Lizzie in the Addams Family.

And to wrap this post up … one more walk around the neighborhood, plus a picture of a spam breakfast and Cornelius.