Turner's Bachelor Party

My friend Turner is getting married so a group of 9 of us threw him a bachelor party. The night got a little crazy when......hey, I am pretty sure everyone knows what goes on at a bachelor party so just use your imagination.

Christmas Time

Its Christmas time which means a couple of things:

1. Watching a lot of TBS' "A Christmas Story" 24 Hour Marathon
2. Tons of unhealthy food
3. Flying Airhog planes and helicopters with Dad as Mom laughes at us
4. Trying desperatly to stay awake during Midnight Mass
5. Christmas Eve Toasts with the Family
6. Friends Christmas gift exchange
7. Staying away from Creepy Santas
8. Taking about 3 naps in one day

Ugly Christmas Sweater PubCrawl

On Friday the 17th, a group of friends and I went on another Pub Crawl like we did in the Spring. The only difference is that we were required to wear the ugliest Christmas sweater that you could find.

The point of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Pub Crawl was to raise money for a local charity. I have no clue what charity would be benefiting from a bunch of drunken buffoons wearing tacky as hell sweaters roaming from bar to bar, but apparently a lot of money was raised for them.

The pub crawl was in Downtown Fort Worth and consisted of visiting 5 different bars within walking distance of each other. The Schedule for the Pub Crawl is as follows:

1. POAG MAHONE'S 6:30 - 7:15
   
2. 7th HAVEN 7:15 - 8:00
   
3. SHAMROCK PUB 8:00 - 8:45
   
4. CHIMY'S 8:45 - 9:30
   
5. DURTY CROW 9:30 - ??

The cool thing about this pub crawl was that each bar that participated had a ton of drink specials that dramatically cut the prices for beer and liquor. Beer could cost $1.50 each and wells were only $2.

I started at Poag Mahone's around 6:45 with Colin and Meredeth, who were both decked out in there most hideous Christmas Sweaters. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but toot toot, my sweater kicked ass. I bought a cheap sweater vest and a light blue turtleneck shirt that was covered in different snowflake shapes and sizes. To make the vest even more tacky, I attached 50 battery operated Christmas lights to the sweat and finished it off with an old school winter hat also with color changing lights.

Before the 3 of us went to the next bar, we played a couple of games and waited for Brittany to show up, who was late as usual. Brittany finally showed up in time to have a drink at Poag Mahone's before we left for the 2nd bar.

On the way to the next bar, Brittany and I decided that we should eat something since the both of us came to the pub crawl straight from work and have not had any thing to eat since noon. In between Poag Mahone's and 7th Haven bar is a great taco stand called "Taco Head".

The Taco Head is just a small trailer that can barely fit 3 employees in there. One person will take the order while the other two make the food. Another employee will stand outside and clean up any messes around the tables and chairs that they put out and also bring out more condiments for the customers.

After devouring a couple of the best chicken and cheese soft tacos, it was time to rejoin the group in 7th Haven. The people who participated in the Pub Crawl grew quickly as did our own group. At the first bar, there only about 20 people who were associated with the pub crawl whether they were the organizers who were working it or customers ready to drink a heavy amount of alcohol. By the end of "Taco Time", the number of people doubled to 40 and Bohan, Mindy, Paul, Do, and An joined our group to enjoy festivities.

Since the participants in the Pub Crawl grew so quickly in the small space that is know as 7th Haven, it was time to go on to the Shamrock Pub and get a couple of seats so we could drink and sit down at the same time. Our plan did not work because even though we left the 2nd bar early, The Shamrock was overly crowded. But that really didn't matter because we found 2 seats right at the bar and we were ready to restart the fun.

Our group didn't really want to spend alot of time at the Shamrock because we all knew that Chimy's was the next stop of the Pub Crawl and everyone loves Chimy's. To be honest, I don't know what it is about Chimy's that makes it so great, but it just is. We spent the majority of our time here, mainly because we got a table that could seat our who group and also because I ran into a bunch of Zetas (a sorority) that I knew from college.

After a couple of beers and some nachos later, we relized that we were at Chimy's for about an hour and a half and we were ready to go to the last stop on the pub crawl which was The Durty Crow. I dont know how long we spent there because that place was a time vampire. At one point it was 10:20 and next thing I know, it is past midnight.

At the end of the night at The Durty Crow, there were giving away prizes for the 4 best ugliest sweaters. I, unfortnaly, did not win this prestigous award. But I did find $20 bucks on the floor, so it ended up being a pretty good night.

Bar Dive T-Shirt Club

Recently I joined an online club called the Bar Dive Shirt Club. Basically, members of the club will get a shirt and information about a dive bar from somewhere in America once a month. The bar could be a well known dive or place that is pretty isolated and only a handful of people have been there. I got my first shirt today from Kirby's Beer Store in Wichita, Kansas.

With every shirt that I get, I am going to document the shirt, history and pictures of said bar on my picture website. Obviously it will be updated once a month.

Its becoming....

.....pretty damn cold outside now. Time to bust out the Crown

Cousin Stephanie is an RN

During the 1st weekend of December, I planned to go to Kansas City in order to attend my cousin Stephanie's RN Graduation Party. I was really excited about the trip with only one exception, that damn cold weather. A high of 32 degrees is a little too cold for me. I am pretty sure that people could tell that I was from out of town because I had a ton of layers on while the locals were roaming around in shorts and a sweatshirt. F-ing showoffs.

When I arrived in Kansas, my Aunt Cathy was the unlucky one who had to pick me up. She took me to see my cousin Daniel at his work at Aristocrat Motors and then we had lunch with my other cousin Dan at a place called Fric and Frak.

What was supposed to be a nice quiet lunch quickly became "shot time" for my cousin Dan. Now, to be honest, I did participate in one shot of rumpermints (probably the most disgusting liquor ever developed by man) along with a couple of beers.

From then, my Aunt Cathy decided to part ways with Dan and I and head home. The two of us braved the rough streets of Kansas in order to meet his brother/my cousin Dirk, who was down the street at the house they live in. And by brave the streets of Kansas, I mean drive by the several antique stores and another bar.

The three of us decided to bar hop for awhile and eventually made our way to the Granfalloon Bar where I meet up with my friend Hilary and some of my cousin's friends. And this is where Sober Cousin Dan Who Enjoyed To Have A Beverage Or 5 became Who In The Hell Did Cousin Dan Become So Drunk And Its Not Even 6 Yet. Its a very scientific process on how this transformation happened. If you follow the steps below closely, this process can happen to you as well.

1. Have a beer of any sort
2. Take a shot of any sort
3. Resists any temptation of food of any sort
4. Repeat 37 Times

And that is basically what happened to Dan. From this point, Dan didn't want to out any more and just wanted to stay at the bar with a couple of his friends. So after Hilary left, Dirk and I decided to go to Walsh's Corner Cocktail to get a drink and something to eat before we met up with his girlfriend Danielle and her friends.

A group of us decided to go to a place called the Czar Bar. I will be honest, this is where it gets kind of fuzzy for me. From what I do remember there was dancing on tables, obnoxious talking, shots, beers, and what appears to be the longest car ride home that ever existed known to man.

The next day, I don't think that I have ever felt so horrible before as I did. Not only was it a bad hangover, but it was also to 19 degree weather outside. To aide this situation, a choice had to be made, a clear choice, and it was obvious that there was only one choice. Get the greasiest slice a pizza in town.

There was a pretty cool pizza place just down the street from my cousins' house that has New York style pizza. I grabbed a couple of slices, consumed them, and quickly retired back to their house and took a nap until I had to go to my cousin Stephanie's RN Graduation Party.

The party was going to be at my Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda's House (Stephanie's parents) and almost all of the family was there to celebrate. The DeSpain Family was MIA as usual and cousin Dan was gone because we was still hungover from the night before.

There were tons of food, family, drinks, and entertainment to last the whole night. The main party of the night started inside so Paul (Stephanie's husband) could watch the OU game but quickly went into the garage where there were tons of coolers filled with tasty beverages of all kinds to warm anyone up during a cold Kansas City Winter Night. In case you don't know what I am talking about, I mean tons of alcohol.

One thing that saved us from freezing to death in Club de Garcia was the hugh propane heater that Bob (Cousin Julie's boyfriend) got from one of his friends. It definitely keep the garage warm and served as a useful lighter for all of the smokers.

It was now becoming closer to 3 am and the almost everyone had left with the exception of a hand full of cousins. With the majority of the drinks gone, it was time to quickly find a bed or place on the floor to sleep for what was left of the night.

I was woken up a couple of hours later by the sound of a trio of young hooligans known as Dominic, Anthony, and Mason (my cousin Alex's kids) whose age range from young, younger and youngest. The rest of the cousins quickly woke up and had things to do for the day with the exception of Bob. So the two of us got some breakfast at a place called Sharp's for what had to be one of the best omelette's I had in my life. Plus, it didn't hurt that they were serving a full bar by 10 am. And considering the night we just had, we may have spent too much time at this fine establishment.

The two of us finished our meal and headed over to cousin Dan's house so I could get my stuff and head over to Uncle Dan's house for Sunday Night Taco Madness at his house. After a quick visit with Uncle Dan and Aunt Denise, it was time to go over Bob and Julie's house where cousin Jackie and her boyfriend Kyle were staying as well. Since everyone was pretty much beat from the night before, everyone quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, Bob took me to the airport where we had a couple of drinks and I safely made it back home to Texas alive and liver in tact.

Thanksgiving 2010

Its near the end of the year and the Holidays are starting. The first major Holiday celebration is Thanksgiving and I can not be more excited for the 4 day weekend to come.

I did the usual meet up with friends (some that live here and some that come home for the holiday) at a local bar and just hang out and whatnot. This year, we decided to meet up at J.R. Bentley's, a small bar near my old college. Good times were being had by all, but I couldn't stay out too late because I had to help with some family stuff the next morning. Everyone left around 1:30 am and headed home.

Its now Thursday and it is officially Thanksgiving. And that means only one thing, I am going to be lazy as all hell. The only thing that I know that I have to do today is go to dinner with the family at 2:30 at The Keg Steakhouse. This is the second year that we have gone out to eat because none of us want to cook or clean anymore.

The Keg does have a pretty cool Thanksgiving Special that usually attracts a ton or people to their establishment. The will serve you a three course meal that someone would normally eat if they cooked a Thanksgiving meal themselves. By the end of the meal, all three of us were completely full from food and a couple of cocktails and it was time to go home with all of our leftovers. By the time we got home, it was time to finish up the Cowboys game and get a quick nap in.

A couple of hours later we warmed up a ham and some small side dishes and had a quick dinner and that was it for Thanksgiving. It was now time to relax. The next day I did absolutely nothing with the exception of going to see "Unstoppable" at the Movie Tavern and that was it. It was now time for Saturday.

Usually my friends and I have a huge kick ball tournament on Saturday that ends with an all night cookout and dominoes, but times they are a changing. Since the majority of my friends are now having kids, we had to change things up a bit.

Instead of the kickball game, I did a quick one - two and decided to go to a brewery with some other friends. Nothing beats celebrating Thanksgiving like going to a local brewery and getting free beer for a couple of hours.Where do you and a group of 12 people in their twenties go after consuming free alcohol for 2 hours? A greasy hamburger joint of course!

We decided to all pack into our cars and head to a place known as Fred's. Fred's is a well know burger spot in Fort Worth that serves awesome food and some pretty good music too. After that was said and done, it was bon fire time.

My friend Darrell and his wife invited people over for a Friend's Thanksgiving Dinner and a bon fire. there were about 15 people there and everyone brought some sort of dish or drinks for the party. Everyone had a good time and this event by watching 80s movies and trying to stay warm next to the outdoor fire pit that Darrell set up.

It was a pretty good thanksgiving and now I just have to get prepared for Christmas and New Years.