I am a blog slacker...

Hi everybody. My name is Josh and I am a blog slacker. At least that's the word on the street.  I think I agree. If you agree too, make note of that in the comments section. Just kidding, either nobody reads this thingy or nobody knows how to follow directions. Sooooo... do whatever you want. Don't comment. See if I care. 

So, to touch on the highlights of this past week:

This week was a week matched by none other. Events this week consisted of three main themes: 1. Feasting; 2. Fighting; and 3. Fire. Notice the intricate web of alliteration there. That took at least 5 seconds to put together. I'm exhausted but I'll continue.

Let me explain what I mean by feasting, fighting, and fire, as these were the important elements of the week.

1. Feasting: everyone seems to want to feed us this week! It's awesome! They obviously love us. How could you not? Elva, the lab technician, took us out to eat for lunch on Tuesday at the China Buffet. It was good food... We steered clear of the buffet sushi, but the rest was exquisite  to say the most. Andrew and I decided to run that night since we each ate our own body weight in food. 

On Wednesday after work, I was pleasantly woken from my afternoon slumber by a huge character, who turned out to be Ron (our preceptor). His wife was out of town, so I suspect he was a little lonely and looking for some trouble to stir up. Well, lucky for him, trouble is our middle name and we live on the edge over here. In fact, we've lived on the edge for so long that we actually get our mail sent there. Anyways, Ron invited us to El Bracero, one of the Mexican restaurants in town. What a great host! I got a fajita and Andrew got a burrito. We talked all about life and ventured a little into Ron's personal life and some of his career choices. After dinner, we stopped at the grocery to get s'more stuff because he invited us over for a bonfire later in the evening. We talked all about man stuff and I introduced him to my specialty s'mores slathered with peanut butter. He loved them! 

On Thursday after work, Ron invited us over to have ribs. Ron has done extensive research on rib dry rub recipes, going as far as contacting professional chefs from both Omaha and Nashville for their secret recipes. Some of the ingredients included leprechaun beard trimmings, unicorn hoof shavings, and bald eagle scat. While Andrew was on the phone with Morgan, I slaved away in the kitchen and compounded this special concoction. Ron left me to complete this task while he went to buy ribs and extra ingredients. We narrowly escaped disaster when he noticed that the recipe was a little off due to some autocorrecting fiasco. Don't worry, all was well and the ribs were scrumdidilyumptious. Ron invited his Central City employees over and we all feasted on ribs, corn, potatoes, and fruit. We had more s'mores again later. 

Friday morning, Ron took us to the greatest donut bakery in Muhlenberg County and we purchased two dozen donuts for the ladies in the pharmacy. MmmmMmmm they were delish. We had leftover ribs and potatoes for lunch.

2. Fighting: on Tuesday, Ron came over after his Tae Kwon Do class and taught us self defense. Everyone should know basic self defense moves. Whether you are a big manly man or a small girly girl, these moves may come in handy some day. Hopefully you will never be put in a situation where you need them, but it is always good practice to be prepared. Teaching Andrew and I self defense may have been one of the worst decisions Ron made all month. Now, Andrew and I are constantly trying to sneak attack each other at random times throughout the day. Andrew seems to think that I will be an easier target in the morning, but I've proven him wrong on multiple occasions. I'm always watching you, Andrew... ALWAYS.

3. Fire: please refer to the aforementioned feast section. The element of fire served to produce the s'mores and was only included on the list for alliteration purposes. 

All in all, this was a great week. We'll see what adventures this weekend has in store for us and maybe we'll update the blog again sometime this century. 

JLR

Coming At You From The EST

This weekend hit me upside the head like a ten pound catfish. Actually it was more like twenty pounds. The drive to central city was uneventful aside from the billboards for underground ziplining-- the physics of it doesn't make sense to me either.

I was fortunate enough to have a mini meet and greet with the pharmacy staff who have been pranking Josh the past few days. Everyone was downright Kentuckian!!! Josh and I walked around town for a few minutes before meeting Andrew at the apartment. I liked getting to see all of the little shops, but I mostly liked getting to see Josh :)

Apparently it was gift giving time at the apartment! A tshirt and seashells from HHI (that's Hilton Head Island if you've never seen the stickers on 83% of all vehicles with a passenger capacity greater than or equal to 3), not one but THREE kinds of lotions, my very own lip balm, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and the infamous "craft" which is still trying to find a suitable place in my room -- every guy should be taking notes.

Later that night we stopped at Subway. I didn't realize that in Kentucky there is no such thing as proper topping order, and at any point in the sub making process you may be asked about your preference on tomatoes. We also went to Sonic for half priced shakes! Josh and I shared a shake and a slush. The shake was the product of ingenious appreciation for flavor, and a palate that has been trained in the art of milk based beverages (particularly those that have been kept at a temperature of 33 degrees Fahrenheit). Oh... The flavors? Peanut butter, chocolate, strawberry, banana. In that order.  

My favorite part of the night walking around with Josh and watching the stars for some time.

The most interesting? Josh and Andrew riding the buffalo. 

As you may have heard we were late for our morning caving tour, but thanks to Rick and Alan-shout out!- we hitched onto the 9:30 group. It was totes because of my puppy dog eyes. We meandered around the cave for about 2 hours... It was cool (both meanings), and something I've never experienced before. One part of the cave smelled really funny, but the air quality sensors didn't alarm so I assumed it was safe. I would hate to be trapped down in the cave, and I actually ran out for sunlight and warmth when the tour was finished :P

Kayaking was by far my favorite part of the day. The double kayak saw some pretty high speeds and was making wake on several occasions. I contributed to paddling, but if I'm being honest Josh did most of the work and I just enjoyed the river, sunshine, and conversation :)

The guys compounded a delicious dinner of fajitas and fresh cut pineapple. A perfect way to end a perfect day!

Sunday morning I had some eggs cooked just the way I like 'em and pancakes just the way Josh likes 'em. We went to church and I got to have the full balcony experience! Afterwards we had a photo shoot in front of one of many central city signs. The streets were empty until the camera came out, then everyone and their mother got to see us cheesin as they cruised by. 

Josh took me out on a dinner date at a local pizza joint. We got calzones as big as shoe boxes! We also witnessed some local drama, though we're still not sure who was the guilty party. Back at the apartment we got our exercise on --which we both agreed would allow us to get Sonic shakes later. A pretty hilly run overall, but we were cooled off by the rainstorm about halfway through. Like I said before, running meant milkshakes. So we went to sonic and guess what flavor we got? Yes. The quadruple threat! We shared, of course :) I had intended on staying up and watching a movie, but by 10:30 I was passed out!!! The festivities of the weekend had been wonderful but draining. 

Monday morning rolled around and it was time to hit the road. Goodbyes always make me feel like an empty star crunch box, so I was sad to go, but it won't be too long until I get to see Josh again! --sorry to get mushy on y'all :)

Special thanks go out to Ron for letting me use the apartment and to Andrew for making josh book the cave tour and being a great trip buddy!

A Mammoth Weekend

Greetings to everyone once again on this rainy and lightning filled Sunday evening here in Central City. The weekend was quite eventful and we had a very special guest join us as you will hear about.

I will start my narrative from our time of departure following work Friday afternoon. Josh's visitor, Kayti, arrived just before the end of our shift. While Josh was showing her around I packed up some things and got together a little bit of food. We set out a little after 6:00 for Munfordville, KY - the town where Josh had found a canoe outfitter that offered free camping. On the way we stopped at Morgantown (see picture dedicated to Morgan below) to eat at Subway and grab a loaf of bread and water. Josh contacted the outfitter on the drive to find out that he was not sending people out due to the high water level, but still said we could camp. We arrived in Munfordville just before the darkness set in and after a little bit of looking we found our campsite. We soon discovered that the "free camping" was really just a public park that has public restrooms, walking trail, exercise stations, and a small soccer field. After asking a briskly walking man about where people camp, he just pointed in the grass and said wherever! Since it was already dark, we decided to go to Sonic and then put up the tent. The tent was put up fairly easily under a pole light and then to add extra adventure was conveniently placed beside a life-size buffalo figure. While Josh and Kayti took a walk, I talked to Morgan on the phone while walking around the track going probably around 3 miles and scaring myself every time I passed the buffalo in the dark. We all went to bed, Kayti having her own room in the tent which was big enough for probably 15 people (the tent, not Kayti's room). It was extremely hot and so I opened up most of the vents on the doors to get some air which really didn't help. At about 12:40 two cars came down into the park with a spotlight. We thought it was odd because it was a dead end road stopping at the water. They pulled down to the waters edge and shone the light around for about 20 minutes before leaving. We postulated all the things they could be doing like fishing in the dark, finding swamp monsters, and looking for dead bodies. Josh and I were ready for some action though if things got hairy.

You will see in the pictures that our tent was not only beside the buffalo but also beside the walking path. In the early morning I was soundly asleep, so it was not until later that Josh told me many people who came for their morning walk had fun watching me sleep as they went by. You will also see from the pictures that I was really roughing it having no pillow, blankets, or mattress - just two thin beach towels. We set off for Mammoth Cave which was about a half hour away. We arrived a little late and almost missed our tour had it not been for the nice tour guide that allowed us to go on the 9:30 tour instead. As we walked down to the cave we were greeted with the 58 degree air that felt glorious since it was already up in the 90's like the rest of the week had been. The whole cave tour was awesome and our tour guide was very good. We stayed up front in the group of roughly 100 people so that we could hear some of the extra things he was saying. The cave is the longest known cave in the world with over 400 miles explored - 12 being open to the public, in which 8 are lit. Our "historic tour" featured such things as the room where they used to hold Methodist church services, the salt-peter mining operation for gunpowder in the war of 1812, formations, graffiti, and Josh's favorite - cave kisses (water droplets). The tour was really cool and there were a few tight places that some people probably wouldn't like if they were claustrophobic (shout out to my Grandma). Our tour was around two miles and two hours long.

When we were finished we called two other kayak outfitters. One company was offering trips outside of the national park since the park service wouldn't let them do any on park land due to the water level. Since the current was moving so much faster, they were offering a 12 mile trip that took 3 hours (usually 6 miles takes that amount of time). We thought that sounded good so we took a break to get a drink at "The Olde General Store" which was an American Pickers dream. It was basically a store with endless antiques and old stuff lying around. The outside had things hanging and sitting everywhere and things were marked up so much that you would be insane to pay any sticker price. Josh considered buying some old glass pop bottles in the crate, but had to walk away from the deal when a worker told him the lot was over $300 (he offered $10). Just down the road we located the kayak outfitter and signed up for one single and one double kayak. We followed the driver to the endpoint to park our car which was none other than - Munfordville, the very place we had camped. We rode with our outfitter buddy and I got his life story on the way. He owns the Mammoth Cave Canoe and Kayak as well as a zip line company in the park. He owns a winter home in Sarasota, FL, has two kids that live in SC, and likes vanilla ice cream. I was unable to obtain his SS or routing number, however.

Right before we set out on the waters we got to see a small Copperhead snake, which was kind of cute (when looking from the truck). The water was indeed moving quickly and made it pretty easy to navigate. I stayed ahead of the paddling lover birds for the most part and enjoyed the quiet, peaceful water. I noticed that the river was lined with huge sycamore trees the whole way, spotted a belted kingfisher, a small turtle, a great-blue heron, and observed that the river had been at least 10 feet higher within the last couple days. We stopped for lunch enjoying our peanut butter/honey sandwiches, trail mix, and bananas. We finished in good time and it was a great day to be out on the Green River. We ended back at our campsite and departed for home once we changed and made sure we had everything ready to go. Back at the homestead Josh and I tag-teamed to prepare chicken fajitas along with pineapple slices. It was a tiring but great day.

I am thankful that Kayti was able to come and visit and I think that we all had a good time. The trip provided a lot of time to be in the outdoors and to admire God's Creation. The tour guide remarked to our group that the cave environment is very constant and things that are left there could be considered "immortal". Objects have been found to last hundreds of years without changing as seen with things left in the cave like logs, clothes, and even bodies! I am thankful that I know the Solid Rock who is much more powerful and constant than a cave could ever be. With Jesus comes true immortality!

Saying of the day - "There's nothing lower than cave humor"

AMS

Morgan has caught some big catfish!

Sonic sweethearts

Divide and Conquer

Magic Buffalo Ride

Tent guardian

All wrapped up. Notice walking path.

Heading into the cave

Underground love

<------- Third wheel

Cave men make fire!

Glad to make it out alive

Official visitors

Hungry paddlers

Double kayak action

Paddling into your hearts

Josh's impromptu waterproof, shock-absorbing phone case

Porch doubles as tent-drying apparatus

1,000 Views...Check Your Stats

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal readers for their continued support as we have just reached 1,000 views. We are very thankful that there are so many people who care about us to follow what we do (or maybe you just like to see what goofy things we actually do). Whichever the case, we appreciate having you visit here! I would also like to take this time to acknowledge Joshua and his efforts in the writing process and picture taking. He has been a fun rotation partner and a good sport about writing.

Here is some stats that may interest you (if you are a nerd like me)l:

• This week so far there were 277 views from the United States and 1 from the Netherlands (ja!)
• All-time there are 75 views from Russia, 4 from the Netherlands, 3 from Germany, and 1 from Thailand. Either these are spam (likely) - or Josh has lots of friends in Russia we don't know about.
• 38% of viewers use an iPhone, while 51% use an Apple device. 41% use a windows device.
• The record for page views in one day is 189.

Please comment below if there is anything that you would like to see us try out before we come home and we'll see what we can do! 

AMS

Throwback Thursday!

Hey everybody! It's throwback Thursday! Sit down and listen while I chronicle another chapter of the wild and fascinating happenings of Josh and Andrew.

Disclaimer: this is Josh writing this post, so if you totally hate me and everything I write about, read no further! If you think I'm pretty decent and not totally horrible, read on... maybe I'll change your mind! Or not... but whatever... who am I kidding? Nobody reads this stuff anyways, right? Actually, a great deal of our views come from Russia... my guess is that they're spying on us because our lives are just that interesting. Obvi.

Anyways, if you're absolutely bored to death by this post so far, blame Andrew because he held me at gunpoint until I sat down to write this for y'all. So, after sitting down and jotting down a few notes about the past few days on the back of a Walmart receipt, I think I've made a pretty decent synopsis of our week. Meanwhile, Andrew is entertaining me with his guitar. 

Monday was a pretty normal day at the office. And by office, I mean the pharmacy. And by normal, I mean far from it. It started out pretty normal as we labeled the medication order and placed each bottle neatly and efficiently in their respective places of repose (alphabetical by brand name of course... unless it's in a random spot that only the techs and President Obama himself know about). After this monotonous exercise, we entered our natural habitat (the compounding lab) to commence our morning compounding sesh (that's shorthand session for you old folk out there). Andrew took care of my light work and began making a cream while I took care of the heavy work. Remember that moisturizing cream that Andrew told y'all about earlier? Well, I added water and fragrance to finish it off and make it smell good for the ladieeeees... After running about half of it through the ointment mill (and by half, I mean about 2 liters of it... and by 2 liters I only mean 1 liter... but that's still a ton of cream!), I realized that I really didn't like the consistency that the ointment mill produced. Sure, it was extra smooth, but the mill squeezed out all the air bubbles and it wasn't as "fluffy." Yes, that is a very technical pharmaceutical term... please excuse my compounding jargon. So, I remixed the cream by hand and whipped it into shape. Then I got it all packaged up and ready for use. After this little fiasco, we ended up with 2 jars of "shower fresh" scent, 1 jar of kiwi, and my personal favorite 2 jars of orange citrus. They are now on sale in the pharmacy for $59 each. Let us know if you'd like any so we can reserve them for you now. Act fast, they're flying off the shelves like a bat out of... a cave. In the afternoon, I perfected my lip balm for my project. After work, we had spaghetti for dinner and then I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Then I made a craft for a special someone while Andrew serenaded me with his guitar. Wait? Did I say craft? What was the craft, you ask? Well that's for me to know and you to find out ;)

On Tuesday we did stuff at the pharmacy too. Surprise! Must not have been much to write home about because my Walmart receipt is pretty blank for this day. Sorry folks! If it makes you feel better, insert a cool and funny story here:

And if you came up with anything cool, tell us about it in the comments section and maybe we'll act it out and tell you all how it went in our next post. After work, I went for a run in the blazing heat (95 degrees) and I almost died but then I didn't. I made macaroni and cheese for dinner and we ate some tuna the good old fashioned way: straight out of the can... less dishes to do that way! Oh yeah, the baseball hats that we ordered on Saturday came in today! Cool beans! We then wore them around for the rest of the night and pretended to be cool.

Wednesday... Hump dayyyyy! And for those of you who don't know what hump day is, refer to the Geico Insurance commercial that you'll hopefully find conveniently linked to this post (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA).  As we arrived at our place of work today, we were pleasantly surprised with a smorgasbord of treats and snack foods. Apparently they planned a potluck without our knowing. Much to our chagrin, we had nothing to contribute to the vast array of good food stuffs. Who am I kidding? I'm glad they didn't tell us... This way we didn't have to hope that food would spontaneously appear in our empty fridge so that we could bring it in to work. Ron let me work at the verification station today after we took care of the order. I know what you're thinking... verification station, right? Yeah, it's a totally cool thing that I can't tell you about because it's top secret. Only the inner realm gets to know about these sorts of things. It's real pharmacy stuff, kids. Maybe I'll tell you about it when you grow up. After work, Ron came over and tried to help us set up a digital amplifier for our television. It wasn't working in the apartment, so we took it over to their house. They had a very nice house and it was fun to talk to the kids (Emma and Evan) for a bit. I held up the antenna and we picked up all sorts of channels on their TV. Ron quickly concluded that it was finally time to get rid of his Stone Age TVs to replace them with something from this century. He then proceeded to get out leftovers and he graciously fed our hungry mouths like a bird would to her little chicks (okay... not exactly like that... he didn't regurgitate anything). He must've noticed how emaciated we are beginning to look. I then went for a bike ride and did a mini workout while Andrew talked on the phone to his lover girl, Morgie bear.

And now for today! Throwback Thursday! We made 180 suppositories in the lab today... what a mess... I made egg wraps for lunch and then we returned to work for more fun. After work, we took Subie the Subaru to the fillin' station for a drink. She was was getting a little thirsty. Then we checked out a small sporting goods store and picked up groceries at Walmart. We had a tasty 3 course meal for dinner: the appetizer on this fine eve was Great Value chips and salsa. And for the main course we had hot and spicy tacos. We then finished it off with dessert: a banana and an apple split between the two of us. 

So there's a little taste of what it's like to walk a week in our shoes (lucky for you Andrew can wear shoes again), in case you were dying to know. If you read the whole thing and made it all the way to the bottom... good job! You get a prize! How does a night out on the town and dinner paid for by you sound? And if you skimmed the whole thing and didn't really read it all... what are you doing with your life?? This is good stuff! Shame on you... Welp... I was supposed to write about the beach and stuff since it's throwback Thursday... but maybe some pictures will suffice...

JLR

Bees wax for my precious lip balm

Example of a front page news headline in a Kentucky newspaper. It's pixie the beaver!

Popcorn by Josh

Turkey Spinach Strawberry grilled wraps by chef Josh

Back to the Beach

Tired from a day of fishing

No shoes...but he still got service.

Andrew's membership to new club

Drip Castle

Showin off to tourists

Drip Castle on the brink of destruction

All-access 

Double shark action

Andrew's Sting-Ray

Biking to the beach

Water, water everywhere

Ouch. (This was with three days of healing...)

Waiting for the big one

Reels and Wheels

Pucker up, Sharky

Baby Great White (The son of a son of a sailor)

Harbour Town Lighthouse 

Golf course pond behind the apartment (probably full of golf balls)

Sunset on the Hacienda

Why am I taking a picture when I'm going so fast?

You can tell a lot about a man by his shoes. Mainly how big his feet are.