it looks like punxsutawney phil might have been right this year! the weather has been amazingly warm and the spring flowers are starting to bloom. even better, our flip-flops have been dusted off and are back in rotation! let’s cross our fingers we don’t have any more freezes.

on the oscars front, i went 19/24 on my oscar ballot last night! and that’s with only seeing inception out of the contenders. gub went 6/24, which is still respectable for only seeing one of the movies. overall, the oscars were fairly boring though.

– ryan

in order to make room for our expanding family, we are turning our old office / work room / studio into the new baby’s room. since both sets of grandparents live out of town, we opted to keep our only guest bedroom in tact so they can come visit. we are playing a bit of “musical rooms” and turning what we used to refer to as “the media room,” which houses our movies, ryan’s huge record collection, and our flat file into the new work room and studio. we are setting up ryan’s office in the guest bedroom.

here’s what everything looked like before this transformation began…

– gub & ryan

check out this great dairy queen drive-thru sign i saw it near the airport! i wish all dq’s had lit up cones!

– ryan

once upon a time, my buddy willy and i brewed quite a bit of beer under the name bottle rocket brewing. we hosted gatherings where we grilled out and shared our beer with friends. summertime favorites were our watermelon wheat and orange cream ale, both went quickly when we had them on tap.

most of our friends also chipped in and designed labels for our beers. the labels were a big part of the fun we had! you can see all of the different label designs on the bottle rocket website, or flip through them here.

although it’s been awhile since i’ve brewed, i hope to get back to brewing soon!

– ryan

as mentioned on our blog before, john portman is a famous architect who designed many of the buildings in downtown atlanta. one such famous design is the americasmart building 3, which is home to various trade shows. the interior is quite impressive. it’s completely open with an amazing view of the many floors.

– ryan

i like this photo!

– ryan

i recently worked in augusta and was able to explore the historic downtown a decent bit. they have this beautiful area called riverwalk, which is along the savannah river. it has nice views of downtown augusta, ga and north augusta, sc across the river. there is even a pretty cool amphitheater i discovered after work one night. it was right behind our marriott hotel and was lit up pretty cool at night.

– ryan

i recently went to fat matt’s rib shack for the first time. this atlanta establishment has been on my list of bbq spots i’ve wanted to try for years. i’m not sure why i waited so long; the ribs were definitely some of the best i’ve had in town! they reminded me of maddy’s ribs, which are also some of my favorites. they were tasty, but not too saucy, and the meat fell right off the bone. i also sampled fat matt’s bbq chicken and various sides dishes, all of which were tasty as well. and although i didn’t get to eat my food there, i really enjoyed the atmosphere while i waited and would love to go back!

one quick note, i did see signs for live music pretty much every night of the week at fat matt’s. if you’re into the whole bbq and live music thing, then you’ll be way into that. but for others, like us, who actually enjoy conversing while eating bbq, then you should probably try fat matt’s for lunch or an early dinner.

– ryan

fat matt’s rib shack

1811 piedmont avenue ne
atlanta, ga 30324
404-607-1622

yesterday morning was super foggy. downtown atlanta was pretty as the skyscrapers tried to peak out from behind the haze.

– ryan

i saw a super old cigarette vending machine today! it was the style where you pull a lever for your smokes to come out. i can’t remember the last time i saw one of these treasures. they’ve disappeared like payphones, although for a better cause. i love how they had to stencil “no smoking” on the wall behind the dispenser!

– ryan