Predictable

Some things in life are guaranteed to happen, day in and day out, week after week, season to season. Our lives are full of those predicable events. For instance, I always know the routine when I get home from work. I'm very much a creature of habit as are the dogs we live with. When I come in the door I like to check the mail, change into jeans, check voice mail, check on Kelly (if she's home) - and most importantly - go outside and throw the ball for Tango for a few minutes. While I toss the ball I usually wander around the deck and back yard checking on the gardens and various flower pots - water, trim, enjoy.

Tyson usually finds a cool shady spot to hang out, listening, watching, always on full alert in case something happens that he has to investigate.

Tandie keeps a low profile, sometimes sitting wistfully by the back fence dreaming of the days when she used to be able to climb it and escape (temporarily) for a romp through the neighborhood. Thank goodness those days are gone.

We're starting to feed the birds again so part of my ritual is refilling the feeders. The birds in our neighborhood are PIGS - they clean out the feeders daily. Lucky for them we're so indulgent and keep re-filling them.

Jumping For Joy

Now that the weather's cooling down we're feeling more like taking the dogs to the park again for walks along our favorite trail. They were absolutely mad with excitement when Chris leashed them up in the backyard on Sunday, yelping and barking and pulling. They knew where we were going!

The trees and foliage in the woods are still lush and green, though we're beginning to see signs of the autumn colors to come. Red and gold leaves are scattered here and there, and - ick - a little striped snake blending in with the dirt of the trail was in our path as well.

Birthdays Part 2

After our visit in Blanchester we dropped Mom off at home and went to party #2 of the day, for Josh who's now 17. We got there just in time for cake and ice cream, with the adults out on the deck and the kids (mostly) inside watching a movie. Abby came outside with some fun light-up toys that put on quite a light show as she waved them around in the dark.

After a while she asked if I wanted to see her rock collection; of course I did - Kelly used to have a fine rock collection, and I know I used to collect rocks when I was little ... so we went into the living room where she had her shells, stones, fossils and sea glass spread out.

Some of her shells and sea glass were from the beach, and she told me about how she digs underneath the deck to find rocks and fossils - she's quite the archeologist! She knows a lot about her collection and I'm glad she invited me to see it. A fine way to end our busy day!

Birthdays

It's been a weekend with 2 family birthtdays, a niece who's now 16 and a nephew who's 17. We headed out east to Blanchester yesterday afternoon to have some dinner with Margy, Phill and the gang, picking up Mom on the way. I love going to their house - they have several acres with no neighbors in sight and it's always very peaceful. We walked through the vegetable gardens and inspected the grapevines, finding nothing much but the left behind produce since it's the end of the season.

We wandered out to the pond which is full to the brim because of all the recent rain. Calypso the dog ambled along behind us, hoping to get a handful of the fish food that Phill throws into the pond - she thinks it's quite a tasty treat. Calypso (Phill calls her "Boo") is an old girl who's seen better days but she still loves to get into the water and fetch rocks. And does she ever look bad and smell bad after she's done that. There's nothing quite as awful as wet doggie odor, especially one with that much fur. When she shakes off the water, you don't want to be anywhere around! She can't understand why nobody want to be near her after she's gotten all wet - she just wants to be with her people and be loved!

The family cat is named Persephone (from Greek mythology?). She tiptoes quietly around the vegetable gardens, the barn and the field, keeping an eye on everybody and everything.

Then of course, there was food and cake and presents. Happy Birthday, Laura!

Festivals Galore

June marks the beginning of "festival season" in Cincinnati, with one Catholic church after another advertising their weekend-long events. I'm not sure if it's the same in every other big city across the country, but we have dozens we could attend in the course of the summer. And please note, any festival that takes place after August 31st is called "Oktoberfest" so now we're technically in "Oktoberfest" season.

I have found that a really good festival has four main ingredients: Food, beer, games and entertainment. Food choices are usually a combination of hamburgers/hot dogs/brats/metts; slices of LaRosa's pizza, funnel cakes, corn on the cob, nachos with cheese, soft pretzels. Mmmmm.

Games are in two categories: kids games - the easy bean bag toss kind of game, ring toss, duck pond and so on, with all the cheap little prizes - and adult games, like bingo, poker, split the pot and the instants. We actually won $50 on an instant at the OLR Oktoberfest last weekend! We went to the "Taste of Colerain" about a month ago, and they had some really good kids rides - not a church festival, but similar. They even had a mechanical bull -Yeehaw!

As for beer, well, it's consumed in massive quantities - no pictures of any beer guzzling, but trust me, Cincinnatians love their beer. This weekend the Mother of All Festivals is taking place downtown - our annual Oktoberfest Cincinnati. It's a beautiful weekend and I'm sure it's going to be packed.

If you happen to be reading this, let me know if all this sounds familiar. Does your town or city have lots of church festivals all summer long? Or is it just a "Cincinnati" thing? We have a lot of German-Americans in our area so perhaps it's just our heritage.