New Years Day

New Years Day dawned gray, windy and chilly. Evidently Old Man Winter has come to Cincinnati! We got out of the house by mid-morning and had a quick breakfast, stopped at the Post Office and headed down to Union Terminal (a.k.a. Cincinnati Museum Center). Union Terminal is home to several organizations: The Cincinnati History Museum, the Childrens Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, and the OmniMax Theater. There are also frequent special exhibits to visit, and if you're ever going somewhere via Amtrak, this is the place to catch your train. Union Terminal was built in 1931 and has enormous mosaic murals depicting life in the Ohio River Valley, from frontier times to the early 1900's. Countless visitors have passed through the terminal with its huge rotunda, travelling by rail in the days before air travel was the norm.

We've been wanting to see the Titanic Artifacts exhibit, and we'd also heard about the new movie showing at the OmniMax, "Hurricane on the Bayou." We bought our tickets for both and went downstairs to find the Titanic exhibit. The lady at the entrance gave us lengthy dire instructions about not touching the glass cases ("shrieking alarms"), no cameras (smiled politely while we stashed them away in our backpack); and for heaven's sake, no gum, drinks, food or cell phones. The exhibit was good - very factual, everything labelled and explained, really bringing the passengers and the experience to life. As we moved from room to room studying the exhibit, one thought impressed me over and over: so many of the passengers never intended to be on that ocean liner; there was a big coal strike at the time that caused many of the other Trans-Atlantic liners to cancel their crossings. Many of those who died had not been on that trip by choice, but by default. I was also struck by the big differences between First and Second Class vs. Third Class. So many of the Third Class passengers never had a chance to survive....

The movie was not quite what we expected. The footage of the bayous and people were wonderful, and the music was great but we hadn't anticipated the environmental message that was the real theme of the movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for saving coastal wetlands in Louisiana. But somehow, "man" can never do the right thing with our natural resources ... Anyhow, it's always a treat to go to an IMAX movie even though I get sooo dizzy as soon as I walk in. I had to fight the urge to close my eyes much of the time.

We're looking forward to many more short trips this year - Chris' co-worker gave him a book called "Ohio Oddities" as a Christmas gift so we'll use that to find some out-of-the-way fun places on the weekends.

Alpine Village

During October, the Krohn Conservatory had a special exhibit called "Alpine Village." They worked with members of the Clay Alliance to put together a colorful display of fall flowers, mixing in all sorts of pottery items made by local potters - animals, bird baths, mushrooms, birdhouses, fountains. Mom donated 3 brown bunny rabbits that she made some time ago (not for sale, just lending them for the show). They placed the rabbits in a garden scene, at the corner of a fence.

Though not a large exhibit, it was fun to look at and very well done. I went with Mom at the end of the month to visit, not long before they dismantled it to prepare for the holiday displays. There was a garden area, a marketplace, a castle scene, and a large fountain in the center of the room. Lots of detail to take in, and very colorful with all the fall mums. Mom was so pleased to have her bunnies be a part of the show!

Walking the Dogs

On Thursday, we finally got the dogs out to the park for a long romp. The past week has been unseasonably mild and sunny so we knew we had to make time to go. We met several other dogs and their owners as we walked and enjoyed the peace and quiet in the field. As we finally started down the trail through the woods, back to the van, the sun was beginning to set in the winter sky.

The Original Wendy's

While we were in Columbus last week we found the original Wendy's restaurant location in downtown Columbus, on Broad St. They've got a lot of memorabilia on display. I was surprised to find out that Dave Thomas' daughter was not actually named Wendy, but Melinda. Go figure.

Christmas Eve Eve

Yesterday Chris and I took a road trip up north to Columbus, to find the Franklin Conservatory. He had read about an exhibit of Chihuly glass titled "Fiori: A Chihuly Garden of Glass." So we packed up the cameras, fired up the NavLady and headed up I-71. We found the conservatory quite easily, and right away I could see that it was much larger and more updated than our Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati. As we wandered the paths and worked our way from room to room we were in AWE of the incredible blown glass work. The works were huge, they were surprising in their compelxity, and everything was so colorful. Chris and I both took well over 200 photos in the 1 1/2 hours we were there. (Oh, and we did notice the plants and flowers as we went along, even though our focus was the glass work.)

These are just a sampling of our many pictures. Everything was so beautiful, it was hard to stop snapping! We're planning on visiting the conservatory again in January when a new exhibit begins, "The Orchid Forest." The Chihuly glass show runs through February so we'll get to view that again while we're there. Fun!

Catching Up

I’ll try to re-cap the events of the past couple of months while I’ve been MIA. Nothing incredibly interesting has happened – no crisis, no health problems, no accidents. Life just gotten away from me and free time has been non-existent. That’s something that HAS to change in 2007. My life has been quite out of balance and I’m feeling the stress of all the hurrying and rushing and craziness that seems to come with my day-to-day activities.

Some noteworthy and possibly interesting news since I last posted on October 15th:
- Matt started a new job (furniture store, sales consultant) and has also rented an apartment with his girlfriend Emily. He moved out of the house the first week of November. They’re still planning to be married in June.
- Chris became a full-time permanent employee at Toyota MM, NA. No more “contract” status, he’s now joined the family and has all the perks and benefits that go along with being a real employee. Hurray!
- Nothing new with the dogs – we’ve started using a baby gate to keep them downstairs during the day and they’ve adjusted to that. We got a nice new soft dog bed, and who’s using it? Big fat Beanie.
- I took Lucy (our oldest cat) to the vet last weekend for a check-up since she’s been wheezing again - - back on the steroids and feeling much better. Thankfully she’s good about having a pill shoved down her throat as long as there’s a treat immediately following. She’s also developed a new-found courage – no longer is she the “cowardly cat” living in the laundry room. She actually comes upstairs to the kitchen and beyond, staring down the dogs and hissing when they get too close. She knows she’ll get a tiny bit of milk in a dish as a reward for coming up, so I’m sure that’s helped reinforce her new behavior. It’s very strange, though, that after 8 years of being in the house with the dogs she’s decided to tolerate them all of a sudden. What’s up with that??
- There’s a new camera in our house, a Canon EOS 30D digital SLR. Can’t remember what type of lens he’s go on it – it’s huge, though. I call it “The Intimidator.” We’ve been having fun going on photo walks with our respective cameras – Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park, downtown Cincinnati to view all the Christmas festivities and decorations. Fun!
- Kelly has been bitten by the photo bug this fall also, as she’s started to take a Photography class at school. I’ve been letting her use my 25-year old Pentax K-1000, and she’s been shooting black-and-white film, and learning to develop it in the darkroom. I never dreamed my Pentax would be used by my daughter. I love that camera – my first “real” camera and it takes such great picures!
- We had 2 great Thanksgiving dinners spread out over 2 days, which I think is the way everyone should do it! My Aunt Hilary was in town from Iowa and we had a wonderful time visiting with her. She brought along her friend Sister Pascal, and they stayed with Mom for 5 days. For being a nun Aunt Hil sure is a hoot! I drove Mom, Hilary, Pascal and Kelly on a field trip to the annual holiday Crafts Affair in downtown Covington. So many beautiful handmade items, especially the jewelry. Kelly bought a gorgeous ring, Mom and the others bought some candles and decorative items for Christmas gifts. What a day. I was tired out after about an hour of walking around the Convention Center, but Mom and Hil just kept on going, and going ….

- And last but not least, a big piece of news: I found out 2 days ago that my job at CB is being eliminated at the end of January. I’ve been through reorganizations twice before in my career (such as it has been!), so even though it was a surprise, I can deal with it. My role had been changing more and more to a sales capacity, which I didn’t like, and I had been thinking I would need to make a job change early in 2007 anyway, so …. It’s just a little sooner that I expected. This is actually good news in a strange sort of way – I’ll be looking for a part-time job this time around, so maybe some of that elusive “free time” that I hear so much about will come my way. Now that would make 2007 a wonderful new year!

October Birthdays

The October birthdays in my family include my twin sisters, a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law. We gathered for a visit and dinner out in Blanchester again, arriving a little early so the husband could go metal-detecting out where the old barn stood. (It was recently torn down and the lumber sold, so the site is gradually becoming overgrown.) I tagged along for the walk, enjoying the fields, the creek and the landscape in general. Very peaceful.

Fall Colors

It's finally starting to happen, just in the past week. The trees are starting to turn, with a little bit more color noticeable each passing day. We've had quite a bit of wind the last couple of days and that's taken quite a lot of leaves off many of the trees. I'm seeing big piles of leaves raked up to the curbs, a sure sign that leaf collection season has arrived in our community.

I'm so thankful we're not any further north - news of the renegade snowstorm in Buffalo was an unwanted reminder that Winter is creeping up on us. We've had a couple of early snowfalls in the past in Cincinnati, most notably on October 18, 1989 when I was pregnant with Kelly. I remember it well - similar to the Buffalo storm because all the leaves were still on the trees and the ice and snow created havoc for days. Let's hope we don't see any snow fly until December!

Fun With Talking Monkeys

This is a hilarious site - you can record your own voice and send a "talking" monk-e-mail, and you can dress your monkey in different outfits and use different scenes. Check it out: http://www.monk-e-mail.com/

More later - I have lots of pictures from Tall Stacks last weekend - we went down to the riverfront on Saturday evening after dark (brrr!) and again on Sunday morning - what a gorgeous day to view the boats! We parked on the Kentucky side both times and walked across the Suspension Bridge to Ohio. On Sunday we made the full circle, crossing over on the Suspension Bridge, walking the riverfront, then back across on another bridge, hiking through Newport back to the car. I haven't had that much fresh air and exercise in a very long time!

Homecoming Dance

Saturday dawned sunny and clear, a wonderful autumn day. Kelly and I dashed over to the salon at noon to have her hair done up, something we've never done before for a dance. (And after I paid the tab we may never do it again! Definitely another item under the heading of "What a racket.") Oh, what big hair you have, my dear!



She had to be verrry careful all afternoon until it was time for the next step .... makeup. This would include the obligatory eye-lash curling and mascara.

And finally the dress which we purchased weeks ago in anticipation of the dance ... voila! The finished product. She hates to smile for posed pictures, hence the very serious face.

When her friends picked her up at 6:30, she almost accidentally smiled as I took their picture! Off to dinner and the dance, and IHOP afterwards. She had a great time and took lots of her own pictures - and she was smiling in all of those - what's up with that?

Homecoming Weekend

A self portrait taken by Kelly from her new computer. Big kiss! It's Homecoming weekend and she's got a jam-packed schedule starting with the big football game tonight. It's going to be chilly - dress warmly everyone! Go Spartans!