regressing to the "waterfire on the mile"

Oh my gosh, what a horrible week this has been at work. I have never been so glad to see Friday at 5:00 in my life. I think I will be really nice to myself this weekend. I came home and made soup which turned out pretty good. I have been wanting to make a vegetable soup for quite a while. I know it's summer and I usually do the soup thing in the winter, but I have been in the mood. It has also been just a bit cooler, so I just did it. I wanted to use noodles and beans in my soup, but mostly wanted vegetables. I think I succeeded. I forgot to get a picture when it was in the pan, so I had to hold Leon off and take a picture of his bowl. Of course, he puts hot sauce on everything, so the red stuff is hot sauce.

I want to regress a week to share the other event that we went to last weekend. After the movie that we went to at the Arena Grand downtown, we went down to the riverfront to see the "Waterfire on the Mile". We have heard about it several times and kept intending to get down there to see it. This is just the second year (I think) and the first time they did it, they had a news team there and it was on TV. The concept comes from Providence, RI where they also do it. They set up these 'pylon' type things in the river and light them on fire. The fire reflects in the water and is quite beautiful. Of course, this is all after dark. Leon and I both took our cameras, but I could not get a good picture after they were lit. I tried several different settings on my camera, including fireworks - and it just didnt work. Many people there were also taking pictures and some of them even had their cameras on tripods. I wonder if their cameras were just better or maybe they didn't get good pictures either. Leon was not particularly happy with his pictures either. I am adding them here, but be forewarned that they definitely are not reflective of the beauty of the fire. There are some nice pictures of the buildings on the other side of the river before dark as well, that I will share.

Momma Mia, Momma Mia

We went to a movie last night. I have been wanting to see Momma Mia and I was not disappointed. I absolutely loved it. It had everything I love in a movie, singing, dancing, a Greek island, a wedding, comedy, romance - it was wonderful. Now, I realize that it has gotten mixed reviews, but I have never quite been in step with the reviews anyhow. I don't go to the movies to be scared, be enlightened, to get deep in thought, to make a political statement. I go to the movies to laugh and enjoy. I am all about the chick flicks. When I went to Momma Mia, I didn't realize that it was a musical and how delighted I was when I discovered it was. My favorite numbers were the pier dances. Loved them!!!!

Those of you who sang into a hairbrush or a bottle of hair spray when you were young will absolutely love it. Today's children have actual microphones, and more power to them; but I will always remember singing in front of the mirror with my hair brush. Ahhhhh. the days of youth. I miss them.

New cushions for the shower (..I mean chair)

We so enjoyed the shower given by Chad's aunts, sister, mom and friend and now we are on to the one that Carrie will be giving at my house. I actually am giving it too, but that darn etiquette stuff gets in the way. I really take life much too seriously sometimes. Anyhow, this blog is not about the shower, except indirectly. I am about to start something that I have never done before in my sewing, crafting experience. I received a beautiful rocker from the kids for mothers day several years ago and it has been in my den ever since. The denim-esque cushions were perfect for that room. However, it has now been moved into the living room to accommodate more people and the treadmill is in the den in its place. Obviously, the denim cushions no longer match the rest of my living room, so I want to make new ones (before the shower). I will be happier with it in the living room and it will look nice for the shower. So I wanted to share the fabric with you. I got the fabric at Joanns and got 40% off with a coupon. May I just stop and say how much I love Joanns and their coupons. Okay, on with my story. I plan to make totally new cushions because I want to keep the old ones, in case I move the chair back into the den someday. I figure if I just take my time, read some articles, how hard can it be? I don't have to reupholster, just make cushions. The back cushion that is on the chair now, is a little more complicated, so I may not copy it exactly. Anyhow, wish me luck..... Here is the fabric and the chair.

Bridal Shower

THE GIFTS

THE BRIDE AND THE FLOWER GIRL

Well, we went to the first shower yesterday, given by Chad's sister, aunts and his mothers friend. It was just outside Cleveland, and Carrie, Lissy, Abby and I made the trip. We told Abby that it was girls day and we would just have girls' fun. She turned out to be the belle of the ball and was just the most perfect little lady!! Well, there was that time where she put her dress over her head, but hey, sometimes you just have to have a little levity. The shower was very, very nice and we had a great time. It was mainly for his side of the family and since I was mother of the bride; and Carrie and Abby are in the wedding party, we were invited as well. I got to meet Chad's grandmother, sister, aunt and other assorted friends of the family and they were all very nice. Lissy and Chad got some very nice gifts and are having fun looking them all over and deciding where to put them in that "miniscule" condo. They will have to get something bigger, before much longer, I am afraid. Once the airline industry settles down and they are safe and secure jobwise, I'm sure that will become a priority. Of course, I have pictures to share and just want to mention how beautiful the cake was. The other thing that was absolutely ooh'd and aah'd over was the M&M favors. They had pictures of the happy couple on M&M's. I had certainly heard of personalized M&M's, but didn't know you could have pictures put on them. I think I got a pretty good shot and you should be able to see how cute they are.

THE CAKE

Another shower favor - with 2 chocolate hearts in it.

Take me out to the ballgame!!

Another fun activity that we had this weekend, and really the reason that we went to Indianapolis in the first place, was to go to a baseball game at the ball park. We had made plans to meet J & P there, since we haven't seen them in forever. I am using initials, because I didn't ask permission to use their names and don't want to do so without their permission. Anyhow, it was a beautiful evening, the weather was wonderful and our seats were right behind home plate. Now I will admit that for me, the atmosphere is what gives me pleasure, almost more than the game itself. I truly do have a hard time keeping my attention on what is going on, on the field. I am more interested in talking, people watching and of course eating good old baseball park food. This time I was able to add Abby watching to my list. This was her first baseball game and the most important thing for her (and Carrie) was the cotton candy. There was genuine concern and threatening tears when the cotton candy hawker kept selling his candy one section over and it looked as though he wouldn't get to us. But we were persistent and he was very good to save us one. We had a great time and it was great to see you, J & P.

By the way, I think we lost..... but I'm not sure.

After the game, we made our way back toward the parking garage. We decided to stop and wait a while on the canal for traffic to thin and for the garage to clear out. The canal in Indianapolis is really beautiful and the lighting at night just sets it off in such a beautiful way. Leon took this picture for me . I want to get back over and do a whole series of shots. The canal has such beautiful spots along it, and night shots are absolutely stunning.

My first Geocache

Well I have now experienced finding a geocache. We went to Indianapolis last weekend and one of the things we did was look for two geocaches. Now for those of you not in the know, geocaching is looking for a "treasure" using a latitude longitude style GPS. Click on the link in the first sentence and you can get an idea of what it is like. It is quite a trend. If you check out the internet, you can find thousands and thousands of locations, all over the USA and the world. Another idea to see what it is - if you have a flickr account - search Geocache and Geocaching for pictures of people searching and what they found.

Anyhow, we looked up two in the Indianapolis area and took off on our adventure. The first one was in a very very old cemetery. Using our GPS compass, we made our way to a tree, where we thought that the geocache would be. After circling the tree and picking up rocks, there it was! A pill bottle. Excitedly we opened it. Not too exciting - two pennies and the log. Each geocache has a log for finders to sign. We signed our first names, where we were from and moved on to the second one.

The second one was near Carrie and Matt's subdivision. We parked and walked in the direction that the GPS pointed. There was a fence and several trees. I was convinced that it would be in the fence somewhere, but everytime I went toward the fence, the GPS indicated I was getting further away. It was a little like the old game we played as children. You're getting warmer, oops getting colder, okay getting warmer again, getting hot... aha there it is under the fir tree!!

This one had several fun little toy type things in it along with the log. Abby took a little ball and we left a dollar. We signed the log and completed our wild adventure. I liked it. I might do it again sometime.

Why, it was so exciting that I actually had a geocaching injury!!!

My version - I was rip cording across a ravine and plunged into the ravine

Everyone elses version - I feel off some playground equipment at a nearby playground

You decide... I like my version better. My knee still hurts!!!

First Sweater Ever

I have now completed my very first ever knitted sweater, or for that matter, first sweater period, knitted or crocheted. Of course, it is for the light of my life, Miss Abigail Grace. I am ready to tackle another one soon. I love the pattern. There are mistakes, but I decided to just blunder through and get it done and then do another one. I am really very happy with it, but as is the case with me, I do have some things I will do different next time.

I especially love the eyelet feature on the yoke and it was really very easy to do. The yarn is very light and I think that the next one will be a heavier yarn, just for comparison sake. This one will be nice for summer, but a heavier one will be better for fall and winter. Plus I think I will do a really bright color next time.

Vacation Bible School

Well, I have been gone for a while - a week to be exact. Not gone from my home or my job, but gone every evening all week to help with VBS at our church. So blogging was one thing that went by the wayside in order for me to do help with VBS. Our church had morning and evening VBS all week long. Lissy and I did the evening crafts for the preschoolers. We had a group of 7, which seemed reasonable and a pretty small manageable group. They were wonderful, but I had forgotten how active they are. We went to the opening each evening and then went to prepare for our crafts. In about 15 minutes, here came our little ones. We did 2 crafts each night, except for Thursday. I totally meant to get pictures of all the crafts but time was so short, that it just didn't happen. I did get a few pictures of the opening. The evening session is much smaller than the morning session. Total children was over 300, and we probably had around fifty of those in the evening session. Here are a couple of pictures of the opening session. The final program was in church this morning and we got to see all of the kids at one time. It was really fun!! We'll see about next year?!?!?

......SPECIAL REPORT.......

This is a special report. An error has been made on the previous blog. The song mentioned was actually done by Melanie. You will now be returned to your regular programming.

Roller skates

I went to lunch yesterday with my friends from work. We celebrated Sharon's birthday and went to the Cheesecake Factory. Well, the conversation got around to roller skates (I have no idea how), like we used to wear when we were kids. At least those of us who are old. (no names, please!). The kind of metal roller skates that strapped on over our shoes. And the magical part was that they had keys. I guess they were used either to lock the wheels or to adjust the size. I can't remember, for sure. Anyhow, those roller skate keys were quite the prized possession in our day. Sharon remembers wearing it on a string around her neck. I kept thinking about a song that I thought Janis Joplin did about roller skates and keys, but couldn't come up with it. Nobody else knew what I was talking about. ( I will admit to being the most senior one at the table), so it is possible they were babies, while I was listening to Janis (God rest her soul).

I checked the internet for the lyrics and was delighted to find them on this site. The internet constantly amazes me. You can find absolutely anything!!!!

I thought that Janis Joplin did this number, but the site refers to Melanie, so I am not sure and didn't take the time to research further.

Here are the lyrics, girls!!. I didn't put in the last verse, but you can find it on the site listed. I am sure that anyone of my approximate age can hum this one without even thinking about it. :

I rode my bicycle past your window last night

I roller-skated to your door at daylight

It almost seems like you're avoiding me

I'm okay alone, but you got something I need

CHORUS

Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates

You got a brand new key

I think that we should get together

And try them out to see

I been looking around awhile

You got something for me

Oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates

You got a brand new key

I ride my bike, I roller skate don't drive no car

Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far

For somebody who don't drive, I been all around the world

Some people say, I done all right for a girl

By the way, have I said how much I love that Flickr site. I can find pictures of absolutely anything -- credit for the above photos goes to Flickr

more July 4th fun

Credits to "Lodie, herself" for the photos

Well, we made it to the concert at OWU and the fireworks afterwards in Delaware. It was really nice, good temperature and no rain. We took our lawn chairs and although we forgot our mosquito spray, there was enough on other people to sort of keep us relatively safe. The campus was crowded and people and kids were all over. Most everyone enjoyed the music, although the group behind us were a bit rowdy. They had several children and they played pretty 'vigorously' throughout the concert. When we started to pack up our chairs to leave, Leon says "I am going to throw these chairs away when we get home". I looked at him like he was out of his mind and said 'why would you do that?' He answers just as serious as can be. "Because they must have blankety blank signs on the backs of them that say 'if you are noisy, and have no respect for other people, sit here'." I guess he was a bit frustrated!!!

Anyhow the band played all the standard Independance Day fare, ending with the 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes. The fireworks were pretty neat for a smaller town. Leon managed to help me find the 'fireworks' setting on my camera and I actually took some pictures. They are not great, but I think you can tell what they are. I can't decide if the squiggles are from the fireworks moving or me moving the camera.

This morning we got up and went to the Worthington Farmers Market to look at the produce and the plants. It is such a cool farmers market and we had not been there yet this year. I am including pictures of the lilies I bought ( my vacation splurge) and some herbs that Leon got for his strawberry pot. We didn't get there until around 10:30 and things were pretty much bought up, so the plan for next week is to get there a bit earlier.

Tonight, we finally got around to using a gift card that I got from work. I received a gift card from my region for planning the birthday parties. The card is for one of the Cameron Mitchell restaurants, which are some of the nicer restaurants in Columbus. I received it in the last couple months of 2007 and have just not gotten around to using it. So I sort of wrapped up my vacation, by making a reservation and we went there tonight for dinner. It was Marcella's restaurant and the food was very good. It is Italian cuisine, one of my favorites. We couldn't decide between that and Molly Woo's, which is Chinese. I decided that Italian is my favorite and I got the card, so I made the final choice.

Tomorrow is my last day of vacation and I am not looking forward to returning to work. There is something about the end of vacation that is just no fun. No matter how hard I try to keep the 'vacation feeling' after I return to work, I just can't seem to accomplish it. It is that carefree, no-hurry-to-do-anything feeling. If I could figure how to package it, I would be a billionaire. Next break is the end of September. Seems like a long time!

God bless America - Happy 4th of July

(photo from Flickr.com)

Happy Independance Day - Hope your holiday has been good and the rest of the weekend is a great one. Also Happy Birthday to my sister, Sandi!!!!!!!!! There couldn't have been a better fit for a birthday and a holiday than my sister and Independance Day. She is a firecracker!!

We watched Red, White and Boom last night on television. I know, I know - couch potatoes - we should have driven downtown to see it. We have only been to it once, the first year we were here, but we watch it every year. We really need to get down there again some year. It turns out that this would have been a good year. It was not hot and the rain passed by. There was plenty of room and traffic was not bad. Oh well, maybe next year, we always say that. But we may go to Delaware for some fireworks tonight. That will be fireworks on a smaller scale. Delaware is a smaller town just north of us. We are actually in Delaware County, but consider ourselves living in Columbus, which is in Franklin County. We are actually just about 5 miles north of Columbus proper. Delaware is a town that is closer to the size of our home town, Elkhart, IN, maybe just a tad bigger, but not much.

We are sort of spreading our holiday out. Last night we watched RW & B and today I walked down to the corner and our area parade was passing by. Parades are so 'Americana'. I always just marvel at the small town feel of a parade ... from the high school bands to the firetrucks to the candy throwing floats. It really is just pretty cool. There are decorated bicycle units, baton twirlers, little dancers and I love watching the kids along the parade route. I really wish I had my camera with me.

Tomorrow is when we will do our cook out. Brats with slaw and strawberry shortcake. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I will make sure to take pictures. I think it will just be the two of us, but we won't let that stop us. We had our family get together in Indianapolis and now we will just celebrate quietly. There is something kind of nice about that. We will need to record the national concert and firework shows as well. I just thought of that, so I can just sit down and watch as I knit or crochet. Sometimes we forget how incredibly lucky we are here in the US.

One last thing - I have discovered the wealth of pictures that I can use from the Flickr site. I will always try to take and use my own, but sometimes I may blog on something with no real pictures to share. So I am excited about the Flickr site and that I can add those pictures to my blogs. I will always credit the site, when I use their pictures. I think that I am okay to do that, since they are put out there for public viewing.

Lists, lists, lists!!!!

Credits to the talented photographers posting on Flickr for the attached photographs.

First let me qualify the following blog. I appreciate the fact that the nutrition research industry is proactive in giving consumers great information about what to eat and what not to eat. I personally try to eat things that are good for me (unfortunately I also tend to eat things not good for me too). I get it all - the antioxidants, the vitamins, and all the other components of good nutrition. However, have you ever seen so many lists of what you should eat. Let me give you a little idea of what shows up just in a couple of normal everyday reading and television sources.... (big breath!) you got your power food list.... you got your anti-aging food list... you got your super food list.... you got your brain food list... you got your weight control food list.... you got your sexual health food list... you got your anti stress, anti fatigue, anti cancer, anti heart disease, anti stroke and anti everything else food list.

The one that has recently caught my interest is the anti-aging food list. It has five foods on it. Anti-aging? seems like a no-brainer!!! The five foods are:

1.) SPINACH (yuck... I can eat this one if it is mixed with something else - but not straight). Love spinach dip, Eggs florentine, etc.

2.) CURRY - this is one that Leon actually likes to use in his cooking. I can take it or leave it. It is in a lot of Indian foods. I will have to do some research as to how I can use this more, because God knows I don't want to get old.

3.) TOMATOES - this is one of those foods that I don't really care for, but can eat in certain presentations. I like salsa, tomatoes in certain salads, etc.

4.) ALMONDS - I could be in trouble here. I never have eaten a lot of almonds, or nuts in general. Guess I better get with it.

5.) CHOCOLATE - Well, it is about time!! There is something I like on this list. Seems like this should have been number 1 - Oh yeah, it needs to be dark chocolate.

Make sure that you check the recalls on these foods before eating. Two of the five have been recalled for either salmonella or e-coli in the past couple of years. That could definitely keep you from getting old.

More quilt pictures

I am a little behind on my 'post a day' goal. Feeling a bit under the weather today, but soldiering on. It is vacation, after all. Leon will be off tomorrow and Friday. I thought that I would share a few more of the pictures I took at the quilt show. These are detail shots of the quilt that I am quite sure I am getting for my birthday. If you look back at the snow quilt with the black and white border, the inside is filled with embroidered snow scenes. Here are the close ups of those scenes. They really are quite delightful. My personal favorite is Mrs. Snow Mom hanging the candy canes up to dry. As I mentioned before, Katie and Peggy really sort of 'found' this one and the more I see it, the more I like it. It really is darling. They have great taste!!!

Snow birds!!!

Snow Sledding!!!

Hanging out the snow laundry (candy canes)!!

Making snow angels!!!!

The inevitable snowball fight!!!

The top of the quilt with caroling and pine tree - Winter wonderland!!!

I will just say here that you really had to see this quilt to appreciate, but hope this gives you all an idea of how cool it was. I should reprint this one in December. I will have to see if I can. I think I will have to get back into embroidery, too. Will someone please get me some help!! I think I am addicted to crafts - I need a 12 step group, again!! An intervention might be in order, maybe we could all get together and do a craft too, while we are at it.

Hydrangea Heaven and Happy Anniversary!!!

It is the first day of my vacation and as I woke up this morning, I managed to squint at the clock rado. It said 9:18- Yahoo!!! I got up, read the paper, checked my e-mail, ran the vacuum and got ready to run some errands. One of my e-mails was an invitation to join Ravelry.com. I am so excited. It is the neatest web site where you can document and share your knit and crochet projects. They are taking on members slowly until they are up to speed and then will open up to everyone. The couple running the site were here in Columbus recently for a needlework convention and there was a big writeup in the Columbus Dispatch. (okay, maybe it was medium sized). Anyhow, I am pretty psyched to get going on it and have already got a few things done on it. In order to post pictures on it, I have to first post them on Flickr. This too is temporary until they get the web site more flexible. Anyhow, I was already a member, but only used it to see Abby's picture and had never uploaded any pictures. So I worked on that for quite a while. Now I am posting here, so I have spent a lot of time on the computer today.

The reason for my post today is to share pictures of the hydrangeas in Carrie's yard. They are absolutely gorgeous and I love white flowers. They are so pretty in a night garden. I think I should get some this summer. I need to do a bit of research, but have done some already. They bloom all year and the soil is what determines the color. If you add aluminum to the soil, they will turn blue. My information comes from Hydrangeas! Hydrangeas! I believe that Carrie's hydrangeas are the Annabelle variety. That is fun because that was Leon's mom's name, and the girls' grandma.

Happy Anniversary Carrie and Matt. I know that your special day gets upstaged by the princess, but we love you and are so proud of both of you. You are a very special couple.