Fate – 1; Ted – 0
Five of the first seven letters Ted blindly selected from the tile pile in our Scrabble game two nights ago. He had to show me his tiles because he couldn’t focus on making any other word than this one. Don’t temp fate! ;-)
Words Optional
On our way to Hyde Park Pizzeria, where Erie Avenue meets Tarpis, we spotted (um, how could you miss it!?) this beast of a house and did a major double take. Wouldn’t you? Crazy house, ritzy neighborhood, pure eclectic awesomeness? Yes, please!
First thought that crossed my mind: OMG I WANT IT!!! For real. What sheer genius and architectural excellence! The shapes, colors, textures, stain glass windows, bizarre add on’s and the swirly orange staircase….totally amazing! Of course I had to go home and research it. Hyde Park locals have nicknamed it the “mushroom house.” It was designed by an organic architecture professor at the University of Cincinnati and apparently part of his students’ grade for many years was to design some element of the house. Can I just say again…how cool is that!? Flicker has a bunch of really stellar shots of the house. Please go here to view them (to the right of the main picture on the webpage you can see click to see 3 more photos of the house) and read the comments below for some insightful information about the ownership, design and sale of the house. You’ll be sorry you missed it if you don’t click that link, I’m warning you!
I LOVE discovering new, cool things like this in Cincinnati! Every day I like this city more and more….
Life Cycles – The Carmela Edition
Meet Carmela.
She is a 2009 Specialized Women’s Globe Carmel 1 26″ Hybrid Bicycle and she was purchased on Sunday afternoon at Montgomery Cyclery in Cincinnati. I love her! As a hybrid bike she has the comfort of a cruiser or townie bike (not to mention the stylin’ retro look she’s sporting!) but she’s also equipped with 21 speeds, shocks, and thicker mountain bike tires to handle paths, trails, and other more uneven terrains. Since I’m not a hardcore 45 miles-a-day biker nor am I one to take on a steep mountain trek, I didn’t need a $1,800 mountain bike, but I did want to be able to hit the paths and trails with Ted and actually keep up – so a sweet little street cruiser wasn’t going to cut it either. Essentially, as a hybrid, she’s the best of both worlds. She’s got the comfort and stellar looks of a cruiser, but the sturdiness, technical specs, and go-get-’em of a more serious bike.
I’ve been planning to buy a bike for almost two years now. A while back I even created a list of all the nifty bikes and biking accessories I’d painstakingly researched, stalked and hand picked for their excellent reviews, functionality, and adorableness (which is clearly the most important factor here.) I was always jealous of the great bike rides Ted took when he was living in Lansing and I dreamed of all the fun we’d have suiting up in our biking gear in the morning, loading our bikes, water bottles and a picnic lunch into his truck and taking off for a sunny afternoon of biking in a nearby state park. I’ve also often considered how nice it would be to hop on the bike for a quick ride to the ice cream parlor or for a jaunt to the store to pick up milk instead of wasting fuel for the car. If we lived close enough, we could bike to work even!
Another good thing about bikes is that they’re completely customizable. Not only can you adjust things like the seat and handlebar heights, gears, and tires, but you can also add on helpful accessories: a more cushioned seat, nicer handlebars, side mirrors, a helmet, bell, handlebar basket, LED lights for night riding, reflectors, a water bottle cage and insulated water bottle, or a speed, mileage and fitness tracking device – among countless other products. The day we purchased Carmela we also took home two bike stands for the bed of Ted’s truck so we can transport both bikes together without the risk of scratching them or the truck. We don’t plan to ride at night all that often so the reflectors that came with the bike should do just fine. Additionally, I probably don’t need the side mirrors, tracking device, or the handlebar basket, even though they are kind of awesome and if they were free I’d certainly put my name in that drawing! Mustn’t be greedy though! Here are a few of the accessories I am looking into:
In all honestly, I really do love this Jansport bag. I got it for Christmas back in 2007 in preparation for my summer study abroad trip in England, and it really is fantastic, comfortable to wear, durable, and cute. It even matches the other bike accessories above (please try to remember what’s really important here).
As a side note, did you know that helmets can cost upwards of $500? I was sure they were joking, silently pranking the fool who actually thought a helmet could go for a cool $500. They weren’t. I’m sure the more advanced biker can look at that helmet and tell me exactly why it is definitely worth an entire two-week paycheck, a month’s grocery bill for a small family, or a year’s worth of college textbooks. I, however, cannot fathom how it differs so vastly from the $24.99 helmet that one would feel compelled to squander away a small portion of their life savings on it. Technically, I do know that the more expensive the helmet, the more air vents it has and the less heavy it is. All of this would be noteworthy to a racer. In summary, the lighter the helmet and the less material used in its construction, the more expensive it is. Just like a bikini. Got it. Then again, I’m not an advanced biker so it just seems absurd to me. Maybe the Super Snazzy T8000 helmet comes equipped with GPS navigation, an iPod, a fan, a pop-up umbrella and personal sunscreen applicator. That’d be pretty rad, right?
At the store Ted had to try on the $250 version, just to see for himself what the big squeal was all about. “Well, it is comfortable,” he said. I would hope so. Then he gave me a fairly significant, albeit unexpected, thwack on the $34.99 helmet resting on my head. Guess what? It worked, and for 1/20th the price of the Super Snazzy T8000. Good enough for me.
Having her makes me feel just like a kid again and I can’t wait until I can take her out on our first real ride! In the next few weeks while Ted’s knee is finishing healing from the surgery, we’re hoping to fix up his bike and get all necessary maintenance and repairs done on it so we’ll be ready to ride together in no time at all! It’s all very exciting and I’m so grateful to have a bike again!
Happy Tuesday!
P.S. – Today is our 5 month anniversary! Yay us!
Time With You
Weekends are my addiction. They are my temptation, indulgence, salvation and joy. I cherish them while they last, longingly await their imminent arrival throughout the week, and relish them fiercely when they sneak up on us again five days later. They’re the spring break I don’t have. They bring so many simple, easy pleasures like yummy weather, sleeping in, playtime, and the invitation to do nothing at all together if we so choose. They are freeing and demand nothing of you except pure relaxation, fun, and a chance to catch up on the art of appreciating life (or, you know, taxes). They’d make the killing if they could bottle this euphoria. Here are the highlights of our weekend:
Friday
- We scored big at the UC Blockbuster’s going out of business sale! Ted pocketed Leatherheads, The Invention of Lying, and The Interpreter and I snapped up An Education, Away We Go, Once, and 500 Days of Summer at very budget-friendly prices. Cheap cinematic excellence? Yes, please.
- We caught a free opening day showing of Tornado Alley Friday night at the Omnimax. My job has some perks. Ted’s been anxious to see it since he heard about it. I’m a pansy and predicted I’d be scared out of my skull. The movie was really cool, actually. In larger-than-life size and with a 3D feel it took the viewer inside the life of storm chasers, showed off their vehicular tornado tracking beast tanks, and then stationed cameras right inside the center of a fierce tornado. Ironically, the weather outside was nasty that evening – thunder, lightening, driving rain. How appropriate.
- I made crazy-spicy jambalaya for dinner (uh, oops) and we popped in the movie Wall-E. Then we sleepily shuffled off to bed like old people.
Saturday
- I slept in (oh, sweet rapture!) and awoke to a brilliant day outside!
- We headed over to Montgomery Cyclery and Oakley Cycles to inspect their inventory of bicycles, looking for a perfect selection for me when the time is right. Ted examined and explained the technical specs of each bike, advised, and occasionally coached my biking skills while I test rode a few models before honing in on a sweet retro-esque hybrid path bike with mountain tires. It was stylish, comfortable and smooth riding, functional with 21 speeds, shocks and built to ride in nearly all terrains, a great reputable brand, and on sale. I was instantly smitten with this contender. But like good non-impulse buyers, we left the bike with the intention to “think about it” and drive over to Kenwood to snatch up the goodies we actually planned to get that day.
- Ted picked up an awesome new Apple wireless mouse for his laptop and iPad that we immediately noticed saved him a ton of time and greatly increased his working productivity while at home on the computer. Using a 30% off coupon, I finally picked up a new and desperately needed pair of lounge pants to replace the worn-to-death pair with at least eight major holes in them. I considered posting a picture of the old pair on here for you because they really are that ridiculous, but decided it was too humiliating. They were ratty, folks. I’m very appreciative of this new, warm pair of lounge pants.
- We enjoyed a lovely evening at home eating Mac n’ Cheese for dinner and watching a movie while we finished a game of Scrabble.
Sunday
- We went to mass, did the grocery shopping, and dropped off the recycle.
- We took my wedding jewelry, engagement ring, and wedding bands in to get inspected, buffed and polished. They sparkle again and look absolutely gorgeous!! I LOVE having them cleaned! I also got a free 2011-2012 planner using Ted’s ink cartridge recycle rewards money at Staples. Ted deemed this day “Lara Day.” But it’s okay because when the iPad 2 was released last Friday it was “Ted Day.” Sometimes you just gotta treat yourself and each other to an Us Appreciation Day.
- While at Eastgate we decided that the sale on the bike was too good of a deal to pass up after calling the store and learning that the sale would end at 5 pm that day and that it is the annual sale – the only time this year the bike will be so steeply discounted. We raced to the store and bought the bike. Sometimes an offer for something you’ve been longing for and planning to eventually purchase comes along sooner than expected, but it’s so good that it would be financially foolish to refuse!
- At home Ted built a fire in their fire pit and readied the Christmas tree and wreath for burning. I threw together a dinner of rotisserie chicken and Caesar salad for us to eat fireside while we burned the last of the Christmas pine as the sky turned to dusk and the sun set. A perfect day!
P.S. More on the bike and pictures to come later!
Love of the Irish
Green eggs & ham and beer batter pancakes. Yes, I sure did get up at 5:45 a.m. to start off our St. Patrick’s Day with a touch of greatness! I was a little skeptical about using a cup of beer in the batter instead of a cup of milk (all the time wondering who was the first person to think “Damn, I’m out of milk! Oh well, I’ll just use beer – it’ll be just as good!”) but what the hell. Why not, right? Surprisingly, the beer – we used Leinenkugel’s berryweiss – added a really nice dimension to the pancakes. It made them sweet, light and a little bubbly. Totally worth a try if you’re feeling adventurous! Check out this easy-to-make recipe here! And of course the green eggs and ham were festive and delicious!
Since I’ve never officially celebrated a proper St. Patrick’s Day, I was bound and determined to get myself to a respectable Irish pub and down a glass of green beer this year, darn it! We really like the atmosphere and the food at The Pub in Norwood, but so does everyone else – rightfully so, it is a popular place. We were both warned not to go to The Pub on St. Patrick’s Day. We were warned that if we did foolishly go, not to expect a seat, food, or anything even remotely close to room to breathe, much less move. We were warned it would be mobbed, with minimal standing room only – if the luck of the Irish was indeed with us that day. But we went anyway. And you know what? It was loud, it was crowded with green balloons and tons of weirdly dressed green people who smelled like Guinness, and there was a live band with music that blasted throughout the pub and you had to shout just to be heard. But we did luck out and we found a seat – at our table, nonetheless – within five minutes of our arrival!
We ordered our beer from the Leprechaun waitress – a Strongbow for Ted and I finally got my famed lowest-quality possible green beer, which certainly wasn’t as tasty as Strongbow, but it was green, which is obviously the most exciting and important thing here! Green beer! We placed our orders for awesome Irish grub and it arrived hot, fresh and delicious within 10 minutes. So far I’m thinking everyone who warned us not to even think about going to this place for St. Patrick’s Day is full of crap. Sure we had to shout over the music and cheering people – but it wasn’t impossible or unacceptably obnoxious. Having been branded as party animals with the obligatory “over 21” florescent orange wristband at the door, had our celebratory beers and eats, watched some March Madness basketball finals on TV, and grooved to the music from the band, we were in and out in about an hour and home before the sun set. It was great fun and I’m so glad we went out!
On the World’s Fair(s)
“As the notion of an exposition gained shape, however, other cities began to see it as a prize to be coveted, mainly for the stature it would confer, stature being a powerful lure in this age when pride of place ranked second only to pride of blood. Suddenly New York and St. Louis wanted the fair. Washington laid claim to the honor on the grounds it was the center of government, New York because it was the center of everything. No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck.”
– The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Bwahahahaha! What an excellent passage. I most appreciate the literature of “tell it like it is” writers with a sense of honesty and flair. I’m only 19 pages into this 390 page non-fiction work, but I was immediately attracted to Larson’s style and can already tell I’m really going to enjoy reading this true account of “murder, magic and madness” at the World’s Fair in the bustling and rapidly changing city of Chicago circa 1893. The Chicago Sun Times claims Larson is a “historian with a novelist’s soul,” and the San Fransisco Chronicle boasts that this book reads like a “fictional page turner.” Agreed. A truthfully historical account to the tune of a captivating novel with a buffet of compelling characters, mischief, global glory and a little bit of fear to spice it up? Right up my alley!
Reminds me of some research I did last year on the World’s Fair of 1968 in San Antonio, TX for which HemisFair Park, the Tower of the Americas, and a now non-existent monorail system that snaked through downtown were constructed. The legendary and beautiful Riverwalk (which the city dyes green annually in honor of St. Patrick’s day!) was also expanded. As with any World’s Fair, this was a big deal for the city of San Antonio – proving our worthy place among other top cities as a cultural, architectural and artistic mecca, as more than just a squat town of cowboys, horses, dirt roads and ranches. It’s a neat thing to look up sometime if you’ve got the time and a notion to check out some cool, not-so-ancient history. I worked a mere few steps away (literally, out the door. About seven feet to the right was the HemisFair Park gate pictured below) from all these great attractions when I lived and worked in San Antonio – and I miss it every day.
Planning for the Party
Much to the certain dismay of anyone who is either a blithering drunk, a die-hard party hound, or just chock full of beaming Irish pride, I’ve managed to hide comfortably under a prude, party-free rock for the past three years of St. Patrick’s days of which I’ve been of legal drinking age. I do, however, indulge in the opportunity to deck myself out in green and I appreciate a good shamrock – so I’m not a complete dullard. Maybe I was just lackluster about the idea of joining 700 rowdy, beer-soaked drunks in a crowded bar that only seats 250 for a greasy platter of badly-impersonated fish n’ chips (I’ve had the real deal and, frankly, the fakes they dish up here in the states are highly disappointing.) I might have been working or in class, or had theatre productions to attend to, or was otherwise committed. Anyhow, for the past three years my St. Patrick’s day festivities have consisted of calm and peaceful quiet at home or backstage at a theatre, non-Irish grub, and the company of whoever I happened to be with that evening.
But this year I’m thinking of spicing it up a little. We now live in a lively and bustling city, with plenty of good Irish eats, that appreciates a good celebration. After all who, by the age of 25, hasn’t properly celebrated a St. Patrick’s day? Ted and I both work all day on Thursday and we don’t have (or necessarily want) the option of skipping a full day’s worth of work or paycheck to drink from 6 a.m.-1 a.m. like the other loons out there. Apparently though, we don’t have to! The parties and drinking at many pubs start as early as 6 a.m. (that’s pre-work partying folks!) and continue long past 5 p.m. Here’s just a few of the potential options we have available to us this Thursday:
- The first 500 customers into The Pub (the great Irish restaurant we tried and loved last week!) at 6 a.m. receive a free breakfast!
- “Kegs & Eggs” breakfast and a free t-shirt to the first 400 people who arrive at the Cock & Bull English pub in Covington, KY at 7 a.m.
- O’Bryons Irish breakfast special includes two drinks with breakfast. Nothing like starting early! How does one cultivate a taste for alcohol before noon?
- A menu of Guinness pancakes, green eggs & ham, corned beef, cabbage, and green beer at other area pubs. Delish!
While I’m all up for rising at 5 a.m. if it gets me a free t-shirt and breakfast, Ted has a physical therapy appointment at 7 that morning, so unfortunately we’ll have to skip out on the freebies. I’m toying with the idea of finding recipes to make my own Guinness pancakes and green eggs & ham before we head off to work. After work we’d like to enjoy some green beer and Irish dishes at The Pub, though I’ve heard that place is mobbed on St. Patrick’s day, and I’m sure it is a miserable nightmare to get a seat. But you gotta try everything once and soak up the experience, right? What are your plans?
Day 3 – A picture of the cast from your favorite show
Though I’ve had many favorite shows over the years, Gilmore Girls and Modern Family are two of my absolute favorites! I’ve loved Gilmore Girls since it first aired in the year 2000 and I’m a proud owner of all seven seasons in the series. Modern Family is a fairly new show and a very recent, as in two-weeks ago recent, addiction. They’re both fast-moving, intelligent, and full of excellent, quick-witted humor and modern references. The variety of characters are a hoot! They’re relaxing to watch, but they keep your brain working and your laughter coming. The casts are excellent and both shows feature truly talented, quirky actors and actresses.
Though I’m sure this prompt is supposed to refer specifically to the cast of your favorite television show, I’m a theatre kid and I also interpret this to mean the cast of my favorite live show. I have all kinds of favorite shows content and plot wise, favorite casts, favorite shows I’ve acted in, favorite shows I’ve worked crew on, and favorite shows I’ve directed. So picking just one favorite is unrealistic. I’d love to be able to include a picture of one of my shows for you, but I just can’t. I’d end up spending an extra 45 minutes uploading pictures of six shows and describing them all to you. I never claimed to be decisive. You’re welcome.
Absurdities
I have a love/hate relationship with Kroger. Sometimes I’m really impressed with what they have to offer – totally free pasta, steep discounts on manager’s special filets of sell-by-today seafood or soda, four 12-can packs for $11 (that’s like $0.23 a can people!). And sometimes I leave totally stupefied by the absurdity of the things I have seen. Case in point – stickers. Kroger gets some sick, misguided satisfaction from their environmentally-friendly policy of planting a giant sticker that reads “Less plastic? Fantastic! Thanks! You saved a plastic bag!” on all large or bulky items you carry-out of the store as-is instead of having it placed in a plastic bag…….um, does any one else see the irony here?
Where oh where do I begin!? First of all, it is highly unlikely that anyone shopping at Kroger is thinking, “Whoa, Nelly! Let me get this straight: If I opt not to use a landfill-clogging plastic bag (that I always put in the plastic bag recycle bin anyway) for this economy-sized package of Soft N’ Fluffy toilet paper that doesn’t even fit in a plastic bag, I get, gasp!, a sticker!? YES!! This totally awesome sticker is so worth saving a plastic bag!” Like everybody else in this world, I too love stickers, but really and truly Kroger, nobody is that excited about your stickers that they’re willing to give up a plastic bag if they need one. The sticker does not entice me to use or not to use a plastic bag.
Secondly, can we take a moment to discuss the utter and complete waste of time, money, and materials that goes into these stickers? I’m nearly positive that the cost of their existence far exceeds any potential benefit they may provide to the environment. For example, today I purchased eight boxes of soda and two cartons of milk. If you’re counting, that’s ten stickers they gave me. TEN. One (or, you know, none) would have been a sufficient “thank you!” The bagger actually wasted about two minutes of her time carefully placing a sticker on every single box of soda and gallon of milk I bought. You know what I’m going to do with those stickers? That’s right! Open trash can, insert sticker. I honestly would not be in the least bit offended if I didn’t receive a single sticker on my bulk items. At ten stickers a person, they must hand out millions every day! Millions of stickers that cost money (and, um, plastic) to produce. Millions of stickers – with plastic backings – that will end up in landfill. And all of this to promote saving plastic! I am in awe of the brilliance at work here. But on the plus side I saved $33.37 and ten plastic bags by shopping at Kroger today! Sheer. Excellence.
As previously promised I have a delicious recipe to share with you today! I yanked it out of a magazine some time ago and, in true Lara fashion, have added my own personal touches and edits to it. This is a recipe for Chinese chicken (I’m pretty sure it’s sponsored by Kraft & Jell-O – so I in no way take credit for it). It’s easy to make, fairly healthy, and every time we make it we’re always impressed by how potent the flavors are for so few ingredients. I brought leftovers of it to work yesterday and every single person who walked into the room took one sniff and promptly declared “Something smells amazing! What is that!?” So I thought I’d share the goodness.
Chinese Takeout Lemon Chicken
- The chicken: Using the steaming method, bake about 1 lb. of fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs if you prefer dark meat) in the oven. I lay them all out on a piece of tinfoil, tightly seal the tinfoil together to create a steamer bag, and throw them in the oven on a baking sheet at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. It comes out perfectly. Once done, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- The rice: I use Basmati Jasmine rice. You shouldn’t have a problem finding it at any local grocery store. It’s a white rice that’s often used in Thai and Indian dishes. It’s really mild rice that’s an excellent base for soaking in flavors like ginger, garlic, lemon and smoked mushrooms if you like to add a little more flavor to your dishes. Anyhow, I simmer 1 cup of the rice in 1.5 cups of salty water on the stove for 20 minutes and set it aside to keep warm.
- The sauce: In a small bowl mix together one small 4-oz. package of sugar-free lemon jello mix and 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch. Heat up 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Add the dry lemon jello and cornstarch mix to the broth and stir. Add 2 Tbsp. of Kraft’s light zesty Italian dressing and three cloves of minced fresh garlic to the broth. Stir well. If you want to get all fancy (and you do) you can even add a teaspoon of ground ginger paste for extra oomph.
- The veggies: Cut up two large handfuls of fresh sugar snap peas, one red bell pepper, and 1/2 a can of full baby corns into pieces. On medium-high heat, cook the veggies in a skillet on the stove for about 8 minutes in a little bit of spray oil, stirring constantly.
- Put it all together: Add the chicken and the sauce to the skillet of vegetables. Reduce heat to medium and stir together for about 5 minutes. Serve over the Jasmine rice.
This recipe is seriously delicious. There’s so few ingredients and it’s so simple to make – but the result is so tasty! If you’re keeping with the no meat during Fridays in Lent you can substitute the chicken for shrimp and I’m sure it would be just as delicious. Someone out there please try this and tell me about it so all my typing wasn’t in vain!
And finally, if you’re not over the whole reading thing yet, I have Day 3 of the photo blog challenge for you….tomorrow. Have a great Monday!
What Saturdays Were Made For
I’ll start with thanking God and Ohio for the totally perfect weather yesterday. It couldn’t have been better if we’d designed the forecast ourselves! Low 60’s, sunny, and windy. Seriously beautiful in every way. So thank you powers-that-be for that refreshing goodness! We loved it!
Ted’s present on our wedding day was an I.O.U. with a due date of March 11, 2011. So Ted spent his Friday afternoon 99th in line at the ritzy Kenwood mall, stationed outside of the Apple store for four hours ready and waiting to welcome the iPad 2 into our family. There were over 1,000 people in line by the time the 5 pm release rolled around, but from all indications it sounds like they had a great time! He made friends with the people in line around him so he was in good company. They held one another’s place in line for bathroom, food and drink breaks, shared info on the latest iPad apps, and received Godiva chocolate samples, bottled water, and Gap 30% off coupons from the other stores in the mall. Apple closed the store at 4 pm to stock the shelves with the 9,000 new iPads and accompanying accessories and re-opened at 5 pm. Every person in line was individually brought into the store by their own personal Apple shopper’s assistant who walked the store with them, collecting their iPad and accessories and ringing them up by swiping their credit card on the iPhone. A totally brilliant way to control the impending madness and chaos so it doesn’t even have a chance to start! By 5:45 Ted had his new baby in hand and was out the door, anxious for me to arrive home from work so he could open it.
He’s been attached to the new addition since Friday night, lovingly adding music, building folders, downloading apps, and enjoying all its fun features. I think anyone could easily admit it’s a nifty little genius of an invention.
Saturday morning we cooked a quick & dirty breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, English muffins, and strawberries and blueberries before venturing to the quaint, historic downtown of Main St. Milford, OH which, for the record, is completely adorable.
We parked right on the charming Main St., which was lovely in part due to the absence of parking meters. Our first stop of the day was Bishop’s Bicycles, one of those home-grown “don’t make ’em like they used to” bicycle sales and repair places where the family dog greets you at the door and they encourage you take the bikes for a test drive in the park out back without holding your I.D. for ransom just in case you feel compelled to forget to return it. They had a nice selection of Schwinn’s, Jamis’, and a few other reputable brands, along with a slew of helmets, handlebars, bells, baskets, insulated water bottles, and other biking gear. I tried out two bikes, honestly grateful to be able to still ride a bike after 13 years without immediately nosediving into the pavement, and got a better idea for what style, frame size, and brands I might be interested in for when the time comes to purchase my own. This place is definitely one we’d love to use for future bicycle repairs and maybe to buy mine. They even had tandem bicycles. I love how vintage chic tandem bikes are!
Our next visit was to Common Cents Coins & Collectibles. Ted is a coin and note enthusiast – he loves rare, old, and unusual money. Naturally, we had to go into this store! He instantly spotted a note he’s been searching for for years, a $10 Andrew Jackson note for the cool price of $115. We didn’t get it, obviously, but it was neat to see. Meanwhile I examined over-sized $500 and $1,000 bills (which I didn’t even know used to exist!) and various silver dollars.
The next store on the street, The Coolest Toys on Earth, was the store we really came to Milford to explore. Someone at work told Ted about it, so as we were searching for its location on the iPad, we lucked out and realized there were other neat stores on Main St. as well. This tiny store was choc full of knickknacks, puzzles, games, gadgets, and old-fashioned toys. My favorites in the store were the snap firecrackers, air propellers, ant farms, kites, sweet old crank music boxes, and a wooden puzzle gamed called Over the Moon. They had lots of “samples” of all the toys out so you could play with nearly everything! We left with a foil bag of airtight freeze-dried mint chocolate chip astronaut ice cream, which actually tastes just like normal ice cream, if you can get past the foamy texture.
For lunch we stopped at Quiznos for sammie’s, just like we used to do when we lived in Lansing. I’d forgotten how delicious Quiznos sammie’s are! Does anybody else remember the old Quiznos commercials with the weird little singing monster with the scratchy voice? “They got a pepper bar!” My friends and I spent the better part of our high school years perfecting our vocal mimicking of it. What the heck was that thing anyway, and why on Earth did they think this creature would be a good mascot for a sandwich shop? Though clearly we still remember the commercials after all these years, so obviously the oddball served its purpose.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfcdqMTtU4]
And just try to keep me out of an establishment called the Sugar Cupcakery! Visit their swoon-worthy website here! They make the most delectable cupcakes ever! For a treat, they are simply amazing and the icing is so creamy it nearly melts in your mouth! I had the whiskey butterscotch and chocolate orange. Yes, they really are as good as they look. Your drooling is justified.
I was inspired by the Sugar Cupcakery’s original flavors like chocolate stout (with Guinness baked into the batter!), banana caramel, and lemon raspberry to imagine some ideas of my own for scrumptious cupcakes I’d like to make one day: chai caramel, orange amaretto, lemon lavender, green tea cream cheese, German chocolate Andes mint, and butterscotch pistachio. Maybe I should open my own little niche restaurant and bakery with a select menu of my specialties and favorite dishes.
After we left Milford we drove through the phenomenally wealthy and outright gorgeous suburb of Indian Hill oogling over the house’s we’ll never live in. The land looks like it’s out in the country, hilly and curvy, and the mansions are truly stunning. Then we drove past a fenced in yard full of these:
Why, yes, those are furry longhorns in the middle of the ritziest neighborhood in Ohio. We couldn’t help but pull over on the one-lane narrow road to take a closer look and laugh. I mean, these guys rock, but they look so out of place! This is literally the last place I’d ever expect to see them – among the pools, manicured lawns, 5-car garages, and 19 room villas.
We went to Saturday evening mass, I made a fantastic Chinese chicken recipe for dinner (that I plan to share with you all tomorrow!), and we cuddled up on the couch to catch-up on last week’s episode of Big Bang Theory. What a great Saturday! Hope your was just as wonderful!
The Blessings of Everyday Life
Snow. Whhhhhyyyyyyyyyy!?
Yesterday afternoon Ted and a friend of his at CCM were walking toward the doors getting ready to leave and saw it was snowing out. Ted was thrilled, obviously. He told the guy he was walking with that Lara must not have left work and walked outside yet because I hadn’t texted him “it’s snowing.” A few seconds later my text message arrived – “it’s snowing.” I’m certain nobody in this fair city was more shocked or disappointed than myself to see those ominous white snow fluffs cascading from the sky yesterday. It’s March, Cincinnati. What gives!? I’m cold, the squirrels are cold, and my windshield is a sheet of ice. I’d already geared myself up for a warm spring. I put away my snow boots and snow brush for the season, I’ve dug out my short-sleeved shirts, and mentally I’m so past snow that it’s causing heartbreaking, toxic levels of anguish. What a cruel trick. That Puxatony Phil is getting senile in his old age.
Anyhow, after I’d collected my jaw from the ground, regained some dignity, trudged to my car (shivering the whole way), and picked up Ted from CCM, we drove (in the snow) to the little suburb of Milford, about 15 minutes from where we live in Anderson. Two days ago at work I’d scored free passes for two to a sneak pre-screening of the movie Paul, which opens next week sometime, I think. I guess the Museum somehow got hold of a few of these passes and decided our staff was either the weirdest or most creative of the bunch and that we’d likely appreciate free tickets to an alien movie. Um, I don’t know about you, but I appreciate free anything. And since we both had the evening off and neither of us had ever been to a pre-screening of a not-yet-released film before, we decided not to watch any movie trailers of it and just go with the flow and be surprised. The theatre was packed full, but the movie about two British comic book nerds road tripping across America when they find and attempt to save a smart-talking alien from the U.S. government was really funny (if you don’t mind aliens or flicks riddled with foul language, sexual innuendo, and all manner of other non-PC things that find their way into R-rated films, that is.) We had a great time. Definitely worth free!
The museum, it seems, has been handing out goodies to me left and right. Two free admission movie tickets, two coupons for free scoops of Graeter’s ice cream (um, that alone is worth working there), and yesterday the Egyptian curator of the Cleopatra exhibit where I sometimes work wrote my name in hieroglyphics for me! I like jobs with perks. But who doesn’t? Before I sign off, I’ll leave you with days 2 of the blog challenge:
Day 2 – A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.
This is a picture of me and my friend Katie at the state fair in Dallas in 2006.
We met in 9th grade – our first year of schooling in Boerne. At this time 9th grade was still housed on the middle school campuses. We were both new to the area and didn’t really know anybody. We were in the same ludicrous P.E. class and bonded over our hatred of dodge ball and running timed laps. I accidentally clocked her in the face with a frisbee one period (I’ve never claimed to excel at sports or anything else that requires depth perception), so we spent that class in the nurse’s office – which was definitely preferable to feigning our ability to play dodge ball and hiding at every opportunity. During high school we avoided school pep rallies, had Burger King and snow cone dates, and we laid out at her pool in the afternoons sunning ourselves and feverishly swatting away wasps. She always came to see the plays I was in or directed and we were in a musical and a dreadful home economics class together. We went on a very memorable and adventurous aquatic science class trip during the summer of our junior year with about 15 other classmates in which we earned a full semester’s science credit, bathed in highly toxic Deet bug spray, counted our freshly acquired mosquito bites nightly, camped out in tents on the beach, studied marine life and sea creatures, pranced like ravenous monkeys to avoid the invisible ghost crabs on the beaches, drove across Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida in hellish white vans, enjoyed beautiful sunsets, and ate soggy sandwiches and poptarts at flooded campsites for two weeks straight. It was a blast! I think some of our funniest and fondest memories together are from those two miserable and simultaneously joyous weeks.
Though we lived hours apart in college, we still stayed close with numerous phone calls and cards. We’d send each other emails, snail mail letters and funny cards with long messages scribbled in colored ink whenever possible. I road tripped to Dallas for a few days for the state fair and her 21st birthday and visited again the following spring break. Recently we were bridesmaids in each other’s weddings and even with a handsome new baby she traveled all the way to Wisconsin for mine! We share a love of books, snow cones, sarcasm, Gilmore Girls, and a severe fear of scorpions and spiders (actually, bugs in general). She’s one of those special friends that no matter how far away we live from each other, no matter how long it has been since we last saw each other, we’ll always be close and we’ll always be there for one another – the connection just picks right back up like no time or distance had ever elapsed between us. Today is her 25th birthday (Happy birthday Katie!) so it’s a coincidentally appropriate day for this particular blog topic.
P.S. – Today Ted gets his iPad 2 – my wedding gift to him. To say he’s excited is an extreme understatement. He’s been standing in line at the Apple store at Kenwood since 1 p.m. waiting for its official 5 p.m. release. He was 99th in a line of over 1,000. More updates on the new addition this weekend!
P.P.S. – The director of the ill-fated Spiderman production was fired. You all knew this was coming…this show definitely needed a fresh start, or at least some other major uprising to finally cut the shenanigans and kick it into gear. I’m all for supporting something as awesome as this Spiderman project, but at some point if it’s just not working, they need to cut the crap and make some serious changes until they find a way to make it work. Check out this short, funny news-story about it here.
And finally be thankful for every day you’re blessed with! That earthquake and tsunami in Japan really makes you think. We’re so blessed to have been given another day in this world! Thoughts & prayers are with Japan.