March Madness

Friday

The first weekend in March ended up being a busy one!  We took an impromptu visit up to Mansfield to offer condolences for our friend John, whose father passed away.  On a happier note, while we were in town, we stopped to visit the great carousel that they have in downtown Mansfield.  My favorite feature is the variety of carved animals - not just horses, but cats, giraffes, lions, tigers, ostriches, dogs, and rabbits are all represented. Tony didn't want to sit on an animal - Joseph chose a horse - Glenda picked a giraffe.

We found a Greek restaurant on the main square and decided to check it out.  "Athens Greek Restaurant" was definitely a good call.  It's a casual family restaurant with excellent food, great prices, and friendly service.  The hummus was heavy on the garlic (just the way we like it).  The gyros and souvlaki were top notch and the tzatziki sauce was to die for.

Saturday

After working half a day in Delaware, I ran over to the Columbus Indie Comix Fair for a few minutes and picked up a couple local comics and chatted with the authors and illustrators.

After the Comix Fair, it was off to Westerville Central High School to meet Glenda and the kids for a children's concert.  The Westerville Community Band put on a program of musical selections from around the world.  "Jamaican Rhumba" was a standout, but it's pretty hard to beat Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever".  They really had kids' attention spans in mind and did a nice job of pacing the program.  After 3 or 4 songs, the kids were able to get up and march around the auditorium.  After another few songs, we all got to clap along and then sing along a few songs later.  

When the concert was over, Glenda took Joseph home and Tony and I ventured back to Mansfield.  We accidentally left our digital camera at the Greek restaurant the night before.  I didn't mind driving back there, because it gave me an excuse to try something else on the menu.  I got the stuffed grape leaves and was not disappointed.  Tony got the kid's hamburger and salt and vinegar potato chips which he declared "spicy, but good". While in town, we snapped a few photos with our reclaimed camera:

Sunday


After church, we stopped home for a quick lunch of soup beans and then bundled up to brave the cold.  We headed out to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park in Galloway for a bison hike.  The park has six female bison and we got to see four of them on our two mile hike.  I also caught up with an old friend who happened to be on the hike as well.

After the hike we stopped and picked up a few things at Meijer and some sliders at White Castle.  Then we headed over to Grandma Kaslers for a White Castle - hot cider - hot chocolate feast.  After visiting with Granny, it was off to Costco to drop off a roll of film and then we finally made our way back home.  The kids watched "Mulan" and then it was time for books before bed.  All in all, another great weekend of blessings!  

Sunday

Glenda stayed home with poor little Tony this morning - he crawled into our bed at 6AM and said his belly hurt - he's regurgitated 3 times since then and is still not himself. I was drafted into helping with Sunday school today since the main teacher couldn't make it. Joe was exceptionally well behaved during church and after the service we stopped at "Joe's Firehouse Tavern" for lunch. (I couldn't resist the free kid's meal coupon we got in the mail). Our awesome childcare provider Miss Holly gave us a 20% off coupon for Big Lots and we used that to pick up a couple things today also. Our Pastor's wife works at Big Lots and we got to visit with her while we were there, too. This afternoon the kids got to watch a couple of episodes of Scooby Doo while I rode the exercise bike and Glenda got to watch some of the Indiana Jones marathon on USA Network, so everyone got to do what they wanted. Anthony's perked up a little bit after watching Scooby, so this is shaping up to be a pretty nice Sunday after all.

Ice Ice Baby

All Right - Stop - Collaborate and Listen...

Well, the good news is that we didn't lose all our electric power in this week's storms and for that we feel very blessed.  The bad news is that we haven't had power in about half of our house for a week now thanks to some faulty breakers/wiring.  Last Friday, Glenda couldn't use her hair dryer in the bedroom.  We would turn on a light switch and the lights would turn off!?!  Something was definitely amiss but didn't seem to be that big of a deal - that is, until Friday night around 9:00 PM.  I had just gotten the kids to bed and had settled down to watch The McLaughlin Group on PBS.  (Glenda was at a girls' night out get-together - if she were home I would not have subjected her to one of the political screamfests that she hates).  Anyway, about 10 minutes into the program, I noticed the unmistakable smell of electric wires trying to catch on fire.  I went to the laundry room where our electric box is, and the smell was very strong.  I called Glenda, (who was already on her way home) and told her I was going to get the kids up.  She took one whiff of the basement and called the fire department dispatcher.

I tell you what - the Westerville Fire Department doesn't play games.  Within minutes, we had six fire trucks on our street, dispatched from Firehouses 111, 112, and 113.  We wrapped the kids (still sleepy) in coats and headed outside.  Our neighbor Marvin invited us over to his house to get out of the cold.  The second he stepped out of his house he said "Smells like an elecrical fire".  We know which 2 breakers were affected, but the firefighters couldn't definitively pinpoint the exact source of the problem.  They said as long as we keep those breakers off, we would be safe until we could get an electrician out the next day.  The "electric fire smell" did dissipate, but we have been left with a house with no power in any of the bedrooms, no TV/DVR in the living room, etc.  You won't find me complaining, though - we still have heat, the kitchen is fine, and the garage door still works.  That's more than a lot of people can say after this week's ice storms.

With all the ice and power outages around town, it's been hard for the electricians to track down our problem.  We had them out briefly on Monday, but the problem wasn't resolved.  The plan, of course, was to have them come back on Tuesday to follow up.  Mother Nature had other plans.  Like everbody else, our driveway and street turned into a giant ice rink:

Needless to say, school and the electricians were canceled Tuesday and Wednesday.  It took me about an hour to get to Tuttle Tuesday morning and curiously, I ended up doing 10 eye exams that day, more than I expected.

The most important thing about Tuesday, though, is that it was Glenda's birthday!  It definitely didn't turn out as she expected - we had plans for a karaoke/lasagna birthday party at our house that had to be scrapped.  We were obviously disappointed that the family couldn't come over, but the day wasn't a total loss - Glenda did get breakfast in bed and some quality time with the kiddos.

I got my own time with Joseph and Anthony on Wednesday and we made the most of it.  Our morning was filled with playing "Cootie", wrestling (I still have a couple of aches and pains from that), and burying old Dad with blankets and stuffed animals:

The afternoon found Joseph making a 17 page book about learning to fly, Tony coloring and all of us checking out videos and games on the PBS kids website.  Glenda's annual bureau meeting was canceled Wednesday night, so she ended up in on the fun, too.  She staged her own mini-karaoke party  - the highlight was Glenda and Joseph singing "Crocodile Rock".  

Glenda's parents are coming in Friday night to watch the kids while Glenda and I celebrate her birthday at the Ocean Club at Easton.  Saturday afternoon brings the Wendy's Chili Open at the Zoo and Sunday is Maria's birthday party.  With the Big Thaw already underway and dry weather expected, it should be another terrific weekend!

Cleveland Here We Come!

Joseph, Anthony and I have returned from a fun-filled trip to that vacation mecca, Cleveland!  We wanted to give Glenda some time to scrapbook, and since this was the rare occasion where I actually had the whole weekend off, all the boys took a roadtrip up north.   After a smooth trip up I-71, (and after circling the parking lot like vultures), we finally made it into West Side Market.  About noon. On a Saturday.  Did I mention the parking lot?  Boy, this place was bustling!  Wall to wall people made it tough to navigate with 2 boys in tow, but we made it downstairs to the "Comfort Station" which is a pleasant term for a bathroom.  Back upstairs we made it to "Johnny Hot Dog's"  where the kids got a burger - and a sucker from the nice lady behind the counter.

Next stop - Steve's Gyros.  I set our DVR to record every episode of  "Man Vs. Food" on the Travel Channel.  Every week host Adam Richman visits a different city to take on various food challenges and showcase the city's gastronomic highlights.  The moment I saw his Cleveland episode, I knew I was destined to visit Steve's Gyros.  Apparently, every person in Cuyahoga County was destined to visit Steve's that day as well.  Yes, the line was literally out the door, and yes the wait was worth it!  The kids' hamburger was too messy to eat standing in line, so I doled out emergency goldfish crackers to ward off mutiny while I waited for my gyro (which was roughly the size of Anthony).  We had an impromptu picnic in the parking lot and it was off to the Great Lakes Science Center.

As members of COSI here in Columbus, we have free admission to over 160 museums across the country as part of the ASTC Passport Program.  The Great Lakes Science Center is among the many museums we have visited to take advantage of this great program.  In the picture above, Joey is piloting the Space Shuttle.  The main floor has  a lot of exhibit space devoted to space exploration, while the top floor has a ton of demonstration centers illustrating different scientific principles.  Tony and Joe explore DNA below:

The ground floor leads out to the Lake Erie shore with a nice view of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Goodtime III boat.  Also moored there is the Steamship Wiilliam G. Mather, which we took a self-guided tour of.  Joseph saw a big sign bearing his name inside the steamship and both kids posed by the safe onboard as well:

At 2:15 we got to experience a live science demonstration outside by the lake.  The first part showed the wonders of dropping Mentos into Diet Coke - it was kind of like being at a Gallagher show when he gets out the watermelons - you don't want to be in the front row!  After that, we got to see a liquid nitrogen-hot water cloud.  Our mad scientist spilled some liquid nitrogen on his shoes and got freeze-dried footwear.  Luckily his feet were not harmed in the process.

Before we left, we had to check out the photobooth.  We all took turns wearing Anthony's hat and it was  then that I realized Joe didn't have his hat with him.  Lost and Found didn't have it so we re-traced our steps and found it upstairs.  It was a hat that his Granny made for him, so we weren't going to leave without finding it.

The kids both fell asleep for a few minutes in the car on the way to the Super 8 in Beachwood.  After a quick nap, we got some Chinese food and the kids each got another sucker (I guess that's one of the perks of Halloween weekend - suckers at every turn).  Back at the hotel, it was pajama time and the kids got to watch the first quarter of the Buckeyes game before it was lights out.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

After raisin bran at the hotel, we went to Preston's Hope playground.  We got there before 10:00, and it was still pretty cold, so we bundled up.  Preston's Hope is a great interactive playground designed for kids of all different physical and developmental abilities, with wheelchair access and Braille signs throughout the park.  We were there for the better part of an hour and the kids loved every minute of it.

After the park, we headed over to Rascal House Pizza for lunch - it was very close to our next destination, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The Natural History Museum is another great attraction on the ASTC Passport Program list that offers free admission to COSI members.  The last time we were here we just ducked into the bathrooms during the "Parade the Circle" event with our friends Carly and Cliff and their daughter Emma.  Today we were ready to see everything, starting with the huge stegosaurus outside.

In Sears Hall,  Tony met a girl named Mamie that he wanted to pal around with, and we got to see a red-tailed hawk named "Meep", a(n) opossum named "Dora" and a snake named "Nero" - Tony got to pet the snake.  We also got to see "Disease Detectives", a traveling exhibit that we had actually seen in Muncie, IN several months back.  Here Joe posed with E. coli and got to take a giant nasal swab:

We also got to see all manner of fossil and skeletal remains of various species - Tony's favorite part was getting a squashed penny with a skeleton on it.  After checking out the planetarium, we went outside to see more live animals including Turkey vultures, white-tailed deer, American crows, various owls and the like.  Following a trip to Costco to develop our pictures and Smokey Bones for dinner, we rolled back into Westerville about 7:00 PM.  We were all tired, but glad to see Glenda/Mom.  Another Great Adventure!

Cincinnati

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

• Glenda and I had a whirlwind trip to Cincy yesterday.  We got in about 11:45AM only to find there was a Reds game downtown.  After passing 6 full parking garages, we finally got a spot on the top floor of a garage on Garfield.   We got lunch at Boi Na Braza, a Brazilian Steakhouse on the first floor of the Carew Tower.  At Brazilian steakhouses or "churrascarias", you get a coaster/card with a red side and a green side.  If you put your green side up on the table, gauchos come to your table and offer you all manner of grilled meats.  Different cuts of steak, lamb, sausage, chicken - you name it.  If you put the red side of the coaster up, it means "I am about to burst, sir, please quit bringing me food".  The food was delicious,  the atmosphere was great, and the gauchos wore MC Hammer pants.

• After lunch, it was up to the observation deck of Carew Tower.  You walk through a little retail area to get to the elevator.  This takes you up to the 45th floor.  When you get off at that floor,  you get on a rickety old elevator that seems like a phone booth / Port-a-Potty hybrid that takes you up to the 48th floor.  From there, you climb one set of stairs and you're up to the observation deck.  Once there, it seems you can see all of Cincinnati, and a good portion of the tri-state area.

• After taking some photos from the observation deck, it was off to the Cincinnati Art Museum.  They had some terrific temporary exhibions that inspired this whole trip in the first place.   One of the best was "Thomas Schiff: Vegas 360".  This exhibit featured panoramic views of the crazy world that is Las Vegas.  My favorite image pictured the Strip on New Year's Eve with fireworks galore.  Two other highlights were "The American Road" which featured huge neon advertising signs, and "Walker Evans: Decade by Decade", which included many of the photographer's works from the Great Depression and beyond.

• Then came Glenda's favorite part of the trip: IKEA!  We got new chairs for our kitchen table, a clock, a couple of small shelves, etc.  Glenda could've spent a lot more time there, but we did plenty of damage in an hour and a half.

• Our thanks go out to Joey's grandparents MawMaw and Zedu for entertaining Joey this week and to Miss Holly and Uncle Pete and Aunt Tammie for taking care of Tony for the day.  Thanks again!!

Chicago

I just found out one of my photos is being included in an interactive guide to the great city of Chicago.  The guide is called "Schmap Chicago".  They've included one of my pictures of Navy Pier, taken with the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera.  This Vivitar model is a cheap plastic point and shoot camera with a fixed wide angle lens.  There is no adjustment of aperture, shutter, focus, etc.  I got a working model at the Volunteers of America thrift store for $1.90.  They have garnered quite a cult following and command top dollar on eBay - I've seen auctions as high as $60.  The wide angle lens imparts a unique look with nice vignetting or darkening around the corners - it's very much a lo-fi anti-digital aesthetic.  Some people refer to the Vivitar as the "poor man's Lomo" as it gives similar results to the much more expensive Lomo LC-A camera (a model costing upwards of $200).

Below is a link for the online Schmap Chicago guide:

www.schmap.com/chicago/tours_tour5/p=10712/i=10712_186.jpg

They also offer a downloadable version for iPhone and iPod Touch:

www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=chicago&sid=tours_tour5&p=10712&i=10712_186

Road Food

Indiana saga continued...

Glenda remarked that this is the first trip we've taken that hasn't been planned around food.  Usually, I've downloaded menus from various restaurants that we planned to visit, but for this trip, we decided to take a more "seat of our pants" approach and just find restaurants along the way that sounded good. There was only one stipulation - any restaurant had to offer what my mom always called "food of the region".  Loosely translated, this means "mom and pop" restaurants, local favorites featuring regional specialties when at all possible, and absolutely, positively no chain restaurants that you can find around home.  Therefore, no McDonald's, Subway, KFC, etc.  A regional chain, i.e. Stuckey's or Jack in the Box, while less than ideal, would be perfectly acceptable.  (That's the ground rules set by Mom, that I follow to this very day).

So, we kept our eyes open for any kind of restaurant that looked good.  On the way to the hotel, we saw 4 or 5 places that advertised "fish and chicken" and also half a dozen Mexican restaurants and Hispanic markets.

When we checked into the LaQuinta, I asked "Big Jim" at the front desk for a restaurant recommendation and he offered 2:  Yen Ching which he claimed was one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the country, and El Meson Mexican Restaurant.

Mexican sounded good to Glenda, so we headed to El Meson, right around the corner from the hotel.  To my delight, they offered horchata, a milky rice water drink, spiced with cinnamon.  (It tastes a lot better than it sounds).  Tony played it safe with chicken nuggets, but Joey embraced the "food of the region" credo - he tried a beef enchilada and decided it was really good.  My "El Meson Especial" fajita plate was excellent - with beef, chicken, shrimp and chorizo, what's not to like?  Glenda also enjoyed her chicken taco and guacamole plate.  After a full day and full bellies, it was time for bed.