Saturday, July 31, 2010

Weddings, weddings, weddings....lots of talk about weddings today. 44 years ago, very early in the morning we were married at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. Wow that seems like a long time ago and we were very young at the time, but after all these years...we still love our life together and look forward to a lot more years being married. We hope all those getting married this weekend have a long and happy marriage.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Ah....the month-long birthday celebration...or at least a week long! Celebrating Abby and Gump's birthdays on Coronado Island today. What a beautiful place this is. The Crawfords are staying at the Marriott and it's right on the water...cool! We walked to the harbor area and had lunch and then sang happy birthday to Abby and Gump VERY QUIETLY! After we continued our tour of San Diego on the trolley and the Crawfords spent more time enjoying Coronado, we met at Petco Stadium for a Padres game...they lost...too bad. Fun Fun day!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Here we are at Del Mar Racetrack....this is a pretty cool place. One way you look you can see mountains and the other is the ocean...not to mention horses running around on the track and both of us winning a little money! It was a great day...a little cool,

but sunny. We really enjoyed seeing Del Mar but it isn't nearly as pretty as Keeneland!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

We left Covington at 7:45 this morning and arrived in San Diego at 1:00 (san diego time)...4:00 our body time. By the time we found our way up the coast and then to Temecula, it was late, so the best thing I can tell you about our "wedding week vacation" is that we think In-n-Out burgers are very much live our beloved Steakburgers! Very, very good...especially if you're really tired. They were the first drive-in burger place in California and have been making the same 3 kinds of burgers (plain, with cheese, double) with fries since 1948....betcha the guy who opened the first one ate at Steak-n-Shake when he was a kid!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Guess who's at Disneyland!!!! and it must be chilly...look at the sweatshirts. It looks like Abby's been running around getting her picture taken with all the characters and getting their autographs. I bet that's an autograph book in her hand...enjoy!

Monday, July 26, 2010

We're pretty sure Andrew and Abby are having something yummy for dessert at Disneyland and Chloe seems to be doing ok with her spacers....so we thought you'd be ok to see what we had for dessert tonight....Strawberries and cream and a cappucino. We thought it was the best. Lucy likes the cream too...not so much the strawberries.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Happy Birthday Abby.....7 years old today! Seven years ago, my suitcase was packed and I went to work thinking we were going to spend the weekend in Indianapolis. Then we got a phone call from your mom and away we went...the fastest drive ever to Racine and we got there in time to see Miss Abby join the family...what a happy day that was! Happy Birthday Abby!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Corks...lots of corks. We think we may cut them up and put cork floor in the bedroom...or maybe we'll tie them all together and make a raft to float down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and then to New Orleans....Cork is a wonderful thing is it's renewable. That means the tree that cork comes from is not chopped down to get the cork... The cork is removed from the outside of the tree (mostly in Portugal and Spain) and then the tree is able to grow more. What do you think we should do with the cork?

Friday, July 23, 2010

It's really humid here today...really humid. On a walk down by the river, we took this picture of Mary Green. She's in the Duvenek Park. Mary Green was a river boat pilot and ended up owning the company that ran the Delta Queen Steamboat. We cruised on the Delta Queen a couple of times and although everyone told us the ghost of Mary Green liked to walk up and down the hall where our room was, we didn't see her. She was really quite incredible working at a trade that was and is dominated by men...you rock Mary Green!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

There's new stuff for Chloe and Abby this week....here's some pictures, see if you can guess who got what! Actually the braces are just spacers today, but by the time we see each other, the braces will be in place. Let's home there's a smile on the braces, too!

Way to go girls....can't wait to see your new looks!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Oh happy boy....oh happy birthday. Guess whose birthday it is today! That would be papa/gump and he's 66 years old today. This picture was taken 60 years ago when he was 6 and in the first grade....isn't he cute! Bet he was a joy in class...is that a cowboy shirt he has on? I think you should talk to him about this picture when you see him! Happy birthday to the best papa/gump in the world....

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

On July 20, 1969, while I was taking care of a sick baby, papa/gump was watch Neil Armstrong take his first step on the moon.
He exited the Lunar Module and at 10:56 PM EDT became the first human to set foot on the Moon, marking the occasion with these words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." What I find amazing about this is that it was on TV...I have enough trouble taking a still picture 3 feet from me.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Guess what's in season! Tomatoes...lovely tomatoes. Red ones, purple ones, little ones, big ones, pretty ones and sometimes ugly ones. We LOVE tomatoes in season. Tonight we had them with stuffed with goat cheese under the broiler. We also like them with mozzerella cheese and basil, stuffed with chicken salad, stuffed with pesto, with bacon and lettuce on bread, with bacon and spinach on bread, sliced with onions....sliced! Hope you'll try a tomato this season! YUMMY

Sunday, July 18, 2010

It's National Ice Cream Day....and we wouldn't want to let a national holiday go by without celebrating...early today we stopped at DQ and papa/gump had an Oreo Blizzard and I had a chocolate cone...after supper we walked over to Newport and papa/gump had a scoop of chocolate chocolate chip! I had nothing, zip, nada....but I did take this picture. It looked really good! Hope you had an ice cream today in honor of National Ice Cream Day...if not, have one tomorrow!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

It's Hall of Fame weekend in Cincinnati and the Reds are celebrating the 1990 World Series win wire-to-wire. The ballpark was filled tonight and the Reds won...lots of homeruns and we were down on the river when Brandon Philips hit his homerun...see the fireworks starting.

Friday, July 16, 2010

This day in history

On July 16, 1913, this very handsome man was born. This is your great-grandfather Maxwell Anderson...my dad. He was born in London, England and was a goalie for his community football team - could be why I love soccer so much. He came to the United States when he was 14 and became a citizen during World War II when he was in the Army. Happy Birthday Dad!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

This is the herb basil....it grows everywhere in Italy and everywhere in Covington. This bowl is actually growing in Panzano in Italy, but this evening when we cooked supper, we walked out to the garden behind the wall, and picked our own fresh basil that grows in pots there. It makes tomatoes taste very good!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Had a little technical malfunction last night....this picture didn't make it from my phone camera to the e-mail in time for the blog...so you're getting it today. This is the new Western Southern building that has a "tiara". The builders put the last piece in yesterday morning around 11:00. I was watching from my office window and the fog was so thick you couldn't see the last piece. If you look carefully, you can see the very large crane used to lift the last piece into place...it's going to be the tallest building in Cincinnati when it's finished.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

We heard from a little birdy that Abby was selling original artwork in front of the house today. The question we had was, does she take pay-pal or do we need to send cash. In case you haven't seen Abby's art....it's pretty cool. We can't wait to hear if anyone stopped to buy an original by Abby!

Monday, July 12, 2010

What are you going to miss most now that World Cup Football is over and Spain has taken the big prize....we're very excited for Spain but are really going to miss the constant background sound of the many, many thousand vuvuzelas being played during each match....now we understand that KFC is offering a free coupon for each vuvuzela sent in! What do you think KFC is going to do with all those vuvuzelas?

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Just for the record....Paul got 'em all right! and so did Chandler...good work Chan. We went to the Hyde Park Farmer's Market today. There were a lot of tomatoes there, but none that looked as good as the ones in Italy. There was a woman there selling goat cheese....we love goat cheese!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

This morning I was invited to take a walk at Freedom Park in Cincinnati with two doggies and their humans. It was beautiful this morning and the park is on the river so was really incredible. There were lots of things to look at, they have created animal foot prints in the sidewalks and leaf prints and there are lots of flowers. The thing I found most intriguing was this "season dial". I couldn't get all the parts of it, but there's a dial in the center of these posts and then points that radiate out from the center piece....basically what this does is show the direction of the sunrise/sunset on certain days of the year....very cool.

Friday, July 9, 2010

This is Paul....he's one our favorite stories of the World Cup. Seems like Paul has picked all the winners by choosing the box of food with the country's flag on it....so now we're down to 2 games and Paul has spoken...or eaten as the case may be. 4th place goes to Uraguay, 3rd to Germany

and the World Cup winner for the first time ever

SPAIN!

(way to go Chandler)

Now all we have to do is wait until Saturday for the 3/4 place game and Sunday for the Championship game. Wonder if Paul got it right again?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

This was last night's sunset. We took a walk after dinner and were just in awe of this sunset....if you look closely, you can see the two ducks swimming close to the river bank. The bridge doesn't look half bad, but is still covered with tarps for the painting...I'll be glad when it's finished...stinky and loud.

And this picture....is what the sunset tonight looked like. It rained during supper, so we didn't go for a walk, but we went up to the sundeck to take this picture....it doesn't look too bad, but not as pretty as last night.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Here are 4 of the five grandogs in our family....I can't find a picture of Roxy who lives in California but the ones I do have are: Slugger (he's new) and Spanky and Gilly and Scrappy...I'm not sure Scrappy is too happy about the costume...but Gilly looks pretty content. Spanky thinks his new little brother is a bother...aren't all little brothers bothers! They're so cute...

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

This is what we've been doing all evening....voting for Joey Votto to be added to the All-Star Baseball Team. Unbelievable that he didn't get elected to the team or picked by the coach...so everyone in Cincinnati is voting to make sure Joey is the "final vote". Go to www.reds.com and vote for Joey!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Yea Monday Holiday....papa/gump and I had an early walk this morning since it's was supposed to be very hot and humid later. When we walked by the Great American Ball Park, we took some time to look at the great rose garden planted here....this is the Pete ROSE garden and celebrates Pete's years as a Cincinnati Red. It was in full bloom and we were really glad the garden is doing so well....wish Pete was in the Hall of Fame!

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA! What a fun day this is....especially if you live in the city like we do....we saw fireworks in Newport, Covington, Ft. Wright and of course, Cincinnati! Hope ya'll saw a lot of fireworks and had a great day!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

It's been a busy day and papa/gump had to work...I went grocery shopping and then went home to watch Argentina and Germany...what was that about? At least Spain won! We walked over to Mainstrasse for a little Skyline this evening and this is what we saw out our window....a CSX train and if you look way out in the distance under the bridge, you can see the new building in Cincinnati...it will be taller than Carew Tower. On our walk home we saw this:

It's kind of a motorcycle with a small car body stuck on it....looks like two people can ride in it! Did you ever see anything like this? We saw a lot of fancy Vespas in Italy, but never anything like this.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Hand ball? You bet.....replay and replay but still a hand-ball and then a FAIL on the penalty kick....I was home early today and decided to watch the end of the Uraguay-Ghana match...secretly rooting for Ghana! What a sad end to a really exciting game. After Brazil lost this morning I didn't think there was anymore surprises left today! Now to Argentina and Germany....anyone for Argentina?

Thursday, July 1, 2010

So after all those weeks in Italy showing you what we were eating and talking about what we were eating....here's what we are eating at home...kinda looks the same as what we were eating there! You just can't go wrong on a cool evening in July with Alberto's olive oil and a little pasta and wine (for those over 21, of course)!