Thursday, September 30, 2010

Here's Abby! This is her 2nd grade school picture. I think she looks quite grown-up here and her mom tells me she picked her own outfit for that day! Good work Abby, you look fabulous!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

It's National Coffee Day!

Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by a goat hearder named Kaldi (funny, that's the name of a coffee shop in Cincinnati). A century later, coffee began to be roasted and traded by Arabs. From there, the beans entered the Indian and European markets and the first coffee shop (NOT Starbucks) opened in Constantinople in 1475 (before Columbus found us). Today, 4000 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year and we celebrated today by having a bunch of those cups today!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

REDS WIN, REDS WIN, REDS WIN....15 years waiting and it was a "walk-off" home run by our very favorite outfielder Jay Bruce.....BRUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCE! Congratulations to the Central Division Champs....bring 'em on!!!!

Monday, September 27, 2010

The FEI World Games started this weekend in Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park. There was a huge opening ceremony on TV Saturday night. It was really beautiful, like the Olympics. There was a parade of competitors, carriage/wagon show and lots of singing. Winona Judd sang My Ole Kentucky Home. One of the events is called Reining....it's western style eventing and the only time cowboy hats are worn by the competitors. It was really fun to watch and the American Quarter Horse never looked better....they can do some incredible things! It was interesting to see that American Quarters were competing in countries like Italy....I'm sure you won't find this as interesting as World Soccer, but give it a try...really fun!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

It's Fall and these are geese...they've been traveling south all weekend. Since it's really nice and cool here, we have the windows open so we can hear the geese...did you know they really do sound like they're honking! I wonder if the one in the back is honking to get one of the front ones to move out of his way...sort of like on I75. I'm guessing none of you are living in a goose migration pattern so you'll just have to imagine what it's like taking a walk down by the river with all the overhead...um....honking bombers!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Went to Barnes & Noble today....looking for new books, a cup of coffee, a few magazines and a map of Paris! I don't buy the books, but take pictures of new authors or titles I haven't read but want to. I get my books in e-form for my iPod and I can download them from the library...it's a great plan. So I take pictures of all the new books I think I would like to have and then save them until I have time to look for them at the e-library. It was beautiful here today and papa/gump said it was nice in Tennessee...he and Brooks stayed outside all day except when they watched the Cardinals lose! Magic #2

Friday, September 24, 2010

Lots of excitement on Fountain Square today. UC has a big football game tomorrow against Oklahoma (wonder who we'll cheer for). They are playing at Paul Brown Stadium so everyone...players, fans and the whole city is UC crazy this weekend....then there's the Reds who could clinch their division title this weekend...you can be I'll be at Fountain Square if that happens. Papa/Gump is in Tennessee with his friend so he's missing all the fun. GO Reds! and either UC or OU?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

It's the first full day of Fall and its hot, really hot...91 degrees! So it wasn't surprising on my walk home from work today to see this "Ride the Ducks" on Vine Street full of people, a few even blew their duck calls at me! The Ride the Duck leaves Newport on the Levee and rides up the Ohio to close to the stadium and then exits the river and travels up Vine St. back to the stadium and into the water again....We rode on the Duck in Seattle...it was fun and we blew our duck calls at people on the street too!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Tonight at 11:00pm EDT it will be officially Fall. It was 91 today and will be just as hot tomorrow and Friday....so maybe Mother Nature forgot to change her season clock! I do know that the trees in our neighborhood are starting to look a little like Fall. This is one of them and just look at all those berries. When we were kids, they told us that when the trees had lots of berries, it meant we will have a very cold winter....sort of like the wooly worm thing (another blog-later). I think it had something to do with the birds and squirrels needing to have more food to store before the winter hit! What ever the reason it makes the trees in our 'hood look really beautiful. Happy Fall - oh, except for the C's who don't exactly get a "fall" season.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

This is the sign you see just as you start crossing the Roebling Bridge...the one I walk to work on every day. It seems quite big and clear that bicyclists must walk their bikes on the bridge....doesn't happen. I usually have a lot of respect for bike riders, but the ones that ride on the bridge must not be able to read. Everyday one (not always the same one) tries to run me over. No bells warn me they are coming so I don't know they're behind me until they yell....in Italy there was a few women who rode in our neighborhood everyday and they had bells on their bikes...the bells were really loose, so with the rough cobblestones, it made the little bell tinkle as they went....very helpful when they were behind us. I wish the bridge bikers would get little bells...wonder if they would mount a bell on their bike if I bought them one?

Monday, September 20, 2010

Lucy the TV Cat...she's sitting on top of the little tv in the guest room...what do think she's doing there? I think she's there cause it's warm up there, but more likely she chased a fly that found its way into the house. What I do know is that she walked all over the keyboard to get to the top of the tv and typed several messages to someone on Facebook! If you get a message from Lucy...let me know.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Bengals first home game of the season and WE WIN!!!! I have these two mini helmets on my desk at work (our home office is Baltimore, so we have a big bet on this game). It was an exciting game and we walked over the bridge at half-time to watch the jumbo-tron stuff. The stadium was full of orange and black shirts...and we could hear lots of cheering. There was also a MetLife blimp with snoopy on it flying over the stadium....Bengals 15-10 a good start to the year!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

another hard to see pic...we went to Newport tonight for a charitable event called Wine Over Water. It was on the Purple People Bridge and was really fun. We saw a bunch of people we knew and had a few ok wines. Most of the wines were from Kentucky and are not as good as our favorite Italian wines, but the evening was beautiful and it was great to be outside and able to walk to the bridge and home again. This was for a charity!!!!

Friday, September 17, 2010

I know it's a bit hard to figure out what this is, but today was the annual "weiner dog races" at Fountain Square in preparation for Oktoberfest in Zinzinnati! There were 8 doggies in 8 heats and the final heat had only 6...2 ran the other way! All the dogs had little bun costumes with mustard or catsup squiggle on their backs...it was kinda sad, some of them tripped over their bun costume. The winner was a girl named Greta (good German name). It was Greta's third try and first win. Two of the dogs were named Oscar Meyer...that's kinda creepy! Anyway, if you look closely you can see flapping ears and straight tails...they were really cute, but not as cute as our Vannasdogs, Gilly and Scrappy.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

So we sitting watching the news and checking e-mails when the newsguy says the Navy Landing Craft is going under the Big Mac Bridge....what? Navy ship on the Ohio River? Grabbed the camera and keys and ran out the front door and down the alley to the river....just in time to see: a Navy Landing Craft floating down the Ohio River right in front of the stadium. Way cool! It's a decommissioned Navy craft and is on it's way to Evansville, IN. No one really said why, but there it was...and we got to see it!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Ok...it's September and walking across the bridge today, what do I spy but Mayflies...lots of Mayflies....millions of Mayflies...just look at them attached to the bridge. Actually I looked it up and Mayflies hatch in either spring or fall, so I should be so surprised at this. They are annoying little flying things and they attract all kinds of birds who eat them. I looked it up and Mayflies only live a very little time, like 24 hours but they are baby bugs for almost a year. The eggs are laid in bodies of water (hence the bridge) and go through all the bug stages until they become adults. That's when they flock together (on the bridge) to make more baby Mayflies....they're really cool to look at but there way to many of them!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away". That's an old phrase that I read recently still is good. You know it's fall when the apple display at the market looks like this...red, blush, green, yellow....oh my! This is our favorite time of year....apple picking time! The days are warm and the evenings are cool....and there are about a bizillion different kinds of apples at the market! Eat an apple today.

Monday, September 13, 2010

This posting is just a little late, but on Saturday 9/11, there were other things to talk about...so now we'll tell you about Saturday at the Reds. 9/11 was also the 25th anniversary of Pete Rose's record breaking hit 4,192. It was pretty exciting at the ball park. There were lots of videos of that night and lots of people talking on the jumbotron about that night. And then, Pete came into the stadium. He rode in from the bullpen and then jumped on first base. His two sons and grandson were there too....it was very cool to watch all the excitement and then the Reds won...a great night.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Happy Grandparents Day....it's really a made-up day, but someone decided it was today. Since we all don't live in the same town, we can't participate in Grandparents Day at school...but that doesn't mean we don't think about ya'll everyday and wish we could see you more often. I still love this picture of us at the beach last year. It was such fun all being in the same house for a week. So this week, if anyone says anything about Grandparents Day...tell them your grandparents love you "best of all"

Saturday, September 11, 2010

It's been 9 years since your mom/aunt Liz called me at work early that morning and said a "small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center". While we were talking she said OMG, get to a tv another has hit the other tower. We ran into the tv room and watched as the towers burned and then collapsed. It was like watching a made for tv movie in the middle of the morning. That's where I was that morning....and I know where Abby was...she hadn't been born yet...Andrew was a little over 1, Christian was in Kindergarten, and Chandler and Chloe were home with their mom. Everyone else was at work. Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann were in Canada on the Cape May Light...they had a really hard time getting the boat and passengers back to the US. You should ask them about what they saw in NY Harbor later that September. There were 17 terrorists on 9/11 and thousands of heros....

Friday, September 10, 2010

It's finally Friday and lots of stuff is going on in KY/OH. Cincinnati is hosting a beer festival on 5th Street so it's closed...and Covington is hosting the annual Oktoberfest in Mainstrasse. All this means is we can't get anywhere using the same roads we usually use. On my way home this evening there was a firetruck with an emergency crew parked right there at 5th and Vine....the firemen had blue gloves on so I guess someone was sick or injured, but I never saw them....maybe it was a trial run?

Thursday, September 9, 2010

This morning I decided to show you the color of the Roebling Bridge. As we told you before, the bridge has been closed to traffic since April for repainting. This is one part of the new painting...so our question is - which Kentucky Highway Department employee ok'd the color. As you can see, it's not KY blue at all, but rather a very obvious Carolina blue! I'm not sure we'll be able to live with this color. I really hope when this painting job is over and the bridge reopens, someone will explain to the ex-highway department employee who picks paint colors, what he did wrong!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

We had a most marvelous evening....we met friends down at the Riverside Yacht Club. The interesting thing about this picture is the colors. I think it has to do with only 22% humidity in Northern Kentucky this evening. Look how blue the Ohio River looks...it's just a little cleaner up here than it is in Covington, but blue, really!!!! We had about 100 ducks trying to seranade us while we ate...and it worked...lots of bread went overboard. We think we'll have to have supper here again before it gets too cold.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Well it's finally here! Christian started his senior year at Esperanza High School. Chandler, after many years away, has started Esperanza High School as a sophomore and Miss Chloe is in the 7th grade at Bernardo Middle School...Yipee! We can't wait to get a first day report...we thought about the three of you all day today. So Andrew and Abby, that makes all five of you doing the school thing for the first time ever! Have a good year everyone and show 'em what you can do!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that falls on the first Monday of September. It is customarily viewed as the end of the summer, especially of the vacation season; many schools open for the year in the week after Labor Day.

This part is a very important lesson for Chloe & Allby.... The U S also adopted the tradition of not wearing white after Labor Day!!!! This is also the time when the Navy switches from their white uniforms to their Navy blue uniforms. That's probably why we can't wear white shoes??? The picture is of a Labor Day parade in NY City in 1882

Sunday, September 5, 2010

This is the WEBN fireworks Sunday. It mean summer is over and they've been shooting the fireworks off for about 27 years. The fireworks are fired from a barge on the Ohio River and from the Purple People Bridge. We took a walk this morning after church and this is what the Ohio side and the KY side looked like. You should ask your Mom (A's) and your Dad (C's) to tell you their WEBN fireworks stories...very interesting!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Good thing I bought that very heavy sweatshirt in San Diego...it was cold today! The sun was also shining most of the afternoon, so we decided to put the top down and go on a picnic. Since we didn't want to drive too far, we went up to Eden Park in Cincinnati. This is the lookout place and there are a few picnic tables across the street and a few benches here on the overlook....it was full of people but we were able to get a table and enjoyed our picnic supper before we went back to sit on the wall and watch all the boats travel up and down the river. Lots of boats have dropped anchor on the Kentucky side waiting for the fireworks tomorrow night.

Friday, September 3, 2010

It's Friday and one of us didn't work today! Yea...it's so confusing for Lucy when we don't keep with our schedule. She seems to always know when it's Saturday and waits until at least 6:30 before she starts playing with the verticle blinds...this morning we got up at the same time as usual 6:00, but only papa/gump left for work...she kept looking at me waiting for me to leave for work...I'm not sure if she planned a party this afternoon while we were gone, but she didn't much care for me being home on a Friday. I just took this picture and she seems to have adjusted afterall....funny cat!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Did you know that the lightbulb on the left (a filament bulb) has not changed since we were kids...that's a long time to not change in a very changing world. Apparently technology on lightbulbs just stood still since they worked. Suddenly some smart environmentalist decided that this lightbulb burned up more energy than was practical so now we have a new lightbulb....the one on the right is called a CFL and is supposed to burn cheaper and longer and is not harmful to the environment. We've changed all our lightbulbs to CFLs...check around your house and see if you still have "old style" bulbs...you need to get those changed! SAVE THE PLANET one little light bulb at a time!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

More baseball....it's very exciting in downtown right now...fireworks and more fireworks. Here's a picture of the stadium all lite up for tonights game. There weren't a lot of people there but there was a lot of noise anyway. The fireworks at the end of the game were really loud and Lucy ran under the bed...we just laughed at her. Reds up 8 now.