Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Many years ago, in a place far away, a little boy was born....and he LOVED Blues Clues. This was Chandler's Blues Clues birthday party with his daddy playing Steve. I'm thinking that Chan today at 15 looks pretty much like he did here with a few minor changes...no blues clues costume and much, much taller (oh yeah, and a lot more hair). Happy 15th birthday ChanMan....hope your day was outstanding!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann.....we went out with them in Oklahoma City on Friday night. We had a homemade pretzel with really hot mustard and beer in this place. After that we went to another place that had really good pizza. After all that, we went back to Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann's house to taste a little of the wine they have in their wine room! They have a really neat house in OK City and we're looking forward to visiting them again in the summer when the pool is open.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Moms and daughters minus one. Aunt Ann and "Aunt Liz/mom" and I were having a very quiet girls only glass of wine. I think Gilly decided to join us...but without the wine. The picture was taken Thanksgiving Day before we started eating all the food Uncle Mark brought from Oklahoma City. We're missing Aunt Jess and hope to make it all four of us soon!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Last night we were in Oklahoma City visiting Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann. They drove us by the Chesapeake Energy campus where Uncle Mark works to see the trees all covered in lights for the holidays. It's really quite beautiful and there must be about a bizillion trees covered in all different colored lights. It must be hard to sleep in that neighborhood with all that light going on....

Friday, November 26, 2010

There's Andrew and Slugger enjoying Sports Center. Slugger is quite an active little puppy and runs poor Spanky ragged. He's very active and has learned to ring a bell by the door when he wants outside. Once he gets outside he jumps up on the loveseat and enjoys the sun....he's a cutie pie and a welcome addition to the familty.

Turkeyday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving kids...this is all of us that was! We're kinda missing the west coast peeps, but we had a long call with them and so had a good day. We ate lots of turkey and the usual stuff that Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann brought us from OK City. We also made pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert...then we all sat around and said we ate too much. But then the girls went shopping and the guys watched football, so we didn't feel so full after that. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Oops...after almost a whole year...I missed a day. Wednesday was not a great day in the Vannasdall family. First UK lost a hideously ugly basketball game. Papa/Gump, Andrew, Uncle Mark, Aunt Ann and Uncle Dave/dad went to the Thunder pro basketball game and they lost.....and Uncle David/dad and Aunt Jess had a mishap with plane reservations and couldn't get out of Cali for Thanksgiving...and it stormed all night...sigh!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Happy Birthday Elizabeth/mommy/aunt Liz! Birthday parties are always fun and this one was the last party Elizabeth had in St. Louis. We had a Strawberry Shortcakes cake and lots of friends over. That's Ian, Mark, Kelly, Liz, David, Toni and Julie. We had another party tonight...but no Strawberry Shortcake cake.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Blue Moon....there's a song that keeps going through my mind...a very old song...called Blue Moon...but in fact, the blue moon is not really blue. I'm not sure exactly why it's called blue, but the second full moon in a month is called the blue moon. There are usually 12 full moons in a calendar year, but every 17 years (I think that's right - or maybe I'm thinking about cicadas) there are actually 13 full moons...and people behave even weirder than usual. We didn't get to see the blue moon tonight since it rained most of the way through Illinois and now we're too tired to look outside. Hope you are able to see the blue moon this week.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The famous weather predicting wooly worm....there he is crawling along the parking lot near the Bengals Stadium. I don't know if you know about the wooly worm, but the story goes that the color of the worms wool can predict what kind of winter it will be. So...the darker the wool, the harder the winter. I heard a story on NPR not too long ago about the a wooly worm that was black at both ends and red in the middle....there it is! And the winter this little critter is predicting? Well the story goes....hard beginning and ending of winter with a mild middle! Let's see how well Mr. Wooly does!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

It's not exactly Chandler's birthday, but he celebrated with papa/gumps fluffy gift today. There he is (and Christian) with a plate full of fluffies (pancakes to the outside world). We understand from Chan that he put those away with ease and perhaps a few of Christians. Fluffies have been a birthday tradition with Christian, Chandler and Chloe since they've been old enough to eat pancakes...Happy Fluffy Day Chan...

Friday, November 19, 2010

This Saturday is Shop Small Day. Papa/gump works in a small business and they're hoping lots of people celebrate Shop Small Day. I'm planning to go to Oakley and shop at some of the small shops. I'm looking for gifts for friends and work people. I like to buy gifts that are a little unusual and maybe not made in China or even on an assembly line. The store Ten Thousand Villages has lots of these items so that will be my first stop. See if you can shop at a small business on Saturday.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Today is the 82nd anniversary of Walt Disney's first animated film...Steamboat Willie starring Mickey Mouse. It premiered in New York City and has been reissued many times over the past 82 years. Compared to the cartoons today and especially the incredible graphics in video games, this cartoon was very simple...but classic. Abby and Andrew have a Christmas ornament that plays the Steamboat Willie theme song when you pass by...sometimes it needs to be turned off! Happy Anniversary Willie....

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Don Will and Don Neff are moving into a retirement village home and they are trying to get rid of some of their stuff. We went over to their house tonight to see if we could use any of the stuff they didn't want. This is an original Don Neff sculpture. Neff has a degree in art with a concentration in sculpture....he used the hubcap from his '62 Chevy to mold the round middle part. It's kind of fun to have an original art work!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Inside....warm, dry and fast! This is the inside of the new Southbank Trolley. It was raining cats and dogs today when I left work so no bridge walking for me. The Trolley just started running last Saturday and the happy thing is it's the last stop before it crosses the bridge to Cincinnati and the first stop when it comes off the bridge to Covington YEA! It was a nice ride and only cost $1.00. It really does resemble an old trolley car...like I rode in when I was a kid...wood seats and lots of brass! Clang, Clang!

Monday, November 15, 2010

I called papa/gump today and bribed him to take me to Florence to pick something up at Michaels. I promised him a fabulous Italian dinner with a surprise! Of course he bit...and after we got home from Florence, I made the meal you see in the picture. The surprise was the tomato. You know we love sauted spinach, so this time I broiled fresh tomatoes with a little cheese and then put them on top of the spinach....it was heavenly and papa/gump said I certainly kept my part of the bargain. If I thought any of you would eat sauted spinach and broiled tomato....I'd make it for you, but I do know better!

Sunday, Novenber 14, 2010

There's a great app for my iPod called Cat Toy. I saw it on Yahoo and played the video....it was very funny watching Lucy watch the video of a cat playing with an iPod. So of course we thought it would be interesting to see if Lucy would play with the iPod like the cat on the Yahoo video....yup! It has critters that run across the screen and if she taps the screen they make noise...Lucy thought it was great fun for about 10 minutes. We'll see if she still likes it tomorrow night!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

My friend Charlene and I went to the Holiday Market at the Cincinnati Convention Center today. On the way from the parking lot we saw this new shop on 5th Street. In case you can't read it....it says "Abby Girl Sweets Cupcakery" OMG....a shop full of yummy looking cupcakes and a shop named after Abby...we didn't stop but we sure talked about cupcakes a lot. The Market was fun and we bought a few things....papa/gump and I went to see Red tonight...very funny "old people" movie!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Opening game tonight! We were at Skyline for the tip-off and finished up at home with the 1st win of the 2010-11 season....Go Blue! It's always fun to win the first game...it gives hope that this will be the season! Let's hope its a good season for UK so papa/gump can sleep well at night.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Today is Veteran's Day. It was created after World War I in England as Rememberance Day and the US followed with our Veteran's Day. World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars...that didn't work out as expected, but we still celebrate our Veterans today. In England everyone wears a red poppy today. It began from a poem "In Flanders Fields" about the soldiers who lost their lives in Flanders (Belgium) during WWI. It's a beautiful sad poem...you should look it up on the internet. Anyway, a group of English vets decided to put some people to work making these poppys to commemorate Rememberence Day...We used to have them in the US, but I haven't seen any in a long time. I still have mine from England. Thank a Veteran for the freedoms we enjoy!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The library is a wonderful invention. You can go to the library and look at the books, magazines, computer or just sit and enjoy the quiet. They have music and videos and books on tape/cds. I worked at a library when I was 15 and have been a fan of the library since I was little. The library is free....as in no charge, walk out with books, videos and music for free...well, you have to bring them back...but it's still a good deal. I'm even able to download books onto my Ipod Touch from the library...in fact, I'm listening to a 30 disc book right now and it doesn't even make the Ipod heavy! The Kenton County Library just started a new program...music download..called freegal. I just started looking into what they have and it's a bunch...can't wait to get started....and it's FREE!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

This is my pedometer. I wear it every day...well at least I have for 2 weeks anyway. A pedometer measures steps...if you look closely you can see it says 11,451. That means that I took approxmately that many steps that day. I like to measure my steps because we read in the AARP Magazine that we should take 10,000 steps a day to keep healthy...and some other stuff too! So I decided to see how many steps I can walking to work and home again and all the steps in between. My high has been 15,000 and the low was around 8,000....woohoo! I think papa/gump should get one too...how about you?

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Roebling Bridge is open again and tonight, along with the Bengals on Monday Night Football, the new lights on the bridge were turned on. They call the lights the "Necklace". It's very pretty and looked especially nice this evening with all the tailgaters in the foreground. We thought it was pretty cool to walk across the bridge with the lights on and all the cheering in the background....now let's hope the Bengals can light up the Steelers!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

We had a birthday brunch today for Ron Holland. This is a picture of what the kitchen looks like when 10 people come over to eat. We set the island up as a buffet and put all the food on it. It works pretty well in a small apartment. I was busy making an apple salsa when papa/gump took this picture. So here was the menu: Stuffed french toast, breakfast meat skewers, blueberry muffins, grits with shrimp gravy or red-eye gravy and OJ. We also had Stacy's cinnamon chips with pumpkin dip...yummy!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Spring forward...not our favorite...but Fall back, yipee. In fact, we go to bed even earlier just to make sure we get that hour sleep we lost in the Spring. The bad thing about the time change in the Fall is that it's dark when we go to work in the morning and dark when we get home in the evening...we feel kind of like bats! It's getting very cold here and then being dark so much will make it seem even colder. We may have to move to California....jk

Friday, November 5, 2010

The Roebling Bridge opened again today. It's been closed to traffic since April...just the sidewalk has been open. It's been a lonely walk to work everyday with no traffic on the bridge. About a year ago they stopped the bus from crossing the bridge since it was too heavy. Now that the bridge has been painted and is officially open, they are going to run a trolley back and forth between Covington and Cincinnati. Here's a picture of one of them I saw this morning. I guess I will ride this one when it rains or is too cold to walk. Kind of cool to look at and will be convenient for papa/gump and I to take when we go to Cincinnati during the winter. Bet we'll ride it to Opening Day too!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Hall of Fame coach Sparky Anderson died today. He was the coach of the Cincinnati Reds when we moved to Kentucky in 1977. The Reds had just won two world series in a row '75 and '76. They weren't so great in '77, but we enjoyed going to the games anyway...your Uncle Mark was 12 then and wasn't at all happy about leaving the St. Louis Cardinals! We're sorry to hear about Sparky dying...hope there's baseball in heaven!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Hide and seek, Lucy style! So papa/gump would make a little noise and Lucy would look through the holes in the chair and then give it a little bat with her paw...then she would look over the top to see if he was still there....after she sat back down..it all started over again. This went on for some time...until Lucy decided she really was bored with that man on the other side of the chair and curled up and went to sleep.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

and so did papa/Gump...it is a freedom we enjoy in the USA and we have been taking advantage of this freedom since we were 21. Now the voting age is 18...so Christian will be able to vote next year! There weren't a lot of different races on the ballot but it's important that we vote...if you don't vote, you can't complain!

Monday, November 1, 2010

We have a new family member....Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann's finny friend Stan went to fishy heaven to be with Ricky...so now they have Sam. Sam is a hermit crab and lives in a little sand pile. This is not a surprising pet for your Uncle Mark and Aunt Ann...they love the beach and sand and I'm sure they will make Sam feel very comfortable...unless Gracie decides to see what's in the shell. Welcome Sam...see you in a few weeks.