Welcome home...it's time to leave

No sooner than Matt returned to Columbus on Friday, we were in the car and off to Cincinnati on Saturday for an overnight. Our original purpose was to go to the Cirque de Soleil afternoon show with friends of ours, but Matt and I managed to pack an entire weekend of activities into 21 short hours.

In the elevator of our hotel, I ran into a friend of mine from high school that I have not seen in nearly nine years, so I had a mini-reunion. We then went to the show where Matt was able to eat his way through the pre-show appetizers and intermission desserts in the VIP tent. After a quick change at the hotel, we set off for dinner. We took a sightseeing shuttle bus for half of the trip and managed to grab a bus with half-a-dozen drunk women having a bachelorette party. Just one more item to add to the list. We departed the crazy bus and made our way on foot to the Montgomery Inn, where as you can see above, Matt managed to eat his way through some ribs and wings before calling it a night (how does he stay so thin?). The walk back to hotel was what we needed since we were stuffed with food, and then Matt and I walked up the 25 flights of stairs to our room, so we had a workout thrown in as well. Our friends Jim and Wendy opted for the elevator.

Sunday morning, we took off for a 6:30 run and crossed the bridge into Kentucky. The sun was just coming up, so once we were over the river, we had a nice view of the skyline. Of course being downtown we had to visit every major sports facility since they are all lined up in a row. There is a nice little elevation difference from the south end of the football stadium to north, which made for an interesting finish to a nearly hour and a half jog. So we had a sightseeing tour of the river district. Once we were back at the room, we grabbed a quick shower and hit the road to go back home, where we made a brief stop at the IHOP so Matt could get some chocolate-chip pancakes. I enjoyed the cinnamon-swirl french toast and did not feel too guilty about eating it after all the running/walking we did that morning.

Yet, the best part of the trip was just returning home. Goliath was glad to see us and spent the afternoon sleeping next to one of us as we watched movies. I think he is still tired from his surgery on Friday. He broke one of his front teeth and had to have it removed. He still won't let me look at it and I am pretty sure he is going to hold a grudge for a few more days. Oh well, it can't be any worse than when we had him neutered.

Good news and bad news

The good news is that Matt gets to go see his Dad and stepmom out in Las Vegas on his way to a business trip in Denver. The bad news is that Matt is going out to Vegas and Denver for a little more than a week. The pup and I will miss him, especially those first few nights when Goliath will spend most of the evening looking for Matt out the bedroom window. He used to lay against my neck at night and whine when Matt was on a trip, but at least he has moved on to a silent vigil that does not involve choking.

So, in anticipation of the departure, we tried to make the most of last weekend. We started out by dogsitting for the neighbors which proved to be exhausting but fun. Goliath is never very happy when other dogs come into the house, but he seems to tolerate Echo and Missy. I let them all run around out back while I cleaned up the garden, and then they ran around the house while I made dinner. Even more running around as Matt and I watched some television, then Missy (in the middle) curled up with Matt when he went to bed. They eventually went home that night and we started Saturday with our one pooch.


Saturday morning was full of small trips. We went to the Ohio Theatre downtown to watch a Daffy Duck cartoon festival. The picture at the top is one I took from the upper balcony. If you have never been to the Ohio, I recommend the trip. It is a beautiful old theater and Matt and I enjoy going there every chance we get. Next was the farmer's stands at the North Market where I was on a quest for okra. Matt also picked up several ears of corn and fresh lima beans. Yum! Our last stop was the Book Loft in German Village to find some diabetes cookbooks to send to my sister-in-law Brenda. I wrote in my last entry about my 6-year-old nephew Andrew's diagnosis of type 1 juvenile diabetes. We received a message recently that his parents are going to be participating in the 2006 Walk to Cure Diabetes. Mark has a web site established for walk donations at: http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=86414436

That was the extent of our fun-filled weekend. We spent the rest of the time doing laundry and cleaning. And now tomorrow Matt takes-off in the morning to head out west. He is not to happy about the no liquid rule, but at least they will serve him drinks on the plane.

Project meltdown

Quite a few things have happened this week that have left my head spinning. The most important was the news that our youngest nephew, Andrew, has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and had to stay in the hospital for a few days. Andrew is a happy, active, and loving little boy and from what his Mother has said, he is over the initial shock and doing well. I think it was an exhausting and scary time for the family and now they are just glad to be home and will take each day as it comes when dealing with new diets, injections, etc. We hope to make the trip up to Canton soon to see everyone.

We also have realized that our two Summer projects have just gotten away from us. This is due to a lot of apathy on our part combined with the hot, hot days. The deck looks sad and depressing with its peeling paint, but there is hope on the horizon as the temperature comes down into the 80's and affords us the opportunity to spend a few hours on sanding and painting. The veg garden is also a nightmare as the zucchini is taking over everything, but only producing a few mammoth offerings that I learned do not taste good at all. The broccoli never bunched, but instead bolted and attracted every flying insect in the county. I have been able to gather cucumbers and tomatoes from time to time, so it has not been a total loss. I may chalk this up to experience and try to grow some plants to attrack more butterflies next year. I have not seen too many of them around, but our hummingbird keeps coming back every day to drink from the honeysuckle on the deck.

I leave you now with one of my favorite pictures from a triathlon. Just look at how happy he is coming out of the water. If only his Poppy could be that excited.

Wolverines and Hoosiers

I can hardly believe this weekend has come and gone. All summer we have been preparing for this first triathlon and I am so glad that it is over. The drive to Michigan was boring at times because we were on the Ohio and Indiana turnpikes, but once we arrived in St. Joseph, we found a quirky little community that turned out to have plenty for us to do.

Our rooms at the Econo Lodge left something to be desired, but beggars can't be choosers and we were not the only people from the race staying there. It appears that most of the hotels/motels sold out due to the race. Not surprising when about 3,000 people descend on a town of 8,700. Once we unpacked, Matt and I took off for the race expo at the finish line. While he had a rules meeting, I went for a walk on the beach. It took me a little more than an 30 minutes to walk to the starting location of the swim. The races began at the North Pier Lighthouse where Matt jumped off the pier 10 feet down into Lake Michigan. The water was choppy on my walk, and he told me that it had not changed on Saturday morning. I found out a little too late that I had done some trespassing on my walk. I saw a sign towards the end that stated I had walked through private property, but it only extended to the water's edge, so I rationalized since I walked through the water the entire time, I was on government property.

After I committed my misdemeanor, I found Matt and we walked around the downtown area, then picked up his mother at the hotel and had dinner. If you ever make it to St. Joe's, I suggest a visit to the Pump House Grille. We had some great food and were stuffed by the time we left. A quick trip to the local grocery and it was 8:00 and time to go to bed.

Why so early, you may ask? Because Matt had to be at the race site around 5:00 the next morning and I had to drive him there. When three alarms went off at 4:30 Saturday morning, it was easy to wake up, but torture to get out of bed.

Cindy and I were able to catch up with Matt after the swim where he delivered the news that he had cramps in his calves, so I knew this was not going to go well. He did not have anything to help relieve the pain and I could not give him anything for risk of getting him disqualified, so he made the most of it and was able to finish. He was not happy with the results, but he finished and that is all that matters. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating and going to a winery where we nearly crashed a wedding.

Sunday morning was spent packing, going to the beach one last time and deciding on a detour home. We stopped on our way home in South Bend, Indiana and visited the campus of Notre Dame. Matt said that we had to find Touchdown Jesus which made me a little nervous. I had to laugh when I realized it was a mural on the side of the library. I thought it was appropriate to go to the library for salvation. As soon as I found the library, Matt located the ice rink and took off to see if he could get in. He called me and asked that I take his picture on the bench. This was a very interesting experience since I stood in the middle of the rink to take the shot. Instead of ice, I was on a concrete slab. This was the first time I had ever seen what was below the ice. It was pretty cool.

I would show you all of these pictures, but Blogger seems to not want to load any no matter which computer I use, so you will have to see the rest of the highlights here. Select the Steelhead album.

We were all glad to pull into the driveway and unload the car. It had been a long weekend and 6 hours each way. Goliath was thrilled to see us and it took him almost 30 minutes to be able to sit still. I missed him, my bed, and my quite neighborhood. I think I fell asleep by 8:00 and did not budge until the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning.

It is good to be home.