January 29, 2008

Where I've been

sigh

Venice Beach, FL
Venice Beach, FL

Actually, I only got to spend one day at the beach, but I was in very nice weather for a week. Now I am home.

January 14, 2008

Money etiquette

I meant to post this last week, but I didn't get around to it. Gretta was asked a question on Good Morning America. The guests were the author of Isn't it Their Turn to Pick up the Check?. The first question was asked on the streets of NYC and it was, what do you do when you go out to lunch and you eat light and the other person chows down? How do you go about splitting the check? That was easy and obvious. You pay for what you consume.

The next question was asked to a different audience member and it was, if your 2 year old child breaks something of value in someone else's home, what do you do? I disagreed with the person's answer and so did the "experts". What would you do?

Finally, the example given to Gretta was that you have borrowed someone's car. While you have it, something goes wrong with it and it's a pre-existing condition, say the muffler falls off. Are you responsible for fixing it? I agreed with Gretta, but the authors didn't. What would you do?

January 7, 2008

The Inertia Buster

An open window!
Open Window

Those of us who live here had all come down with a big case of Inertia. It takes enough of my energy to fight against my own, but when the others here come down with a case of it too, I can get overwhelmed. I used the nice weather and open windows to cure my case of it.

Sunday evening, Ray's brother Rick called saying he and his wife were at the Hyatt for the night to catch an early Skybus flight to NYC. We met them for dinner and ice cream. They own Aroma's Java and Gelato in Cincy so they were interested in going to Jeni's to compare and contrast.

My selection. Dark cocoa gelato, Torrone, and creme fraiche with amerena cherries. The cherries were amazing.
Jeni's ice cream

Gretta and Rick
Gretta and Rick

I am recording Good Morning America tomorrow because they have tickets and were told to dress in bright colors because they may participate in an audience interview. When they wrote for tickets they said they were going to NYC to taste the gelato there for their business. It will be fun to see if that happens.

January 2, 2008

Gingerbread at the Conservatory

This evening, I dashed into the Franklin Park Conservatory for a short while to see the Gingerbread display and the Poinsettia trees before they are gone. In case you're interested, admission is free after 5pm on the first Wednesday of the month. The tree pics didn't turn out but here are a few of the gingerbread units that I liked for one reason or another. It should be noted that these have been there for about a month and I overheard someone saying they started sagging and stuff when we had a big rain. Since I've never made one, I was still impressed.

Popcorn trees!
Popcorn trees

I liked the roof on this one.
I liked the roof on this one

The Little Mermaid - something I did not expect to see.
Little Mermaid Gingerbread House

I liked the look of this one.
Lots of trees and people Gingerbread

Snoopy!!
Snoopy Gingerbread House

The conservatory means the obligatory Chihuly pic. The closeup.
Blog pics 085

Blog pics 083

January 1, 2008

New Year's Day 2008 - Hike at Clear Creek

What may be the start of a new tradition, I went on a New Year's Day hike at Clear Creek Metro Park. It's the park that is farthest away, but I wish it was much closer. This was an organized, off trail hike.

About 30 people showed up. (I'm lousy at estimating)
People on the hike

A gorge that is in a usually off limits area. The off trail hikes are worth it just to go places you can't usually go.
The Gorge

Trees that are likely diseased.
Diseased trees

The snow was an added bonus!
Snowy path

Me at the end of the hike.
At the end of the hike

A neat rock in the road out of the park.
Nifty rock in the road

Edited to add -
Husband went on a different trail - his pics are here.