Thursday
July 2, 2015
Today was a partly sunny/cloudy day
with a few rain drops. CNA, as per what has become the custom in the last year
or so, bought half a dozen pizzas to feed the office during lunch. Still had
best part of two pizzas left at the end of the day, so a coworker and I split
the leftovers and Andrew and I had Saturday lunch with enough left over for one
more meal.
After dinner Andrew and I went to the
Grandview Theatre to see, “Inside Out,” and actually had to wait in a short
queue to get our tickets and snack (I bought M & Ms and water and Andy got
a beer). Prior to that I had popped in to “Pure Imagination Chocolatiers” (just
a few doors down) and was pleased to see it was still open, so I bought a box
of 9 truffles. Next time I plan to try their ice cream. Among the flavors I got
were: PB & J, Raspberry, Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Blueberry Gouda and
something that started with ‘M’ from the movie, “Chocolat.”
We, along with the rest of the
audience, really enjoyed, “Inside Out,” another masterpiece from Pixar. It’s
funny, sad and so, so clever! I find myself still thinking of the movie several
days later whenever my moods change[is fear in charge or maybe sadness? Where's
Joy? I want her to be in charge!]
When we got home (it was early, so
still light out) Andrew was the first to notice a deer in our backyard and
directed my attention to the back window. I grabbed my camera and cautiously
watched from inside until the deer moved next door to our neighbor’s (Joe &
Sue's) yard, so I went outside and watched it as it moved from yard to yard. I
ended up going over to Joe & Sue’s once Joe came outside. Sue also said
hello from the window.
Eventually the doe met up with her
fawn and the doe pawed anxiously at the ground a few times warning us to keep
away from her baby. Andrew came outside, so I went back over to our side and we
chatted with Joe until it got a bit dark.
Friday
July 3, 2015
Today I got up and had a run around
the neighborhood first thing, and while jogging down Darbyshire noticed a
garage sale, so made a mental note to come back later after I had showered and
had breakfast, so I did. They were selling mostly kids’ stuff, so I passed on
most of the merchandise, but did pick up a few dvds and a framed print of a
line of doorways. Not sure yet where to hang it, but got it for $1, so not too
concerned if it never finds a home.
After much deliberation, I decided to
finally tackle some long overdue projects – like gluing my collage from Amy’s
last art class unto heavy cardboard, and gluing wrapping paper onto the trunk
tray I bought last summer from our neighbor’s moving sale. I quickly ran out of
spray adhesive, so used another kind of spray adhesive, then switched to rubber
cement. It’s still sticky three days later, so perhaps rubber cement wasn’t the
best choice.
Next I decided to finally sand the
wine bottles I had scored and separated last year so I could give Karen the
glasses I promised her. First I used pliers to break off jagged bits of bottle
before turning them in circles on sandpaper under water. They’re a bit bumpy,
but not razor sharp anymore, so they’re good enough to drink out of if that’s
what Karen opts to do with them (or perhaps put a tea light in them or a little
plant?). On Sunday I scored a few bottles I had soaked and removed the labels
from in case Karen wants to try and break a few to make some more glasses (she
said she’d do that if I’d scored them first).
It rained for most of the afternoon,
but cleared up by evening, so we decided to drive to Delaware for their First
Friday night out event. http://www.mainstreetdelaware.com/first-fridays.html
I don’t remember if it was my coworker Heidi, or coworker Connie, who first
told me about it, but it sounded like fun and seemed to be in the same spirit
as the Gallery Hops in Short North and Grandview.
We took the country roads to
Delaware, rather than Route 23 to Sawmill like when we came back that way from
vacation last July. All the curves and gentle hills (and several farms)
reminded me a lot of Northeast Ohio, which surprised me though, but not sure
why. Still, it was nice because it kind of reminded me of home.
Downtown Delaware reminded me very
much of Geneva and impressed me far more than tiny downtown Hilliard. It’s a
lot of probably century-old (or at least decades old) red brick buildings and
Victorian homes. Heidi and Connie were right that parking can be difficult, but
if you persevere, you’ll eventually find a spot somewhere, which we did (on a
side street).
As the downtown isn’t huge, it
doesn’t take too long to walk the streets to get the lay of the land. We
quickly spied a sign for Pierogis, so we walked around the block to where
Sophie’s Gourmet Pierogies food truck was parked. We each ordered four, but
selected different sauces. I chose the mustard one and couldn’t have been more
pleased. The flavor reminded me a little of the secret sauce McDonalds uses on
their Big Macs (which reminds me a little of Russian salad dressing). We ate
our pierogies while listening to a string quintet playing in front of the local
Methodist church. They were quite good and I could have stood there all night,
but wanted to pop into some of the shops.
After we finished, Andrew said he was
thirsty (not sure if the Pierogie truck sold beverages), and while we were
getting a bottle of water, why not get some ice cream? Thus it was that we
ended up in a short (10 or fewer people) queue outside Ollie’s Fine Ice Cream.
We could have gone to Handel’s, but I prefer to support the small, independent
businesses. Once we got inside I saw a sign advertising alcoholic ice cream you
could only buy in pints (but had to be 21 to purchase) which were all sold out,
unfortunately, not that we could have kept a pint of ice cream cold while we
walked around. There were two flavors – Bailey’s and Chocolate Merlot. I will
definitely have to make a return visit for a couple pints of those!
As we were walking around I saw my
young coworker, Heidi, who said she often attends the First Friday, so I wasn’t
surprised to see her there. I told her I’d try to attend at least once, so she
probably wasn’t surprised to see me either. Introductions were quickly made and
then a brief chat before we went our separate ways.
Among other places we stopped at was
an art gallery displaying prints made using highly pixelated 1980s computer
graphics. Customers were allowed to take one art book each, so I selected Two
or Three Lines from Sketch Books of Chen Chi which has some cool drawings and
text and a gold box with writing on the cover. There was another sketchbook I
liked too with drawings from the West Coast. I should have told Andrew to pick
up that one.
Near the art gallery was The Strand
movie theatre, which had three films listed on their marquee. It’s probably
bigger than the Grandview Theatre and I wonder what it looks like inside?
Perhaps a future visit is in order!
Prior to the art gallery we stopped
in at Endangered Species record store (which actually sells LPs and 45s) that
seemed a bit too small for its vast square footage, but maybe rent is cheap? I
browsed the discount CD rack while Andrew checked out the rest of the stock. He
chose a CD and I got a couple .99 ones – one with Irish music (including a song
supposedly dedicated to the owner of the store, according to what he told me
when he added up our bill) and another with Marine marching band music. Also
got some cool swag (bumper sticker and a couple buttons). Yes, I know we missed
the whole point of shopping in a record store when we didn't actually purchase
any records. However, until the belt arrives to fix my vintage record player,
I'm holding off on anymore purchases for the moment.
Our last stop was a rather large
antiques store packed with shelf upon shelf of every manner of antiques from
salt ‘n pepper shakers to stuffed animals. The items I was most intrigued by
included a tiny hand cranked razor sharpener. Not sure why I was so taken by
it, probably because it was small and shiny. I also saw an antique from my
lifetime – a Mansfield Reporter 8mm Viewer. If space weren’t an issue, I might
have bought it just for the novelty value, but I’m not running a museum. I
ended up purchasing a black cat salt shaker and a couple vintage post card
albums that I may or may not use for storing our own vintage postcards.
After we got home I decided to make
up a play list in case I was ever in charge of coming up with the music to
accompany a fireworks show. Andrew was outside burning our stack of sticks that
had been accumulating from various storms over the last several months. He came
in just about when Red, White and Boom was starting, so good timing on his
part. Andrew commented that the music drowns out the sound of the fireworks
(when watching them on TV), whereas when you go see them in Hilliard, it’s the
other way around, depending on where you stand at least.
Saturday
July 4, 2015
Went for another run first thing.
Showered, had breakfast and then went to the mall for my 10am hair appointment.
However, I quickly noticed that my stylist wasn't there. Apparently her
schedule had changed and she called my work number on Friday to notify me, but
since I wasn’t there I obviously didn’t get the message, so I just rescheduled
for the following Saturday.
Earlier in the morning, before
leaving for the mall, I saw our resident deer (doe?) in the back yard, which
was a bit of a surprise since we hardly ever see deer, let alone two days out
of three. I wonder if it was hungry, which is why it was risking a daytime
visit.
After I got home, I asked Andrew if
he wanted to go shopping for something to plant around our pergola, so we
headed for Oakland Nursery having to go the scenic route since I forgot some of
the local roads were closed because of the upcoming Fourth of July parade. After some deliberation, we decided on two
different creepers/vines – two (orange) Radicans Trumpet Vine and one (purple)
Amethyst Falls American Wisteria.
We left for the Hilliard fireworks at
just after 9pm and parked at Karen’s (thanks!). As we’ve done in previous
years, we walked all the way to the rec center from there, which is at least a
mile, maybe two. Andrew figures we probably just about burned off our dessert
(two scoops each of United Dairy Farmers ice cream). I was cold at first, but
by the time we got to the rec centre I was sufficiently warmed up. We both
thought it was a pretty good show and were glad not to be stuck in too much
traffic since we knew which way to leave the Weston Trails estate (exit on Davidson
so we could go straight across at the traffic light). When we got home I saw a
strange glowing red object in the sky that Andrew said was some sort of a
balloon lit from below that obviously floats for quite awhile. It kind of
reminded me of an experiment James May once did when he tried to send a balloon
into space (and I believe he was successful).
Sunday
July 5, 2015
Doe a deer, a female deer…
Our resident doe was back for another
late morning/early afternoon visit in our back garden before heading next door
to Joe and Sue’s where it sat down and chilled out for perhaps half an hour to
an hour. Andrew thinks it somehow got separated from its group, which is kind
of sad. I hope they meet back up again. I hate to think of a lonely, scared
deer away from its herd.
I spent the rest of the day doing a
little yard work, a little house work, and even took some time out to sit under
the pergola and read and later watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Kudos to the
USA women's soccer team!!!
Have a good week everyone!
