Christmas 2014
Category: Uncategorized
Clambake 2014
better late than never…a few pics
Sausagefest 2014
The Cunning Little Vixen
Jack and I attended the opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” put on by the Cleveland Orchestra at Severence Hall last week – well actually two weeks ago – I’m a bit behind here. It is a Czech opera about the lives of foxes in the forest. Very deep. This original Cleveland Production was multi sensory in that there were huge screens behind the full orchestra with beautiful, stylized animation of the story. Live actors/singers also were on a small stage in front at times and most bizarely occasionally poked their heads through the screen in holes that were like trap doors. Truly crazy but I thought it was beautiful. I loved it. It received great reviews , also one from NPR, and even The New York Times. The Cleveland Orchestra is amazing.
Cincinnati: April 25-27, 2014
Friday, April 25th, 2014
We spent a fun filled weekend last week in Cincinnati celebrating Jack’s graduation from University of Cincinnati… hurray! Sophia, Mom, Dad and myself took off from Euclid on Friday around 12:30, following Courtney and Grace who departed the previous day on a two-day college visiting trip to Wooster, University of Dayton, Miami of Ohio and University of Cincinnati. Claire and Sean also hit the road about 30 minute after us after working for a half of day. It was an awful drive through Ohio with nice weather but several standstills due to accidents and heavy traffic in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. We were happy to arrive at the Embassy Suites across the river in Kentucky around 5:45 just in time for Manager’s Reception cocktail hour – everyone’s favorite part of staying at an Embassy Suites – where Jack, Courtney and Grace were already chilling out. We had a great time imbibing for almost two hours celebrating with Jack and happy that everyone was together. We decided to bring a picnic with us for dinner that night as it is a bit of college graduation tradition and it worked out great as we booked an extra large suite again for one of the rooms that comes with a bar and a large table. Mom and Dad brought brisket and fixings that we warmed up in the microwave and I made and packed cole slaw for the brisket, a tortellini salad with roasted peppers and peas, a tabbouleh salad and a fruit salad. It worked out great and everything was superb. After dinner around 9:00 I talked the kids into walking across the beautiful Roebling bridge and walking a few blocks to Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati to get Graeters for dessert. It was a beautiful warm evening, the Ohio River was calm and the Graeters was good as always… although the line was crazy long. We managed to stay up a bit longer and play black out – our usual vacation card game.
Saturday, April 26th, 2014
We woke up kind of late and had a leisurely Embassy Suites breakfast – myself perfecting the bagel and bacon and cream cheese combo. We went on a mid-morning field trip to Party Source about a mile down the road. It is a huge liquor store with aisle after aisle of party supplies, wine, beer and liquor. It was pretty amazing. We got a case of wine, Dad got a case of Black Velvet and a case of wine and Sean and Claire loaded up also. What a place. We then went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the commencement at UC. Jack was only able to get five tickets so Claire, Sean and Sophia spent the day at IKEA and Jungle Jim’s – a huge specialty grocery store that they ended up spending two hours in. We dropped Jack off at his house at 12:30 and parked on campus. We walked around a bit as it was an amazingly beautiful afternoon – high 70’s and sunny – and avoided going into the Arena where we knew we would be sitting for a long time. We ended up going in at 1:00 to get seats as it was filling up. The spring commencement was Cincinnati’s largest ever so it was packed to the rafters. The ceremony was almost three hours long… very long. The speakers weren’t very good either and they handed out several thousand diplomas. Yikes. We were happy to be there though. We hung out on the green outside after the ceremony taking pictures. Claire, Sean and Sophia met us there so we were able 
to take family pictures. We met Rachel’s family afterward outside also. We had dinner at a place called Bella Luna on the south east side of Cincinnati. I researched places about a week ahead of time and it looked good… and they took a reservation for 15 at 6:00 so it was a keeper. We had a really nice three hour long dinner eating lots of good food and celebrating the graduates. The menu was Italian and we splurged and all ate lots of good stuff. We said our goodbyes to Rachel’s family and Jack and Rachel as we were driving straight home after breakfast.
50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration
Saturday was my parents 50th wedding anniversary and they threw a great party at Pine Ridge Country Club in Willoughby. The party was great fun. It was awesome to see family and friends who we haven’t seen in a long time. The food was great, the venue was very nice and all had a good time. It was great to be able to celebrate my parents. CHEERS. I wish I took more pictures… I always do… here are a couple.
Christmas 2013
We had Christmas Eve at our house.
Menu:
- Shrimp cocktail
- Cheese, crackers and olives
- hanky pankies
- Lentil soup with feta cheese
- Dolmades
- Crab cakes
- Mussels
- Ziti with eggplant, sausage and bechamel
- Cucumber and tomato salad
- baklava, brownies and cookies
The Silver Star; Jeannette Walls
A ten year old girl is growing up with a dysfunctional mother and big sister in California. The Mom starts to lose it and the two girls go stay with their dysfunctional Uncle in Richmond, Virginia in stereotypical southern fashion. Jeanette Walls first pure fictional novel is unfortunately disappointing.
PJH Rating: ***
Summer Loving…
It has been a busy week and a half…hurray for summer
Someone was miss crabby pants.
Went on a dive bar bus tour with the neighborhood.
crazy iphone pic of fireworks on the beach
more fireworks
Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection
After a wonderful meal at L’Albatros, Courtney and I walked over to the Cleveland Museum of Art as we bought tickets to their First Friday of the month party which also coincided with the opening of a new exhibit.
It was wonderful to head over and see that it was packed at 8:30 PM. The parking garage was completely full. The museum was full of all sorts of people – all ages and all mixes. We quickly walked through the new area called Gallery One that used to be the traveling exhibition space. It now highlights distinct works of the permanent exhibit and uses technology to explore in more detail. Also in this area is the really cool huge touch screen where you can touch the different works and it zooms in and gives you more details and if you have an ipad you can sync everything and create a custom itinerary to travel through the museum. Pretty cool.
We then wandered into the new atrium where there were several bars set up, music playing and some weird performance art going on. Again – lots of different kinds of people – really great. It’s a huge space. We had a beer and walked around looking at everyone and then went to the new exhibit: “The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection”. It was not at all what we were expecting. It wasn’t a bunch of dusty old stuff but lots of different pieces from old and new looking at the theme. It is great. So refreshing for our typically conservative art museum. I tried to take some photos but quickly was told I wasn’t allowed. Neat stuff around every corner. I really liked the last gallery full of Mark Rothko. We didn’t hang out long but will definitely be coming back to check it out in more detail.
Eat On Edgecliff 