Summer Reading Program

Each evening when we walk through this parking lot, the employee sign is pulled off the stand. Ainsley feels that it has become her calling to replace it. However, tonight she said she was disappointed that people weren't respectful of her work...This cracked me up. Another fine dining institution in Ohio- I've seen these little hamburgers in the freezer section of the grocery store, but here, they have fast food places. This one is right next door to a Burger King, and its' drive through was really backed up.

This place is a recreation store in Sharonville. We stopped there because of the name- Brett, Luke and Baby Will, a store with your last name!!! They had everything you could possibly want for your rec. room/back yard ie: pool tables, hot tubs, weight equiptment, lawn furniture.

In the window of the library...

The girls each have their own library card and are enrolled in the summer reading program. Both have completed the first level, Ainsley has completed level two and is almost done with level three. There are five levels and then you get to put your name in for a drawing for a membership to the zoo. We are in between the Madeira library and Blue Ash. We walk to Blue Ash each night, as it is close to our temp housing.

UDF and other Cincy life

It was suggested to us by the former owners of our new home that we try the icecream at both Greaters and United Dairy Farmers. So tonight, we went to a UDF (United Dairy Farmers) by Michael's temp housing in Blue Ash. Always nice to know that pay phones (outside the UDF store) do exist in Ohio. Jenny and I just had this conversation as she needed a pay phone the other day in Pleasant Hill and wasn't able to find one. UDF is similar to 7-11, but in addition to having payphones, they also have an icecream counter.

Ainlsey had Paint Ball (which tasted like cake batter) and Kaley had Superman, which who knows what it tasted like...but it was yellow, red and blue. A scoop of icecream is called a DIP and it wasn't cheap...$2.00 a dip if you wanted homemade and $2.29 if you wanted UDF brand (I might have that switched).

Everyone here seems to smoke. It is sooooo grosss. When we were playing at the park, we were asked by a couple of mid 20ish guys playing basketball if we had "a smoke". I had to bite my tongue. I really hope that when we get into school we see less of this. I am going to have a hard hard time not allowing A and K to play with kids if their parents smoke. In addition- it is legal to carry firearms, with permit, here. Another question I will have to ask of parents.

Michael's new favorite drink of choice...BIG RED. At the UDF store, he ordered a Pink Cow- Big Red float w/vanilla icecream.

Here is a good store- Snooty Fox- a consignment store, which has several locations. I haven't been in one, yet...

Ohio Nails- another chain in the area. Check out how they write "Ohio" - Cincinnati Bengals ladies must get their nails done there....

Oh, here is a good one- Their gas has many names. I will post others, too. This place offers:

Regular (87 octane), Plus (89 octane), Super (91 octane) and Ultra (93 octane- although under the black tape by the word Ultra, used to be 94- guess 94 has been reduced to 93. Costco had Super (or whatever they call the highest octane) selling for $2.89/gallon. Too bad there isn't one closer.

Sun set in the clouds.

This is a Magnolia we have in both the front and back yard. I don't think it smells as fragrant as the ones in CA.

Kaley has become quite proficient at catching fireflies. We are fascinated by them!

Michael pondering life from the little bench in our backyard. It is a park like setting, including the two bullfrogs which croak in the evenings.....

Whatever these things are...they are all over the place and are just getting ready to bloom. They might be black eyed Susans.

Backyard.

Something familiar...Hydrangea- we have a couple of these. I will try to get the color to change by adding...iron??? Need to check into this.

We have lots of this fluffy plant, too, in the backyard- different colors.

They left us this pot fountain, which will be nice in addition to my Oregon Basalt Fountain, which will be here on Friday, once the truck arrives. We have a spot picked out for the rock bubbler.

This is the furniture they left us for the screened in porch. The screened in porch was really nice- The mosquitos seem to like the fresh CA blood of my little Worthley girls. We can enjoy being outside in the screened in porch, without being eaten alive. I need to get some good repelent. They make some bracelets, which are supposed to work well in repelling mosquitos, but not chiggers or these other insects, which I can't recall the name.

I spent much of the day cleaning. While there is no smell of the 3 cats, 2 dogs and rabbit, which the previous owners had....there is still hair floating around on the hardwood. More cleaning tomorrow. The carpet cleaners come for upstairs tomorrow, plus the alarm company is scheduled as well. We need to go furniture shopping, too. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings!

More from Cincy

Michael had to work today, and we went "Downtown" with him. We hung out and grabbed some lunch in Fountain Square, while watching a PAL basketball game, walked around Vine Street and checked out Macys Downtown while he was at work. Later that afternoon, we signed papers to the house. We finally have a home in Cincy!!! Time to get cleaning. Our moving truck will be here on Friday and my car, well.....maybe June 24th or 25th- ugh!

Happy Family in front of the house. The front door is very close to the color Bravado, which was the front door of 962 Oasis Dr.
Signing papers with the Title Company. One difference in OH is that both the seller and buyer attend closing. We met Jill and Tony for the first time.

Fountain in Fountain Square

For those of you familiar with Kit Kittredge, the American Girl from Cincinnati- this is the entrance to the newspaper company, the Cincinnati Register on the movie. In real life, however the newspaper is called the Cincinnati Enquirer. It is a very stately entrance and the interior is very beautiful, as well (those photos didn't turn out).

We have a little ritual which we do when parking in parking garages...and that is to park on the top- so as to see the view. Here are a few photos from the $2.00/day garage, which is two blocks from Macys Corporate, and where Michael parks each day.

I have no idea what this place is.... One of the many many many churches in the area.

The red roof building is City Hall. The steeple is some type of Catholic Church, however the building from the street looks more like a government building with columns and heavy granite. I look forward to investigating the buildings more.

City Hall from the street- driving by

Day 2 in Cincy

Well, today brought all kinds of surprises.... Fireflies! Thunder storms! Wild cotton tail bunnies! Flowers! Our new house!

We walked to a park today, Swaim Park and passed this produce stand and nursery. We popped in and they had strawberries, straight from......Watsonville. They are same brand we bought in Concord. Then, we went shopping at Kroegers Fresh Fare, which is much like Whole Paycheck (oh, I mean Whole Foods) or Market of Choice (for you Oregonians). They were also selling Driscoll strawberries and blueberries (on sale, too). This afternoon, while we were walking the house, there was a massive thunder storm. It was amazing how much rain fell (and hard). It is no wonder why everything here is so green. It is absolutely lovely. For those who have been through Virginia (I am thinking of Falls Church), it reminds me of that. The roads are narrow and lined with established trees. Flowers are blooming everywhere and many people have flower baskets hanging from their front patios. Many of you know that Kaley and Ainlsey have been researching bunnies as house pets. Well, don't ya know, we don't have to go down that path as there seems to be wild bunnies roaming yards. We saw at least nine of them today throughout the neighborhood....little cottontails. We look forward to having one of them adopt our house. I don't know what happens to them, or where they go when it gets hot...Tonight, we chased fireflies- they are pretty cool and we look forward to researching these little critters.

Dinner photos with friends. Smiths and Wakefields

Photo of the girls, Nichaolas and two of the three Wakefields (and Annie). Where is Emmers?

We're here.....MTAK in Cincinnati

These are out of order and I am too tired to move them around...so just bear with me. This is a bridge we go under on I 75. Says Cincinnati on it.

Flag hanging from a crane on the side of the road Arches under a bridge we go past traveling from the airport to Michaels appt.

Note to self...speed limit is 55.

Lots and Lots of Steeples..more to follow.

It has been a whirl wind couple of days. Yesterday, after realizing that my car wasn't going to be picked up any time soon from the company, with whom I'd arranged transportation , we left it at United Relocation in Fremont and they are arranging transportation. My little car should be picked up on Monday and I should have it in 7-14 days. We spent last night at the Hotel Nikko in SF. What a treat!! Our room was on the Imperial Floor (24th and top floor). We looked out on the Hotel Huntington and even had a glimpse through the fog of theGolden Gate Bridge. Today, we made it to the airport in plenty of time. We arrived in Cincy about 30 minutes earler than anticipated and had a good flight. We got to Michael's appt. and then walked over to a Pizza Place. The service was so over the top. Not quite use to that!! Kaley has picked up a twang..and calls Cincinnati.. "Cincinnata". The girls are a bit out of sorts, actually we all are. Tomorrow, we walk the house, close on Monday and with any luck....our moving truck will arrive on Tuesday. If they aren't here on Tuesday, they will be here on Friday. We have an unloading service, but it is not specified as of yet as to just how much they will help us unpack. We have over 300 boxes from that little 1400 sq. ft. house.

This is taken in the airport breezeway.

Bridge over the Ohio RiverMacys has quite a presence in the Cincinnati skyline.