Kitty's Horrible Bad Day

Yesterday was not a good day for Lucy. First it rained all morning and then around noon when she thought I was letting her outside I picked her up at the front door and took her to her vet appt ... Cat Calls had just pulled up in front of our house for a noon appt to give give her an annual check up and all her shots (three of them). Spouse brought her file with her records and I carried a not happy cat to the camper. Since Lucy is so frightened of cars and started getting stressed the closer we got to the camper I started to think this may not be a good idea. Spouse and I both watched the vet and her assistant in the camper and tried to calm kitty. Lucy kinda moaned but never got too mad and it went well. Plus it was reasonable compared to the vet hospital I took her to before. So the good news is we found out she has lost a little weight in the last year and her only problem we need to take care of in the next few months is a teeth cleaning. But since this requires blood testing and anesthesia and b/c her teeth aren't horrible it can wait until the first of the year. At least they can do it in front of my house and as my friend Nancy said "you can clean your house while they work on your cat". Lucy was pretty tired and disoriented after her shots so she slept most of the rest of the day and night. But she was back to herself this morning.

First Fire Fall 2008

Last weekend spouse and I drove out to the country to buy a cord of firewood. Well maybe not the country (20 minutes outside of downtown Cincinnati) and less than a cord ... as much as we could fit in the back of his Jeep Liberty. Anyhow, since it has dropped to the 40's at night it has become freezing in our 134 year old brick house. So I have made fires in the kitchen f/p the last 3 nights while spouse made dinner. Aahh I just love the change of seasons. We've also brought out the extra quilts, are wearing extra layers and yet still resisting turning on the heat for now. Soon we will have to take the scooter to storage. Hopefully the heat and the storage unit can wait until November.

Last Night's Preview @ CAM, China Design Now

Spouse and I had a really great time last night. We went to the art museum's preview party for a new exhibit on loan (1st time in US) from Victoria and Albert Museum called China Design Now. This exhibit opens October 18, 2008 and runs through January 11, 2009.

Here is the link to the Art Museum's website about the exhibit:

http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempExhibitions.aspx?articleid=6618zoneid=66

Well this exhibit is better than we imagined. But also a little crowded so we have to go back.

Below is a picture of the billboard signs promoting this exhibit.

Since we feel we will travel in the near future to China we were glad to see this open. It focuses on at least one town we are sure to visit when we go to get our baby, which is Beijing. Since a lot of the Beijing section, titled "Future City", focuses on architecture spouse was thrilled. I was interested too. We did watch the Olympics in August but wow .... the way this shows the progression of these buildings, in film and models, was great. Since Beijing will most likely be the first city we see in China we will most likely actually see these places too!

The other 2 cities featured in this exhibit are Shanghai and Shenzhen. We would love to see Shanghai when we go to China but it also won't be surprising if this is not possible. One of the blogs I read often, http://2happy.typepad.com/ has a daughter from Shenzhen, I actually remembered this because her daughter's name rhymes with Shenzhen.

Before we saw the exhibit we had appetizers, a glass of wine and listened to the Chinese orchestra. Then as we were standing in line spouse said oh look behind you. I turned around to see little Chinese girls who danced with the same parasols we sell in the gift shop. Well I got out of line to watch them. Adorable. Of course everyone was taking pictures around me so I hope to find something on you tube. The last thing I took out of my purse before coming to this party was my camera. Urghhh. Well probably just as well since I had to fight the tears.

Just this week I bought 3 parasols from the conservatory. One to decorate our baby's room. See below:

And the other two are going to be gifts for my nieces (12 and 10) this Christmas. As you can see from the pictures below, Miss Lucy had to get a good look at both of these parasols when I took them out to take a picture.

Definitions and Awkward Adoption Questions

Below is a definition from one of my adoption yahoo group emails from: Definition: Natural Child: Any child who is not artificial. Real Parent: Any parent who is not imaginary. Your Own Child: Any child who is not someone else's child. Adopted Child: A natural child, with a real parent, who is all my own. - Rita Laws, PhD Another interesting thing I read recently on this general topic came from one of the blogs I read often. The mom who writes this blog just this year brought home her 4th child from China during the Olympics this past summer. Since all 3 of her bio kids are in school now she gets to spend a lot of time with her new baby she calls dreamgirl. I'm going to try to add a link to this post. http://ageorgiagirl.blogspot.com/search/label/Blah%20Blah%20Blah

Trip to Savannah and Charleston April 2008 Part 1

Part 1 Savannah

Spouse and I had a family wedding in Charleston in April. So we decided to extend the weekend and go to Savannhah too. Just three words.... well worth it. Man did we love Savannah. even thought there is so much quaintness in a relatively small area two days is not enough time for this town. So here are some of the things we liked about our Savannah trip:

1. First of all we stayed in the cutest cottage, Wakefield Cottage @ 545 E. Congress St. Ideal location near everything. We literally parked our rental car behind the black gate in the picture below and didn't drive it again until we left Savannah. So probably best to ditch the car to save money for future trips.
2. This town has the most adorable little square with mini parks that make it just wonderful for pedistrians. We also found the wonderful architecture, great local restaurants and interesting history so enjoyable.

Below is a picture of the garden behind our cottage.

Above is a picture of spouse walking into Wakefield Cottage. Wakefield had two bedrooms and two bathrooms (shotgun style), plus a fully stocked kitchen. It was more room than we needed but the extra bedroom helped speed up getting ready in the morning. The bedroom off my bathroom had a gas fireplace which I lit both mornings while I was getting ready. We both agreed we want to stay here again... it is also one of the few b&b's we would consider taking a kid to as well. 4. Since we arrived around 5Pm the first thing after we unloaded our carry on luggage was go out to dinner. I have to say I have improved so much on packing lightly in the last couple of years. Anyhow the restaurant we found was the Belford which we both liked. Spouse had lobster ravioli, I had chose a southern entree of shrimp, grits and collards. We shared a bottle of Mark West 2006 Pinot Noir. The Belford is located in a very cute area with lots of restaurant choices. Just up the block was Paula Deen's restaurant which as is usual had a line wrapped outside the building. I read several recommendations about the restaurant across the street from PD's but it was too busy too. So luckily we found the Belford. The 2nd night we had another enjoyable meal at a place called the Alligator Soul.

5. The next day we took two 2 hour walking tours. The morning tour was an architectural walking tour and a garden and gates walking tour in the afternoon. In between we had lunch at the Gryphon Tea Room. The food was really good, tea excellent and beautiful restoration too. It used to be a pharmacy and is located near the bench where the scenes Forest Gump waiting for the bus was filmed. For our morning tour one of the homes we heard about was the Davenport House (pictured below).

This is the decription from the back of the postcard that I bought of this house:

Built in 1820 by Isaiah Davenport, the house is perhaps the finest sample of tradtioional Federal architecture in existence today. Located on Habersham and State Streets.

This house was almost demolished in 1955. It took years to restore it but in 2005 it received a Preserve America Presidential Award.

• The next picture is of the Owens - Thomas House. I like this picture b/c of the carriage tour and costumed guide. Someday I hope to be able to airbrush out the parked car and street sign. Anyhow the next time we visit this town I want to see the inside of this building which is open to tours . Some background info:
• Style = English Regency (name comes from King George IV, who ruled as a Prince Regent from 1811 to 1820.)
• The house was one of William Jay's first and it took over 3 years to build (began in November 1816 and completed in January 1819). Many owners later (and several different families) it was bequested to the Telfair Museum of Art and is a National Historic Landmark. The gift shop for this place is in the carriage house.

Above is a picture of Olgethorpe Square, where we met for our walking tours. So pretty in April and about 3 blocks from our cottage. The next set of pictures is of gardens from our afternoon tour. A private resident's side garden. Above is a picture of me in one of the many public garden and below a picture of spouse. A very cute downspout (above) and beautiful homes with iron-work (below) everywhere. The gates were just amazing, both old and newer ones too. The next several gates pictured below are mostly contemporary. A wrought iron gate is something spouse and I have talked about quite a bit. We plan on replacing our current gate from our side alley which opens to the backyard garden, possibly when we fix the sidewalk. We have thought about incorporating grapes leaves (or something else subtle) since we know Mt. Adams was almost entirely a vineyard in the 1850's. We had time to take a tour of Juliet Gordon Lowe's home. I remembered this home tour fondly from a family trip 20 + years ago. It was just as enjoyable this trip.

6.Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace was built in 1821 and elegantly restored in the 1880's. She is famous as the founder of the Girl Scouts. The house is Victorian. Docent's lead the tours and this is a well visited site. Lots of stories, interesting history and good restoration.

7. If we had had more time I would have liked to take one the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tours. Johnny Mercer's house is on that tour.

Good News re: Adoption and I-600 A Extensions

Today we received good news from the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS Joint Council has decided to grant a one time renewal (again) of the I-600 A petition to adopt an internationally born orphan. Yeah for USCIS. Basically this is paperwork our government requires prospective parents to complete prior to traveling to complete an international adoption. The approval has an expiration date and since China and other countries have far exceeded normal wait times it affected approxiamately 10,000 Americans, including spouse and I. If USCIS had not resolved this issue it would have cost us anywhere from $1,800 - $3,000 additional fees, plus an updated home study, a 4th set of fingerprints, medical updates, and child abuse clearances again (which are costly can take months). Overall just adds cost, uncertainty and potential to lose your place in line. So, to our agencies (FTIA) credit they communicated the 5 things we (prospective parents) needed to communicate to our representatives and senators and the dates to email this information. So today I feel a little better about Senator George Voinivich (R) , Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and Representative Jean Schmidt (R) who we sent emails to over the weekend. I quess this would be a rare compliment for politicians in these economic times but I am thankful.

Outer Banks September 2008

Some Outer Banks history from the National Park Service brochure about Cape Hatteras Island:

A thin broken stand of islands curved out into the Atlantic Ocean and then back again in a sheltering embrace of North Carolina's mailand coast and its offshore sounds. These are the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For thousands of years these barrier islands have survivedthe onslaught of wind and sea. Today their long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes and woodlands are set aside as Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It can be a lonely place, you may walk along the beach unseen except by shore birds searching for a meal. It can be a place of discover; you may visit 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, one of many monuments to our encounter by the sea.

In September six of us rented a condo in Frisco on Cape Hatteras island in the Outer Banks. The six of us included spouse's mom, sister, brother-in-law, 3 yo nephew, spouse and I. Frisco is cute and close to Okracoke... which is where I'd want to stay for our next trip to OBX. Overall impression is I think it is beautiful but peak season sounds really crowded/pricey and off season weather kinda iffy. I believe this area has been called "God's bowling alley". Oddly we weren't too worried about the weather too much and the forecasts didn't look bad. Even more odd since we had just experienced a huge windstorm on September 14, 2008 in Ohio... one day after our annual neighborhood block party. The Ohio valley got hit with 70 mph windstorm (remnants of Hurricane Ike) causing 85% power outages in Cincinnati, 1.9 millions people in the state. A month later the Ohio Insurance Institute is predicting $500 million loses, the "costliest natural disaster in Ohio history". To say we (spouse and I) were very lucky is such an understatement and another post.

So back to our beach trip it wasn't disaster level weather but the weather was still inneresting. The 50 mph winds we got at the beach shook the entire vacation condo on stilts. The mid week spouse and I had to ford a stream of water in Rodanthe to get home one night. The only road to get back to the beach house flooded. We had started out that day looking for rescue stations, the to climb in a lighthouse (denied both due to weather) and ended up browsing shops in another cute little town. Anyhow, the cops stopped us to in Rodanthe before we attempted to cross flooded road to ask us if we had 4 wheel drive. The cop also told us if we choose to cross to 1) use 4 wheel drive, 2) don't stop and 3) stay where our condo was for 2-3 days. The water was up to our doors and well we went for it. The cop at the other end told us to wash our car in the next couple of days to get the salt off the car. The bizarre thing was this happened literally right in front of the house used to film a movie (Nights in Rodanthe) with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. This movie was released while we were on vacation. The review of this movie I heard on Satellite Sisters did not make this movie sound very good....very cornball, cheesy. Anyhow pictures are below.

But the early part of the trip was fairly nice weather. I took a couple of walks on the beach with my ipod which was just great. The picture below is from a walk to the Pier. The surfers were loving the waves near the pier.

Never saw any signs of sea turtles nests on the beach just the barricaded area and signs.

The surfers by the pier.

Beach houses in Frisco.

All of us took the ferry over to Okracoke early in the week. We had lunch at Howard's Pub & Raw Bar and Restaurant which was destination worthy. Kids meals served on frisbees. Okracoke is just adorable.

After lunch at Howard's we drove on the beach. We didn't stay long as it was kinda windy.

Spouse on the beach. I like this picture because of the clouds, sky and the ocean, just wish spouse was a little closer.

So finally, on our 3rd try, spouse and I got to climb the Cape Hatteras lighthouse towards the end of our trip. The first two times we tried it was closed because of winds. This lighthouse has some interesting history. First it was built in 1870 and is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US. When it was built it was 1500 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. By 1990's it was 120 feet from the ocean. So in 1999 it was moved 2900 feet inland at a cost of $4.6 M. It had been predicted that if not moved this lighthouse would have been destroyed by the ocean by 2018. We bought a video and book about this move.

Cape Hatteras lighthouse was built in 1870 for $155,000. It has a 20 mile beacon to warn sailors about the Diamond Shoals off the shore. An interesting story is that it is believed the engineer's paint design plans for this lighthouse and the Cape Lookout lighthouse got switched. This is why Cape Hatterras got the barber shop design instead of diamond pattern.

Anyhow from April through October the National Park Service allows people to climb the 268 steps to the top. I didn't think it was too tough a climb but once I got to the top I didn't really care for being up that high. I stayed glued to the wall. That is why I took a picture of the crazy old people who were leaning on the rusty wrought iron gate yelling down to their friends on the ground.

Crazy old people.

The view out to the Atlantic. See the rust on the fence. Below are the steps inside.

One day all of us except spouse who was sick went to the Aquarium about an hour north.

Andrew looking at the sea turtles at the aquarium.

And one last picture of the beach.

Red Bull Soap Box Derby

What a fun weekend. Friday afternoon spouse and I walked around the neighborhood checking out preparations for Saturday's Red Bull Soap Box Derby in Mt Adams. The picture below of spouse checking out the cars in the pits Friday evening pretty much says it all. He smiled like that all weekend. The weather was perfect, cars were just greatand an unbelievable crowd (estimated around 30,000 people). The big tv's helped a lot. Only bleachers could have really improved the view.

Car #11 "Gorillas N'Roses" sponser was Gorilla Glue which is headquartered in Cincinnati Ohio. This team has an interesting bio on the www.redbullsoapboxusa.com I don't believe this car crashed but I do remember it being pretty slow.

Pictured above are the masses in front of Car #6 "When In Gnome" pit. The pits opened at 11AM Saturday. The Gnomes were a surpise early fast car clocking in at 36 seconds for the 1/4 mile race.

Pictured below is #15 Mummy's Revenge Team.Above is Barbie and her car the Barbie Bandit car #32.

The Flintstones car #33 Yabba Dabby Doo is pictured below.

Next is a picture of Pebbles, Barney and Fred Flintstone from Team Yabba Dabba Doo crossing the intersection of Hatch and Louden streets.Batman and Robin in the Batmobile in the pits before the race with the Joker, Cat Woman and Bat Girl. Below is a picture of Team 24 "The Adam West Experience" walking up the start of the course on St Gregory Street. Below is Car #31 The Blowhole.

Above picture shows starting stage where each team performed skit and then pushed car and driver to start.

Above picture is a close up of Car #37 Sinners, Sailors and a Saucy Wench. This was a neighborhood collaboration (note the Mt Adams Yacht Club Burgee) and was a replica of the #49 Mt Adams Incline Trolley Car. Unfortunately, they lost a wheel during the race. Below is a picture of the back of this team's uniform. Also an interesting bio on the Red Bull site.

Below is another Cincinnati entry... #19 When Pigs Fly.Next is #34 Pastrana on Rye followed by # 28 Catch the Red Eye.

Above picture shows how crowded. Spouse and I were amazed that people actually survived watching from on top of this brick garage on Wareham. Really would not have believed this structure could have supported this much weight.

The jumbo-tron TV's really helped to follow the race. Below is the tv at 2nd turn intersection of Louden and Hatch. It was cool the race time's were posted on the tv's too!

The next picture shows the view from inside car # 3 The Brick House. This car later crashed.

Lots of little kids had a much better view from on top of their parents shoulders.

Judges scores (for creativity, etc) were posted on the big tv's.

The winner was Taco Bull Car #35 with a time of 34 seconds for 1/4 mile course. Team Taco Bull is from Ontario Canada and has participated in at least one other Red Bull Race (St Louis 2006).

The picture below of Taco Bull was taken in Wreak Alley.

The red kidney's behind car #35 belong to car #16 Urine it to Win It (sponsered by The Kidney Foundation.)

After this race spouse and I headed to Mt. Lookout for a 5 K race (I walked) called the Reggae Run. I'll post that story later. It was a fun Saturday.