Good Rumor Friday

Rumor Queen's post this morning:

11th and 12th

February 26th, 2010

I'm seeing rumors of the 11th and 12 floating around now.

Some told me privately that the agency saying the 9th has backed away from that statement.

After that RQ goes on to say she still does not have enough info to rank these rumors above an R2.

But if this trend proves true, then we are on the charts (just barely) for a referral in June or July.

In this next picture John is pointing to our referral link for April 12, 2006. Hopefully very soon we will be ripping links off to that date.

And another picture without his hand. April is represented by purple links and May is pink. Our LID is May 18, 2006

Maybe we will travel here this fall. If our adoption follows the regular route we will start in Beijing and end in Guangzhou. In between travel will depend on where our baby's orphanage is located.

5 Year Plan: 2010 - 2015

We started a new 5 year plans (which has a few items rolled over from the previous one)

1. Patio pavers -right now we are thinking brick, preferably tumbled. We hope to do this project this summer which means we need to talk to Joe after our Florida trip in March.

2. New box gutter for 987 porch. This is not critical yet, but I just noticed this recently and might be a problem before the end of this year. 3. New windows for 987 1st and 2nd floor. This is going to be costly and will probably not happen for at least a year. 4. Storms for front windows at 413 & 415 O Another future project. 5. New windows for 1006 3rd floor ( 7 big windows total). Probably the last of the 3 window replacement projects. Tax credits will help with these projects which should make them a priority but probably cost prohibitive. 6. 987 porch and railings will need re-painted. I should really do this either this summer of fall. 7. 415 kitchen - new cabinets and move stackable washer/dryer out of kitchen to den (which has adjacent bathroom plumbing). This is at least a year off as this apartment will be turning over this coming Monday.

No time between tenant move-in and move-out which means I might be up all night Sunday cleaning. That could make for a really fun week for me as we have family coming for dinner and a play this Saturday and leaving for Florida vacation next Friday.

8. We have 1 stove, 2 washers and dryers and 1 furnace that are on borrowed time in our apartments which probably will need to be replaced in next 5 years. 9. 987 kitchen floor needs to be re-done. Based on how the tiles are holding up I think the sub-floor is not good. 10. Complete re-model 1st floor 1006 apartment bathroom. Below are 2 inspiration pictures for this re-model. The 1st one shows the beveled subway tiles that we want to use because it is a small bathroom. The next picture is the shower stall we want to install. This last project is not a priority for the immediate future, but the floor is showing it's age, it needs a new window and better venting. We are not sure if we will still be renting our 1st floor apartment in the next 5 years but we are starting to plan a re-model for the time we next turnover tenants. The average tenant stays in this apartment for 2.5 years and the current tenant has been in since July 2009. We plan to do this re-model the way we want our future bathroom to look as someday that is what it will be. Below is a picture of the current tenant's bathroom. She choose the jade green color for the walls. Although I'm not really in love with the green I really like her style overall, including this shower curtain.

So we will remove this claw foot tub but save it in the basement for a future re-model.

The thing I'd love to splurge on in this bathroom is radiant heated floors. this might be possible as the basement is below.

A laundry shoot would be great and as much storage as we can get would be a priority too. Our future bedroom is this current tenants kitchen. To convert this kitchen to a bedroom will not be terribly difficult. The cabinets and plumbing will need to be ripped out and a small door added. There is a reason the dishwasher is portable and the cabinets have not been updated in this apartment.

"Keeping Your Cool Could Save Your Life"

This was the lead in for a story Dr. Richard Besser (ABC news) did about a week ago. This topic was in the news because former President Clinton had a heart issue at the time. So the report started with the explanation that because stress can lead to increased blood pressure it can be a contributing factor to strokes. Also stress can cause memory loss. Apparently when stress hormones spike it damages brain cells which impairs your ability to remember. However the interesting part was the strategies he reported that doctors at Duke University have created for their heart patients. I've thought about this a quite a bit this week. According to the Duke doctors they have advised their patients to ask themselves 3 questions when they feel they are getting angry and/or stressed about a situation:

1. Is this important?
2. Is it reasonable for me to be angry?
3. Can I modify the situation?

If the answer to any one of these questions is No you need to find a coping method to move on. For instance concentrating on something else, breathing, walking away, etc.

This is not the example given in this segment but one John came up with when we were talking about this report was ...a tree falls on your house. The answer to the 1st question would be yes for most people. Very possibly yes for #2 as well, but for the 3rd question has to be no.

This kind of advice also reminded me of a podcast from Babies and Moms (and Shelly's motto) which was "get used to it, get over it and get on with it."

February Plays

Today after we finished shoveling snow for the umpteenth time John asked if me if I wanted to try to get half price tickets to a play. Sounded good to me so he called and tonight we are going to see The Fall of Heaven. The Playhouse description from their website: "Tempest Landrey, a street-wise young man living in Harlem, unexpectedly finds himself at the Pearly Gates. When Saint Peter orders him to hell, the quick-witted Tempest refuses to go. A technical loophole forces heaven to send Tempest back to Earth with an angel in tow to keep him out of trouble. The resulting battle of wills takes an intriguing look at good versus evil and what it means to be human. Then on the last Saturday of this month we are going to see How? How? Why? Why? Why? with my Aunt Becky and cousin Barb. I'm hoping we can have them over for dinner before the play but have not made these plans with them yet. Anyhow here is this plays description: "Popular NPR humorist Kevin Kling performs his play exploring the difference between the trip you plan and the trip you take in life. He says trauma can't be cured, but it can be healed - and Kling's method of healing is laughter. In recounting the events of a debilitating motorcycle accident, Kling uses great skill for riveting and hilarious storytelling to examine how tragedy can positively define a person's life."

"Stealing" St Patrick in Mt Adams

On my way to show one of our apartments on Oregon Street I saw men in kilts and other tell tale signs that today is the day the statue of St Patrick would be "stolen", a 34 year old tradition for the Catholic Church (Holy Cross Immaculata) in our neighborhood.

So when I got home I asked spouse,, who was assembling his file cabinet, if he wanted to go to Crowley's to watch the parade. Fortunately for me I married a fun man who was willing to drop a project for this event. As I am typing this blog entry and watching Olympics pairs ice skating d he is upstairs assembling his file cabinet right now.

Here is how Wikipedia describes this tradition: "Each year in February members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians knock on the (Immaculata) church door and ask permission to remove the statue of St. Patrick. The Priest invokes the intercession of St. Patrick and with bagpipes leading the way the 6' statue of St Patrick leaves the church and starts a Mini Parade through Mt Adams."

Some background history: Immaculata Church (1850) traditionally served people of German descent. In our neighborhood you can guess who were the original owners of the old home because the Germans generally built brick homes and the Irish built frame.

Next picture is of spouse in Crowley's which is across the street from Immaculata so this is where we went to wait to watch. We were about an hour early and this scene changed completely an hour later.

A picture of Spec's Crowley (another post) the original owner and quite a character.

The bagpipers heading down Fuller Street (picture taken from inside Crowley's). I didn't have time to run outside by the time we heard the bagpipes play but I caught them on their way back to the church. Father Marty in the green robe between the white robed alter boys.

The 6' tall St Patrick Statue being "stolen". Bagpipers and Hibernians.

An exterior picture of Immaculata

Interior of Immaculata.

Grotto

Sometime in the 1890's the population of Mt Adams warranted another Catholic Church. So the Irish Catholics dedicated the old Observatory in 1895 and established Holy Cross Church. Here is an interior and exterior shot.

And just for comparison here is our little Protestant Church, Pilgrim Chapel which was dedicated in 1888.

So now it is 8PM and our neighbor Nancy just stopped by to return my coin purse that I accidentally left at Crowley's. I had no idea I was even missing this item until I opened our door to her holding it and asking me if I was missing anything. My coin purse has my license, AMEX, ATM, insurance card, $35 and change. I guess I was more interested in taking pictures than my personal belongings.

Trip to Ikea

This afternoon we went to Ikea to get a file cabinet for John, bedside table for me and a new mattress for the 2nd floor bedroom. Ikea has a mattress promo and is the only store I know of that you can buy just a mattress and not have to buy the box spring too. While we at Ikea we got some inspiration for a kitchen re-model we plan on doing to one of our apartments sometime in the next 5 years.

I really like these frosted glass cabinets and the pull out pantry would be beautiful and practical.

We thought these drapes were just interesting. And here is the mattress brand we bought that is being delivered tomorrow afternoon. It was reasonably priced ($480), can be turned over and has a 25 year guarantee not to "dip" in the middle. We spent the extra $70 for delivery and take away our old mattress that only lasted 8 years, can't be turned over and dips in the middle that we bought from Macy's.

We spent about 2 hours @ Ikea and about $822 today. Happy Valentines Day from us to us.

1st Decade

This calendar is February 2000.

The month I met my spouse.

A decade ago.

I'm not certain (and neither is he) but we both think it was Saturday February 12, 2000.

So tomorrow we are going to celebrate by going to the View (not the City View, but a new restaurant in Walnut Hills) and then off to the cellar to catch up with neighbors. Going out to dinner Friday night is pretty routine for us.

But we will also be celebrating what we think is a decade since we met.

Here is that story.

December 1999 I bought (with some generous help from my parents) my dream home. Which is now our dream home. I rented this property ( 2 apts) for the first 18 months. To this day we still rent the 1st floor. Anyhow I had a party to celebrate this purchase in February before the first 2nd floor tenants (a vet and her 10 year old triplets) moved in.

It was a dinner party for 28 people. I did not know spouse but he came because my friend Maureen invited him. She did most of the cooking for this party. Ray and Guy helped me bring in tables and chairs since I was having a dinner party in an empty apt. Oh I remember the dishwasher had issues the morning of that party which fortunately for me Richard was able to fix. Thinking about that now I can't believe how much of a catastrophe I thought it would be if I had to clean those dishes by hand. Geez.

Anyhow it was a great party. John was my Euchre partner and I had the most amazing hands dealt that night. That really should have been my sign. But I was having too much fun being hostess to notice. John's "gay-dar" was way off that night too. Which is somewhat amusing. That night becuase of the way Ray and I bickered he thought we were a couple. Ray who arrived and left with Guy and was his typical self that night as well.

Well quite a bit has happened in the last 10 years. John and I started dating after that party. That April John was transferred to Hampton to work at Langley. It is an understatement to say he had the better job but we both knew we wanted to live in Cincinnati and more specifically Mt Adams. John moved back (quitting a great and stable job) to come back 18 months later. We have been married for 7 1/2 years and to this day live in our dream home and ..........we are now waiting on our dream girl to arrive. We believe we will see her picture and know some information about her in 2010 and would love to believe she will be home this year as well. But if not 2010 we believe early 2011.

March Trip

We booked our trip to Florida in December when Delta had really great deals and we knew we needed to be there for an annual condo meeting the 2nd week of March.

We didn't really make any further plans (no Reds pre-season games as they have moved to Arizona). I even told my boss that I could probably visit a free trade vendor in Sarasota because I would have lots of time as we are going to be there 10 days and I'm sure John will work part of the time. Well, as of yesterday we added a side trip to Key West and it is entirely likely I won't have so much spare time.

We are going to Key West. 1st time for me. John been there several times but not in the last decade. I texted Ray for suggestions yesterday and got the funniest voice mail response from him, beginning with "You know I don't text..."

So we are going to take the Key West Express (170' boat) from Ft Myers to Key West (3 hour trip) which cuts the trip in half. We are staying at the Duvall Inn on Angela Street.

Picture below is where breakfast is served at our b&b.

We reserved the Caroline room... I love that sleigh bed. For the longest time I wanted this style of bed for our home but spouse is not crazy about the style. Complimentary bikes may be handy as we won't have a car.

This is Duvall's resident rooster Jack. There were many travel advisor comments and pictures of Jack, less so of the resident dogs. So after we made our reservations last night we did the typical Mt Adams Friday night: dinner in the neighborhood followed by catching up with the neighbors at the cellar. Caught up with Tim and Nancy, Kurt and Caroline and Chuck and Kim. Interestingly Chuck and Kim are going to be in Key West the entire month of March so now we plan on meeting up with them. Kurt and Caroline own a home in KW and may be there as well.

RQ's defends optimistic stance

Under the heading "A picture paints a 1000 words" RQ posted the chart to the left, I'm assuming she did this based on the 20+ comments challenging her predictions entry for this month. Today's chart shows highlighted by color the # of days referred (1st column) and # of LID's (collected from her polls) for the last 12 referral batches. Her stance is the # of LID's goes way down SO in theory CCAA could refer more days which if true would supports RQ's predictions below:

China Predictor is still saying 12-5-10 for our LID.

But, if RQ's analysis is right, which also hinges on the belief that CCAA is referring based on capacity, we could get our referral in June or July and possibly travel in August or September! We won't start believing this unless March referrals go to April 11th, a 6 day referral month.

Such a roller coaster.

Hamsters in India

This past August our friends and neighbors Ken and Megan Milar and their 3 children Braeden (5), Teagan (3) and Rowan (18 mths) moved to India. Ken works for P&G and this move is supposed to be for 18-24 mths. To say Megan's facebook updates about life in India have been interesting is an understatement. Yesterday's comment from Megan was about a present she got for her daughter Teagan's 3rd birthday this month. A hamster. The attached picture is not great but the most current one I have of Teagan. The Milars came home for Christmas (36 hour trip) this past December and their kids were in the Pilgrim pagent. So back to the hamster. Megan update read "just bought a hamster for Teagan's 3rd b-day. Man delivered it to me at a bus stop in Delhi. Oh the things a mother will do ..." This morning I looked up how far Delhi is from the little town they live in. To Delhi and back this trip was just over 300 miles! One of Megan's friends comments to this update was " If I wasn't living in India, I would think meeting someone at a bus stop for a hamster is a little sketchy :)" Teagan had been suffering from pet withdrawal. She could not sleep because her "pet hamsters" (torn-up-tissue) needed real cereal. That is when her parents decided she needed something real.

Winter Blues

It seems like everyone I know has the winter blues. I'm pretty sick of the weather as well, especially the gray skies.

This morning I was woken up a few minutes early my buzzing blackberry. The message was from someone in our May DTC group: " it seems that April 5 is the cut-off this time." Then her e-mail got progressively gloomier. Rumor Queen confirmed at noon today that the CCAA referred just 2 days this month. We will probably hear this news from our agency this coming Friday.

After we worked out this morning, John and I went to Koka, our neighborhood coffee shop. I ran into our neighbor Karen who asked about our adoption. This annoying wait makes answering this question difficult without sounding like a complete idiot. Briefly explaining where referrals relative to our date sounds close but really it isn't based on how slow referrals are coming. And each month we always think the speed up is bound to start.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Virginia because John's Uncle Estil died on Sunday. Estil had been sick for a long time and there is some consolation in the fact he died at home. Estil was married to possibly the nicest person I've ever met, John's Aunt Pauline.

So tonight I worked late as we won't get back home until late Thursday night. Because I had my camera and because the conservatory looks so cool at night I took the following pictures. The Bonsai room with the shades drawn. The Fern Room without the misters on. In the next picture you can barely see Tammy (night staff) taking a picture of the Tropical Room. She got her camera when she saw me taking pictures.

So when I got home my sweet husband had made broccoli stuffed chicken breasts and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Today we also received a package from Nancy with a very nice condolence card for Lucy. My favorite part of her letter was "I know how much you both loved Lucy. She definitely had quite the personality. She reminded me of the Bette Davis of the cat world - she instantly became the "star" of any room she entered - and she never failed to delight her audience!"

Nancy also sent this candle and picture. It is a Jewish tradition to honor the remembrance of a loved one who passed by burning a candle on the 1st anniversary of the loved one's passing. The name on the candle literally means "year's time". It is kinda funny because John and I privately joked that Lucy was Jewish.

Nancy also sent this Rudyard Kipling print she had framed because it reminded her of Lucy. We think we will put it in the baby's room. The Jungle Book was one of John's favorites as a child.