Last night was Mt Adams 1st "Cinema in the City" of this season

The 2nd summer movie night series started tonight in our neighborhood. These are free movies that are shown at Seasongood Pavillion. The Park Board donates the space and neighborhood Civic Assoc secured about 16 sponsors.

We were fortunate that the humidity was considerably lower last night.

In my opinion this is the best movie of this year's series. The other 2 are: American Graffiti (1973) on Thursday July 22 and Wait Until Dark (1967) on Friday August 13th.

After dinner we walked up to Celestial so I could pull money from the 5/3 atm to buy raffle tickets at the movie. While there we saw that the adjacent Rookwood's deck construction has progressed nicely.

The design looks contemporary but still reflective of the history of this building.

The architectural firm is the same company as the architect who designed "Casablanca", the house adjacent to our garden. There is some rich history about that house too but I don't think it is appropriate for a public blog, even an unknown one.

From Celestial St we walked the 4 blocks down Ida Street to Seasongood Pavillion where the movies are shown. This next picture of movie night @ Seasongood is from last year as I did not take many pictures this year.

First thing we did when we arrived was purchase raffle tickets and pool passes. I bought 16 raffle tickets for $20 (and I was a winner!) and John bought our $10 each pool passes.

A little history about the pool: Mt Adams pool is managed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission. The CRC like every division of the City of Cincinnati is feeling the pinch of budget cuts. Specifically CRC is under pressure to close pools and rec centers. In the last several years the Mt. Adams Moms have taken an active and so far successful role to organize our neighborhood in efforts to save the pool. In fact the Mt Adams Civic Association is trying to raise funds to re-model the pool house to use it as a community center.

This next picture is probably 5-6 years old. Anyhow the kid in the yellow shirt, Jack F. was last night's raffle announcer. When he called my winning Playhouse tickets I guess I concealed my excitement too much as Jack announced I should show a little more enthusiam as I walked to the stage to get the tickets. The other raffle prizes were Reds tickets (we have 20 game pkg), fishing lessons (I don't even know anyone to give this too) or a big screen tv (same as the fishing lessons).

The last time I went to the Mt Adams pool was July 17,1999. I remember because it was the day JFK Jr. died. I heard this news at the pool when I took visiting nieces and nephews there. By the way I also remember these nieces and nephew were unimpressed with the shallow pool but they were also not toddlers.

Although we have bought pool passes for the last 6 years we have never used itin that time. We fully expect that to change next summer. Along those lines here are a couple of pictures from the CRC's pamphlet which features Asian kids on the cover and index.

And that $10 pass buys access to a lot of rec centers and pools in town. So the movie started about 9PM. I've seen it before but for me it was fun to watch again for the scenery (French Alps and Paris), the clothes (Givenchy) and the 2 main characters.

Love the 3/4 length with gloves and the many pill box hats she wore as well. This movie came out in 1963.

Walter Mathau, James Coburn and George Kennedy were also in this movie.

Picture #3-5 were from Charade.

Hike around East Fork Lake

This past Saturday John and I drove out to East Fork Lake to hike the trail he is going to run in a race next month. Below is a picture of the shelter built in 2008 in memory of Matt Maupin. Also a picture of Matt Maupin who died at age 21. For most Cincinnatians he is the face of the soldiers killed in the Iraq war. He was captured after his convoy was hit by rocket propelled grenades in 2004. His parents kept his missing status in the press and a huge yellow ribbon campaign in his name developed all over town. His body was recovered in 2008. This shelter was built by the local community and his high school friends that same year.

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An Eastern Box turtle that was the path we were hiking.

You can't see it in this picture but a B-52 flew overheard while we were on this 2.5 hour hike. Lunken airport offers these flights to the general public ... something John is interested in doing in the future. This is the type of plane his father flew in when he was surveying in Europe after WWII. This year we gave each other Mother/Father's Day cards. Or more accurately "last one without baby" cards.

Our new patio

Update Thursday June 24, 2010: I did not think the landscapers would be back until the water barrel was delivered, but I was wrong. When John got home from his run this morning he told me "the boys are back". I immediately walked out to our back deck and was surprised to see the edging had been installed!

They also leveled the space under the steps where this water "barrel" will be installed.

Update Monday June 21, 2010: The patio furniture was delivered this morning! This will make it slightly more awkward to apply the sealer but not a big deal.

Over the weekend I bought this clock which also tracks temperature and humidity.

I hung the clock this morning as well as filled in the holes on our stone foundation with "great stuff foam". The landscapers pointed out that we have carpenter bees burrowing in this wall.

It doesn't look pretty but we will sand down and someday get our whole house tuck pointed. I kinda felt bad for the bees trying to get back in, possibly for their babies. May be risking bad karma but it certainly helps protect my home.

The before picture (less the rotted out railroad tie bed borders).

First the layer of limestone mix was added for weed prevention.

John and I decided to go patio furniture shopping at this point. First we went to Frontgate Outlet and then Watson's. Surprisingly, we found what we wanted at the 2nd stop.

The name of this set is Como, made by Parker Jones. We like it because it seems like it will compliment our deck railings and patio "street" light in both style and color. Oh and the fact it is affordable and low maintenance was good too.

The manufacturer's description of this set is "timeless blend of yesterday and today, retro and contemporary". But what sealed the deal for us is the fact the chairs are stackable.

We delayed delivery for one week to insure the landscapers are finished. Next is a picture of how far they were the day we made the above purchase.

The landscapers laying the pavers on top of the leveled sand.

Pavers set ready for edgers to be set and sealer applied.

We are happy with the way the tumbled bricks add an antique look. We also like the pattern the different sizes form.

A 100-gallon rain water barrel is going to be installed under the steps. Overflow will still be piped underground as apparently 100 gallons tank can fill up quickly from roof run-off.

It was nice the landscapers could use the pet door to run electricity from the basement.

We had the pet door installed in May 2007 for Lucy. She didn't mind wearing the door sensor (blue thing on her collar) but refused to use the door. Lucy expected us to open doors for her. She was not shy so letting us know when she wanted out was no problem for her.

I found it so odd she would let you hang anything off her neck. Man do we miss that quirky cat.

While the landscapers were here for the patio they also replaced the perennial/ vegetable bed tier! Yeah no more pea gravel (like walking on marbles). The stone edging is a also a huge improvement over the metal border kept lifting.

A big reason we did this project now is because we still rent the apartment on the first floor and can take 1/3 of the cost off in taxes as improvement for rental property. We think we will keep renting the 1st floor apartment for the next couple of years but just don't know how adding a baby to our home might change that plan. This is also the reason I want to re-model the first floor bedroom in the next couple of years.