Soft fall colors...

Mike, Amanda, and I took the path from the restaurant down to the Ohio River. As you can see, the wind was blowing...hard! We found this clump of trees with interesting, entwined roots.

Jackie and Jerry on the left, Sandy, Mike, and Amanda on the right. If you've ever been to Mike Linnig's, have you ever seen the picnic tables this empty? This is their last week before closing down until 2011.

Sibling Lunch

Sandy, Mike, and Amanda. No, Sandy and Amanda didn't call each other to coordinate the color of their clothing! :-)

The second Saturday of each month Jerry and his brother and sisters, sometimes spouses, meet for lunch. This month was at Mike Linnig's. Everybody wanted one last shot at sitting outside before the weather turns nasty. What a great choice as you can see by the photos.

John and Tracy come to dinner

October 10...Good friends (Rob's best friend) John and Tracy came to dinner and card-playing evening at our house. The photo shows part of the meal, ingredients to a "salad bar". They brought a couple of yummy dishes, roasted garlic bulb and beets cooked with a lemon sauce. All four of us smeared the roasted garlic onto crackers and gobbled them down, mostly in self-defense! You better believe there were no vampires in our neighborhood that night.

We always enjoy John and Tracy's company; both are intelligent, compassionate, caring people. Besides, I like to beat them at "Golf", a card game the four of us played! :-) (Sorry, John.)

St. James Art Fair

When the weather is perfect the first weekend in October, like this year, hordes of people scramble around each other to view the art at St. James Court Art Fair. I elbowed my way through the crowd; it's hard being short! :-)

Digirido player at St. James Ct. Art Fair

This guy created the most haunting, exotic sounds with the digirido, shells wrapped around his legs, the variety of other instruments on the ground beside him, and even with tapping the side of his cheek when blowing into the digirido. He drew as much attention as the actual works of art at the St. James Court Art Fair.

Corn Hole Tournament

The patio home development where we live has regular, fun activities. For instance, Tuesday of this week, September 28, we had a pot luck dinner and corn hole tournament. It was just a good group of people who attended. Here's Jerry and a couple other guys being the spectators. We drew numbers rather than pick our partner; the guy at the far ended up with me as his partner. [Uh.... we won. ;-)]

Perfect Day, October 1, 2010

Thank you October for bringing cooling breezes and a promise of the end of seemingly endless 90+ degree days! With the top down on the convertible, Jerry and I zipped around town running errands, picking up new glasses among others. On our way back home, Iroquois Park beckoned us with crunchy acorns and walnuts on the ground, crinkly leaves, and whispering wind. We had an invigorating walk then sat on a huge tree log to rest and plan another trip when snow starts falling. We're planning a cold weather picnic in a scraped clean, wooded area. We polished off the afternoon with a stop at Sister Bean's, a new coffee shop right across the road from the entrance to Iroquois Park. We thought our day was done but when we got home, there was a message waiting for Jerry from his brother Mike telling him about a 1970 Pleasure Ridge Park High School reunion this weekend. So, the two of them are meeting for this evening's activities at Mike Linnig's. And I plan to catch up on some reading for mine and Amanda's trip to Paris in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS!!!

Yard Sale

Jerry hangs out under the awning.

Susan and Paul's Yard Sale

Yesterday, Saturday, September 25, after Jerry got home from dialysis, he and I drove, top down on car, to Susan and Paul's yard sale. It was one of those made-to-order, perfect days for both the driving and the yard selling. Afterward, we packed all the left over items back into the garage for Susan to organize and record for donations later this week. Then the four of us went to Pie Kitchen for dessert. It was a low key but GOOD day.

Sam's back yard

The bridge crosses the small creek in Sam and Russell's back yard.

Kable and Katie's Playground

The large white rocks behind the playground line the banks of the creek running through Sam and Russell's property, where Candace's baby shower was held. Russell did all the work himself! It looks great.

Frankie Stallard

Frankie ("Bugg") Stallar is Candace's mother, my niece, and the official photographer of the baby shower. The photographer is getting photographed!

Katie Eddington

Katie, who is not quite two yet, had to try out Tatum's sunglasses and the spinning, toy top.

Tatum's gift

Candace shows off one of Tatum's gifts.

Baby Shower

Candace and Adam's baby Tatum (my side of the family) and Rachel and Steve's baby Dylan (Jerry's side of the family) are going to be born very close to the same time. Candace's shower was at her sister Sam's home in Georgetown on September 18. We had delicious food, good conversation, a fun time watching her open and make comments about the gifts (Candace has a wicked sense of humor and makes me laugh when she mutters her under-the-breath remarks.)

Bernheim Forest

Susan on the left and Nancy on the right, two oldest and dearest friends, and I went to the cafe at Bernheim Forest September 16. We ate lunch, fought bees away from our food, talked, laughed, and just caught up with each other's lives. Old friends are like worn blue jeans -- they always "fit" and are comfortable as soon as you put them on.

Baby Bottle Contest

Here's mother against daughter -- Jackie in foreground, Brandy in background. It looks Jackie figured out the trick to winning; SQUEEZE THE BOTTLE!

Baby Bottle Contest

Jerry's sisters Jackie and Sandy competing with Zuela in the baby bottle contest.

Rachel Opening Gifts

This is one happy little pregnant woman!

Baby Carriage

Clever baby carriage that Betty made out of a watermelon. Even the handle of the carriage is made from the watermelon rind. Note the happy "baby" surrounded by fruit.

Baby Shower

More babies are coming into the family!!! September 12th, Rachel's shower was held here at our club house party room. Rachel's mother, Betty, and mother-in-law, Jackie, transformed the place with the way they had decorated. One of the most clever decorations was a "baby carriage" made out of a hollowed out watermelon, orange slices for wheels, grapes for hubcaps, a lemon with face drawn on for the "baby". Cute. Rachel's sister Julie also prepared a contest where each of the participants competed to see which one could extract the most water from a filled baby bottle! ... And I'm actually posting a picture showing my involvement in it... ;-}

Toots and Margie are both 78 years old but you would never guess by looking at the two of them together. Toots looks years younger!

Elizabethtown Nursing Home

There was a girl who grew up on Little Leatherwood with our family; she lived up the creek from us. She was a friend of my older siblings but I'd heard of Margie (Adams) Whitaker all my life. Neal had a big crush on her when he was a little boy. :-) He and Toots recently found out that she is in a nursing home in Elizabethtown. When he e-mailed and asked if I'd like to go see her, I immediately agreed. So, on September 7, Donna drove Toots to Bardstown so we could all meet at Neal's house and drive together. Donna went back to Nicholasville; Toots, Neal, and I went to E-town. As we started back toward Margie's room at the home, we asked an aide where it was and told her who we were looking for. She pointed to the little woman in the wheelchair she was pushing and assured us that was indeed Margie since neither of them recognized her; they hadn't seen her in about 60 years! We sat out front and talked for quite a while. She remembered lots of things from their youth and seemed to enjoy the visit.

Trip to Northeast

:-( It was time to leave. Rob and Cassie had to work so Rob called a limo service to pick us up for the ride to the airport. We did some laundry, cleaned up our messes, packed, played with Harpo, and finished a marathon of "Pacific" before leaving. It was especially poignant departing without either of them being home. The flight home was uneventful -- THANK GOODNESS! Amanda and Shawn provided limo service here in Louisville.

We had tried for months and months to take this trip. It was soooo worth it when it finally happened.

Patio Garden

Healthy plants thrive on their little patio.

Jerry walking to lunch

Notice weight loss.

Rob and Cassie's neighborhood

Are "walk ups" particular to the Northeast? This is the street we used when walking to lunch.

Trip to Northeast

While Rob and Cassie were at work, Jerry and I watched the TV special "Pacific" which Rob had recorded on DVR; that is, we finally got to watch it after fumbling around and messing up the DVR a number of times. :-) For lunch, we took a stroll through their neighborhood and walked down a few blocks to Garbo and Pepe's. One wall of the restaurant was open to the outside so we watched people and traffic while eating. We had been "warned" to "stay on this side of Christopher Columbus" since the other side looks unsafe. On the way back to the condo, we never crossed to the "bad" side but did walk along Christopher Columbus. We misunderstood because Rob wanted us to stay completely away from that street, but we had no problems at all.

When we got back home, we watched more of "Pacific". Mid-afternoon, the dialysis center called to see if Jerry could come in early instead of 7:00 p.m. We really didn't know how to get there since Rob had driven the other time plus we didn't have keys to the car even if we'd been tempted to try the trip. So, he left to hail a cab with necessary phone numbers in hand in case he needed to get in touch with any of us. We found out you can't hail cabs in Jersey City! He stopped in a shop downstairs in their building to ask about taxis and was told there was a taxi stand close to the subway station. He walked the few blocks, got the taxi, went to dialysis, and successfully had the treatment before Rob had time to stop worrying about his Dad!

When Rob got home from work, he and I drove to the clinic to check on Jerry, making sure he got there okay. Later, the three of us picked up Cassie and went to a pizza place in their old Hoboken neighborhood, a place called Benny Tudino's. Their single slices of pizza are so large that they fill a whole plate and you have to fold them over in order to eat them.

This was a bittersweet evening since it was our last one with them before leaving.

Trip to Northeast

August 23
After Cassie left for work, Rob drove Jerry and me into NYC to the art gallery where he works. His boss, Dom, wanted to take us to dinner so we stayed at the gallery for a while to view the art work and see Rob's work area where he builds frames and shipping crates. Various big name artists' works are sold through this gallery -- Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Helen Frankenthaler, ROB HAY! In fact, there is a large Rob Hay painting displayed right next to a wall of Andy Warhol works. What a thrill to see this plus 3 other of his paintings hanging in the gallery!!

While we waited for Dom to finish some gallery business, the three of us walked down to a little neighborhood bar. We had only two glasses of house wine and one beer and it cost $30.00. I only mention this because everything is so much more expensive in the northeast.

Later, the three of us and Dom loaded into a cab to get to Wolfgang's where Cassie was meeting us for dinner. As soon as we walked in the front door, Dom was heartily greeted by the whole wait staff; it seemed everyone there knew him. He ordered for us starting with an appetizer...bacon. Bacon?? I didn't say it out loud but I could not imagine eating bacon as an appetizer so I turned it down. Jerry gave me a couple of bites from his plate then I totally regretted turning down the offer. This bacon was about 1/2 inch thick, 6 inches long, and about 1 1/2 inches wide and grilled over an open flame. It was delicious. He ordered only 2 steaks for the whole table but they were so impressively large that there was meat left over at the end of the meal. The chef grilled the meat then cut the large sections away from the T-bone. Then he cut those slabs into strips, an interesting way to serve it. The expression "melts in your mouth" fit this steak perfectly; it's the best I've ever eaten.

We laughed at Dom's and the waiter's jokes, talked, ate, drank a bottle of wine, and a enjoyed a perfectly wonderful evening.

Relaxing at home

Fighting with a cat is relaxing? Rob and Harpo seem to think so!

Lincoln? Holland?

If you live in New Jersey, you have to face these tunnels any time you drive into NYC. It's either that or take a ferry across the river.

the Cloisters garden scene

Rob and Cassie in Cloisters garden

Cloisters garden

Jerry and Zuela in one of the Cloisters gardens