What a Wonderful Way to Spend an Evening

Evelyn and I grabbed some dinner and made a run through Lowe's after work Friday evening. (Exciting stuff: a new toilet seat and a kick plate for our newly refinished front door.) Then we drove to Price Hill, picked up Verna Weber, and headed for Newport on the Levee.
(Bill's out of town attending a big family gathering in Wisconsin. Verna stayed behind, because her mom has just moved into her new room in the nursing wing of Mason Christian Village, and she didn't feel good about leaving town. Plus, she and Donovan are moving her mom's stuff out of her assisted living apartment today. Verna's telling her mom and herself that they'll store it all in case she can move back to assisted living. But Verna doesn't really believe that will happen.)

 At the Levee we walked around a little, enjoying the "vibe" of happy people filling the restaurants and enjoying the river view. We met an interesting foursome visiting Cincinnati for work: from Israel, Romania, and Russia. One of them volunteered to take our picture if I would take theirs.
Then we retreated to Barnes and Noble and snagged a table and chairs on the balcony outside their Starbucks. That was our landing place for catching-up conversation in full view of the beautiful Cincinnati skyline, with motorboats slowly slipping up and down the river.

After awhile we bought cookies and lattes and kept the conversation going till the Cincinnati Reds ballgame ended and the Reds' Friday Night Fireworks began. 

It's a wonderful show from inside the stadium. But even though you can't hear the recorded soundtrack from across the river, the fireworks light up the sky above the river for anyone nearby to enjoy. We enjoyed them! By the time the 25-minute show was finished, we were satisfied, and we ambled slowly out of the bookstore and to our car. It had become almost cool outside, and Evelyn was glad she brought something with sleeves to wear.

We didn't get home till well after 11:30, and I decided just to go to bed instead of trying to post last night. But maybe I'll make up for it by posting twice today!

Strategies for Healing

The rain had just started when I left the Healing Center at Vineyard Church tonight. Quarter-sized wet circles on the sidewalk were still distinct from each other. By the time I got to the Beckett Ridge Kroger's, the shower was steady, and by the time I left Kroger's, the rain was coming even harder. A couple of flashbulb lightning bursts accompanied me on the way home, and a clap of thunder surprised me after I got in the house.
The shower is giving the potted plants a nice drink. This morning they said we might have severe storms overnight. I hope the wind doesn't blow those pots over!
Evelyn was at the Healing Center tonight, too. She has begun doing literacy tutoring with a 21-year-old fellow born in Mexico who is studying for his GED test. I met him before I left (I was working in another part of the building, meeting a Benefit Bank client), and he seems personable, pleasant, and intelligent.

I picked up some strawberries for us to put in our yogurt. (Sue Willson told us this weekend a remedy for leg and knee pain she's been trying: plain yogurt mixed with honey and cinnamon; she eats it every morning for breakfast. I like it better than I thought I would, although I'm afraid I'm going to get tired of the apple pie aura of the snack. I put some blueberries in mine a couple times this week--tasted like apple pie with blueberries! Maybe some fresh strawberries will give a different flavor.)
Went to the doctor today so he could look at me, take my blood pressure, listen to my heart, and be satisfied that he could renew my blood pressure medicine prescription. I could have told him over the phone that I'm doing just fine, but, hey, for $25 I can help assure that he still remembers my name.
Worked along on editing for our October issue today. Tomorrow will be cut up with some meetings, and I think I have more on my list than I'm going to get accomplished.

The Child Has Been Delivered

Our baby was delivered today! That is, the first boxes of samples of the September issue of Christian Standard came this morning, and we're pretty pleased with this first monthly edition. I went over to Kroger's and spent almost $50 on goodies, and we had a "coming out" party this afternoon and invited the whole office to come see our creation. People said nice things, and I suppose those who didn't have anything positive to say just said nothing, but that's OK. I hope to come up with a plan to get objective feedback, and there'll be time for that later. But nobody passes out grade cards to people viewing a new baby in the nursery. They just expect them to smile and say how beautiful the new child is. That was the agenda today, but we'll be thinking about what we could have done better when we put together the October issue, which goes to the printer in about three weeks!
Meanwhile, this issue is in the mail now, and we'll be waiting to see how our readers react!

Tonight's Groupon Deal

The news is full of Groupon's problems. I don't know all the details, but their stock is tanking on a sag in profits. I really hope they don't go out of business, because I enjoy buying a Groupon now and then and getting a deal on dinner.
That's what we had tonight. Evelyn and I ate at a happenin' place on Mason-Montgomery Road tonight, Fox and Hound Pub and Grille. Actually, it has more of a "pub" than a "grille" feel--lots of TVs with sports channels playing and, according to our buxom waitress, $2 drafts. There was a big happy-hour, after-work crowd there taking advantage of the drink specials. We had decent salads, but I'm not sure the place has taken a spot on our top-ten restaurants list. (We did get a $24 meal for only $14, though!)
This morning I made assignments for future issues. This afternoon I began editing on our October issue. We're having our first art meeting for that issue tomorrow.
Robb Faust and I caught up today at lunchtime; we hadn't really visited for several weeks. He and I went to Abuelo's, which is on Evelyn's and my top-ten restaurant list, and I really think I had a better lunch than dinner.

Bloomin' Memories

Nobody but I may care about this, but for myself I decided to compare pictures of our wedding center pieces with some of the flowers as they're growing in pots in our yard now.
This pretty pink zinnia, and the cream  one in the background of this picture are growing in front of the house in a pot with one of those asparagus ferns. I have a couple of these beautiful coleus plants in pots around the yard too, but I didn't get pictures of them snapped for this post.

The salmon vinca (and another asparagus fern) in this pot on our patio were photographed with a coral colored rex begonia, which, unfortunately, didn't survive when I tried to transplant it this summer. But the one vinca is a bright addition to our deck.

This picture doesn't do this beautiful pink begonia justice. It's in a hanging basket on a shepherd's crook between the pine trees straight out our back door, at the back of the yard beyond the deck. It is one of the most beautiful "survivors" of our wedding, in a pot with a couple of variegated ivy plants, which were a part of our wedding center pieces too.

Tasks Completed

Darrell from DADSTASKS finished sanding, restaining, and polyurethaning our front door today. We had hoped to get it done before the wedding, but the fella who said he'd do it quit returning phone calls. So a few weeks ago Evelyn found a new guy who indeed followed through and did a great job.

 I didn't get a picture of the door, but the picture probably wouldn't show how good it looks or what an improvement it is. We should have done this or had it done years ago.

Darrell gets the name of his company by combining the first initial of his NINE kids' first names into the name of his company, Dadstasks. 

He drove in all the way from Lynchburg to do the work. Any of you Cincinnati readers, I'd recommend him. All his numbers are on his truck, which I photographed from several different angles.

 

We stopped at Kroger's on the way home to get a few odds and ends, and then I jumped into the lawn mowing; wanted to get the front lawn done before Darrell showed up to put the polyurethane on the door--didn't want any dust or whatever blowing up on it.
Evelyn and I had a nice Sunday, although a little different than many. We left first service and went to Costco to stock up on toilet paper and other necessities. We chose to do that today, because we were meeting a couple at Chili's on Kemper Road for lunch. Edwinna works with us at Benefit Bank at the Healing Center, and we enjoyed meeting her husband and sharing a good mea.
Watered plants before coming in and taking a shower. Then did some work for the church on the computer before slipping into a nap that may have lasted an hour.

Evelyn and I ate bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for dinner and watched the NBC Olympics retrospective. Picked the first real tomato from the garden for our sandwiches (there are at least a few more coming), and it was very, very good.

Home All Day

Did something today I haven't done in a long time: didn't leave the house all day. That is, I didn't get in the car and go anywhere. Evelyn had gone to the store last night for what we needed today, and I got the bills out before the mail came. It's nice once in awhile. Wrote checks and did some e-mail correspondence this morning. Evelyn went to a meeting at the Vineyard (she's going to start doing literacy tutoring at the Healing Center on Thursday nights), and we Skyped with Wendy Wagoner for almost two hours after lunch. After that I went outside and pulled weeds and watered flowers, picked tomatoes and flowers for the house.

Got my shower and then started helping with dinner.

Bob and Sue Willson and Anna are stopping in Cincinnati tonight on their way to a Fireworks show in northern Indiana, and they had asked if we were free for dinner. We invited them to just come here, and I cooked chicken and vegetables on the grill. Evelyn made biscuits and potato wedges and brownies, and we had a good meal as well as a fine visit. 

Now Evelyn and I are watching the Olympics while we check Facebook and relax into the end of a good day.

Enjoyed good things from our garden today . . . flowers for the tables and tomatoes for the grill.