Ma and Pa's Blog

The autumn colors have been spectacular the last week or two.   We’ve enjoyed the vistas, but we haven’t taken the usual hundreds of photos.  It seemed kind of silly to continue accumulating images that no one can really distinguish from the prior years’ versions.   Anyway, here are shots of our backyard today.    Yesterday, when we finished raking the front, there wasn’t enough in back to bother with.   After last nights rain, it’s a different story.

We spent the afternoon having a Five Guys burger and fries (our second visit, and this time we noticed the burger, which was overshadowed by the excellent fries during our first visit) and strolling Holden Arboretum. It was a pleasant visit for a day predicted to be wet and stormy. The gardens were beautiful, though some were past their peak for the season.

We just returned from a fantastic week at Hocking Hills. Too bushed to write much, but the photos are worth a thousand words each, right?

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• We had a picnic.
• We played miniature golf.
• We ate ice cream & drank lemonade.
• We watched a monster (Owen) chase Sebastian & Caleb.
• We ate sloppy joes.
• We ate blueberry pancakes.
• We walked in the woods.
• We made campfires and ate smores.
• We climbed up to a cave.
• We took naps.
• We learned to transform and untransform Transformer things.
• We ate hamburgers and hotdogs.
• We drove (and rode) a pontoon boat.
• We lost a tooth (Sebastian’s 1st) and were visted by the tooth fairy ($5 – wow!).
• We ate ribs.
• We saw deer (5 or 6) and wild turkeys and chip”bonks” (Owen)
• We rode in a van with satellite radio.
• We played horseshoes.
• We played hottub volleyball.
• We farted — real and whoopie cushion versions.
• We ate spaghetti and meatballs and vegan sausage.
• We watched Blues Clues and Johnny Dangerously (adults for latter).
• We saw the world’s largest washboard and the last US factory that makes washboards.
• We ate more blueberry pancakes and Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Bran Flakes (Grandpa).
• We bought peaches and made cobbler.
• We saw logging machinery up close.
• We learned to count to 21 (blackjack as an educational tool) — dealer goes bust (YEAH!)
• We played bingo (rhymning and vowels) and a matching game and Jenga.
• We soaked each other with water guns, and sometimes the pitcher used to fill them.
• We toured Old Man’s Cave — most beautiful and amazing.
• We watched bugs and listened to birds.
• We went to a restaurant and spilled water and laughed.
• We had to go home . . . dang!

We had an enjoyable afternoon at Viking Vineyards with Jean and Bob. It was another perfect day in Akron — sunny and neither too warm nor too cool. They were out of Ma’s favorite wine, but we enjoyed the recommended alternative with our veggies, cheese, crackers, hummus and fruit.

Ma at Viking Vineyard

Whole wheat penne pasta+kale, leeks, cannelini & garbanzo beans, fennel and raisins cooked in white wine and chicken stock = delicious dinner!  We’ll be making this dish again!

It was a lovely day, and the last of the warm fall Ohio days we’re gonna see for a while, if you can believe the weather forecasters. Anyway, Larry’s been obsessing over his computer again (Involving Netflix on Demand, TV/computer hookup, tweaking, crashes, endlessly pissing around with the damned thing– you get the picture) and I thought maybe we should take advantage of the weather outside instead of staying inside absorbing radiation from the computer screen, so I proposed a drive to Volant, PA. It’s a little town situated on a hill in western Pennsylvania that I’d passed thru a number of years ago and I always wanted to go back to check it out.

We had a nice drive, gorgeous scenery, and a peculiar lunch at The Iron Bridge Inn, then went on to Volant. Shops line the street, and most of them offered but one commodity: primitive country decor. It was fun noodling around and walking from store to store, but I gotta tell ya: I formed a new theory as to why the pictures and photos of pioneers and farmers look so grim. I’d always thought it was because of the grinding pressures of a hard life and hard work, but now I wonder if it was because they surrounded themelves with soul-sucking artwork and drab, drab color. Such grim Santas, grimacing snowmen, and solemn, elongated cats dressed in pinafores! And all of them in shades of maroon, dirty ivory and dusty pine. Sigh. Poor, poor country folk. Fortunately, we had plenty of sunshine to brighten our walking tour and Larry bought me a brightly-painted sign on clearance from the Halloween line: “The Witch is In”. It’s hanging on the front door. It’s ok. I embrace who I am. All in all, a fun day–and now we can watch for the expected snow this weekend! Oh, and also we can start preparing for the Thanksgiving festivities! Woohoo!

We just returned from a great week in Laurelville Ohio — near Old Man’s Cave. Here is a link to our photo album. It was great spending time with our grandsons, our sons, and our daughters-in-law. The week went by in a flash, but we plan to savor the memories and we’re already looking forward to future gatherings.

Look at all this cool work going on as they pave our street . . .

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After all the March snow shots (basically, depressing, cold, grey blurs), I realized that Spring, albeit late, deserves equal time.