Life's better on the porch . . . .

For those of you who are Starbucks frequenters, you know that the theme this summer has been all about the porch at Starbucks. The games, the coffee cups, the drinks with raspberries and pictures of porch swings all represent relaxing times around home. Greg and I do a lot of porch sitting, and this is the time that I enjoy my flowers the most. They smell nice and attract the butterflies and the buzzy bees, and they generally give me a lot of pleasure. This post is just to share some of my pretties with you, and to show Dori that the plants I adopted from her are happy campers in their new home on our porch and deck.

The first one is my hibiscus, which I bought a couple of years ago at Home Depot to fill in where we took out a shrub by the front porch. The first two years, it managed to hang on and to show one or two blooms. But this year, it seems to have decided to make a home. There are about 100 buds on it, and they are opening up a few every day to impress me and dress up the yard.

The poinsettia and the hanging basket are also out on the front porch where we sit after work to read the paper and watch the neighbors coming home from work and decide what's for dinner. The rocking chairs with the striped chair pads and the papasan chair are great vantage points for all these activities. Just to the left of the poinsettia is our herb pot with basil and chives and marjoram and rosemary. This is convenient so that I can pop out with the herb scissors and snip some seasonings for the meat or vegetables when we cook. MMMMMmmmmmm!

We haven't totally abandoned suburbia, because we still have the deck on the back of the house with our table and chairs and our grill. Although we sometimes eat so much cheese and crackers on the porch that dinner is abandoned, the "real meals" we eat outside are usually on the deck in the back off the kitchen. We scare the birds away from the feeder and sit back there at our table. Dori gave me this daisy, which looks like something from a Van Gogh painting in the middle of the table, don't you think?

Happy summer! Starbucks is right. Life's better on the porch.

A busy month for Oma!!

It has been a really busy month, and I am way behind on my blogging. Melanie had a birthday on August 8! She was a great age . . . 22! My baby is a lovely young woman. Greg and I went to Columbus to see everyone and to take Melanie out to dinner for her birthday. I forgot my camera! It was unbelievable. So you will just have to imagine the wonderful dinner we had with Melanie and Drew and Brian and Emily and Katy and Greg and me at the Cap City Diner. There is no such thing as a bad meal there; and we got a GIANT piece of chocolate cake with a candle. We sang Happy Birthday and shared the cake and then went home to sit on the porch.

All summer long I have been working on a benefit for Sojourner House along with my co-chair, Michelle Reese, and a small committee of dedicated team members. We held our event at Pittsburgh's finest restaurant, LeMont, on Mount Washington overlooking the city on Thursday, August 16. It was called Jazz Explosion at LeMont because we had jazz musicians to provide music and entertainment and there were fireworks at the Pirates baseball game at PNC Park that evening. The picture here is of me with our new executive director, Joann Cyganovich, at Lemont last week. The evening was beautiful, and we raised over $30,000 for the families at Sojourner House. So I was very pleased.

On the physical activity side, Greg's boss gave us a membership to the Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford near the church! Greg and I have been going there and getting fitness assessments and starting to work out with the weight equipment. That is a lot of fun and makes some of the aches and pains go away! It also helps my golf game because it gives me some upper body strength. I signed up for a women's golf clinic on Saturday afternoons for 4 weeks. The second one is tomorrow on chipping and putting. Last week was on driving, and I ended up ordering a new driver from the Internet as a result of the clinic. I don't think I can afford to buy a new club after every session, but hopefully I will learn to use the ones I have a little better.

I have a couple of sewing projects in the wings. I made a skirt last weekend and started on a pants suit that I cut out last spring and never finished. But my biggest project is a winter coat for later in the season. I got some lovely wool/cashmere coat fabric from Sawyer Brook in a lovely geranium pink. It is very soft, and I can't wait to begin this project. But I need to finish the pants suit first.

Finally, we have been having dinner with friends and hanging out with our home group. My friend, Dori, moved to Seattle and gave me a number of her plants when she moved. So I have been enjoying my new adopted flower children. The rain over the last week or so has brought out a number of blooms for the late summer perennials. And one more week until Labor Day! Where has summer gone?

Sew, Sew, Sew . . .



Here is the outfit I sewed recently from the "Potting Shed" fabric I bought from Sawyer Brooke. It is difficult to see in the picture, but the fabric is predominantly shades of green and tan with threads of pink and lavender running through it along the grain. The buttons are pearlized in a beautiful shade of taupe. I worked on this a couple of weekends ago and have worn it once. I would have worn it more, but the long sleeves have been too hot. Anyway, I asked Greg to take this picture so I could send it in to Sawyer Brooke for their web site showing creations with their fabric.

I am currently looking for the perfect wool fabric to make a simple wrap coat with princess lines. I looked last winter and never found anything that I liked. It cannot be plain or any of the "safe" colors like navy or black or camel. This coat is going to take some time, so it has to be "shazzam" fabric that is a little unusual. In the meantime, I will amuse myself with pulling weeds out of the flower beds and finishing up the pants suit I started last spring and didn't finish in time to wear before it was too hot for the jacket. Sew, sew, sew . . . .

Home from Paradise . . . Nemacolin Woodlands!


This weekend, Greg and I were able to enjoy a trip to Nemacolin Woodlands in south, central Pennsylvania to get away from the stress and pressures. Our stay was Friday night to Sunday, and we really enjoyed the great food and relaxing atmosphere. It was great to walk on the beautiful grounds and indulge in a few simple pleasures like a pedicure. The color is called "Flirt." What do you think? This picture was taken from the balcony of our room in the lodge. It overlooked the front entrance and the spa and was a relaxing place to drink our coffee and read the newspaper on Saturday morning.




Nemacolin has a beautiful art collection all over the grounds including glass works, sculpture, prints, oil paintings, and so on. I had attended a business meeting at Nemacolin a while ago, and I was impressed with the fact that they have an actual section of the Berlin Wall on display on the grounds. So this time, Greg took my picture with the wall this morning on our walk so that you can share in my amazement. It just astounds me that this was such a symbol of the cold war that is now nothing but a curiousity that kids study about in history in school. I already feel old, but this makes it worse! Maybe I am really older than dirt like the kids say that I am.


Greg was a charming companion all weekend. He even indulged me while I shopped for almost an hour in the trendy shops that are always around a resort. And when I kept going back to this one purse but hesitating to buy it, he just took it down and paid for it and put me out of my misery. Now THAT is true love! Or maybe he was just tortured by the shopping and wanted it to end . . . . But I think it was true love. :-)



Greg checked out the many statues of musicians around the grounds, but he also appreciated some of the whimsical things like the toy firetruck for the kids to pretend they were firemen. So I took his picture driving the firetruck. What this picture doesn't show is Greg trying to get OUT of the truck after the picture. That was truly a masterpiece.



Anyway, it is good to be home after a great weekend. The weather is absolutely perfect, and I need to go sit on the porch!

Oma's Girl is the Best!

This past weekend I got to spend three whole days and nights with Katy and Melanie while Brian and Emily went on a much-deserved anniversary trip. We had a lot of important things to do, and it was hard to fit them all into the three days. I went to Columbus on Friday and "took the reins" of Katy care on that afternoon. When we got up on Saturday morning, Melanie and I decided to go to First Watch for breakfast. Even though Katy had a little breakfast when she got up at 7 a.m., she went with us at 8 and ate some French toast and bananas while we chatted and Oma drank her coffee. After her nap, Katy helped me clean up the kitchen and run the electric broom. This is a picture of "Cinder Katy" helping with the housework. She really likes the sweeper, but she has a tendency to clean the same spot over and over again. I had to help get the crumbs that weren't in the center of the room. But, hey, it's a start!

Saturday afternoon, we went to New Carlisle to visit Granny and Grandpa and eat dinner with them. Grandpa got out the green swing and hung it from the ceiling. Katy had fun catching the silly old bear that we dug out of the toy box as she swung back and forth. After supper, we headed back home and made it into bed after that last relaxing bottle of the day. Melanie and I watched a movie . . . "The Queen" . . . which was actually pretty good.

Sunday morning we were lazy. We took it easy and went out for a walk on the Clintonville route after Katy's morning nap. We took some money along and stopped at Alladdin's on High Street for a little lunch. It was a nice little break; and Katy captured the heart of our extremely cute waiter (Melanie observed this), who brought Katy a plastic spoon to play with and a cup of water with a lid and a straw. Once we got home, Aunt Mel and Oma decided to make a quick run out to Easton to get two quick items. So we went to The Container Store and Williams Sonoma and then stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back to the house for some dessert. Back for nap number two and a chance to try to figure out how to fold up that blasted jogging stroller. These contraptions are much more complicated than the strollers I used to have! Good thing Emily called or it would still be sitting in the middle of the living room.

On Monday, Aunt Mel went off to work, and Katy and I once again put on our sunscreen and did the Clintonville route in the morning sun. We stopped at Giant Eagle on the way home to get more milk because Katy had been really thirsty and drank it all for breakfast. We also played in the yard with Amelia and Arcadia next door, and Katy is learning to pull weeds like Oma . . . but she likes the flowers best so you have to watch her.

All in all, I really had a wonderful time with our baby and my baby. It has brought me many smiles in the last few days to remember cute things Katy did and her small but effective vocabularly. Any yes, she does grow almost every morning when you get her out of her crib.

I'm glad Emily and Brian had a nice time, because Oma certainly had fun, too.

Quiet Weekend with Different Kids

I am enjoying some garden time this weekend. I stopped on my way home from work last night and picked up three new perennials and a bunch of little potted herbs. I had been thinking about a couple of bare spots in front of the dining room and wondering what to put there; and the inspiration was high last night. Besides, my hydrangea and the hostas I separated are doing pretty well (see right), so I had enough confidence to spend a little more money. Besides, I went to my friend, Norma's, house a week or so ago. She has a beautiful garden and admitted she had killed a lot of plants getting to that spot. So that made it easier not to take it so personally when something dies. If Norma kills things, I don't feel so bad!

Here are my three new babies. The first is a Pink Peppermint Phlox. It smells really good. You can't see very well from the picture, but the lighter flowers are pink and white and look exactly like those little mints they give you after dinner that are wrapped in cellophane. The plant is said to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. It looks great right now; but it has been in the ground less than 24 hours. :-)




The second plant is a Foxglove. It has soft, furry-feeling leaves and lovely lavendar blooms. I think I like it because it is tactile. And it's purple; I like that.



The low plant at the bottom is St. John's Wort. This one is more of a low grower that will fill in and be like a cover plant. It has little yellow flowers on it, but the leaves are nice and colorful as well.

I came home last night and planted these and then did a little
watering. Since it is almost July, everything was completely root bound in the pots, so I figure these girls were aching to get into a roomy spot. I must say they look nice and I am satisfied with them. Now I have to flip my water hoses to irrigate two areas. But I have my own personal irrigation engineer, so I'm sure he can help me arrange that.




The herbs I bought went into a pot by the front door all together. This way they are easier to deal with and you can just run out there with the new herb shearers the girls got me for Mother's Day and snip off what you want. Everything tastes so much better with fresh herbs. It is one of the best things about summer.



This afternoon I am getting a pedicure with Dori and we are going out for dinner. It is her birthday! Today is also Emily's 30th birthday! Time really flies. June 30 is indeed a special day in many ways. Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Our Trip to Pittsburgh Zoo . . . .

Katy brought her mom and dad over to visit Oma and Opa in Pittsburgh last weekend. She was so very helpful in helping me get the weeds out of my flower beds and move the shells around on Saturday morning while were were waiting for a nap and some lunch. I really kind of like this routine of naps between all the meals. Too bad that is not as common for grown ups, because I'm sure I could use a nap here and there. Katy has a nice rhythm going, Sleep, eat, drink milk, take a nap, eat some more, drink some more milk, take another nap. . . . Like I said. It's very calming.

Saturday afternoon we all got in the van and went to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was a beautiful day with sun and temperatures in the 70's. The zoo was really pleasant, and we saw lots of animals and ate ice cream.

There were lots of neat animals, but my favorite animal was this camel. Something about it just spoke to me with the "bad hair day" tufts in strange places and the lumpy body with calluses on the knees. Maybe I just identify with the challenges of looking presentable with some of these things myself. But some of the people at the zoo were almost as interesting as the animals. There was everything from a punky looking guy with black hair standing straight out to a number of Pennsylvania Dutch people with little babies in capes and bonnets and flat hats. An interesting lot in their own right.

Katy liked to pet the deer and look at all the animals that we could get close enough to for her to see them clearly. The only animal she really knows besides a doggie is a zebra; and the zebra at the zoo on Saturday was being very shy and staying back in a corner where you couldn't see him very well. There were some pretty fish and a really wonderful aquarium with beautiful colored fish. Greg and I wandered around a lot reading all the stuff on the walls about the rain forest and the canopy and all the wildlife living in the different strata. We also always seemed to be lagging behind in the African area where there was a lot of information about how long the lions go between meals and then how much they eat when they catch something. So much information . . . .

Katy liked to push the stroller and chase the peacock over into the weeds and do a lot of the other things that make a day at the zoo worthwhile. Since Greg and I had never been to the zoo since we lived here, it was very nice to know that we had such a nice one! The seals in the Waters Edge section seemed to be having a wonderful time just swimming around in circles and gliding along.

Once we finished our trip, we went back home and had dinner. Katy had missed her afternoon nap by this time, and she was really sleepy. She was out for the count very soon after supper. But in all it was a wonderful visit.

This last picture is one of the rare calm moments with a 13-month old when Katy crawled up in my lap to share some toast and a brief snuggle before it was time to go home. Another visit comes to an end, and back to the routine we go. I wonder if my boss will consider adding naps to the Outlook schedule around 2 in the afternoon . . . .

What's cooking in Pittsburgh!



Things are really busy this month at Sojourner House. Our Executive Director, Norma Raiff (pictured with me on the right), is retiring on June 30 after 13 years leading the organization. The last six months have been really busy doing an executive search to find and hire her replacement. I'm excited to say we made an offer to a wonderful candidate in late May, and the transition to the new leadership is in full swing.


Sojourner House is so much a part of my life these days. I was a member of the Succession Committee to work on the executive search; and earlier this month, I succeeded our Board President, Joanne LaRose, to become this year's president. This is a great honor as well as a great responsibility. I have a great heart for women who are recovering from addiction. Sojourner House is a small agency that helps women AND their children to recover from addiction. We not only provide apartments where the women can work their recovery program and have their children with them, but we stress that lasting recovery means relying on faith in God and loving people to hold you accountable instead of substitute drugs and medications. So this work is a passion as well as a calling for me. I believe I am here at this time for a reason!


The next few months continue to be busy as we complete Phase 2 construction of three additional apartment buildings in East Liberty's Negley Place adding 10 more housing units to the transitional housing side of the organization called Sojourner House MOMS. These units should be ready for occupancy in September, and there is a lot to be done in the next few months.


I'm also excited to be the Co-Chair with Michelle Reese of Nova Chemical (and a former board member) to plan a benefit called "Jazz Explosion at LeMont" for August 16, 2007. The evening features a full dinner at Pittsburgh's famous LeMont Restaurant on Mount Washington overlooking the beautiful skyline of the city. Our emcee is Tonia Caruso of WQED Multi-Media; and entertainment will be a jazz ensemble provided by George Heid and a quartet of local jazz musicians as well as a student group from CAPA. The evening will end with fireworks at PNC Park over the river against the backdrop of the city. Tickets will go on sale on the Sojourner House website in mid-June. This will be a great way to treat yourself or out of town guests to a fabulous look at life in our great city.


Of course, none of this will keep me from my visits to Columbus or welcoming people to Pittsburgh when they pass this way. So let us know if you're coming. There is so much to see and do here! We hope to see you. We also have the best baseball park in the National League and a wonderful children's museum.


I'm looking forward to a BEAUTIFUL summer!

Workin' On the Yard . . .

Last weekend I cleared out a lot of weeds and roto-tilled the "flower beds" so I could find my perennials. So this week I had 3 yards of mulch delivered so that I can keep the weeds under control for the rest of the summer. At one time, I thought I liked to have annuals and putz in the yard every evening. I gave up on it. There are too many other interesting things to do. So I am sticking with perennials and mulch.

Well, Opa Greg threw me a curve ball a couple of weeks ago. There was a big blue spruce at the corner of the front porch next to the driveway that had grown HUGE over the last 2 or 3 years. It was spilling out into the driveway and trying to crawl up on the porch. Worse yet, it was very close to our basement; and we were starting to worry about leaks from the expanding roots. So Greg cut the tree down Mother's Day Weekend. This left a big hole in the weeds. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Hence . . . my charging into a clean up program.

Once I got the yard started, the covers on the porch furniture were looking faded and drab. So I sewed some new slip covers for the rocking chairs and the papasan chair. It really perked up the porch and made the place look spiffy. That was my "relax" project last Saturday evening after I was done in the yard. This week was trying to finish things up a bit out doors.

I have always wanted a hydrangea bush because I love the flowers and the way they are different colors based on the acidity of the soil. I tried to start one a couple of years ago, but Greg accidentally stepped on it with his 12-1/2's when he was cutting the grass. That was the end of my bush. This time I got a bigger, more mature plant and put it out in the middle of the flower bed near where the blue spruce had been. I have been watering it a lot this week, and it looks like it is pretty happy out there. I'm hoping it makes it. (We have a one-year guarantee from the Lowe's nursery. I'm saving my receipt.) Now that I cleaned up and mulched, you can see that great OSU ground cover that Brian gave me a couple of years ago. It is spreading nicely and happens to be blooming right now. You can see the white flowers in the picture. I also divided some hostas that were growing under the deck to supplement my plantings. I divided several other perennials from elsewhere in the yard to fill in the spaces. I'm quite satisfied and pleased that I only ended up buying the hydrangea and the mulch and a small start of the spruce looking ground cover for my whole project. I think I also should have earned a number of Weight Watcher activity points for all the shovelling and sweating I did out there.

Greg is taking me down to the Three Rivers Arts Festival this evening and we are going to see a short play down there as well. That should make for a pleasant and restful end to this warm sunny day. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about the things I bought at the festival!

Oma's Slipping Up on Her Blogging!



Our Katy girl turned one year old on May 19! Oh, what a party she had . . . it would have made Paris Hilton jealous! (Well, maybe not. But who cares.) The whole thing was a bit overwhelming, you know. First there were all those people (45 or so) at the park after her nap. But the wierdest thing was when Mommy put Katy in the high chair, she thought it was time for supper. Amazingly, all the people stopped talking and started SINGING! And the song had her NAME in it! Then they gave Katy a whole cake . . . which is also wierd since Mommy cuts all her food into itty bitty pieces so she won't choke, you know. And everybody was watching her like she was supposed to do something. Katy never did really figure it out. But she fed some of the cake to Daddy, and he seemed to like it. After all the pictures, everybody started talking again and Katy got to go back to the playground with her cousins.

Katy's good buddy cousin Gabe came to the party, too. He will be one in September, so he was learning the ropes for when his turn comes. His Mommy and Daddy (Abby and Stan) were there as were Uncle Neil and Aunt Bonnie (Papaw and Nana) and Granny and Grandpa. It was a great time eating cake and visiting and going down the slides and stuff between the rain drizzles.

Opa and Oma came in from Pittsburgh on Saturday for the party because we were walking for Sojourner House in the Walk for a Healthy Community that morning. We went down to the Steeler's stadium, Heinz Field, at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and participated in a 6K walk around the North Side of Pittsburgh. It was a beautiful morning, and there were over 6,000 walkers participating to earn money for 33 different non-profit organizations that day. Sojourner House had about 150 walkers and raised $3,500. We left Pittsburgh directly from the walk at around 10 a.m. and came cruisin' into Columbus around 1 o'clock in time to pick up our fruit tray and dash over to the party. What a busy day.

That evening, Opa Greg and I went home with Granny and Grandpa and hung out in New Carlisle until Sunday. We just relaxed and visited and went through some of the old toys and things they found when they were cleaning out the house in Markle. It was amazing to see some of those long-forgotten dolls with the 50's hair-do's that looked so stylish back then. What a grand time we had eating broasted chicken and coleslaw from the Mel-O-Dee Restaurant on Saturday night. Some things are just better than you remember them, you know?

Melanie is busy with finals this week and starts a new job at a day care in Westerville, Ohio, next Wednesday. She is living with Brian and Emily for the summer and doing the Nehemiah Project (which she will eventually tell me about when she gets time). There is always something going on with that kid; and sleeping is kind of optional. However, I must brag a little bit. Melanie was awarded a $2,000 scholarship from her college for next year. I went to Columbus on Friday, May 11, to attend the award ceremony for the group of students being honored. I was terribly proud of her for working so hard in school and for finding ways to help finance her education, too. Congratulations, sweetheart.

Baby and the Beach!

We just got back from a marvelous vacation in Charleston, South Carolina. I had never been there before, and I must say it is a truly charming city with lots to do and some of the greatest low-country cooking you can imagine. It even made a grits-lover out of me; and that is no easy task! Pictured here are the historical homes along East Bay Street referred to as Rainbow Row. These places sell for around $2 million; and you have to get approval from the Board of Architectural Review before you can paint them to make sure the color meets with their approval. They are lovely, but the hurricanes get them every few years as well. Pay up your insurance!


Brian, Emily and Katy joined us for a few days, and we toured the city, ate seafood at Hyman's, and shopped . . . well, Emily and I shopped. :-) On the second day, we decided to try the beach. Katy's Grammy sent along some sand toys, so we got to watch her get her first digging experience. I think she may have a place in excavation. The sand was pretty interesting until you got all wet in the ocean and it stuck to you and made you all itchy. Then, when your wicked mommy decides to rinse you off in the cold, sharp shower by the beach house, things can get really nasty. This picture of Katy was taken before the dreaded shower. Everything ended happily, however, when Katy discovered the joy of eating Opa Greg's strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Daddy had to go get another scoop just for Katy to share with Greg since she ate most of his.

On the next day, Brian and Opa Greg decided to chill at the condo while the girls went exploring. Emily and Oma and Katy decided to take in the Magnolia Plantation on the Ashley River that is one of the oldest plantations in the United States. It was started in about 1670 (I think) by the Drake family and has been in that family for something like 12 generations. There was a petting zoo and miles of beautiful gardens to walk through and enjoy. Below are some pictures from that field trip. The deer was in the picture was just checking to see if Katy had food, but it looks like the Bambi kiss from the movie, doesn't it?

"Hello, little girl. Got any pellets?"

This bridge is famous around Charleston. There are lots of artists renderings of it on prints in the marketplace.

Emily and Katy on the foot bridge.

Katy's New Bed!



Guess what, Katy? Oma got a beautiful new crib

for you to sleep in the next time you come to Pittsburgh! Isn't it awesome?

It used to belong to a boy named Schuyler who grew up enough to sleep in a big-boy bed. I know you will immediately take down the mobile; but I hung it up for now so you could see.

There is a lot going on at Sojourner House, my favorite charity, right now. We are having a tea on April 14 with hats and cookies and lots of fun things. I am also on the committee to help hire a new Executive Director since our lady, Norma Raiff, is retiring on June 30. There is a walk coming up on May 19 to earn some money for Sojourner House as well. There is also another event already being planned for August. The place is jumping!

We are looking forward to a little vacation time pretty soon. Can't wait to get a little break and go to the beach. Opa Greg and I are really looking forward to that in a few weeks.

Katy on the Move!



I went to Columbus this past weekend to see the kids and to spend some time with Katy. All my pictures turned out blurry for some reason, and Katy was very interested in the camera . . . and the computer and anything else that was within two feet of the floor. She is crawling all over the place and standing up to everything that has a hand hold in sight.

There are still more sounds that start to approximate language. Bye-bye is now starting to have a little bit of an 'i' sound to it and is accompanied by a sort of claw-like motion of the hand. This usually takes place a minute or two AFTER the person making the exit has given up and left the house. But, hey! Timing will come!

Oma's love of music is always a part of my play time with Katy, and this time we sang through the first CD of her two-CD set of Bible songs for kids at least twice. The piano in the picture only has four keys which play a major triad and an octave. I am appalled that so many of the children's musical toys LOOK like one instrument but sound like something else. How terrible to have something that looks like a saxophone sound like a harmonica! The piano is the worst instrument of all. Many of them only have three or four keys and no half tones so you couldn't even play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on them. What a waste. But I digress. Katy seems to love various songs and sounds and definitely knows how to bounce along with the beat. We had a wonderful time.

On Saturday evening, Brian and JT stayed home with Katy and watched basketball while Emily and Melanie and I went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and made a trip out to Easton to go shopping. We had fun at New York & Co., Williams Sonoma and eventually Starbucks before heading back to the house. All in all, it was great to see the kids and then head back to Pittsburgh on a dry and sunny Sunday afternoon. The time change and the milder temperatures made for a truly lovely weekend.

One Dead Chicken, Etc.

Well, folks, there won't be any pictures with THIS post! It is tough to take a picture of a smell, and that's what this is all about.

It all started yesterday afternoon when I pulled some chicken out of the freezer to make for dinner. I did a little defrosting in the microwave to get things started, and then I put 3 chicken breasts in my beautiful Princess House baking dish and covered them with salsa and corn. I covered this and left for church (I was playing in the orchestra) leaving Greg with instructions to put the chicken in the oven about 6:30 so we could have dinner when I got home.

I arrived home about 7 p.m. to the smell of the chicken and the gurgle of the rice cooker. Greg and I set the table and chatted until about 7:30, then we sat down to eat. The chicken was okay, but it was a little pink in the middle at the thickest part of the breast. We cut the ends off where it was cooked through and put the rest back in the oven while we watched a movie. It would make a nice meal or lunch for today or tomorrow.

You guessed it! We both forgot about the chicken and went to bed. About 2:30 this morning, I woke us to that pungent burning smell that a chicken covered in salsa makes after it has been cooking for 7 or 8 hours. It was nauseating. I stumbled downstairs and turned off the oven thinking I would clean it up in the morning. But the smell was pretty awful. After another 30 minutes, I got up again and came down to find three pitiful chunks of charred "meat" lying in the black ashes of stuff that was totally unrecognizable. I took the meat and wrapped it in foil and took it to the trash container in the garage. Then I put the black stuff in the garbage disposal and put some hot sudsy water in my pan . . . wondering if it would ever be used again. Then I lit a candle and sat down at the table to watch the neighbors street lamps glowing in the dark and wish for the smell to subside. I eventually blew out the candle and went to bed.

The house still smells today, but it is getting better. We ate out at lunch today. My confidence is a little shaken, and maybe I'll stick with spaghetti and stir fry for a while. However, I must say that I think my dish is going to survive. That Princess House is good stuff.

Never to be daunted by my culinary disasters, Greg stopped at Costco on the way home from church today. I said we needed some salad stuff, and he brought home 2.5 POUNDS of fresh spinach. Do you have any idea how big this bag is? The closest thing I can think of this size is one of those 5 gallon buckets of paint my dad used to buy from Lowe's when he was priming the inside of our house. That, my friends, is a lot of spinach. So maybe we are vegetarians for the next week or so. Sure hope the e coli thing is past . . . .

Oma's Latest Project


Since Katy came to visit and decided she didn't like sharing a room with Mom and Dad, I had to put my thinking cap on! The most logical thing to do seemed to be to move Katy's crib into the green room. But that meant the sewing stuff had to move. So I took the time this afternoon to move the sewing table into the guest room (alias "pink room"), and Katy is now a resident of the green room. The crib sheets and blankets fit nicely in the drawer of the wash stand. So this works great! There is one small problem, which Opa Greg pointed out. With the crib in this position, Katy will be able to reach the light switch in the room. Somehow, I don't think that is going to cut it. We will either have to move the crib down toward the corner of the room, or there is always Opa's old standby-----DUCT TAPE! I'm sure we will figure out something. Otherwise, the neighbors may think we are sending Morse Code over here.

The sewing table is installed in the pink room as well. I have some great fabric to make a dust ruffle for the table, which will cover up all the storage bins that I stash under the machines. That will be a project for another day. But I think this will work out pretty well.

The driveway was pretty icy this morning, and we couldn't get out to go to church. Bummer. So I gave a mini concert by playing my worship CD for next week and accompanying the songs on my string bass. I even got out a new piano book that I've had for a while and started to learn the song "Forever" on the piano. I am really rusty, and these bifocals are just a pain with the piano. I need to get some other glasses for the piano that don't have graded lenses. It gives me a crick in my neck to read the music through the bottom othe these things.

The Snowy Visit!

In spite of the weather last week, all the kiddo's came to Pittsburgh on Friday to see Opa Greg and Oma! What fun we had playing with all the new toys and checking out all the un-childproof places in Froehleville. There was even a very tall Opa that showed Katy a whole new world above most people's line of sight.

There were lots of things to do, like make Aunt Bonnie's spinach and artichoke dip and eat supper after Katy went to bed. There were movies to watch and Katy's very first piano lesson! (That was a treat.)

We listened to the Muppet Beach Party tape and sang along with Kermit to tunes like "Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." Katy learned to blow on the recorder and make a sound. But best of all, the old Fisher Price tape recorder with the microphone was our first exploration of the world of karaoke. Next time, we'll try the bass guitar.

Katy is waving her hand and saying Bub-Bub. That's close enough to bye-bye for me! And she is making a 'P' sound when she wants to be picked up from the floor. Language is starting to emerge. She is standing up and balancing herself in the middle of the floor for a minute or two at a time, and she takes steps behind a stool as she scoots it across the floor. Today is her 9-months birthday, so she is probably going to be an early walker.

Melanie and I talked to a few people at church Sunday about internships that might be available here over the summer. Her plans for the summer are still shaping up. And she would like to explore teaching life skills in a human services arena. There is a great program for emerging leaders at Northway, and she talked with Scott Stevens about the possibility of a part-time internship. That would be great to have her around for a while this summer. We will see if it works out.

It has been a fun Oma weekend! Aunt Mel went home Sunday night because she had classes today. Brian, Emily and Katy left at lunchtime. It is VERY quiet all of a sudden.

Katy Dedication!!!!

We went to Columbus this weekend for Katy's baby dedication at the church. Here is a picture taken just prior to the service. The guys across the back are Dick, Brian, Greg and Joe (who is the church leader or shepherd that led the prayer). Ladies in the front are Sue, Emily (with Katy), Melanie, me, and Joe's wife whose name I unfortunately forgot. (I think I'm old enough to use that as an excuse.

It was a quick visit, but Katy is crawling all over and standing up and doing a dozen things she didn't do two weeks ago when I visited. But the best thing is that she "boogies" to the music of her little toy guitar or any other catchy tune. This thrills me because I really want her to love music at least a little bit.

We also went to Bob Evans on Saturday and sat in Melanie's section. She is a very efficient and pleasant waitress. I was sooooo proud of her. She's doing great!

Just a couple of pictures of Katy from my latest visit . . . .


Katy is really into hair . . . she likes to feel it. The best part is that it is always with you so if you want to feel some hair, all you have to do is reach up to your own head!!!! (It will be easier in a little while, baby, when the hair gets a little longer.)



I had a great time visiting the kids and the baby in Columbus this weekend even though it rained and rained and rained. The weather was really dreary. But I got a chance to go to Heritage with Brian and Emily and to have a great time there as they sent off a team to do a church plant. Then Melanie invited me to go to Mosaic with her on Sunday night, and I got to meet many of her friends from the New Orleans trip and almost all of her new roommates-to-be for next fall. I even saw Ryan B., who was in Kindergarten when I first met him! What a great bunch of young people.



The drive back today was also rainy and dreary, but Greg was waiting to help me bring in the 3 Buck Chuck and the rest of my things. He has been eating greasy food and playing shoot 'em up games on the computer for the last couple of days. Back to salads and healthy food, my sweet! I want you to live quite a while longer.



One last picture of my sweetest baby on the planet. Then it's back to work tomorrow.

Death of a Dishwasher . . .

I've fallen and I can't get up!! Help me C3PO!!! Find Luke Skywalker!

Yes, the trusty dishwasher is on it's way to the great scrap yard. Greg has replaced it and is putting the final touches on the fit and balancing of my new Whirlpool. It is amazing how there are all these tines to hold the dishes upright while the water swishes and swirls. And the quiet package is very nice, too.

Thanks, sweetheart, for the new tool.

Sewing for Katy

Oma has been busy the last couple of days working on a new outfit for Katy. I was inspired by the jumper I made for Christmas and bought some corduroy to make another jumper and a little jacket for spring. What fun I have had with the prints and the sewing. I can't wait to see Katy in these little goodies.