Columbus, Ohio July 25-26

Michael and I decided on Thursday night to take a trip and after about 3 hours of throwing out ideas, we decided to go to Columbus. We booked our hotel on Hotwire at about midnight and left Friday morning.
First we went to Ohio State University so Michael could check out the campus and then we went to the Wexner Center Museum. Afterwards, we checked into our hotel which was downtown and decided to go the historic German Village for dinner at Lindie's where I had the best stake ever! It was such an adorable part of town with cobble stone roads and sidewalks and brick houses that date back to the 19th century. We then went to a an amazing little dessert shop called Pastacia Vera where I had a Chocolate Bombe and Michael had a macaroon. Before we left he had gone back for two more because the were so delicious!

Saturday we went to North Market and had some of the best ice cream ever! They had such great flavors that I would have never thought of eating such as Grapefruit Hibiscus, Mango Lasi, and Michael's favorite - Thai Chili, but I wasn't too fond of that flavor!
Next we went to the Cosi Museum. It was actually more for children, but we had a lot of fun anyway. One of the exhibits was called Progress and it had a replica block of a 1950's town. Michael was 'served ice cream' by a 7 year old girl! It was really cute and I pumped gas into my VW Beetle at the local Sinclair for only 49 cents a gallon.

Afterward, we went to the Jazz and Ribs festival on the Scioto River. It was so finger-licking good!! We had some of the best ribs, corn on the cob, blooming potatoes, and funnel cake.
All in all, we had a lot of fun and never would have imagined Columbus, Ohio to be such a great place to visit!! Now, if you will, wish me luck on my diet. I ate enough food this weekend for 4 people!

Tornado in Cincinnati?

Michael and I have lived in Cincinnati for 4 years now, and with each passing storm, I become more and more afraid that I will find myself in the middle of a tornado here in the Midwest. I am afraid of what could happen given the fact that our home is 98 yeas old and our basement, apparently our only safe place to hide, is full of spiders.

I never had this fear before living here because in Florida we only worried about hurricanes and in Salt Lake City it was a freakishly crazy day when a tornado actually touched down along Capital hill and traveled downtown for a few seconds in 1999. But apparently, here in the Midwest it is not uncommon for the sirens to go off in the middle of the night to warn residents about the possibility of a tornado.

Well, last night I was awoken at 2am by a howling sound and a continuously flashing light in my bedroom. We like to sleep with a box fan in the window, and I finally jumped out of bed when the heavy winds from outside blew it out of the window and onto the floor. I ran to the window and looked out and saw the wind blowing in every direction and more lightning than I had ever seen in my life! My first thought was there was a tornado. One had touched down about 200 miles west of us the day before and I remembered the guy on the news saying it sounded like a train going by, and my heart started racing when I heard what sounded like a train!! I ran downstairs to turn on the television and saw on the news that there was a severe thunderstorm with the possibility of a tornado. I looked out the window and was partially relieved when I saw a train going along the tracks down the street from us!! What are the odds that a loading train would be going by at 2am during a severe thunderstorm? I would just like to thank the conductor for giving me a heart attack!!!

Well, after trying to wake Michael in the case of a true tornado and giving up because he decided to just lie there than telling him he could go ahead and sleep through a true tornado if he wanted to, the sirens finally stopped.

I decided I was safe and this is when I grabbed the camera and decided to film some of the lightening. I have been through my fair share of thunderstorms in Florida, but I had never seen so much, and after my heart stopped pounding from my "near-death experience" I realized how amazing the lightning was, even if near the end of the clip, it looks like it strikes our house!!!

Sorry that it is so hard to see, but I was looking out of our side window at our neighbors house and I had the camera sideways. Also, that constant moaning is the thunder and halfway through the clip you can hear the hail starting to fall. I hope this is the closest I ever get to being in a tornado!

The Cincinnati Zoo

The boys and I met up with a friend of theirs at the Cincinnati Zoo yesterday and we had such a fun time. They really enjoyed the insect house and thought it was funny that I wouldn't go near the spiders. And for anyone interested, I weigh approximately the same as 15 million insects. My favorite was the new Giraffe Ridge but the Giraffe were still babies and weren't too sure about coming near the viewers.
It was such a beautiful day and perfect for going to the zoo, a warm 86 degrees and party cloudy. This was my 4th trip to the Cincinnati Zoo and it is always worth it!

I Iove Our Back Yard

Michael and I bought our house for two reasons:

1. The banister in the foyer
2. The Backyard

Well, the other day while Michael was doing yard work we spotted a couple of deer lying in the backyard so I decided to get the camera and see how close they would let me get to them. While walking out of the house my cat Fitzgerald or "kitty" as we like to call her followed me down and this is what happened...

Our back yard is huge and so great but we haven't been able to enjoy it as much as we had hoped, but at least we know the deer enjoy it.

2 Thumbs Up For Alfred Hitchcock

I have some really great memories of watching movies with my mom growing up and most of them that I can remember were oldies such as An Affair to Remember, Meet me in Saint Louis , and some by Alfred Hitchcock including North by Northwest, and Rear Window (which had previously been my favorite of his.) This summer I decided to take some English electives to fill my requirements and I signed up for a class on Alfred Hitchcock, who had always been one of my favorite producers. All we do is go to class and watch his movies and talk about the themes and plots and how he was able to build tension through his camera angles and such. And of course it has been fun trying to spot him in each of his movies because he always made a cameo appearance. It's been great watching movies and critiquing them on class time and I have really enjoyed it and would say this has been one of my favorite classes ever. Because this class has broadened my horizons on Hitchcock's movies, I officially have a new favorite and that would be Shadow of a Doubt, although I would have to say that so far I would give all of his movies 2 thumbs up. He was such an artist in his development of tension in movies and paved the way for the present day scary thriller. I would definitely rather watch an Alfred Hitchcock movie over some of the nasty, bloody movies of today. It has even been fun getting onto NBC.com and watching some old episodes of the Hitchcock Hour and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which I used to watch growing up. This has been a really fun class so far and I can't wait to go to class again tonight and watch more movies!

4th of July Party!

Michael and I love having parties at our home and since we may be moving into an apartment soon to be closer to school, we decided to have an Independence Day Party last night because our last party was about 8 months ago for Halloween. We invited some of our favorite people from the two wards that meet in our building (some of them from our previous ward before it split). It was great party complete with red, white and blue cupcakes, sparklers and of course hamburgers and hotdogs off the grill all made by Michael and some of his friends, even though Michael's first attempt at hamburgers wasn't perfect...
We had such a great time and although it rained all day and we didn't get to play cornhole we played some great games inside. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in another party before we move into a tiny 700 square foot apartment!