Cincinnati

Resting in the Krohn's Conservatory.

Americana miniatures at the conservatory.

Candy shop in Hyde Park.

Hello! Here we are in Ohio, enjoying the lovely gardens and wonderful toy and book stores of downtown Cincinnati. I couldn't get enough of The Blue Manatee bookstore and cafe next to The Kings Court toys...so charming and the selection of hard to find items was awesome. I can't wait to go back! We also went to the conservatory, which was a first for me and I found it beautiful and peaceful (and it was free!) There was an exhibit of famous american historical buildings constructed of twigs and plant material- little domes made of gourds and leaves arranged into roof tiles. I loved them, it made me want to run out and collect seed pods and dried grape vines to create my own fairy dwellings!

I bought a new laptop last night, after it was clear my old one (which fell off the roof of our van going 65 down the freeway and still worked another 6 months) was not coming back on. I love my new fancy pants computer, it has a sweet swirlly design on it and its really fast. I can't stop admiring it. I was so used to my old one, I was so sad when it refused to work. I kept hoping that it would magically work, saving me the trouble of getting used to another piece of equipment. Oh well I love my new one.

Today we drove down to Columbus and I met up with some old friends and picked up my 66' Ford Mustang! Yay! It was in restoration for ages and now she looks hot, hot, hot! I had her painted candy apple red. It took a little coaxing to get her to run properly but eventually we got her going and she is so awesome. A gas guzzling beauty, heavy and fast, my lovely college car. I have so many fond memories of road trips in that car- music blaring, packed with friends, rushing back to school. Its time for new adventures in The Red Hot Comet Car!

After a long day of driving, Greg and his mom Ann, brother Mike and Azalea and I went to see Wall-e, the new Pixar movie. I was blown away with the animation and loved the music! The message was a good one and the story utterly sweet. The robots were little confections of cute goodness! Azalea has been running around talking like a robot and singing 'domo arrigato Mr. Roboto' (I don't know where she picks this stuff up!). Greg loved it, but hated the chatty girls behind him. He is unfortunate to always sit near the talk-aholics when we see a movie. I can't stand it and usually ask really nicely, if they could please be a little more quiet, then thank them so profusely they feel guilty and stop. That works better than flipping out and hissing rudely-trust me. We spent the rest of the evening fiddling with our lap tops since Mike, The Computer Genius was around, he helped us solve our technical woes and now we are in tip top shape. He is so smart!

We may drive back home tomorrow, or not depending if we finish business here. I am certainly enjoying myself and wouldn't mind staying a little longer. After all there is an Ikea and I do love there meatball platter almost as much as bacon.