Date: 2012-12-03
From: Ft. Wayne

To: Cincinnati, OH
Miles today: 0.0

Today we are in Cincinnati at our home here. We came here to relax after a very busy weekend. It was our annual neighborhood holiday home tour weekend which is from 5-9 on Saturday night and then 1-5 on Sunday. Last year was a record year for attendance with around 1000...but this year was even better with an attendance of around 1300! I guess passing our 242 posters in 30 towns must have done some good! Rog was a go-fer most of the time and I was a hostess at two of the places on the tour. We have an apartment building in the neighborhood which was the first high rise apartment building in the city...built in 1928. It has 70 apartments of all sizes from penthouse to studio. I was hosting at one of the studios apartments. It was a very small space with a very good use of space by the young lady who lives there. She is also a fantastic decorator. Everyone who came thru the door oohed and aahed when they saw her black and silver themed decorations. It is fun to talk to all the people (at one point I counted 30 people in this small space!!!) who come through on the tour. The next spot I hosted was a young couples large home that they have been working on for 3 years....and have many more years of work to go! Their living room was all green...walls, carpet, and painted oak woodwork...all that green is now gone...what an improvement. Our weather was great this year which helped the attendance also. On Saturday late afternoon, SOS and I hosted the home owners at our home for dinner. I found out that one of the attendees did not eat meat, eggs, or dairy so that was a challenge for me to come up with a menu. We ended up with potato/leek soup made with rice milk, spinach salad with roasted squash/candied almonds/cranberries and a balsamic dressing with shaved parmesan cheese on the side for the others. In addition we had roasted red pepper hummus with corn tortilla chips and gluten, egg and dairy free brownies for dessert. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. I used all my Christmas dishes, glassware and silverware to make a "festive" looking table...forgot to take a picture but it was pretty! The Michigan 7 were here for the weekend so we also spent time with grandkids. SOS took 5 little boys and 1 girl to Home Depot on Saturday morning to make a holiday picture frame and Mini Mama (daughter Megan) and I took 4 little girls and 1 little boy to the farmer's market where they all got their faces painted and got honey sticks...both things were a hit....as was going to Coney Island for lunch. Coney Island is a hotdog restaurant which has been serving Fort Wayne since 1914 and is extremely popular all year round. Little has changed on the inside and the hot dogs are as good as always. (I only needed to buy two plain hotdogs for Tessa and Eli because Tessa does not eat buns and Eli does not eat hotdogs so that works out well...:-) So after a very busy weekend...as soon as our shifts were over on Sunday afternoon...we headed to our home away from home for some down time...we have to be back in Fort Wayne on Wednesday so it will be a short time as usual it seems. We both brought our hiking boots so went for a long hike today...it felt good especially since the weather is in the low 70's here today. SOS is now out trimming the rose bushes while I work on the journal. For those who get the Fort Wayne News Sentinel...look for an article about our AT adventure on December 15. At least that is the proposed date right now according to the news writer who came to interview us last week. (We are anxious to see how what we said...turns out!) Pictures next time...