Cincinnati Adventures

What a fun-filled trip to Cincinnati!  So little time, so many highlights, and so much accomplished!

We played ukulele with my nephew, Aaron.  He taught me the strum to "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers.  I'll practice it for open mic at uke jam.  In return, we taught both nephews to play Euchre, the best card game ever (right after Cribbage, of course!).  We also had an impromptu music sing-along with my parents, who drove up from South Carolina.  I appreciate their time in coming up to visit.

A lovely lunch with my Aunt Jayne on Thursday.  See the fun pic below of Karla and I outside the restaurant!

Thursday evening, Ted, Karla, Emil, and I went to a live taping of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" at Cincinnati Music Hall.  Over 3,000 folks were there, and it was super fun!  A little hard to hear, but it was neat to see how they record it.  Here's the link to the show:  http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/.  John Lithgow was the guest.

Lots of good food from Karla and the usual food joints in Cincinnati.  Our new favorite place is Sultan's Mediterrean Cuisine.  Yum!!  http://www.sultanscincinnati.com/.  We also stopped by to see younger nephew, Sam, at his Tae Kwon Do competition.  He did very well!

One particular highlight was visiting with my Aunt Anna and Uncle Bob.  They generously handed down my Uncle Bill's banjo uke to me.  We've ordered new tuners for it, and I'm looking forward to playing it.  Playing a few songs with them was quite enjoyable!

Scroll down for a gazillion pics of our trip!

Cincinnati airport - Chick-fil-A and Gold Star Chili!

Cincinnati Chili - Trip #1

The historic Cincinnati Music Hall

Wait Wait!  This is NPR.  So cool!

Hot sauce display at Jungle Jim's.

Huge jars of Tabasco.

I remember eating this as a kid.  Pretty sure I thought I was eating turtles.

Little Dachshund-shaped cheese at Jungle Jim's.

Aglamesis Brothers Ice Cream - Trip #1

Pumpkin, Butterscotch, and Cinnamon ice cream

Ted smoked two chickens for dinner on Friday night.

Sam in action.

Breaking boards with his feet.

Bowing down to receive his award.

Uncle Bob and I jamming.  He's a talented musician.

Me and Aunt Anna.

Uncle Bob pickin' away.

Family platter at Sultan's

Busking at Gold Star Chili for a 4-Way with beans and a cheese coney

Laundry is in, watching snow fall this morning, breakfast at Pilot Butte Drive In, and resting up to play Euchre tonight with 14 friends.  Welcome Home!

A Perfect Beach Wedding

This past weekend, Jennifer, married her best friend in South Beach, OR.  Gorgeous weather and a perfect venue.  The groom was decked out a nice suit, and I cried as soon as Jennifer stepped outside.  Took a few pictures in between tears.  Jennifer looked fantastic, and it was a lovely wedding.

I won't post pics of them since I snapped the pics kind of unofficially.  They'll want to see professional pics of the whole thing!

Overlooking the beach on a bluff

Fall colors.

After the wedding, we headed south to Florence and then over to Eugene to The Sweet Life Patisserie.  A whole Chocolate Silk Torte with Raspberry Topping awaited us.

Beach and a bird

Foggy morning

Hello Sunshine!

Quiche and goodies at The Sweet Life

The cake!

We can't eat this entire cake ourselves, right?  So, we invited some uke friends over for tacos, uke, and cake last night.  The cake is super rich and perfect to share with dear friends.

Lots of leftover cake ... hope it freezes well!

Literary Harvest

To claim my literary win, I read my entry out loud in front of 40 folks in Redmond at the Central Oregon Writers Guild Literary Harvest on Friday evening.  Each day last week, I read it out loud for Yam, and I became teary-eyed each time.  My goal was not to cry during the reading.  I wasn't nervous until five minutes before it was time to read.  When I arrived to the podium, I was sure my heart would pound out of my chest and scamper down the aisle without me.

I survived.  No tears from me, a few from the audience members, and now I'll be published in their chapbook.  Note to family members: Don't be surprised if you receive a chapbook as a Christmas gift.

Emil took a few pics of the event, and we celebrated at Sonic with tater tots after the event!

A certificate noting the win.

11 winners - poetry, non-fiction, memoir, and fiction entries.

No crying, no cookies tossed.  Phew.

So, what's going on my with my book?  Final edits.  Just need some time to do them, work with CreateSpace, Amazon's self-publishing service, and upload my book cover.  Finish and put to bed by Christmas.  Merry Christmas to me!

Pumpkin Pickin'

You know I love pumpkins!  I look forward to hitting up the pumpkin patch every year in Terrebonne.  The patch sells all kind of pumpkins, squash, kettle corn (YUM!), and more.  They have a petting farm, corn maize, and a cannon that shoots acorn squash.  Emil took some pics of our recent visit.

Pumpkin for our kitchen

Pumpkin for our den

Fun colors of pumpkins

Picking out a small pumpkin for our kitchen table

Pumpkin cannon

Target:  VW bus

Gorgeous!

Hunting for a pumpkin.  A perfect pumpkin!

I baked off some pumpkin chocolate chip bread yesterday.  Tried to make it healthy with whole wheat pastry flour, but the baked texture is a bit gummy.  Edible though.

My tendonitis isn't healing at all.  Probably because I keep using my arm in every day tasks.  So, I think Emil will make me a sling to help in the healing.  Hope it does the trick!  Luckily, I can still play the uke.

Well, gotta go practice reading my literary contest entry!  The event is Friday night.  Wish me luck!

Tommy and Fall Festival

Tommy's here!  Tommy's here!  Tommy lives in beautiful, Bend now!

I was off on a five day catering gig when Tommy arrived to town on Monday with a truckload of his possessions.  So, Emil was the welcome wagon.  When I returned on Friday, we hit the town right away.  A super yummy lunch at 10 Below, errands around town, Happy Hour at Five Fusion, and Bend Fall Festival.

Here are a few pics from the day:

A cool welder shop we stopped in to visit.

These pics are really for Emil to drool over.

The welder and anvil.

MOsley WOtta, a cool local musician.

Tom and a shake weight.

Nice bike/art sculpture.

We also stopped in to Dudley's and saw a fantastic trio, playing folk music.  Such a fun place!

Now, it's time to watch the Seahawks dominate in the second half.  Glad our antenna is holding up okay.  Otherwise, we'd be at Summit Saloon watching the game.

Because of the shutdown, my catering work is almost done.  We had several gigs confirmed at a federal facility.  Now cancelled.  Boo!  On the bright side, it will give me time to heal since I've developed tendonitis in my left elbow.  Double boo!  Not sure I can play the uke right now.

However, I do have good news!  I entered into my first literary contest, and I was just notified I'm one of ten winners!  My entry will be published in a chapbook and sold around town.  I will also read it out loud at an event in a few weeks.  Pretty sweet surprise!