Traveling and Birthdays

After almost four years of travel to/from Cincinnati, we're in the middle of our last visit. In the beginning of February, our Cincinnati Fun Kids are moving back to Omaha--where all three of these grandchildren were born. They barely remember their lives there--JA is concerned that there are no NFL or MLB teams in Omaha.

We make sure that we get one more Tenderloin from Sahm's, in Fishers, IN. That's been our lunch stop many times as we've traveled toward Cincinnati. This version is the closest to the one we loved for decades at Hunt's in Peoria.

We're here to celebrate JE's birthday and to stay with these Fun Kids while MA and JE explore the Bourbon Trail near Louisville. What the Napa Valley is to wine, Kentucky is to whiskey.

In Colorado, it's also KF's birthday, and because it's a school day, her family makes an early morning visit to Silver Grill for cinnamon rolls. Kika is 8 today! So hard to believe. She's beautiful, artistic, musical, smart, and sensitive. Her smile lights up the room.

I remember so well visiting in Slovakia when she was just three weeks old; cuddling her on my chest for hours while LG danced and spun around us. Mary Poppins was LG's favorite at the time, and she'd enlist grandpa's help to fly her and her umbrella across the room.

NJ was born just two weeks before KF's second birthday; their family was staying at our home in Woodstock. We celebrated both KF and JE's birthday together that year. Kika had fallen in love with a stuffed bear who could sing the ABC song; so, she soon had those memorized.

Today she's in second grade at a top charter school. She takes life seriously, works hard, and is good at just about everything. We love you Kristina Faith.

Here in Cincinnati, we spend our Fun Kids time on Friday at Newport on the Levy seeing Norm of the North and enjoying our last Dewey's Pizza, which we're really going to miss. Great pizza!

Saturday is a laid-back morning, then some shopping and errands. The Fun Kids play well together, and there's plenty of time for crafts, a big puzzle, and Star Wars Monopoly. We're all happy with the pace of today. For a treat (?!), the Fun Kids get playtime and dinner at the nearby McDonald's.
We decide to stay for Sunday, and get a chance for more chocolate cake, CA's spaghetti sauce, and a bit of time with JE and MA. As retired people, we can be flexible about our travel schedule.

Rocket Gibraltar

 

I've written before about Rocket Gibraltar being my favorite movie. There's a great male bonding scene where Levi says, "Nothing's as good as a midnight pee in the ocean."

 

I ran across this family photo from Virginia Beach last winter. The guys are just admiring the waves at Croatan Beach, but it suspiciously appears similar...

 

Back to my favorite movie...

The amazing cast list from this 1988 production includes quite a few actors who've made it to stardom in the intervening years.

 

Some more sweet images from Rocket Gibraltar...

 

Nebraska

 

 

 

Can't say enough about the movie Nebraska. Reminds CA and I of growing up visiting our grandpatents in the small towns of Illinois. Family visits, ghost town main streets, post-WWII singled ranch homes, dicey relatives... Actually evokes good memories of the innocence of a childhood viewpoint of small towns and people who claim you because of blood connections--no matter how seldom or effectively we connect.

 

Mostly Martha

A really good movie. Subtitled from German. About a very perfectionistic female chef and how life catches up with her, irrevocably changing everything. Sweet, funny, poignant. Well-acted.

The U.S. Version is titled No Reservations and stars Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart.

                       

Life of Pi

 

Why did I always believe this book, and now the movie, was about mathematics? CA is a math teacher. I thought he'd read this math book years ago. Nope. He was as oblivious as me.

 

We totally enjoyed so much of this movie--storyline, cinematography, actors, animals, relationships. All of it. I want to watch it again with subtitles turned on. There were a few nuances of dialogue that escaped us. Usually one of us catches the low-talker's phrase. Why do we usually miss the last sentence of those particular lines of dialogue? There are some French-Indian-British accents in-play.

 

Rent, download, stream. Whatever... Life of Pi.

 

Trilogy

Always enjoy a dialogue-rich movie. Before Sunrise is set in Vienna--one night in 1995.

 

Part 2, Before Sunset, picks up the story of Celine and Jesse 9 years later--2004--in Paris. If you'd ever wondered about their plan to meet in 6 months, December 16th, in Vienna...

 

Just released (May 24), Before Midnight, Part 3, is set in Greece.

 

 

I've just watched Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Hoping to find Before Midnight at a nearby theater tonight or tomorrow.

 

 

These are not action films. Mostly dialogue, with important cities as a vague backdrop.

 

A Blessed Thanksgiving

 

Lots of thankful thoughts and prayers today... It's just the two of us, but we have a lovely day. Yoga for me in the a.m., then we work together to prepare brunch--a long-talked about Eggs Florentine w/our favorite tortillas instead of English muffins.

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Later we watch Moulin Rouge and head out for a meal at Jamesons' Original Charhouse in CL around 6:00pm. Wonderful food. NY Strip Steak for CA and Sea Bass in a lemon-butter sauce for me.

We're content to be home today--the weather is mild, the house is in order, and we have our yummy Tollhouse Tart for dessert!