Hello, Ohio

Song to listen to "Ohio" by Over the Rhine

"Hello, Ohio

The back roads

I know Ohio

Like the back of my hand

Alone Ohio

Where the river bends

And it strange to see your story end."

This Thanksgiving marks the first time I've been to Ohio in TWO YEARS, which is far too long. I spent an unholy amount of time marveling at things that had changed, including the giant honkin' Wal-Mart that popped up on 675.

I was so quick to move away from Ohio when I went to college. I thought that any place was better than gray, old, chilly Ohio. I'm glad I went to school in Texas. Had I not, I would not have grown up so much, made the excellent friends I did, or meet the love of my life. Now that I'm in San Diego, however, I feel much differently about Ohio and the Midwest. Every time we travel home for the holidays to either Ohio or Missouri, we desire to move back.

Well, at any rate, we did have a good time while we were there. We spent some much needed time with family and friends, worked in the kitchen and in the garage and tried to relax a little bit. Enjoy the photos!

Dad and Tony had a great time working on Dad's car together! They successfully fixed a hand brake problem and managed to get his car to go even faster.

There was a lot of fall "BLAMMO" in the house. I will explain this in the future. Just know that there were handmade centerpieces and lots of fall spirit.

Give me a moment of weirdness here: I really missed this chandelier. It makes home, home.

Thanksgiving day was a whirlwind, but lots of fun! Mom and I cooked most of the meal (except I left the room gagging when she took the "stuff" out of the inside of the turkey to clean it. Pansy.), while Dad and Tony worked on the car. Typical. :)

I guess I'll keep 'em around though, since they clean up pretty well.

Granny was there! Man, did I ever miss her. She made me pound cake for my birthday, which is the best present I could have asked for! She's so little compared to me. Dang it, what happened to those petite genes when I came around?

We decided to take a multi-generational photo, but Dad kept making faces and Granny couldn't focus. That's my family in a nutshell.

Friday, instead of going to my stupid high school reunion, I opted to visit with a few friends. In between the meetings I decided to go to my old elementary school, John Hole, to take some photos of the OUTSTANDING playground they have. They really haven't changed much since I was enrolled there, 13 years ago.

We were the John Hole Tigers!

Too much editing?

Here are some super cool slides...

The towers still seemed tall!

Thankfully, the monkey bars weren't as challenging as when I was 7...

The paint may be fading, but this place has held up for over 2 decades.

This is the slide everyone always fought over. Good thing you had to weave through some tight crevices to get to the top, that made getting back in line more fun!

There were mazes and bridges and castles galore!

I did, however, feel a bit like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians.

I did have a chance to (briefly) hang out with my best girlfriend in Ohio, Crissi-bear, at her super cute apartment.

Can I attempt to be artistic and nostalgic, for a moment?

Thank you. Now that's over with, here's what I came back home to:

She likes snuggling, and I don't plan on stopping her anytime soon.

My first photo shoot!

World, meet my friend, S. She's a very sweet girl who is graduating from nursing school in a few weeks and asked me to take a few photos of her to give to her parents as a gift.

I've never done a photo shoot before, so it was a new and moderately awkward experience for both of us :). I did learn a lot, however, about how to make her (and hopefully others) more comfortable in front of the lens, and how to give direction about head/body placement.

Bottom line: It was so fun! I'm going to withhold comments (sans a few photos) so I can catch up on posting about my Thanksgiving trip to Ohio, but feel free to leave comments of your own.

The photo below is my absolute favorite. It just shows what a joyful, beautiful lady S. is!

I think the photo below was designated the "winner", and will be what S. gives to her family at graduation!

This is S's (that's fun) pal, and my favorite yoga instructor and lab mate, Amber. At the end of the photo shoot Amber jumped in and they took some fun photos together, it was definitely my favorite part!

This bad boy belongs on Awkward Family Photos :).

I like Amber. She makes me laugh, and doesn't take any of my crap. Ever. She also enjoys LOLcats as much as I do!

Best Buds!

Saffron Bueller's Day Off, and Resulting Bath.

Saffron gave me one large meltdown, only 5 days after we adopted her. I left the apartment after coming back to have lunch with Saffron and Tony on Veteran's Day, and she must have slipped out between my legs without me noticing! Tony noticed about 30 minutes later that she wasn't causing trouble around the house, and promptly freaked out and began his search.

Poor Tony searched for her for about 4 hours until I can home, and completely went out of my mind. I need to calm it down. I can't go crying in Von's (supermarket) and Subway over a cat I've only known for a few days. But...I love her, and I couldn't help it. Seriously, poor Tony.

She came back on her own, 11 hours after she'd scooted out. Tony happened to open up the apartment's front door, just checking to see if she maybe was looking for home, and lo and behold, she was wandering by!

We now have baby gates around the front door in an effort to at least SEE her get out the door, though they would surely not stop her.

We decided to give her a bath. She was a little dirty from her day out, and we thought it might be a way to discourage any future excursions beyond our front door.

She knew something was up.

There are no pictures of actual bath time, due to the need of two people holding her down and washing her. She didn't scratch or bite, but she did howl and try to wriggle her way out of the tub. She wasn't too keen on us drying her off. Less meowing, more running away.

It seemed as though she needed to re-bathe herself anyway.

This photo sums up her feelings about bath time very well.

She didn't hold a grudge for long.

She was ready to play with her favorite toy, "Shrimpy".

I think she may have even been dancing with joy for her cleanness. 'Cause this is Thriller!

She wasn't done showing off there, "Look ma, I can touch my toes!"

And after she was all dry, she decided to show Tony and me who's boss by climbing up on top of the dusty cabinets when we weren't paying attention. I told her smug was not a good look for her fat rolls. She didn't seem to care.

World, Meet Saffron!

Hello, my name is Saffron. Lisa and Tony adopted me yesterday, and they're already obsessed. It's because I'm awesome.

I'm a flame-point (mixed) Siamese. I am easily to softest and friendliest cat. Ever. I'm also the most humble, believe it or not.

Lisa and Tony are pretty cool. They let me explore the nooks and crannies in the bathroom...I even killed a spider! Lisa seemed very pleased.

And respect my daily 15+ hours of sleeping...

And when they're not paying attention, I REALLY get to explore.

They don't mind, as long as I remember to only use my bathroom.

Sometimes all the pictures annoy me, but the lady who takes them is a good napping buddy, so I'm not going to complain too much.

I love to play! Laser pointers are awesome. I also enjoy fur-balls on bouncy string. Look at me riding my Invisible Bike!

I have super cute paws. Just sayin'.

I'm glad I've had this cat for about 24 hours and I'm already a crazy cat lady :).

More pictures to come soon, blogger is having some photo uploading trouble tonight :(.