Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Another rave review!

Another rave review for North Star!

One of my friends currently on post-doc at Nationwide Children's returned to Baltimore to defend her dissertation this past week. When I saw her she immediately asked me about Sean and told me that the North Star veggie burgers are the best she's ever had!

I told her to keep her eye out for you, Sean, at the Short North restaurant and to say hi if she sees you. (Her name is Lindsay.) :)

Friday, September 26, 2008

Teacher of the Year


Congrats to Randi for being selected Teacher of the Year by the Wal-Mart on Stellhorn Road in Fort Wayne.
Each participating Wal-Mart takes nominations and apparently a lot of people from Ohio, and obviously Paulding Elementary, shop there. Anyway, Randi got the most votes so today she and her principal were off to the Wal-Mart where she got this certificate, a $100.00 gift card for herself, $1,000.00 for the school, lots of other goodies and a gift bag for each teacher in her building. She even got to be on Fort Wayne TV and was interviewed (which she was not expecting).
Since she won this award Randi is now entered in the national Wal-Mart teacher of the year contest.
Way to go Randi!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday, young man! At least compared to others in the family. Hope you and Cindy had a great day together.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008


The Ryder Cup
Randi and I left Paulding around 4:00 P.M. Tuesday afternoon for Louisville, Ky. to attend a practice round for the Cup at Valhalla Golf Club today.
We arrived at our hotel at 8:30 P.M. The alarm was set for 5:45 A.M. this morning, we checked out at 6:30 and headed (by hotel shuttle van) for the Expo Center for a shuttle bus for the golf course. Before we could get on the shuttle we had to go through security (imagine that?) where I had a choice-take my Swiss Army knife with a 1" blade (a real danger to us all) back to the car or throw it away. Since we took a shuttle van to the Expo Center you know where my knife ended up.
We got to the course at 7:15, visited the small gift shop, and then walked the course. A marshal at the combined 5th and 8th tee was kind enough to take our photo. We saw all of the U.S. team (they were in gourps of 4) practice on two holes and one European team practice on the 18th green.
Then it was time for more shopping (at the large shop and the small shop), waiting in line for a shuttle back to the Expo Center and a 10 minute walk back to the hotel. We left around 4:00 P.M. and arrived home at 8:30 P.M.
Total time spent to Louisville and back: 28 1/2 hours; souvenirs purchased-many (possibly a Christmas gift or two?-maybe); walking the golf course, taking 200 photos, not having to work today-PRICELESS!
Later.

A Storm Story

Erin's having some internet trouble so she can't post this, but she sent me an email asking me to do so for her. This is an email she got from a friend about their power troubles this weekend:

Friends in Whitehall...and their trials & tribulations after the storm. Wasn't funny at the time but when looked at this way, it's hilarious.
Lisa

~*~*~*~*~*~
Okay, I'm finally together enough to tell last nights tale. Yes we now have power and yes everyone and everything is safe.


Sunday
power goes, a 1/4 of one of the oak trees hits our power lines and is tangled in them. Right over the wooden privacy fence and 15ish feet away from the local transformer (the one on the pole). and follow around the house is a huge portion of another oak tree leaning on branches of another tree inches away from that set of power lines.
Four hours later we get thru to AEP to report the hazardous conditon and say, don't turn the power on. They have it noted. Maintenance said they talked to aep and they were to be out on Mon.
We make sure the light above our bed is on to notify us of the power returning.

Mon
Paul stays home to watch things. No news, nothing. Since his cell was dying I called AEP to check things out and give them my phone # as well. and clarify it is not to get power turned on but to keep it off until the hazard is cleared. Emphasizing my concern over fire. their advice, if that does happen call the fire department ... well gee thanks, I couldn't have figured that out without you.
needless to say I didn't ask the nitwit what the fire department was supposed to do about the electrical lines vs water issue. I didn't want to have to explain.

Tues
We both are at work, and needless to say I'm not happy that the cats are home alone. After work I teach meditation and during the fabulous conversations after, my sugar crashes and anxiety sets in hard and I need to get home. Unusual feeling even for me. we get to the bob's in reynoldsburg, eat and fly home. Home long enough to check the tree, the cats, feed them, strip and crawl into bed.
Power flips on, we race to the back window. A min later I'm downstairs calling 911. somehow in 4 min flat We've talked to 911, shoved cats into carriers, dressed and shoved, cats and wallets into truck. Okay essential taken care of.
amazing response time by whitehall.
we now spend the next 45 minutes watching the tree burn, chatting with the fire department. we had to wait for it to burn off and drop. apparently the top line is the highest voltage and the really dangerous one. lower lines not so bad, so once its off there you should be fine a tree typically smolders out. okay great .. unless the power lines snap when the tree goes down.
then what
we call aep
anyone else feel like they are in a bad rendition of who's on first?
watching tree burn our firemen get a house call and off they go
leaving us and our two neighbors to watch the tree
it drops from the upper to lower voltage
lines stay put, although after seeing how wildly they swung, i"m amazed
babysit smoldering bits on ground, they go out
chatting with neighbors to wind down
power goes out
again check tree, its okay finally decide to try and sleep
flip light on over bed
20 minutes later
you guessed it, we have power
again out back watching tree
after about 20 minutes we feel safe enough to try to go to bed... thank god because I don't think we could have found the cats again to get them out of the house
spentt the next half an hour finding reasons to get up and check the house out
was around 2 by the time this was all done

Ike - Day Three

Handwritten note at the top of the Northstar Cafe Short North Chalkboard today by your's truly:

"You may charge your cell-phone here today, but we will auction off orphaned cords to the highest bidder."

Northstar Clintonville is still without power and we are having record days.

Monday, September 15, 2008

IKE

Things in/around Columbus are not good. Erin, Sean/Liz and my sister/family went 14+ hours yesterday/Sunday with no power. Power came on today for about 12 hours and is now off again. Erin worked, but Pacer was operating on generators. Sean's working now because "his" cafe gets their power from a co-op. Schools/businesss were closed today and possibly all week. Crews who could/would be restoring power were sent to TX earlier in advance of Ike.

We fared better here in NW Ohio. Some wind; lots of rain; no loss of power.

Monday, September 8, 2008

address

Sorry it took so long to post it, been prettttty busy with classes and homework.
My address is
PAT 113
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Hanna

Any storm stories?

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Wood

HAPPY 5th ANNIVERSARY Sean and Liz!