Mangos, Maricor & Macarons

My wonderful cousin was in town today for work. She made it a point to see me before and after, and I feel so loved for that.

We started the day with brunch at First Watch, complete with morning tonics [and no, not alcoholic].

good morning tonics! 

We went our separate was after that; I had the day at my disposal; fortunately I have a husband who obliges my unplanned requests to go lumber shopping in the middle of the day. I've had my written plans in place for a couple weeks now and continuing the mini library upstairs, and am so thankful that he goes along with these things. I don't know how I got so lucky... even if we both decided halfway through circling laps through Lowe's that we didn't feel like getting the entire sum of material we'd originally planned. This would do for now.

gosh. i love him.

Our DIY plans fizzled as soon as we got home from Lowe's, when we both looked at each other and admitted neither felt like starting on that specific project. Rob's been working on a motor rebuild, and I owed it to him to have time for that, instead of hoarding him to help me build a bench. I took the opportunity to run a couple errands.. and some other unplanned stops:

i will pencil this place into any agenda... and on any day. 

Macarons are kinda sorta YES and ABSOLUTELY YES in my book. I was craving some blackcurrant today, and of course one thing led to another and well..

blackcurrant

*Sigh.

i'll just take 1.
..... pair of boxes.... please. 

I circled back home, relaxed for a couple hours while I waited for Maricor to wrap up at work. She eventually finished, and Rob and I met her at Chuy's for dinner. If there's anything I'd ever wish in an imperfect world, it would be that all my favorite people lived closer. 

♥

Our first HOUR was spent waiting past other parties who'd arrived long after us, and we were a little skeptical on how the rest of the evening would fare in terms of service. We were proven so wrong, so quickly, by the awesome server named Bobby, who not only made us smile every time he came by, but gifted us a free sopapilla at the conclusion of dinner.

If it's possible to have a spirit animal for a night, well.. Bobby... ya nailed it.

sopapillas = divertidas ;) 

I couldn't have asked for a better self-paced Saturday, except for maybe one including Sydni. Next weekend, though. Next weekend. 

For now, we're fed, happy and calling it a night. 

Happy Saturday! 

xo | cms

Oot & Aboot, Eh?

So today marked my first time in this office interviewing a true Canadian, and I must say it was a fun experience. It's the small things that intrigue me so, and this gent was nothing short of exactly what most people envision in conversing with a true northerner:

"Yeh kin tale me aboot thee hours, eh?" 

^ No, he didn't have a speech impediment or poor spelling skills; phonetically though, that's exactly what I heard when we sat down, and I thoroughly enjoyed just listening to him talk.

And so launched the rest of my day in which my brain translated everything in and out into what my brain imagined I would sound like if I were in fact a true Canadian. Fun fact for ya there.. haha..

Anywho, since Elisa's still out, Carri and I held down the fort for the final day of week and decided on a Christmas gift for our boss. We put our heads together and in a matter of minutes had selected, personalized and ordered our group gift. I volunteered for pickup, which I'm blaming as some out-of-body decision, given that I would be going to Kenwood Mall, on the Friday night before Christmas.

Here's a few movie clips that fairly encapsulate not my view of Christmas itself, but of the very concept of Christmas SHOPPING: 

Usually, I'm prompted by someone else to go with them. It's like employing the buddy system, because there is no telling what kind of crazy has materialized in the form of crazed, maniacal shopaholics.


So to all my friends who've ever said, "Yeah, it'll be fun to go shopping together!":

And then when I get within a 2-mile radius of just the mall parking lot [not even the actual mall]: 

When [today] I walked up to the counter with my online order receipt, and the poor underpaid gal at the desk couldn't find it anywhere in the mountain of completed orders, and turned back to me as though I would be able to sniff out the white stapled bag that was mine: [You know, that awkward moment when you second guess yourself on whether or not you should  know the answer to a question like that, so instead of audible words, you respond with a weird smile that makes it even more awkward...] 

feeling's mutual, girlfriend.

And then, that feeling after I'd been there for two and a half hours waiting for the product that I was there to retrieve [which by the time it was handed over was three hours past the pick-up time on the receipt]:

i'm doooooooooone!!!!!

Yeah. I and many of my friends/family have held retail positions in our past lives, and if there is one thing that bands everyone together like the dysfunctional little store family that you are, it's holiday shoppers. It's easy as the consumer to lose patience, become irritated, huff & puff over whatever-it-is-that's-really-not-as-big-of-a-deal-as-you're-making-it, and whatever other irrational behaviors that feel appropriate at the time, but as a general PSA [& reminder] to myself and all of you out there this year, please don't take it out on the store personnel, unless they have somehow deliberately and obviously taken strides to personally offend or inconvenience you. They're working the hours we don't want to, for pennies when you think about the chaos of Christmas shopping. So be aware, and even if you want to rip your hair out as you battle a crowd like a fish swimming upstream, just remember... Be Nice :) 

Ok, so mini rant aside, I did realize that I've apparently been gone from Kenwood long enough for them to install THIS without my noticing. This is dangerous for me: 

i'll be back for you, after Christmas shopping is over..... 

I'm not a fan of shopping in general, but I am a beanie fanatic, and this place knows my heart all too well when it comes to that. So yeah... (: 

I finally made it home to Rob, who was ready for some dinner, and suggested The Eagle in OTR without a second thought. GOOD CALL ♥

We made it down to OTR, found a parking spot directly in front of The Eagle, put in our name on the hour wait list and headed off to The Lackmann for a drink in the meantime. 

FYI, there's this at The Lackmann: 

kcco brew?? ok then! 

And finally, at The Eagle to wind down the night: 

nom nom nom!!

My man sure does deliver on a date night - we had a blast out with just each other and I'm so thankful for the fact that we can do that on any given night. 

Oh aaaaaaaaaand... it's the WEEKEND!

WooOO! :D

xo | cmd 

Breaking Even & Bye-Bye, Boat!

Oh, the power of Craigslist.

dun dun dunnnn...

Over the years, I personally can attest to the convenient wonder that is Craigslist. Buying and selling online was never really my thing; throughout high school, many people I knew used Ebay. One guy I dated in HS bought a car off Ebay, and traveled something like 6 states away to go look at it before he bought it. I remained skeptical to the whole idea of committing myself purchase whatever it was, from some random person. I mean c'mon, I'm a 90's kid, and if you want to gauge our range of adaptation, think about this:

Kids born in the 80's are probably the last generation of kids whose baby pictures weren't taken on cell phones.

Mind blown with that one, a bit.. mine at least.

Anyway, I hit college in the "big city" of Cincinnati, and was introduced to all kinds of things, including Craigslist: An online community of buyers, seller, renters, wanters, givers and takers who were all... local? So I could drive 15 minutes to a mall to meet someone selling an ipod, rather than blindly buying it online and risk being severely disappointed? Sign me up.

Everyone's a newb at some point.

I started relying on Craigslist for my first point of search whenever I'd decided I needed a bigger-ticket item. There are of course horror stories from both buyers and sellers on Craigslist, so I am still to this day grateful to have been fortunate and fruitful after my repeated usage...

I found a roommate on Craigslist. She turned out to be awesome, and we're still friends today.
She and I found our apartment on Craigslist [it only seemed fitting...]. 

with trisha! 2008 & 2014

stella bella!

I bought a car off Craigslist. Sure, the fuel pump had a seizure and died just a couple weeks in, but reading up on Saabs after that, I realized that was probably imminent, and went on with life.
The next several places in which I lived were also from Craigslist, along with countless other random things: appliances, a snowboard or two, skiis, cell phones, laptops, cameras, camping equipment, etc.
I even had a few pets over the years who came off CL. My little rescue love Stella is herself a CL ad, answered by moi.
I counted myself a Craigslist aficionado.
And then I met Rob. No, I didn't meet him on CL, haha..

Where I thought I was a guru at positioning myself on Craigslist, Rob blew me out of the water: Cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, rental houses and a lot more than I would've probably ever felt comfortable dealing with over Craigs. Sure, people buy/sell/trade things all the time; what Rob does that I don't get is to somehow manage to squeeze every. single. penny either into or out of whatever it is. I love it!

Today was one of those bittersweet days. We said goodbye to the big red lug of a boat that Rob bought around this time last year. Rob decided to list it a couple of months back, but was biding his time waiting on the perfect bid. 

hitching it up to its new owner :(

Of course, it always helps to remember that bidding farewell to one just means that we're now in full-fledged quest for the next one..

whoa.. haha

Rob's madly scouring Craigslist again now, with his eyes set on a couple of potentials. One of them is in MO, where we'll be this weekend.

Oh! I also almost forgot to mention - CONGRATS to my team at work! We've broken even, just after a year! That's a HUGE accomplishment for a new office, and I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of that effort. It's the up-&-up from here! :D

We of course celebrated with lunch, which was decidedly at Trio Bistro in Kenwood. I felt like I'd been there once before, but I still can't put my finger on when, or with whom. Either way, the food was delicious and it was great to have all of us together to celebrate such a cool achievement! 

thai flatbread

proscuitto flatbread

Yum! Congrats again to my awesome team. We're pretty awesome, in my books :)

I think this is gonna be a good week!

xo | cmd

Sunday IS a Funday (:

In usual fashion, Sunday mornings = Church!


hangin' with my love @ sonrise ♥

After church, we decided we wouldn't spend the rest of the day in the house like we did yesterday [albeit we were being productive, still......]. We decided to head to Kenwood. As it turns out, the mall-goers may in fact be more fearless in their parking endeavors than most. This, among many others, was a pretty common sight today:

look ma, no tire!

^ We captured that one just in case we returned to find my car smashed if/when they decided to pull back down off that little hill. A few rows over was a truck pulled so far up a bank that even Rob commented that it wasn't a good idea. It was a chaotic sight that surprisingly made the crowd inside the mall seem tame. Go figure.

I finally took back one of those I'll-eventually-get-around-to-returning-this-maybe-hopefully things and we spent the early afternoon perusing through the place at our leisure. We left with two pairs of jeans for Rob & a new pair of boots for me. I call that a splurge, but it probably could've been worse, too.. haha.

mission[s] accomplished!

And then.... we stopped by to visit Kalyn at work! - And, to eat, of course, because Main Street is the B-O-M-B.

perfect low-key sunday afternoon digs (:

dull moments? what are those?

I couldn't help but capture this guy on the way out, either:

#subienation, haha..

^ Here's to 2014 and our Subaru ownership, KP! Hah.

Rob and I wrapped up some more stuff around the house this evening, including the running of wires throughout the floors to hook up surround sound. Did I mention my man is a handy guy? This task in my hands would've had the whole house short circuited somehow. He's awesome, the house sounds awesome... it .. is.. awesome.

And even mooooore awesomerererrrr.. was us having a nice little nightcap with Kalyn & Co. once she was off work. She does, after all live about a whole 1.5 miles from our place, so the misery of a cold car was about the only complaint as we headed to and from.

it's a gramps growler kinda night!

Yeah. Gramps from a growler into Rhinegeist glasses & mason jars is definitely not the worst way to end a weekend. I had a feeling it would be a great couple of days; I'm not disappointed!

Work week, here we coooome....

xo | cmd

Sunday Love

PLEASE CHECK BACK in a few days for the audio clip of the sermon from the service this morning. I'll try and upload it as soon as it's available.
You'll need to listen to this. I needed to listen to this, again, even after hearing it this morning at church. I'll keep ya posted.

Post-church, we voted for Bob Evans, and made a full Kenwood run out of it. Sydni found a Christmas tree that was, 'just her size' at B.E., and was under the belief that she made me take a picture of her next to it. Really, I was doing mental fist pumps that she was being camera-cooperative today ;)

minime & a minitree!

"okay, mr. rob, now pick me up
so i'm taller than the tree!"

Gosh. Love.
Rob & I sat down tonight to plan out a few more pretty important components of his planned relocation here to Cincinnati; I must say... I'm pretty. stinkin'. excited. More on that to come later, too!

He heads back to IL tomorrow, and Sydni will start off her week's time away again, so for now, g'nite!

xo | cmd

Plugging In

First, I wanted to start off the day with some color:

hello! (:

I don't often go for the bright pops of color quite like this, but I thought it was fun, and coupled with the chair in my office, I couldn't resist. Spring is here and I was definitely feelin' it today.

I have been on a very gradual transition back into Cincinnati. In the past three weeks that I've been back, I've already had two mini trips back to Illinois, and have been making myself sparse around here, for the immediate time being.

Today I checked two more things off my Return to the 'Nati checklist: link up with a gym and decide how I want to continue with my banking. Well, for the sake of being a 'Nati-an, I'm going to stay local:


fitworks & wright-patt credit union | norwood, oh

Yeah, I took the plunge. I've been wanting to get back into some circuit training for a couple of months now, but with everything that's been going on, I never had time. Then I remembered that I have to make time if I want to see any sort of result [duh], so there ya have it. I'm invested. Haha. Tomorrow I'll jump in with a personal trainer and see just how out of shape I really am these days.

Back in Northside, I paused to take pictures of some of the simple, quirky beauty its residents have to offer. I don't necessarily consider myself a truly ecclectic person, but I always enjoy the manifestation of the more expressive faculties. 

pretty little northside (:

Fun. It may seem tacky to some people, but while I don' tknow that I'd paint a garden onto my car, it's fun to see random things like this speckling the neighborhoods across Northside.

Tonight I found myself back in the company of two of my favorite friends from Cincinnati. It's been a long time since I spent any time with them, but on a random fluke I found myself sitting through the last half of the Pacers-Heat game and half of an AnimalPlanet Mermaid documentary with Lu & Kyle [aka Goldy & Chester]. Lu's adorable girlfriend Ashley and Kyle's brother Chad were there, too. I've missed them, and it didn't hurt my mood to see some old familiar faces.


ky. lu. cori | circa2007

[Has it really been that long?! :( ]
Funny. The edge of transitioning back is starting to wear down some; I will finally move into my new digs effective this weekend, so once that's completed, I'm hoping to wake up feeling a little more "here" than I do now. I've got a great job, great friends who've supported me [literally supported me] through the process, a boyfriend who still puts up with me two states away [love. him.], and of course, the center of my world: the 3-year-old who certainly knows more about US currency than I did when I was 3... ;) ["Look! Waaaashington!!"] Haha.

I'm back in Northside and ready to put Monday to rest. I can't help but feel that slight emptiness that you get when you know you're missing someone but have no choice to power through it. He knows, though, and I know that it'll be okay. I'm just being a baby about it. Becky gets back tomorrow, so I'll have to catch up with her and see how the big Apple treated her on her first trip.

Random idea: Say something nice to a stranger tomorrow, and mean it. (:

G'Nite, friends.

xo | cmd

Cinci-Wide TOUR!

Holy tour guide.

I'm fairly certain that the last time I spent even half as much time traversing all over Cincinnati in one day was when I was still with Clearchannel. Welp... records are made to be broken, yeah?

[Another backdated entry]

Here's Saturday, in a snapshot:

1. It's Just Crepes!
I called Catie and coerced into rendezvousing with us down on Court Street at one of Cinci's local digs, It's Just Crepes. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. They make crepes. Lots of 'em, pretty much however you want 'em.

it's just crepes. it's just awesome.

2. Eden Park
My FAVORITE place in all of Cincinnati. Enough said. This was my hideaway in college and well after: I couldn't tell you how many times I escaped to the overlook if for nothing else than to just retreat into myself and turn off school, work and whatever else was current news for me. I of course wanted to take Rob there; he thought it was great... duh (: 

overlook from cincinnati, across the river into kentucky | eden park

3. Round 'N Round: Norwood, Rookwood, Kenwood, Hyde Park, Indian Hill, Loveland...
Yeah... I know, it's a lot. After Eden, Rob and I took off on an adventure through all the hills [as opposed to the rolling flatlands of Illinois... :| ..] into some of my old stomping grounds. We started off North, and made a quick round through Norwood [Trish & Catie, I had a sweep of terrific memories on this jaunt!!], aka Norhood, where I used to live. We trekked up through Rookwood Commons, into Hyde Park Square, and through there into Hyde Park. I was instantly reminded of just how compact Cincinnati really is: the wide variety of neighborhoods you can see in just 20 minutes is a night & day contrast, and just about everything in between. Hyde Park wound up a hill through Madison into Madeira & Kenwood, and eventually into Indian Hill. We passed the mansions and stopped to get gas just past my old house in Miamiville, in Loveland. *PHEW!

l-r: old house on floral [hey trish & catie!!]
buca di beppo, rookwood commons | rookwood/norwood
kenwood towne centre | madeira/kenwood
mushroom house [aka atlas house] | hyde park

4. Eastgate Jungle Jim's. 'Nuff Said. 
My only [& I do mean only] irritation with the brand new JJ in Eastgate is that they built the daggone thing after I moved out of the area. Prior to that, the only location was in Fairfield, which although was not an awful commute, was still further than I cared to venture just to go grocery shopping. Well, I should visit more, because JJ is definitely more than just a grocery store. Picture an average grocery store... in any given country. Now combine ALL of those stores into one mega-space, and you've got Jungle Jim's. If you can't find it there, I'm gonna bet you won't find it anywhere. Sorry, Trader Joe's. Let's face it, what other international market has a mini zoo out front??!


teaser! [look it up yourselves, yo]

5. Newport on the Levee. Welcome to Kentucky [again]! This is one of the little gems of the greater Cincinnati area [for the folks back in IL/MO, this is kind of like the bordering between IL & STL.. yes, it's that close]. I forget how nice it is sometimes to have a levee view and to be able to see it from both the Kentucky side and the Ohio side. Pretty cool. 

newport [view from the cincinnati side]

6. Township Fields & Tavern... & Brittany!
In a random turn of conversation yesterday, Brittany sent me a note asking if I knew of any job-seekers back in that area for her company. I told her I'd be back for the weekend, and she insisted I make an appearance for her roommate's 30th birthday over in Newtown. I love backwoods shindigs, I love Brittany, and I love birthdays, so of course that was a given.

love... and love.

7. OTR! [Over the Rhine]
Before you old school Cinci folk freak out, let me go ahead and say that when I first heard that OTR is now a happening spot [as opposed to the crim-infested zone it was when I lived there the first time around]. I didn't believe it when Nader told me that months ago, but it's true. I'm truly proud of the progress Cincinnati has made in developing the area and making it more of an amiable place. We met with Catie at her place, then along with some of her coworkers, strolled off into the evening and wound up in the heart of OTR at The Drinkery. 

i love them.

8. Shangai Mama's
Ya heard??! Hahaha. This is another call on our part that would've been considered negotiable five years ago. The reason I say that is because these were trips usually made after long nights of other questionable decisions and accrued liquid courage. None of us were in that state when we got to SM's, but I must say... it was delicious. Go figure! Plus, we ran into Nick, Roxy & Kenji [shocking]. Not a bad way to wrap up a night downtown.


soooooooooooold.

Oh sleeeeeeep. Hello (: (:

xo | cmd