Back from Ohio

Ahh how relaxing. We went to Cleveland for Thanksgiving, where we had a lovely time enjoying the company of friends and family. We ate some fabulous meals, drank some lovely drinks, and generally relaxed and had a good time. I have been back in Normal for 16 hours and I think that my head may explode at any minute.

Here we are enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving diner. My mom does not (and probably should not) cook. In fact, 10 years ago she decided to move her oven to the basement to make more space in the kitchen. Consequently, cooking Thanksgiving dinner was a bit of a challenge. Michelle and Rich brought over the turkey, and I made sides as best I could.

Turkey shredding after the bash.

Michelle and Rich came over to hang out and give Danny a birthday present.


We took Danny out to Lolita in Tremont, which is one of Iron Chef Michael Symon's restaurants. Everyone looked very dashing. The food was amazing, especially the smoked meats. The kids snarfed down a big plate of goat cheese mac and cheese. Danny had a duck confit pizza and I ordered various sides, including chicken livers, and Dorinda had the MahiMahi.

Danny gave his seal of approval to the cappuccino (and the martinis!)


I haven't been back to Cleveland more than twice in 10 years, and it is striking how some things have changed and some things never change. The houses remain, but the people have all changed. I didn't randomly run into anyone that I knew, and in in fact I ran into few people may age that I could conceivably have known. It never occurred to me that people that I knew who remained in Cleveland have moved off into other (younger and hipper) neighborhoods.

I met up with my long-lost friend Jennie and her family. The kids had a great time playing with each other and Argos and we helped my mom eat up Thanksgiving leftovers.


The road trip back was a pain--we had two traffic delays (@30 minutes each). The kids were happy travellers because I introduced them to Mr. Bean.


We were all rather shocked to discover that it had snowed 6 inches while we were gone, and we came home to a winter wonderland (and a plowed-in driveway).