Crap Swap 2023

It was another successful Crap Swap weekend! Some dozen or so households came together on our lawn Saturday to give away their most precious crap in what has essentially become an "everything is free" garage sale for the neighborhood, with donations accepted for our block party fund. On that end we collected almost $300 from stuff we didn't want anyway.

The day started like this:

Leftovers went to the curb all day Sunday and Monday. By Monday evening this is all that was left:

The day was hot and my legs were sore, but I'm ready to do it all again next year!

Anniversaries!

It’s a month of special dates.

Tomorrow Paul and I celebrate our 20th anniversary. Twenty years! This is crazy to me, because I remember my own parents’ 20th anniversary, when I was 16 years old. Surely I can’t be anywhere near the age that they were then!

In addition, last week marked 10 years living in this house, in this neighborhood. Half our marriage, and almost a quarter of my life. We moved here before Edith’s first birthday, and it was the house Atticus came home from the hospital to. 

It’s been a good marriage, it’s been a good house, with many more years yet to come. 

A Visit Home

A few photos from a visit to Defiance earlier this month. 

Weekend in Louisville

This month marks our 20th wedding anniversary -- if you can't believe it, that goes double for me! While we don't usually do much to celebrate (no gifts, maybe a dinner), this year we decided to do something special.

We decided on a long weekend in Louisville, Ky. WITHOUT KIDS. They've stayed overnight with grandparents before, but this was only the second time we've gone somewhere without them -- the other time being a single night away to go to Cedar Point.

We dropped off the kids with Paul's mom on a Saturday morning, and the drive to Louisville was a pleasant three hours. When friends would ask what we were going to do there, I would joke that we were planning to do and see everything where kids weren't welcome, and that ended up being largely the case!

While of course they would have been welcome at the ice cream stand and riverfront park we started the trip at, the rest of the getaway was not kid-approved. We stayed at a nice independent hotel in the very walkable Highlands neighborhood. We went on a bourbon tour at Angel's Envy. Visited Gravely, a brewery with an excellent view of downtown, especially at sunset. Relaxed at a couple of cocktail lounges. Took long walks and took our time. Had some great food. (Will be thinking about that French toast made from biscuits for a while.)

It was hot. Gosh, it was hot. But it was lovely to spend the time alone with my husband of 20 years, thinking about how we shouldn't wait another 20 years to do it again.

WDW: Magic Kingdom & Epcot, Part 2

The last two days of our Walt Disney World trip was spent visiting Epcot on one of those days and Magic Kingdom on the other. I wouldn't consider any WDW trip a success unless the castle is practically the last thing I see on our last night there.

We arrived at Epcot at 8:30 a.m. and speed walked to Frozen, which had a half-hour line. Then we split up -- the boys to Test Track and the girls to a classic movie about France. I sure hated those movies as a kid, but this year I made a special trip to see it since it's only shown a few times a day!

We met up for Soarin', lunch and a final ride on Cosmic Rewind. We've been back from Disney for two months now, and I still think about how great that ride was. It really was my favorite amusement park ride anywhere ever.

Then, air conditioning: indoor rides and movies around World Showcase and over to Soarin' again. Spaceship Earth, of course. Coke samples at Club Cool. (Can you believe that's still around?!) Another walk through World Showcase and souvenir shopping for Atticus.

We ordered food from France just before a downpour, ate in a small covered arcade and waited til the last moment to get in line for the Remy ride before closing, only getting a little wet as we headed for the line. The posted 65-minute wait was only 20 minutes, and we were in the second- or third-to-last "train" to go. The fireworks were just ending as we walked to the Skyliner and headed for the hotel.

On our final day in the parks, we arrived to Magic Kingdom even before the 8:30 a.m. rope drop and stayed until the magical end. It was a great day for rides -- Peter Pan was down (again, just like our first Magic Kingdom day) when we got there, but we took a chance and stayed in line. It was the right call -- it was up in 10 minutes and we rode it twice by 9:05.

Pirates was a 15-minute or so wait -- another good call since it was closed most of the rest of the day. We followed it up by about everything else we could hope to do, except we couldn't convince the kids to ride Haunted Mansion again! We even got on 7 Dwarfs twice during the fireworks, and at the end of the fireworks Peter Pan was basically a walk on. We even got another Small World ride in, plus the last carousel ride of the night.

Leisurely we made our way down Main Street, got Edith's souvenir and took photos. It was the first and only time we walked through the castle all trip! A perfect end to a -- not exactly relaxing, not exactly perfect -- but wonderful trip all the same.

WDW: Hollywood Studios

We arrived to Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios at 8:30 a.m., but I would have been happy to get there even earlier! We started with two Star Wars rides -- Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler's Run. After that, there's not much to say except we rode every ride and saw every show exactly once.

Not a disappointment exactly, but I was hoping to ride at least a few of our favorites again. A surprise favorite of mine and Edith's was Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad -- not a thrill ride by any means, but very cute. We all like Slinky Dog Dash (in fact, we ended the night there), and Paul and Atticus both rank Rock 'n' Roller Coaster among their top. The kids don't care for Tower of Terror, but at least they agreed to ride it once!

The weather was hot, and the park was certainly crowded. I'm glad we fit everything in, but it's hard not to compare it to our last WDW and Disneyland trips, when we fit in multiple faves and (at WDW) had free Fastpasses to speed up at least a few rides. The slow standby lines at several rides scattered among the parks were the biggest disappointments of the trip.

We did encounter a little rain on this day, but luckily it fell while we were in or heading to shows. Lightning cut the Indiana Jones show short, but that was the biggest casualty. A successful day overall.

My Birthday

My birthday was this past weekend, but instead of mulling over the fact that I'm a year older, I'm thinking about what we were doing 10 years ago.

A decade ago this week, Paul was just starting a new job in Ohio while baby Edith and I remained in New York for one final week, packing up and waiting for the movers. The following weekend Paul drove back to Ohio to pick us up and we moved back for good.

Ten years! I had tears in my eyes when we left Brooklyn, but I haven't regretted the decision (although I thought that I would). It was a good choice.

A lot happened between the ages of 22 and 32: I got married. We lived in New York for more than half of that time. Edith was born toward the tail-end of that decade.

But maybe 32 to 42 was just as eventful: We moved back to Ohio just days after that birthday. I started a freelancing career. Atticus was born a couple of years later. We built strong friendships and a community that supports as ... and vice versa.

No one likes getting older after a certain age, right? But I'm eager to see what the next 10 years bring.

WDW: Free Day!

Sunset view from our hotel at Pop Century

Wednesday was the park-free day of our weeklong trip to Walt Disney World. But even then, sleeping in meant only until 8 a.m.! When we were all ready for the day, we took the Skyliner from our hotel to Hollywood Studios, and then a boat toward the Swan and Dolphin hotels. From there it was a short walk to the Fantasia Gardens mini golf course. It was the first time we'd used the free passes that always come with our Disney reservations, and also the first time that the kids had ever played mini golf anywhere. Not only that, but it was the only time all week that we had to get out our disposable rain ponchos, during a downpour that lasted a hole or three. Before long the sun was shining again.

We then walked through the Boardwalk area, but it was too hot to linger. We grabbed a bus from there to Disney Springs for lunch and shopping. Stopped at Gideon's Bakehouse on a whim and ordered two half-pound cookies, which ended up being a steal at $6 apiece. The triple chocolate cookie was one of the best things I've ever eaten anywhere, even if I did have to wait about 30 minutes in line for it!

Back at the hotel, a storm closed the pool so swim time for Paul and the kids got delayed until after 7 p.m. But all in all it was a refreshing rest day.

A few photos from around the Pop Century Resort earlier in the week:

WDW: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

We had planned two full days at both Magic Kingdom and Epcot -- they are my very favorite parks! And we made the most of them, staying from beginning to end.

But Magic Kingdom got off to a slow start. First, I failed to get tickets to the Tron roller coaster in the 7 a.m. virtual queue (although I snagged them at the 1 p.m. drop), Paul had to turn back for his forgotten coffee when we were almost to the Magic Kingdom bus at our hotel, and Edith was less than thrilled about putting on sunscreen. Then Peter Pan wasn't open during early entry, causing us to waste time backtracking to Space Mountain.

The day improved. Between 8:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. we rode every major ride except for Peter Pan (down for much of the day) and Small World. We got Tron tickets in the afternoon queue and rode 7 Dwarfs twice in an hour during the fireworks. It was objectively a successful day, but it hardly felt complete without Peter Pan, my favorite of all Magic Kingdom rides. (I was more than repaid later in the week, but more about that in a future post!) The kids, however were well pleased, probably nearly as happy with the funnel cakes with strawberries and whip cream that counted as our supper than with any single ride.

The next day was Epcot. We "slept in," which still meant we got to eh park at 9 a.m. after a very enjoyable Skyliner ride. Even the (newish) Remy ride in France was an hour-long line by that time, but oh well. Then it was time to cross the park to make our early boarding time for Cosmic Rewind (another virtual queue). I purposefully didn't read much about the coaster, and I'm glad I kept it a surprise -- it was the best new ride I've ridden in a long time, anywhere. Highly recommend.

We finished the front of the park with short waits, plus Mexico. The rest of the day was something of a bust. Frozen was an hour wait when we entered it around 6 p.m., and we were tired. Then we had supper and meandered along World Showcase and watched the fireworks from the Japan pavilion. Taking the Skyliner back to the hotel sure beat a bus, but I think the day taught me that three days in a row at the parks might be too much, at least in this kind of heat. But the next day was a free day!

More about that later. And now: Photos from Animal Kingdom that I forgot to attach to the previous post!