Short North Restaurant Odyssey

Aaron and I live in an area of Columbus called the Short North (and within that, we live in Italian Village, but I digress). The Short North is located just barely north of downtown Columbus, and is known for its art galleries, shops and restaurants. For several months now, we have been discussing a new adventure. We've decided that we're going to eat at every restaurant in the Short North. We have no time constraints, so this could take 3 months, or a year, or infinity (highly doubtful). We're tentatively calling it the Short North Restaurant Odyssey, but we're open to suggestions.

Photo from www.shortnorth.org

Recently we sat at a favorite bar (the R Bar, not on our journey) and detailed the list of restaurants and the Rules. This was done on cocktail napkins, because you know that's how all great ideas are conceived.

The Rules:

1. Boundaries are Goodale Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the north. We are concentrating only on establishments with a High Street address, or that are visible from High Street. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the geography, this is about a one mile stretch. We will begin at Goodale on the east side of High and go north, cross the street at Fifth Avenue and head south.
2. The food must constitute a "meal." For our purposes, ice cream counts (yay, Jeni's!); a bag of chips does not (sorry, Mike's Grill-that-has-no-grill).
3. No take out. Dine-in only.
4. We must hit every restaurant in order, and we cannot repeat. This means that if friends are meeting at Surly Girl, but Surly Girl isn't next on our list, we can't go. But maybe we can convince said friends to go to the next place on the list. We probably won't get any takers if that's White Castle (because, yes, we have to eat at White Castle), but if it's The Rossi we might.
5. We ARE allowed to eat at restaurants that are off-site. Aaron breathed a sigh of relief that Buffalo Wild Wings is not located in the Short North so he can still get his weekly fix, and I can still go to Chipotle for lunch every Monday.
6. We cannot order the same food. This is already an unwritten rule for us in general.
7. For every restaurant on the list, we must each go to the gym three times, or do some type of exercise activity. This doesn't mean that we have to fit in those three times before we can go to another restaurant, but by the time we get to Hyde Park for a juicy steak (our last stop) we'll have to have exercised 162 times, based on our current count of 54 restaurants. That's right, FIFTY-FOUR.
8. We must walk to each restaurant. Said walking does not count toward the exercise activities in #7 above.

First up: Sushi Rock. We'll be reviewing each experience here, and sometimes Aaron will be the guest blogger. I hope that even if you're not a Columbus-ite you'll follow us in this most excellent journey.


The Gila

Another First

When you lose a parent (or any close family member or friend), the year after their death is full of Firsts. First Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday... and each one brings emotions that you may not expect. Today, nearly a year after my dad died, I'm experiencing a First that completely snuck up on me.

First College Football Saturday.

My dad was a sports fan. He liked golf and tennis and college basketball, and while he didn't watch a ton of major league baseball, he was glued to the Little League World Series every year. One of the sports that he and I shared a love of was college football. My mom and brother are also college football fans, but living in western Pennsylvania in the 70's and 80's we had a choice to make: Pitt or Penn State. My dad and I were Penn State fans.

Every year I look forward to the beginning of football season. I love football Saturdays and I have no problem planting myself in front of the TV all day and evening to watch any game. This year I haven't felt as excited. I know that a lot of this feeling has to do with the off-field issues at Penn State. I won't go into all that here except to say that I hate what went on and I'm angry with those responsible and I'm fine with the sanctions. But I'm still a fan.

What I finally realized this morning while watching Gameday on ESPN is that a bigger part of my not-so-enthusiastic attitude is an absence that has nothing to do with who is coaching or playing. This year, I can't call my dad after a big play. I won't hear his voice on the phone saying "what's going on with our team?" Who knew that something as (truly) insignificant as football would stir up all these feelings? Not me.

So I think that today, while I'll definitely have the games playing on TV, I'll also keep myself busy with other things.

Hope you're watching, Dad.


Gwen

Love Means Nothing ... and Everything

Let's get one thing clear: I am not an athlete. I'm a sports fan, but not a participant. The closest I've come to that is playing tennis. Over the weekend I watched a lot of Wimbledon and it made me remember how much I loved to play.


As a kid I went to church camp a couple times and took tennis lessons while there.

www.lutherlyn.com

Camp Lutherlyn - where I learned to play tennis; I later worked there in the office

In high school I used to go to Ewing Park and play tennis with friends or with my brother. If I didn't have a playing partner I'd go to the high school and hit balls against the wall. Tennis was also something that my dad and I shared and we played until his heart condition didn't allow it.

www.ecboro.com

No idea who this dude is, but that is one of the Ewing Park courts.

When I went to Wittenberg we had a certain amount of phys ed credits that we had to take. One of mine was, yep, tennis.

wikipedia.org

"Wittenberg, dear Wittenberg..."

In my adult years I have great memories of traveling to Cincinnati to watch the ATP Championship (now called the Western & Southern Open) and playing hooky from church on Sunday to watch the Wimbledon men's finals. In 1997 I took lessons again for a summer.

blog.roopevintage.com

I haven't played in a long time, and I miss it. My knees aren't very happy when I try to play, but maybe someday...



The Gila

Two Storms and a 911 Call

You might think being cooped up in the house would be totally boring. Not so, my friends. Here's what happened over the weekend.

Friday we got hit with a terrible storm - 80-something mph winds, thunder, lightning, the works. Here are some pictures of trees lost at our friends' and neighbors' houses (thankfully no one was hurt and no major property damage was done):

Saturday, our neighbor Christin came over for a visit and some ice cream. So nice to catch up and indulge in some Homemade Brand Coconut Almond Chip (for me) and Mint Chocolate Chip (for her).

One of my most favorite flavors!

That night, Aaron went over to Jen & Jason's house a couple blocks away. Around 10:30 I heard a bang. I thought it might be fireworks but then I heard it again. (It didn't help that I was watching Ghost Whisperer at the time.) I couldn't tell where it was coming from but I knew it was our house. I called Aaron and he ran home to find some girl beating on the front of our house with our mailbox that she had ripped off the brick wall (this apparently after using her shoe didn't get her anywhere). She kept insisting that it was her house. The cops arrived and they took her away to figure out where her real home is. She was - at a minimum - drunk, and more than likely high on something. Scary situation which turned out OK. THANK YOU, Columbus Police Department, for responding so quickly!

No, the mailbox isn't normally on the ground

Sunday was much less eventful. Aaron went on a long bike ride and I continued healing. We got another strong storm in the evening, and while it doesn't seem to have caused as much damage as Friday's storm, it did knock out power for even more people. There are over 100,000 homes in the area without power, most since Friday night, and they may be that way for another week. Sending out good thoughts to all those who are still suffering the effects of the storm.

Random thought: I'm watching a lot of Netflix and on the main screen it shows "Suggestions for You." In what universe is Fatal Attraction similar to Sleepless in Seattle?

Until next time,

The Gila

Scenes from Recovery

I've been MIA for a while, but look out, because I'm currently on medical leave for six weeks and I'll have lots of time to post mindless musings. Eight days ago I had a total hysterectomy. Don't worry, this particular post isn't about that; if and when there is one, I'll give a good warning. These are just a few of the views from my sickbed.



Some of the beautiful flowers I received ... and my tiara!

A drawing from my 2-year-old neighbor Zac (it's a rocket ship!)

and it's taped to the bedroom wall

Feline visitors: Bella

Señor Gato Negro

Sometimes they also provide entertainment

Aaron bought this lovely lounger for me. The screened porch is fab in the mornings.



My actual view this morning

Stay tuned!

The Gila

Disturbing Trends

This post will be much less fluffy than previous posts. I don't often get on a soapbox about serious issues, mainly because I want to make sure that I know what I'm talking about before I say anything, and by the time I'm comfortable with that, the moment has passed.

But "the moment" of women's issues is not in danger of passing any time soon. There are some days I can't believe I'm really waking up in 2012, because it feels more like I've gone backward in time. My current focus is the brouhaha in the wake of Rush Limbaugh's comments about Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who testified before a congressional committee as to why contraceptives should be covered by insurance.

First, let me state that while I'm liberal, I do not align myself with any political party. Next, I've heard some Fluke supporters claim that Limbaugh is "picking on a college student." I don't agree with that; Fluke is 30 years old and is a third-year law student. She's an adult and she put herself out there and should expect some criticism. But to be called a slut and a prostitute by a national radio talk show host? Really?

I've heard and read remarks asking why there wasn't this outrage over (and this is just one example) Bill Maher calling Sarah Palin a four letter word that starts with "c." What's the difference, they ask?

Here's the difference. I'm not condoning public name-calling of anyone. But Maher was rude and disrepectful toward one person. Limbaugh was rude and disrespectful toward women in general, implying that women who have sex are sluts. Yeah, yeah, I know that's not what he said, and that's always Limbaugh's defense, but it's clear to me that's what he meant. And yes, he was completely inappropriate in saying of Fluke, "she's having so much sex she can't afford contraception." Newsflash: women don't take birth control pills every time they have sex, and if you think they do, you really need to shut up about this issue.

I'm not saying that birth control should be free (and by "free" I mean available without a copay), but it's completely irresponsible when birth control is not covered by insurance. And let's talk about the fact that birth control pills are often used for reasons other than contraception, which by the way, was the main focus of Fluke's testimony.

A friend of mine recently said that the birth control controversy is really a marketing issue. She suggests that birth control be rebranded as medications that are "effective tools against endometriosis, ovarian cysts, excessive cramping and ovarian cancer, but with a side effect that they prevent pregnancy." Personally, I've been taking birth control for years and the reason has nothing to do with pregnancy prevention. I'm fortunate that my insurance coverage includes contraceptives, so I only pay $10 or so out-of-pocket each month.

I definitely don't want to sound like I'm gender-bashing, but ladies, we need to step up and stop allowing men to dictate our health issues. We need to have a voice in what matters to us. Sandra Fluke has been such a voice and I hope there are many more to come.


The Gila

Tattoo You, Tattoo Me

To ring in the new year, I got my first tattoo. It started when my niece, Jacqueline, wasn't able to get her second tattoo for her 18th birthday due to the need to spend money on silly things like going to college. So I told her that at Christmas I'd get her one and I'd get one, too. Jackie is an art major, so I told her to come up with some ideas for what would eventually become a permanent part of my body. We didn't have Christmas with my side of the family until New Year's, so on December 31st, the two of us went to get our tattoos.

Midtown Tattoo in Erie, PA (and yes, that's a hateful stray shopping cart in the foreground)

Since it was New Year's Eve, they were short-staffed so they weren't sure we'd be able to get in that day, but they called us later and we had an appointment for 5:00. Will was our tattoo artist, and yes, I failed to get a good picture of him.

I went first, and it really didn't hurt that much. It burned some and kind of felt like the stim therapy I've gotten at the chiropractor or physical therapy. It took about a half hour and here's the result:

My ink, on the back of my right shoulder. Jackie drew this design for me.

Then it was Jackie's turn. Hers took more like an hour and a half. She didn't design this one but it's totally her style. It's on her right inside forearm and it's what I would call a punked out Alice in Wonderland.

Before coloring

And the finished version:

I don't have any previous tattoo parlor experience, but I was really impressed by Midtown Tattoo. Jackie declared it the best day ever! My mother would disagree, but oh, well... I love my black cat and I love even more that it was designed by my wonderful, talented niece!


Peace out,

The Gila