A WEEK IN OHIO

It's been quiet around these parts because we spent last week in Ohio visiting with my sister, her family, my mom, and checking out the house we bought for them to rent from us.

We got a great deal on our flight through a companion ticket program that's part of our credit card (another huge plug for Citibank rewards!), but it meant we had a pretty unusual flight. We left SFO at 11 p.m. on Thursday night (after spending an hour or so in the new terminal's wine bar), had a quick layover at O'Hare, and touched down in Cleveland at 9:20 a.m. ET. With the three hour time difference we were firmly ensconced in the house and working before our colleagues were even in the office. Score for not having to take a day off work!

We had a really great time visiting with the family but HOLY MOTHER EFFER that heat and humidity was out of control. There were times I thought I was going to pass out. I guzzled a ton of water but it seemed that I could never keep up with the amount I was losing between sweating and running to the bathroom (TMI?). In hindsight, I'm pretty sure a doctor would have told me I was dehydrated.

The other bad thing about the weather is that there were pretty bad thunderstorms that rained out a lot of our activities. We first encountered it on our trip to Cedar Point where we took shelter in the arcade for a couple of hours. Park employees kept telling us they'd likely re-open the part and since Jenny had only gone on one ride we decided to stick it out. Sean and my mom weren't happy about that but they were overruled. Then, both times we tried to watch fireworks - on the 3rd and the 4th - a huge storm blew in after we'd set up our chairs and gotten settled in. In the end we didn't see fireworks. Nora got to play with sparklers, but the at-home fireworks that Jenny & I bought turned out to be smoke bombs. Seriously - they just smoked. I wish we'd read the labels. Oops.

The neighborhood the house is in is fantastic! Beautiful big ash trees, green manicured lawns, sidewalks to take evening walks. So idyllic. I'm so glad we were able to buy the house and they can live there - it's the perfect neighborhood for kids to grow up in. The house still has some things that need to be worked out (the a/c system blew a week before we arrived), but it's definitely liveable and quite cute with lovely woodwork.

I'll be back later with a messload of pictures. (I have to figure out how to get them out of Instagram now that they've changed some settings.)