Old phots from Italy

I was transferring photos from the PC to the mac when I came across some photos from our trip to Italy with Roy and Tif. I picked out two from Venice that I like. Then I found the picture of the bag of biscotti that was wicked good. Lucky for me, mio fratello wants to know what kind of biscotti to bring back for me and now I have a picture of the yummies!! Jeffo, see below.

This a view from the Doge's Palace looking out of the canal. I developed a fancy for lightposts while I was over there and I particularly like this one.

Some of you may recognize this picture of the door and canal because we have it blown up and hanging on our wall. We had it printed on canvas so it looks like it could be a painting. Our friend Lincoln Castricone has a professional printer for this sort of thing. Unfortunately he moved away from Athens so we can't use his services as easily.

Thanks to Tif for taking this picture. Jeff, this is it. I know it won't pack as well as the some of the other brands, but if you could bring back a few bags, I would be grateful. Grazie!

Photos from South Carolina

Here is one of those amazing Charleston homes we saw along Battery Park. Not a bad little crib.


Sunset at Edisto Beach.


Another house in Charleston.

South Carolina

We are in Edisto Beach, South Carolina visiting the Butlers. It's been a great trip so far. We had turkey and football on the greatest holiday ever. (See Jeff's blog for more info on that) Yesterday, we drove into Charleston, South Carolina and spent the day walking around. Very beautiful town. The houses are amazing. The history is fabulous. And the weather was perfect. We'll post pictures later.

After Charleston we had dinner at Folly Beach and watched the sun go down. Then we went to see a christmas light display at a local state park. Here are some fun pictures we took there. The R2-D2 picture is part of a gingerbread constant. I guess the kid won third place in his division. Of course, if you know us, that kid would have won outright. I don't know who these judges are, but they obvious don't kow a smart, creative, thinking-outside-the-box kind of kid. So a stick to the judge and a carrot to the kid.




This is a fun picture of Kent.

Bye Bye Baker

This is Baker Center, known to OU Alumni as the student center. Here you could find a friendly coffee house with open stages, a rec room with pool, ping pong and air hockey, and office and meeting space. Most importantly, there is the Baker Center Ballroom, where we had our wedding reception. Well, all this is going, going, gone... OU has built a new and improved (it has an escalator) student center. And this building will eventually we torn down. Sad. yes. Progress. I guess. These students today demand higher quality than those of yore. We were happy with a crumbling building with no A/C and heat that barely worked. It's charming. But that won't do anymore. There must be moving objects and fancy lights to awe and inspire.
This is the new Baker University Center. Notice the slightly different name. It sits at the end of South Court Street (that would be the very top left) and Bird Arena (which would be off to the right). They had the foresight to include some parking too. As mentioned before, this building will house the only escalator in Athens county. Maybe all of southeast Ohio. who knows. This picture was probably taken from the Richland Ave. bridge. I don't know because I didn't take it. But my housemate probably did. He's the university photographer. I could ask him but he's not home right now. He probably took the other photo too.

Few more autumn photos around Athens

This photo is a somewhat blurry, but I love this grocery store. Seamans is locally owned and they have great amish cheeses. Supposedly their meat selection is devine, but I wouldn't know.

Another fall color shot for all you out there who enjoy such things.

This is the Athens County Courthouse in the setting sun.

College Football

What a week for college football. Some big games starting today. WV is playing Pitt tonight. That's a shout out to my friends the Prudiches (in Athens and abroad), who I know follow the Mountaineers. They were winning last I looked. yeah. Then there is OSU-Michigan this saturday. blah blah blah. That might actually be an interesting game. And of course, the OU-Akron game going on right now.

I just came home from the OU-Akron game. Oh it's still going on. I left after half time. It's a long standing tradition at Ohio. You leave after the band plays. However, OU was winning at half. In fact, if they win this game, they could go to a bowl game. The bobcats have come a long way in the past 15-20 years. I guess they're kind of good now...but I still go to watch the band.

While walking home I saw a funny sight. It was a dark and stormy night...really it was. And I turn the corner onto Rardin Ave. and there in the window is a christmas tree. All lit up and decorated. It's November 16th for crying out loud. The funny thing is, is that the jack-o-lanterns are still rotting on the front porch. Clean up from one holiday before you start the next people. So that's my rant for today.

Thanks for your time.

Weekend Update

Sunday, 6:45 PM and I am pooped. We had a busy weekend and we didn't even leave Athens. But we got a lot of stuff done around the house. On Friday, we attempted to put up an antenna on the house in the hopes of getting one of the big three from Huntington, WV. We were unsuccessful, but did manage to get PBS out of the station half a mile away. Wahoo. Antique Roadshow, here I come. Other weekend events included cleaning the house, putting up plastic in the windows (cause it's frickin' cold now!), and going to OU Volleyball games. OU won again and again. They are so sweet. Something new to the games this year is the OU marching band alumni that still live in the area are playing during timeouts and between games. They still do the dances and everything. Very fun.



This is Kent with the new bobcat mascot "Rufus". Not sure what I think about it yet. The old one was kind of dumpy looking but this one looks like it's going to kill you with its evil laser eyes.

We also went to the final show at the Front Room in Baker Center on Saturday. OU has built a new student center and it opens next quarter therefore Baker Center as we know will no longer exist. The Front Room used to be a bar, but was downgraded to a coffee house around 1988 when the drinking age was raised. It had a stage and quaint setting where open stages were held every friday night, and concerts on Saturdays. Yesterday, people (mostly locals) packed the house to watch some of their favorite bands who have performed here. Our friend, Tony Xenos, played. This is him below.



It was a fun show and Tony rocked. Too bad Plastic Pie couldn't reunite one more time for the show. No one can resist singing along to Flipper the Dolphin. oh well, I guess I'll always have my memories.