Easy Scrapbooking: Columbus Marathon

Charles' second marathon was the Columbus Marathon. I had completed the page a while ago, but after looking back over it I knew it needed a little something extra. I decided to recreate his racing bib for the "title." It was a really easy bib to recreate because it was not too detailed. I found the logo on Google and the rest was a snap to do in Publisher.

Homemade pizza

One of my all-time favorites pizzas is the Hula Hula at Spinoza's near Dayton, OH. The thing I love the best about that pizza is the crunchy macadamia nuts on top. I decided to try my hand at re-creating it (kind of).

I used a bread machine pizza dough recipe from Mom on Timeout. Her recipe gives both a one pizza and two pizza option. Below I am just sharing the recipe for the one pizza option.

 

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 T butter, softened
1 T sugar
1 t yeast
1 t salt
1/2 cup plus 2 T water (105 to 110 degrees)

Directions
Add all ingredients into your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Make sure the water is warm enough to proof the yeast.

Turn your bread machine to the dough setting and let it do its thing. After a couple of minutes check on your dough to make sure it is not too wet or too dry. You can add water or flour a teaspoon at a time if your dough is too dry or too wet.

After the bread machine is done, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and work it until you have your desired shape. It was hard for me to make it perfectly circular and that's OK!

If using a pizza stone, dust with cornmeal. If using a another type of pan, you make want to grease it a little, too. Make up your pizza and bake at 425 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes. 

 

For my pizza, I started with Newman's Own marinara sauce. For the cheese, I used mozzarella and cheddar; I'm not exactly sure how much of each I ended up with. Just eyeball it to your desired cheese level. Then I spread freshly cut pineapple and freshly cut tomatoes (that we grew in our backyard!) and slightly chopped macadamia nuts. It was so delicious!

A perfect OH weekend!

Charles and I spent this past weekend in Ohio! Ohio is not normally a place that you would think would make a great weekend getaway, but you would be wrong.

The main purpose of the trip was for Charles to run in the Air Force Half Marathon. He did very well, I might add.

The second purpose was to meet the bro-in-law's girlfriend. All went well on that front.

It was so nice to get away from the overwhelming heat here in California. Dayton had amazing weather--sunny, breezy and perfect temperatures. It made me really miss living there. We also got to catch up with friends and former co-workers. I loved seeing all of them. Maybe one day we'll end up back in good ol' Dayton, Ohio.

Eating pretend ice cream at the Willis'

Yellow Springs has a fantastic field of sunflowers every fall!

Here he comes--2nd on his team!

Half Marathon finishers

 

Trip planning

I love trip planning. I might even like it more than actually being on the trip. I'm a weirdo, but I always love the memories of vacation and all the work that goes into making those memories happen. But I can be grumpy while on vacation...just ask my husband. I cannot explain why I am like that except maybe because I am out of my routine and comfort zone. But afterwards I always remember it fondly.

We have a couple trips on the agenda for the rest of year.

Trip #1: Dayton, OH

I know visiting Dayton doesn't sound that amazing, but I am super excited for this trip. We lived there before moving out here and it will be nice to see some friends and co-workers. Plus, I get to cheer on my husband as he runs the Air Force Half Marathon!There are a bunch of places I would love to visit while in Dayton, but I know we won't have enough time for everything. My top 3 spots that I would like to stop at are:

1. Young's Jersey Dairy Who doesn't love comfort food, ice cream and mini golf?

2. The Butter Cafe Hands down best breakfast in Dayton (in my humble opinion).

3. Spinozas I love their Hawaiian pizza because they include macadamian nuts on top. It adds a nice layer to the flavor and some crunch.

Trip #2: Lake Tahoe

Since we're so close to Lake Tahoe, I thought we could spend our anniversary weekend there. I hear it is gorgeous and I think it would be nice to spend the weekend amongst the trees. I've been doing a lot of research on where to stay. The options seem numerous, but we would love to stay in a cabin. I found one place today that might fit the bill almost perfectly. It's actually outside of Tahoe, but not far from it. This trip is still in the beginning stages of the planning process, so I do not have any specific ideas in mind. But it does seem like a lot of things shut down after September in Tahoe. There are a couple museums that I would like to check out, but they will not be offering tours in October. Oh well! Spending time in nature with my love will be just as nice.

Trip #3: ???
Last night Charles mentioned maybe having a destination Thanksgiving. We'll both have the weekend off and do not have family nearby to spend it with. We just have to decide 1) if we're serious about this and 2) where we want to go.

He mentioned Oregon. And we also mentioned Canada. I did a search of top places to vacation for Thanksgiving today and it listed a bunch of American cities (New York, Chicago, Orlando...), but it always mentioned Aruba or Puerto Rico. While the last two might be nice, I don't know if we're up for such a long plane ride for a weekend trip.

The Ohio Caverns

Typically on the weekend, Charles and I sit around and ask what the other wants to do. Usually we ask that several times and then settle on going to Target and dinner. We're pretty boring.

On Friday night, I started the round of questions. This time, Charles already had a plan but he wanted to keep it a secret. Being the girl, I had to ask what kind of clothes would it require. He told me normal clothes, which did not help me figure anything out.

On Saturday, we got ready for the day and got in the car. Charles asked if I wanted to bring my mp3 player so I knew it would be a longer drive than to our normal weekend hot spots. We plugged it in and went on our way. Eventually, we saw a big sign for Ohio Caverns. That was the surprise outing!

When we arrived, we bought our tour tickets and walked around the gift shop until the tour was ready to start. There were a few other groups going down with us, so it wasn't too crowded. The tour was about an hour or so long and took us about 9 or 10 stories under ground. The caverns were really interesting with lots of natural beauties. We even saw many bats. Luckily, none hit me while flying around.

If you're ever in the Dayton area, the Ohio Caverns would be a nice side-trip to make. Very pretty and would be even better in the spring or summer. The Caverns are near some great farm land and there is a lot of good picnic space in the park. It was a little too chilly for us yesterday.

Michigan vs. Northwestern

I was raised a Michigan fan by a Michigan Alumni, my dad. Living in Ohio is a little like living among the enemy, but I survive. My Dad has season tickets to the Michigan football games and sent us tickets for this past weekend's game against Northwestern. Charles and I have only been to one game in the past and that was back in college when my Dad took us and my sister Courtney. Ann Arbor is only about 3 hours from here, so it was a short drive for us.

We ended up staying in Toledo for the weekend which was a little over half way there. It was a lot easier and cheaper to find a room there. And it gave us an excuse to check out Toledo.

The game was a good one. For a while, it seemed like Michigan wouldn't be able to do much to stop Northwestern. But in the final minutes, Michigan pulled out a tie. And in overtime they stopped Northwestern very well. It was very exciting to watch.

After the game, we checked out the Maumee Bay Brew Club in Toledo. We had a HUGE pretzel as an appetizer. It was a neat place with a variety of locally brewed beer.  I'm not a beer drinker, but Charles enjoys beer. He had the Irish Stout and said it was tasty.

Yesterday we spent the day exploring Toledo. We ate lunch at Tony Packo's, a Toledo staple. Very good chili and hot dogs! I guess they have a Hungarian influence, so they had some unexpected items on their menu. It was definitely worth a visit.

We ended our weekend with a visit to the Toledo Walleye arena to see them play the South Carolina Stingrays. Being from Charleston, we were cheering for the Stingrays. We were just a little outnumbered. South Carolina pulled out a 2 to 1 win against the home team. It was awesome!

The American Sign Museum

On Friday night, Charles and I stayed in Cincinnati. Charles' first youth hockey game of the season was in Northern Kentucky on Saturday morning. Because the game was at 7:30am (I don't know who decided that would be a good idea); I slept in.

After the game, we thought we would check out The American Sign Museum. It was a pretty neat place. We walked around a little on our own before the guided tour. The tour, which was given by the owner of the museum, definitely helped me appreciate what I was actually looking at. He used to work for a sign magazine and knew a lot about different techniques of sign-making. He had quite a collection. It was worth checking out.

On our way home we also ate at another Diners, Drive-ins and Dives place--Blue Ash Chili. In Cincinnati, they like to top spaghetti with chili and cheese. Neither of us had that type of entree. I had a chili cheese dog and Charles had a chili philly. It was pretty good and fun to check another restaurant off that list. 

Here are some pictures from the museum:

If you've never been to the MI/OH region, you probably have no idea who this character is. Introduce Big Boy! This is an older version where he has red hair and striped pants. Nowadays, Big Boy has brown or black hair, checkered pants and it much leaner.

Neon signs!

I liked this sign. It was taken from an old barn. I didn't like it because it was for tobacco (gross!), but because it said Treat Yourself. It reminded me of an episode of Parks and Recreation.

Race Day and other random stuff

This past weekend was spent in Columbus so Charles could run in the Columbus Marathon. He felt like he had to redeem himself from his first marathon. We enjoy Columbus except for Ohio State. Being brought up in a household with a Michigan alum makes you dislike anything Ohio State related. I did watch the end of the Michigan game on TV while in Columbus and got to see them win at the last minute. That was awesome!

Charles did very well at his marathon and has decided not to run anymore marathons. (Yea!) I got up bright and early to find a good spot to see him towards the finish line. At least I thought it was a good spot... I didn't even see him. I was hugely disappointed.

On anther topic...last week Charles looked out of our front window and saw a cute little orange kitten. He was worried that it was lost, so he brought it inside. I was curious how our cats would react to another cat in the house. Calvin did not like it at all! He sat under the couch and hissed at the orange cat anytime it came anywhere near him. Hobbes was a little friendlier, but very cautious near the cat. It was funny to watch them.

Luckily the kitten had a tag for a 24 hour watch service. They finally got in touch with the owner who only lives on the next street over. They were very grateful that we found their cat.

Lastly, I ordered shoes for the wedding (see previous post). They arrived today. I picked the pair I was leaning towards, but I just don't like them as much in person. The shape of the shoe reminds me of an old lady and the color is not as red as in the picture. Looks like I'll be returning those and searching for something different. I'll probably just go with flats since that is going to be way more comfortable.

Weekend in Amish country

The wonderful thing about Charles being in the military are all the holidays he has off. For Labor Day weekend, he had both Friday and today off. We decided to spend Friday and Saturday in Amish country (Ohio). I've never really been to Amish country, but have seen bits and pieces about it on TV. Charles and I love visiting the country...it's just nice to get out of "civilization."

The fun thing about visiting Amish country is finding a cute B&B to stay in. We were lucky to find one with an available room on short notice that didn't cost an arm and a leg. We ended up staying in Sugarcreek, the little Switzerland of Ohio. This area of Ohio also has the largest population of Amish and Mennonite people. The B&B had a video and some books about the Amish and Mennonites that were really interesting. Visiting Amish country really made me appreciate their culture. They value community and family. They also take care of each other; if someone's barn burns down the whole community will get together to help rebuild it. I think this characteristic is really missing from communities now.

The only disappointing thing was pie. I was looking forward to trying shoo fly pie, which I've seen on the Food Network when they've talked about Amish country. But I didn't see it anywhere. I'm guessing it's a Pennsylvania Amish thing. We wanted to try Oatmeal pie on Friday night, but the restaurant was out. I had never heard of Oatmeal pie before, but after looking it up when we got back, it seems similar to Pecan Pie. Once I get all the ingredients, I'm going to attempt to make it (and of course share on here!)

If you have never visited Amish country, I highly recommend it. I wish we could have stayed longer, but hopefully we'll be able to visit again.

Tourist in my own town

Since Cheryl has been visiting, we've been doing some typical touristy things here in town. Yesterday we went to the Air Force Museum. The museum is comprised of three old plane hangers. The first building holds the invention of planes through the end of WWI and then a huge section on WWII. Cheryl and I just walked around the first building and we were there for 2 hours. They have tons of planes all throughout and it's interesting to see how planes and flight have evolved.

Then we ate at Skyline Chili. It's a chain, but it's a Cinncinati based chain. Cheryl had chili over spaghetti...one of their trademark things. Then we sat in my backyard in the sunshine and read. The weather was absolutely perfect! Mid-70's and sunny with a slight breeze. That is my kind of weather!

Yesterday evening we did something extra fun. At one of the downtown restaurants they have a Mystery Dinner Theater. Since it was at a restaurant, everyone got a meal and the actors performed while we were eating. They mingled with us and engaged us. Charles even ended up being a character which was funny because before it started he kept saying "I hope they don't talk to me." At the end we had to guess who was the murderer. I guessed correctly! Cheryl won a prize for having one of the worst guesses which was funny. I highly recommend looking to see if there is anything like that wherever you may live. It was a blast!