A Saturday or two ago we drove south to Columbus, capital city of Ohio for a seminar. Alla had a seminar there and I tagged along.
Just a day before by chance I heard that they have a German village there, and since alla likes German food, it was clear we should head there. Randomly we found a restaurant in the village and we struck gold. This was the sausage hus. An authentic place, as much as authentic can be in another country, with waitresses dresses in old fashioned clothes holding 6 big glasses of bear, various German artifacts on the wall and fitting music, right after we came in they were playing my favorite Genghis Kahn song, about an hour later , they played it again and I feel sorry for the staff. No song should be heard over and over. I ordered the sausage sampler and got 4 half sausages of different types, the 1st was heavenly- I assume it had no fat at all ( let me enjoy my ignorance) the others were good but not like the 1st. we had some mashed potatoes and other side dishes. Before that I had a chicken soup with some meat, I was hoping it would be like a Tyrolean knoodle soupen- a dish I had once in Italy and Switzerland , but not, good soup but not as good as my memory. Alla had a wiener schnitzel. So after a gourmet meal we traveled in the village, and this is early spring and the trees are in full bloom, the cobble stone streets remind us of Europe and the day was nice and warm. We stopped at the few shops, then went to a store that sells various items all done by senior citizens- they had dolls, wood work, afghans, and various small items all in good quality and precision, a nice idea for a store, right across from the store, there lies a house with 31 tiny rooms that functions as a book store. In the house , you actually get to see how they used to build homes, it’s kind of interesting and they have different music in different rooms and they display the musician, which I thought was a nice touch. I couldn’t leave this store without paying a tribute, and since I still have 95 (just counted) un read books on my shelf ( I am happy I went below 100 finally), I really don’t need any more books, so I bought an amazing puzzle. Oh, I just took the princess bride book from the library- yes I know I am insane.
Alla went for her seminar which was down town Columbus, and I had about two hours to kill in an un researched city. Had I done my home work, I would know exactly where to go, but I didn’t so I went searching and felt like a tourist again (love that feeling). I parked by the impressive city hall which was surrounded by blooming trees and a big sculpture of Chris K. I took an osh with Chris. I believe it is my first statue Osh, at least the 1st of some important historical figure. There is a small park with some statue and fire on top, so I go check it out, it’s a memorial for fireman lost on duty. This little park has very interesting statues of mythological animals like a unicorn and a gryphon. After checking out the status I see an old ship anchored on the big river that’s crossing the city. And to my surprise I see the Santa Maria. This is Columbus after all, and in 92 (500 years after the voyage, the city build the best replica of the ship. It’s kind of small…. I kept walking and took some shot of flowers and moved to the Ohio state capitol building , which looks impressive like most state capitols. I circulated around it , took shots of cannons and unique looking building, then return to the car to pick up the scholar. I think I had a nice hours of discovery for an unplanned trip.
On the way back we stopped for 5 minutes at a huge mall. About 2 hours later I got bored and went looking for other things, like a cassette player (have old cassettes, no way to play them) but stumbled onto a hair salon. Since I badly need a haircut, I decided to cut 2 hairs with one pair of scissors.
I told the barbarest that I wanted something short and fast, since shopaholic would leave the store at some point, so we(I) decided on a mmmmm….. cut. And a short one. 5 minutes later I head shorter hair than my army days, which feels so nice. I wasn’t sure is shopy would like it or not. She walked in the salon as I was finishing and I wish I had that moment on tape.
Alla didn’t breath for about 10 seconds, with a loud sigh and a hand on her mouth in total shock. I think that now, two weeks later she is beginning to overcome this shock. I like it btw.
Some day last week we returned home to find large boxes in the office below. I know this is my birthday gift and I had a good idea of what it was, having asked for something like this. This was a co alla mom operation to get a record player (with tape!) and some little cabinet to put it on, on put the records in it. It looks real nice; they make them look like they are old and unique , though they are not.
Than I had some assembly work to build the little cabinet. Nothing but simple work, about 7 pieces and some screws, sound like a breeze.
Now, there is the right way to assemble such a cabinet, the wrong way and the gil way.
The gil way is very simple, you look and study the directions well, then with astounding originality and brilliance, succeed in doing it wrong at least 3 times. Doing one side with the legs up and the other with the legs down, then find out the left is where the right should be (and right is where the left should be for some reason), then the front was replaced with the back, so you disassemble and rebuild.
After all is done I sit and stare at the unit which would have taken a 6 year old half the time to build. But now it’s done and I enjoyed listening to some old records.
Did I mention it’s my birthday this Saturday.
Ok, enough for today, I am out of shape, sorry for not writing for so long
