The Last Couple of Months...

It probably seems like I've abandoned this blog, but I haven't. I've just been busy the last couple of months with family issues. Specifically, with my husband's health. Jay was hospitalized twice in August. The first time was due to gastroenteritis; the second time was due to another stroke.

Jay's doing better now. He's back to work as of today, and I can see the improvements he's made since August. The only bad news is that he can't drive until at least January, which means we won't be going many places since I'm not fond of driving.

Also of note, I had poison ivy for three very long weeks. I've had to take over all the yard work while Jay has been recuperating. This is the first time I've had a reaction to poison ivy since I was a teenager. I hope I never have to deal with it again.

One place we did go before Jay got sick was Musikfest. We only got to go one day, but it was enough for me to discover a new love: Aw Shucks roasted corn.

Pictured: enjoying Aw Shucks corn
It was the best corn on the cob I've ever tasted. I can't wait for summer of 2013 so I can have it again!

The Gyro Company

I'd never had Greek food before, so I decided to be adventurous and ask my husband to take me to The Gyro Company, which is located in the new shopping center on Airport Rd. We've often thought about going there, but usually end up at Zoup, instead.

The restaurant isn't super fancy, but it provides a good atmosphere for casual dining. The people working there were helpful to me, answering questions about ingredients in the dishes and being very friendly.

Pictured: outside of restaurant

Pictured: inside of restaurant

Pictured: seating area

Pictured: grill

Pictured: veggie gyro with basil pesto sauce

Pictured: Sharon, with painting of Zeus in background
I'm still not eating meat, so I chose one of the vegetarian options, a vegetable gyro with basil pesto sauce. The gyro had carrots, squash and green beans topped with lettuce, tomatoes and onions, all rolled up into THE most delicious bread. It was a bit messy to eat, but I loved every bite of it.

My only regret is that I didn't try the baklava sundae, which has baklava and ice cream layered with chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. I'll make certain that I sample that next time!

2011 Christmas Vacation, Day 2 (morning): Oglebay Park

Day 2 of our Wheeling WV trip was spent touring Oglebay Park and the city of Wheeling. We also went to the Good Zoo and saw the Winter Festival of Lights show. Since I have so many pictures to share, I'm breaking Day 2 into two posts: one for the morning and the other for the rest of the day.

We began our day with a buffet breakfast. Buffets are a great place to overeat, and I'm especially likely to do that at breakfast. It's my favorite meal of the day!

Pictured: scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, cinnamon bun, fried apples
What I didn't photograph was the second plate of food, consisting of two small blueberry pancakes and syrup. Having eaten all of that, Jay and I decided to go for a walk around the property before our tour group was scheduled to meet. Almost as soon as we left the parking lot, we saw deer. There were five deer in the small herd that approached us. They aren't afraid of people, since they're protected on the property.

Pictured: Jay taking a photograph of a deer
After our walk, we met up with the rest of our tour group for visits to the various buildings on the property: the Carriage Glass House and museum, the greenhouse complex, the gourmet food shop and the Mansion Museum.

Pictured: stained glass in the Carriage House

Pictured: Christmas display in the gourmet food shop

Pictured: looking down into the greenhouse complex

Pictured: Sharon and the 4'10" Sweeney punchbowl
One of my favorite pictures is the photograph of me standing next to the Sweeney punchbowl in the glass museum. The Sweeney brothers were well known glass makers in the 19th century, and this was their most famous piece. It once stood on Michael Sweeney's grave, but has been moved indoors to protect it from vandalism.

Having Fun in Fall

Jay took this picture of me through the big window in the front of our house. (That's why there are some weird reflections.) It was such a nice day yesterday that I wanted to spend some time outside.

I raked leaves in the front yard for about an hour. According to the information at LoseIt, that should have equaled about 320 calories burned. Hopefully, it offset the calories I ate at supper last night. Jay and I went to the Sands Casino because we wanted to see the new outlet shopping mall that opened yesterday. (It's connected to the casino and the hotel.) I regretted the hamburger I ordered as soon as I started eating it. It was way too big.

Most of the snow in our yard has melted, but the snow across the street is still there. Our side of the street gets better exposure to the sun, so our side of the street looks like fall, and the other side looks like winter.

This may sound strange, but I'm looking forward to shoveling snow, too. That and raking leaves are my two favorite types of yard work.

I'm Dreaming of a White... Halloween?

Eastern Pennsylvania got hit with a pretty nasty snowstorm this weekend. Yesterday we had record snowfall amounts of 6-10 inches in the Lehigh Valley area. Our previous record was 2.2 inches, which fell in Allentown on October 31, 1925. It's not a lot of snow, but it's caused power outages due to trees falling. My sister and her family were without power most of Saturday.

Here are a couple before and after pictures, to give an idea of how much the weather changed.

That's me on October 28, raking leaves and doing some cleanup around the rock in my front yard. I was wearing my light fall jacket.

That's me again, on October 29. I'm wearing my heavy winter coat as I try to shovel very heavy wet snow from the driveway. That line of cleared driveway is actually the width of the area I had to clean. It took me over an hour to shovel the driveway. (I did get a little help from my husband near the end. I originally told him I wanted to do it all myself, but I got too tired.)

If there's a bright side to any of this, it's the fact that I got outside and was active. I also spent the time I was indoors making homemade soup. My house still smells good this morning from all the cooking I did yesterday!