Those First 2 Years Are Killer

"The average baby demands adult attention of one kind or another every twenty seconds. New mothers lose an average of seven hundred hours of sleep during that first year. Marital satisfaction plummets 70 percent, while risk of maternal depression more than doubles..." - David Brooks, The Social Animal, page 35

Twenty Years Ago

.... Sander Hall was demolished

CAC Monday Night Crafts

One Night One Craft at the Contemporary Arts Center

Here are the Monday night events for the rest of the summer. Some of the classes would be great for kids, and a lot of families are making free admission Mondays a regular family visit, so you are likely to meet other downtowner families. Classes are Mondays 6-8pm and although as always, Mondays are free admission, some of the classes have a $5 material fee. I've heard rumors that there is a cash bar at some of these events:

June 27th 6-8pm Book Making Bonanza!
Make your own journal or sketchbook with a few simple instructions from local artist Annie Stephens.

July 11th Paint Your Yoga
Yoga instructor, Ann Ducharme, will guide us through simple yoga asanas (postures), and then show us how to translate those poses through painting with sumi-e ink using meditative strokes.

July 18th Seed Bombs!
Join the people behind VisuaLingual as they help you explore your inner guerilla gardener through the creation of seed bombs.

July 25th From Ply to Play
Woodworking enthusiasts, Joel Armor and Joe Civitello, employ combinations of both traditional and non-traditional woodworking methods for functional furnishings with an emphasis on repurposing materials. In this week’s class, the boys will ensure that no materials go to waste as they turn wood scraps into crafty works of art using image transfer techniques. Feel free to bring small Xerox images of your liking.

August 1st Mud Cloth (Bogolanfini Modified)
Fiber artist and 2001 Post Corbett Award winner Judy Dominic will teach you a dying technique based on the traditional black and white dyeing technique of bogolan fini (mud cloth) from Mali, West Africa. See what sorts of colors you can coax out of the various dirt and clay of our area. Bring a white shirt (100% natural fiber - cotton, linen, ramie; prewashed, no softener in wash or dry), some dirt from your yard or wherever you see a nice dirt color and an old newspaper. Feel free to contact the instructor with questions: judy at judydominic dot com
Shirts will be on sale in the UnMuseum that day.

August 8th Stick 'em Up
Are you tired of postcards falling off your refrigerator because they're being held up by wimpy magnets? Well, have a beer or a pop and save the cap. The ladies from the Cincy Craft Cartel will show you how to make magnets using bottle caps and your favorite images. Bring your own materials to make it personal or use some of ours!

August 15th Henna Tattoos
Always wanted a tattoo but wanted the freedom of a temporary one? Learn the traditional Indian art of temporary Henna (Mehndi) tattoo designs from artist Sneha Nirody, who has been classically trained and creating Henna designs exclusively for brides and wedding parties for over 10 years.

August 22nd Paper Craft
Join Jessica Wolf of local craft company Paper Acorn for a surprise craft session. Her handmade paperwork was featured in Martha Stewart’s Summer 2010 Wedding Magazine and she is well known for the creation of intricate paper boxes, luminaries, and garlands. Come see what surprise she has in store for you.

King Shu

What was once a supposed comedy club:


Is now apparently a shoe store:
 

Court Street is strange

[where: 36.5 West Court St., Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Rick Barr

Rick Barr, the guy who published a blog with many historic photos from the Catholic Telegraph, died last week. Below are three (of many) interesting photos he posted. These are all demolished:

Sacred Heart Italian church at 527 Broadway
 

St X Commercial School, 520 Sycamore
 

Teacher's College, stood directly the east of St George's in Corryville
 

The Catholic Telegraph has been continuously published in Cincinnati, since 1831! I would love to see more of their extensive archives published online.

Cincinnati Park Nursery

I happened upon this nursery and greenhouse yesterday. It is owned by Cincinnati Park Board and they raise plants for the Cincinnati Parks. I never knew this existed, and it is in a very odd location. Can any reader guess it's name/location?

UPDATE:
Yes, as a reader guessed, this is the Warder Nursery, located in Finneytown, but owned by the City. I did find some info:

A 1998 Cincinnati Enquirer Article says:

Warder Nursery will be developed into a park, with both recreational and green space, after the Cincinnati Park Board agreed Thursday to sell or lease the area to the township.

The park board passed a resolution at its meeting that allows the township, where Warder is located, to either buy it outright or lease it for 10 years.

The primary stipulation is that the area not be developed into something other than a park. The township has said it would develop the 42 acres into both playing fields and green space, possibly with hiking trails.

The trustees were pleased with the outcome of deliberations that began more than a year ago, as were township residents who had been behind a grass-roots effort to preserve the area more than two years ago.

...Warder Nursery is in the southern part of the township, just north of the Cincinnati city limits. The 49.6 acres have long belonged to Cincinnati and in recent years, the park board has maintained greenhouses on the property, where they propagate plants for Krohn Conservatory and floral displays throughout the city.

Under the agreement, Cincinnati will keep and maintain the greenhouses and about 10 acres of the property.

Since most of the acreage is unused, the park board had been approached in recent years by housing developers expressing an interest in buying the property.

That prompted the civic association and township residents to explore ways of purchasing the property and keeping it out of developers' hands.

The trustees have said they will soon decide whether to buy the property outright for about $720,000 or lease it over 10 years for about $920,000.

Proposed
Design for Warder Park
 

Here is the site on Google Maps

View Larger Map

This Blog on Summer Vacation

In these long days of June, I seem to spend every free daylight minute playing with the kids. We all fall asleep exhausted at 11pm. This summer schedule leaves little time or energy for blogging.

Posting will be very limited for the next month or two.

Enjoy your summer.

Bike Videos

In honor of my youngest learning how to ride a two wheeler:







You gotta see the guy carrying 4 kids and the mother carrying a baby who pulls a fold-up stroller out of the carrier!:

Quiet Reflection on the Day

There was a poem I wanted to write
It was forming in my mind
when my son yelled at his sister

There was rat I killed this morning
Jumped out of the garbage then down my leg
The damn flashlight was dead from kids clicking it

There is an old broom I keep under the stairs
And I swept the rat hard out across the tiles
He bounce against the wall and out onto the street

There was life in his eyes as he lay on the asphalt
And I was thinking how I liked this little rat
as the sedan tire rolled over him

Rack Photography

Local photographer Ron Rack has some amazing panoramic photos of downtown Cincinnati locations. You gotta look at them. I especially like Fausto Ferrari's Barber shop:
 

Ron's studio is on Main Street in OTR. Rack Photography has been in business for 22 years.