July 2016

July was full of good music, friends, a mission trip, and lots of camps.

My friend Erin and I had a late lunch on the opening day of the newest brew pub in our area - in a historic building that was lovingly restored.  It's situated on the river and has great ambience!  No beer for us - we had the vinho verde.

While David was in Mississippi caring for Carolyn, Brennan and I said goodbye to Thomas, who headed to West Virginia for his mission trip.

The trip location was planned back in November, but the group ended up having a completely different trip than planned because they arrived one week after the historic flooding.  While the group normally goes to help build, they saw the other end of the spectrum and spent much of their 9 days tearing down housing that was beyond repair.  They also spent time in a children's literacy program, and were coordinating the donation delivery station in the evening.  It was an eye-opening and emotional trip, and the kids came back feeling a sense of connection to the people of WV!

David and I headed to The Vogue in Indy to see the Violent Femmes.  They sounded as great as our college days.  It was a fun concert together!

I continue my tours.  I had a special private tour at The Miller House one day when there was a lightning storm.  It was pretty unbelievable to see.

I'm doing some contract work for The Visitors Center, including a project at this historic building in town.  It's a lot of fun to spend time there!

This kid passed his driving test!  He takes all of his paperwork and can get his license on September 26th (not that I'm counting!)

Thomas spent a sweaty week at Cross-Country camp at a beautiful state park about 2 hours from our house.  Brennan spent two looooong weeks at band camp and came out unscathed!  We weren't sure how it would go, but he ended up having a good time.  Here he is after the parents' preview night, helping get the instruments back to the band hall.

I love this photo of the musicians in the school pool!  Good to help them with their breathing.

Of course, we've had some pool time.

And Thomas continues to learn car maintenance with Dad.

They're filming an independent Hollywood movie in Columbus!  Thomas and I went to the open casting (me to help behind the scenes as a tour guide).

I got a call back - here I am, waiting with the serious actors who were doing breathing exercises and reviewing their portfolios!

Kelly and Scott hosted a party at the Inn at Irwin Gardens for all of the great volunteers who helped on Kelly's campaign for judge.  No one declared by the July 5th deadline to run against Kelly in the November 8th election.  So as long as Kelly gets one vote, she's our new judge!  We're so proud of her and know she'll do a great job.

David and I celebrated the 28th anniversary of our first date (waaaay back in 1988) with a surprise trip (for David) to Indy that I planned.  Our first stop was dinner at The Rathskellar.  Look at the size of that lager!

Then we walked over to the Egyptian Room at the Murat for a concert.

One of David's favorite bands (and one I'm pretty fond of, thanks to David) - Garbage.

The concert was fantastic.  We felt like young folk because in the Egyptian Room, it's standing room only.  We were up front.  Felt like I was in the mosh pit!

And then Rumer Willis (Demi Moore and Bruce Willis's daughter!) came to Columbus for our Cabaret series.  We got a table with friends.

Rumer was good - lots of jazz favorites.  She was just finishing her Broadway run as Roxie Hart in "Chicago", and as the 2015 winner of Dancing with the Stars.  Her pianist and best friend were on stage with her and joined us at the after party too.

With Sharon and Erin

Jeff and John's puppy Clementine (Clemmie) was a hit at the party.  Clemmie's first party!  Rumer was in love.

Our white fluffy baby is also doing great.

He was excited in this photo because Thomas was going to take him for a long walk to chase Pokémon.

Here he's demanding that I pick him up and put him on the bed.  He can't jump up by himself. 

This is a bad doggy who ran across the street in our neighborhood and Dad had to go retrieve him.

And here we are waiting to pick up Thomas from cross country one afternoon!

The last weekend of July was a very full one, and David was traveling to Mississippi.

We went to the Henry Moore birthday party on the library plaza.  Here are the boys with Large Arch by Henry Moore.

While Henry Moore would have been 118, the library still likes to celebrate with a party each year.  Hey, there's cake!

 Then we headed to Katelyn and Roy's wedding reception at The Commons.  It was so beautiful and touching.  The food was awesome too!

Brennan was exhausted so he skipped the Harry Pottery "Cursed Child" book release party at Viewpoint.  But Thomas and I went.  We wouldn't have missed it!  We went in 2007 as well to their Deathly Hallows release party when Thomas was only 7!  While we didn't stay until midnight, we saw all the cool things inside and outside the store like this car that is just like the one in the books, and we had a butterbeer of course!

And here are 3 of Brennan's classmates, dressed up for the event!  Dee, Megan, and Claire

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And then Thomas and I spent a day playing movie star!  We were extras in 6 scenes during the first day of filming.  Here we are - the costume director took this photo for us.  Highlights for me included talking with Julia Sweeney and John Cho, getting to see behind the scenes, and spending the day at the Saarinen former bank.  As an architecture enthusiast these days, it was a lot of fun.

The alley where Thomas filmed a scene

Here's another scene.  Thomas is an extra (see him in the background), and here I am sitting with Julia Sweeney and John Cho as they wait for the set up guys to complete for the scene.  It was pretty awesome.  Something else - John Cho signed up for Instagram just as a took this photo.  His first photo is of the interior of the bank from Day 1 of filming.  Thomas is actually in the background of that first photo that John took.

Some of my local friends and I walked down to Zaharakos for an ice cream or fountain drink and we took some back to the cast and crew.  Zaharakos is a favorite.

Speaking of John Cho - here we are on our way to see the latest Star Trek movie.  He and I talked about the movie (which we all really liked) and his tv show - Selfie - which I watched in full in June/July.  Two very different examples of his work.  I guess now I need to finally watch Harold and Kumar.

August is just as full a month, I promise!