Stamp Away Once More Upon a Time

Last year i opted not to go to the annual rubber stamp convention in Cincinnatti and I was sorry.  Not heartbreakingly sorry, just something was missing and even though I have another trip coming up I decided I wasn’t going to miss it this year.  I bought the ticket and made reservations.   Jodi was able to accompany me so that makes it SO much more fun!  We started out with a very glamorous dinner of Culver’s, ice cream and all!  The trip was uneventful and though I had been offered the grand opportunity to do contactless check in, I opted for human contact.  Lord, I get so frustrated with businesses using my phone for their business.  I am that person who just refuses to go along with that program!  Regardless we got to the room and no tub, called down to the front desk and, no tubs here.  Note to self, Delta ( A Marriott product and it is going to be a repeat of the Marriott product of a month ago! We were about to encounter USP plugs that didnt work and TP that is so thin, well…..) off the list.  We got ready for bed and to watch a movie and we could not figure out how to watch anything other than regular TV.  But I had brought a bottle of petite Syrah and we were going to have a glass dammit, even if accompanied by MSNBC!

I got up with less urgency than I had in years gone by.  We used to be there before the doors opened, tail feathers shaking, all excited. But I am SO blessed with stamps and supplies that is it not the earth shaking  rush to get to the grab bags that it was.  As a matter of fact there are no longer grab bags and I would not need it anyway.

It was relatively quiet at first so the shopping was fun, it was mush more spread out and many of my favorites were there and many were not. I did a cursory slow run through taking photos of things I thought I wanted but wanted to see what else was out there before I purchased.  Long story short I didn’t take a pic of the company name and could not find them back!  I was not terribly naughty, got some great stuff and am ready to go home and play!

I picked up Jodi and we went to the Bluebird cafe for lunch.  I just love it and the weather was so lovely that we ate outside.  I had mushroom soup and the perpetual curried chicken salad on a small croissant. 

 Jodi had egg salad on a large croissant.  This place is just lovely, they bake their own croissants, pies and other goodies!

The owner and I had had a chat about the fact that we are from Indy, the stamps and our impending trip to the Jungle.  She suggested we try a new place called Dororthy Lane, she said I would love it.  I might have, but it was not open yet!  So we went to a park that we had visited previously and Jodi read and I TRIED to draw and paint Jodi sitting there reading. 

She took it well as her head was the same size as her feet and we joked that I made her microcephalic.  I am just not adept at drawing which frustrates me to no end.  Regardless, we had an enjoyable afternoon in the lovely weather.  The weather is amazing, usually we are sitting in the park suffering in the heat and it was JUST absolutely beautiful!

There was a family reunion behind us, somewhere behind the trees, but they had a DJ playing R&B and a microphone which we could hear VERY well.  They also had the accompaniment of a canine companion. 

We had reservations at 5:30  at Meritage, a restaurant I have long wanted to try, and we needed to leave.  

I had not made reservations for outside but they had  a spot and it was great to be outside, enjoying  good food and wine, and even better company.  I had monkfish, carrots and Brussel sprout.  

Now these were not just carrots or sprouts.  The fish was in a crab butter, which if I had it to do over I would have had in the beurre blanc sauce they were serving with the fish special.  {The lovely thing about this restaurant is they are willing sub about anything out!}. The carrots were is a sweet sauce of some sort, and the sprouts, well they were scorched, sauced and topped with panchetta.  I had a white Cotes du Rhône  to accompany my meal.

Jodi had a hamburger, salad and a loaded baked potato, and her usual of a White Russian.  NO dessert, we were stuffed!

We went back to the park as we wanted a closer un-peopled look at the waterfall.  It was absolutely lovely, no one was there and we had a grand time taking pics of each other and trying not to skid down the rocks!

We came back to the room after and watched “Conclave”.  It was o.k. But ended rather abruptly. Regardless, I am rather glad I decided not to skip this year,  Good time with Jodi and a renewed enthusiasm to try to find time to stamp!

Nightmares

 I am well and truly prepared to have nightmares tonight but I’ll get to that in a minute. We got up and made coffee. The coffee that came in the room, in the little coffee maker was on the minus side of So so.  To my dismay last night the light in the little coffee maker area did not work, the USB plugs beside my bed did not work so my watch died mid-day yesterday, and the light by the window, didn’t work either. I was going to share that information with management on the way out but there was no one at the front desk to share that information with. Honestly for the price of this room it’s definitely not a do over no matter how cute the view was.

But we enjoyed each other and drank our coffee, got ready and left.  

We went to a little place called The Attic for breakfast, it was lovely, definitely a do over and possibly the culinary highlight of the trip.

After that we went down and sat by the river it had really cooled off and we enjoyed a lovely day. Towards the end of our time hanging out on the river guess who showed back up! Yep you got it!

We have named her Nelly as she is some thing else. So I am all prepared to have bad dreams again but no Jodi here to make fun of me this time. In addition we had Culver’s on the way home so I’ll probably have bad dreams about eating too much as well.

  We’re home safe and sound ready for our next adventure.

Later is Now

We had another chance to grab a weekend together and decided to come back to Madison Indiana.  It is intriguing to me that many folks said: “what are you going to do there?”  Pretty much nothing but relax but still it is charming little town and we enjoyed it here last Fall.  

We agreed we didn’t want to do the same B&B we did before & since I was too tight to do

The Cotton Mill Inn last fall, I decided to stay there this go around.  What changed?  My best friend died a couple of months ago and while I love her hubby, and am glad  he is squared away.  I also watched someone work their whole adult life , retire and fairly soon after die.  Seems that it is true that you can’t take it with you.  Not that I seriously ever thought that but I think we get so caught up in saving for later that we forget that later is now. The hotel is cute a nice mix of the old and modern. Comfy bed, the only sad thing is no bath tub.  C’est le vie!

We went for a short walk along the river and sat down to listen to an open air concert.  It was nice, until…..

This more than portly woman with crazy blond hair constrained a bit with a headband pulled up in a red jeep, music blaring, got out of the car, leaving the door open and started doing some moves.  Jodi said: “look at her.”

It was a mix of karate Kid, bad slo mo ballet & jazz all mixed together. She walked out to this little fenced overlook area and did her her moves. Jodi kept saying look at her and I kept thinking if she’s as crazy as she looks, I don’t want to provoke her.  Her blaring music drowned out the band that was playing and Jodi made up a story about her and a

Couple that walked up and Jodi aid one of them was her ex & she was showing off her moves to let them see what they lost. Regardless she made quite the impression. So much so that I had a bad dream about her. I was dreaming that she chased me into a public bathroom stall and  she had me by the hair and was trying to yank me to her via the space besides the door.  Jodi woke me up laughing, wanting to know what I was dreaming about.  I said I was hollering  for help in my dream and she laughed more.  Jodi said I was saying hootie hooooooo and it didn’t sound desperate. It just goes to show that an ugly image at bedtime is not so good

I got up this morning g pretty late for me and ran down to the lackluster breakfast, but it was food. I have a goodie for breakfast in the AM, included or not.

We went to a little store called Olde Tyme Marketplace. And we found the cutest denim jackets with a swing back!  We each needed one and I found a cute top to take on vacation! Also Jodi found a solar candle, can’t wait to  see how it works!

We tried out a place called the crêperie for lunch and while charming, the food was weird and definitely not French!  

I had the Tomatoe Tatain, which looked

Interesting, and it was but not in a good way.  It was too too too!  I had to eat a few M&Ms to be done with the taste Jodi had a banana crepe

And it was just ok.  So probably not a do over.  

I want a pic of downtown but alas there was a farmers market there and not the image I had in mind  so we headed to Clifty Falls State park,  it was 4 degrees cooler there than in town!

I’m lounging and reading a cute book by Nan Reinhardt.  

Dinner was at the Red Pepperoni the cheese bread was not a hit, salads ok,  pizza good.  

We got back to the room and not a thing had been done.  This hotel was a splurge and we came back to an unmade bed.  They had not serviced the room, at all.  The front desk said that they were supposed to ask if we wanted servie and they forgot, but it is usually every other day and since we were jut here for 2 nights……..It just lost mega points.

Disgusted we went for a walk, the weather is quite nice  not after a nice showers while we were dining on pizza. 

A child or animal cold get lost down this open drain!  

 We watched a American River Cruise board dock at 8 PM?  It took forever and it is an odd thing to us.  Who goes to Madison Indiana at 8 PM looking for much of anything?