Cold and Wet Fort Wayne

So, now it's Monday and yes, it appears that it will be a rainy day just as forecast.  But that's okay - I lots of times enjoy a "hunker down" kind of day and am planning on doing some embroidery, maybe making a batch of cookies that I've been wanting to try and figured being here was a good time to do it cause I'll have someone to share them with.  At home I usually take a plateful to the baristas at my Starbucks but if these are good, it will be nice sharing them with my kiddies.

We've been out and about several times now to different parts of the city for various errands and I am really liking the looks of Fort Wayne.  They have a lot of older homes clustered in and around the city  (January's house is about 2-3 blocks from the downtown area).  They have a huge library, a wonderful courthouse (and maybe there's more in that one cause it's very big also), several very large and very lovely churches, and so on.  I just looked up their population and in 2014 it was estimated at 256,000-some so I guess that's one reason it's as big as it is.  I just never thought of Fort Wayne as a metropolis, but it pretty much is.  The site I went to for info also said they are the 77th "most populous" city in the nation!  So a lot of people are living in the city proper apparently.  They suffered from "de-industrialization" in the 80's and business and people were moving out of the city to the surrounding areas but they went to work on it and in the 90's began to get it turned around.  Poor Huntington started it's decline back in the 80's also and still has a ways to go although it's certainly better than it was at its worst.

Anyway, no pictures yet but hopefully before I leave I'll get some sightseeing done.  I've taken some of their crazy cats, Knucklehead and Chucklehead, Knuckles and Chuckles for short.  They're young lads and brothers and they love chasing one another.  Poor Knuckles had a wound of some type under his chin and kept scratching the scab off, hence the blue collar.  He licks and licks at the collar trying to bathe himself.  Two or three times a day, January takes it off so he can bathe properly but you have to keep an eye on him cause he wants to scratch that itch.

Chuckles is looking rather crazed because he does not like that bowtie!








And, I've only taken a few of their house inside because they've just barely moved in.  They moved out of their house in Maryland and into this house in January when Maggie started her job over here but January stayed with Chris and her job at CUA until she got a job and they didn't have her start until March 28 so she's only been here two weeks.  So there is still much unpacking, organizing, filling walls with all the neat things they have on their walls always, but I took these just to show what the house is like.  I'm assuming the ceilings are 10 feet high because they're higher than my 9 foot ceilings and downstairs counting the kitchen which is in what I think used to be a back porch, there are 5 rooms.  Upstairs I think there's also 5 but it's hard keeping track because the rooms go into each other. But I love old houses and this is a nice old house.  Has an unfinished basement too.

 This first one is in the front room looking out to the entrance hall.  The organ isn't theirs but it stayed with the house and actually works!  It's a pump organ.

And this is in what was originally a very large kitchen and the doorway goes to the stairway.  This is where the pantry is and my guess is the stove was in front of the left side wall cause there's a gas pipe that comes up there and I would wonder if before there was a gas stove, there maybe was a wood stove and the built-ins on that wall had a chimney going up.  Oh, and that's my clutter on the table. :)

This is a photo of just the built in china cabinet/buffet that I love.  The door beside it goes down to the basement.

 And this last one is looking from the middle room which I would assume was a dining room since it's off the original kitchen.  And then that front room would have been the "front room" or parlor.  There's a small room off this room with the entrance on the right hand wall.  That room and the entry to the front room have double doors.  I'm curious what the small room  would have been used for.

So that's it from Fort Wayne so far.  The drive here from Maysville was horrible but I won't be coming that way again most likely so I think it will be better coming straight from Huntington.  And once I got here and was so glad to be here I just decided that I'd rather stay here than go on up to Chicago.  That 3-show weekend in Chicago is wonderful and everyone who is an avid dollhouse/miniaturist fan should put it on their bucket list, but I've been several times and if I ever do go again I'll make it its own trip.

Tonight January is going to cook bar-b-q shrimp which I think is a misnomer.  This is a recipe that Chris and Heather's stepmom made years back (and probably still) and the kids raved so much about it that I asked for the recipe and used to make it myself when there were enough people to eat it.  It has nothing to do with bar-b-q and is simply delicious.  If January has the recipe written down, I'll try and get it posted.  Hmmm....it would be interesting to see how it might work cutting it all the way down to a "cooking for one" recipe.

Maggie already made a delicious Indian dinner for us my first night here.  Indian cooking is her specialty and she has really delved into it.  We had chicken Korma served with a side dish of red lentils and rice and naan bread.  Who knows?  She may have to open an Indian restaurant some day! :)

So, ta-ta from Fort Wayne, Indiana - not my home town but it is my home state so when I'm here I can say I'm a native.  Something I can't do in Huntington even though I've lived there for 38 years.  Good grief, where does the time go???