Mostly pictures (for a change!)

But a little intro - After my birthday trip to Asheville I drove up to Chris's so we could go to an Apple store and get all my "stuff" straightened out.  On Monday, 3/12, I drove back home but I didn't make it - had a truly terrifying accident on a bridge east of Beckley, WV,  lost complete control of the car, slammed into a bridge abutment (fortunately it was a good one!) and ended up spending the night in a hospital there and losing my much loved 15-year old Hyundai Elantra.  I also ended up with enough pain on my left side that I had taken to sleeping on the couch - although I'm happy to report that the last two nights I've been back in my bed.

Friday, March 30 was a beautiful day (and there have been very few of those lately - mostly rain, rain, rain) so I decided to go beyond my walk to Starbucks and see how the river was doing.  It was quite high - flooded almost up to the top of the stairs going down to the lower walkway - but very still and lovely as always.  So I had to take some pictures - I do love this river!

I'm always delighted when I can get a picture with a reflection in the river...

 This was the only tree in bloom and it's a beauty.  I realize the picture below has that big dead branch hanging down from another tree, but I didn't have a saw with me!

This gorgeous mallard's iridescent green neck doesn't show up at all in the photo but it was gleaming in the sunlight.  All the ducks looked much bigger than usual.  Maybe when they fly down south, they all get fattened up?

Then on Saturday,  I woke up from my couch slumber, turned my head to look out the window and this is what I saw:

Nothing!  Made me happy I was all snug inside and also made me happy I live up high and can see so much from my oversized windows - even if it's dense fog.  Once I got up and closer to a window, I took the picture below...

Once again, it was a rainy day.

So that's it - just a bit of the beauty and invisibility of good ol' West Virginia.  I am carless and hope to get that taken care of next week after I'm done with my doctoring.  But I sure do miss my little "I can do it" Hyundai. :(

Way too long since last post...

especially when I had every intention of reporting on what was probably one of the nicest Christmases I've had since my kids grew up and I started spending Christmases with them instead of them with me.  I enjoy all our Christmases, but this one was really special.  Part of it may be that I think the older I get (and I'm sure getting older!), the more I'm relaxing and just enjoying whatever is happening - no worry about this or that detail.  Anyway, it was great.

But today, I'm posting partly to say isn't weather a strange thing?  At least this year.  We have had, overall, one of the coldest winters I can remember - I mean FRIGID!!  And even though we never seemed to accumulate much, it snowed off and on all winter.  But spring finally comes, the trees start budding, one day all the whatever kind of trees are suddenly blooming, it gets too warm a few times, and then on April 15, it snows!  And I have tried over and over to get pictures of the snow and they're never good and neither is this one, but I'm posting it anyway cause, I mean, April 15!!!

This first one is the snow picture and if you think hard you can see little white dots.  It really did snow heavily periodically but never did accumulate since the day before it was in the 70's and then rained all night!  The second one is just to prove that stuff really was blooming. :) 

So that was Monday.  Today, I went to The Wild Ramp, a "local food" market, to get some eggs.  Bought my standard half dozen that always has 5 brown eggs and a real pretty soft green egg.  Then I noticed that they had quail eggs!  They were so cute I could hardly stand it but I wasn't real sure what I would do with them.  I know they're kind of the rage now at upscale restaurants, but my home isn't an upscale restaurant.  However, I decided to get them and check in with Google.  Did that and there were all kinds of ideas, especially Asian-type goodies, one of which was serving a poached quail egg on Soba noodles.  That made me think "Eureka!! - I'll make some spaghetti carbonara!"  I love it and have made it occasionally but using just two ounces of spaghetti and a large egg, it ends up with the egg not cooking and coating as well as it should.  So I'm thinking maybe two, or even three of these little bitties would be just about right.  And... yesterday I had just bought some Oscar Mayer "carving board" smoked ham which is thicker cut than their sandwich ham, thinking I would use it in my egg strata.  Now I will also use it in the spaghetti carbonara.  I realize you're supposed to use pancetta or bacon, but I've used ham before and it's good too.  And when I make the strata, I plan to use one regular egg and one little quail egg because all the comments about them say that they have a higher ratio of yolk to white than a chicken egg and therefore taste a little richer which should make the strata even tastier.

Aren't they just cute?  That's a quarter in the picture (and it just dawned on me, I should have used a chicken egg for comparison).  I realize all of this is probably pretty uninteresting to a lot of people but if you love cooking and are single, maybe you'll find it exciting too.  I will report on how it all goes...

And, if you've made it this far, I just came across this in my drafts which means I never published it, so I will now. 

Woo-hoo for Huntington!!  Follow this link and check out #7 to find out why.  After you've checked that out, you're allowed to look at the other nine and see if any of them would make a nice weekend trip for you. :)

Another quick note...

It is a beautiful Saturday morning here in "almost heaven" West Virginia.  When I checked the temperature this morning, it was 72 degrees and I decided a nice long walk was in order.  Went out to do my 2-mile route and discovered that there was a marathon going on this morning.  So, as the runners when down one side of the street, I was walking along on the other side.  I think they were probably doing a 5K run...

But I kept to my 2-mile walk and it just was so wonderful to not be burning up, sweating buckets, etc.  And, then having been so good and healthy, I stopped off at our bakery which I noticed when I got back from France has started selling pain du chocolat croissants and I bought one.  Oh, my goodness!!!  Very, very good.  A fair amount more chocolate than the ones I had in France, an incredibly flaky crust, and almost oozing butter.  I will have to be very, very careful and only treat myself to one occasionally.

Also, today is the annual "Hot Dog Festival" down at Pullman Square so I'll have to decide if I'm just going to go ahead and be bad all day.  I should get down there in time to see the "weiner dog" races - never have seen them and think they would be a hoot.  If I do, I'll get a picture or two.

Guess that's it - I'm hoping to get that mini quilt finished this weekend - at least the borders.  I get intimidated when it's time to do the binding and that always creates a delay while I work up my courage to make the attempt. :)

And, my gosh - I just heard great fire truck honkings and a siren or two so went to see what that was all about, and it was a bunch of bikers coming probably from Ritter Park and headed towards Pullman Square.  Big doings in Huntington today!

Downtown Keeps Getting Better!

And I've been remiss in not keeping up with all of it.  So without further ado, here's what's been happening.

I think way back in the summer I took a picture of the "coming soon" signs for a new place called "Tropical Moon".  Since then, they've opened and have self-serve frozen yogurt (although I'm not sure if that's what I'm supposed to call it).  When you go in, there's a bank of yogurt dispensers - I'm thinking probably 8 , maybe 10 - all different flavors and you grab a big cup, and take as much and as many flavors as you want.  Then you can check out the toppings bar and put on as much and as many as you want of those too.  Then you get it weighed and they tell you how much it costs.  The flavors I've had are really delicious and the last couple of times I've added crumbled Oreos to mine.  And...4 ounces only has 100 calories and is ridiculously cheap.  So that's pretty exciting.

And then one of Huntington's favorite restaurants, Huntington Prime, is getting ready to open an addition of sorts.  Their restaurant is located on the ground floor of the West Virginia building and a number of years ago there was a restaurant on top of that building.  That's where Huntington Prime is opening their new area.  I never ate at the old restaurant but from what I hear the views were spectacular so I'm really looking forward to their opening.  I can't quite figure out if they'll have the exact same menu at both or if the rooftop will be maybe a somewhat lighter menu but the food I've had there has been very good so I bet the new place will be pretty good too. 

And, then (yes, there's more), I just found out that apparently this coming week one of the empty storefronts on Fourth Avenue is going to be opening and will be one of those "malls" where various vendors rent space to sell various bits and pieces.  NOTE:  It's now a week later and they have opened so I have some pictures. These first two are of one of two antique dealers who have rented space there.  I'm sure they have a business name, but if I was told what it was, I can't remember it.  The second antique dealer had his shop at Heritage Station and is moving it here.  I didn't take a picture of his area because he was still unpacking.

 I always thought his shop had really nice pieces, but mostly stuff one could actually afford and this second dealer also has a wonderful collection of items.  When they're finally all settled in, I'm going to have to take a really good look.  I'm sure my sister and I will be wandering there when she gets here (two more days!)









Also, in this same "mall" will be the Crumpets and Tea Cafe that has been such a hit since it opened in Heritage Station along with their partner, Jenks Frame Shop.  Losing these business will be a blow to Heritage Station, but hopefully, they will be finding new vendors also.  I took some pictures of the tea room where they have hundreds of teacups and teapots and other delightful things to buy in addition to delicious lunches.

It's really great how much more room the tea room has now.  And in that little nook in the back left corner they've set up a pint-sized table and chairs so a child can enjoy tea also.  Guess where my granddaughter and I will be headed when she comes on a visit!? 

And last but not least, is Jenk's Frame Shop.  He's done a lot of framing for me over the years and it's nice to see him in such a great location.

Because my apartment is such a mess from the workers finally getting started on it this past Monday, I decided to treat myself to lunch at Hillbilly Hotdogs.  On the way back I stopped at the River and Rail Bakery to stock up on my demi-baguettes (I've finally started freezing them and it works fine).  I noticed that they were having some kind of Halloween/Autumn/whatever stuff going on outside and decided I'd better take a look around.  I'm so glad I did because there are several more shops there that were new to me although they've been there for some months, I guess.

First off is Esscentials Gift, www.esscentialgifts.com, located in one of the two boxcars at Heritage Station (there's also an old steam locomotive and a passenger car that the kids love to climb on).  The owner of this shop makes bead jewelry which covers one side of the center wall of the shop. On the opposite wall is some really beautiful costume jewelry.  I just took a friend in there yesterday and I was still really impressed with the quality.  And for how lovely it is, it's quite reasonably priced, I think.  I tried pictures of each wall but they were fairly uninspired looking, so I just will post this one of three of the costume jewelry necklaces.

Aren't they fantastic?  Of course, a lot of the pieces aren't quite this exotic, and the owner's own jewelry designs are quite simple, yet lovely, so there's something for every taste.

On the other side of the little jewelry area, is a collection of very nice primitive pieces, along with scented candles made from soy, and nifty decorated wax "tubes" that you sit down on a base that has a short electric candle attached to it with those silicone coated bulbs that are so pretty.  As the "tube" heats up, it begins to very gently emit its aroma.  Very nice.  She also has numerous primitive framed prints, little bits and pieces to sit here and there looking cute, and so on.  Her type of shop always makes me wish I had a room that I could do in primitive.  As far as I know now, she is staying in Heritage Station.

The next new-to-me shop was Commonground Shoppes which is just a delightful gift shop.  Everything pretty much handmade and a lot of that locally.  In fact I bought a Christmas gift there for ... not telling.  When I was there it was mostly Halloween-related although she had jewelry and other items that were not seasonal.  Her card doesn't list a website.  She will be staying at her Heritage Station location and her shop connects to three other storefronts which are occupied by MIAPPA (made in Appalachia).  My understanding is that they are going to keep space at Heritage Station but also have space in the "mall" on Fourth Avenue.  They have all kinds of wonderful, hand-made, items, some of which I'd like for myself and some which would make wonderful gifts.  Beautiful knitted scarves, very unique carved wooden Santa tree ornaments, and beautiful leaf pendants carved from bone by the same artist.  I spoke with the woman working there that day, Kari Newman, who handcrafts lampwork glass beads and they are fantastic!  She has an etsy shop at www.BeadUniquebyKari.etsy.com which I haven't visited yet but I was really intrigued by these beads.  I told her I've heard of lampwork glass for years and never did know for sure what it meant.  I didn't know why lamps made from glass would be considered so special - I mean, there are thousands of those lamp oil lamps and who knows what else.  But the "lamp" part comes from the fact that originally, the glass for the beads (or whatever) was heated by a very hot burning "lamp" and then shaped and formed into the artist's creation.  My very favorite of her work was a toadstool that had so many colors in it.  I might have to treat myself to that and put it on a cord as a pendant.  Some more pictures:

First, Common Ground...



















And, now MIAPPA:

Also, I finally got around to eating at one of Huntington's newer restaurants, the Tahona Grille.  It's been open for several months and I don't know why but I had just never been inspired to try it.  But one night this past week (with my apartment in shambles and me wanting OUT!) I called one of my neighbors whose husband was out of town to see if she wanted to have dinner with me there cause she had told me how much she and her husband like it.  And I was very happy with what I ordered.  Just a simple cheese quesadilla with chicken, but very nicely toasted and presented, and I'm certain that the guacamole and pico de gallo was all house-made.  And people at a table nearby had what looked and smelled like really delicious choices so I'll probably be going back there again.  I think one reason I was kind of hesitant was because their menu has Mexican, Italian and I guess you'd say American food and that made me think maybe none of it would be too great, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

 And, finally!, it's good I didn't get this finished when I first started it because this past Sunday there was a write-up in the paper about another place to eat(!) called La Famiglia - Italian, obviously, and serving pasta, paninis and subs, and pizza baked in a wood-fired oven.  So, of course, I had to go try that out.  It's in one of the big old houses that Huntington has so many of within walking distance of me.  I ordered a pulled pork panini cause it intrigued me to see pulled pork on a menu and not have it be bar-b-q.  It was absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious.  I shouldn't have eaten the whole thing but I did and began to think I'd never be hungry again.  I was so delighted with it, that when Jamie and I had lunch on Friday, we went back and this time I had a prosciutto and provolone panini and she had...hmmm...it was a panini that I know had their marinara sauce on it, but I can't remember what else.  Again, mine was very good.  Their things like the prosciutto and other meats and their parmesan reggiano cheese, etc., are all from Italy.  I'm anxious to try one of the pizzas cause I have always liked them baked in a wood-fired oven.  And I'd like to try one of their pastas because in addition to the marinara sauce, they have a "La Famiglia" sauce that is made with the same shredded pork as was in my sandwich.

It's family run and everything, as far as I know, is homemade.  However it's made, so far, it's delicious!

And, that's all for now folks.  I've got a pot roast just about ready to eat, the Occupy Huntington folks who apparently will never leave their new home, have quit beating on their bongo drum, and it's been a pleasant Sunday.

I am so glad to finally get this post done.  I've had it going for about two weeks, I think. :)

West Virginia Fame

I don't how many people I know who have had the experience when traveling of telling people they're from West Virginia and people think they mean the western part of the state of Virginia!  We treat it as "sort of" a joke, but I'm sure for true WV natives, it rankles a little.

But...it's going to be difficult before too long for anybody not to know about us.  Just in the past few years, we've had our wonderful Hillbilly Hotdogs featured on the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", plus they were mentioned in a travel issue of "National Geographic" magazine and even got a mention in a London newspaper!  And, of course, Jamie Oliver did his first set of the "Jamie's Kitchen" here in Huntington.  And I was just reading the latest issue of "Budget Travel" magazine recently, and they had a section on the "10 most delightful towns in the US" and right up in the number one spot was Lewisburg, WV!!  It IS a delightful town - I've been there several times and always enjoy it.  And, now last night, a young man from Logan, WV, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., won "America's Got Talent".  I don't watch the show and only learned last week from a friend that he was one of the finalists.  When the news came on last night, that was the lead story which I thought was kind of fun.

So, look out world - West Virginia IS a state and who knows what will come next in our climb up the ladder of nationwide (and then world, no doubt) recognition!

And from my own experience, living in lots of different places, I can only say it is the friendliest state I've ever lived in and I love its hills and my Ohio River. 

P.S. to My Morning Post

I had a  few more pictures to add to what I typed this morning and got so caught up in the recipes I forgot all about it!

My older daughter and her family have recently become alpaca farmers - how's that for a hoot!?  So on the left is a picture of little Sophia with some of the little alpacas.  And on the right is a picture of little Sophia with her hair cut!!!  She started kindergarten this past week and reported to her mom when she got home after her first day ..."SCHOOL IS AWESOME!!!" And, yes, I used all caps cause when Sophia's happy and excited about something she's really excited and happy about it. :)

And they're refurbishing another building downtown.  When we moved here so many of the old buildings had false fronts on them.  I guess that was the style in what? the fifties or sixties?  Anyway, over the last 5 or so years, a lot of those have been coming down and it sure is making Huntington a more attractive city.  These next pictures are of what was one of three theaters in downtown Huntington (all of which closed back when the mall opened up with a multiplex type theater).  One is back in business and is used for special concerts, the Marshall Artists Series, wedding receptions(!), etc.  The other shows second run movies for a much lower price than the first run movies in the big theaters.  And this third one has been the Joslyn School of Dance for several years now and I don't know what the plan is now that they are restoring the outside.  I shall be watching for further developments.

This is as close as I have to what it looked like before they started.  You can see the fake panels covered the entire front.  That's the marquee coming down when I took this picture.  Isn't the brick work great?  Very art-deco I think.

And now everything has been removed and they've put the plywood up across the top.  I think it's really going to be attractive when it's finished.

And now that is really and truly it for today.  Please be sure and visit the post below this one for a few more pictures from Huntington and my update on floods, fender benders, etc. :)

A Rainy Day So A Good Time to Blog

(Update from when I typed this this morning:  I uploaded the two recipes mentioned below and now, you can either blame or thank the rain because I added four more!  And it's still raining!  So, 1 new under Pasta and 5 new under Sweets)

This is probably going to be long and rambling and I've been taking pictures around town so will just stick them in here and there even they won't relate to what I'm talking about.

I'm still waiting for anything to happen with getting repairs started on my condo.  But at least it's beginning to sound like aside from my deductible, everything will be covered which has eased my mind quite a bit.  This past two weeks have been kind of like living under a cloud!  There was the flood, of course.  Then I got one of those sore spots on my tongue which would not go away and hurt when I swallowed, talked, ate, etc.  Finally after about 5 days I remembered how the aspirin had cleared up that wound on my hand that wouldn't healed and thought "well, nothing ventured, nothing won" so I managed to wedge an aspirin between my tongue and gum (a video of that would be hilarious) and the next morning it was quite a bit better - still there but not excruciating.  So, who knows?  Either it was time for it to get better, or I really have discovered that aspirin applied to whatever's bothering you does the trick!  Still under that cloud, my eye had some problems - kept feeling like something was in it and hurting.  I finally noticed a blister-type thing on my eyeball and thought "good grief".  But it quit bothering me...the blister is still there and I should maybe have it looked at but...  And as a final little "we're not done with you yet" reminder, my friend Peggy and I decided to go to Charleston last Wednesday and I parked my car at her house and she drove.  We had just started our shopping when her husband called to see if we wanted to come back because her neighbor had pulled out of her garage and backed into my car!!  Once he said the it was still driveable, and realizing that her insurance was going to be taking care of it all, I found the incident funny, actually.  We didn't go back home and had a real nice time shopping and eating.

Two pictures of the new cupcake bakery.  This was her second day in business and already when I walk by I see she's really got it looking spiffy.  I, of course, got a cupcake the day I was there and it was, of course, delicious, but for the most part, I'll just try and forget it's there!


Speaking of eating (aren't I always?), I've posted two more recipes to my collection.  One is for a roasted red pepper sauce that I've made before but apparently never posted.  Made it again last night and really do like it.  It's not Italian I guess, but whatever it is it's quite tasty.  And it dawned on me as I was once again cutting the recipe into quarters that from now on when I cook these sauces I like so much, I'll cook the full recipe and freeze portions.  Duh!!  The other recipe is for a dessert called apple pudding, which sounds really weird but pudding is referring to a pudding like plum pudding.  You don't steam this, but it's that kind of texture.  Made it one evening when Jamie, Cindy and I went out for dinner.  They professed to love it.  I served it with some de leche ice cream which didn't hurt at all either.  This was an old recipe that I had totally forgotten about.  But once I made it and ate it I remembered that I used to make it years and years ago and we all liked it.

I set up a little shop on Etsy.com.  Don't know why really - for one thing, I always enjoy learning how to get something like that done; ergo, the website, this blog, etc.  But also it's pumped up my interest in my needlework and I just finished cross-stitching a little Noah's Ark and am pondering whether to frame it, fringe it for a wall-hanging, or maybe quilt strips of fabric in the colors of the stitching and then mount it to that.  And I'm already looking forward to some more tiny stitching.  It's unfortunate in a way that the second or third day my shop was "open" I sold a little rug.  Because there's every possibility I'll never sell anything else which could be disheartening, but I won't let it be - I'll just use the shop as my excuse to keep on stitchin'. :)  And when I have enough stitched, I might take it all out of the shop and get myself a table at a miniature show...

I've started (or am trying to) a new walking regimen of Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday walking at least more than a mile and a couple of times already, I've walked about 2 miles.  I do it before breakfast which is a real nice time - not much going on and not much traffic except on the two one-way roads that go through downtown Huntington.  I have music playing on my phone and it's been quite enjoyable.  Especially  before the weather got real hot again.  The last few days of August were surprisingly nice - actually chilly in the morning, pleasant during the day and beautiful up on the roof in the evening.  On one of the clearest days we've had all summer I think, I took some pictures at the river, but they didn't turn out as pretty as I wanted.  But this one is pretty nice:

You can see how pretty the sky was and the flowers are pretty.  All the flower beds and tubs at the riverfront park are planted and maintained by volunteers who are certainly earning their halos!

A couple of other pictures taken on my walks...

On the left, just a sign, but a sign of good things to come!  They are apparently still on schedule to open mid-September.

And on the right is the water massage place I mentioned in an earlier post.  They're already open and I wish them all success, but I don't think I'll be brave enough to try it out.  And ever since I've lived in Huntington (and I'm sure for quite a while before that,) this place was a peanut/candy shop and I just can't get my head around going in for a water massage instead of a bag of peanuts! :)


That's about all I can think of for now.  I am getting quite excited by the thought of going up to NYC for the miniature show and an evening on the town with Chris!  He's just started a flex-time system at work and has the Friday off that week so instead of going up after he gets off work, we'll be going up Friday morning and can probably work in a little museum or just Manhattan walking or whatever when we get up there.

Another Recipe and Catching Up

I just posted another recipe to my recipe collection (see tab above).  This is for scrambled eggs with olives which may sound fairly awful but I gave it a shot and loved it.

And as far as catching up, I was awakened at 3:00 a.m. Friday morning to the sound of running water, went to see what on earth (while one of our torrential storms raged outside) and found water pouring out of the ceiling vent fan in my bathroom.  I also found, being in my bare feet that I was standing on soggy carpet. :(  So, since then, I've pretty much been taken up with first of all doing all I could to sop up what seemed to be a vast amount of water in the bathroom (no problem, tile floor), my entire hallway into the entry area of the bedroom, and around the corner into the living room out to the front door.  Sometime Friday they brought in four of those industrial type fans and I spent the next 24 hours or so in a wind tunnel - had to go into my little office closet when I wanted to use the phone).  This is the first day that I've actually felt like staying home and getting caught up on things a little.  I spent the weekend doing what I could here for as long as I could stand it and then leaving til I got unstressed enough to come back and do some more.

It's what's coming that is keeping me kind of stressed.  I have a fair amount of water damage to areas of my walls throughout the apartment.  It's worst in the bathroom but my bedroom closet will have to have wallboard replaced and there are several other places where the wallboard tape has curled up and that may mean those pieces of wallboard would have to be replaced also, unless they can somehow peel off the tape and just put on new (doubtful).  However they repair it, I'm assuming they'll have to paint the entire apartment because even where there is no damage, the color wouldn't match after being on the walls for 5 years.  I can't quite imagine how it's all going to take place without various disasters occurring, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I think last week I was thinking of several tidbits I needed to journal but they've mostly flown out of my head with all this.  But I can report that we're getting yet another new little business downtown - about a block away from me.  It's a frozen yogurt place called "Tropical Moon" and some of you may be familiar with them.  I guess you go in and serve yourself whatever flavors you want with whatever toppings and they charge by the ounce.  Oh wowee wow is about all I can say about that! :)

Another place is going to be opening too and it's an aqua-massage salon(?)  Has anyone ever heard of those and/or used them?  I can't quite imagine it - he said it's like a tanning bed and you get in and get massaged with needles of spray.  But then what - you just get out and drip for a while?  I mean, this is going to be in a store that used to be a peanut/candy store and has windows and a very visible inside...don't know if I'll work up the nerve for that or not.

Anyway, that's it from Lake Woebegone (such an appropriate name right now...)

Saturday Night and It's All Done

I'm going to pretty much just post my pictures and video links from today's "work".  My first photo has a time stamp of 5:59 a.m. and the last photo taken was at 7:00 p.m.  I had been out running a couple of errands and when I got home, it was looking like they were pretty much finished up.  So I got myself upstairs, grabbed my camera, and watched while they got their trucks all positioned, moved the last of the road closed signs, and took off down Fifth Avenue.

So without further ado, here are a batch of photos:

First pic of the morning - very few people about as yet and they're getting the cage ready to hoist up.

The little green crane that could is already working away - this is looking down from my bedroom window to the canopy that extends out from our lobby door.

I didn't realize it til I got up on the roof, but there was also a marathon early this morning - this is the last of the runners coming in...

Then they gathered at Pullman Square.

Back at work, they're struggling to get this long side piece off and up.  Part of it is behind a metal ladder that runs from the lower roof to the upper - think it would have been easier if they had sliced the trim piece in two.

I thought I heard a dove cooing...

All the red trim is off now so they can start on the sign.  It takes quite a while!

They used an acetylene torch to cut through whatever was holding all this stuff on. 

Here are the trim pieces and the first sign (there are three of them) on the ground.

I don't know when they took their lunch break, but I took mine and while I was outside, I got this picture from the ground up.

For the second and third signs, they had to do the cutting work from the cage - no convenient roof space to walk around on.

And here's that third sign going down to the trash.

Getting later in the day and they're now in the clean-up stage.  I guess all that black on the pavement must be from using the torch to cut the metal pieces into smaller pieces.

 And as long as I was up there, I figured I might as well take a couple shots of that beautiful river:

I should probably have taken more still shots and fewer videos cause the videos didn't turn out real great - I used the zoom a fair amount and didn't realize how blurry that would make the pictures.  But here are the links to the ones I kept.  Somewhat repetitive and basically boring, but it was exciting while it was all going on. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7zFTESeFtQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWqb_0ewTd8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFmEikVloEs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF0MpqRD8Aw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscO85hHxWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Njl0QReRNk

Not very fancy, but I've worn myself out with all this hi-tech stuff!