Video Grab Bag . . .

Three weeks is a long time to be off this grid.  But it has been a busy three weeks – a show in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a nasty cold, wedding planning, rotten weather.  You get the idea.  By the time most of you read this, I will have arrived in sunny Tucson for a few days with my parents – of course, I waited until the first day of what appears to be spring weather in Ohio to finally escape.

Here are a few things I noticed over the past few weeks . . .

The best thing I saw all weekend in Allentown.  I have seen canines in strollers before, but never with a private wheelchair . . .

If you’re on our e-mail list, you may have already seen this.  We R Memory Keepers sent a demo Flower Punch Board to me in Allentown, so I sat down at the workdesk in my hotel room and made this flower –  with the tagline, “If I can do this, surely you can do better.”  Melinda Doster insisted that a picture be taken as I wore my creation – no doubt you can tell how thrilled I was.

I heard quite a commotion while we were tearing down the booth, and looked behind me to watch Joel of Heartfelt Creations pulling one of his cabinets into a truck with a cable and a winch.  It was quite the sight, especially when it reached the top of the ramp and started to sway.  So I pulled out my phone and got video of his next attempt.  For those of you who get the blog by e-mail, click in the black box above and the video should show up – if not, click this instead . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw5cXnBMmuA

When I got home from Allentown, my first duty was to deliver the treats that Bev Parnell brought to the show for Zoe.  I wanted Bev to see Zoe’s reaction, so out came the phone again.  Again, for those of you who get the blog by e-mail, click in the black box above and the video should show up – if not, click this instead . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjPk_hQuz0

I love the NCAA tournament, but ran into a dilemma last Thursday when the University of Dayton Flyers played The Ohio State University Buckeyes (watch the introductions on any NFL game this fall – an Ohio State alum will always refer to his school as “The Ohio State” – I’m an Ohio State fan and it gets old).  I root for both teams, but when push comes to shove, I am an Ohio State football fan and a Dayton basketball fan.  When I was in college at Miami University (that’s the real Miami in Ohio – we sometimes remind folks that Miami was a university when Florida still belonged to Spain), I used to sit in the front row at Millett Hall for Miami/Dayton games and root for Dayton.  The frat boys hated me – but while Miami got my money, my allegiance was with Dayton.  When Dayton won last Thursday, the local paper skewered Ohio State on the front page, and the headline went viral.

If you don’t have a rooting favorite Thursday evening for Dayton/Stanford, you can join my mom and me and root for the Flyers – we’ll be watching from Tucson.

And last week we went into serious Wedding Planner mode – and learned that Panera Bread is a great place to spread stuff out on tables.  We accomplished a lot – the invitations were picked out, guest list was finalized, and much much more.  This is Emily along with her mom and stepdad – Ryan was on the other side of the table but I cropped him out because he was looking goofy.

That’s it for now.  Don’t expect too many pictures of me from the trail – Blake isn’t making the trip this time so I’ll be on the wrong side of the camera . . .