March is a cat-focused month. Brandi and I got Luna in February of 2008, so March is usually when we end up taking her in for her annual checkup. She’s 17, so there’s always some anxiety involved—for her and for us. But, other than a few teeth that were cracked and needed to be removed, all the news was good. Which wasn’t exactly a surprise, as she looks and acts as young as ever, but a relief nonetheless.
And a couple of fun shots taken during a night out with friends. I haven’t been doing a great job of taking photos lately—a function of so much time inside, in the same environs, during the winter—but I’m hoping to do better.
August means the start of the high school football season here in Ohio. My alma mater just had artificial turf put down for the first time—I personally preferred the natural grass field, but those are going by the wayside for now. In news that’s actually Commaphile related, the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style made its debut; my copy was delivered on release day and has already taken pride of place near my desk.
I got a new phone (Pixel 9 Pro XL) this month, which of course means I also got a new camera. The football photos and the cocktail photo above were taken with it, as was the cat photo below with the TV in the background. It’s pretty spectacular, just in the limited amount I’ve used it so far; I just need to remember to use it more often.
July kicked off with my 47th birthday on the 4th—my wife baked an incredible cake you can see above. It is called, bizarrely, pig-lickin’ cake; my mom used to make it when I was a kid. Instead of braving downtown Columbus for Red White and Boom or a school construction zone for our local fireworks, we went to a Clippers game on the 5th. The game was great—the Clippers won on a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth—but the postgame fireworks were incredibly disappointing. Lesson learned.
I’m a big fan of the National, a longstanding indie rock band with roots in Ohio. They’re known, among other things, for their melancholy, introspective lyrics, often inspired at least in part by classic or contemporary literature (one of their recent albums is titled First Two Pages of Frankenstein). From this came the “Sad Dads Book Club” on Instagram, a book club dedicated to books inspiring or inspired by the band. I was lucky enough to win a recent giveaway, a copy of the novel Sorrow by Tiffanie DeBartolo (inspired, fittingly enough, by the National song “Sorrow”), and when it arrived I was ecstatic to see that it was signed and personalized by the author. I’m very much looking forward to reading it.
Our neighborhood is always a haven for wildlife. In addition to the lawn-grazing family of deer seen above and typical suburban sights like rabbits and squirrels, there are also plenty of chipmunks, the occasional fox, and once or twice even a couple of turkey vultures, just off the top of my head. There are also a ton of backyard birds, and for a couple of days, we had a goldfinch that got obsessed with our bedroom window. It would flutter around right in front of it and would even perch on the screen so it could peer inside for long stretches at a time. This went on for probably the better part of two days; on the third day I still saw it a few times sitting in the pine tree just outside the window, and then it apparently decided it was time to get on with its life.
Some fun outings this month! A Clippers baseball game featured an appearance by the ZOOperstars, which is a traveling troupe of inflatable animal/sports-themed mascots. It was kind of surreal, but as a baseball fan who came of age in the 1980s, when the most readily available way to watch the sport was via afternoon Cubs broadcasts on WGN, “Harry Canary” cracked me up. A personalized Funko Pop figurine immortalizing Luna and me was a hilarious Father’s Day gift from Brandi. We made our first visit to the Franklin Park Conservatory for a cocktail event—the drinks were mostly “meh,” but the venue was awesome. And finally, Brandi’s birthday gave us an occasion for a nice dinner and a fun night on the town.
A standard complement of cat photos, featuring my favorite and most constant subject.
No major trips this month, but Brandi did have a nice night out at Hyde Park in Columbus, followed by jazz at Ginger Rabbit. I also managed to get home to Troy for a big football game and a quick visit with family.
A little light on photos this month. Highlights include downtown Columbus, where we met up with some friends for a baseball game and some cocktails. A trip to Toledo for work gave me an opportunity for a short visit to Bowling Green. We spent a couple of days in Brandi’s hometown of Clyde, and I made a quick trip to my own hometown of Troy for a football game.
My 46th birthday month (cake pictured above) was a pretty good one! One of the highlights was a tour of Columbus’s rooftop bars—I didn’t take enough photos, but the views were great and so were the cocktails, for the most part. I also had an out-of-town work trip where I randomly ran into two of Brandi’s oldest and dearest friends.
July 20 – 22 I was in Cincinnati. Brandi was there for a conference with her coworkers, so I took Thursday off and went to an afternoon baseball game. I took entirely too much sun and heat, but hey, I was at the ballpark instead of working, and the Reds beat the Giants 5-1.
Brandi’s conference finished up the next day, so we stuck around for the Friday night fireworks game., which saw the Reds beat the Diamondbacks 9-6.
On June 10, Brandi and I went to a Columbus Clippers (Triple A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians) game–we love the Clip Show, but, as fans of the Cincinnati Reds, we went primarily to see future Hall of Famer Joey Votto as he worked his way back to the big leagues after an injury (as well as to see some of the wealth of upcoming Reds prospects like Christian Encarnacion-Strand).
We finished the month with our fourth trip to Put in Bay on Lake Erie. We went for the first time in 2020 as kind of an easy getaway as pandemic restrictions were easing (prematurely, as it turned out, but hey), and we’ve turned in into an annual trip for an easy way to celebrate our wedding anniversary (June 3 – 17 years this year) and both of our birthdays (hers June 22; mine July 4).
One of the highlights from Put in Bay was our trip to the top of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie from the War of 1812. Despite poor air quality and a heavy haze (which you can see in the photos) from the Canadian wildfires, its 352-foot height provided quite a view of the island. I’m already looking forward to going up again on our next trip, when (hopefully) clearer air will mean an even more majestic view.
This month, Brandi and I took a more-or-less spur-of-the-moment trip to Chicago to see my favorite band, the National, on the third night of their tour to promote their new album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. It was a whirlwind weekend. We only had a few hours in the city before the concert, but the city was glorious, and the show itself (opened by Soccer Mommy, a band I was unfamiliar with but am now happily exploring) was euphoric.
A handful of cat photos, as per usual…but the highlight of the month was a trip to New Orleans! It’s a place we had never been before and always wanted to check out. It’s known for it’s food, music, and haunted history, and we found all of the above to be outstanding. Definitely one of my favorite vacations.
The Commaphile 