...it was NOT a thing she especially wanted to put on right after she had gotten home from her beauty shop appointment!
Over the Christmas holidays, I had a surprise call from one of my college fraternity brothers, John Hassmann. He and his wife, Sherry, live in Louisville, KY. We had not seen each other for almost 20 years and made arrangements to meet in Cincinnati, Ohio, for dinner.
Both Lena and I throughly enjoyed getting together with them for an excellent meal at the MONTGOMERY INN which is located in one of Cincinnati’s suburbs.

This photo of Sherry (and the look on John’s face) could be titled:

“HEY, WHAT did you expect? I told you THAT would happen *IF* you PULLED MY FINGER!”
John and Sherry own and operate their own retail business “A Taste of Kentucky” (http://www.atasteofkentucky.com/) in Louisville and they are busy preparing for the Kentucky Derby.
Dave and Cheryl took Lena and I to one of Columbus’s better restaurants— ENGINE HOUSE #5—for dinner. This restaurant is actually a real Fire Station which had been built around the turn of the century and used for many years during the time when horses were used to pull the “fire wagons.”
Their speciality is seafood and related dishes such as Lobster and Crab.
Steve decided to try their Maine Lobster and Lena opted for the “Mahi-Mahi.” In addition, Lena sampled Dave’s dinner and found out she loves raw OYSTERS in the half-shell and muscles (plus, Steve’s lobster)!
Hey, if you visit a Fire House, you have to try out sliding down the fireman’s POLE!
My September 4-11 (2002) trip to Springfield was rather special: TWO of my first cousins...whom I had not seen for at least 20 years...stopped by my mom’s house while I was there! This is Mike Kirkpatrick (who lives on a farm in Modoc, Indiana). Mike has access to BEEF TONGUES...
...which are incredibly expensive in California (*IF* you can even find them) and he was kind enough to bring me FOUR tongues to carry home in my suitcase! My mother & Aunt Mary had also found a local Springfield family which was canning and selling their...
...own Black Angus beef. I had ordered 14 of the 28 OZ cans of Black Angus Beef (as shown in lower right part of this photo). Mary and Mom had a good laugh over my planning to carry the beef tongues plus all the canned meat in my suitcase on the plane back to California.
Actually, I had bought the canned beef to mix together with a favorite Russian staple called “Gretcha” (which is actually ‘buckwheat’ grain). I had brought some “Gretcha” with me from California (the box I’m holding in this photo) and prepared some together...
...with the excellent locally-canned Black Angus beef for Mom, Mike, and Mary to try. Lena had provided me detailed cooking instructions (“Boil for 20 Minutes; Mix with Canned Meat”) for the Gretcha. All of us thoroughly enjoyed having a taste-treat not experienced by many people in Springfield.
This is another first cousin, Tom Kirkpatrick, who drove down from his home in Marysville, Ohio, to see me for a couple of hours before I left for my return trip to California. Tom and I are almost exactly the same age: His birthday is only 2 weeks after mine!
Tom was also a career Navy man who had retired a few years before I did. It was really great to see both Tom and Mike after all these years and I hope that we will all be able to get together for a longer visit when I return again to Ohio.
My brother, Dave, and his wife, Cheryl took me to another new restaurant, Texas Steakhouse, which had recently opened in town. I enjoyed visiting with them while hogging down another cholesterol enriched meal.
Cheryl and Dave had recently redecorated their home and I wanted to get some photos of their place to show Lena (who had not able to accompany me on this trip because her fall semester college courses had already commenced).
These are some Russian dolls which Cheryl has cleverly displayed on her Great-Grandmother’s rocking chair.
In this photo, Dave is showing how Cheryl has incorporated a small replica of a Russian baby carriage from the late 1800’s as part of their home decor package. Actually, I thought this is a really good photo of Dave!
We had really been excited about Anya’s getting her 2nd visa so that she could visit Springfield and finally meet her “extended Ohio family.” On New Years Day (1/1/2003), we all arrived and Lena, Anya, and Cheryl exchanged gifts.
Steve’s mother’s health had deteriorated the week prior to Christmas and she had become very weak (requiring 24-hour care before our arrival). GRETCHA was one of the first meals we fixed for her in order to help her to begin eating solid food to recover her strength.
None of us got much sleep during this visit to Springfield. We all pitched in to help provide 24-hour care for mom until we could set up these services with professional care providers after the holidays. [Our lack of sleep shows in this photo!]
While Springfield had about an inch of snow and temperatures in the 20ºF (or minus 7ºC) range, this was a HEAT WAVE for Anya. She had been experiencing several inches of snow and MINUS 8ºF (or minus 22ºC) in Moscow for several weeks!
Anya had brought back a couple more Russian FUR HATS for two of Steve’s first cousins, Mike and Tom Kirkpatrick. We made use of these extra hats as ‘props’ for these photos with Mother.
In addition to the hats, Anya had brought Steve’s mother a little Russian character (shown in the lower right corner of the photo) which is supposed to help “watch over the home” for the owner.
Steve was still recovering from a ruptured vertebra at this time, so he was not able to do much. [See STEVE’S SURGERY for details.] Anya had walked down to the corner PIZZA shop and carried back a take-out order for us to enjoy at home.
As his wife, Shelby, looks on , Mike (Steve’s cousin) tried on the smaller of the two hats that Anya had brought from Moscow and decided that his other cousin, Tom, would get the SMALLER HAT!