day 11 of 18, with razzleberry dressing

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Even though it's a holiday, I got my butt out walking. Did you?

My brother lives in East Allentown and is on vacay. My sister is house-sitting, and she was coming to my house so I'd needed to pick her up. There is a nice 3-mile loop there that I can walk. All signs pointed to East Allentown today.

One thing I learned today is that the people on this loop love a good (or bad) Nativity set. This photo essay will have lots of Nativities. It's the perfect theme for Christmas day. (The one on the left is from my brothers front yard. I'm almost certain he made it.)

Another thing I learned is that this neighborhood loves inflatables. No matter how big or small their porch or lawn is.

I headed out Hanover Avenue east toward Club Avenue.

I took this picture of the blessed mother, because after all, today is her day. She did all the hard work. I love the look on her face. It's almost a smirk. And the roses in the dirty water. In December. And St. Frances (I think) over her shoulder. (Catholics please correct me if I'm wrong.)

This festive arch was on Hanover Avenue.

On Union Blvd. I found this mural. It has nothing to do with Christmas. In fact, I can't figure out what the theme is at all. It's actually kind-of creepy.

 An inflatable Nativity. With reindeer in front. It actually fit well in the yard.

 Now this one doesn't fit on the porch. There is barely enough room to get in the door.

I had wondered why Irving Park fell off of Bill White's Christmas light tours. It used to be terrific. Now I know. It's just random themed inflatables around the pool, inside a fence. Most were falling over or totally deflated. I choose these Hanukkah ones to mix it up a little. Though the little bear with the dreidel is tilting. He is clearly deflating. There was also a menorah, but it fell over. Still haven't found a Kwanza display.

I bet this house is lit up well at night. They even have stuff in the back yard. (Have I mentioned how I love Christmas lights?) What I love about this one is the mid-century plastic blow molds (I learned that term watching the Holiday Light Fight on ABC), and the modern plastic cut outs on a stick. Notice how the wise men are leaving in one direction and the camels are going in another.

This wireframe (see, you do learn watching television) snowman was also at that house. I'm guessing the wise men were going to visit him next.

The whole time I was out I was looking for a sign that said "Keep Christ in Christmas", or "Jesus is the reason for the season." Do you think I could find one when I wanted one? Nope. Not even on the churches.  This Nativity was at Our Lady Help of Christians on Hanover Avenue. It's ceramic and looks hand painted. It was really low. I should have gotten down on my knees to take the pix, but frankly I wasn't sure if I'd get up again.

 The Christmas tree lot across the street still had a few trees.

Finally, I was back at my brothers. These are his flower boxes. My S-I-L is excellent at decorating. I picked up my sister and headed home.

Mileage, about 3.

Almost forgot. Razzleberry dressing. Last night I watched Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. The song is now stuck in my head. And it's appropriate for today.

another water tasting

Forgot my water bottle on my way to Bingo at the Fearless yesterday. I'm not normally a bingo player, but this is for the Boy Scout camp group that Jarrod belonged too. Grams made out well. Bonnie won and so did I. It was a good afternoon.

I got this at my favorite fancy water store, Walgreens. I had to stop and have a pix printed. This was called RESOURCE and the water was from a source in beautiful downtown....drumroll please...Bangor! It was bottled by Nestle in a bottle that was 50% recycled plastic. The graphi designer in me wants to comment on the great label.

It tasted good. It wasn't just flat and wet. It had minerals or bear poop or something in it to give it some flavor. It said "electrolytes".

Sadly I drank it while watching the Oscars. I drank birch beer at the Bingo.

bad girls

This is the weekend when every time we walked we ignored a sign. It was one of those weekends.

Yesterday we walked on a road that said "No Trespassing". The reward was the incredible view. The first time in the three or four years I've been doing training walks that I ignored a sign, that I know of anyway. But we can't make a habit of it. One day we will get caught and fined. Or worse. Look what happen to those hikers in Iran. We all know how that ended.

If you want to hear the story, ask, I will gladly tell. I just don't want to write it. The cyber police might get me. Yeah, I'm a little paranoid.

When we got home Lyd, Bonnie and I took Adonis for a 1/2 mile walk. Bonnie is a taskmaster. No sniffing and marking. Who was walking who is debatable.

He doesn't like other dogs and Lyd has been talking to the vet about it. Someone else was walking their dog, and he nearly pulled Bonnie over. But we got him calmed down.

Today, we walked in Bonnie's neighborhood. That's Bonnie, Sharon and I in front of her holly bush.

We headed down Maumee, and out Salisbury. Then we wove thru a bunch of side streets, and around the park. We left Sharon at the swings and kept going. We were going to come in the side entrance of the park, but alas there was none,  so we had to go all the way around.

We finally found Sharon, swung awhile, played on the METAL slide, and rode the dino. The comfort station were locked so we headed out the path to the street. It took us to the wrong side of a closed bridge. It didn't look like it was crumbling, and disobeying the signs again, we each crossed the bridge.

My brother Henry used to watch Cops. Sometimes they had had a "girl" edition and changed the lyrics to "Bad girls, bad girls, whatcha gonna do, watcha gonna so when they come for you". You can guess what was going thru my head as we crossed the bridge!

Then we headed out Lehigh and back to Bonnie's.

sitting, cross legged, in the middle of a parking lot

Sharon wanted to go to the gym this morning. I said yes. It's supposed to get more hot/humid as the week wears on, so I wanted to be sure to get some walking in. Without a mega walk to train for I've turned into a wimp. For the past two years I went out in every kind of weather. No matter what.

We got to Planet Fitness early. (The pix was from when she joined the gym. Even Sharon isn't silly enough to wear a winter coat in July!) She had to wait about 15 minutes for them to open. The parking lot was pretty shady at this point. I headed right out.

I headed up the hill, past Dave and Barbs, out Chew, up another hill to Hamilton, and then came down Irving. It didn't seem long enough. But the route was pretty shady. (Google Pedometer said less than 1.5! oops.)

When I returned to the car, most of the shade in the parking lot was gone. Then I started playing the wi-fi game. Find a place in the lot—with shade—that I could connect to wi-fi. So here I am, sitting on the curb next to Family Dollar. Totally pointing away from the gym. Hope Sharon see's me! I am kind of hard to miss. People are staring at me when they drive past. "Who's this loon on the curb with a laptop?"

Last night while watching This Old House, WHYY had an ad on for the Y12K.So I looked it up. No walking segment. Hey guys, if you want to raise money for public television, then include walkers damn it. There is a family fun walk. 3K. I'm not driving to Philly for a 3K. What is that, a mile and a half?

I am going to sign up for the City of Hope Walk of Hope in Camden. It's a 5K September 18. When will I have another opportunity to WALK across the Ben Franklin Bridge? Heck, some days it takes forever to drive across it! That's certainly worth the drive to Camden. And it benefits women's cancers. Good cause.

It's been more than 45 minutes since the gym opened. Wonder where Sharon is? Maybe she's wandering the parking lot looking for me. Guess I need to go find her. If I can get up from the curb.

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I found her sitting on the bench, in the sun, right by the gyms door. "I've only been here a couple of minutes".  "No, I didn't see you." Did you look. "No. Thought you weren't back yet."