Florence, Italy

After 10 glorious days in beautiful Tuscany, the scenery never got old. My first taste of it was flying over the Northern Italian Mountains as the colored leaves bled down the peaks.

I was visiting my sister Kate during her semester abroad in Florence, Italy. Her school is located directly across from the Duomo (Cathedral), one of the most famous in Italy. This is essentially her view during her voice lessons.

And even though there's NO way to NOT look like a tourist when that is exactly what you are. But it helps to remember that tourists come in all shapes and sizes...


Until the next time...in ROME!

A bit of autumn gardening...

I cleaned up some our plants for the winter this afternoon, trimming back day lilies and grasses, moving the jade plant inside, and cutting down the morning glories. The morning glories had taken over both sides of the porch. They wrapped around some of the day lilies, the downspout, the roof. I even had to cut free my bike from time to time. Once they were all cut down, I marveled at the huge pile of morning glory and how it had grown out of a pile of seeds that could easily fit in the palm of your hand.


Earlier in the season, as they slowly climbed the lower lattice-work on the porch, Beth and I feared that they would die there like last year. However, during one clean-up day, we discovered that they were actually growing under the porch itself. After Beth pulled them out from under the porch and trained them up the railings, they sprang to life again. Beth observed at the time: "There has to be a sermon illustration in this."

As I pulled down one of the banks of morning glories, this little buddy fell out. I thought he was a heavy leaf at first, until he started climbing back up the railing. I'm guessing he measured 4-5 inches long. I haven't named him yet.

The Greatest Free Show on Earth!

This past Friday, Karl, Jacqui, Ryan, Marcia, Chip, and I made the annual pilgrimage (yes, I think we can call it that) to Circleville, Ohio... home of “The Greatest Free Show on Earth,” the Circleville Pumpkin Show!


Of course, pumpkins are the main attraction there. Pictured above are the top three winners in the (you guessed it) pumpkin contest. On the left is this year’s winner at 1324 pounds!


Also adding largesse to the proceedings is the giant pie. At 14 feet in diameter, it probably re-took their record for World’s Largest Pumpkin Pie.


This year is the 100th anniversary of the show. A lot changes over the years, huh? This year they added webcams to their website.


There’s Miss Pumpkin 2006!


And the Mayor of Circleville!


Look at the line for pumpkin donuts at Lyndsey’s Bakery! Chip and Marcia waited 45 minutes for 2 dozen warm ones!

Leaving on a Jet...Well, a Plane, anyway...

I left Columbus yesterday. After two of the worst, most nightmarish days of my life, I left Columbus to come to Italy.

It's not that everything is resolved or that I even deserve a trip right now. Quite the opposite- I should probably stay in the states and fix everything. I should organize my business and oversee the process.

But what that would look like is most likely very similar to what I was doing over the past few days, crying cursing the heavens, hyperventilating, having anxiety attacks in Target, and more crying. Not to mention terrorizing every Microcenter, Radio Shack, and Mac Store employee in the Tri-State area. It was not pretty. It would be an understatement to say that Nick has been my guiding light and rock over the past few days.

Besides the fact that I get to spend 10 days in Italy with my best friend and sister, Kate, it is best that I leave the country, I'm thinking.

At the Columbus airport, as I was waiting in line to get a very unhealthy drink in a certain not-to-be-named coffee establishment, the woman in front of me was finishing her order, and there were clearly problems behind the counter. So she calmly started managing the situation, with grace, patience and humor. This drink is his, it goes here, the total is this much, give her this change. It was cool.

So as we were waiting for our drinks, and joking a bit, I said "You MUST run your own business." and she laughed and said "Is it that obvious? Well, it's hard to let go sometimes."

And HOW! But managers NEED to let go! The question is, how can a personality like the one it takes to run a business LET GO long enough for the experts to fix it? AND during a crisis?

Well, God orchestrates the motherboard on the store PC to self-destruct 48 hours before the manager's planned trip to go to Italy, thus clearing the way for her dear husband and brilliant friends to step in and help.

That's how.

Light of Passage

Check out this short video we posted on YouTube. It features the Paul Robinett candles that we all know and love. Put together by some of the employees of the shop. Enjoy!

What the Hail?!

Last Wednesday evening central Ohio got pounded with some pretty awesome storms. We're talking ice-cube-sized hail, tornado-siren, streets-flooded, end-of-the-world-black-skies, half-my-students-didn't-show-up-to-class storms. They were sweet. So we got some pictures of the hail that briefly pelted our houses and cars. Fortunately, no major damage, aside from the plants looking like they survived a hurricane.

White Water Rafting on the Lower Gauley