I've had the boys since Wednesday, and they are doing fine, having fun, of course. They haven't once asked "Where's Mommy?" I'm sure they'll be glad to see her when she finally returns (maybe tonight; I asked her, but she wasn't clear on it). But, as ever, I'm keeping everything rolling.
Did I mention that stores over here are starting to sell Graeter's Ice Cream? Wow! I stumbled onto that the other day, couldn't believe it. Of course, it's expensive: $5.49 a pint at Treasure Island (I have to see if they have it at Dominick's). But their Coconut Chocolate Chip and other flavors are fab.
Seeing Graeter's (and things like Great Lakes Brewing Company beers, among others) reinforces just how many Ohioans have fled Ohio for greener pastures. Under the withered hand of a Republican-dominated state government for the last 15+ years, pursuing Republican economic policies, the state has hemorrhaged jobs and population. I'm hoping that enough people are sick of that bullshit to try to turn things around for Ohio, but we'll see. As someone who grew up in Youngstown, I think Youngstowners saw that kind of stuff early -- that is, it appears that the rest of the state is catching up with where Youngstown was decades ago. And, by extension, what Ohio has been experiencing for decades is what the reset of the country has begun to experience from about the point of the housing market crash, onward.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-09-ohio-census_N.htm
Anyway, the result of this ongoing economic death spiral is that there is an Ohioan "expatriate/refugee" community in Chicago, to the extent that bars give themselves over to Buckeyes fans during the season, and you see a lot of Buckeyes jerseys and Browns jerseys peppered around. Of course, plenty of Miami of Ohio bumper stickers and so forth. There is a bar, too, I think it's called "Reds" or something, that is tailor-made for Reds fans (big shock, right) with Cincy fare at it. Ohio's loss has been Chicago's gain, to be sure (although it looks like Columbus has also benefited from the losses of the other cities in Ohio). It's just weird for me, since I was an early emigrant (1993), when almost nobody from Ohio was in Chicago. Now, they are all over the place.
