national smile day

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." ~ William Arthur Ward

It's May 31 and National Smile Day. Share your beautiful smile and brighten someone's day! 

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight." ~ Phyllis Diller

say cheeeese

This street art is located on the exterior of a laundromat in the Lower East Side. Tom Bob, a New York City artist, is famous for reimagining urban objects into whimsical scenes. A gray cartoon mouse emerges from behind a large, bright yellow ramp painted to resemble a giant piece of Swiss cheese. I so admire people who have the vision to transform a structural element such as this ramp, into something eye-catching.

There once was a wedge on the street
With moon-craters painted so neat..
A mouse, eyes so bright,
Took one cosmic bite,
And launched into June on swiss feet.

the friday feed: new york nibbles

On our walk back to the hotel from Gracie Mansion, we were hungry, actually famished. We made our way to Pastrami Queen, Anthony Bourdain’s favorite spot for a pastrami sandwich. As the celebrated chef once said, “The first thing I get when I am back in New York is a pastrami sandwich. Pastrami Queen is a really good pastrami sandwich, if not the best among the very best. Just a good, nice mix of fat and lean. It's the real deal, served warm on a fresh, soft rye with the right kind of mustard.”

The restaurant is tiny, with two tables for four and a single two-seater near the front window. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and sat at the small table, watching people walk past and locals step in to pick up takeout orders. There is nothing fancy about Pastrami Queen and that is part of its charm. It feels like one of those neighborhood eating spots that earned its reputation one sandwich at a time.

Cafe d'Angelo in Little Italy was our other favorite restaurant during this trip. The homemade pasta tossed in Alfredo sauce and then swirled inside a Parmesan cheese wheel was Italian comfort food at its finest... fantastico! To top it all off, a chilled glass of limoncello at the end of the meal was the finishing touch to a delicious dinner and a wonderful time in New York.

gracie mansion

In 1799, a prosperous merchant named Archibald Gracie built a country house overlooking a quiet, scenic bend on the East River, five miles north of what was then New York City. Now his home is one of the oldest surviving wood structures in Manhattan and the official residence of New York City’s Mayor. In 1823 financial hardship caused by the War of 1812 forced Gracie to sell his house and over the years the property changed hands several times. In 1942 city officials designated the house as the official residence of the Mayor. Fiorello LaGuardia was the first mayor to live in Gracie Mansion.

Now Gracie Mansion is home to New York city’s newest mayor, Zohran Mamdani and his wife. Before moving into the mayoral mansion, Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, lived in an 800-square-foot, rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment in Astoria, Queens. They lived in this Astoria residence for roughly seven years prior to his mayoral term. What a change of lifestyle this public office brings.

One day, out of curiosity Todd and I took a walk to Gracie Mansion. We strolled to the Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side where the mansion sits inside Carl Schurz Park and overlooks the East River. A wrought iron fence surrounds the property and inside that fence is another tall fence that blocks the view of the mansion. We were able to walk past the mansion to the East River Esplanade but could not get a good view of the mayoral residence. The views of the river and the city are gorgeous. It’s a shame that the fences block the views for the Mamdanis.  

Roosevelt Island in the forefront; Long Island City, Queens behind Roosevelt Island.

The RFK Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge) in the forefront; the Hell Gate Bridge behind. The Hell Gate Bridge served as the primary design inspiration and model for the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia.

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

This past week was spent exploring New York City and, of course taking so many photos. Choosing what to share from hundreds of photos was driving me nuts. I finally narrowed this post to three art exhibits that stood out to me, each exploring a very different medium.

The first pieces come from the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex & Store at Grand Central in Grand Central Terminal. The exhibit, Inspired by MetroCard, features artwork created from the iconic blue-and-yellow MetroCards once used throughout New York City’s subway and bus system. Introduced in 1994 to replace brass subway tokens, the MetroCard officially retired on December 31, 2025, making way for a tap-and-go payment system.

For years, artists collected the pocket-sized cards because they were bright, flexible, and endlessly available. They transformed them into sculptures, mosaics, and collages, turning an everyday object into something beautiful. The exhibit captures not only creativity, but also the fading of a distinctly New York artifact, another casualty of advancing technology.

All of the creations are quite innovative but this one really caught my eye. It's very symbolic of New York with the street map, the pigeons, and the star of this show, the MetroCard.

Before leaving for the trip, I was scrolling through a few New York social media accounts and came across information about an installation in Madison Square Park by Roberto Lugo. His exhibit, Alfarero del Barrio (Village Potter), features a towering 20-foot urn along with a fire hydrant and other sculptures honoring Puerto Rican culture and community. The urn celebrates influential figures including Roberto Clemente, Bad Bunny, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Sonia Sotomayor. The entire installation feels grounded in neighborhood pride and monumental storytelling.

The final exhibit carried a personal connection back to Dayton. Artist Zachary Armstrong and my son were classmates throughout their school years, and even back then Zachary’s artistic talent was quite noticeable. Now he is exhibiting in a Lower East Side gallery in New York City and what’s more special, his son is making his debut alongside his dad.

The father-and-son exhibit fills the entire gallery space, with Zachary’s work displayed on the main level and his son’s work downstairs, reached by stepping outside and descending a sidewalk staircase. Enter chapter two.

Zachary works exclusively in encaustic, building his paintings through accumulated layers that create so much depth and texture. 

Jackson Maximo Armstrong works with textiles, constructing his pieces through multiple screen-printed layers. He often prints wet-on-wet before the colors have fully set, then runs the freshly painted panels through a hot press, to shift and transform the palette in unexpected ways.

This was such a delightful family affair!

central park

Central Park is affectionately known as New York City’s “backyard.” Spanning 843 acres from 59th Street to 110th Street, the park offers a welcome refuge of natural beauty and recreation amid the towering concrete landscape that surrounds it.

We began and ended our New York visit at Central Park. Sunday we arrived before hotel check-in, so after storing our bags, we wandered through the park in search of shade from the 90°F (32.2°C) heat. On our final day, we once again stored our luggage after checkout before heading to the airport. With time to spare before our flight, we decided to walk the park’s perimeter, from 59th Street to 110th Street, across to 5th Avenue, and back down to 59th Street, covering a total distance of 6.1 miles (9.8 km).

On our Sunday stroll, we learned something new about Central Park. It  contains more than 1,600 decorative cast-iron lamp posts dating back to the 19th century. At the base of each post is an embossed four-digit number that serves as a discreet navigation system. The first two digits indicate the nearest cross street, while the final digit reveals which side of the park you are on: odd numbers mark the West Side, and even numbers the East Side. What a simple way to pinpoint your location without relying on technology!

5917: (59) - 59th Street, (1) - close to the edge of the park, (7) - West side

7352: (73) - 73rd Street, (5) - center of the park, (2) - East side

Reflections from the Upper East Side

Sculpture of a hybrid human-scarab figure by Mona Al Qadiri. She suggests a future where humans and other animals live in greater balance, where the most humble insects are revered for the essential role they play in sustaining all life on Earth - including our own.

Along our Sunday walk around the park's perimeter we discovered Central Park’s entrances are marked by historically named entryways. (There are 19 of them).  These gates feature stone engravings to honor the diverse population and workers of New York City. The most recent gate, The Gate of the Exonerated, is the first and only addition to Central Park’s official entrance names since the 19th century. It is the product of more than two years of extensive, in-depth dialogue among the Harlem community and a response to their desire for healing and belonging in the aftermath of the case and its impact on Black and Latino New Yorkers. It honors all of these wrongly convicted of crimes.

monday's mulling: and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

What a let-the-cards-fall-where-they-may last day in New York. It was all due to a sinkhole LaGuardia.

Last Wednesday evening, Todd turned on the news and one of the first stories we heard was about a sinkhole at LaGuardia that had forced the closure of one of the runways for repairs. Not exactly ideal timing with the holiday weekend approaching. Since our flight home wasn’t until Friday, two days later, we didn’t think too much about how it might affect our travel plans.

Friday morning, we ate breakfast, packed up, stored our luggage, and spent a few hours strolling through Central Park. Midway through our walk, my phone started buzzing nonstop. Our flight was delayed by an hour, then two hours, then three hours, then back to one hour before finally settling on a two-hour delay.

During all the uncertainty, Todd and I decided to stop at a bar for one last toast to our trip. We each ordered a Manhattan (when in Manhattan...) and crossed our fingers that our flight wouldn’t end up being cancelled. It wasn't. Bless all the schedulers and air traffic controllers who kept the incoming and outgoing air traffic moving efficiently and safely.

We finally landed at the Columbus airport at 10:45 p.m. in the middle of a torrential downpour, followed by the long drive home. What should have been about an hour and a half drive turned into 2 1/2 hours. By the time we got home, we were exhausted from a day of walking, the stress of possible flight cancellations, and driving through pouring rain in the dark with lots of trucks on the road.

Saturday was my first day back at the farm…my happy place! Thankfully, my shift didn’t start until the afternoon. We were busy, busy, busy. The fresh strawberries and tomatoes flew off the shelves, and customers were so excited to get their hands on fresh, local produce. There really is no comparison between locally grown fruits and vegetables versus produce that’s been shipped thousands of miles.

’ Tis the season! It's good to be back at the garden.

 

 

the day after being gone for a week 😊

 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

Good morning! 

Window seat views flying into New York City - not what I was expecting this time around. Usually the flight pattern takes us up the East River, with the city view of Manhattan, but due to a two hour flight delay and being rerouted a couple times, the plane's flight path took us up the Hudson River with views of Bayonne, New Jersey.  Bayonne is an industrial shipping town, important in its own right.

One consolation from this new route was the birds eye view of the Statue of Liberty. From a distance or up close, she is always beautiful.

The view of northern Manhattan certainly changes from the dense urban population to one of more neighborhoods and green space.

The alternative route eventually took us to the other side of Manhattan for the usual over-the-water-landing into LaGuardia. 

And now, I am on a digital detox until Sunday.

monday's mulling: hold on

It's graduation season for the area universities and high schools. Time for endings and time for new beginnings.

My niece graduated from high school in 2011. Todd and I drove my mom to Philadelphia so she could attend her youngest granddaughter's commencement ceremony and celebrate her acceptance into MIT.

The speeches were your typical high school graduation orations, thanking the teachers for their guidance, touching on friendships, everyone taking off for new beginnings in their lives after high school, congratulations to the Class of 2011, and turn your tassel to signify the transition from student to graduate.

One of the speeches from an administrator had some advice that really made an impression. He called it called "Hold On." It wasn't included in the graduation program so once I got home, I did a lot of digging to see if I could find his words, hoping that he found them in a publication. Someone other than the administrator did write them but there was no credit to the author.

It's a universal message to people of all ages.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ 

"Hold On"

"Hold on to faith. 

It is the source of believing that all things are possible. It is the 

fiber and strength of a confident soul. 

Hold on to hope. 

It banishes doubt and enables attitudes to be positive and cheerful. 

Hold on to trust.

It is at the core of fruitful relationships that are secure and content. 

Hold on to love. 

It is the greatest gift of all, for it shares, cares, and gives meaning 

to life. 

Hold on to family and friends. 

They are the most important people in your life. They make the 

world a better place. They are your roots and the beginnings that 

you grew from. They are the vines that have grown through time 

to nourish you, help you on your way, and always remain close by. 

Hold on to all that you are and all that you've learned.

For these things are what makes you unique. Don't ignore what 

you feel and what you believe is right or important. Your heart 

has a way of speaking louder than your mind. 

Hold on to your dreams.

Achieve them diligently and honestly. Never take the easy way out 

or surrender to deceit. Remember others on your way and take 

time to care for their needs. Enjoy the beauty around you. Have

the courage to see things differently, yet clearly. Make the world a 

better place, one day at a time. Don't let go of the important things 

that give meaning to your life.”

~ author unknown

that time in may

Leavin' on a jet plane...

Heading to New York City again.

It’s that time of year again for the Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary and Capital Markets Conference. Todd has attended this conference for 47 years, first as a mortgage banking executive and now as a consultant. Over the decades, the conference has been hosted in cities across the country, but for the past 13 years New York City has been its destination.

I’ve gone New York during all 13 years of the conference, initially as an excuse to visit my daughter, who lived in the city during the conference’s first three years there. She taught me how to navigate the subway, how to figure out the Avenues and Streets to  confidently make my way around Manhattan. The Empire State Building became my North Star. After she moved to Chicago, I felt ready to take on the Big Apple on my own while Todd was in conference mode.

Now this trip is bittersweet. Todd recently told me this will be the conference’s final year in New York City. Next year, it moves to Chicago. Who knows if it will stay in Chicago for a few years or if the venue will change yearly.

I’ll admit, I’m disappointed. May is such a wonderful time to visit New York. The weather is warm enough for long walks, the parks and gardens are in bloom, and sidewalk cafés and rooftop bars are filled with people enjoying the outdoors before the summer humidity settles in. Best of all, the crowds are lighter than during peak vacation season.

Still, just because the conference is leaving New York doesn’t mean we won’t return. We truly love the city. But perhaps this is also an invitation to step outside our familiar routine and explore somewhere new.

marigolds

Yesterday, after a couple of hours of digging in the dirt, 125 marigolds found homes in the empty spaces of my corner garden bed and around the vegetable garden too, strategically planted in hopes of convincing the local deer to KEEP AWAY! Right now things look a little sparse, but give it a month and the flowers will grow and spread and fill the space with color.

I’ve always loved marigolds. They’re bright and cheerful, unfussy, loved by pollinators, and sturdy enough to thrive through heat, wind, and neglect. Their blooms stretch through the fall. They aren’t flashy or rare, but that’s part of their charm.

And as a bonus, marigolds are the official flower of Kettering, Ohio, so this planting is also a tip o’ the hat to my hometown. 🌼

 

the friday feed: sour milk

Milk. It’s supposed to be the secret to strong bones. At least that’s what parents told their children and what the lunch ladies reminded students as they slid the little cartons across cafeteria tables. I was never much of a milk drinker, but I did want strong bones. Besides, there was something fun about milk mustaches and blowing bubbles until the cartons overflowed.

When my four children were growing up, there were always at least two gallons of milk in the refrigerator. No grocery trip was complete without bringing home another gallon. For years, milk was as much a household staple as bread or eggs.

Then one day, it happened.

Only a little milk remained in the bottom of the jug, and it was taking up precious refrigerator space. I poured myself a glass, took a big gulp, and instantly spit it out. Spoiled milk.  UGH! One of the most disgusting tastes imaginable. It hadn’t reached the chunky stage yet, but it had turned unmistakably sour. Blech. I spit it into the sink and rinsed my mouth for what seemed like forever, trying to get rid that horrible taste.

To this day, I can’t drink a plain glass of milk. I’ll use it in cereal or coffee, and chocolate milk is still a treat, but straight milk? Absolutely not. And I always smell the milk before I use it.

Just the other morning, while making my first cup of coffee, I pulled out the half gallon of milk. (The days of buying milk by the gallon are long gone). Out of habit, I gave it the usual sniff test. After our weekend in Chicago, it had soured.

No milk for my coffee.

Thankfully, there was just enough Half & Half waiting in the refrigerator to save the morning.