Grutz says, "Whoa, hold on, we just went on a little trip." or "Yeah, that's right. I got a sunburn. Jealous?"

Greetings all!  Yes, it's been quite awhile.  Carleen and I relapsed into our old addiction of traveling this last week.  A combination of a free week and really crappy weather in Chicago forced us, literally, into our Subaru and head east.  First stop: Cincinnati.

As you may or may not know, my wonderful wife is from Cincinnati and her folks still reside there.  The weather was lovely, flowers galore, and more sun than you can shake stick at (ummm, yeah, that's what I meant....).  Also we also hit up the Queen City for a bridal shower for future sister-in-law, Maggie.  So while Carleen and her boss mom, Karen, got to rock out at the Vintage Club with a bunch of ladies I got to hang with fiance, Matt (uber-bro-in-law), in the pleasant Oakley hood of Cincy.  All in all, a great day for the both of us.  Sunday we had an amazing afternoon at the Great American Ballpark watching the Reds battle the Pirates.  Sun+brews+ball=spring.  Though the Reds couldn't quite pull it out (down by a run in the ninth, bases loaded...) it was a very entertaining game from beginning to end (back to back dingers in the first by the 'Bucs).  And it was truly wonderful getting all that vitamin D.  And yes, some of us got pink, except for Matt, he got red!

The Great American Ballpark.  Named after an insurance company.  Really.  I always thought that the Reds were just full of themselves.   I stand corrected.  Tom Healy totally had me, too.  He said all he could get were bleacher seats, yet he got us along third base line.  Well played, Tom, well played indeed.

Superfans from l-r, Matt Healy, Karen Healy (check out the 'red' Reds outfit she's sporting!  Awesome! You should see her decked out for Xavier games) and Tom Healy.  Notice Matt's exposed neckline.....his v-neck matched the color of his hat by the end of the game. 

Carleen sporting the rally-cap.  Alas it almost worked.  Maybe if it was a Red's hat instead of Dubuque hat it may have worked.  Maybe.

After the game we had a great dinner with our friends Tom, Holly and Frost Hankinson who recently moved from Chicago back to Cincinnati.  I have to say I miss them a great deal, but it gives Carleen and I even more of a reason to hightail it to Cincy.

Up next: Super-sleepover in Athens, OH with Julia Healy! And the Healy-Grutz tour hits up our nations capital (and not for the 420 rally, seriously)......stay tuned!

I hope your brains are ready for a workout, it's been awhile.  Make sure you stretch first.

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist,  and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. He has been described as "almost certainly the most famous philosopher of the Victorian age."  Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies.He is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Speices.


Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Whew!  I know it's a lot, but we've got to get back on the horse with the birthday facts.