Blogging from A-Z

Jason and I moved here almost 18 years ago and I’m proud to call it home.  There is more than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and LeBron James, although both of those are hot tickets to be sure.  I think most people are surprised to find that it’s a very international feeling city.  Someone from Iowa told me that he heard it was the New York City of Ohio.  I don’t know about that, but having grown up around and attended college in Columbus, I’d pick CLE any day of the week.

1. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame   Most people are familiar that this is the place to come in Cleveland and it’s worth a visit.  It sits on Lake Erie and is next door to the world class Science Center.
2. Sporting Event – I’d stick with the Cavs or the Indians for now, but we’ll see if the Browns can finally win a game this year.  We do have two great pro sports teams with excellent homes.
3. Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts center outside of NYC with over 1,000 yearly events.  The old theaters are gorgeous.
4. Lake View Cemetery  This is still one of my favorite places.  I’ve written two posts about it here and here.  President Garfield and his family’s caskets lay in full view, and the likes of John D Rockefeller and Eliot Ness are buried here.  Also has a great view of the city.
5. Cleveland Museum of Art + Botanical Garden, two of my favorite places to spend a day and they’re right next to each other.
6. Great Lakes Brewery for a meal and tour.  No pics for this one but the restaurant is great and the free brewery tour is impressive with samples to be had.
7. Spend a night at the 9 and have a drink or two at the Vault in the basement.  The hotel is very sexy and the they left the original bank vaults in the basement and made a very cool place to hang out and grab a drink.
   

   

    

8. East 4th. If you are going to be downtown in the evening or before a game, this is the place to be!  This is where Michael Symon’s restaurant Lola is located.
9. Cleveland does have some beach, but if that’s not your thing grab a ride on the Goodtime boat to take you on a two hour tour of the city.
10. Chagrin Falls  So, if you have a car or a friend to take you a bit outside the city, I’d recommend the charming village of Chagrin Falls.  This is a photo from Glow Night, the night before the hot air balloon races.

What on your favorite list of the city you live in?

Blogging from A-Z

I like big books and I cannot lie.  After spending some time looking though my 1,000+ books on Goodreads, I found the Top 10 Biggest Books I’ve Ever Read.  There are two series that I just counted as onebook and gave the total pages and I used the hardcover as the page count for all.

1. The Harry Potter series clocks in at 4,012 pages for 7 books.  That averages about 543 pages a book, although the last four were 734, 870, 652, 759 pages.  Those were long and yet I never wanted them to be over.

2. The first four books of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon have 3,399 pages, with 896,743, 870, 880 each.  Love them and will one day continue with the series.

3. War & Peace by Tolstoy (1,421 pages) is one I never would have gotten though on my own, but luckily a blogger buddy of mine read it with me and we cross posted about it.  Made it a lot easier!

4. It by Stephen King (1,153 pages) was a chunkster that I read in a blogging read-along so that kept me on track.

5. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (973 pages) was recommended by a friend and took me a month and a half to finish.

6. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (944 pages) was an epic story set mostly in India.

7. The Passage by Justin Cronin (766 pages) was a little out of my wheelhouse, but an intriguing dystopian story.

8. Roots by Alex Haley (688 pages) was so good except toward the end where it got a bit boring.

9. Into the Wilderness by Sarah Donati (691 pages) was a beautiful historical romance.

10. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (609 pages)  is a timeless classic that I’m glad to have read.

So, what are some of your favorite chunksters?

EDIT!

Oops!  As I’m researching another list I see that I missed The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer which clocks in at 1,056 pages.  It’s really  #5.

 

It’s April and time for another A-Z Challenge!

My list of some of my favorite characters in the autism spectrum.

1. Brick Heck (played by Atticus Shaffer) from the TV show The Middle.  He is by far my favorite because there are some of his quirks that I see in my own son.  He has never been diagnosed on the show, but he does have the social and communication difficulties along with social group therapy and tics that speak for so many kids on the higher functioning end of the spectrum.
2. Max Braverman (played by Max Burkholder) from the long running series Parenthood was a more straightforward representation of someone who has Asperger’s.  You see his struggle and what his family goes through to help him.  Representation matters and he was a game changer.  plus I just love the show as a whole. I’m sure it’s streaming somewhere.
3. Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler (played by Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik) from the Big Bang Theory clearly fall on the spectrum somewhere although it’s never really been addressed.  I know some think it’s making fun instead of lifting up, but I’m not one of them.  They are all a hot mess on that show and I love it.
4. Shawn Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore) on The Good Doctor is my last TV show on the list, but an important one.  Again, representation matters, and I like this show.  I don’t know how accurate it is, but I don’t know how true-to-life any of the hospital shows are.  His portrayal paints autism in a positive light and I appreciate that.
5. Arnie (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) from What’s Eating Gilbert Grape falls on the other end of the spectrum as someone who needs constant intervention.   The strain on his family doesn’t pull any punches.  I fell in love with this movie over a decade before my firsthand experience and still think this is a good representation of what autism can do to a family.
6. Raymond (played by Dustin Hoffman) from Rain Man is probably most people’s exposure to autism on the big screen and a heartfelt movie that I loved.
7. Oskar Schell (played by Thomas Horn) from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  When I read the book I loved that his dad liked to play to Oskar’s strengths. This is  what happens when there are deficits elsewhere..
8. Christian Wolff (played by Ben Affleck) from The Accountant.  Why is a hitman on my list? It was an interesting portrayal about a character that checked a lot of boxes for someone on the spectrum.
9. Todd Aaron from the book Best Boy by Eli Gottlieb is a great book showing what autism might look like in adulthood. So often we read or hear about kids, but this is about a 50 year old living in a supported community.
10. William Ashe from Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson.  I liked this depiction of a strong Aspie character.

Am I missing a favorite of yours?