Blogs from Louisville, Kentucky, United States, North America

If you're trying to be miserable, it's important you don't have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind. -John Bytheway, How to Be Totally Miserable Welcome back to my blog! If you are a new reader then surely nothing seems awry. However, if you are an old companion, then you must realize how historically rare it ... read more

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. -Nathaniel Hawthorne Autumn is probably the best season of the year in which to spend some quality time in the great out of doors. As anybody who has spent October in central Kentucky, you probably already know that there are few places on earth more autumnly awesome than right here. And yes, I most certainly just made up that phrase, but this season has a tendancy to create exhaltations of glee, frequently involving the word "awesome". The colors are breath-taking, the temperature can be "just right" (i.e. usually somewhere between the surface-of-the-sun heat in mid June and the wet cloudy cold that is January), everything smells fantastic, and even the wind sounds like it is singing. However, when you're camping ... read more

Arrived in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday evening on May 3rd, 2012...immediately off to enjoy Bourbon drinks...free mint juleps at the Marriott...you can't beat that...and the evening finished in outdoor bar scenes called Fourth Street Live!... The next day we are off to Muhammad Ali Center...to commemorate his life, profession and charities... Then lunch at a local pizza place...delicious... After a delicious meal, we are off wandering the downtown streets of Louisville...it is interesting that they have something historical to say at every block...cool... Then it was time to check out Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs...at first it was very hot...Astrid and I had to take shades from a cop car...hilarious...what is even more hilarious was we got rained on...and were evacuated...now we've truly experienced horse racing in scorching hot weather and horse racing in... read more

In two days we will be leaving for St. Louis with our posse. This is the first step of the journey toward Oregon for my internship. Derek and I have been a little frantic trying to move everything out and close the book on our house, the Crucible. It was especially sad to leave Roberre the cat at Margaret's mom's house yesterday. We are excited and feeling pretty good! Goodbye Kentucky St.!... read more

It's been an actual whole year and 2 days since my last post from China--the move back post. I am writing from Louisville, Kentucky, our home for the past 10 months. It's been a great almost year in this fantastic city. We've really loved it here, though we miss Chicago. I am back to working full time, the kids made it through a somewhat rocky first year of school of public school, resulting in our decision to move to private school next year, but we are all well and happy. We've made some great friends, reconnected with some long-time friends, and have managed to stay in touch and connected to our friends and family all over the world through all of this change. How fun to be back here and ready to report again as Mark ... read more

For my final day in Louisville, I ignored the festival completely and dove into history. Today is the traditional day of another unusual competition, the steamboat race, but it was cancelled due to the river being flooded and dangerous. I found ways to make up for it. Muhammad Ali Center My first site for the day was the Muhammad Ali Center. Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer in history, was born Cassius Clay in Louisville. The Center broadly consists of two parts. The first is a history museum dedicated to his life and career. The other part is an examination of Ali’s core values, and how visitors can apply those values in their own lives. It should go without saying that the ... read more

Today was mostly another day off. I need to pace myself during big festivals, otherwise I burn out. The main event today was a concert of Christian rock music, so I figured it was a good day to rest. It did have one major highlight. I went to Gryslain. This restaurant is set up like a Parisian bistro. While they serve very good gourmet sandwiches, that is just the sideshow. Gryslain is run by one of Louisville’s best pastry chefs Ghyslain Maurais, and he uses it as a showcase for his work. It has long displays of mouth watering treats, each one looking like a work of art. Just being here will give chocolate lovers hea... read more