Enjoying life in Toledo, Ohio thinmints, thank you for the thoughtful and well-crafted post. Hitting the bars on a regular basis sounded good to me too when I was single and in my early 20s. At that age, I definitely did not care about birds, flowers, gardening, and cooking. Fast forward 10, 15, or 20 years, and tastes change. I need a backyard. Nothing large. Our backyard is tiny, but my wife and I enjoy the flowers, the garden produce, the birds at our feeders, and just general relaxing in our backyard. Some evenings, we start a fire in the fire cage, listen to tunes over the iPhone, and chill with a gin and tonic. I love our Oak Openings native plants, and our hostas do well with all the shade that we have from the numerous oak trees. Our tall coreopsis plants have done extremely well this year. Many stalks are at least seven feet tall with dozens more at least six feet tall. Currently, the coreopsis herd is a fireworks explosion of blooms. Monarch and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies visit our flowers, along with the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I've observed some amazing bird sightings in our yard and at our feeders over the years. Our garden, finally, we picked some tomatoes this evening. We have a lot of green tomatoes. I guess the cool summer has slowed things a bit. But we've been harvesting egg plant, cucumbers, peppers, and green beans from our garden. See, as you get older, eating fresh produce from the backyard garden is a better experience than visiting a bar. In my 20s, I would have never thought that I would one day take baking classes and enjoy making my own naturally-leavened sourdough bread and Neapolitan-style pizza from scratch. Always Be Learning. Or as the Tool song _Lateralus_ states, "Spiral out. Keep going." br. 6th_floor: _"Possibly the deadest Mon-Thursday night I've ever witnessed downtown."_ You should stopover here then. We always have wine and gin on hand. After hacking code, I relax by drinking booze while I knit. I wonder how many scarves I need. Yep, I learned to knit this year. I took classes. I even have a "Ravelry.com":http://ravelry.com account. But I'm not a fan of purling. I like Perl the programming language, but not purl the stitch. I enjoy visiting the Yarn Cravin in Perrysburg. From what I have observed thus far, knitting is a chick-dominated activity, so that's something for the single guys to keep in mind. Another crazy night here in West Toledo this evening. My wife and I bought milk at the Phoenix Earth Food Co-op, and now we're making ricotta cheese and yogurt. Tonight's "dinner" will include the ricotta, spelt crackers, and tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden. And, of course, wine. Lately, I've been using our homemade ricotta on our homemade pizza. Another amazing snack is the homemade ricotta cheese spread on toasted homemade bread, topped with our homemade cranberry butter from last fall. It could be a cure for depression. Right now, we're waiting for the cheese to curdle. My wife has Blackfoot playing over Spotify on her docked iPhone speakers, and the wine is flowing. Only one "phrase":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzp4MJRKHc can describe this: youtube=WVzp4MJRKHc hr. quote=160835 Earlier this year, my wife subscribed to Urban Farm magazine. The latest issue arrived this week. Dangerous propaganda. It contained an article about goats. I may try housing those little chickens in our backyard, but I'm not ready to host a goat. bq. _"I grew up just outside a small town of roughly 1,200 people with a yard that took all day to mow, which for some reason I miss."_ I grew up in a small town in the hills of eastern Ohio, and my wife grew up in a small town in central Michigan. She has mentioned moving out into the country, well away from the city, but I want to be in the city or damn close to the city because of all the orgs, clubs, activities, restaurants, entertainment, etc. I like having a relatively short drive to the Phoenix Earth Food Co-op, The Andersons, Zavatoski's Deli, Sori Sushi, Pho Vietnam, and Black Diamond Nursery. Over the years, I've belong to the Toledo Roadrunners Club, Toledo Ski Club, Maumee Valley Wheelmen, MudHen Hash House Harriers, Read for Literacy, Toledo Area Linux Users Group, and more. We're only a seven-minute drive from UT. It's great to have these orgs and businesses nearby. I don't think I could handle living too far from a city. We have more to learn and to try, and it's convenient to live in or next to the urban center where classes are offered. I've taken classes in drawing, playwriting, and learning the mountain dulcimer. People play the mountain dulcimer in Toledo, Ohio. Excerpts from my 2003 "comment":http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/7/162#69 : q. Locals who say there's nothing to do are lazy, and they are not trying hard enough. ... there are a boatload of clubs, organizations, and events in Toledo and the immediate surrounding area that should satisfy anyone every week of the year. q.. Excerpts from my 2009 post titled [[2009 - Confusing real negativism with valid criticism | Confusing real negativism with valid criticism]] q. I'll use a couple old posts to explain my opinion of the differences between a real negative attitude about Toledo and valid, logical criticism toward obstacles that prevent the city from getting better. I would say calling Toledo a boring place and claiming there's nothing to do is an example of being negative or at least being lazy. q.. It's all relative, I guess. Toledo could be boring compared to Manhattan. But compared to where I grew up, Toledo is definitely not boring. And I like Manhattan. On Saturday morning, we'll hit up one of our favorite places, the Toledo farmers market, for produce for canning, and then later in the day, we'll visit the Ottawa Tavern for a Dr. Reed and their Crunchy Peanut Butter & Bacon Burger. Nothing against living in small, rural towns, but it's easier for us to maintain an eclectic mix of interests by living in the city.