Loveland Bike Rentals has teamed up with Cultural Care Au Pairs to recognize Bike Safety Awareness Month and to promote the bike safety demonstration and group ride taking place Sunday May 4^th, 2008 at 10:30am. Cultural Care Au Pairs is a service offered in the greater Cincinnati area for families seeking in home child care.

The Loveland bike trail is part of the 70 mile trail that follows the Miami River and is paved over old railroad tracks. After the safety demonstration, those present will take a group ride and enjoy a picnic lunch. The event is open to the public and will provide participants the opportunity to meet and talk with some Cincinnati families hosting Au Pairs to learn more information about the agency and its programs.

Last night we went to the Cincinnati Blackfinn for dinner with another couple for the soft opening. Across the street from the URS Tower and in the space McFaddens used to occupy BlackFinn has an updated menu with a few more sophisticated choices and some old favorites. We had the opportunity to try a sampling and were reasonably impressed.

Our table dined on some beer steamed mussels and Ahi tuna for starters. You could really smell the beer in the mussels and the tuna was seared just right with a sweet glaze drizzled on top. I enjoyed my penne primavera and my husband thought the Ahi sandwich was great. Our friends enjoyed the BlackFinn grilled chicken and rice dinner and buffalo chicken sandwich.

The desserts were equally as good. The ice cream cake was easily large enough for two and our friends spoke highly of the apple pie. There was a glass of Guinness inspired chocolate mousse that we missed out on but it looked amazing.

We are running a small contest here for free passes to the BlackFinn grand opening Party Thursday night March 13th. The first people to track back and comment will get up to 4 VIP tickets to the event.

Team Lachey hot off of their win on the NBC Clash of the Choirs competition is performing tonight, New Year’s Eve on Fountain Square downtown. As part of Nick continuing to give back to his hometown community those who brave the seasonably cold weather will be no doubt treated to some amazing choral arrangements. The $250,000 prize money from the Clash competition is going to support Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Clifton and is sure to bring much needed support to the nationally recognized pediatric center. If you are going downtown tonight pack warm and dry as the weather will be in the high 30’s with a few possible light showers.

I have been looking over the some of the blogs that talk about Cincinnati. I found a few that were really interesting reads and filled with insightful thoughts. Here are a few of the better blogs I found and a description of them.
Cincinnati Blog - A general blog that talks about local politics and activities
Bearcats Blog - A sports blog about the UC Bearcats
Building Cincinnati - an AMAZING blog about Queen City Architecture with Photos
The ‘Nati Life - A well written blog about life in Cincinnati covering in-town happenings
Cincinnati Urban Life - a fantastic collection of dozens of useful links to just about any topic
UrbanCincy - An urban planner writing about his vision for the city, very inspiring

As soon as I can get our sidebar working these links are going up right away

Fall in Cincinnati is like no other place. There are so many amazing things to do here before we get into the full throws of chilly winter. Outdoor activities abound including Ice Skating and broom ball at Fountain Square Park, fall sports leagues, and unique cultural events like Ethiopian Hip Hop concerts, A Lion In Winter, and Seusical Jr.. Coming up in the next few weeks there are even a few organized runs being put together by Fleet Feet in Blue Ash including an evening run at 6:30 pm December 8th followed by a happy hour, and an early Christmas Eve run at 8:00 AM December 24th.

Although we moved a bit out of Downtown, we did look at a few of the new buildings that are being converted into residences. It is a great trend to see large building space turned into living space. Aside from helping commute traffic volumes it is reducing the amount of gasoline we use. The new residences such as the One River Plaza complex and the redevelopment of the old McAlpin Department store are great examples of new and renovated buildings.We are all very excited to see what things materialize as The Banks multi use project gets underway. Any way we look at it it is an exceptional time to be in Cincinnati and enjoying the crisp weather and great sights and events.