Thai Taste in Cincinnati

Last weekend Joe and I went to Cincinnati for the Flying Pig Half Marathon, which both Joe and Jack were running in. Now, I didn't take a single picture of the race or the city or even Jack and his lovely girlfriend, Oriole, who is here from Australia. But I did manage to get shots of our lunch at Thai Taste restaurant, where they let your choose your spiciness on a 1 to 10 scale. I enjoyed the (spice level 4) panang curry-- it tastes very much like Urbana's Siam Terrace panang, but it is served with steamed brocoli rather than crunchy just-cooked greenbeans. I liked it immensely. I was only sorry that I couldn't finish it all.
Oriole had the green curry, which also looks pretty yummy.

That evening, we enjoyed a hot homecooked Italian meal at the Stehura's, where we all stayed. Joanne made shells and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, a salad with lots of finely chopped veggies and bread twists with cheese and Italian seasoning.

For dessert, we played Blokus and ate some milk duds. The next morning, the brothers Parrino got up at some ungodly hour so they could be at the starting line for the Flying Pig before 6:30 a.m.... and that's Eastern time, so for Joe it felt like 5:30.

Thanks to confusing mapquest directions, odd road signage and the lack of a map, Oriole and I got an accidental grand tour of the city, as well as neighboring Covington, Ky. I think we traversed all of Cincinnati's bridges: the gray one, blue one and yellow one in our quest to get to the finish line to see them cross... alas. We got to the finish line and a gigantic sea of sweaty people clad in running gear and metallic plastic blankets. Then my cell phone rang and it was Joe, calling from the parking lot.

We did manage to meet up with them in said parking lot. By some strange miracle, we ended up parking three cars down from them.

Joe and Jack made excellent time, finishing the 13.1 mile race seconds apart in about 1 hour and 43 minutes.