That's Amore!

I love our neighborhood. We have great neighbors all around us, lots of nice parks and things to do, and my commute to work is nice. My one complaint since we've lived here, however, has been the scarcity of decent pizza. The only franchise pizza I'm a fan of is Donato's, and there isn't one of those nearby. There's a pretty good mom-and-pop shop called Big Dogs across town, but it's 15 minutes away and they don't deliver. So when I saw the 'coming soon' sign for a new pizza place called 'Ciao Bella' a couple of weeks ago, I was cautiously optimistic.

Well, we tried it for the first time tonight and it exceeded my expectations! I got a sausage/onion/mushroom pizza which was excellent. The sauce was yummy--a little sweet but not too much, and the crust was just right--slightly thick but a little bit crunchy. The kids had calzones, and Maria enthusiastically declared it the 'best ever'. Chris thought it compared favorably with LaRosas and Big Dogs. Ben was not as happy because he doesn't like tomato sauce, and the calzone had it inside instead of separately for dipping like most places--so we'll have to order more carefully next time. Best of all, they deliver!

I spoke to the owner about cutting a deal for delivery down to the swim club, and he sounded very interested. My new goal is to make sure this pizza place does well--it needs to stick around. If you're ever in the West Chester/Sharonville area, give Ciao Bella a try!

The work crew...

The one positive from our recent storm--we've got enough firewood to last us for a few years! Several of us in the neighborhood went in together to rent a log splitter, and with some serious help from the kids we got it all split and stacked. Time for a nap!

My 15 seconds of fame...

A big storm blew through our neighborhood this afternoon, damaging several large trees in our yard as well as others throughout the street. We were at The Beach waterpark at the time, and came home to find a Channel 12 news truck in our neighborhood doing a story on the storm damage. When talking to the reporter, I mentioned that our tax incentive check came in the mail yesterday and that I'd be spending it on a tree guy. He asked me to say it again on camera, but when the lights came on I choked and they only used a brief snippet of me for the story. And boy was I looking good with my uncombed pool hair after a day of sweating in the sun! Ugh!

We love our wooded yard and it's sad to see so many big trees down, but everyone is unhurt so I can't complain too much!