Momocho Mod Mexican

I love the interior of this restaurant as well. It has a whole Day of the Dead and Mexican wrestler theme going on. Great modern Mexican food.

Holden Arboretum (Or How I Learned to Read Dates Correctly)

I made it back up to Holden Arboretum to see the gnomes before they disappear in about a week. If you recall, I went up with a friend earlier in the year, and I had misread the dates. So, we were there a week before they were put on display. Some of them were a little rough around the edges, but most had stood up to the weather fairly well. I saw all of them, but this little guy was one of my favorites. It's by Cleveland artist, Billy Nainiger (I hope that I'm spelling that correctly). He has a studio at the Tower Press building, and he's always very gracious and welcoming during the holiday open studios.

Holden wasn't very busy the day that I went (being that it was a weekday and kind of overcast), so I got to walk around a lot of it undisturbed. There was still a lot of flowers to see, though they do have some flowers in bloom at any point in spring, summer, and fall. I saw a lot of chipmunks and some black squirrels.

Apex Academy

This is the view directly under my living room window. I realized a couple of days later why I thought it had reminded me of a board game. It actually reminds me of those computer sim games where you build a city or so such thing.

This is Apex Academy in East Cleveland. It is attached to the former Christ The King church, which was pretty handy having right across the street. But, that closed a while back now. For the most part, it's fine having a school across the street, except for pick-up and drop-off times and the headaches that the parents cause on my street and Noble Road when they whip in and out of there like nuts. Or, when the little kids who live up the hill in Cleveland Heights throw rocks at passing cars on Noble Road.

It does amaze me of how little use that basketball court gets. You'd think that there'd be kids all day using it in the summer when school is closed, but I don't think I ever saw it being used. Maybe the school is mean about that?

Idea Center

When I went to sit and draw the Idea Center, I found a concrete bench/piece of art to sit on. It was the words "Change" and "Things." Depending on where you looked at it, it was either "Change Things" or "Things Change." As I was sitting there, a man came up to me to ask me for a sandwich for him and his wife. When I draw downtown, I sometimes bring food with me just for this kind of thing. I had forgotten yesterday morning, and because I had my sketchbag with me, the only money I had were a few quarters meant for parking meters. I went to give him those, and a guy in a car at the stoplight on Huron yelled for the man to leave me alone. I said, "No, it's okay." I gave the man those quarters, and then I think the man in the car had a change of mind. He hollered over that he didn't mean anything by that, he just wanted to make sure that I knew that I didn't have to give the man anything. Maybe I changed something with him? They do say that acts of kindness are contagious.