I am thankful that I had the opportunity to turn this house into what it is today. Family and friends came together to donate countless hours of their time. We are very proud of our work and I had to do it justice in a final set of photos. I passed them on to our realtor to have them posted on our listing.

I could probably write several pages worth of sentiments about the adventure, but I’d rather speak in photos. The slideshow begins in July 2005 with a pregnant Bridget walking around the house with our realtor. It ends in February 2010, the day our realtor put the sign up.

I doubt anyone will get as much satisfaction from these photos as me, but I hope it at least provides an entertaining insight into our huge DIY project.

And now, Florida awaits!

Sad news! As we rolled up to the strip mall, we were shocked to find our beloved Moy Moy’s Chinese restaurant closed. Everything was stacked up and cleared out.

Moy Moy’s became my Dad’s favorite place for Chinese food. He went there practically every Saturday for the past 10 years. Hopefully we can get some closure on what happened.

Cincinnati Saturday’s will never be the same. I have never found Chinese food as good as Moy Moy’s.

Photo note: This photo came from my 35mm Lomo LCA archives. It’s hanging in my Dad’s basement office.

Bagels Coolin' Out

Pain au levain

A side note about my role in the meetings: The group I support represents transportation and sourcing across all GE businesses. As a corporate-level team, we negotiate the price of shipping products and materials with a select group of freight carriers (or [forwarders]). I build analytical tools that are used to compare pricing and impacts in “real time” as the negotiation progresses.

The meetings had us in the office from 7:30 AM to 5 or 6 PM each night. There was still time afterwards to check out some local restaurants. Tuesday brought us to a buffet style place with a huge variety of Brazilian cuisine (primarily meat). On Wednesday we went to a very cool place built around a huge fig tree.

The most popular beers served were Bohemia and Chopp Brahma. Caipirinha was a fun drink made by adding cachaca to a combination of sugar, ice and fresh limes crushed in the glass.

Our meetings on Thursday ended a bit earlier in the afternoon, giving me the chance to walk around the city and experience some of the attractions. I stopped by a delightful café called Suplicy for a high quality café Americano. MASP, the art museum was an inexpensive treat. In the evening I came across some live Jobim being played in the hotel’s lobby bar.

My return flight on Friday was not scheduled to depart until the evening, so I had time to explore. I took the opportunity to visit the Museu do Futebol. It was a well-designed place full of exciting soccer history. King Pele was on the monitor greeting me as I entered.

Ari showed up at the hotel as planned to take me back to the airport. The lines at Guarulhos airport were not the most invigorating experience, but they were easily ignored as I remembered the highlights of my voyage to Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo was a massive city. Knowing that I only explored a tiny piece of it leaves me wanting more…more of Sao Paulo and more of Brazil.

Michael Paulista, Part 3 from Miguel Barbato on Vimeo.

Music in Part 3: The Cinematic Orchestra