Halfway through the Weekend

Halfway through the weekend, but I guess when I am off from school, everyday is like a weekend day! So here's what has been happening around here.

Jim is in Wisconsin for the National Masters Track and Field Championships and is running well. On Friday he won his age-group in the 3000 meter Steeple Chase. He was disappointed to not have any real competition, so his time was slower than he had hoped. He won by over one minute! Today he ran the 800 meter and this was a much more competitive race. Because of very windy conditions, he hung back on the leader's shoulder until the last turn when he out kicked the guy! Now that is the way to race! So congratulations are in order for Jim! Tomorrow he runs in the 1500 and hopes to make it a hat trick with 3 gold medals! He gets home late Sunday night. 

Friday was a glorious summer day. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and do some yard work. I mowed the whole yard, and with an electric mower that needs to be pushed, that was a workout! I then did some trimming and edging and then cleaned up all the mess with the blower. Things look pretty good. 

Today's forecast was for a decent morning, but storms blowing through in the early afternoon, followed by clearing in anticipation of a nice day tomorrow, and that is exactly what has happened. I was at the Farmer's Market at the mall when it opened at 9. Made some quick purchases, brought the stuff home and then got ready to go to the Corn Hill Arts Festival, which officially opened at 10. This festival can get really crowded by the afternoon, and I didn't want to get involved with that or the nasty weather that was headed our way so I drove downtown at 9:30, found a free parking spot on the Broad Street bridge and walked to the Corn Hill area. I walked around for almost 2 hours, but headed back to my car as the skies darkened and the first raindrops started to fall. Here is a photo for my Mom of one of the booths where the vendor was selling lampshades like she makes.
I bought 3 things, which is really a lot for me. Many years I come home empty-handed. 

I bought this cute bumblebee wind chime for in our patio garden.
I bought this flower vase made out of old silverware. The flowers are from my garden!

I also purchased a simple lapis necklace and earrings to go with a lapis bracelet that I already had. No photo~you'll have to trust me that they are lovely!

As I mentioned, the rain started as I walked back to my car and by the time I got home and pulled into the garage, we were in the midst of a torrential downpour!
The thunder, lightning and heavy rain lasted about 20 minutes, and then it continued to just rain for another hour or so. The skies have now cleared and there is the promise of nice day tomorrow. 

Sunday afternoon I will be one of the judges for the sewing competition at the Monroe County Fair. It should be interesting.

Corey called late this afternoon, having just gotten up from his nap! He worked 5 full days last week~he was exhausted. He does like his job and all the things he is learning to do. 

I've been packing up for my river trip and I think I have everything in my big duffle bag. I checked the long-range forecast for central Idaho for next week and the sun is supposed to be shining, but the high temps are only supposed to be around 80, which is about 10 degrees lower than other years when we've done this trip. I packed my light-weight wool long underwear!

Hope all is well.

A Summer Day!

Today was a beautiful summer day, with one more forecasted for tomorrow!

My friend, Wendy, and I rode our bikes to Pittsford for lunch at Aladdin's restaurant. This was a perfect day for a bike ride and we had a delicious lunch to fuel us for the ride home. When I proposed this ride, I stated that it was about 11 miles to the restaurant, when in actuality it was almost 15 miles! So I was approaching 30 miles when we got back to my house, and Wendy still had 2 -3 miles to get to her house! But it was a great day to be on a bike, so neither of us were complaining about the extra miles.

Aladdin's restaurant has two outdoor seating areas, one on the level of the canal path, and another on a covered deck over the lower level. We got a table on the upper deck and we had a lovely view of this very healthy looking pot of petunias. 

Later this afternoon I went to my second yoga class this week. It felt good to stretch out after my bike ride. 

I did some outside chores after dinner, because it was too nice to be inside.

Jim called tonight to tell me that he was supposed to run a preliminary heat of the 800 meter run today to see who would qualify for the finals on Sunday. However, when the time came for the race, only 12 guys had declared that they were running, so the meet officials decided not to run the preliminary heat, and just run all 12 guys in the finals. So Jim spent a lot of time at the track, but didn't do anything. He did cheer for his running buddy, from Williamsburg, VA who ran in the 5000. Jim runs the Steeple Chase tomorrow.

Tomorrow I need to mow some grass and get serious about packing up for my river trip. 

I'd like to say "Hi" to our family friend, Carolyn K., a new reader to this blog!

Hope all is well.

Warmin' Up Wednesday

OK, today it made it to 70 degrees. Of course we had a little rain (sprinkles really), and fall-like clouds, but that weather pattern has moved through and the skies are clear with the promise of a beautiful day tomorrow!

So, here is my frustration with buying gas today. Last fall, complaints were filed (not by me officially) that the gas at our BJ's was always 10 cents higher than the BJ's less than 10 miles away. There was an investigation and as a result, the 2 prices have been more in line in the past 8-10 months. So this morning when I was driving Jim to the airport (more on that later) I noticed that BJ's gas was still $2.65/gal. I commented that I had read that oil prices were coming down but that has not been reflected at the pump. Later in the day when I went out to do a bunch of errands, I stopped at our BJ's and filled up. As I was heading for the Land's End Inlet, imagine my surprise when I see the other BJ's gas price is $2.53/gal!!!! And I drive a couple hundred yards farther down the road and there is Kwik-Fil for $2.51/gal!! Since when did Greece become this affluent community that can support such price gouging?! When I came home past our BJ's their price had dropped to $2.62! It is a good thing my little Beetle doesn't hold a lot of gas, so we're not talking about huge dollar variances, but it is the principal of the thing. I hate to feel like I've been taken. Thank you for listening to my rant~Jim is not here to be at the receiving end of all this.

So where the heck is Jim you ask? He is in Appleton, Wisconsin for the National Master's Track and Field Championships. He will run the  3000 meter Steeplechase, the 1500 meter run and the 800 meter run over the next few days and then fly home on Sunday night so he is here to take me to the airport on Monday morning. 

I decided to wash the mattress pad and the shower curtain liner today and I hung them out to dry. They got the rain water rinse and were all dried by the time I got home. When I went to get them off the line, I discovered that a bird with a bad intestinal problem left his calling card on my mattress pad! So, back into the washing machine and on the line before I went to the hospital for my volunteer hours. Fortunately all is clean and dry at this time.

Tomorrow I am going on a bike ride with my friend Wendy and we are taking the canal trail to Alladdins restaurant on the canal in Pittsford for lunch. It will be about a 22 mile ride.

Here is a photo of 2 dishcloths that I recently knitted. The solid blue one is for a bridal shower gift which I knit on the way to Jenny Lake last week. I was also knitting on Tucker's sweater, but when I had to stop knitting on that until Jim tried it on, I decided to knit another dishcloth out of the leftover blue for me. I knew that I would not have enough to complete a full 2nd dishcloth out of the blue, but I almost made it. I only needed to bind-off in an accent color. This is my favorite dishcloth pattern
Hope all is well.

Jenny Lake Review

Posted on Monday, because Blogger was not working on Sunday night.

After 4 good days at Jenny Lake we've returned home to get ready for our next adventures. 

Jim and I left for camp on Thursday morning and drove through on-again off-again showers. After a nice lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, we arrived at camp in the early afternoon. It was good to see Gram and GrandDad, Jim, Maryanne, Zach and Zach's friend Shane. Corey left Syracuse later in the day and arrived in time for dinner. 

Speaking of dinner, Jim and Maryanne were in charge of dinner and outdid themselves with a tasty meal of beef tenderloin, baked potatoes and veggies. Here is a photo of some of the men trying to "help" Jim with the grilling so that they do not have to do dinner dishes!
Because of cool, damp weather, we had to eat dinner inside.

I don't think we've seen Jim and Maryanne in about 2 years and J & M have not changed, but Zach has grown about a foot! Here is a photo of Zach, on the right, and his friend Shane.

At Zach's request, we brought along our Rock Band game and played it on the Wii that he brought from home. After dinner, we rocked out!
Friday was a mix sun, clouds and rain, but the rain had moved out by afternoon. 

We raised the flag for the season.
Some of us sat on the deck, trying to catch a few rays. 

It was my turn to cook dinner for the gang, and I decided to do BBQ Ribs (using the Wegmans recipe). Jim seared the ribs on the grill and then I got them sauced up and in the oven for a slow cook. 

There was some swimming later in the afternoon. Notice the new float! The guys gave it the Thumbs Up approval.
After delicious ribs, Jim and I went out in the row boat, he to fish, me to get some exercise. He caught this nice bass.
Saturday was a better weather day than Friday, and we did more outside things. Corey and I got out for a bike ride and there was more swimming. Zach and Shane played tennis.

We all went to the Annual Picnic and as usual enjoyed the wonderful "pot luck" items that people bring to share. Here is a family photo I took:
Oh, wait a minute. Where's Corey?

Oh, there he is~talking to a pretty girl! Let's try again. Here is our family photo at the picnic:

We left camp this morning, with Corey following us. We waved goodbye to him at the 481 exit on the Thruway and were home by 1:30PM. We got the car unpacked, stuff put away, laundry started, the grass mowed and groceries bought before heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. Aunt Terry has been in town since we left on Thursday so we had a nice visit with her. It is always good to catch up on family happenings.

Hope you had a good Fourth of July Weekend.

Hope all is well.