Ready for a Weekend

Here it is, a Friday in the early evening. Jim is in Spokane, Corey comes home tomorrow and I have a Christmas party to go to tonight. 

On Wednesday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a birthday dinner. Grandma cooked a great meal of Swiss Steak, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, green salad, and Apple Crisp for dessert. It was  a wonderful change from the pasta/chicken/broccoli cassarole that Jim and I ate for the three nights prior to dinner at Grandma's! Here are a couple of photos from our dinner.

I had a good allergic reaction to G & G's cats. Shortly after arriving I was getting congested and soon was sneezing. Now I know where the boys get it! About 30 minutes after we got home, my nose began to clear and I was fine by bedtime. Here is one of the culprits of my nasal distress:

Yesterday I did not go to school because I had an appointment with my doctor for a physical. You may remember that I was interested in volunteering at Unity Hospital and the application process requires a full physical from a doctor. It has been awhile since my last physical so I made an appointment and I am pleased to report that I was declared to be in great shape. I do have to have blood work done, which I will do next week.

After my doctor's appointment, I ran to about a dozen different stores around the county and returned books to Gates Library. I had a little success while shopping, but I cannot write anymore about that.

I did go to the East Rochester yarn store and bought yarn for new hat for me. I have wanted to try Fair Isle knitting which involves using 2 colors of yarn. This Fair Isle hat pattern seems fairly straight forward, especially for a beginner. I got started on the hat last night and will hope to get some more knitting done tonight.

I've been doing the parachute at school the past few days and the kids just love it. My hair is a disaster from all the static electricity in the parachute that makes my hair stand on end when we are all under the parachute! It is a great opportunity to help the children learn that it is OK to laugh at yourself when others are laughing!

I think a lot of the staff from school will be at the party tonight. It is at the home of one of our teachers and I imagine it will be quite crowded, unless she has some kind of mansion. I don't plan to stay late, but we'll see how much fun I am having.

Tomorrow is cookie day. Gram will be here at 9AM ready to cut, roll  and dip lots of cookies. We work really well together. GrandDad has ground up a bag of nuts so we are ready to go. 

Corey will be home tomorrow afternoon. I think I will have to pick him up in Penfield. 

Jim races around 11:30 (2:30 Rochester time). I think the weather report has improved since he left here yesterday morning. Good Luck, Jim and Run Fast!!

Hope all is well.  

A Tuesday in December

Not much to report from here. 

Corey lost his wallet and is hoping to go to the Track House tonight and find it. We hope so too.

Tucker has been in touch with his Christmas wish list and a request for the specifics on his flights home.

Tonight my bell choir from church took our show on the road to be the entertainment at a Catholic Women's group Christmas dinner. It was held at one of the local party houses, which meant that we had to schlep all the bell equipment over there. Unfortunately one of our ringers came down with the flu today so our director had to ring bells (in the spot next to me) instead of directing us. The lack of a director was evident in a couple of our more difficult pieces. But we rang some familiar carols and invited the women to sing along, which got everyone in the holiday spirit. Here is a photo of me and most of the the bell choir. 

Tomorrow night we are going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a birthday dinner for Grandpa.  He will be 92 on Thursday! Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Jim leaves for Spokane on Thursday and is feeling better everyday.

Hope all is well.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Today we went hunting for our Christmas tree. We went to a large nature preserve where thousands of trees were "put out" for us! In no time we had brought down one tree .  The weather was perfect and it took us only 15 minutes for Jim to get on point on this tree. Five minutes later, with the tree in our sights, we bagged this short-needled, pinecone carrying tree. 

Some of you may be thinking "those poor trees, they didn't stand a chance." Well, that's the idea. These trees were planted with the intent that someday some saw-carrying yahoo would boldly stride out into the field and without a thought or care, saw through the mighty trunk of this once-living oxygen producing evergreen! And for what purpose? To hang gaudy balls and bobbles from.  Yes, it is the American way!

The preceding account of the harvesting of this year's Christmas tree was written to give my brother, Bob, a chuckle! Are you laughing, Bob? I hope so because I had a good time writing it.

Today is nephew Zach's 15th birthday! Happy Birthday, Zach! Jim reports that Zach is taller than Maryanne! Don't worry about this, Maryanne. When my boys got taller than me, I just told them to sit down when I wanted to yell at them!

Sick Bay Update: Jim is feeling better! He actually went for a run yesterday and today. Of course, after hunting for a tree this morning and a run earlier in the day, he took a serious nap this afternoon. 

Our neighbor put up his holiday decorations today, including this inflatable Grinch. We were hoping that the Grinch came with a rake seeing as our neighbor has not raked up his leaves (as usual) and they are slowly blowing into our yard. However, we are big fans of the Grinch and he makes me smile when I look out my windows and see him glowing in the darkness!

I started working on my gingerbread house today. I got all the pieces cut out and baked. I did some research on the internet and  got some new things to try. I will post photos when I have it completed. 

Some of you may be wondering how we transported our Christmas tree now that we no longer have a mini-van. One of the reasons that Jim selected this particular Vibe was that the one or both of the back seats can be folded down and the front passenger seat can also go flat. This was an important feature, which would allow Corey to carry his kayak inside the car. It also allowed us to put the tree in the car easily. By this time next year, we hope to have a roof-top carrier for this car which will allow us to carry our tree and Gram and GrandDad's tree on the roof. Thule, the company that makes roof-top carriers, is currently working on the unit for a 2009 Vibe.

Hope all is well.

Report from the Sick Ward

Jim is still sick. He stayed home from work on Tuesday and Wednesday and went in for a while this morning, came home for a nap and then went back for a late afternoon meeting. When he went to see the doctor on Tuesday, she gave him a prescription for an antibiotic with instructions to wait until today to have it filled if he wasn't feeling better. He had the thing filled on his way home from work today. Three pills-$54! They had better work! We did go for a walk around the block after dinner tonight because he needed to move a bit and wanted some fresh air. Hopefully he will turn the corner on this thing in the very near future. Of course I am hoping that I don't catch it!

Today was a Parent/Teacher conference day at school and I got a lot of desk work done and sat in on 2 conferences. Tomorrow is the second P/T conference day and it will be my cleaning day. I plan to dig out our equipment room and vacuum the dust bunnies, which are threatening to take over the place. It will be very quiet at school because if teachers have all their conferences done by today, they do not have to come in tomorrow. Most teachers have been at school every night this week accommodating the many parent requests for evening conferences. 

I have recently purchased two new Christmas albums. The first one is Sheryl Crow's holiday CD, entitled Home for Christmas. The second one is Faith Hill's CD Joy to the World. Both are nice additions to my collection.  I was able to listen to snippets of Faith Hill's songs on iTunes, and it didn't sound too "country" so I bought it and it is very easy to listen to. I got Sheryl Crow's CD at a local Hallmark store-I don't know where else it may be available. So if you are looking for something new for the holiday season I can recommend either or both of these CD's.

One morning recently, I was treated to this view out of my kitchen window:

I started knitting again and I think my elbows feel better. I know that in the next few weeks there will be no large blocks of knitting time so maybe I can avoid sore elbows in the future. 

Time to watch The Office.

Hope all is well.

Historic Event

Jim stayed home from work today because he is sick and that is a rare event. Jim has been fairly healthy for a long time. Even when one of the boys or I brought home "school" germs, Jim seemed to have the immune system to shut them out, but something got to him and he has a whopper of a cold with an occasional fever, ranging from 95.9 to 101.7 degrees, and a sore throat. Corey, Dad thought you might be interested in the temperature data! He even went to the doctor's office today to get a strep test. The quick strep test came back negative, but they did the 24 hour test and will get the results of that in a day or so. Jim may not have gone to the doctor's but he has a big race in 11 days and really wants to be healthy for it. He may even stay home tomorrow too (doctor's orders). Hopefully a couple days of laying low will work wonders on him. 

I am not knitting for a couple of days because my elbows started to ache a bit last night and I realized it may be from all the knitting I did over the Thanksgiving break. Hopefully this short break from the needles will get me back to normal. 

Guess that is all for now. Maybe I'll start our Christmas cards.

Hope all is well. 

End of November

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and tomorrow is December 1st, Christmas will be here in no time! Yikes!

I did get one of my holiday traditions taken care of today and that is I've started making Candy Cane Candy and tonight Jim and I took all of the out-of-town boxes to the Post Office. So if I usually send you Candy Cane Candy, watch for it in the mail this week. If it doesn't show up it means one of two things, either I forgot or you have done something to get removed from my list!!! Either way, get in touch with me and we'll work it out!

We had an interesting thing happen at the Post Office. You may know that I love the self-serve postage machine-it lets me mail packages on Sunday night without waiting in a line. Well, I had just started getting the postage on my 12 packages when another guy came in with one big box. I asked if that was all he had and then let him jump in and get the postage for his box, thinking it was my good deed for the day. He didn't take long and thanked me again before he left. Then I continued getting postage for all my little boxes. However, when Jim went to put the boxes into the container, the door would not open. Apparently, the other guy's box filled the container to the point that the door would not open any more! So I finished getting the postage on all the boxes and will put them in the mail at school tomorrow! So much for doing a good deed! 

Corey went back to school last night. He will be home again on December 13th. Before he left yesterday, he and Jim went out for a run. I saw that as an opportunity to get a photo of the two of them. I grabbed my camera and told them to stand next to each other on the sidewalk, and this is what I got! Wise guys! 

With a bit more encouragement, they turned to face the camera and gave me a better shot!

I got some good spinning done in the past 2 days, both on my bike and on my spinning wheel! I continue to spin on the blue-face leister fiber and the plastic bag from which I pull the fiber, never seems to get any less full! 

Tonight I cooked a turkey breast, made some stuffing from a box and homemade mashed potatoes and we had another Thanksgiving meal. There was enough left over, intentionally, so we can have a turkey casserole on Tuesday night. 

The Buffalo Bills looked bad today and lost. They had such a good start to the football season and now are just falling apart. The college football scene was pretty exciting yesterday and we watched several really good games-of course the Syracuse game was not one of the good ones. Mercifully the season is over for them and we can now look forward to the Orange basketball season. 

Rain, sleet and snow are in the forecast for tonight. Should be an interesting drive to school tomorrow. 

Did anyone get any good deals while shopping on Black Friday? I got a bargain on the sneakers that I wear everyday and I didn't even have to wait in a line to pay for them at Dicks. Of course I was there at the very reasonable hour of 11:00 AM. I was very sad and mad after reading about the poor person who was trampled to death at a Walmart as early shoppers broke down the door and overran that employee. That whole situation is wrong on many levels. And then did you hear about the 2 men who shot each other in a Toys R Us when their ladies started fighting over a toy? What is wrong with these people?

We enjoyed having Corey home for a few days and will look forward to his Winter break when we can have both boys in our nest. 

Hope all is well.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and hope you had the same. Did you take some time to ponder the many things for which you are grateful? Research shows that people who reflect on their blessings are healthier and happier, so don't delay, reflect today.

Our day started early as Jim was running in the Race with Grace. He left real early and I went over a bit later to spectate. GrandDad went with me. Corey stayed home and slept. Jim had a good race, finishing 19th out of 886 runners in this 10K race.

Bob and Liz ran also and should be congratulated on finishing 6th out of 17 father/daughter teams! 

Once Corey got up and Jim got home from the race awards ceremony (he won his age-group, so had to stay to pick up the award $), we all went out to finish raking and hauling leaves. We were glad to have Corey here to help. 
We had Thanksgiving dinner at Gram and GrandDad's house with Grandma and Grandpa. G & G's house smelled so good when we walked in - the advantage of cooking a turkey! Although I cannot really complain because I made  grape pie for dessert and our house smelled great from baking that this morning.

As you may guess, we had a great dinner. The turkey was perfect, as were all the side dishes. Here are some photos from our time Thanksgiving meal. Thanks Mom and Dad, it was all wonderful!



Tucker called us from his Thanksgiving celebration in Denver at Natalie's parents house. He was enjoying his time there. My brother Bob called too and we were able to get some details about his pheasant hunting expedition. Apparently Bob went to a hunting reserve of about 500 acres. According to Bob, the people who run the reserve "put out" a dozen pheasants and Bob and buddies went out and shot them. To us it sounded like shooting fish in a barrel, but he assured us it was much more sporting and real work at times.
But, he had a manly kind of a good time, creating fodder for future Neandrathal sessions of beer-drinking and the telling of lies! Bob, I'm glad you had fun-it sure looked like a beautiful day to be outside enjoying Mother Nature with your friends (even if you were shooting those poor birds who didn't stand a chance!).

So, anyone getting up super early tomorrow to shop? Not me. I may walk to the mall later in the morning to get a pair of sneakers that I work in because I can save $30, but I will not be setting an alarm. Plus, I have been given very few gift ideas from my guys, so I have nothing to shop for. 

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope all is well.

Corey's Home!

Corey got back into town around 2 PM today and, as you may guess, we are very happy to have him back with us for a few days. He got a ride home with one of his teammates who lives in Penfield, so we had a short drive to get him. Upon arriving home he promptly found some leftovers in the refrigerator and ate them up! 

We 3 were invited to Bob and Sally's house for dinner tonight. Liz is in town also, so we were glad to see her. They had a full house as Sandy and Walt were there too, along with Carolyn, Matt and their 2 children, Mia and Ben. We had a great dinner with lively conversation. Here are some photos from our time together:

Liz and Corey.

Bob cleaning up the kitchen after a super supper!

Carolyn, Mia, Ben and Matt.

Sitting around after dinner, Walt, Sally, Bob, Liz, Corey and Jim.

Before Corey got home, we had a busy morning. After getting some exercise (running for Jim and biking for me), I got some desserts baked for tonight's dinner. We cleaned up  the house and opened the door to Corey's room so it could start to warm up (wasn't that nice of us!).

We made a trip to Wegmans so there would be some food for Corey and then we stopped at Panera's for lunch. We walked in and heard someone calling our names and there were our friends, Julie and Steve! We hadn't seen them in ages so we got our lunches (yippee, the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad has returned to Panera's!) and shared their table and then shared a lot of laughs. Very quickly an hour went by and we are now planning to go out to dinner in the near future to continue the fun. It was so good to see them and catch up with what our families have been up to.

When we got home, we cleaned some gutters and raked a few leaves.

We got to quit the leaves when Corey called to say he was getting close to Penfield and we needed to go get him.

I spun for an hour and a half this afternoon so all in all it has been a great day.

Did you see the finals of Dancing with the Stars last night? Brooke and Derek won, which pleased me. I'm a bit sorry to see that show end because now I won't get to see them dance every week. 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Give some thought to what you are thankful for.

Hope all is well.

Syracuse Wins!

Now I don't know why we decided to watch the Syracuse vs. Notre Dame football game on TV, but we did, I was spinning and Jim was surfing, so the game was kind of like background noise. We watched as Syracuse played a pretty good first half but figured they would blow it in the second half as has become their pattern. And sure enough, the third quarter was painful to watch. We ate dinner during the fourth quarter and turned on the TV once when we finished. And there they were, the Orange with a one point lead with 35 seconds left in the game and the ball in Notre Dame's hands. It was too much to hope that they could maintain that tiny lead, but they did and it was a huge upset! The lame duck coach and players were so happy, it was joyous to watch. The Notre Dame players looked like they were in shock! So, congratulation SU-it was fun to watch!

It was a cold, clear day here-the kind you might expect in early February. But it didn't keep us in. We made our trip to the Eastman House to see the gingerbread houses. As a bonus we walked through the photo display of trains, which was interesting and we got to see the Eastman House all decked out in its Christmas finery. The gingerbread houses spanned quite a range- from creations by Girl Scout troops to what looked like professional chefs' entries. Some looked about like the ones I have created:

Others were obvious children's creations, heavy with icing and candy!

This one reminded us of the Cinderella Carriage that took the grandparents and grand aunts back to their hotel after the rehearsal dinner for Michal's and Elizabeth's wedding in Memphis.

And this one had a snow fort in the backyard of the gingerbread house, reminding us of the snow fort that Tucker and Corey built last year. We then hosted a Winter Solistice Party in the fort and had a great time! Maybe we can do that again this year-of course Mother Nature and Tucker and Corey would need to cooperate to make that happen!

The Eastman House did look beautiful, especially the staircase to the upstairs. And for those of you who have never been to the George Eastman House, that is an elephant head mounted on the wall in the great hall-old George liked to hunt!

After our tour of the Eastman House Jim dropped me off at the Rochester Museum and Science Center to check out the annual Holiday Craft Sale. Jim went on to the main library. The Craft Sale is set up right in the museum and it was a bit unsettling to be looking at beaded jewelry with a mastodon looking down at the same jewelry!

I bought a few things-a glass bowl with Christmas lights painted  on it, some Christmas earrings to wear to school, and a Christmas gift so I cannot say anything else about that. I lasted about an hour there when I called Jim for a pick-up. He had just arrived in the museum parking lot, knowing that I am terrible shopper and would not be more than an hour!

Here is a photo of my Christmas cactus. It is so much healthier looking this year since I re-potted it this spring. Corey, go water your Christmas cactus!
It may be time to throw out my white pumpkin. I'm not sure it will survive wearing this white hat!

I spent some time spinning this afternoon and I am using some fiber from a Blue-Faced Leister sheep, which I bought at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in October. It is so easy to spin and I love to see the crimp in the fiber from the curly locks on the sheep.
This will be a long-term spinning project as I bought 2.5 pounds of fiber and I probably spun up an ounce of fiber this afternoon! That's OK though, because I truly enjoy the process.

Tomorrow I will get Jim to take a photo of me wearing my new rayon scarf. I love it!

Both Tucker and Corey called tonight. Both are well and both are looking forward to their trip's home-Corey for Thanksgiving and then Tucker and Corey for Christmas.  We can hardly wait to have them under our roof again too!

Hope all is well.

Finally Friday

Phew, what a week. It has been a tough week at school for some of our students. Child Protective Services were here to see about a child who was being beaten if he didn't earn all the stars on his behavior chart. Two other children (first graders) have been directly related to tragic news stories that have been on the front pages of the Democrat and Chronicle. It is all rather heart-wrenching to watch these young children deal with adult problems. Fortunately these kids have been able to come to Phys. Ed. and play like children should, in a safe, fun and caring environment.

Winter has come to Rochester. It is snowing now and is supposed to snow on and off the rest of the weekend. And cold-into the teens tonight! 

Jim and I were going to go to the George Eastman House tonight to see the gingerbread houses that are on display, but when I checked the schedule, the House closed at 5 PM tonight so we'll try to go on Saturday or Sunday. I hope to get some inspiration for a gingerbread house I hope to make in early December. 

We have a pretty casual weekend planned. There was nothing interesting on TV so we went to the basement for awhile tonight and threw out some stuff. We got rid of many old magazines and boxes. It was a good start, but not too stressful. 

The Christmas cactus is spectacular. Maybe I'll take a photo tomorrow when the light is better. 

Tonight I finished knitting my purple/blue rayon scarf and put it into the washing machine to felt it. I didn't know rayon felted, but those were the directions I got when I bought the yarn. I had to use the dryer (as per the directions) and sure enough the scarf shrunk a bit. The colors are fantastic and it should be very warm because the fabric is pretty dense after felting. 

Today I got my last yarn shipment from my sock club. I am way behind in knitting up those socks but I do have some pretty yarn for "someday!" 

Not sure what Tucker or Corey are up to this weekend, but we'll probably hear from them in the near future.

Time to watch the first season of The Cosby Show on DVD. That is funny stuff.

Hope all is well. 

Monday Minutiae

Well, there is nothing earth-shattering to report, but then again, there rarely is. So here is what is happening.

Plant Update: 2 of my 3 amaryllis bulbs are sprouting and the 3rd one is showing potential. My Christmas cactus is blooming and it is beautiful.
My one green, leafy plant, whose name I cannot remember, is going to bloom too. There hasn't been a white flower blossom on that plant for a long time so that is a treat. 

I did finish sewing my bathrobe. I am quite pleased with it and it is toasty warm!I sewed for about 5 hours yesterday only taking a break for lunch. It was getting pretty cold on my sewing porch yesterday (but not as cold as it would have been today) so I would come into the living room to do trimming and pinning work and then go out to the porch to use the sewing machine. I was actually excited about having to go to the basement to press seams opened because that was a warm job!

Jim raced yesterday and he once again won his age-group. This was the last race in the Upstate Cross-Country Series (5 races all together) and he was the overall winner for his age-group. This makes the 5th year in a row that Jim was the overall winner in his age-group, prompting the Upstate XC series race director to call Jim's performance, "legendary!"

Here is a restaurant review for those of you residing in the local area. Last night we went out to dinner with Bob and Sally to a fairly new place in the Corn Hill area, called Virtu. It is right on the river and we had a window table with a view of the river and the new Freddie-Sue Bridge. We all had their house salad which included mixed field greens, blue cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and the house balsamic vinegarette dressing. We each selected a different entree and none of us were disappointed. The service was attentive and personable and the atmosphere was very warm and pleasant. If you haven't tried this place, make a reservation. This is one restaurant we should keep around. 

Sunday I had to go to JoAnn's Fabric and Craft store and all their autumn decorations were 70% off so I bought this wreath for our front door for $8.oo. I like it.

I'm watching DWTS while writing this and my favorites, Brooke and Derek, had their first bad dance. Brooke missed most of her steps, hopefully this won't get them voted out of the finals next week.

We were out of Whitley's honey roasted peanuts so when I got a 10% discount code in an e-mail, I placed an on-line order. The case arrived today so we are set for the holidays when the boys are home.

Yesterday I bought some candy canes at Wegmans and amazingly enough they have not gone up in price in years! I bet that for the last 7 or 8 years they have cost 99 cents for 6 ounces! 

Time to knit.

Hope all is well.

Busy,Busy, Busy!

Busy-that describes the past 4 days! I've been out every night, sometimes later than I had planned.

Thursday I had my last basket class. Here is a photo.

It is my least favorite one of the 4 I made, but I am very glad that I took the class. In addition to having 3 new baskets (remember, Corey has one), I had a lot of laughs with my friends. 

Friday morning when I came down to the kitchen this is the view I had out my window! What do they say about pink in the morning!

Last night we went to a 50th birthday party for Tony V. , a running buddy of Jim's. And because he is a runner he was thrilled to be turning 50, which puts him at the young end of a new age group! We had a nice evening, even though we didn't know many people at the party.

Today was my spinning guild meeting and it was also the weekend of the semi-annual spinning retreat at Camp Stella Maris, hosted by my spinning guild. I chose not to spend last night or tonight down there, but drove down this morning for some serious spinning time and for the guild meeting. I look forward to these meetings because even though spinning is an individual sport, I learn so much from the more experienced spinners and get lots of encouragement for what I am doing. The retreat/meeting was held in the Wegman House at Camp Stella Maris, which is on Conesus Lake. This is the view from the wrap-around porch:

And this is the main room in the Wegman House where the spinners and knitters congregated. That is my bright blue raincoat near the center of the photo.

My spinning teacher was very impressed with the orange and blue yarns that I spun and then had me participate in the Show and Tell portion of the meeting. I stayed until 2:15~ 4 hours of spinning is about all that my shoulders can take. I drove home in the rain with a stop in Henrietta to buy gas for $2.25/gal.

Jim and I just walked over to the mall and  look who has arrived! Santa!

Corey and Tucker-do you have a Christmas Wish List? Santa wants to know!

Tucker sent us a series of photos that I will pass along to you. The first photo shows him playing guitar on the edge of the bluffs overlooking the Dolores River.

The next photo is of Tucker and 2 of his friends making music in front of their house while they were working in La Sal, Utah.

And the last photo is of an "epic" thunderstorm that rolled through.

Remember, usually you can click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

Here is a bit of exciting news: 2009 has been declared the International Year of Natural Fibres by the United Nations! Watch for further details. Leave me a comment on how you plan to support this yearlong event!

Tomorrow Jim is off for another XC race, this time at Finger Lakes Community College. I plan to sew on my new polar fleece bathrobe. We are going out to dinner with Bob and Sally.

Veteran's Day

There was no school today because of Veteran's Day. I was encouraged this year because when I asked my students on Monday why we had the next day off, they were able to tell me. I've had years when the kids really didn't know the significance of this day. 

To all the Veterans who may be reading this, we pause to honor you and are grateful for your contribution to the greater good.

I got a lot done today. I rinsed my new skeins of yarn and they are now hanging in the bathroom, drying. After some research, I decided to sew a new robe for myself. Today I cut out the fleece fabric for that project. Hopefully I can do some sewing this weekend. After a trip to Wegmans, I made chicken and rice soup for dinner for the next 2 nights.

I also had an interview today. No, I am not looking for a new job. This was an interview for a possible volunteer position at Park Ridge Hospital (Unity Hospital). For awhile I have felt like I wanted to do some volunteer work, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and how much time I would have to give. I decided to look into opportunities at the hospital because it is close. My interview with the Director of Volunteer Services was pretty casual and she told me that when I was available to volunteer (after school hours), there were really only two jobs available-working at the Information Desk or in the Gift Shop. Before I can volunteer though, I need to have a physical with my doctor!!  I guess they do not want me needing the hospital services while I am volunteering! So, we'll see how long it takes me to work through this process to become a hospital volunteer. 

Jim joined me at yoga tonight, which is always entertaining! 

Corey sent me a photo of the basket that I made for him. Notice the orange and blue accent colors on the basket.

I go to my last basket weaving class on Thursday night.

Jeannie sent us this photo from her recent birthday party. With Jeannie is Mark and Elizabeth, Michal's bride.

Tucker called last night and it was nice to catch up with his activities. Because he doesn't have a TV he had to dig out his old clock radio and listen to the election returns. Thank goodness he now has cell service in Bluff, because phone conversations with Corey and Liz kept him up to date too that night. 

Jim and I have to blow up 28 balloons tonight because I will use them in my PE classes tomorrow. Balloons are a great way to introduce "striking a moving object" to my young students, plus it gives the gym a real party atmosphere!

Time to knit. I'll tune into Dancing with the Stars in awhile to see who gets voted off tonight. Did you see Brooke and Derek dance last night? They were wonderful!

Hope all is well.

November 9th

How's that for an attention-grabbing title for today's entry? I guess my creative juices have dried up for tonight!

This weekend has been about errands, football and time with my spinning wheel. Once we got a bunch of errands done on Saturday I settled in the living room with college football on the TV and my spinning wheel in front of me. I have been spinning some fiber for a scarf for Corey for a long time and decided I could finish the spinning if I made one concerted effort.  I need good light to spin so have not been spinning at night, after the sun has set. However, late yesterday afternoon I had Jim move my "natural" light out from behind the couch and out by my wheel and that allowed me to spin no matter what the sun was doing. Last night I filled the second bobbin with a navy blue single. Today I took my 2 bobbins of singles and plied them together making 2 nice skeins. See the photo below. I am quite pleased with how the yarn came out and will start to knit once I "set the twist" by soaking the skien in water and letting it dry. I may take my orange and blue skeins to my spinning guild meeting this next Saturday for "show and tell." Spinners bring new fiber they purchased, yarn they have spun and finished projects they made from handspun yarn for show and tell. It is always interesting to see what other, more experienced spinners are doing.
 

Jim and I raked up more leaves on Saturday. There are still some leaves on 3 of our trees, but I think we have the bulk of our leaves up. Of course, I'm sure we will get a strong wind from the south, blowing all of the leaves in our neighbor's yard into ours, giving us another chance to get some exercise! It happens every year and I believe our neighbor is amused by this. 

Jim went to Vernon/Verona NY today for a XC race. He ran well, winning his age-group, and then stopped to see Corey on his way home. Jim reports that while in the Vernon-Verona area, he found and bought gas for $2.36/gal, on the Indian reservation! Jim's race is run on a high school campus right behind the Turning Stone Resort/Casino, which is Indian owned and run. In year's past, Jim and I have stayed at the Resort the night before the race, enjoying a nice dinner and donating some money to the slot machines. Last year when we did this, the smoke in the casino was so overwhelming that I quickly lost $20 and we were back in our smoke-free room in about 15 minutes.  It was at this point that I decided that I did not need to go back to that casino.

I took a couple of photos of my current knitting projects because the sun was almost shining so I could take the photos outside and not need the flash. So here is the start of Jim's sweater.

And here is my scarf. I think there is more purple in the yarn than shows in the photo.

Jim delivered a grape pie to Corey so that makes 6 pies that I made in one week-an new personal best!!! I hope you enjoy it, Corey!

Amaryllis update-one of the bulbs has a new bud just starting to push its nose up! I'll get a photo of it when it grows another 1/8 inch!

I bought Sheryl Crow's new Christmas CD at Hallmark yesterday and it has some lovely songs on it. 

I read that American Idol runner-up David Archuleta has his debut CD coming out on Tuesday. I hope it is great-I'll get mine from iTunes and load it onto my iTouch ASAP. 

Hope all is well.

This and That

Are you glad the election is over? I do not miss those dinner time phone calls or mud-slinging ads and I am sure there has been interesting news from around the world that we have missed due to the all-consuming election coverage. There does seem to be an air of optimism or hope now that Obama has been elected. I enjoyed reading his speech after McCain conceded the election. His comments indicated a desire to close the gap between Democrats and Republicans, hoping to unify the country as we tackle the problems facing the country. Enough about politics.

Here is a photo of what I've been doing when I got home from school the last 2 days-raking leaves. I rake (or blow) the leaves until it gets dark and then Jim gets home from work and hauls them away. We wanted to get as many leaves picked up as possible before the rains come this weekend and make for a heavier and less enjoyable job.
 

There are still a fair number of leaves on the trees, but I think about 75% are down. Here is a bright yellow leaf display from our backyard. I will be raking up those leaves in the next few days!

I've started 2 new knitting projects. The first is a sweater for Jim using some yarn that I bought at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival 2 years ago. The pattern is a very simple seed or moss stitch. I've done about 13 inches of the back so far. I've also started a scarf for me. I'm using some gorgeous yarn that I bought this past spring when Jim and I were biking on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The yarn is a hand-dyed rayon of deep blues and purples. I am doing a wide rib pattern and it has such a lovely drape and rich coloring. 

No growth to report on my amaryllis bulbs. Stay tuned.

So far this week I have made 5 Grape Pies. I made two for the youth bell choir baked food sale at church on Tuesday and then tonight I made 3 more to take to school tomorrow. At my school we have a tradition of Friday treats with different groups of staff bringing in food on Friday mornings. Tomorrow is my group's turn and my grape pies are always a big hit. Don't worry, Corey, there are still a good number of grape pie fillings in the freezer. 

So, Susan L. is off of Dancing with the Stars. Brooke and Derek continue to dazzle us with their performances.

Jim came home from work yesterday and announced that he had spent four hours at a workshop called "Count Me In," a sensitivity training program for all of the employees in his company. He claims to have learned about the importance of tone of voice, body language and how to be an active listener. We'll see! (Edited after Jim did his proofreading-Jim claims to have been taught, not necessarily learned those above things!)

Tomorrow my school is having a Happy Hour at a local restaurant/bar. Jim will meet me there and then we will have dinner. Should be fun.

Hope all is well.