We Have a Winner

From the world of master's racing, Jim won his age-group in a National XC race in Maryland today. His team of veteran's men won the team title by one point! So, congratulations go out to Jim! There were several Syracuse freshmen at this race and 2 of the boys finished so well that they made the World XC team. I'm not sure what that means, but it sure sounds good! I'm sure one of my guys will inform me of the meaning of this achievement.

So, Jim is in Maryland and on his way to Germany tomorrow. I am sitting here late on Saturday afternoon with a glass of wine and college basketball on TV. Tonight I am going to the RIT hockey game with Bob and Sally so I will get this entry done now. The RIT hockey team lost last night so hopefully we can bring them good luck tonight.

I have almost finished my cabled mittens. I did a provisional cast-on with the intention of adding a pretty cuff knit out of matching mohair yarn. This cuff would fold over the ribbed cuff. Before I can proceed with that I need to get a book from the library on different edgings that can be added to projects. I am quite pleased with the mittens considering I really didn't have a pattern. 

On Thursday night as Jim and I sat at the kitchen table eating dinner, the UPS truck stopped in front of our house. The UPS man carried a large, white foam cooler up to our house. It was a thank-you gift from Jim's running buddy who recently spent a weekend here for a race. He had a gift box sent to us from Omaha Steaks! The cooler contained a cheesecake, 2 filet mignon's , a couple of top sirloin steaks, some ground beef patties, a box of 4 stuffed baked potatos and a package of fancy hot dogs all on top of some dry ice! Boy am I going to eat well while Jim is gone! Only teasing, I'll wait for him to come home before we dive in (except for the baked potato and piece of cheesecake I ate tonight. He doesn't like those things!). This gift was a nice treat and certainly not necessary.

Thursday night we went to a touring whitewater film festival. We saw about 5 short films about whitewater kayaking. My favorite one focused on the annual race down a stretch of the Green River in North Carolina. The river features near continuous class 5 whitewater for a mile or so. Spectators hike into the river and cheer from the banks adding to the excitement. I'd like to see that river some time. 

Corey called this morning and is still on the road to recovery. He has some applications for some internships in the Syracuse area for this summer. He will be completing that paperwork in the near future. 

Today I went to the northeast corner of Irondequoit Bay for the Skate the Bay event. I met Bob and Sally there and cheered for Bob as he raced in the 5K event. Unfortunately this is the only warm weekend we've had all winter and it was the weekend that this event was scheduled. There was about 1-2 inches of water over the very thick ice. Bob reported that there were some really rough and soft spots on the 1K loop. Earlier in the day there had been races of 50K and a 1K sprint. After Bob's race, the general public was invited to skate the loop, but it did not sound too appealing. I took my skates with me, but I think I would have had to swim if I had fallen down! So, congratulations to Bob for skating a great race! Here are some photos from the race site:

Welcome Sign

Ice carving of skates

Bob coming around on his 3rd lap.

Sally sitting in the "skating chair". We each bought a raffle ticket to win it!

The SU basketball team lost today, and they lost badly. At this rate they are not going to get into the NCAA tournament. They still have some big games left to redeem themselves.

Fifty degrees today! Unbelievable! The driveway is looking pretty good. I am keeping my eye on the temps in Ottawa for next week as we hope to do some major ice-skating on the Rideau Canal and it needs to be cold for that to happen. At this point, 7 days out, it looks like it will be OK.

I guess that is all for now. 

Hope all is well. 

Hola!

Tucker sent us (and some of you!) some photos where he is staying for the next month, Baja, Mexico. Enjoy!

This is the place Tucker and his buddy, Duane, are staying. They are doing some work on the house in exchange for staying there.

Sunset on the drive down. 

Tucker trying to catch dinner, or a whale!

After these photos, there is nothing that I can add from around here that would be the least bit interesting so I will say,

Hope all is well.

Saturday News

What a pretty day! When I got up this morning the light was just right, there was a couple inches of fresh, powdery snow and it was still. It was a beautiful morning! So I slipped into my slip-on sneakers and went outside in my bathrobe to try to capture the morning with my camera. Here is the result. It fails miserably, but it is a nice reminder.

For Christmas, we gave Grandma and Grandpa a certificate for some dinners out with us and last night we took them to Agatina's for a nice Italian dinner. We all had a good meal  and all brought home enough for tonight's dinner. We'll have to spread these dinners out over the course of the year, but we already have an idea of where we are going to go next. Sorry, I'm not telling where!

I spent most of the morning doing comments for my report cards. Missing 4 days of school really put me behind schedule and even after a week back at school I am still not as caught up as I would like to be. This Monday the PE department is putting on a Jump Rope for Heart event at school and on Wednesday my PE colleagues and I have to do workshop for some of the other district PE teachers. I'll be ready for both events, but just barely.

Jim and I also took some time today to sort through 3 baskets and boxes of assorted scarves, hats, gloves and mittens. We decided what to keep, what to throw away and what to donate. You boys know what baskets I am talking about so if there was something in there that you absolutely must have, let me know soon, because I will take the donation bag to Odyssey in the next week or so. 

We were watching TV and a commercial came on for financial planning and it showed a person sitting next to a version of themselves only 15 years older. Jim was wondering if he would recognize himself, 15 years older. What do you think? It is an interesting question.

Speaking of commercials, are you ready for the Super Bowl commercials? We have always enjoyed the e-Trade baby commercials and have seen the out-takes from their new series of commercials which are to debut during the Super Bowl.  The out-takes can be found on the e-Trade website and are pretty funny. 

We talked to both Tucker and Corey today. Corey thinks his sore throat is getting better and he has been able to sleep at night (with the help of some cold medicine) so he is hoping to continue on this road to recovery. He has taken a couple of workshops about resume writing and how to find an internship and is going to start the process of identifying some possible internships and then getting his paperwork out there. 

Tucker called from Mexico, using his Mexican cell phone to say that they had arrived at their destination and that it was fabulous! He has an ocean view from this house that he is staying in and working on and today the temp was about 80 degrees and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Of course we filled him in on what he was missing around here! There is a nice beach right by the house with good fishing and apparently whale sightings are not uncommon. Enjoy!

I am working on knitting a pair of mittens to match my pastel orange cabled scarf and hat. I am designing the pattern myself and have started the first mitten 3 times, trying to find the right sized needles to make the ribbing as tight as I wanted it. The mitten will have one cable running up the back it. I have knit to where I have to hold some stitches for thumb, which will be added after the main part of the mitten is completed. 

Here is a photo of the start of Jim's race from last weekend. There has been quite a bit of trash talk flying across the internet about this race. You'd think these 50-plus year old guys were a bunch of teenage boys! 

We'll be at church tomorrow morning because I have to deacon and Jim is scheduled to be the Lay Litergist. We've learned that it is Youth Sunday, so we are not to sure how much of our jobs will be done by the youth.

I see that the Super Bowl votes are dead even as I write this. Hopefully it will be a good game. The halftime show should be good with Bruce Springsteen. And I like that the game is starting shortly after six, so hopefully I can get to bed at a reasonable hour on a school night. 

Hope all is well. 

Random Wednesday

Here are some rambling, random thoughts for a Wednesday evening:

*First off, let's do a poll for the Super Bowl. Check the upper left hand corner of the blog for who you are cheering for in the Super Bowl. For those of you who have had your head in a snow pile for the past 2 weeks, the 2 teams playing in the Super Bowl are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. One vote per person.

* It snowed here a fair amount here in the last 24 hours. I did the snow blowing when I got home from school today and the snow was so deep in the driveway that the bottom of my car was dragging in the snow. Now I do not have a high clearance vehicle, but there still must have been at least 8 inches to clear out. 

* We got a new set of drums for Rock Band yesterday, to replace the set that stopped working. Jim and I tried them out last night and we still got it! 

* I finally put the finishing touches on the hat that matches the orange scarf I finished over the weekend. Now I am thinking about making some mittens to match, but my cast-on for the first mitten tonight was too loose so I will try again with smaller needles. 

*Corey has the sore throat thing going again and is not sleeping real well. We will keep a closer eye on him this year and try to keep him out of the hospital. This is the one bad part about kids going away to college. 

*Jim and I went to yoga last night. Jim fell asleep during the meditation time at the start of class and I fell asleep during the ending meditation time. We did lots of good exercise and stretching in between!

*Jim went to a museum lecture tonight with GrandDad. The topic was infrared space telescopes. He said it was good, but that the attendance was down because of the weather. 

*I was supposed to have bell rehearsal tonight but our director was sick so she cancelled and I had a free evening at home. 

*SU lost another basketball game tonight. Two of their starters are now injured which doesn't bode well for future games. I don't think either injury is season-ending so hopefully those 2 guys will be 100% in the near future. I do love college basketball. Can hardly wait for March Madness and this year I have a TV that is big enough so I can actually see the ball! Life's simple pleasures!

*Another photo from our time at Jenny Lake over New Year's~one of my more artsy shots!

That's all.

Hope all is well. 

Hall of Fame Induction

The big event around here was Jim's induction into the Greater Rochester Track Club's Hall of Fame tonight! He was one of 2 inductees and we are soooo proud of him. People said glowing things about him as a runner, a teammate and a person. The banquet was held at a local party house and in addition to recognizing the new Hall of Famers, the Rochester Runners of the Year were given awards. Jim and I were thrilled that we had a table-full of family and friends to share this time with us. Here are some photos from the evening:

Our table was waiting for us~ front and center!

GrandDad and Sally catching up before dinner.

Bob greeting Grandma and Grandpa.

Corey and Gram are glad to see each other.

Our table of family and friends just before dinner.

What's a party without cake?!

Jim with his coach, Mike.

Both inductees were given a beautiful mantle clock as a gift of recognition. So, it was a great evening and we are all very proud of Jim. Way to go!

We had an overnight guest last night as Jim's running buddy, Steve, came in from Virginia to run in a race in Ithaca today, with Jim. Steve and Jim both ran well, with Steve beating Jim by .12 seconds in the one mile race. Steve was unfamiliar with Wii so we got him trying out some Wii Fit and Wii Sport. Then we psyched him up for a little Rock Band. I think he enjoyed it once he got the hang of it!

I finished knitting my pastel orange scarf and got it blocked on my basement floor. 
I used the blocking wires that I bought a while ago. The wires helped to make the long edges of the scarf straight and even. I have a hat that I knit even longer ago that matches the scarf, but there are a couple of finishing things I need to do on the hat before I can wear it. I am motivated to do those finishing things now that I have a scarf  to make it a set!

Tomorrow I have to take Corey back to SU early in the morning. He needs to get his long run in before going to the SU/Louisville b-ball game. 

I am feeling better every day and will be ready to go back to school on Monday.

Hope all is well. 

Washington, DC Report

The bulk of this post is by our Washington correspondent, Liz.

I had an amazing time at the inauguration! It was an overwhelming
experience and such a wonderfully positive day. We spent hours waiting
in huge crowds of people, and no one was upset or annoyed. It was a
day of a shared sense of joy and awe and inspiration! We met people
from all parts of the country - South Carolina, Texas, California,
Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts. It was so inspiring to know that
this event energized people not just in the DC area, but across the
country, and the world. At various times throughout the day
spontaneous chants for Obama, patriotic songs and cheering erupted. It
was awesome!

My friend Lacey and I were near the Washington Monument, and watched
the big event on a huge jumbotron. We couldn't even see the Capitol
building, but no one seemed to mind. In fact, we were almost a mile
from the actual event but it didn't matter! We were there to witness
history!

Thanks Liz for that first-hand account. I'm glad I knew someone who was in that big gathering.

I stayed home from school again today and on the advice of several people calling themselves "doctors", I have called for a sub for tomorrow. I have never missed so much time at school with the exception of when I had to have knee surgery after an accident at school. I feel better today, but still am quite fatigued and if I talk for more than 5 minutes, I go into a coughing fit. Now my students might like it if I couldn't talk, but that is just not an ideal situation for a teacher. 

Tomorrow night Jim's running buddy, Steve, will be here from Williamsburg, VA. We are saving the really cold weather until he gets up and out on Saturday morning!

Tucker called tonight telling us of his final preparations for his month-long trip to Mexico. He and his buddy leave on Sunday. Tucker has been studying Spanish and when I asked how that was going, he said, "Bueno!" The boy is brilliant!

Hope all is well. And thanks again to Liz, for making today's blog entry much more interesting than the Kleenex count I was going to post! 

Sick Days

I have been home sick for the past 2 days and will probably be here again tomorrow as there is no way I could face 400 children in my current state.  I won't bore you with the symptoms, but they have been obnoxious enough for Jim to choose to sleep on the couch so he can get a decent night's sleep. When he is sick, he sleeps on the couch. When I am sick, he sleeps on the couch. What a guy!

Jim has been out every night for this world-wide meeting that is being held here in Rochester. I think he is having dinner at Richardson's Canal House tonight. I'm happy for him as I'm not very good company and I sure don't feel like cooking dinner.

I have gotten a fair amount of knitting done. I am about half way done the first sleeve on Jim's sweater. I decided that I wanted to make a scarf that I could wear to the RIT Hockey games and I decided that if I made it plain orange (RIT has orange and brown or black as their school colors), I could also wear it to SU events. Then I remembered that I had started a scarf that was a pastel orange color a couple of years ago when I wanted to learn to do cables. So I dug that out and have knit about a foot on that in the past 2 days. I probably will need to do another foot to finish it. 

Did you see much of the Inauguration Ceremonies? Being home all day I watched the coverage of all the events. It certainly was inspirational and moving. I saw some photos that Liz took at the event, so Liz, send me your impressions and commentary of the day and I will let you be my guest blogger! I was amazed to hear that there was not one arrest during the festivities which is unbelievable, considering people with tickets were turned away. Today I turned on Ellen and there she was wearing a copy of Aretha's hat! It was pretty funny! Did you notice how joyful Yo Yo Ma looked as he played his cello? That image clearly represented what many people were feeling that day. 

The weather is supposed to warm up to more normal temperatures in the next 2 days before it goes back into the deep freeze. One of Jim's running friend's is coming into town from Williamsburg, VA this weekend and historically we have welcomed him with temps in the teens and single digits. I don't think the guy even owns proper clothing for those conditions, but he is a good sport and we enjoy his time in town. He and Jim are racing in Itaca on Saturday. 

Here is another interesting photo from our time at Jenny Lake over New Year's. 

Please excuse any typos or incomplete thoughts that are in this entry as I am full of cold medicine and my editor is in the middle of a 7 course dinner as I write this!

Hope all is well. 

Weekend Update

Here is Sunday afternoon and it has been very relaxing. And the reason for this relaxation is that I have tomorrow off for Martin Luther King Day! 

So what have we been up to? We've been to 2 big sporting events~an RIT hockey game on Friday night and to SU for their big basketball win over Notre Dame! The hockey game was fun and the RIT team pulled out a win in the last few minutes of play. We got to the game early enough to get seats, good ones, but we decided we could see more of the rink when were standing along the railing. I took my knitting with me and got some progress made on a pair of toe-up socks that I started a long time ago. I only knit before the game started and between the periods. 

Yesterday we left home shortly after 9 AM and drove to SU. We took a slightly longer route to get to Corey's apartment, but it saved us a lot of time because the traffic for the game was backed up onto Interstate 81. So we circled around the city and came into Corey's place on the back roads. We unloaded a bit of food and some clothes that Corey had left at home and then walked to Manley Field House where we picked up a shuttle bus to take us to the Carrier Dome. SU does a great job of moving people to and from the games, so it is not a problem parking at Corey's apartment and getting to the game. SU was playing Notre Dame, another Big East team and there were over 30,000 excited fans at the game.



Our seats were way up high in Dome and were not as bad as we had feared. Here is the view we had.


The energy level was super high, especially since SU took an early lead and ended up crushing the Irish, 93-74. We saw some great plays and were impressed with the 3-point shooting of Notre Dame.

After the game we went back to Corey's apartment, before heading out for a short walk to the water towers for a nice over-view of the city. It was a cold walk, so we were glad it was a short one.

We tried a new place for dinner and we were joined by one of Corey's friends, Curtis. The restaurant, Delmonico's Italian Steakhouse, was a nice place and we all had a good meal.

We dropped Corey back at his place and then headed home. I got really tired on the way home, surprisingly tired. Once home, I couldn't keep my eyes opened, and went to bed at 9:00 PM.

My tiredness is explained by the cold I seemed to have caught. My symptoms right now are a runny nose and fatigue. Hopefully it won't develop into anything more. 

I got some spinning and plying done this afternoon while watching the football. Once we know who is playing in the Super Bowl, I will put a poll up on this blog and you can vote for your team. 

By the way, boys, we moved the TV back into the corner and it works well there. We can now get Channel 13's digital broadcast.

I got a couple of inches knitting done on the front piece of Jim's sweater. I'll work some more on that tonight.

Jim has a busy week and probably won't be home much for dinner this week. A world-wide meeting that he has attended in Europe in the past is being held here in Rochester this week. So he has dinner meetings and social gatherings some of the evenings. 

I guess that is all for now.

Hope all is well.

Ten Minutes of Fear

Jim was scheduled to fly home from Finland today, arriving in New York City sometime between 3 and 4 PM. I got home at 4:30 today, turned on the TV, hoping to catch the second half of Ellen and there was Brian Williams, describing "Breaking News", a plane had landed in the Hudson River. Of course, I immediately worried about Jim's plane. For the next 10 minutes, I saw photos of a commercial jet in the river, but could not see or hear a report about the details of the plane. As you might imagine, it was a very scary time until I heard that the plane was a US Airways plane, that had just taken off from LaGuardia heading for North Carolina. Jim was on Air Finland heading towards JFK. So I started breathing again and then watched with amazement at the miraculous rescue of the passengers and crew. This past summer when I was in NYC after my bike ride ended, I remember being impressed with all the water taxis on the river, thinking that it was a great way to travel. It sounds like those very taxis were instrumental in the swift and safe rescue of all involved. It will be interesting to hear more details of this fateful flight as they emerge. 

I called Jim after getting an e-mail from him saying that he had arrived at JFK. He knew nothing of the plane in the river. At this point his plane back to Rochester has been delayed by 45 minutes. I'll keep my eye on the airline website.

The bitter cold continues and our area is supposed to get a good dose of "lake effect" snow tonight. Tomorrow the forecast calls for more arctic air with the addition of some wind, driving the wind chills down towards 2o below, which is the temperature when schools are closed. We'll see if this really happens.

Tonight I went to a local restaurant with Gram and GrandDad to sample their German Month menu.  We each had a different entree and they all got a good review. Jim was glad to have missed this meal since he has had his fill of German restaurants during our last 2 trips to SU.

I just checked the Delta website and Jim's flight has been delayed another 10 minutes, to an 8:40 departure. Jim said they were waiting for a crew to show up. Seems like Delta should know when a crew would be available.

I've been knitting on Jim's sweater and have about 12 inches of the front completed. The back is done so I feel like I'm making good progress.  

Anybody watching American Idol? I've only seen a bit on Tuesday and Wednesday and there was the usual mix of the ones with potential and the ones who are clueless!

Just got an e-mail from Jim that he had boarded the plane! Now they just need clearance to take-off. Once I know he is in the air I will go outside and snow blow his parking spot in our driveway. The past 2 mornings when I've snow blowed a few inches, I've only done the main part of the driveway, so tonight I have to finish the job.

Hope all is well. 

Monday Minutiae

Yesterday was another day to catch up on some household chores and then watch some college basketball and NFL playoff football. It also ended up being a sunny day so I took some photos of the sun on the snow. Here is one from the back yard.

We had to clean out about 6 inches of snow from the driveway on Sunday morning. But it was the light, fluffy stuff so it wasn't hard work. Now we are waiting for the arctic blast that is forecasted for later this week.

Something triggered a thought in my head today that we missed our 30th anniversary of living in this house. That would have been this past December and had I thought of it a month or two ago we could have had a party to celebrate! Oh well, Happy Anniversary to us in this house!

My amaryllis are spectacular! I'm sorry that those of you who were here for Christmas did not get to see them, so I will include a couple of photos here. The white one has another bud opening up that will probably have 2 or 3 more flowers! They bring me joy!

Jim left for Finland today. He called saying that he had arrived in NYC and his flight to Helsinki was on schedule. Since I haven't heard back from him I guess he is in the air as I write this. He will return on Thursday evening. 

Time to do some WiiFit and then knit. 

Hope all is well.

Friday to Saturday

This entry is rate PG-13 for language.

We've had a good start to our weekend and it began with the news that it looked like Tucker was going to make it back to Denver with minimal disruptions to his plans. When he checked in at the American Airlines counter here in Rochester, the American employee thought his itinerary to Denver through Dallas was absurd and re-booked him on a direct flight from Chicago to Denver. That was very nice of her! He had a slight delay getting to Chicago and then a longer delay leaving Chicago but got to Denver on the day he was supposed to get to Denver!

It was great having both boys home for the holidays, but now that we were empty nesters again, we needed to create our own blog-worthy moments so I searched the Friday newspaper for things to do. We ended up going to the RIT hockey game on Friday night and had a great time! We may become fans! I do not like pro hockey because there seems to be more fighting than hockey, but such is not the case at the college level.  There was only one fight in the game against Connecticut. 

We'd like to go to another RIT hockey game, especially now that we know all the cheers. When RIT makes a good shot on goal, and for whatever reason, the puck doesn't go in, you are supposed to yell, "Oh S&*t!" When the ref makes an apparent bad call (like any penalty against RIT), you yell, "Bullsh$t!" When the rink announcer talks about any opposing player, you yell, "You Suck!"  We got the verbiage down now and are ready for the next game! It was a fun evening and we will go back. The arena is fairly small compared to the Blue Cross Arena. Apparently, you need to get to the game about an hour before face-off if you want a seat. We arrived about 4 minutes after the game started and ended up standing along a rail right at center ice. Since the rink is not huge, we could see everything!

Today we worked all morning and then did things of our own choosing in the afternoon. We started the day with a good cleaning of the basement. All the Christmas wrapping stuff was down there and needed to be sorted and stored. We then threw away some old boxes and broken toys (don't panic boys, not too many toys). I vacuumed and the place looks great and there is more room for drying clothes. The remainder of the morning was spent running errands, including getting our skates sharpened for Ottawa in February.

We were thinking of going to Ithaca today for a spinning event but the weather forecast was questionable so we stayed home. I spun for about 2 hours this afternoon.  Jim and I both got our exercise in (mine included some time with WiiFit) and then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. I took an allergy pill before we went over there because I seem to have developed an allergy to their cats. The pill seemed to help as I had no sneezing fits and was able to enjoy our evening. 

While Tucker was home he made a pizza for us for dinner one night, using a store-bought crust. There was an extra crust so I made a pizza on Friday night and it was delicious. One half had pepperoni and the other half was veggie. Here is a photo:

The drum-set that came with Rock Band is not working correctly so Jim did some research about what our options were, and we have a couple. We chose to have Nintendo send us a box to return the drum-set to them and then they will send us a new one. The drums started malfunctioning on the night before Corey went back to school, when the four of us wanted to have one more jam session. The drums would work for one song and then stop shortly after the second song began. So I don't know how long this exchange procedure will take, but for the time being, Jim and I will have to work on our guitar and bass skills. We are already pretty good on vocals!!

Two inches of snow fell while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house and the snow is supposed to continue through the night. Good thing we bought gas for the snowblower this morning. 

Not sure what is planned for tomorrow. Jim will need to pack as he is going to Finland on Monday.

Hope all is well. 

Before and After

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After:

Before:

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Before:

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Before:

After:

Hope all is well.

T'was the Night Before School Resumes. . .

Here it is Sunday night after a 12 day school vacation and I am trying to remember all the things I usually do on Sunday night during the school year. The ironing is done and my lunches are packed up for the week. I have my lesson plans in order for the week and I've started a Things to Do List. 

Today is also Corey's last day at home. Tucker is taking him back to SU tomorrow afternoon. 

Today I went to a concert by the Bucknell University Rooke Chapel Ringers at one of the downtown churches. It was excellent and as a bell ringer I could really appreciate their talents. 

Here are two more photos from our time at Jenny Lake. It was bitter cold when we got up on New Year's Day and this frost display was near the shore where a small stream enters the lake. I was intrigued by the frost formations. 

Hope all is well.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you!

We have returned from another wonderful celebration of the end of one year and the beginning of another at Jenny Lake. We feel fortunate that Bob, Sally and Liz continue to want to join us for this winter adventure. It is not for the feint of heart!

We left for the mountains on Tuesday morning, driving through the usual snowy conditions around Syracuse. But we arrive at camp to find about a foot of old, crusty snow on the ground and the lake frozen solid and mostly snow-free-in other words, ideal skating conditions.


So Corey got a fire started in the wood stove to warm up the 20 degree camp, some of us shoveled the essential paths around the camp (namely the one from the camp door to the outhouse) and we hauled 4 days of supplies down from where we have to park to camp.

Then it was time skate! From one end of the lake to the other, from the beach to Turtle Cove, check out Flat Rock and the bubbler at the Digg's camp, we skated until our legs grew heavy and our spirits soared!


If you are the type of person who keeps a "Bucket" List, ice-skating on a frozen lake on a cold, crisp day should be added to that list.

So our New Year's adventure was off to a good start. Corey took his new tent with the intention of sleeping in it one night. Bob like this idea and ended up sleeping all three nights in the tent, even when the temps dipped below zero! Corey did his one night but decided he preferred his bed in camp with an electric blanket. Or maybe the mentor/mentee relationship got a little too close!

We awoke on New Years Eve day to 5 new inches of snow and more on the way. So we spent the day skating and shoveling. 



In the late afternoon, most of us drove to Saratoga Springs to either run or cheer for the runners in the Saratoga First Night 5 K Race. Sally stayed back at camp because she had a nasty cold and needed to rest. Jim, Corey, Bob and Liz's friend, Kim, ran while Tucker, Liz and I cheered. Some group of us has participated in this race for the last 5 years and it is a fun way to kick off New Year's Eve celebration. In year's past, there has been a fireworks display going on during the race, which helps to distract the runners from the pain they are feeling. This year the fireworks were moved to the campus of Skidmore College, where the race starts and finishes, and they started shooting off the fireworks over the heads of the lead runners! I think the first 10 or 15 runners thought they were being shot at!
Jim and Corey ran together. Jim won his age-group and Corey was pleased with how he felt while running since he is coming off an injury.
The running conditions were tough because it was quite cold (single digits) and some of the roads were snow-covered. 

After we all took showers in the college locker rooms, we headed back to check up on Sally and to get some dinner. We went for a walk on the lake just before midnight, marveling at the display of stars. We also played some Rock Band.
After the ball dropped in Times Square, we called it a day.

New Year's Day dawned cold and clear, a perfect Jenny Lake winter day. Once again the shoveling crew got to work to clear a hockey rink. We really need a Zamboni!

We had a great hockey game, working up a sweat, with the young team beating the old team! I had some hockey game action photos to include but they are on our laptop which decided to act up. So I will have to include those at a later date. Our game continued until I got injured when Corey and I were both trying to dig the puck out of the snow bank and he accidently rammed the butt end of this hockey stick into the bridge of my nose, hitting my sunglasses! I have a small cut on my nose and a sore face, but no black eyes which was my fear! Oh, well, no pain, no gain. It was a fun game!

So all in all, a great few days. We cross-country skied, ice-skated, did a bit of snow-tubing, and some hiking. The weather was great and we all made it home safely. 

So I will leave you with one more pretty picture, with the promise of more to come because I have some beautiful frost pictures to share.

Hope all is well.