Yankees are World Champs, Deal with it!

Congratulations to the NY Yankees as they won the World Series, beating the Philadelphia Phillies (sorry Mom!). I'm very tired today because I stayed up to see the end of the game and the post-game festivities. It was a great series with lots of good story lines.

Grandpa Update: Grandpa has been walking lots at physical therapy and the Physical Therapists think he is ready to go home. Now the medical staff has to come to that same conclusion so he can return to the Villages. There is talk that he may be able to go home as early as next week. Stay tuned!

Here are some photos that Tucker sent to us recently. Captions are under each photo.

This is the pumpkin patch where they went punkin' pickin'! Have you ever seen a more beautiful pumpkin patch!

This is the result of their hard work!

This is Allison and Tucker dressed up for the Halloween party. They went with a Grateful Dead theme. Allison is "Tangled Up In Blue" and Tucker is Casey Jones.

Sounds like he is having some fun.

Tomorrow night we are off to the RIT hockey game with Bob and Sally. And Saturday night we are having dinner at Sherri and Terry's house. Other than that I think we will rake some leaves and I will write report card comments.

Hope all is well.

This is It

If you have ever tapped your toe to a Michael Jackson song, or sung along with the Jackson Five, or tried to Moon Walk, you owe it to yourself to see This Is It, the movie made from the film shot during the rehearsals for Michal Jackson's London shows that never happened. We just got back from seeing it and if it weren't for the Yankees playing for the World Series title tonight, I'd have my Michael Jackson music playing.

The movie shows what Michael did best: sing and dance. For two hours, put aside any moral or ethical issues you may have with Michael Jackson, and sit back and enjoy this entertaining film. If you are curious how mega-shows like this come to be, you will enjoy the behind the scenes footage.

We loved the movie and would go to see it again!

Hope all is well.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I will write this in between the doorbell ringing! So far, in an hour and a half, we've had 16 kids and 2 adults :( come trick or treating. At this rate, Jim will have a lot of candy to eat!

Grandpa Update: Grandpa was having a good day today after having a not so good day yesterday. He hasn't been able to sleep and for a variety of reasons, he was given two pints of blood yesterday, which made him just feel awful. But now that his body has adjusted to the new blood he was feeling better and in much better spirits. Cousin Chris drove over from Buffalo for a visit with Grandpa which was wonderful. Jim was glad to be back in town so he could spend some time with his Dad.

Yesterday was an exciting day at school. It was the second and last day of the Fall Fun House, an event that my colleagues and I plan for our PE classes. The children love the fall-themed activities. Here are a couple of photos from the Fall Fun House.

The pumpkin target in the above photo was made by GrandDad many years ago and it is always a popular activity. The Jeter jersey is just a subtle show of support for my baseball team!

At school, some of the teachers get into the spirit of Halloween and go all out with their costumes. Here are a couple of my second grade teachers ridding the gym of ghosts!
Our school day ended with all 400 primary students parading around the neighborhood in their costumes. Earlier in the week some of the kindergarten classes distributed flyers in our neighborhood, inviting the people to come outside and watch the parade. Lots of people did just that and everyone had a good time.
Last night I went to the first RIT home hockey game. The RIT Tigers have had a tough time on the road so far this season, not winning one game. But they found their scoring mojo last night and beat UConn 6-2! It was fun to be back at Ritter Arena. I've added the rest of the home games to our iCal! Jim gave me a RIT hockey jersey for my birthday this past March and last night I wore it proudly for the first time.

My Christmas cactus loved living on the sun porch so much this past summer that it could not wait until Christmas to bloom! So I have a lovely Halloween cactus!

Jim did get home last night, well, really, early this morning (12:30 AM) and will now spend a few days adjusting to the time zone changes. He had a good trip to Finland, but is glad to be home.

I just had a former student come trick or treating at my door. She was so proud to tell me that she was on the high honor roll at middle school!

The Yankees game is on a rain delay, which means I won't get to watch as much of the game as I had hoped. Oh well, they can win without me!

Corey let us know that the SU XC team won the Big East meet today in Wisconsin. Only the top 7 runners made the trip so Corey and his buddies had to cheer from home. We wish the team continued success as they head to the regional meet.

Tucker travelled through all the snow that Colorado has received from Cortez to Boulder to spend the weekend with Allison. They were going to a Halloween party tonight.

Tomorrow I have to ring bells in church, so there will be no sleeping in for me. Jim is racing at Seneca Park, but his race doesn't start until 11 AM so he can have a leisurely start to his day.

Hope all is well.

Tidings on Tuesday

Grandpa Update: According to Grandma, Grandpa had a good day of physical therapy and wasn't as tired as yesterday. He also was a more upbeat.

I got this report from Grandma because I seem to have caught a cold and I did not want to share it with Grandma and Grandpa so I phoned Grandma to get the news. I also did not want to share my germs with Gram and GrandDad so I had to back out of their dinner invitation. I opened a can of chicken noodle soup and have been sitting around, sometimes knitting, sometimes napping. I plan on going to bed early tonight and hope to get a good night's sleep. Today there were 125 kids absent from school, so me having a cold is not a surprise.

Gram and GrandDad had a good trip to see Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Maryanne and Zach and got to see Zach play soccer. I asked Zach to send some action photos of him playing soccer and so Maryanne sent some that she had taken in games past. So, here is Zach on the soccer field.


Good Luck in the playoffs, Zach and keep us posted on the outcome of the games.

Jim is working hard in Finland and he reports that since the sun sets at 4:10 PM, he has no time outside in the daylight hours. Tomorrow is Jim's birthday! Happy Birthday, Jim! There are some cards here at home that came in the mail for you (at least I think they are cards, I did not open them!).

I guess that is all for tonight. I probably won't blog tomorrow night because I have bell rehearsal.

Hope all is well.

Sunday NIght Summary

It was a beautiful autumn day here in Western New York, with the leaves putting on a magnificent color show.

I went to church this morning with Grandma and the people around church were glad to see her and ask about Grandpa.

I decided to ride by bike to see Grandpa this afternoon and it was a delightful ride.

There was no bike rack, but a secure pole right by the front door served that purpose.

Grandpa was doing fine, but realizing that tomorrow the physical therapy starts and that will be hard work.

Yesterday when I was at a local yarn store, they were having a raffle and I got a call today saying that my name was drawn to win a door prize! I need to find time to go to the store in Brighton and collect my prize. When I asked about what the prize might be, I was told that there were bags of yarn or knitting bags from which to choose.

Jim sent a few photos from his visit to the Museum of Cultures in Helsinki. There is a small display of artifacts from the Mesa Verde area here in the USA. I believe it was a Swedish man that collected all the artifacts, causing quite a stir here in the USA. This guy took all the stuff to Sweden and then a Finnish man bought the collection and it is now housed in the Museum of Cultures. This removal of US history was one of the factors that led to the adoption of the federal Antiquities Act which prohibits the collection and removal of artifacts that pertain to US cultures. I'm sure Jim or Tucker will correct me if I have given incorrect info here, but I think I'm close.
So here is a photo from the Helsinki museum.

I have my Yankees cap ready for tonight's game. Unfortunately I may not be able to watch the whole game as tonight is a school night.

I am going to sew the shoulder seams in Tucker's sweater and then I have to decide whether to start the sleeves or the placket and collar.

Gram and GrandDad come back from seeing Jim, Maryanne and Zach this weekend. I look forward to hearing about their visit.

Hope all is well.

Saturday, Saturday

Grandpa Update: Yesterday Grandpa was moved from the hospital to the Transitional Care Center on the same campus as the hospital. Yesterday was a very tiring day for Grandpa, but today he seemed better. The nurses got him up for a short walk which is a step in the right direction. Grandpa has a roommate, Michael, but I don't know anything about him. There is a limit of a 14 day stay in this Transitional Care Unit, so Grandpa needs to work hard to become more independent in the next 2 weeks.

Dad left for Finland today and will be back in a week. The Helsinki forecast was for cold, rainy weather, a big difference from the sunny, warm weather we enjoyed when we were there in August. But he is going there to work, and probably will not have much time to see the sights. He is staying in the same Holiday Inn, by the train station, that we stayed in so I can picture exactly where he is!

Today I did a bunch of errands, worked in the yard a bit and visited Grandpa. Grandma and I made plans for me to have dinner with her at The Villages on Monday. Apple-crusted tilapia is one of the menu items that night~yummy!

Tonight I had planned on knitting and watching the Yankees game, but the game has been rained out. Plan B will have me knitting while watching college football. The Yankees will try to get their spot in the World Series tomorrow night!

Go Yankees! My Rally Cap is ready!

Hope all is well.

Thursday, the 22nd

Grandpa update: There are good days and less than good days. Grandpa seems to have come through his angiogram with no adverse side effects, which is good news. The bad news is that he has one artery with 100% blockage and 2 with 90 % blockage. The doctors at Unity hospital do not believe he is a candidate for bypass surgery, but the angiogram results are being sent to Grandpa's heart doctor at RGH. Yesterday Grandpa spent most of the day sitting up in a chair and the hospital staff was talking about him moving to the Transitional Care center adjoining the hospital. This would be a 2 week placement to regain his strength. However, today has not been a good day. He has spent most of the day sleeping. When I was there, he was in sitting in a chair and a physical therapist was trying to work with him, but he was not a happy camper. I didn't stay. Dad and I will go back tonight after dinner.

I had my follow-up visit to my orthopedic doctor to get the results of the MRI on my knee. Since I first hurt my knee a few weeks ago, it has gotten much better. Then I did a slight turn on my right leg and my knee "caught" again and was quite painful. After a few days that went away and it has felt OK since. The MRI showed a small tear in the meniscus. I told the doctor I really didn't want to do anything to repair the tear as long as my knee was feeling good. He did say that both arthritis and cartilage deterioration in my knees are probably contributing to the general stiffness and occasional pain in my knee(s). The doctor told me that when my knees get more uncomfortable there are things, like injections, that can be done. So I will keep doing what I've been doing, and resume doing some of the things that I stopped doing when I initially hurt my knee.

Tuesday night Dad and I went to GEVA to see a play called The Clean House. It got a so-so review in the newspaper, but we enjoyed it, not as much as the show we saw in September, but it was a nice evening of theater.

We've talked to both Tucker and Corey in the past day or so. Both are busy with their lives and doing well.

Hope all is well.

Sunday Summary

Last night I must have been more tired than I realized because after Jim got up at this morning at 6:30, I rolled over and slept until 8:40 !!! Unbelievable!

We were over at the hospital a couple of times today and Grandpa is getting ready for his angiogram tomorrow. Right now the thinking is that he will have this procedure around noon. Stay tuned for the results of that.

Grandma took Jeannie, Dad and me out to dinner at Davinci's to celebrate Jeannie's birthday, which is tomorrow. This is a rare treat to be able to celebrate her birthday with her in person! We had a nice dinner and all brought home enough leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.

So here are a couple more photos that I wanted to include with yesterday's post about the sheep and wool festival. I always have to have a photo of the alpaca's and llama's for Jim.

Here is the sweater I made to wear at the festival. Unfortunately, it was so cold that this sweater was the third layer of five that I had to wear to keep warm.

And here is a photo of my purchases.
And here is the long promised photo of the scarf I knit for the Red Scarf Project. For more info on that click here

I think my Christmas cactus is going to be a Halloween cactus. Its many pink blossoms are ready to burst! It must have loved living on the porch this summer.

I guess that's all for now.

Hope all is well.

Festival Review and Grandpa Update

Let's do the Grandpa update first. He moved out of ICU on Friday morning because he was making good progress. Later that day he regressed a bit, but today was a good day. He is on track to have an angiogram on Monday which will give the doctors a better understanding of the condition of his heart muscle. I took this photo when we went for a visit tonight.

And now a report from my trip to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. I drove to Jenny Lake on Friday afternoon and arrived as the last rays of daylight were fading. The lake was calm, reflecting the last colors of fall.
After a restless night of sleep in a cold camp, with 2 trips to the outhouse in the middle of the night, I got up just before 6, packed up and was heading towards Corinth by 6:40. Here was the skyline just before I left camp.
Two hours of driving east and south brought me to Rhinebeck and I spent the next 5 hours walking around, looking at the wide variety of things that were for sale, all related to sheep, wool and fiber. Here are a couple of photos from the festival.

Here is a photo of me knitting on what may become the world's largest sock. The women running this activity were not sure exactly how many stitches were on all these needles, but suffice it to say, lots!

I have a couple more photos that I wanted to include from the festival but Blogger is not cooperating with uploading them, so I will include them in a future post.

I was originally planning on going back to Jenny Lake tonight and then driving home on Sunday, but I was ready to leave the festival around 2 PM so I thought I would come straight home. If I went back to camp, I would have spent 4 or 5 hours just getting the camp warmed up, so I drove home, with one stop at a Thruway rest area, for a 15 minute rest. I got home about 6:40 PM and met Jim, Maw and Jeannie at the hospital.

Terry was in town for a couple of nights in the middle of this past week. It was good to see her and have her here as decisions were being made about Grandpa's treatment. She drove home on Friday, through some snow in Pennsylvania.

Corey ran at the University of Virginia on Friday and had a decent race. He and one of his teammates were flying separately from the rest of the team and ended up having to spend Thursday night in a hotel in NYC when their flights were changed. They got to Virginia with time to spare before the race started.

Tucker is having a housewarming BBQ party at his new house tonight. Maybe he will send a photo of the festivities.

Hope all is well.

Grandpa Update

Grandpa's conditioned has stabilized, even though he is in a very fragile condition. He has now been put on a liquid diet, which is a step forward. He is still in the ICU, but that may change since he is not really using any of the high-priced equipment in his room.

Jeannie is coming into town tonight and Terry will come into town tomorrow.

Here is a photo of Grandpa's cat. They miss each other terribly. I printed out this picture and delivered it to Grandpa at the hospital and he was pleased.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Hope all is well.

Good Times, Not So Good Times

Let's start with the not so good times. Grandpa went into the hospital in the early morning hours today and has been diagnosed as having had a heart attack and he has pneumonia. Grandma called us at 6:40 AM (and phone calls at that hour are rarely good news) to tell us that Grandpa was in the Intensive Care Unit at Unity Hospital. We went right over and found Grandma resting in Grandpa's room. Grandpa has been medicated so he sleeps all the time and has lots of tubes going into his body. He will be kept in this medicated state for a day or so, while he is being treated for the pneumonia and more tests are being run. We will go back and visit later this afternoon. Stay tuned for updates.

Our good times started on Friday night when some of my colleagues and their spouses came over for a night of Rock Band fun. And fun is what we had! We did lots of Beatles songs and then moved on to the regular Rock Band songs that feature lot of different bands. We rocked out for 3.5 hours and had lots of laughs. Here is one of many photos and movies that were taken that night.

Saturday I got up early to make a grape pie to take to Corey. This is the first pie from this year's grapes. Did I tell you that my 43 pounds of grapes made 26 pie fillings?! Jim and I left for Syracuse at 9:45 and arrived at Corey's apartment about 11:30 AM. We had to wait a few minutes until he got home from practice. After he took a quick shower we walked to the Dome for the SU vs. West Virginia football game.
Unfortunately the SU team didn't bring their "A" game and West Virginia had a fairly easy time beating the Orange. We left at halftime and drove a short ways south to the Lafayette Apple Festival. It was a beautiful day to do this activity and we enjoyed walking around the festival. There had been quite a bit of rain in this area in the past few days and we had to tip-toe around the mud, but that was OK. There were lots of craft vendors and we walked around to see many of the vendors but that was definitely not Jim's or Corey's thing! We did buy Corey some fudge, apple cider and apples before heading back to SU. The fall foliage was lovely along our drive there and back. Here are some photos from the festival.

After some wild ping-pong games at Corey's apartment (not the usual game that college kids play with ping-pong balls!), we picked up 2 of Corey's friends and went to dinner at a pasta restuarant in the Armory Square area of Syracuse.

Our meals were delicious, well worth the hour-plus wait we had to endure! We got back to Rochester about 10:15 PM.

This morning I picked some empire apples at Green Acres.

These 2 pecks of perfect apples will last me for a month or so. You know what they say about an apple a day!

Time to go sew up the underarm seams on my Rhinebeck sweater and then sew on 6 buttons!

Keep Grandpa in your thoughts and prayers as he recovers from his medical issues.

Hope all is well.

Grapes!

This was grape pie weekend for me and this year I decided to pick my own grapes. Last year when driving home from somewhere south of here, I saw a sign for Pick your Own Grapes near Naples. So this year I did a little research and found the place that I saw advertised, Jerome's Pick Your Own, 2 miles south of Naples.

I set out on Saturday morning, enjoying the 1.5 hour drive. Here some photos from my time at the farm.


I couldn't stop picking and filled all the baskets that Jim had put in the car for me, even though I only asked for 3 baskets. Here is what I picked. Guess how many pounds?
43 pounds!!! That is a lot grapes considering that each grape needs to be hand squeezed to separate the skin from the pulp. Grandma came over on Sunday afternoon and helped convert 2.5 pecks into 14 pie fillings. Add that 14 to the 3 I did on Saturday afternoon and we were up to 17 pies by Sunday night.

I came home from school today and made 6 more pies worth and now have less than a peck to process.

A few other things happened this weekend. Jim was finally able to order roof racks for his year-old Vibe. He spent some time on Saturday fitting the racks to his car. He knew that if he came into the house, I would want him to squeeze grapes!

There is racing news to report. Corey traveled with the SU XC team to a big meet in Wisconsin. Corey ran well and the team had a great day. The SU team has not been ranked nationally this season, but they won this meet beating 8 teams that were ranked! They are all now waiting for the new rankings to come out to see where the SU team will be placed.

Jim ran in Syracuse on Sunday morning in the National Masters 5K Road Race Championships and ran better than he thought he would considering he missed running a couple of days last week because of work commitments. His team of old guys took 3rd place. Well Done!

Last night Jim and I went to the Villages to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. The food was great~turkey and gravy!

Here is a photo of Grandpa's new wheels. Watch out if you are walking in front of him when he is cruising the hallways!

I had my MRI on my knee at 7 AM on Sunday. I won't get the results until Oct. 22. The good news is that my knee felt much better today. I am a bit more optimistic than I was last Friday or Saturday.

Time to go knit. I am very close to finishing my Rhinebeck sweater.

Hope all is well.

Wounded Knee

This is where I ended up on Thursday afternoon.
 On Wednesday night, I turned around in the church parking lot and felt a sharp pain in my knee and a "catch" in my knee that would not let me straighten out  my leg for a minute. The pain continued throughout the night (not much sleep) so in the morning I called for a sub. 

I was lucky enough to get a morning appointment with my general practitioner and he referred me to the orthopedic doctor that I saw 5 years ago when I tore the meniscus in my left knee. Again, I had a bit of luck and was able to see the Physicians Assistant in that office in the afternoon. The X-rays that were done at  that office did not show anything, but both the PA and my doctor think I may have torn the meniscus in my right knee :( They came to this diagnosis because of where the pain was in my knee when they manipulated my leg. 

So I am having an MRI on Sunday morning (7 AM!!) and will have a follow up appointment with my orthopedic guy later this month. My general doctor gave me a prescription for heavy duty Motrin and that made it possible for me to go to work today. 

I will keep you posted on my status.

On a happier note, we went to a high school cross-country meet on Tuesday afternoon. Odyssey was running at Basil Morella Park so we thought we would go cheer the Odyssey runners on. The Odyssey boys have had a good deal of success in the past couple of weeks and we wanted to show our support. Here are 2 photos from our time at the meet. 

Tonight is the last episode of the National Park series on PBS. We have learned so much about the history of our parks and have loved the pictures. One TV reviewer wrote that the last 20 minutes of tonight's final episode are the most stunning pictures he has ever seen on TV. I can hardly wait!

This weekend is Grape Weekend. I am hoping to go to a farm down by Naples and pick my own grapes. I have never done that, and it sounds interesting. Watch for photos. Hopefully my knee won't interfere with those plans. I'll start squeezing grapes on Sunday. 

Corey earned a spot on the SU XC team that travelled to Wisconsin yesterday and he will race tomorrow. Ironically, Jim races on Sunday in Syracuse! Stay tuned for the running report.

I finished both sleeves on my sweater and have started to pick-up stitches around the front edges for the button band and the shawl collar. I am still optimistic that I can complete this sweater for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival on Oct. 17th. 

Hope all is well.

Back Home

I'm back from Women's Weekend and I cannot tell you very much because most of what happens on Women's Weekend, stays on Women's Weekend. There are a couple of things I will tell you about and those will follow here, but know that I had a wonderful time with 5 very dear friends. This was our 16th consecutive Women's Weekend and we are already looking forward to number 17. 

On Saturday morning I got up to discover that the lake had a blanket of fog on it. I quickly got dressed in my warm clothes because it was 39º! I took my rowboat out in to the fog and it was a surreal experience. As I rowed away from the shore I was silently enveloped into the fog layer. The fog was on the move and views of the shore or ridge line came in and out of sight. As I rowed up the far shore, there seemed to be a fog machine churning out the fog from Turtle Cove. When I was rowing more in the middle of the lake (I think that is where I was), I was rowing on faith as I could not see beyond the bow of the boat and the fog quickly closed in around the stern of the boat. As the sun came up, the scene became even more beautiful as the sun worked hard to burn off the fog. Here are some photos from my morning on the lake. I have about 100 more!







The other thing I want to share involves a whole lot of luck. On Saturday night I turned on the TV to see if the Syracuse football game was on and sure enough it was. We watched for a while and then changed to the Purdue game so Sherri could look for Terry who was at the game. At halftime of the Purdue game I changed the channel so I could see the SU score. One minute after turning to the SU game, during a time out in the game, the SU Cross-Country coach was interviewed about that team's season. During the interview some video was shown of the SU's most recent meet and there was Corey running across the TV screen. And it was not some distant shot, it was a full screen of him running!!! That was super exciting!! Corey was at the game so did not see himself, but one of this friends that was watching the game at home, texted him to say that he saw Corey! It was all very cool, and just such a coincidence that I turned back to the SU game at just the right time!

Tucker moved into his mini mansion this weekend and sent us these photos. The first is obviously the outside of his place. The next photo is the kitchen and the last photo was taken while standing in the kitchen, looking into the living room. There are some new appliances and some fresh paint. He is very happy to have his own house! Want his new address? E-mail me or leave a comment.

Did you watch the first episode of the National Park series on PBS last night? It continues every night this week and each show is 2 hours, with no commercial interruptions! The photography is incredible and the story line is interesting and educational. So, go to the bathroom, grab a beverage and settle in for a great show. This is going to be great knitting time!

Cool, wet weather has moved in and is in the forecast for awhile. Oh, well.

Hope all is well.