Jenny Lake

The sun is shining after a rainy start to the day and I just came in from a row around the lake. Life is good!

Jim and I drove to JL last night, arriving in just under 4 hours. One of the reasons that we came to camp this weekend is that we are going to show our Iceland slides at the Community House tonight. So, after we got all our stuff down from the car to camp, Jim decided to see if the computer and projector worked. They didn't. The computer was working and the projector appeared to be working but they were not working together! After a couple of hours of trying everything he could think of to make the set-up work, we were still unable to project our photos from the computer. Jim then had the brilliant idea that Jim Allen may have a projector and since the Allens were coming to camp today, if he had one, he could bring it to us. Well, miracle of miracles, he did have a projector and he dropped it off an hour ago, as they arrived at JL. The show will go on!! We had to hang a sheet on the Community House wall because the screen that was there looked like something that George Eastman personally installed! So, I guess we are ready to go tonight. Hopefully, someone will come.

I hear the beach calling my name so I must go! Rumor has it that the lake temperature is 80 degrees.

Corey, hope you are remembering the 2 rules! :)

Downtown Fun

Whew! The hot, humid weather has come to Rochester-I break into a sweat just sitting here at  the computer. 

Today I wrote and mailed our first tuition check to Syracuse University! I am very thankful that Corey has a partial scholarship or writing full tuition checks might put me in the grave. I know that SU is a great school and that Corey will make the most of his opportunities there, so I figure that it is money well spent.

This morning at 6:15 AM, I thought about two of my favorite things about summer vacation. Number 1 - I love rolling over for a little more sleep when Jim's alarm goes off at 6:15 AM. Number 2 - I love having choices about what I am going to do on a summer day. Do I want to go for a bike ride, or should I clean out the porch, when will I knit, shall I try a new recipe for dinner? Choices, choices, choices! It seems that I have very little discretionary time during the school year. 

Tonight we 3 went downtown for "Ribbin' on the River - A Blues and BBQ Rib0ff." There were 2 stages set-up outside near the Blue Cross Arena and 4 BBQ trailers and other food vendors set up near the stages. 

After checking out all the BBQ places, we chose to buy our dinner from a Florida-based BBQ vendor named "Porky-N-Beans. Jim and Corey went for the Porky Platter-a sampler of all the BBQ this company had to offer. I opted for the Pulled Pork Sandwich. All of it was delicious.

We enjoyed the 2 bands that played while we ate. We didn't stay too long after dinner

because Corey was exhausted from his long run this morning and several hours of kayaking this afternoon.

Mixed up a batch of soft molasses cookies tonight and will bake and frost them tomorrow. 

Welcome to the newest Empty Nest reader, Liz. Thanks for your kind comment!

Take me out to the ballgame

It was baseball night for Jim and me. Jim and Corey have won some tickets to a Red Wings game at some of their races, so Jim and I took advantage of free admission. We got to the stadium in time to grab some dinner and then watch the game. Rochester was playing Syracuse and I think the Red Wings beat Syracuse last night but that was not the case tonight after 7 innings. Syracuse looked great, and the Red Wings couldn't make a good play if their lives depended on it. Makes no matter to us-it was a perfect evening to be at the ballpark. Corey didn't go with us because he had to work.

This was our warm-up baseball game because we are going to see the Yankees play the Toronto Blue Jays on our 30th anniversary, August 6th. I've been a Yankees fan for a long

time and this seemed like the easiest way to see them play. We are going to Toronto on Sunday, August 5th, spending the night, and then watching the afternoon game before heading home on Monday night. 

I spent most of the morning working on my Iceland Slide Show that we are showing at Jenny Lake this Saturday night. I think I have it all in order now and a short  narration written. This afternoon I cleaned out our file cabinet, shredding 3 trashcans of papers, and then sorted and filed about 8 months worth of paperwork. I don't have much to show for my efforts but I know that I got a big job done. Hum, what shall I clean out next? Too soon to start in Corey's room, maybe I'll keep working on the porch or try to bring some organization to my yarn room (formally known as Tucker's room!). I'll see how I get inspired in the next few days.

Reliving Iceland

Jim and I are going to show our Iceland pictures at Jenny Lake on Saturday night so I have spent the last 2 days selecting the best photos to tell our story. I think I took about 800 photos so there are a lot to go through. Here is one of my favorites. We watched and photographed these cute puffins at 2 different areas in Iceland and I have way too many photos of puffins-but they are soooo cute!

I have also been typing my trip journal into the computer so that I have a more useable copy. The spellchecker in the computer must be about ready to go on strike as I continue to type in these Icelandic names and then tell the computer to ignore them!

Kodak Gallery is offering a 25% discount right now so I need to look through my river trip photos and Iceland photos to see if there are any prints I'd like to have made.

Jim is at track practice tonight so Corey and I will eat our pork chop dinner without him. Maybe the sauerkraut smell from my pork chop casserole will have lightened up by the time he gets home!

That's all for now!

Sunday, Sunday

Not too much to report today. Jim found a dead squirrel floating in the 55 gallon drum that we filled with water so Maw and Porge could water our plants while we were away. I guess the squirrel was pretty gross. I opted out of the photo opportunity.

After dinner we went to Lugia's for an ice-cream cone and most of Monroe County had the same idea. The line moved along because there were lots of servers. The ice cream was delicious and we came home stuffed.

It's been a good weekend and it has been good to be home.