We were empty nesters for one week, and now Tucker has come home for a week. This is a nice way to ease into being just the two of us in the house. Jim flew home from Belgium without incident. Tucker's trip home was another adventure in flying in the unfriendly skies. He arrived home at 3 AM, 6 hours late. He called us several times from Chicago with updates and just when we thought he was going to take-off there was another delay. Jim finally decided to go to bed because he was exhausted after his trip to and from Belgium over 3 days and I figured I could stay up and go pick-up Tucker. Then a short but intense thunderstorm blew through our area and knocked out our power! Finally around midnight, Tucker and I agreed that he would take a taxi cab home whenever he got to the Rochester airport. This was a good idea, because he came in at 3 AM - moments after the power came back on. Phew, what an ordeal, but at least he is here. He says that he is driving home at Christmas!

Jim and I got our workouts in while Tucker was sleeping this AM. After lunch we all walked to the Farmer's Market at the mall and bought some fresh, local produce. We then went downtown to the George Eastman House to the the Ansel Adams Exhibit. We have been talking about seeing this photo exhibit for months and were moved into action when we realized that the exhibit closed on Sept. 3rd. Tucker was interested in seeing the photos so off we went. The three photos with today's entry are from our time at the Eastman House. We were impressed with the Ansel Adams collection and then toured the George Eastman house because Tucker had never been there. It was a good afternoon and we enjoyed our time there. Did you know that Ansel Adams died on the same day that Tucker was born, April 22, 1984?

Naps for all of us rounded out the afternoon, followed by a supper of Ramen Noodle Pizza, as requested by Tucker. 

Tucker is hoping to see some of his friends this evening.

To those of you who requested Corey's address, you do not need to include the 650, only the name of the dorm and his box number.

Fair, SU, Theater

It has been years since I visited the New York State Fair and it was fun to return and see all that New York has to offer. I visited the sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats and cows.A stop into the Wool Center, fueled my interest in spinning wool and I learned about dyeing wool with Kool-Aid. I walked through all the buildings with things for sale - windows, cookware, steam mops, miracle slicers, hand lotions, etc. In the Dairy building, you could buy a glass of milk for 25 cents and marvel at the ubiquitous butter sculpture. The Home center featured many beautiful handmade items, from quilts to knitted sweaters. There were singers, dancers, and bands performing a various stages throughout the fairgrounds. All along the midway, I was "invited" to throw darts at balloons, squirt water into a clown's mouth, throw ping pong balls into fish bowls, have my birth date or weight guessed, and climb the wobbly ladder! Classic fair sights and sounds. It was all a great experience and I would have stayed longer, but the rain was quickly approaching and I had plans to meet up with Corey at SU. 

Even though it was moving in day for freshmen at SU, I was able to snag a great parking spot in the parking garage across from Corey's dorm. He has settled in to his room and  still had space for the extra things that I brought with me (fan, folding chair, cookies, a third pillow, a board game, a small food supply, etc.). We took a walk in the rain around campus, before heading to the Newhouse School for what I thought was going to be an orientation session. However, it was a 3 minute encounter with Corey's peer mentor (a senior student at Newhouse)! She reminded Corey of their 2:00 meeting the next day and asked him if he had any questions. Since he didn't, we were done with this orientation session. I was expecting more! Oh well, it was good to see Corey.

I jumped back on the Thurway to get to Rochester in time to meet my Women's Weekend friends at GEVA theater to see "Menopause, the Musical. The theater was filled with women in our age-group and 3 men! For an hour and a half, we laughed until the tears rolled down our faces. The four-women cast sang and danced their way into our hearts as they made us laugh about hot flashes, memory loss and weight gain! We didn't want the show to end, but we dealt with the disappointment by getting ice cream at Lugias! The show has been very successful as evidenced by the number of women willing to buy "Standing Room Only" tickets for their chance to see this delightful show.

So, Thursday was a great day! And Friday looks to be another winner - Tucker comes home and Jim gets back into town from his business trip to Belgium. Tucker will be here for a week 

The Plumber

The kitchen sink backed up this morning. I was cleaning out the refrigerator and putting a few leftovers down the gulper when all of a sudden the gulper refused to eat anymore. I hate when that happens! So I stopped and let the gulper rest for minute, but it still refused to eat anymore and wouldn't even swallow the stuff that was already in its gullet. I then tried plunging - no luck. Then I said, "Forget this" and went off to school for a few hours. When I got home the drain was still plugged (what? no drain fairies?) and I remembered that we had some of that Liquid Plumber stuff in the closet so I got that out. The bottle was half full and when I read the directions it said to pour half a bottle of stuff down the drain, so at some point someone must have tried this on some drain in our house. However, I couldn't remember using that so I had no idea how old the stuff was. Does Drano have an expiration date? Oh well, it was worth a shot so I poured the stuff down the drain and set the timer for 15 minutes. And 15 minutes later I still had a clogged drain, and now I think the drain was laughing at me! 

At this point, I decided I needed to call a plumber. If Jim had been home, he would have tried to fix it. However, I do remember something like this happening once before and the fix involved removing the garbage disposal, which put Jim in a less-than-happy mood! So, the decision to call a plumber was made, but which plumber? There are 1, 873 plumbers in the phone book. One phone call to Maw and I got her recommendation, someone they have used more than once and were happy with the work. So, I called at 3:10 PM and the guy was here at 3:30 PM! He worked for about 35 minutes and now my sink runs better than before! He did have to remove the garbage disposal and used some electric snake thing to clean out the pipe, clear down to the junction with the basement sink. 

I know that Jim is reading this somewhere in Belgium, saying, "How much is this going to cost me?" I say, "Don't worry about it!" Your time alone is worth what the bill will be and there was no cussing or sweating on your part. 

Tomorrow is a busy day. Drive to the NYS Fair in Syracuse in the morning, parent orientation at SU in the afternoon and the theater in the evening. I am going to see "Menopause, the Musical" at GEVA with my Women's Weekend friends! Watch the blog for the updates. 

I have to go watch water run down my kitchen drain!

Bike Ride

I can count the number of days it has rained this summer on one hand and of course the day I plan a bike ride with friends, it has to rain. Not only was it raining, we had headwinds all the way to Pittsford! I planned this ride about 2 weeks ago, the plan being that we would ride to Pittsford along the canal trail, eat lunch at Alladins, and then ride back, about 30 miles all together. The photo is of Sally and Pam after our lunch before we ride west. I would have gotten someone to take a picture of the 3 of us, but no one else was silly enough to be out in this weather. Fortunately the rain stopped for our ride home and the wind was at our backs! It is good to have friends that will make a less-than-desirable situation into a good time. The frustrating part of this ride was that none of the weather forecasts called for rain and we kept riding thinking it was going to stop any minute.  Oh well, we enjoyed the ride in spite of Mother Nature's contribution. 

Jim had to endure the frustrations that have come to define air travel these days. He was supposed to fly to Belgium yesterday and I took him to the airport at 12:30 PM. At 1:45 he called me, asking for a ride home from the airport because Delta canceled his flight to NYC and could not or would not make other arrangements for him to catch his American Airlines flight to Brussels. He spent a big chunk of time going back and forth with a Corporate Travel person to try to make other arrangements. I took him to the airport at 9 AM today and I know he made it to NYC, so hopefully he'll get to Brussels for his meetings.

I painted the trim in the kitchen yesterday and washed the windows and curtains so it all looks fresh and clean in there. 

In the mail today I received a fleece jacket from Sports Illustrated. A couple of weeks ago I got an offer too good to refuse for a subscription. As I was filling out the subscription form, it indicated that if I paid with my  credit card I could get this free jacket. I was supposed to choose my favorite NFL team so the jacket could be embroidered with that team's logo. I chose the New England Patriots, but they sent me the Buffalo Bills! Oh well, I'll wear it while watching Sunday football games. 

We heard from Corey and he is off to a good start with the XC team. I will go to Syracuse on Thursday for a parent orientation session and Corey has sent a good sized list of things that he forgot and wants me to bring.

Looking for some sunshine and warmer temps.

Empty Nesters!

I guess we are now officially Empty Nesters! Yes, we miss Corey (and Tucker), but I think we are going to  be just fine in this next phase of our lives. 

We got Corey to Syracuse just after noon and had no problem getting him checked in and his first load of stuff up to his room on the 6th floor. His roommate, Steve, was there, as was Steve's girlfriend. We got Corey's stuff into his half of the dorm room and then went 

to walk around a bit and find some lunch. Steve and his girlfriend (I cannot remember her name, but she was very nice) joined us and knew their way around a bit. They said they had eaten at a place called The Pita Pit so we headed there and had a good lunch. We also went to a Syracuse spirit store where we purchased some stickers for our cars and a couple of sweatshirts. Corey did not get any logo clothes because he apparently gets a supply of SU clothing as a member of the XC team. 

The first photo is of Corey in his half of the dorm room. It is a good sized room with a large closet divider down the middle, giving each student a bit of privacy and a clear designation of personal space. The dresser that Corey is leaning on was moved into half of the closet to free up more floor space. The closet doors are easily removed and stored somewhere in the dorm - apparently this storage strategy is fairly common in the dorms. Plus, Corey doesn't need much space for hangers because he has never hung up anything in his life! His half of the room has a window, a desk with storage shelves above it, a bed with a wall lamp at one end. Corey and Steve are sharing a refrigerator/microwave unit, rented through the Bookstore, and Steve has that on his side of the room. We bought some bed risers to raise Corey's bed up and he will store his kayak under his bed. Jim and I thought it was a good dorm room and Corey should be comfortable there.

This is Corey and Steve standing outside the Student Union. Steve is also on the XC team and is from Colorado. We enjoyed our short time with him.

We said our teary goodbyes after lunch (for the record, the tears were mine, not Jim's) and drove to Skaneateles. We had never been to this small town at the top of Skaneateles Lake and since there was a yarn store there that got good reviews, we decided to stop. I got control of myself by the time we found a parking spot but then shed a few more tears with the yarn store owner as she talked about the Syracuse sock project she had just put on display! It was a nice store, but I came out empty handed! We walked around the town and out on the pier on a beautiful day to be doing such things.  We were headed for Geneva, where we had 6 PM dinner reservations at Belhurst Castle. Since we had time, we took the scenic route, driving down the west side of Skaneateles Lake, through Monrovia, and up the west side of Owasco Lake. It was a pretty drive through the Finger Lakes area. 

We arrived at Belhurst Castle in time to change our clothes in the back of the van, visit the wine tasting room at Belhurst, and walk around the grounds, checking out the wedding reception that was getting under way. We ate in a solarium-type room of the castle and had a ringside seat for a 6:30 PM wedding that occurred right outside our window! We had a great dinner. 

On the drive home we made a stop at Eastview Mall to purchase a set of the glasses that were mentioned in a previous post and one more stop at Lugia's Ice Cream shop for dessert. As a note to Corey, there was virtually no line as compared to when we went there with you.

Today we decided to continue our ENA (Empty Nest Adventures) with a trip to Letchworth State Park for some hiking. We did a 6 mile round trip hike where we got to see the Lower, 

Middle and Upper Falls along the Genesee River. We walked to the Glen Iris Inn, arriving in time to see another outdoor wedding, and to the museum, where we learned ourselves a few things! Lunch at the original Tom Wahl's in Avon on the way home and now we are back to our usual Sunday routine. I've been grocery shopping and Jim is out for a run.

Jim goes to Belgium tomorrow, coming home on Friday, the same day that Tucker arrives in town for a week long visit. We can hardly wait to see him.

If you are interested in having Corey's address at SU, put a request in a Comment and I will get it to you. I'm not going to put it in the blog.

Time to knit.