Corey's Race

The news I know you all have been waiting for - how did Corey run? Jim drove to Boston for the race and called me a short time ago to report that Corey ran very well. His time was 25:28 for an 8K course. He was in the top 25% of the finishers and was very happy with his run. Jim says he took lots of pictures and I will post a few of them when Jim brings home the camera. For those of you statistic nuts here are a couple more details from the race. Corey ran the first 5K of the race in 15:57, almost a PR for him for that distance and he went through the first mile at 4:50 minutes. Sounds good to me! Corey and the team were driving back to Syracuse tonight and Jim was heading for Jenny Lake where he will spend the night. 

I got a good chuckle while reading the Greece Post (the town newspaper). There was an article about going back to school and 4 Longridge students were interviewed about what they were excited about as they started the school year and what they were nervous about. One of my second graders said he was excited about science and studying weather. Then he went on to say that he was worried about "gym, because I think the obstacle course is going to be hard"!!!!  This kid has never been afraid in PE and has always been able to excel at our activities. To think that he was afraid of the rare obstacle course made me laugh out loud. 

Tomorrow is the Hemlock Fiber Festival and I can't believe how excited I am. Hope I can get a good night's sleep tonight. When Jim left for Boston, he reminded me of my one limitation when attending events like these, No Sheep!

The weather has been very summer-like here for the past couple of days and I have taken my classes outside. Strong winds and thunderstorms are supposed to blow through tonight bringing much cooler temps for tomorrow. Did the Michigan family have those storms today?

Have a great weekend! I'll have fiber photos and Corey photos in future posts.

Mid-Week Review

Wow - between school and evening activities, I've been busy!

School is going well and my student teacher is doing a great job. That's him in the photo, doing the part of the first lesson where we talk about proper footwear for PE.

Monday night I attended the PTA meeting at LR. I like to attend the meetings when I can because I remember how much I liked seeing teachers at the PTA meetings when Tucker and Corey were in school plus the PTA is a strong supporter of our Field Day activity. They budget money so we can have a DJ at Field Day and they buy the participation awards for 900 students. I also get a lot of parent volunteers which is why the day is such a success and a popular event. This Friday night is the LR PTA Welcome Back picnic and I plan on attending since Jim will be in Boston for Corey's race.

Last night I went rowing and Jim went to his coach's house for a run and then a meeting/dinner party. I joined up with him in time to have dinner and to hear about the plans for the XC season. I think Jim's first race is Sept. 22 or 23. He has one race that is about a mile away from the casino near Utica (Turning Stone), so I will probably go to that race with him and go work the one-armed bandits until I lose my $20!

Tonight is Bells and tomorrow I am going to row since I cannot row on Saturday.

We talked to Tucker on Monday evening and he has an incredible story to tell about a man having a heart attack in a remote cave that he was working in. Tucker, if you write up the story and e-mail it to me I will share it with our loyal readers.

Speaking of readers, Amy is a new reader and I say welcome and thanks for the comment. Let me know what is happening with your family and I will will share that too.

Zach's  Boy Scout Troop is selling popcorn, an annual fundraiser, and if you would like to support Zach's troop and haven't heard from him, leave me a comment and I will let you how to get in touch with him. Good Luck, Zach, with the sale. 

I want to make some cookies for Jim to take to Corey and his teammates on Friday so I guess I better get started on those this afternoon. I think I will make a batch of "Orange Cookies" since Corey is an Orangeman! I sent Corey to school with a box of those cookies and he reported back that they were popular. I imagine any kind of homemade cookie is popular with college students, though. And don't worry Tucker, I will mail some to you too!

Jim hung a load of laundry out yesterday and it got rinsed 3 more times! Today looks like a better drying day.

Since early in September, our mailbox has been full of catalogs. Anyone else getting their exercise just carrying in the mail? I guess we are supposed to be thinking about Christmas gifts, but I'm not really there yet. Now Maryanne, she is good and probably has her shopping done by now!

Guess that's all for now. Hope all is well with you.

It's Raining!

We awoke early this morning to the sound of a gentle rain, a much needed rain and it has continued most of the day. I'm sure the farmers are loving this precipitation and the rest of us can enjoy an "indoor" day.

At dinner last night, we were trying to figure out if there was a movie we wanted to see (there wasn't) or if there was something else we wanted to do. We decided to call our friends Sherri and Terry and see if they were available to go to Lugia's for ice-cream. They were, but before we went on the ice cream run, we went to their house and played a bean bag game, similar to horseshoes (see the first photo). Sherri said that in Indiana they call this game "Corn Hole" and I told her that in the world of PE, it is called "Baggo". Either way, we played 3 close games and Jim and I came out victorious! Then it was off for ice cream, which was delicious. We had a fun Saturday evening and got caught up on what Sherri and Terry and their kids have been doing. 

I asked Jim to be in charge of planning and

cooking dinner tonight and that is what he is in the kitchen doing as I write this. There are wonderful smells coming from that direction! He is being very adventuresome and is trying a recipe from Wegmans most recent Menu magazine - he just called me to dinner, got to go! I'll report after I do the dishes.

Dinner was a huge success. Jim made the Pasta with Escarole, Beans, and Sausage recipe in the Fall 2007 Menu magazine and it is a winner. If you are not lucky enough to live near a Wegmans, you could access this recipe at www.wegmans.com. The only change he made was that he used poultry italian sausage instead of regular pork italian sausage, to save a few fat grams. To add to the main course, Jim cooked fresh green beans and made a green salad. All was wonderful and I hope he agrees to cook again sometime.

I spent a fair amount of time knitting today and finished the front of the sweater I am working on. Since the back was already completed, I sewed the front to the back and will next start on the neck ribbing, then it is on to the sleeves. I think I have the most complicated cable stitches done at this point so hopefully the rest of the knitting will not be as intense as the last 6 inches have been  on the front yoke part. 

We talked to Corey this afternoon and he has been showing a recruit around SU for the weekend. He says he actually is responsible for having meals with this guy and entertaining him in the evenings. The guy is from Portland, OR so they had something to talk about (besides SU) since Corey seriously considered going to the University of Portland. Corey runs in his first race on Friday in Boston and he says that the team will travel on Thursday, returning to campus on Friday night. 

Tucker, thanks for the comment. We now know that you emerged from your cave survey!

Here is another entry from my Buzzwords Dictionary:

Multi-slacking - The act (or art) of performing multiple non-productive tasks at once. The best multi-slackers simultaneously talk on the phone, surf the Web, and watch TV.

Have a good week.