New in the Living Room

When we got home tonight there was a message on the machine that the photo that we taken to the frame shop to have matted and framed was finished. So, after dinner we picked it up and Jim drilled a hole in the wall so we could hang it over the mantle. The photo is of a spectacular waterfall in Iceland called Gulfoss and there is a large rainbow arching across the falls. I took photos of this falls from a variety of locations around the area, but this one was the most spectacular. We are glad to have something over the mantle and especially pleased to have it be a memory from our Iceland trip. We had a bunch of other photos enlarged to 8 X 10's and will frame those in the near future and hang them in the corner of the living room by the piano. The photo of Pre, that was by the computer is now riding around in Jim's car, waiting for him to remember to take it into his office. I'll have to find something for that space now, too. 

We went to Davinci's for spaghetti tonight, in celebration of the fact that this was the first time in 10 years that we were not cooking spaghetti for the Odyssey Cross-County team, the night before the McQuaid Invitational! We had a delicious meal, with no preparation or clean-up! The first year we did the team spaghetti dinner there were 6 kids (including Tucker) who ate around our dining room table. Last year, the 10th annual spaghetti dinner, we served almost 70 kids, under a rented tent in our backyard! I even hosted one spaghetti dinner from my Lazy Boy chair after having my knee surgery that day. Of course, I had family and friends doing all the work! It was a fun event and I am glad we have many fond memories of the dinner, but it was nice to not cook all that spaghetti this afternoon. I do believe that the tradition continues, with another family hosting the event.

Tomorrow is a busy day. I have rowing at 7 AM and Jim will be volunteering at the McQuaid Invitational, starting at 7:30AM. After rowing, I will come home take a shower and get dressed up for a wedding at the U of R chapel at 12:30 PM. I am hoping to get to the McQuaid Invitational to see some of the Odyssey kids run before the wedding, and I may go back to the races after the wedding. Fortunately the wedding is about a half mile from the running course. The reception is not until 6:30 PM at one of the downtown hotels. A colleague of mine from school is getting married. 

Not sure what we are doing on Sunday, but it is supposed to be a beautiful fall weekend here, so we may try to do something more than putter around the house. 

Last night we IM'ed with Tucker and video-chatted with Corey. Both boys are doing well. Tucker has a weekend full of hiking and biking plans and a birthday party for his boss. Tucker actually called us when we were out to dinner, so hopefully he call us back again later this weekend. Corey was in a hotel near Lehigh University where his team was running today. Corey and his coaches have decided to "red shirt" him for this XC season, so that he can be eligible to run a 5th year when he is a strong 22 year old. This is a pretty common practice for freshmen on college teams. So, Corey may run a couple more races this season, but he would be running "unattached". Time will tell what he will do during Indoor and Outdoor track seasons. 

Funny Story

First off, thanks to the folks that have voted for my knitting photo! If you haven't voted yet, and want the info, please refer to the previous blog entry and thanks in advance.

Now, onto the funny story. Yesterday I was driving home on Maiden Lane and I was behind an older couple in a big, old Cadillac, going about 30mph (the speed limit is 35). There was one car behind me and a motorcycle behind that car. The guy on the motorcycle was impatiently revving his engine and then decided to pass us all, crossing double yellow lines and driving through 2 left turn lanes and then cutting in close to the Caddy. Well, we all had to stop at the traffic light at Fetzner Road. I was in the left turn lane, the motorcycle was next to me going straight and the old couple in the Caddy pulled up along the motorcycle to turn right. As the old lady pulled up to the cyclist, she stuck out her tongue at the guy! Now not to be out done, the guy threw the finger at her. She looked over at her husband, then back to the motorcyclist  and threw the finger at him!!! It was so funny! The light changed to green and we all went our way, me laughing right out loud!

I had the oil changed in the Beetle today and now that the car has had a "break in" period, the oil only needs to be changed every 10,000 miles! That's good.

Tonight at bell rehearsal we were ringing right along when all of a sudden the lights went out throughout the church! End of rehearsal. I noticed that it was all dark to the north of church, but not south of Bethany. I'm not sure what caused the outage because there was no storm in the area. 

Jim is enjoying the Ken Burns WWII documentary on Public TV. Anybody else out there watching it?

School story: When a first grade teacher came to pick-up her class from PE today, one of the boys in the class told her that he had been "perfect" in Music and "a little bit perfect" in PE!

Hope all is well.

Vote for Me

This is a blatant plea for your vote. One of our local yarn stores had a Sensational Summer Knitting contest, requesting photos of places we were knitting. I had Jim take a photo of Sally and me knitting in Iceland and I submitted this photo. The winner will be determined by the one getting the greatest number of votes so I am asking you to vote for me. I think the prize is a skein of yarn and one can never have too much yarn! 

So here is the website to see my photo. You can look at the other photos, but please don't vote for them!!! 

http://spiritworkblog.typepad.com/photos/the_ssk_contest/sskentrymarji_robinson.html

To vote, you need to send an email to this address: knit@spiritworkknit.com 

Put "SSK Winner"  in the subject line and in the body of the email, say that you want to vote for Marji Robinson's photo.

Thanks for your support.

Jim and I had a nice walk after dinner. We went to the mall and bought a wedding present for the wedding we are going to this Saturday, new sneakers for both of us, and some greeting cards. We were home in time to watch the Ken Burns multi-part series on World War II. 

Hope all is well with you.

Weekend Round-Up

I've returned home safely from the 14th Annual Women's Weekend. Here is a general overview of what we did: reading, laughing, eating, laughing, drinking, laughing, swimming, laughing, crying, laughing, running, laughing, knitting, laughing, sunning, laughing, cooking, laughing, tennising, laughing, washing dishes, laughing, crocheting, laughing, joking, laughing, gossiping, laughing, walking, laughing, fishing, laughing, sleeping, laughing, dining, laughing, napping, laughing, snoring, laughing, screaming, laughing, exercising, laughing, chatting, laughing, rowing, laughing, etc., laughing!

It was another fun weekend and we were all glad that Mom and Dad wanted to go to

 Michigan so we could have the camp. The weather was perfect and we didn't want to leave, but we will now look forward to next year and our 15th anniversary celebration!

Bob sent this photo of Bob, Joanie, Rocky, Amy, Drew, Megan,and Mom and Dad.

Thanks for a great photo!  After talking to 

Dad, it sounds like he was having a great birthday celebration. 

Did you all see the Syracuse football score? After a dismal start (0-2), they came away from Louisville with a big win, even though they went into the game as 37 point underdogs. We need to get our tickets to the Syracuse football game on Parent's weekend in November. 

Jim raced this weekend at East Aurora High School and was pleased with his run. He races again in a few weeks. 

Guess that's all for now. Let me know if you have something to share with the rest of the family and I will pass it along.