Gotta Love Saturdays

This has been a busy 24 hours! Last night I went to a "Yarn Tasting" event at a local yarn store. I got to see some of the new yarns that will be available plus there was 15% off any purchases that night. In addition to yarn, there was a wine distributor there, so I got to sample some NYS wines. Now, normally, drinking wine and knitting are not the best companions, unless you like to rip things out the next day, but last night this all worked. 

I was up early this morning (6 AM) and at the Public Market by 7. When I get there that early, I can usually get a good parking spot without too much trouble and that was the situation today. I got 2 pecks of grapes because tomorrow is Grape Pie Day. Grandma will be here in the early afternoon and we will squeeze all the grapes, get them mixed up with filling ingredients, into ziplock bags and into the freezer. It will probably take about 2-3 hours. 

My big event today was rowing in the Head of 

the Genesee Regatta. I was in a Women's

Master's Eight boat and we took 3rd place out of 7 boats, so we were pleased. At the last minute, the woman who was slated to row in the stroke position, decided she didn't want to be the stroke and our coach looked at me and said that I was now the stroke. The stroke is the rower closest to the stern of the boat and sets the pace for the rest of the boat. I have only done this job about 2 times in the past 3 years so I was a bit nervous, but I managed to keep a rate of 30 strokes per minute. The race was 3 miles long and it took us 21 minutes. I am now exhausted because I have never worked harder 

for 21 minutes. Here are 2 photos my boat. We are wearing blue (light and dark) tops. One picture was taken just after we carried the boat down from the boathouse and put it in the water. The second photo is just near the finish line and we have closed in on the boat in front of us, which started about 10-15 seconds ahead of us. Overall it was a good race, respectable, but still room for improvement. The photos of my boat on the water were taken by GrandDad. Thanks Dad, they are great!

Jim called from NYC and he and his team had

 a good race in the International Corporate Challenge. Jim finished 78th overall without

killing himself, and his team was 16th out of 36 coed teams so they were pleased. He was off for some formal dinner on the 60th floor

of one of those Manhattan skyscrapers. 

Time to get some dinner and then hopefully I can stay awake to watch some college football on TV tonight and get some knitting done.

Hope all is well.

Fun Day Away

I did not go to school today. I took a "sick "day because I had a late morning doctor's appointment. For those of you scratching your head right now, let me tell you that this is a legitimate use of "sick" days. For those of you who care, I got a clean bill of health and my doctor said she wished that all her patients took as good care of themselves as I take care of myself! That's that until next year.

After my appointment, I went to a special luncheon at Hurd Orchards, which is about 30 minutes west of Greece on Route 104. My friend, Sherri, told me about these weekly luncheons, hosted by the owners of Hurd Orchards. I went with Gram, Grandma, and Sally. 

Each luncheon is built around a seasonal theme, and this particular luncheon featured "Apples". The mother/daughter owners of Hurd Orchards welcomed us to their apple barn and gave us a brief overview of the farm and talked about the food we would be eating shortly. Plates of food were delivered to us and just the presentation alone had our mouths watering. 

On our lunch plates included the following items: a wedge of chicken pot pie, tomato gratin, a green salad with lemon grass vinaigrette dressing and slices of apples, and a small glass dish of plum/applesauce. It was all delicious. While we were eating, a tray was brought to our table with Sally Lund bread and apple muffins with Thomas Jefferson Crab Apple Jelly and apple butter. After that we were served a flaky pastry with goat cheese and apple chutney inside (I think that's what was inside, I could be wrong). It was all delicious and none of the portions were overwhelming so we could enjoy what we were served and not feel stuffed.

 We then had an opportunity to sample about 5 different kinds of apples. A couple of the

 varieties were "heirloom" varieties, meaning Grandma remembered them!! There were a

 couple of well-known types and one, called Experiment #30, which is a new breed. #30 was developed to be an apple that was naturally resistant to the diseases that NYS apple growers have to worry about. It was a good apple. The meal concluded with a slice of apple pie! So we had a delicious lunch, in a beautiful location and we learned a bit about the apple business. It was a perfect fall day with summer like temperatures, which just added to our enjoyment of this excursion. This last photo was taken inside their market and in addition to selling a wide variety of seasonal fruit, they sell homemade jellys, jams, chutneys, and bakery items - all made on the premises. Hurd Orchards also has a large cut flower business and you could buy both fresh cut and dried flowers. It was all good eye candy!

I'd like to thank all of you who voted for my knitting picture, but I didn't win. The woman who was knitting while para-sailing took home the prize. 

Tomorrow is a professional development day at school which means that the children have a day off and the staff will be in meetings all day. Jim goes to NYC tomorrow with 3 of his J & J teammates to run in the International Corporate Challenge. 

Corey-this is grape pie weekend. Buy the grapes on Saturday, make pie fillings on Sunday!

Hope all is well.

Ho Hum Wednesday

This has been a rather ho hum day. Kind of a cloudy day, but no rain, so Jim has the laundry on the line. 

Tonight I have bell rehearsal. While  I'm at Bells, I'm hoping Jim will go back to Michaels to pick up our framed photo. I don't think I will go back to Michaels for future framing though. When I originally took my photo there, they were not able to finish my order, because their computers were down and after spending an hour or so choosing mats and a frame, I had to leave and go back another time to place my order and pay for it. The order was complete when promised. However, we had to take the photo back because the photo was not smooth under the glass. They fixed that in one day and when Jim went back to get the photo, the clerk could not find it! So he will have to go back again tonight. Now it is not a problem to go to Michaels because it is right behind us in the mall. But, there were too many things that made it seem like they didn't have their act together. Plus, there are many other places I could go. So, hopefully when I get back from bells the picture will be back over the fireplace.

Jim talked with both Tucker and Corey last night. I got home from rowing just in time to talk to Corey. Corey has been keeping his eye on the orange pants voting and sees the writing on the wall. He is thinking he may do a small video montage of him wearing his orange pants at various locations around campus! That would be fun! Tucker may try to call this weekend when I am home! That would be nice.

Tomorrow I have a mid-day doctor's appointment so have taken a whole sick day and after my appointment I am going out to lunch with Gram, Grandma and Sally. We are going to Hurd Orchards for one of their theme luncheons, with the theme being "Apples." It is supposed to be nice day so it should be a good outing.

Did I tell you that I finished the knitting part of my sweater? Well, I did! It is now ready to be blocked and seamed. I will get started on that this weekend. I am now taking a short break from knitting a specific project and instead, am teaching myself a new way to knit - continental style. I am getting pretty good at doing the knit stitch with this new style and am practicing on a dishcloth. Next I need to master the purl stitch. The continental style will be faster, once I get good at it, and I won't have to let go of the needles as I am making a stitch. That's probably more knitting details than you need, but maybe you learned something!

Hope all is well. If you have something to share with my readers, leave me a comment and I will let others know what's going on with you!

This and That

Another beautiful day in Paradise! The temps hit 8o degrees and the sun was shining! More of the same on the way.

In answer to Liz's question in the comments, yes, I did make my shawl. We had a wedding to go to in January and I whipped that garter stitch shawl up in less than a week. I combined 2 yarns, one for a little warmth and the other for a little shimmer. It is perfect with that sweater.

When I checked my e-mail at school this morning, there was a message from an on-line company called PE Central, a wonderful website for Physical Education teachers. They said that the Bulletin Board that I submitted to them was selected to be included in their Bulletin Board Idea section. Along with being "published", I get a $50 gift certificate to a PE supply house! If you are interested in seeing my bulletin board, here is the link.

http://www.pecentral.com/BulletinBoard/ViewBulletinBoard.asp?ID=20

Tonight we had to return our framed photo to Michaels because the photo had a couple of ripples under the glass. The clerk agreed that that wasn't right and said that they would fix it tomorrow. I really like the matting and the frame, so I hope they can smooth out the photo.

I don't know why the font changes after I import some text to my blog. I've tried a few things to get the font back to the original style, but nothing has worked. I hope this isn't too unsettling for my readers. If anyone has any ideas on how to remedy this situation, I'm open for suggestions. 

I may not have time to blog tomorrow because we are going to one of the Odyssey XC meets right after school. The Odyssey team is running against a couple of teams that have runners that we know. It will be a good chance to see some of the running community that we have spent so  many years with! Right after that I have to go row. I am rowing in a regatta on the Genesee River on Saturday. If you want to come cheer for me and my crew, my race is at 1:20 PM on Saturday and you can watch from Genesee Valley Park. Let me know if you are going to be there.

I'm down to the last 4 inches of the cuff on my sweater. It is 4 inches of cable ribbing, so it will be knitting that I have to give my full attention. 

Hope all is well.

Good bye September

The last day of September- time flies when you are having fun! 

Yesterday was a busy day, but all good. I went rowing at 7 AM and the fog was just lifting off the Genesee River as we carried the boats down from the boathouse. As the sun rose above the trees, some of the early changing leaves were brilliantly illuminated by that sun that also provided us rowers with just enough warmth to get us going. It was a beautiful

 row.

Jim was  off to the McQuaid Invitational for an early volunteers meeting before the first gun went off for the first race

 at 9:00 AM. Jim has the illustrious job of pulling runners off the course at the 2-mile mark if they don't get there by a designated cut-off time. Every year he makes some girls cry because the girls' coaches neglected to tell them about this cut-off time and they are surprised and crushed when Jim tells them that they need to stop their race. Of course, there are also some runners who are eternally grateful to Jim for telling them they have to stop running! I arrived at the Invitational in time to see the 3 races in which

 the Odyssey teams were running. Coach Howlett seemed pleased with how all the kids

 ran. It was fun to cheer for Odyssey, but a bit strange not to have a Robinson in any of the races.

In the early afternoon, I left the Invitational to

 go to the wedding of a colleague. The service was held at the chapel on the U of R campus-a beautiful setting. Here is a photo  of my colleague, Adam and his bride

 Amanda. Jim joined me for an evening reception at the

 Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Rochester. There were hundreds of people at the reception and no expense was spared. There was an Open Bar most of the evening and a multi-course meal was served. A DJ played great dance music and we danced for a long time (Jim accumulated about 9,000 "steps" during our dance marathon!). The second

 photo was taken at the outside deck bar at the reception site. We got home just before midnight after a great Saturday, punctuated by perfect Fall weather.

Today Jim went for his 10 mile run with his friend, Tony, at Mendon Ponds Park. I slept in and then got the grocery shopping done. 

It is another perfect Fall day so we went to Green Acres, where we picked apples and a pumpkin. After picking, we stopped into the Green Acres store and I found a white pumpkin. Last year I bought a white pumpkin

 at a Market on the way to Jenny Lake. I liked the "ghosty" look of the pumpkin. I need to get rid of my petunias, because they are looking a little "tired", but they certainly added some nice splashes of color to the yard all summer. 

Jim tells me that he was visitor number 1001 to this blog, so that means that one of you loyal readers was number 1000! Congratulations and thanks to all for reading this rambling from Rochester! 

I am coming down the homestretch on the sweater I am making for myself. I have about 6 inches left on the last sleeve. Then I just need to block it and sew up the side seams and underarm seams. I hope to have it completed to wear to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival later in October. 

Be sure to vote in the poll in the upper left hand corner of the top of this blog!

Have a good week.