Live from Turning Stone Casino and Resort

What a great day - XC Sectionals, dinner with Corey and friends, and a bit of luck at the casino!

On a beautiful fall day, we drove to Marcus Whitman High School for the Section 5 Cross-

Country championships. We got there in time to see the Odyssey boys run at 11:30 AM, followed by the girls at 1:00.  A couple of kids we knew were running in the 2 and 2:30 races so we hung around for those. The Odyssey kids looked real good and I think the boys took 3rd in the Class C race and the girls were a bit lower, but still a good performance. Four of the Odyssey runners earned Sectional patches, but none moved on to the state meet.  As we were driving to the meet, I commented to Jim that it was nice to be driving to the Sectional Meet and not have a stomach full of butterflies because one of my kids was running. But then as we were watching the first race finish I was surprised to find myself feeling sad because I had no runner to cheer for!  We got to see many parents and coaches that we haven't seen in a while and that was fun. 

We were on the road to Syracuse at 3:30, but had to make a stop at the yarn store in Skaneatles to purchase a kit that I had seen there when we stopped after dropping off Corey in August. We arrived at SU about 5 PM and met Corey in his dorm. He had invited two of his

friends, Jordan and Curtis, to join us for dinner, so off we went to the Armory Square area of Syracuse. We ate at a restaurant called Pastabilities, which was the place we ate when Tucker and I drove through at the end of

August. We all had a good meal and it was fun to get to know Jordan and Curtis. As you might imagine, the conversation never strayed far from the topic of running! Corey and friends were going to an 8 o'clock movie so we said our goodbyes outside of the restaurant and we headed for Turning Stone Casino and Resort, about 30 miles down the Thruway. 

This place is jumping on a Saturday night and after getting settled into our room, we headed for the casino. I had a coupon for $20 of free play and played that in the slot machines for a while. When that was used up I put another $20 on my Diamond Card and started to play. After trying several 25 cent machines, I decided to try my luck on a dollar slot machine. Bingo! I ended up coming away with $73.50 more than I went in with! 

We were only on the casino floor for about 45 minutes, which is a good thing because the smoking is really obnoxious. This casino has a non-smoking section, but there are only 5 cent and penny slot machines in there! I don't understand that. The non-smoking area seemed quite busy to me, so I don't understand the limited choices. Oh, well. I may take another $20 down to the casino before we go to Jim's race in the morning. 

Last night Jim and I went to the movies! One of those rare occurances, especially since we live right next to a movie theater. We saw the movie Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Now this is typically not the type of movie I usually pay to see, but, come on, George Clooney was in it!! And I did enjoy it!

Tomorrow Jim runs in his race at noon and then we will head home. I will put a photo from the race in tomorrow's entry. I don't think the weather is supposed to be as nice as it was today, but that's OK, I have my Rhinebeck sweater to keep me warm.

Hope all is well.

A Taste of Excellence

Today's blog-worthy event was the Wegmans' Taste of Excellence event. About a month ago I received an invitation to this happening, and thought it sounded interesting so I called for my reservation. The event was simply promoted as an opportunity to sample about 70 different frozen or refrigerated foods from various vendors, with some wine tasting thrown in for good measure. The event was free so off we went hoping to get enough food to call it dinner. 

Having no idea what to expect as we drove to the Wegmans Conference Center in Chili, we were excited by the number of other cars arriving for this event. Upon walking into the Conference Center we had to turn in our invitation card, which served as our entry form for the drawing for a freezer to be given away. We were also given a Wegmans re-usable shopping bag (99 cent value) with coupons, a note pad and pen included. We then turned the corner into the large conference hall and were amazed with the large area filled with vendors giving out samples of their food. Oh, where to start?! We moved around sampling things that looked good to us. We ate (or drank) summer sausage, cheese (at least 3 different kinds), meatballs, ravioli, popcorn shrimp, pomegranate juice, garden burgers,

hummus, ice-cream, cookies, turkey wraps, ham wraps, OJ, yogurt, chimichangas, eclairs, tortilinins (sp?), hot dogs, veggies, sherbet, pizza, pannini, chip dip, hash browns, etc. I'm sure I missed some things, but that is all I can remember. Oh, and we washed it all down with a couple of sample sized cups of Reisling wine - on a school night!! The event was well-attended, but never so crowded that I got frustrated. There were chefs doing demos at each end of the room, but we did not sit down for their presentations. We saw a few people we knew (Corey, see Ms. Vanham's photo below. She said, "Hi!"). 

On the  way out I asked about the history of the event and was told that this was the 4th or 5th time that Wegmans has hosted this event, but the first year it has been on the west side of the city. Jim estimates that there may have been 500 people there, which was a comfortable size for the space and the number of vendor stations (about 70). It was a fun evening and I still need to go through all the coupons and booklets that were given out to see what we got. We brought home a few sample sizes of string cheese, yogurt and milk so we will enjoy those in the next couple of

 days. I will probably never get another invitation because of the large number of people from which Wegmans can invite, so I am happy we got to go this time. And, if you are wondering, we had more than enough to eat! We got full before we sampled everything we might have like to try. 

I must have had a 24 hour cold, because I feel much better now than I did last night when I went to bed. Hopefully, I'll be back to 100 % in the next day or two. 

We only had 34 trick or treaters last night - which must be a new low for us. Jim had to

 take a couple pounds of candy into work with him this morning. Anybody have a good Halloween story to share? Leave me a comment, if you do. 

Tomorrow is Friday and as usual, we are looking forward to our weekend plans, which I will share in tomorrow's entry. 

November 1st-Wow, time flies when you are having fun. I've put a poll question in the upper left hand corner of the blog about your Christmas shopping. Go ahead and make me feel bad by telling me how much you have already done. Or maybe I'll find out that I am not alone as I have not even started yet!

Hope all is well.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween. When you work in an elementary school, Halloween is a BIG deal. Most classes have a party and the K-2 students do a costume parade around the neighborhood and the school. It was the 2nd day out of 4 for my Fall Fun House so I had some students come to Physical Education in their costumes. Superheroes and princesses were popular costumes.I wore my basketball referee shirt and the kids thought that was great. I have a soccer ball full-head mask that I wore as the kids went to their buses. That was a big hit too! 

I like to remember back to the years that our family turned our house into a Haunted House with the help of our friends the Tabers. The kids all had a good time and it was fun to include grandparents into the haunting process. We stopped doing it when we were no longer willing to do what one had to do in order to scary near teenagers! I could never get caught up in the debate about the appropriateness of Halloween. To me, it was always just good fun.

Today it was a beautiful day, low 70's and sunshine. It will be a perfect night for Trick or Treating. However, the weather guys have been warning us of a major change coming tomorrow!

I have been sneezing all day and don't feel real well. I haven't had a cold for a long time, so I guess I was due. Plus, lots of kids and teachers have been sick at school.  I better go get the Cold-Ease lozenges. I think they have worked for me in the past so I will try them again. 

Jim and I are going to a special Wegmans tasting event tomorrow night. I'll let you know all about that tomorrow, but I am hoping that we can taste enough to count as dinner. 

Happy Halloween! Hope no tricksters visit your house.

Fall Fun House Starts

Today was the start of the Annual Fall Fun House in Physical Education at Longridge School. I stayed late at school last night to get things set up and was there early this morning to finish up a few things. There are unique and fun activities set up in both our large and small gyms and a variety of grade levels participate at the same time. This is a wildly popular event and the 5th graders love it as much as the kindergartners. It is very gratifying to see the older students helping out the younger kids. So this PE activity will continue for 3 more days and then it all disappears.

Last night during dinner, the doorbell rang and there was Corey's high school XC coach and band director, Joe. It was good to see him and we got caught up on running and our families. We hope to go to see the Odyssey XC team run in the Sectionals this Saturday, on our way to the Turning Stone Casino and Resort (more on that at another time). He also told us which family was being awarded the Robinson Family Volunteer award this year. This award was established last year, and given to us, as a way to recognize our years of support of Odyssey XC. It was a nice remembrance and we were glad to know that another family was getting recognized this year.

Jim discovered tiny ants crawling on the floor and counter by the sink last night. I hate ants, large and small. There were more there this morning and when I came home from school. I bought some ant traps and will see if that gets rid of them. I always thought ants were a spring time thing, but I guess not. It is supposed to get colder later this week so maybe that will slow them down. Did I mention that I hate ants in my house? If you have any good ideas on ant extermination, leave me a comment. 

I continue to knit on the world's cutest baby hat. I will post a photo when I complete it. I'm glad I love it because I need to make 2 for a woman at school who is having twins. 

Hope everything is well.

Happy Birthday to Jim

Today is Jim's 54th birthday. He is already looking forward to next year when he turns 55 and is at the young end of a new age-group in Masters running. His birthday started just the way he needed it to start, by sleeping as late as he wanted! He got his long Sunday run in between the raindrops and I tried not to work him too hard! Grandma, Grandpa, Gram, GrandDad and Bob K. joined us for a baby-back ribs dinner with homemade baked beans. Gram brought broccoli salad and Grandma made an Apple Pie. As we were finishing dinner, the doorbell rang and there was Tom Ricci, a friend of Tucker's. He stopped by to return a gift we had given him and he came in for a few minutes of conversation. It was great to see him and hear about his trials and tribulations of home ownership. Right after Tom arrive, Tucker called and was baffled and amazed when we put Tom on the phone. 
We brought up Bob's Tibet photos on our computer and Bob gave us a private travelogue. What a great adventure he had!

Jim and I did some work on our Iceland prints that we want to hang in the livingroom. We got another large photo matted and framed (did it ourselves) and when I get some wire for hanging picture frames, we'll get it up on the wall above the loveseat. I also bought some mats for the 8X10's and 5X7's. Hopefully, we can get these pictures up on the walls in the near future. 

Corey, last night there was a momentous occasion here when Dad opened that dust covered Chocolate Orange! He is savoring every bite!

Tucker had a great trip on the San Juan. One of the guys on the trip was a chef so Tucker said they ate very well.

I gave up on learning to knit the Continental style. I have too much knitting I want to do, to be slowed down by a new technique. Maybe someday I will try again. 

The World Series gave just started and already my team (Red Sox) has scored a run in the first inning. It may be over tonight. 

I am in a NFL football pool at school and this week I guessed 10 games correctly-maybe I'll win! 

Jim is playing with his new GPS unit that I gave him for his birthday. I gave him a GPS for Christmas last year and it is missing. The best he can figure is that he left it in a rental car in North Carolina in June. By the time we discovered it was missing, the rental car company had no recollection of it. 

Hope all is well.