A November Saturday

It's been a cloudy, cool day here, but the afternoon rain or snow showers  never materialized. Jim got the leaves in the backyard raked up and hauled away. We've decided that we would wait to rake the front yard until Corey gets home, I mean until more of the leaves on the maple tree have dropped. 

Our project this afternoon was to figure out how we wanted to  arrange our Iceland framed photos on the wall in the corner of the living room. The photo to the right is the result of that figuring! We think we like it, but after not having anything on those walls for a bunch of years, we have to get used to it. We are pleased with the photos, the mats and the frames. We got the frames at Michael's Crafts, but we had to go to 4 different Michael's stores to get all that we needed. 

Last night we went to the University of Buffalo with Sherri and Terry T. to see their son, Travis in the lead role of a student production of The City of Angels. Travis is very talented and we enjoyed the musical. We didn't get home until after midnight and were glad to sleep in until 8:30 AM. 

If you are looking to get some new Christmas music, I can highly recommend Josh Groban's new Christmas album, Noel. I downloaded it from iTunes and have now broken my own rule that I don't play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!  There is a nice mix of religious and secular holiday songs, the highlight for me being a soaring rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

We talked to Tucker a couple of days ago and he was off for a weekend of hiking with some friends. The field work for his current job has ended, but he has another project in the same area lined up for the near future. While talking with Tucker, the topic of a Christmas tree came up and Scrooge (aka Jim) said he didn't think we were going to get a tree this year! So that got us discussing our tree options. Has anyone ever had a live Christmas tree that they planted outside after the holidays? Leave me a comment if you have any experience in that area. 

Here is a personal greeting to Grandma, who called today to let us know that she successfully used the library computer to access this blog and her gmail account-with no help from the library staff! We knew that with some practice, she could navigate cyberspace. She said she didn't have any new gmail, so you may want to send her a note of congratulations!

Jim confirmed with Gram that there will be no deviations from the usual fare at Thanksgiving this year. It is a concern he has had every year since the year of the Apple-Raisin stuffing fiasco many years ago. The new stuffing wasn't bad, just different, and that wouldn't do for some of the more traditional members of the family!

T & C, just so you know, I have moved the printer onto the computer desk, into the space to the right of the monitor, where there were many CD's. Those CD's are now in a sneaker box on the sewing porch. The printer fits on the desk perfectly and I have put one of my plants on the end table where the printer used to live. The plant may not live there permanently. 

We went out to dinner tonight with the intent of using the Simply Certificate that T & C gave Jim for his birthday. We tried to go to the newly remodeled Davinci's, but there was a 30-45 minute wait so we left. We decided to get away from Ridge Road and headed to Ricci's where we were seated right away. Plus we could use the certificate there. In order to use the full value of the gift, we had to share a delicious dessert-a peach and cherry cobbler! The whole meal was great and we both thank you!

I am including the World's Cutest Baby Hat photo again, because some of you let me know that you couldn't view it when you read this blog. Hopefully you all can see it now because they are so cute, they will make you smile! Tucker tells me he wants one in his size! 

I am now working on a couple of scarves for people I work with. By starting now, I should have them done before our Holiday Recess. 

Did any of you see the Yahoo story about the Santa's in Australia being forced to say, "Ha, Ha, Ha" instead of "Ho, Ho, Ho" because "Ho, Ho, Ho" could be offensive to some women? Unbelievable!! Leave Santa alone!

Tomorrow Jim races on a course at Finger Lakes Community College and then has an End of the Season Party for his XC team. It really isn't the end of the season, because they are going to the National Club XC race in Ohio in December, but they will celebrate their achievements to date. I am ringing bells in church and we are ringing a really challenging piece so I, too, had better get a good night's sleep!

Hope all is well.

Cutest Baby Hats

Here they are! The cutest baby hats in the world! I love the rainbow colors and the changing stitch pattern to give the hat some texture and interest. This hat is called the Baby Marley Hat and the decorative curly-cues on the top are the "marleys." These hats are for a woman at school who is having twins, a boy and a girl. I am so pleased with how they turned out and they were fun to knit. 

Funny story from school today. I was playing a game with my kindergartners called Bunny Tail Stew. The children use pinch-type clothes pins to pick up cotton balls and take them back to their stew pot. I must have had 200-300 cotton balls all over the gym and floor and the kindergartners were very engaged in this activity. When the kids had about 2/3 of the cotton balls picked up, one boy came up to me and asked, "How did you ever catch so many bunnies to get their tails?"!!! You gotta love these little guys!

Tonight my church bell choir did a concert at a local nursing home. It went well and the residents seemed to enjoy the music. 

We are following the Syracuse University basketball team, which is off to a good start. They have won two games that they should have won. Hopefully they will have a better season than the football team. We are hoping to get to some of their games this year, maybe when Tucker is home at Christmas and the 4 of us can go together. 

Hope all is well.

Veteran's Day

Here it is, Veteran's Day and we had the day off from school. I often wonder how many students could explain why they have the day off. I got lots of errands done today and put away the few Halloween decorations that I had set out. 

So Grandma and I went to our last Felted Purse class yesterday, where we completed the knitting and were given a pep talk about throwing our projects into a washing machine filled with hot water! Yikes! So I am including before and after photos to show what

happens during the felting process. Grandma's purse is the blue one and mine is the gray. We were making the same style

purse, Grandma wanted hers bigger so she used double strands of yarn as she was

knitting. In the before pictures you can see each knit stitch quite clearly. After several hot water washes, the stitches have all "felted" together so you cannot see individual stitches. I think my purse is rather dull, so I may sew some decorative buttons on it or look for another idea to liven it up. Any suggestions? If so, leave me a comment.

Yesterday we started raking leaves. Jim did most of the yard and I did a bit in the front

and then did some in the backyard today. The locust tree has dropped all those little, tiny,

annoying leaves that end up all over the inside of our house. The big maple tree has just started to lose its leaves, so we still have some serious raking ahead of us.

We stopped over to Grandma and Grandpa's tonight to get the purse picture. Jim was able to use some wireless internet from one of the neighbors to give Grandma another email

lesson. If you haven't sent her an email in awhile, you could give her some practice by sending her a note. In order to use this free internet, Jim and Grandma had to sit on the cool porch with their jackets on! Grandpa thought that was pretty funny. Grandpa is doing well. His cardiologist thinks his shortness of breath comes from his blood pressure medicine which slows his heart rate. So Grandpa is off the BP medicine and already

notices an improvement. He only had to stop and rest 2 times while cutting the grass, instead of 10 times like the last time he cut it. Of course, his BP is creeping up. He goes back to the doctor in a week or so.

Now that the Christmas shopping poll has closed, I don't feel bad about not having my shopping started. I know that I am in good company! Anybody have anything interesting on their Christmas list? 

Tomorrow I go back to my Yoga class which will feel good. I have started running again so I can be ready for the New Year's Eve race in Saratoga. It has been 4 months since I have run and I can feel it. I stopped running because my plantar fasciitis came back and it took a while to get rid of it. I will continue my stretching routine and hope that I don't have a reoccurrence. 

I don't know if I have ever mentioned the road construction that is taking place on Ridge Road. It is a major overhaul of a major road. The construction has moved to just in front of our street and this morning it was a bit confusing as to where one should drive. Every day is an adventure and this morning was no different. Pretty soon we will not be able to turn left onto Ridge. Hopefully the traffic flow will be maximized by the time the heaviest holiday shopping traffic is trying to get to the mall.

Hope all is well.