A Day at SU

Today we went to Syracuse with Bob and Sally to see an SU basketball game and visit with Corey. We left here in the sunshine at 9:30 AM and drove east on the Thruway, dealing with a couple of small snow squalls. We met Corey outside of the Carrier Dome and joined 26,000 other SU fans to cheer on the team. It was a great game, with Syracuse leading most of the game. They were up by 11 points with about 3 minutes left. They quickly blew that lead and were up by 4 with only a minute left. Then 2 quick mistakes by the young SU team and they lost the game. It was heartbreaking. Syracuse starts 2 freshman and 2 sophomores and we are hoping that in the next couple of years they can gain the experience to come out on the winning side of these close games. I bet they have lost 6 or 7 really close games in the last minutes this season, so hopefully with more maturity and experience, they can become a powerhouse team. There were some exciting plays that brought the crowd to its feet and we were glad to be in the house. 

We walked down to Marshall Street to one of the SU t-shirts stores to get a SU sticker for a friend. We then had a good walk back to the car at Manley. Since the game started at noon, we were out looking for a late lunch/early dinner at 3 or 3:30 PM. We went down to the Armory Square area and stopped into a store call The Hot Shop, where they sell 3000 different kinds of hot sauce. Corey and Sally each found and bought something that sounded good to them. This Hot Shop was a tiny shop with a bunch of small signs on the door indicating some rules and restrictions for coming into that shop. First off, you had to be 18 years old to go in. I soon discovered several hot sauce bottles shaped like naked bodies of men and women-scandalous! There were additional signs on the door stating that they don't do donations, give out change for the parking meters or have a public restroom.  Plus, you could not bring in your backpack! Fortunately, Corey left his backpack in the van and we all peed before we left the Carrier Dome! I asked the Hot Shop owner for a recommendation of a restaurant in the area and he directed us to the Empire Brew Pub, where we had a good dinner. Thank goodness, he didn't have a policy against making restaurant recommendatons! We all (except Corey) sampled their on-site brewed beer. It was good. 

I got a fair amount of knitting done in the car today and am nearing the end of the second Rockin' Sock Club sock. I should be able to finish it this weekend or early next week. Later in March, my school will have a week-long celebration of Dr. Seuss and one of the events is Crazy Sock Day. I hope to be able to wear these socks on that day. 

Tomorrow I have to deacon at church and then we are having Grandma and Grandpa here for dinner. I think I will cook Grandpa a pot roast.

Hope all is well. 

February 28th

Not too much has been blog-worthy in the past couple of days. You know, the usual stuff, get up , go to work, come home, something on the calendar to take us out in the evening, come home, go to bed. Repeat.

We did hear from Tucker that he had uneventful flights from Portland, OR to San Diego. He called Jim after he was an hour into his drive back to Bluff. He had a great time in Portland. Now it is back to work for him.

Tonight we are going to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert. I forget the exact program, but there must be Mozart on the agenda, because we love Mozart. Gram and GrandDad also have tickets for tonight's concert, so we will go with them and get there early enough to hear the pre-concert lecture. 

Dad took Grandpa and Grandma to the doctor yesterday and the news was that Grandpa needs to continue on the oxygen all the time. This was disappointing to him. I'm not sure when he goes back for another evaluation, but I'm sure it is not soon enough for him.

This Saturday we are going to Syracuse for a basketball game. Bob and Sally will be joining us as we cheer on the Orange. Corey seemed glad that we were all coming over for a game and it will be good to see him. 

I'll include another photo from our San Diego trip. I took this one after we rode about 15 miles around Mission Bay on our Cruiser bikes. Jim and Tucker are riding on the trail right in front of our beach house. We were staying in the upstairs of the white house with blue trim, just to the left of the light pole. 

Hope all is well.

Back to Work

After a wonderful week off it was back to work today. I had such a great week off and felt refreshed, that going back to school wasn't too bad. The kids seemed glad to be back, if not a bit tired, but overall it was a good day. I am doing some basketball skills with my classes and they love that, so I have very few motivation problems.

Yesterday was another sunny day here in Rochester and I went to the Tug Hill area of NYS at the east end of Lake Ontario to XC ski with Sally. This part of NY gets huge amounts of snow and as we were driving east out of Pulaski, it was like driving through a snow tunnel, the snow banks were so high.It is interesting to look at these snowbanks because the town uses what must be an enormous snow blower to cut a clean knife-edge along the edges of the road and you can clearly see the stratification of the various snow storms they have had since the last thaw. There was a good 15 inches of clean white snow on top of numerous lower layers. Digging out your car or mailbox must be quite an undertaking after a good storm.

But on to skiing, we went to the Salmon Hills Ski center and skied for about 2 hours on wonderfully groomed trails. Plus, it seemed like we had a private park-we saw very few other skiers. Apparently Saturday was the big ski day at this place and Sunday was their quiet day. We skied out to the farthest point and returned by a different route. It was a good day of skiing-a long drive for a couple of hours of skiing, but a good day none-the-less.

Here are 2 photos from our ski-one with Sally approaching Look-Out Point and the other looking out over the Salmon Reservoir. The snowmobilers use the frozen reservoir as a race course!

We watched a little bit of the Academy Awards, but since we only saw one movie that was up for something (Michael Clayton), we didn't know too many of the nominees.

I had a couple of guesses on the location of the walk that Jim and I took on Saturday. Corey knew where it was because it is a favorite running spot for him and Jim. It is an area behind Park Ridge (Unity) hospital where there is a levee. Nice spot.

There is a winter storm watch for tomorrow and Wednesday. So far this winter, the weather guys have over estimated the severity of the storms that have blown through, so I'm not holding my breath for this one either.

Hope all is well.