TGIF

Friday night at home, watching basketball and knitting. Life is good-even if my Wisconsin team is getting crushed by that Cinderella team, Davidson. It is hard not to root for an underdog like Davidson, except it really messes up my bracket.

Today was a professional development day for the whole school district and the PE staff got together and each teacher presented a lesson to their colleagues. Here is a photo that my student teacher took of me doing my lesson (I'm the one on the right).

It went over very well. The last hour of the day included a tour of the new district fitness facility and the option of taking a fitness class. I took the spinning class (think bicycle, not yarn). It was a great work-out and I learned that I can be working a lot harder on my bike in the basement!

Corey went with the SU team to Raleigh for a track meet and had another disappointing race. He is going to talk to his coach about helping to figure out why he is in this slump and we are going to call his doctor to see if there are any other medical tests that Corey should have. Corey's sore throat has returned and he continues to be at a very low energy level. 

Tucker called tonight to wish me a Happy Birthday. Coincidently, the gift he had sent from Amazon arrived today. He ordered me a book about the  history of knitting in America. I have done one good look-through of the book and noticed a pattern of Soldier's Wristlets which looked surprisingly like the fingerless gloves I made for him for Christmas. I also noticed the many photos of young boys knitting, as part of their schooling. It is a good book, and I'm sure I will learn many interesting facts. Thanks Tuck!

The yard work continued today, with the town crew digging up the road to continue the new storm sewer to the other side of the street to a storm drain. We got 3 inches of heavy wet snow last night so the mud and chewed up yard were all covered in a pretty blanket of snow this morning.

Last night was the first night of rowing for 2008 and let me tell you there is nothing like rowing in March in Rochester. The rain sprinkles started just as I arrived at the boathouse and settled into a steady rain as we carried the boat down to the dock. Combine that with 35º and it makes for almost unpleasant rowing. The snow started just as we came back into sight of the boathouse. When I was rowing I was just able to stay warm, but when it was my turn to not row and balance the boat, (we row by 6's instead of 8's when there are new people in the boat), I was freezing! I called Jim when I got back to the car and I could hardly talk to him because I was shivering so much. It has to be warmer in April!!! I do love to row, no matter what the weather though.

Hope all is well.

A Little Bit of This. . .

The yard work continues. After not working for 4 days, the phantom crew (we've never actually seen them working) were at it again today and have progressed to the road. There are still a lot of pipes and cement connectors in our yard and across the street, so we're not sure how far the town is planning on digging. Jim stood on top of the garage roof to take this photo to show the extent of the mess in our backyard. 

Tucker called last night and reported that he had a great 3 days of backpacking with perfect weather. It was good to hear from him.

Brother Bob sent this photo of him and Megan and Andrew in the hot tub during the most recent snow storm in Michigan. I guess it has been forever since I have seen those 2 kids! I would recognize them as Amy and Rocky's children, but they are so grown up! Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Yesterday my newest shipment of Rockin' Sock Club yarn arrived with a new sock pattern. The variegated green yarn is beautiful and soooo soft! There are several new things going on in the sock pattern so I will learn something as I knit this pair of socks. I am not going to start knitting them until I finish the second sock of the pair I started knitting on my way home from Iceland last summer. That project has been my "grab and go" project when I needed a fairly easy knit when I was going to be knitting somewhere where there was something else going on. I've just started turning the heel, so it shouldn't take me too long if I focus on it. I will definetly take my new sock project when we go to Maryland in April. So here is a photo of the latest lush yarn!

Today while eating my lunch, a piece of a tooth broke off! I wasn't even eating anything hard or crunchy. I immediately called my dentist and they had an opening at 3:15 this afternoon. I was in the dentist's chair for 9 minutes and in that time he fixed it right up. This tooth is in bad shape and may need to be capped if anymore breaks off. 

Tonight was yoga and we enjoyed our workout.

Tomorrow is a big day at school. My student teacher starts her time at Longridge and the whole school, all 860 kids and 90 staff are going to one of the high schools for a middle school production of Peter Pan. The kids are very excited because they have heard that Peter Pan actually flies! And it's true, the man that "flew" Cathy Rigby in her production of Peter Pan, is  flying the middle school kids. It should be great!

Hope all is well.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We had a beautiful sunny day here, too bad it was 30 degrees! The sun was wonderful, and we have now had 3 consecutive sunny days! The cold temps have solidified the mud mess in our yard, so we can get a serious look into the trench without fearing a fall into the muddy abyss. 

Our Easter church service was very uplifting. There was a brass quartet that played with the organ and we sang great Easter hymns. The new minister gave a great sermon and there were lots of people in the pews. I did have a few moments of melancholy, as I looked around and saw many families, with their grown children with them for the Easter holiday and I missed my boys more than usual. Many people asked about T & C and I was able to tell them that both guys are doing well, which lifted my spirits. 

 

We have had 2 blog-worthy events around here in the past couple of days and I completely forgot to take some photos! Oh, well you will just have to put your visual skills to work. Today we hosted Easter dinner with both sets of grandparents and Bob and Sally. It was a pretty easy dinner for me since I just heated up a ham and made a fresh veggie tray. Gram brought mac salad, Sally brought 2 cooked vegetables, and Grandma brought an apple pie. It was all wonderful. I thought my table looked very nice, considering I do not have a Martha Stewart touch. I got a new white tablecloth that has some pastel flowers embroidered around the edge and in the middle. The tulips I bought at Sam's on Friday were still beautiful and I sprinkled some jelly beans around on top of the table and it all looked rather festive. Guests ate the jelly beans as the mood struck!

The second major event was yesterday that we pulled out the refrigerator and stove and I cleaned behind these appliances! There were papers dated from the year 2000 behind the refrigerator! It was a very rewarding cleaning job because there was a dramatic difference between what should have been before and after photos! My goal is to try to do that job again in less than 8 years. Now how will I remember that? 

This has been a weekend of basketball and spinning. I am doing terrible in the 2 brackets that I entered, but none the less, I love watching the games. Today there were some incredible finishes and a couple of upsets. I guess the games will resume next weekend, so the athletes and I can get back to thinking about school. On the spinning front, I finished spinning the merino/silk roving and now will have to ply the 2 singles. I did ply the last of my Icelandic yarn, using a technique that I learned at my spinning class. I tell you, there is so much to learn with this spinning stuff!

We talked to Corey yesterday and he was excited about his track meet in Raleigh, NC next weekend. His former high school track coach is now living there so they will get to see each other. 

Zach, Jim, and Maryanne called here tonight and things are well with them. Zach is getting along with his broken arm and Jim likes his new job. Thanks for calling!

Word in the blog world is that the second Rockin' Sock Club packages have been mailed out. Some knitters here in upstate New York have already received theirs. I'm hoping I get mine in tomorrow's mail. There are "spoiler" photos on some of the blogs but I am not looking at them because I like the anticipation and surprise that comes with opening a package. I'll post a photo when I get my new yarn (if I remember to get my camera out!).

Tomorrow is a school day-time to go to bed.

Hope all is well.