NYC

It has been a few days since I have blogged and that is because we have been out of town and very busy!

Thursday after school we left for Verona, NY, so I could attend the New York State Physical Education Conference at Turning Stone Casino and Resort. We stopped in Syracuse to take Corey and his housemate, Mike, out to dinner. We had a good dinner and enjoyed our short time together.

On Friday I atttended my conference and came away with some good info and had a chance to see some PE people that I haven't seen in a while. While I was at my workshops, Jim had a phone meeting for work, went for a run and surfed the web while waiting for me. As we were on our way out of Turning Stone we had to stop and be amazed at the gingerbread village that was under constuction in the lobby area. It made my meager efforts look pitiful!


Later Friday afternoon we continued east on the Thurway, heading for New York City. Corey and some of his teammates were running in the Bronx on Saturday morning and we were glad to have the opportunity to see him run. We drove the car as far as Poughkeepsie where we parked the car and rode the train into the city. That is the way to go! Parking can be wildly expensive and driving is awful in the city so we were glad to use public transportation. We pulled into Grand Central Station about 7:30 PM and made the 6 block walk to our hotel. I talked the Radisson Hotel clerk into giving us a complimentary upgrade which has been nice. Friday night we went to a nice Italian restauarant for a late dinner.

This morning we took the subway to VanCortland Park where Corey and his teammates were running in the IC4A race.
Unfortunately Corey and most of his teammates did not have great races, so they were all a bit disappointed. However most of them were returning to SU and then re-boarding the vans for a trip to Indiana to see the "A" team run in the NCAA national championships. Corey and some of his buddies were consoled by the fact that Lloyd's World Famous Carrot Cake store was located right across the street from the race course and some of the guys lifted their spirits with a slice, and others needed a whole cake to do the job!! It was delicious carrot cake!


After saying good bye to Corey we took the subway back to the Times Square area. We thought we would try to get some discounted tickets to a Broadway show for tonight, but they did not go on sale until 3 PM. It was only 1:30 and we realized that there were Broadway shows starting at 2PM and the ticket line was fairly short. So we stood in line with a first choice and second choice in mind. Our first choice was Mary Poppins, but there were only single seats, no where near each other available so we asked about ticket availability for our second choice, White Christmas and we were able to get 2 good seats for that show.
So with a half hour to go, we had to find Jim some lunch (I was still working off my carrot cake piece) and use the bathrooms. But we got to our seats with 7 minutes to spare. We had "Sally" seats, meaning that they were right down in front, actually in the second row, on the left edge of the stage. Now normally I like to sit higher up but the stage was small enough that we were able to see everything and enjoyed seeing the action up close. The show was GREAT! It was different enough from the movie with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay that I didn't find myself comparing the 2 shows. The singing and dancing was spectacular and I smiled through the whole thing. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

For dinner tonight, Jim surfed the web and found a Mexican restaurant that got good ratings and advertised that they had the best margaritas. So off we went for a short walk to this place. The sign in the window said that the margaritas were so lethal that you may forget to eat! Jim had two! But we did not forget to eat and had another great meal. We walked the long way back to our hotel to walk off the margaritas and the dinner.


We will head back to Poughkeepsie tomorrow to retrieve our car and drive home. We've had a good time in NYC.

Hope all is well.

Tuesday Trivia

OK, here are bits and pieces of news or minutiae. How's that for an opening sentence? Just makes you want to read more doesn't it?!

I was going to title this post "Officially an Old Lady" after I made this purchase.

It is a pill box for my 4 morning vitamins/supplements that come from 3 different bottles. I decided that if I loaded this thing on Sundays with my vitamins for the week, I could sleep in an extra minute every day!! So far I do like the convenience of it. The letters on it for the days of the week are large enough for me to see without my glasses for a few more years and after that I can take advantage of the letter days that are in braille on each compartment! So I guess I am now officially old. I will probably be getting those big sunglasses that would fit over my reading glasses any day now! No offense to any of my gentle readers that wear those sunglasses, but truly they are not something that a young person wears.

OK, on to more exciting things. Tucker sent us a photo from his camping trip a couple of weeks ago. Is he one lucky guy or what?
Last night we went to a Sierra Club sponsored show about the proposed Red Rock Wilderness area in southern Utah. It was very interesting and will probably have us writing our congress-people, asking them to support the legislation to protect this beautiful, unique area.

I finished knitting a cowl, which is a little scarf that just goes around your neck. I made it from 100 % alpaca and it is very warm. Now I just need some cold weather so I can wear it.
It is a pretty lacy pattern designed by the Yarn Harlot and was a fun and fairly easy knit. The top edge is folded over in this photo.

In addition to Grandpa's fine recovery, we have one more thing for which to be grateful this Thanksgiving and that is that Jim survived the significant lay-offs at Johnson and Johnson. Many people that Jim has worked with for 20, 25 years have been laid-off and you can imagine how difficult it is at this time at J&J.

Time to watch Dancing with the Stars. Tonight we learn who are the 3 couple in the finals next week. My favorite pro, Derek, is still in it.

Hope all is well.

Relaxing Weekend

We've had a fairly quiet weekend, which has been most welcome.

Friday night I had to go back to school because I had volunteered to help at the PTA Book Fair.

Saturday we did some yard work in the morning. We raked up a few leaves and Jim mowed the lawn for the last time this season.

We've also had some doorbell issues lately so Jim made a trip to Home Depot and got new doorbell switches for both the front and side doors.
I did some errands including a trip to the Farmer's Market. I think that market will be in the mall parking lot until the weekend before Thanksgiving, which I guess is next weekend already.

Saturday night we went to dinner at the Taste of Texas BBQ place in Spencerport. It was a quick but delicious meal. You order and pay for your meal at the bar as you walk in, and then go sit a table. About 5 minutes later your name is called and you pick up a tray with your food on it. I had BBQ baby back ribs and Jim had BBQed pulled chicken, along with 2 sides with each meal. We'll have to take the boys there when they are home around Christmas because I think they would enjoy the food.

Today Jim raced at the Finger Lakes Community College and then went to a party to wrap up the Upstate XC Series. His veteran men's team won their division, he was happy about that.

After a morning of errands, I spent most of the afternoon spinning and knitting. I haven't spun in a while and it felt good to be behind the wheel! I finished knitting a cowl neck warmer and will post a photo of that in the near future when it gets dry from the blocking process. Tonight I just finished the collar part of Tucker's sweater. Here is a photo of that work in progress. I also have about 3/4 of one sleeve done so I am making good progress.

Congratulations to the Odyssey Boys XC team which took 4th place at the state meet. And congratulations to the SU Men's and Women's XC team which won their regional meet, guaranteeing them a place in the Nationals in a week or so.

Tucker called tonight and he is doing well. It has been cold and snowy in Cortez~tonight the low is supposed to be 11 degrees!!!

Time to go iron.

Hope all is well.