Saturday Stats

I'm taking a break from sitting in front of the TV watching the basketball, to sitting in front of the computer, with the basketball on the TV in my peripheral vision! There have been some good games, with a couple of upsets. Syracuse won their game yesterday and will have a bigger challenge tomorrow when they play Arizona State. Go Orange!

Last night I gave up a couple of hours of basketball to cheer on the RIT Hockey team as they played for a spot in the finals of the Atlantic Hockey Conference (?).
The game was at the Blue Cross Arena and was well attended.
Unfortunately, RIT came up a goal short in an overtime loss. We have really enjoyed being Tiger's fans this winter and will pay attention to when the season starts next fall. 

Today was my spinning guild so I went to Victor where I spent a few hours spinning.  I am hoping to have a skein of handspun yarn to enter in the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May. One of the guild members, who has a sheep farm was selling lamb so I bought some chops from her~support your local farmer! After the guild meeting I made a quick stop at Eastview Mall and used a $20 gift card at Coldwater Creek, purchasing a pair of capri pants to wear at school. 

Tonight I went out to dinner with Gram and GrandDad and we tried a new pizza place in the Corn Hill area called Tony D's Coal-fired Pizza. We were seated at a "bar" that circled around the open kitchen so we were entertained the whole time we were there, watching the 3 people prepare all the meals.
Our dinners were very good~ GrandDad and I each had a pizza and Gram had a Pannini. Our backs were to the windows that overlooked a deck along the Genesee River. I watched the chef prepare several plates of Greens and Beans, a meal I enjoy when we are out, so we will have to go back so I can try that menu item. 

Jim is in Maryland at the National Master's Indoor Track Meet and he has had a lot of success in his first 2 races. On Friday he took 1st place in the Men's (55-59) 3000 meter race and today took second in the mile. Tomorrow he runs the 800 meter race and then jumps in the car for a 6-plus hour drive home.

Time to focus on the basketball again and pick up my knitting. 

Photo Update

We have heard from both boys recently and they both sent some photos of what they have been up to. 

Corey took a couple of long bike rides during the last couple of days of his spring break and sent along these photos.

He is back to running with the team and is trying to line up an internship with a Syracuse TV station. On his biking days, he was enjoying that first taste of spring, which is always sweet!

Tucker sent along 3 photos from his Mexico trip. There are captions under each photo explaining what you are seeing.

The first photo is over looking Coyote Bay and Playa El Burro which are on Bahia Conception.

The 2nd photo is a view of Canyon Santa Teresa where the rock art we hiked into was.

And the 3rd photo is me with the rock art!! 

Jim left for Maryland this afternoon. He is running in the National Master's Indoor Track meet. He races on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He will be back on Sunday night.

Me, I'm watching basketball on TV. I am in 3 different pools so I am cheering for everybody! 

Basketball on TV makes for good knitting time and I hope to make good progress on the baby blanket in the next week or so. 

Back to the game. . . . 

Hope all is well. 

Join the Madness

CBS Sports has made it fairly simple to run a basketball pool so I am inviting you to join the Empty Nest Madness bracket competition. The fee is $5.00 per bracket entered and the winner will be the person who gets the most points in the whole tournament. The winner will get 50% of the pot, 2nd place will get 30 % and 3rd place will get 20%. If you are interested in joining, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I will get in touch with you on how to access the Empty Nest group page at CBS Sports. If I have your e-mail address, I may have already sent you an invitation to that website. Scoring and rules are on the website.

Tonight the teams will be announced and you have until the first tip-off of the first game on March 19th to complete your bracket on the website. You then need to send me your $5.00 (or more if you have entered more than one bracket) by March 28th. The maximum number of brackets you can enter is 3, CBS rule, not mine. 

So let me know if you want to join the fun. Since this is my first time managing something like this, let me know if I have forgotten to provide some important info.

Hope you join!

The Madness of March Begins

If you don't like college basketball, you may want to take a short break from reading this blog because I love the March Madness of college basketball and my entries may include my highs and lows as I follow the games to the crowning of the NCAA champion. Just to get things off to a wild and crazy start, SU played in that marathon game on Thursday night into Friday morning, as they beat UConn, one of the top ranked teams in the country. I did not watch the whole game, a move I regret now, because it was a game that would have justified a tired day at school. I did stay up and watch SU play last night, but that win only required one overtime period, instead of the 6 it took to beat UConn. SU plays for the Big East Championship tonight and we will watch on the computer.

Last night we went to another RIT hockey game and they are now in the playoffs. Last night's game was the first game in the best of 3 series against Holy Cross and RIT lost. They play again tonight and if they win, the third game will be on Sunday night. In our contiuing search for our favorite seats at the Ritter Arena on the RIT campus, we sat to the right of the "home" goal,  in the first row of seats, next to the glass. These were good seats, but most of the goals happened at the other end of the rink. Here are a couple of photos from last night's game.

These spirit sticks were being given away at the hockey game, so we got our pair and maybe will get to use them if there is a game on Sunday night.


Going to the hockey game was a last minute decision as was our activity today: to attend a 6 hour defensive driving course, to reduce our auto insurance costs. We had a quite a chuckle as we drove out of our driveway, on our way to the defensive driving course, and could only see out of a small defrosted part of the windshield! The class was worthwhile as both Jim and I learned a couple of things and were reminded of things we already knew, but maybe had not thought about in awhile. The course was taught by a retired Rochester Police officer and he had some interesting stories to share. This class was held at Aquinas Institute, a school that I have never visited so we got a chance to walk the halls on our breaks and explore their new sports complex, built with Wegmans money. I was intrigued by this sign on the fence by the stadium.
While at the driving class, I got a fair amount of knitting done on the baby blanket project. I noticed that the teacher for whom this blanket is intended, is looking very pregnant, so I'm feeling a bit of pressure to get it done. I haven't heard about a baby shower for her yet, but I'm sure it will be happening in the near future.  I also got some spinning done this afternoon, as I continue to experiment to find the best way to spin this one particular fiber for the pattern that I have in mind. 

So I guess that is all for now.

Hope all is well and GO 'CUSE!

This and That

First, Tucker is back in the USA. And he told me not to worry about him~he says he feels more threatened driving in Denver than he ever did in Mexico! He had a great trip and shared some wonderful adventure stories, with promises of some photos for this blog! 

Second, Corey went back to SU today and who can blame him! Jim and I go to work all day and Corey's high school friends are not home for spring break this week, so his days were not real exciting. But back at school he can hang with his teammates and make his own fun. So, Corey it was good to see you for a few days and we were glad you could be here for Bob's party.

Speaking of Bob's party, I wanted to show you a picture of the gift I made for Bob. A little history first. For many years, whenever we went on a canoe trip with Bob and family, Bob wore this red and blue striped swimsuit, 24/7! We watched it fade over the years, but it was an apparent favorite of Bob's so it showed up in our photos for years. Then one day Sally dropped off a big bag of clothes that we were donating to a school group and there on the top of the pile, were the striped shorts. Well, after Sally left, we took those shorts out of the bag, knowing that someday we'd be glad to have them. We didn't know when or for what use, but we knew that there would come a time when we could use those shorts. Well, the time came with Bob's 60th birthday! I got a journal type book and covered it with some of the fabric from the shorts. I put the back pocket zipper on the back of the journal, to hold a pen or pencil and I used the waist belt as a carry handle along the spine of the book.  On the inside of the front cover we included a photo of Bob wearing the swim shorts  on one of our canoe trips. I think he liked the book and seemed pleasantly surprised to see that his shorts lived on!!! See the photo below.

I've been volunteering at the hospital gift shop for the past 3 Monday nights and my trainer has declared that I am now ready to go solo. Right now I am going to be working the evening shift for two Thursdays a month. Here are a couple of photos of the gift shop. 

I guess that is all for now. 

Hope all is well. 

Surprise!

"Surprise!" is the cheer that greeting our friend, Bob, as he entered our living room last night. We hosted a surprise 60th birthday party for Bob at our house and I think he was truly surprised!
A couple of months ago Sally said that she and Liz were thinking about doing this party for Bob and wondered if it could be at our house. That sounded like a good idea to us. Friday was the start of Corey's spring break so he came home for the party (seeing as Bob is his mentor!) and coming to visit Corey was a perfectly normal thing for Bob, Sally and Liz to do on a Friday night. What was not normal were the 11 other people that were waiting in our living room to celebrate this milestone with Bob. 

There was lots of good conversation and good food. Bob's favorite desserts were served, chocolate cake, grape pie, and cookies, and we all shared a lot of laughs. 

So that is how our weekend started, and after a very late night last night, we tried to sleep in this morning, but Jim and I are not very good at that anymore. 

Today we had both sets of grandparents here for lunch and a chance to see Corey. Ponty's provided our lunch and I added a fruit salad and a selection of desserts leftover from last night! We enjoyed our time together.

A chunk of our afternoon was spent watching college basketball and we are getting into the meat of the college season. March Madness will be upon us in no time and I love March Madness. I watched Syracuse upset Marquette today~ it was a good time for SU to come up with a big win. 

I did some spinning, well, really plying,  this afternoon and have another skein of yarn to show for my efforts. 

I had to rip out about 6 rows of knitting on the sleeves of Jim's sweater because they were not long enough. Now you may be thinking, why would you rip out rows if they were too short and that is a good question. The rows I ripped out were for the arm hole shaping and I need to add the extra length before I do that shaping. I think I need to add about 4 inches to each sleeve. I got a start on that tonight. We rented some Jesse James movie and I have been knitting and blogging as that is on the TV.

A short, but intense thunder and lightning storm just rolled through with some heavy rain! 

We ate dinner at Chinatown Restaurant tonight and had a good meal~we've never been disappointed with that place. 

Not too much planned for tomorrow, just the usual Sunday stuff~church, grocery shopping, and ironing. And there is a good college basketball game on at 4, so I hope to have my chores done by then so I can watch. 

Hope all is well. 

Almost the Weekend

Check out these photos. Jim and I went ice skating at Canal Ponds before going to work this morning!! Skating at sunrise~a great way to start a day.




The ice is at Canal Ponds, on the J& J property. Jim looked out his window at lunch yesterday and saw some guys on the ice playing hockey, jumped up, ran to the car, drove home, got his skates and went for a quick skate. When he was telling me about this we realized that with the high temps predicted for today that the ice was not going to last. So we got up and out early this AM and were skating by 7 AM!

Corey comes home this weekend for a few days of his spring break. He won't stay for more than a couple of days because he needs to be back on campus where the action is! Gram and GrandDad are driving over to Syracuse to pick him up. 

I did my second training session at the hospital gift shop and all went well. One of my students came into the shop with her grandmother because her mother is in the hospital. That little girl sure looked confused about seeing me at the hospital!

We got an e-mail from Tucker saying that he was on his way home from Mexico, but did not expect to be back in the country until March 9th. He and Duane were going to take their time driving back, stopping to fish and to hike. I will be glad to have him back in the old USA, especially with the news stories I have heard about the violence in Mexico. Now that violence is with the drug traffickers, but innocent people have found themselves in bad situations. So I will be glad to hear he is back on America soil.

More later. . .

Hope all is well.

Sunday Night Before Lights Out

Here's a quick update on what we've been up to this weekend.

Friday night we set out early (like we always have) to go to the RIT hockey game. When we arrived at the doors to the arena we were greeted with large signs announcing that the game was sold out! Sold Out!  I guess that's what happens to rookie fans~we didn't realize how big the Air Force game would be. So we returned to the car, dejected, wondering what would we do now? I suggested that we try to rent the movie, The Express, the story of the Syracuse running back who became the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy. This true story was in the theaters last fall, I believe, but we didn't get to see it then. So we drove to Blockbuster on the Ridge and much to our surprise, the place was a madhouse! Doesn't anybody have a life on a Friday night? Are we all reduced to spending a Friday evening watching videos? Yes, is the answer. We got the movie and enjoyed it very much. So if you are looking for a good, family movie, I'd recommend The Express.

Saturday we did things around the house and then went to dinner with Julie and Steve at The Garland House. We had a good meal and lots of good conversation. We returned to their house for dessert and more good conversation and laughs. Being hockey fans, Julie and Steve commiserated with us about not being able to get into the previous night's game, but were able to turn on their TV to a cable channel that was carrying this night's match-up between RIT and Air Force. After a big win on Friday night, RIT did not look that good on Saturday night and came up short in the goals scored department. We had a lot of fun with Julie and Steve and will go out with them again in the near future.

Today Jim ran in an Indoor Track Meet at RIT and was pleased with his 2 mile time. He is getting ready for the National Masters Indoor Track Meet in Maryland in a few weeks. 

This afternoon we went to a charity luncheon where the keynote speaker was Coach Jim Johnson, of J-Mac fame. He was a wonderful speaker and we enjoyed hearing his stories surrounding the big game. 

Tonight we had dinner at Gram and GrandDad's to complete a nice weekend. Gram cooked up a delicious corned beef, which reminded me that now is the time to put a few of those in the freezer. 

Congratulations to the SU basketball team for their win over Cincinnati today!

It is time to go to bed. I seem to have come down with a case of the sniffles. Hopefully a good night's sleep with cure whatever ails me.

Hope all is well. 

Busy Week

Jim just reminded me that it has been since Sunday that this blog has been refreshed! Of course I reminded him that I have been busy!

Monday night I started volunteering at Unity Hospital (formerly known as Parkridge Hospital). I am going to be working in the gift shop and have a few nights of training and depending on what night's I work, I may be by myself in the shop. My shift will be 4-8 PM and I hope to work once or twice a month. The gift shop sells flowers, balloons, cards, sundries, toys, candy, snacks, stuffed animals, jewelry and seasonal decorations. There was a slow, steady stream of customers, enough for me to learn and practice what I need to know, but not enough to be overwhelmed. The woman who is training me is very pleasant and I look forward to going back next Monday. I'll try to get a photo of the place in the near future and include it here.

Tuesday night was Yoga night so we had a late dinner.

Last night I got a haircut right after school and then went to church to ring bells in the Ash Wednesday service. 

So here I am at home tonight and it feels good. I'll knit and watch the results of last night's American Idol. I don't have a favorite on that show yet, and quite honestly, haven't been real impressed with anyone. It is early though so I will continue to tune in to AI.

Speaking of knitting, I am halfway done the last sleeve on Jim's sweater and am at the point where I have been knitting on that for long enough and am ready to be done. I am also knitting on a baby blanket for a friend at work. I like the yarns that I chose for it and it is easy knitting that doesn't take a lot of concentration on my part. My next big project will be a sweater for Tucker, using yarn that he selected while he was home at Christmas. That yarn has been sitting on the server in the dining room all this time, reminding me to finish Jim's sweater. 

Speaking of Tucker, here is another photo he sent to us. He described it as a photo from Paradise!

Yesterday at school was a very special day. Our whole student body and most of the staff boarded 15 buses shortly after our school day began and we went to the Greece Athena Theater to see a mini-production of The Wizard of Oz, as put on by the middle schoolers. The production included about 200 students with flying witches (good and bad), flying crows, flying jitterbugs and flying monkeys! Our students were enthralled! I was sitting with some first graders, and they were all on the edges of their seats! It was a magical time as many of our students have very little experience with live theater. This is the second year in a row that we have taken the whole school  to this middle school musical~last year we saw Peter Pan. I hope it continues to be an annual event because it has so much value, in so many ways.

At our school we have many students with attendance issues. Lots of children never come to school on time and our absentee list is always at least 2 pages long. On the day we went to see the Wizard, not one child was late and only 20 children were absent! 

Time to knit.

Hope all is well. 

Weekend Update

Sunday night and time to check in . There are a couple of things to report that are not related to our recent Canadian trip.

Tucker sent us an e-mail with this photo of his most recent catch. It is a dorado fish, you might know it as a Mahi-mahi. He says that he and his buddy had to have a party to help eat up some of their abundance of fish. He is still doing well, but must be counting down his days in Mexico, until he heads back to Utah. It certainly sounds like it has been a great experience for him.

Corey finally got to a doctor, instead of being treated by the training room staff and was diagnosed with mono. This is a good news/bad news thing. The bad news is that he has mono. The good news is that he now knows his sickness is not just all in his head and he can do what he needs to do to get better. He has taken a few days off from running and is looking forward to getting back to feeling like himself. Did you know that once you have mono, you cannot get it again? I didn't, but learned that through Jim's research.

Last night we went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour with Bob and Sally. This touring film presentation was held at RIT and we saw about 7 short films that have to do with the great outdoors. Some were thought-provoking, others were heart-warming, and others had us on the edge of our seats as we watched daredevils jump, ski, and bike. It was a great show. We attended this show when it was last in town 2 years ago. Hopefully, Rochester will be on the tour schedule again next year. 

Today we went to Syracuse to see the basketball game against Villanova. It was a good game, but SU lost by 3 points, inspite of a couple of 3-point attempts in the closing seconds. SU came back from at least 10 points down to make it a game, but we would have liked a win!
After the game we went back to Corey's apartment for dinner. I brought some homemade chili and a carrot cake and we had a good meal. We got home around 7:15 PM and now have to start thinking about going back to school tomorrow!

Hope all is well.

Ice Hotel Photos

Grab your coat and hat and take a look at the photos from our trip to the Ice Hotel in Quebec. If you want more narrative, check out the Tuesday, February 17th entry.

View of the Ice Hotel from the Pavillion Talik, where we checked in, stored our stuff, got warm, etc.

Entry to Ice Hotel, where we joined a general tour of the Hotel. The hotel is a tourist attraction and visitors wander around until about 8 PM when the Hotel is then open only to overnight guests.

Jim and Marji at the "Reception Desk."

This chandelier hung from the ceiling at one of the main hallway intersections in the hotel. The LED lights rotated through a color spectrum. 

Jim and Marji at hotel entrance.

Jim at the top of the 10 foot ice slide, that took sliders down through the ice cafe and back into the main hallway.

Here he comes around the first turn!

Sally and Jim standing in front of the Ice Bar.

A flat screen TV showing a video on the construction process.

One of 3 hot tubs which are fired up once the tourists leave.

Jim and Marji in the chapel. There were 3 weddings here on Valentine's Weekend!

"Stained Glass" ice in one of the bedrooms.

Snow carving on one of the walls in one of the bedrooms.

More wall art!

As the sun was setting, we went back to the Pavilion for our "How to Sleep in the Ice Hotel" talk and demo. 

This woman talked about how to dress for sleep and how to use the sleeping bags that are provided. 

She showed us how to get into our sleeping bag liner, while standing on top of our bed,

And then how to zip up and cinch up the draw strings around the top so you look like a mummy!

We returned to the hotel and claimed our "theme" rooms. The theme was "hockey" and Bob and Sally's room was ringed with photos set in ice, embedded in the walls.

Our room was a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Pee-Wee Hockey in Ontario.

There was a snow sculpture of the date, 

 

And stadium seats made out of ice!

Back to the bar/disco, where the fireplace was hot and the disco lights were dancing.

The bartender mixed us some drinks in "glasses" made of ice!

Vodka Sunrises!

Drinks for all in a snow alcove!

After drinks, we wielded sharp objects and tried our hands at ice-carving! We successfully carved a football out of a rectangular piece of ice!

Bob, Jim and I then jumped into a hot tub to get warm to the core, before returning to our ice room.

Toasty warm, we returned to our Pee-Wee Hockey room, trophy included!

So, here is how one gets ready to sleep in the Ice Hotel. You sit on the bed and remove your boots.

You then do a winter strip tease, while standing on top of the bed!

Get rid of the socks you've worn all day and put on dry, wool ones.

Climb into the sleeping bag liner,

And then slip into the heavy-duty sleeping bag and zip it up.

And you are ready for a long winter's nap!

Some of us slept better than others, but we got up to a beautiful morning and were ready to try XC skiing 17 of the 70 km of trails in the area.

It was a wonderful adventure and we are all glad to have slept here.

Hope all is well.