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.

Santa Comes to The Villages

Tonight Santa Claus made an unannounced visit to The Villages, where he delivered a new TV to Grandma and Grandpa. They seemed overwhelmed with this surprise gift and expressed appreciation to all their children and families. Santa got the TV all set up, including the closed captioning option and put the old TV into the storage area. You can see the new TV in the background.
In the foreground, it is apparent that the cat has remembered who Grandpa is!

All is well in The Villages.

Hope all is well with you.

Grandpa Home!

Four weeks and 4 days later, Grandpa is home from the hospital!!! Of course, getting discharged from the hospital is an all-day process, so I imagine both Grandpa and Grandma a pretty tired tonight. Here is Grandpa eating dinner at his table in his home!

It took over an hour to get all the discharge papers read, understood and signed.

But he made it home and can enjoy being home in his own chair with his cat by his side (once the cat remembers who he is!).

I had today off for Veteran's Day. I spent the morning writing comments for report cards and then putting the comments in the appropriate cards. I have now completed the whole report card task until next January! I had lunch with Pam at a BBQ place in Spencerport and it was very good. The name of the place is Taste of Texas and I will have to take Jim there for lunch or dinner in the near future.

Tonight, at 8:30, Jim and I were supposed to get our photo taken for the church directory, but the photographers were behind schedule and by 9 PM there was still one family ahead of us so we left. I will schedule for another time, a time when we can wait if we have to. We'd like to thank Pat and Ken, the photo hosts at church and good friends, who chatted with us while we waited!

Back to school tomorrow.

Hope all is well.

Highs to Lows to Highs

Grandpa Update: Yesterday was a bad day for Grandpa, resulting in him being transfered to the Emergency Department with symptoms of heart problems. After being stabilized, he was admitted to the hospital for further observation. Tonight Jim reports that Grandpa is 1000% better and is talking and eating. Apparently yesterday he was suffering from congestive heart failure and now that he has had some diuretics to remove the excess fluid from his body he is like a new man. He is thinking he might get to go home later this week. Never a dull moment! Stay tuned.

Jim and I had a fun weekend, until about 2 PM on Sunday when we saw Grandpa in a bad way. On Friday night Bob and Sally joined us as we went to the RIT hockey game and we saw another big win over Army.

Saturday morning we drove to Genesee Community College to watch the Cross-Country sectionals and the boys from Odyssey won the Class C title!!! They all ran so well! It was thrilling to see their success.


In the afternoon we raked leaves and got most of the yard cleaned up. While we were raking our neighbor's lawn service showed up to clean up his leaves! This was great because in all years prior, he has not done anything to pick up his leaves until Thanksgiving and by then a lot of his leaves have blown into our yard and we have raked them up. I can hardly wait to see him and thank him for having his service come in such a timely manner!

Saturday night we went to Sherri and Terry's for dinner along with Jean and Dave. Much to Jim's surprise the dinner was a celebration of his birthday and his bronze medal at the World Master's Track and Field Championships this summer! Sherri decorated the table in red, white and blue, with water bottles instead of water glasses and headbands for each of us. Jean put together a runner's treat basket including lots of foods that runners eat! Jim was very surprised and we enjoyed the festivities. We ended the evening playing Beatles Rock Band and had lots of laughs and fun.

The weather on Sunday morning was glorious so we decided to take the canoe to the canal and go for a boat ride. Jim just got roof top carriers for his Vibe so we are finally able to transport the canoe. It was a perfect morning on the canal and it made us realize that we've really missed canoeing. Bob and Sally, we're up for planning a canoe trip this summer, how about you?

Tucker and Corey were both camping this weekend, Tucker on Comb Ridge, Corey up by the water tower on South Campus! Here is a photo from Corey's night out. Those are the lights of Syracuse in the background!
Hope all is well.

Yankees are World Champs, Deal with it!

Congratulations to the NY Yankees as they won the World Series, beating the Philadelphia Phillies (sorry Mom!). I'm very tired today because I stayed up to see the end of the game and the post-game festivities. It was a great series with lots of good story lines.

Grandpa Update: Grandpa has been walking lots at physical therapy and the Physical Therapists think he is ready to go home. Now the medical staff has to come to that same conclusion so he can return to the Villages. There is talk that he may be able to go home as early as next week. Stay tuned!

Here are some photos that Tucker sent to us recently. Captions are under each photo.

This is the pumpkin patch where they went punkin' pickin'! Have you ever seen a more beautiful pumpkin patch!

This is the result of their hard work!

This is Allison and Tucker dressed up for the Halloween party. They went with a Grateful Dead theme. Allison is "Tangled Up In Blue" and Tucker is Casey Jones.

Sounds like he is having some fun.

Tomorrow night we are off to the RIT hockey game with Bob and Sally. And Saturday night we are having dinner at Sherri and Terry's house. Other than that I think we will rake some leaves and I will write report card comments.

Hope all is well.

This is It

If you have ever tapped your toe to a Michael Jackson song, or sung along with the Jackson Five, or tried to Moon Walk, you owe it to yourself to see This Is It, the movie made from the film shot during the rehearsals for Michal Jackson's London shows that never happened. We just got back from seeing it and if it weren't for the Yankees playing for the World Series title tonight, I'd have my Michael Jackson music playing.

The movie shows what Michael did best: sing and dance. For two hours, put aside any moral or ethical issues you may have with Michael Jackson, and sit back and enjoy this entertaining film. If you are curious how mega-shows like this come to be, you will enjoy the behind the scenes footage.

We loved the movie and would go to see it again!

Hope all is well.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I will write this in between the doorbell ringing! So far, in an hour and a half, we've had 16 kids and 2 adults :( come trick or treating. At this rate, Jim will have a lot of candy to eat!

Grandpa Update: Grandpa was having a good day today after having a not so good day yesterday. He hasn't been able to sleep and for a variety of reasons, he was given two pints of blood yesterday, which made him just feel awful. But now that his body has adjusted to the new blood he was feeling better and in much better spirits. Cousin Chris drove over from Buffalo for a visit with Grandpa which was wonderful. Jim was glad to be back in town so he could spend some time with his Dad.

Yesterday was an exciting day at school. It was the second and last day of the Fall Fun House, an event that my colleagues and I plan for our PE classes. The children love the fall-themed activities. Here are a couple of photos from the Fall Fun House.

The pumpkin target in the above photo was made by GrandDad many years ago and it is always a popular activity. The Jeter jersey is just a subtle show of support for my baseball team!

At school, some of the teachers get into the spirit of Halloween and go all out with their costumes. Here are a couple of my second grade teachers ridding the gym of ghosts!
Our school day ended with all 400 primary students parading around the neighborhood in their costumes. Earlier in the week some of the kindergarten classes distributed flyers in our neighborhood, inviting the people to come outside and watch the parade. Lots of people did just that and everyone had a good time.
Last night I went to the first RIT home hockey game. The RIT Tigers have had a tough time on the road so far this season, not winning one game. But they found their scoring mojo last night and beat UConn 6-2! It was fun to be back at Ritter Arena. I've added the rest of the home games to our iCal! Jim gave me a RIT hockey jersey for my birthday this past March and last night I wore it proudly for the first time.

My Christmas cactus loved living on the sun porch so much this past summer that it could not wait until Christmas to bloom! So I have a lovely Halloween cactus!

Jim did get home last night, well, really, early this morning (12:30 AM) and will now spend a few days adjusting to the time zone changes. He had a good trip to Finland, but is glad to be home.

I just had a former student come trick or treating at my door. She was so proud to tell me that she was on the high honor roll at middle school!

The Yankees game is on a rain delay, which means I won't get to watch as much of the game as I had hoped. Oh well, they can win without me!

Corey let us know that the SU XC team won the Big East meet today in Wisconsin. Only the top 7 runners made the trip so Corey and his buddies had to cheer from home. We wish the team continued success as they head to the regional meet.

Tucker travelled through all the snow that Colorado has received from Cortez to Boulder to spend the weekend with Allison. They were going to a Halloween party tonight.

Tomorrow I have to ring bells in church, so there will be no sleeping in for me. Jim is racing at Seneca Park, but his race doesn't start until 11 AM so he can have a leisurely start to his day.

Hope all is well.

Tidings on Tuesday

Grandpa Update: According to Grandma, Grandpa had a good day of physical therapy and wasn't as tired as yesterday. He also was a more upbeat.

I got this report from Grandma because I seem to have caught a cold and I did not want to share it with Grandma and Grandpa so I phoned Grandma to get the news. I also did not want to share my germs with Gram and GrandDad so I had to back out of their dinner invitation. I opened a can of chicken noodle soup and have been sitting around, sometimes knitting, sometimes napping. I plan on going to bed early tonight and hope to get a good night's sleep. Today there were 125 kids absent from school, so me having a cold is not a surprise.

Gram and GrandDad had a good trip to see Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Maryanne and Zach and got to see Zach play soccer. I asked Zach to send some action photos of him playing soccer and so Maryanne sent some that she had taken in games past. So, here is Zach on the soccer field.


Good Luck in the playoffs, Zach and keep us posted on the outcome of the games.

Jim is working hard in Finland and he reports that since the sun sets at 4:10 PM, he has no time outside in the daylight hours. Tomorrow is Jim's birthday! Happy Birthday, Jim! There are some cards here at home that came in the mail for you (at least I think they are cards, I did not open them!).

I guess that is all for tonight. I probably won't blog tomorrow night because I have bell rehearsal.

Hope all is well.

Sunday NIght Summary

It was a beautiful autumn day here in Western New York, with the leaves putting on a magnificent color show.

I went to church this morning with Grandma and the people around church were glad to see her and ask about Grandpa.

I decided to ride by bike to see Grandpa this afternoon and it was a delightful ride.

There was no bike rack, but a secure pole right by the front door served that purpose.

Grandpa was doing fine, but realizing that tomorrow the physical therapy starts and that will be hard work.

Yesterday when I was at a local yarn store, they were having a raffle and I got a call today saying that my name was drawn to win a door prize! I need to find time to go to the store in Brighton and collect my prize. When I asked about what the prize might be, I was told that there were bags of yarn or knitting bags from which to choose.

Jim sent a few photos from his visit to the Museum of Cultures in Helsinki. There is a small display of artifacts from the Mesa Verde area here in the USA. I believe it was a Swedish man that collected all the artifacts, causing quite a stir here in the USA. This guy took all the stuff to Sweden and then a Finnish man bought the collection and it is now housed in the Museum of Cultures. This removal of US history was one of the factors that led to the adoption of the federal Antiquities Act which prohibits the collection and removal of artifacts that pertain to US cultures. I'm sure Jim or Tucker will correct me if I have given incorrect info here, but I think I'm close.
So here is a photo from the Helsinki museum.

I have my Yankees cap ready for tonight's game. Unfortunately I may not be able to watch the whole game as tonight is a school night.

I am going to sew the shoulder seams in Tucker's sweater and then I have to decide whether to start the sleeves or the placket and collar.

Gram and GrandDad come back from seeing Jim, Maryanne and Zach this weekend. I look forward to hearing about their visit.

Hope all is well.

Saturday, Saturday

Grandpa Update: Yesterday Grandpa was moved from the hospital to the Transitional Care Center on the same campus as the hospital. Yesterday was a very tiring day for Grandpa, but today he seemed better. The nurses got him up for a short walk which is a step in the right direction. Grandpa has a roommate, Michael, but I don't know anything about him. There is a limit of a 14 day stay in this Transitional Care Unit, so Grandpa needs to work hard to become more independent in the next 2 weeks.

Dad left for Finland today and will be back in a week. The Helsinki forecast was for cold, rainy weather, a big difference from the sunny, warm weather we enjoyed when we were there in August. But he is going there to work, and probably will not have much time to see the sights. He is staying in the same Holiday Inn, by the train station, that we stayed in so I can picture exactly where he is!

Today I did a bunch of errands, worked in the yard a bit and visited Grandpa. Grandma and I made plans for me to have dinner with her at The Villages on Monday. Apple-crusted tilapia is one of the menu items that night~yummy!

Tonight I had planned on knitting and watching the Yankees game, but the game has been rained out. Plan B will have me knitting while watching college football. The Yankees will try to get their spot in the World Series tomorrow night!

Go Yankees! My Rally Cap is ready!

Hope all is well.

Thursday, the 22nd

Grandpa update: There are good days and less than good days. Grandpa seems to have come through his angiogram with no adverse side effects, which is good news. The bad news is that he has one artery with 100% blockage and 2 with 90 % blockage. The doctors at Unity hospital do not believe he is a candidate for bypass surgery, but the angiogram results are being sent to Grandpa's heart doctor at RGH. Yesterday Grandpa spent most of the day sitting up in a chair and the hospital staff was talking about him moving to the Transitional Care center adjoining the hospital. This would be a 2 week placement to regain his strength. However, today has not been a good day. He has spent most of the day sleeping. When I was there, he was in sitting in a chair and a physical therapist was trying to work with him, but he was not a happy camper. I didn't stay. Dad and I will go back tonight after dinner.

I had my follow-up visit to my orthopedic doctor to get the results of the MRI on my knee. Since I first hurt my knee a few weeks ago, it has gotten much better. Then I did a slight turn on my right leg and my knee "caught" again and was quite painful. After a few days that went away and it has felt OK since. The MRI showed a small tear in the meniscus. I told the doctor I really didn't want to do anything to repair the tear as long as my knee was feeling good. He did say that both arthritis and cartilage deterioration in my knees are probably contributing to the general stiffness and occasional pain in my knee(s). The doctor told me that when my knees get more uncomfortable there are things, like injections, that can be done. So I will keep doing what I've been doing, and resume doing some of the things that I stopped doing when I initially hurt my knee.

Tuesday night Dad and I went to GEVA to see a play called The Clean House. It got a so-so review in the newspaper, but we enjoyed it, not as much as the show we saw in September, but it was a nice evening of theater.

We've talked to both Tucker and Corey in the past day or so. Both are busy with their lives and doing well.

Hope all is well.

Sunday Summary

Last night I must have been more tired than I realized because after Jim got up at this morning at 6:30, I rolled over and slept until 8:40 !!! Unbelievable!

We were over at the hospital a couple of times today and Grandpa is getting ready for his angiogram tomorrow. Right now the thinking is that he will have this procedure around noon. Stay tuned for the results of that.

Grandma took Jeannie, Dad and me out to dinner at Davinci's to celebrate Jeannie's birthday, which is tomorrow. This is a rare treat to be able to celebrate her birthday with her in person! We had a nice dinner and all brought home enough leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.

So here are a couple more photos that I wanted to include with yesterday's post about the sheep and wool festival. I always have to have a photo of the alpaca's and llama's for Jim.

Here is the sweater I made to wear at the festival. Unfortunately, it was so cold that this sweater was the third layer of five that I had to wear to keep warm.

And here is a photo of my purchases.
And here is the long promised photo of the scarf I knit for the Red Scarf Project. For more info on that click here

I think my Christmas cactus is going to be a Halloween cactus. Its many pink blossoms are ready to burst! It must have loved living on the porch this summer.

I guess that's all for now.

Hope all is well.

Festival Review and Grandpa Update

Let's do the Grandpa update first. He moved out of ICU on Friday morning because he was making good progress. Later that day he regressed a bit, but today was a good day. He is on track to have an angiogram on Monday which will give the doctors a better understanding of the condition of his heart muscle. I took this photo when we went for a visit tonight.

And now a report from my trip to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. I drove to Jenny Lake on Friday afternoon and arrived as the last rays of daylight were fading. The lake was calm, reflecting the last colors of fall.
After a restless night of sleep in a cold camp, with 2 trips to the outhouse in the middle of the night, I got up just before 6, packed up and was heading towards Corinth by 6:40. Here was the skyline just before I left camp.
Two hours of driving east and south brought me to Rhinebeck and I spent the next 5 hours walking around, looking at the wide variety of things that were for sale, all related to sheep, wool and fiber. Here are a couple of photos from the festival.

Here is a photo of me knitting on what may become the world's largest sock. The women running this activity were not sure exactly how many stitches were on all these needles, but suffice it to say, lots!

I have a couple more photos that I wanted to include from the festival but Blogger is not cooperating with uploading them, so I will include them in a future post.

I was originally planning on going back to Jenny Lake tonight and then driving home on Sunday, but I was ready to leave the festival around 2 PM so I thought I would come straight home. If I went back to camp, I would have spent 4 or 5 hours just getting the camp warmed up, so I drove home, with one stop at a Thruway rest area, for a 15 minute rest. I got home about 6:40 PM and met Jim, Maw and Jeannie at the hospital.

Terry was in town for a couple of nights in the middle of this past week. It was good to see her and have her here as decisions were being made about Grandpa's treatment. She drove home on Friday, through some snow in Pennsylvania.

Corey ran at the University of Virginia on Friday and had a decent race. He and one of his teammates were flying separately from the rest of the team and ended up having to spend Thursday night in a hotel in NYC when their flights were changed. They got to Virginia with time to spare before the race started.

Tucker is having a housewarming BBQ party at his new house tonight. Maybe he will send a photo of the festivities.

Hope all is well.