Snow day(s)

We woke up yesterday to about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground, with the forecast of more to come. Much more, along with blustery winds. B'ville schools, along with most area school systems, called off school - probably more for what was expected than what we already had. After all, five inches of snow in central New York? What's the big deal?

It snowed quite steadily most of the day and with temperatures just above freezing, it was wet, heavy snow. Aidan and I went out after lunch to shovel and play. Okay, so I was the only one who shoveled.

Note: With our house in Georgia still not sold, we are renting a two bedroom end unit in an older house. There are three apartments in the house and while a plow service takes care of clearing our drive and parking area, we the residents are responsible for our walkways to the parking area and the sidewalk in front of the house. There is an unspoken agreement between us and the family on the other end of the house that we take turns clearing the entire sidewalk. The guy on the end often uses his little snowblower or their teenage son shovels, and then I shovel a lot, but the young woman in the middle must think that elves magically clear the sidewalk.

Aidan went to the backyard to play. The snow plow pushes all the snow to the back of the parking area, just into the yard, making a huge pile of snow. Aidan played with his snow/sand castle making forms:


When I finished shoveling, I made a small snow person to stand atop the snow hill:


Aidan came over to make the acquaintance of the snow person:


The rate of snowfall increased during the day. It snowed into the evening, and we woke up to another 12-15 inches of snow this morning. B'ville schools initially were going to delay opening by two hours, then later closed completely. The village street in front of our house was clear but driveways and parking lots were buried.

The mountain of snow at the back of our parking area grew even more after this morning's plowing:


Yes, that is Aidan atop our mini mountain. And the snow person from yesterday is nowhere to be seen...

They have sticks and they know how to use them

One of the reasons that we wanted to move back to a university town was to take advantage of the athletic and cultural events that universities offer. On Sunday, we went to our second Syracuse University sporting event when we watched the SU women's lacrosse team play Stanford University.

Neither James nor I know the first thing about lacrosse except that the object of the game is to put your team's ball into the other team's goal, and that a lacrosse stick is used to catch, carry, and pass the ball. I still don't know much about the game except that it is fast, and great fun to watch. The players were practically a blur as they ran full speed up and down the field, which is why I have no clear action shots of the game!

Here is the SU team just prior to the start of the game:


We were very pleased to see the Orange win:


Did I mention that this afternoon of great sporting spectating fun was free? Admission was free, even parking at the Carrier Dome was free. And you can't beat free with a stick, even a lacrosse stick.

Hot dogs and beer

We continued our eating and drinking exploration of central New York today. Our first stop was Heid's of Liverpool, a hot dog restaurant that has been in business since 1917. It is not much to look at:


The line was out the door but the wait was not long nor was it unpleasant to wait outside:

The man ahead of James in line was in town on business, from Phoenix, and had been told to go to Heid's for lunch. A woman ahead of him was sharing 2-for-1 coupons with anyone who wanted one.

At the first stop in line, we ordered beverages and sides. James and I had ginger beer - yum! - and we ordered french fries and onion rings. At the next stop, we picked up kosher dill pickles, received our fries and rings, and then ordered our dogs: dog with sauerkraut for James, plain dog for Aidan and a chili dog for me.

We found a table in the tiny eating area and soon discovered that one napkin apiece was not enough! We happily dripped kraut, chili, ketchup, relish (both sweet and dill) and mustard as we devoured our delicious grilled hot dogs.

From Heid's we drove into Syracuse to the Middle Ages Brewing Co. It is located in a non-descript industrial building and unfortunately they are not offering tours of the brewing operations right now. Something about renovation or construction and lots of mess. But we were happy to go into the tasting room to sample some of the brews on tap. While we sampled, Aidan met Bubbles and Lefty, two of the brewery's three cats. Bubbles was napping on a desk while Lefty was monitoring the fax machine.

James and I first sampled ImPaled Ale, which is an India Pale Ale. I am not usually that fond of IPAs but the ImPaled Ale has great depth of taste and is quite hoppy. Next I tasted the Syracuse Pale Ale, a yummy golden ale, and James tasted the Wailing Wench, a darker, hoppy ale. My last sample was the Winter Wheat, a hearty wheat beer - oh so delicious - while James had Wizard's Winter Ale. We left with a mixed six pack of brews and two logo beer glasses.

Hot dogs and beer - although we didn't consume them together, it was a great combination for a fun and tasty afternoon!

Let the knitting begin

Once again, I am participating in the Ravelympics and, once again, I am participating on Team Motherhood Later. Just what is the Ravelympics? You can read my post from August 2008 to find out, or you can just assume that it has something to do with knitting (and crocheting) during the Olympics, which it is.

I am participating in two events, the Single Skein Speed Skate and the Hat Halfpipe. I cast on the neck cozy for the Single Skein Speed Skate during the Opening Ceremonies and here is my progress so far:





The Koigu KPPPM is gorgeous, both in color and feel.

I cast on the Stella beret for the Hat Halfpipe on Saturday and I am almost done with the ribbing:



The King George yarn is a delectable blend of 45% baby alpaca, 45% Merino and 10% Cashmere.

So as I watch all things Olympic, which I love to do, I am happily and busily knitting on my Ravelympics' projects. And both projects are not so difficult that I make mistakes during very exciting moments, like the men's snowboardcross final last night - what a finish!

Pratfalls and Pratt's Falls

The day started with the best of intentions: we would drive down to Highland Forest and try some cross-country skiing. We donned our winter outdoor gear, packed some snacks and water bottles, and headed out around noon.

Our first blunder is that we completely forgot that the Syracuse University men's basketball team was playing at home at 1 pm. One moment we were zipping down I-690 towards the 'Cuse; next moment, we are stopped in traffic. James chose to exit early and we wound our way through the city but around campus to avoid game traffic, then got on I-81 south of campus.

Note: The Orange lost for only the second time this season, this time to Louisville. The final score was 66-60. Rats.

We exited I-81 at Tully, and Aidan announced that his head hurt and he needed to go the bathroom. No, he could not wait until we got to the park, it was an emergency. We pulled into a gas station at the bottom of the ramp, and James and Aidan got out of the car...but just before he got out, James reached for his wallet. Which wasn't in the center console, where he keeps it. He said a few choice words, then took Aidan into the gas station. And then I realized that I had also not brought my wallet. More choice words.

With no cash or credit cards (insert big ol' DUH right here), we could not rent the skis to go cross-country skiing so there was no point in driving out to Highland Forest. Instead, James suggested that we drive over to Pratt's Falls and hike. Okay, good alternate plan. Except that Aidan said that his head still hurt and could we please roll down his window a bit?


We arrived at Pratt's Falls to find the park closed and the gate down. But cars were parked around the entrance so we decided to do the same. We opened all the doors to get out...when Aidan threw up. Did he throw up outside of the car? Oh, no, he threw up INSIDE the car. Ick. We pulled out the offended floor mat, cleaned it with snow as best we could and had Aidan rinse out his mouth. He said he felt better, so we took a short walk around the park.

We opted to take a different route home, just for a change of pace. Aidan was doing better, or so we thought...just outside of Camillus, he said he was feeling sick again. We got into town, James pulled over and opened his door, and Aidan threw up again. Again in the car, although this time down his front and onto the other floor mat. Ick.

By this time, we were all giddy with the smell of vomit in the car. Despite temperatures in the high 20s, we drove the rest of the way home with all four windows open. We hustled Aidan into the house, got his mouth cleaned out and teeth brushed, and put him to bed. It remains to be seen if he has some kind of bug or just got one of his car headaches.

Someday we will look back on this day and laugh. Oh, heck, one more glass of wine and we will laugh anyway.

Mercy!

Today I had the pleasure of reading to Aidan's class at school as part of the Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) program. During the past three weeks, parents (and other reading partners) were invited to be guest readers.

I read Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig by Kate Dicamillo. I had never made the acquaintance of a Mercy Watson book until Aidan brought one home several weeks ago from his school library, but now I am hooked. Mercy, who is a porcine wonder, lives with Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson, next door to sisters Eugenia and Baby Lincoln. Mercy gets into all sorts of adventures with the Watsons and the Lincolns, and likes nothing better than toast with a great deal of butter on it. The books are entertaining to children, as evidenced by the laughter during today's reading, but are also fun for adults, too. Very simply, they are well-written books.

I think that one of the bonuses of being a parent is getting to read excellent children's books like those about Mercy Watson. When we go to the B'ville library next week, Aidan and I will definitely look to borrow another Mercy Watson book. And whenever we fix toast in our house, we now prepare it with a great deal of butter on it!

Good sports

It was a sports filled weekend at our house this past weekend. On Saturday, we went downtown to the Oncenter for the New York Special Olympics Winter Games. I was registered as a volunteer, and Aidan and James went along to be spectators. There were so many volunteers that my assigned job was to also be a spectator! We watched some figure skating and speed skating, but especially enjoyed the floor hockey matches. You can read more about the event over at syracuse.com.

We went over to Empire Brewing Co. in Armory Square for a late lunch. Although our waitress was quite enthusiastic about a beer brewed from/with Concord grapes, we were not not that thrilled with the samples. James chose the India Pale Ale, I chose the Downtown Brown - yum! - and Aidan went with milk, neat. The burgers were quite tasty, too.

On Sunday, we went to our new favorite park, Beaver Lake Nature Center, for a snowshoe hike. Since there was so little snow on the ground, we were outfitted with different snowshoes than we had used on our first hike.

Note: Did you pay attention to what I just wrote? "Since there was so little snow on the ground..." Yes, you read it correctly! There really isn't that much snow on the ground here in the greater Syracuse area, compared to usual and certainly not compared with, say, Washington DC!

Anyway, back to my story. The snowshoes we used on Sunday were smaller and had teeth on the bottom to grip the hard, packed snow. Aidan managed much better with these snowshoes, and took off running:


Of course, it wasn't long before he needed a rest:


James stayed warm with the new hat that I knit for him:


We snowshoed for 2.3 miles, then walked for another half mile. By then, we had more than earned all the junk food we ate later while watching the Super Bowl!