Climate Change

This has been the most mild winter I can remember and we have been loving it! I have been able to walk outside in the morning before going to work without worrying about ice, our NiMo bills have been less than $300 and Rob has only shoveled 3 times. However, I am worried about the plants that needed a dormancy period in order to bloom and the possibility of drought later in the year since there will be no spring melting.

Rob and I look forward to the emerging spring flowers....excited that spring is right around the corner. Except I noticed these in mid-February and earlier in the week I took this picture. In Upstate New York, February is not the month to be thinking about spring.

Thinking about babies....

The excitement around the birth of beautiful Jack has me thinking constantly about babies. (Don't worry...I am just being nostalgic.) I dragged out the photo albums and tried to recapture the experience of Ian as a newborn and growing up. Beautiful memories blend seamlessly with some wretched recollections and in the end I have this intelligent, considerate, enlightened adult. I guess kids don't need to have an impeccable, idyllic childhoods after all. However, I am going to visit him on Thursday to check on the progress..... Just dinner, I am not going to have any creepy moments like the mother in Love You Forever.

One of the many advantages to sending your child to college is missing their presence. While phone calls are rare, we do keep in touch through texting. This is how I find out that he is turning his room into a living room and moving his bed in with Irish Mike and Nihaal, using the campus computer labs since he is having his motherboard replaced again, the SI Swim Suit issue arrived and he is loving this semester. Why? His brilliant mind and "I don't want to be a lawyer" arguing skills are activated during Intro to Asian Religions and Political Theory and Cinema.....I can't wait for the conversations around the dinner table when he is home again. This ought to be interesting.

Diversity is a good thing....

Martin Luther King Weekend

This year, rather than stay in a hotel equidistant between Hilary and Rich, we decided on a dinner on Wellesley Rd. Hilary, Chuck, Nick and Joey came in on Friday night for the weekend and we had our first real snow and cold for the year. Although I had tons to do around the house to prepare, I was probably the only person in the county who was genuinely upset that JD had a snow day on Friday. (I don't mind missing work but Bruce Coville was coming after months of planning and preparing students and each snow day takes away from my Memorial Day weekend in Cape Cod days) Joey missed the hotel pool but had fun dragging Rob into the attic for XBox. Actually, Joey hoped that Saturday would be sunny so he could swim. Instead, Joey and I went for a walk to the park while the sports side of the family watched endless football games on TV. He was adamant that he needed to get across the monkey bars before he could climb on the opposite side of the playground but it took a LONG TIME in 10 degree weather before he finally made it.Before going inside, Joey checked out the pool. We enjoyed a simple dinner of Mom's Ragout, garlic bread and Clanny's Corn Casserole. Dessert was brownies and cookies from Harrison Bakery...always a treat. I did get a nice shot of the BOYS on the couch. Notice how many people can fit on the new couch. I bet if Garrett had been with us instead of Targeting, he might have fit too! Yeah...books! I went to Bruce Coville's house to get these autographed for Joey.

Traditions

Rob and I bought the tree at Luchsinger's farm in Tully....a tradition Ian and I started about 15 years ago. We spent about 5 minutes picking the tree (no pictures) and another 30 minutes hanging with the cows (lots of pictures). We have had an unusually warm and snowless winter as evidenced by the still green landscape. Rob and I lived with the plain tree for a few weeks until Ian came home from Cornell and we set aside an afternoon for the family tradition...decorating while watching Christmas Vacation. I still laugh pathetically seconds before every funny scene in that movie.

Santa came right on schedule and we enjoyed opening our gifts from each other and a breakfast of french toast and bacon on the Christmas Eve plates and drinking juice from our Santa mugs.