The Scariest Time of the Year!

Last year I posted pictures of Daniel and Meghan's pumpkins and thought I'd post a few pictures of some great pumpkin carving ideas that were shared in an email that my friend Mary sent my way. (Thanks Mary!!)

I thought it would be fun for Daniel and Meghan since I'm rather certain that they are scurrying around today getting ready for their first Halloween party. They have been preparing for weeks, building a fire pit in the back yard and engaging the talents of a friend to build them benches that can be used for the party-goers to sit on while they sit around the fire and hear ghost-stories. (Fire keeps the snakes away right Dan?)

We're hoping to get some great pictures from them once the evening is over -- we're just hoping they aren't getting the rain in Georgia that we're getting in New York!

Here are a few of my favorite carved pumpkin pictures ...











Happy Haunting!

An Evening with the RPO

Dave and I had a wonderful evening last night -- we attended one of the first concerts of the new Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra season under the direction of our long-time favorite conductor, Jeff Tyzik.

The concert took place in the Ingles Auditorium on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology where I work. It's a small, intimate venue that has stadium seating and a small stage. Dave and I were delighted to be able to have front row seats, with a fantastic view of everything happening on stage.

The orchestra performed masterpieces of early American jazz, with selections by Gershwin, Scott Joplin, and probably our favorite, a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton.

While each and every piece was spectacular, Tyzik had arranged three selections based on old tape recordings of live performances of Jelly Roll Morton's works. He brought out a trio to center stage which included principal clarinet Ken Grant, principal trumpet Doug Prosser, and principal trombone Mark Kellogg. The performance they put on was one we wish we could witness over and over again. Each of these very talented men performed solo pieces that highlighted their incredible talents and I can only assume paid incredible tribute to Jelly Roll's works.

I have to admit I was just pulled in by Ken Grant's obvious love of the music and his total immersion in the pieces he performed. He put his whole body and soul into each note. He is quite a showman!

Another highlight of the evening was a timpani performance by Charles Ross. You wouldn't think that timpani would lend itself to jazz improv but this guy was a master. I know this was probably Dave's favorite part of the concert. He was just awed by the talent. We also enjoyed the guitar accompliment by Bob Sneider -- who added some laughter to the evening when he accidentally flung his guitar pick underneath the timpani. His bald head turned bright red and Tyzik couldn't help but laugh and joke with him that they were trying to put on a serious performance. It was another fun moment of the evening.

We loved the coziness of the venue, the fact that we were close enough to the stage and orchestra to take in conversations of the orchestra members, and that Jeff Tyzik took time to field questions from audience members and create such a warm and inviting atmosphere. We were taken in by his obvious respect and admiration for the incredible talent of his orchestra members and that we were able to hear his private comments to his principals after their solo performances, such as, "That was so AWESOME!" after Charles Ross's timpani performance.

We totally enjoyed our evening and are really looking forward to attending more RPO concerts during the upcoming season!

Our Big Decision ...

We've debated about whether to get a little brother or sister for Rascal off and on for the past couple of years. It's pretty obvious that we have enjoyed Rascal immensely and we love the thought of having another one to love to pieces. And of course, this would end the squabbling about who gets to cuddle with Rascal every night -- this way we could each have one (and of course swap back and forth so we each get equal time!)

So we've sent off emails every now and then to the breeder to see if they were expecting a litter and generally we either don't hear back from her or the answer is "nothing at the moment." So that has made our decision making relatively easy.

Well, a couple weeks ago I sent off another such note to Kyla, the breeder, and didn't hear anything so I assumed there weren't any puppies in our future. But lo and behold, I checked my email this morning and there was a note from Kyla. Rascal's parents are expecting a litter towards the end of November!

So now we are faced with the big decision. It's put up or shut up time. We are of course nervous about how Rascal will react to a puppy in the house. He is typically scared of other dogs and we are a little concerned that a puppy would put him over the edge. But at the same time, we think if Rascal were given the chance to warm up to the puppy, he'd grow to love it and he'd have a playmate and companion to keep him company when we aren't home.

Of course, there are other considerations as well. There is the added expense of another dog -- twice the vet bills, twice the grooming bills. But there is also twice the fun and twice the bundles of fluff and love!

We'll have to decide fairly soon, but Kyla says we have first dibs so if we decide to go for it, the next big decision will be -- should we get a boy or a girl?

So much to think about!

October Snow!!!

It's Friday the 13th ... and something kind of spooky happened today!


I can recall having a few snowflakes appear momentarily once or twice over the past several years while it was still only October. I can even remember having snow on Halloween once. But yesterday we had actually flurries (although they didn't seem to be sticking) and by this morning there was actually snow on the rooftops. Definitely not our normal October weather!

But I had no idea that just a few miles west of here, schools were closed and people were digging out from a record-breaking mid-October snowstorm that left the NYS Thruway closed for hours between Buffalo and Batavia! You can see the tractor trailers trucks and cars lined up (this went on for miles) as they waited for hours until the Thurway was reopened!



I snagged these pictures from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle website so I could record this event -- let's just hope this isn't the start of another one of those "summer into winter" seasons! Either way, Dave says the snowblower stays in the barn until November 1st!



Here's one more great photo for good measure ... Dan and Meghan will appreciate this one!

Life Without Internet and Email Access

Nothing is worse than spending your entire day off trying to figure out why your wireless internet connection just up and quits on you, leaving you stranded and feeling totally disconnected from the world. I still don't know what happened, but I know that Bree and Dave still had their connections so it was something that had to do with my wireless connection.

But, no surprise, my wonderful husband came to my rescue as soon as he arrived home! After deciding it was just a whole lot easier to hook me up via cable and skip the whole wireless thing he went to work figuring out how to get the cable from one room to the next and through the wooden back of my computer desk without totally dismantling the desk (it weighs a ton!) or drilling a hole through it. Happily I'm now back online. And once again, Dave is my hero.

I guess should have just quit trying right off the bat this morning and occupied myself with all the other projects I need to work on (like cleaning off my desktop!) but as Dave would say, I'm a bit tenacious when it comes to these things :)

I think somebody is going to get a nice breakfast tomorrow morning!

Testing my RSS Feeds

This is just one of those annoying tests so please ignore it. I'll delete the post some time soon. My Yahoo feeds just don't seem to be working so I'm trying to reset them and see how long it takes to get them to start showing that there is new content on the blog. Please bear with me!

Barbie

Back to Posting ...

Well, the planned takeover of the camera never really occured. I found the camera wasn't working properly and kind of gave up on it. Dave has a new camera but I really didn't know how to use it.

However, I recently signed up to take a photography course and plan to use Dave's cameras to learn with. So it looks like I might just start posting more again. I have a few things I've been wanting to blog about in the meantime so I'll keep busy with that in the meantime.