Wine tour

Yep, that's right. We went on a wine tour. Friends invited us to go as the designated drivers -- and offered to pay for our tickets, let us drive their minivan, and give us an extra $50 to put up with them -- so we agreed. It turned out to be so much fun! I know most people don't think of 'wine country' and 'upstate New York' as the same thing, but there are tons of wineries around. We drive past them all the time, but never stop - so we thought it would be a great way to see some wineries and more of this beautiful part of the country we've called home for the past 3 years.

We hit 16 wineries in 9 hours. Wow. At each winery, you got a taste of a prepared food, paired with some feature wines (we had grape juice, water and lemonade instead). Each food featured a particular herb - and you got a recipe of the food, plus an herb to take home and plant. So, for example, we had this very tasty bruschetta at one of the wineries - and then got a tomato plant to take home. At another one, they had this divine jalapeno bread, and then gave you a jalapeno plant. Most of the places also had cheese and crackers for tasting. A couple of them had fudge (yum!) Some had salsa, jams, and assorted dips. You get the idea...

This picture says upstate New York... there's thousands of barns like this one; they're everywhere.

Our first winery - Scott & Krista, Jessica, Pat & Carissa, me & Cory

Most of the wineries are situated very close to Cayuga Lake, making for a very nice view.

The weather was gorgeous - highs in the 80's and very sunny. Sooo nice!!

Cory and I bought what we're jokingly calling 'Mormon wine'. It's grape juice, made locally at one of the wineries. It was very tasty - and pure. It's not made from concentrate, no high fructose corn syrup - nothing but smooshed grapes.

Just the girls, at our last winery

Me holding all the plants we got. 16 of them. Now we need to go buy some planter boxes.

Off the top of my head, we got: oregano, dill, rosemary, pumpkin, tomato, purple pepper, jalepeno, thyme, sage... and a bunch more. We're going to have our own little herb garden, and I am quite excited about it. We got to see some beautiful wineries, got sunburned, made stronger friendships, and overall had a great time!

The Big Apple

We took another weekend trip downstate. Cory went to a seminar on Chiropractic and Pediatrics, held down in New Jersey. Lucky for us, the location of the seminar was only a 20 minute drive from our friends house. A BIG thanks to Brett and Erin for letting us crash at their house, entertaining us, and saving us a lot of money that would have been spent on hotels and food. Game night was awesome, and I can't believe I forgot to take a picture!

While we were in Jersey, we thought we'd spend a day in NYC. It was our 5th time visiting the city, but we still found lots to do.

We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and it was pretty! I love spring.


We also went to the Met (short for Metropolitan Museum of Art). Yep, it was huge. And awesome. They had so many things to see!

They had 13 original Van Gogh paintings - the one in the center is one of the self-portraits he did.

Mmmm, hot dogs on the street!

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station

We capped off our long day in the city by doing a session at the temple. As you can see in the pictures, it's not a "typical" temple - no gardens, no parking, nothing like that. It's on a busy street corner of Manhattan. What was amazing was that once you were inside, it felt like a temple. All noises and the craziness that is NYC faded, leaving peace and quiet. It was a nice way to end our day in the city.

It was one great weekend, and I'm sad I didn't take pictures with Erin & Brett. We had a fabulous time staying with them, and were sad to go! We wished we lived closer so we could hang out more often. 5 hours is a bit too long to make frequent visits... but we had a great time while there!!

My brakcet: an update

March Madness is officially history. I officially didn't do too poorly in my bracket choices... though I did not win, which makes me annoyed. In our little bracket competition of 14 people, I placed 3rd. Cory placed a very respectable 4th place. We both beat Brett, which was really all that we were going for... (love you Brett!)

And now, for some things we've learned from this year's competition:
1. Utah teams suck in the first round. Of the 3 Utah schools to make it into the Big Dance, only Utah State got close to winning. BYU and the U were embarrassments. Next year, I am NOT putting BYU to advance, and probably not Utah, either (though we'll see how their seasons go...)
2. Sentimentality has no place in the competition. I totally thought 'Nova was going to beat Duke... and yet since I like Duke so much, I picked them over 'Nova. Stupid, stupid. I also told anyone who would listen to me that Arizona would upset the Utes, and yet I had the Utes to advance. Next year, it's all business.
3. Memphis is overrated. Seriously.
4. So is Oklahoma. Assuming Blake Griffin goes pro, they won't even have a team.
5. North Carolina deserved to win. Aaah, it pains me to say this, since to cheer on North Carolina is to cheer on the enemy. I thought they would win it all this year, though I picked Louisville to beat them in the championship (again, with the stupid feelings clouding my judgement). I'm actually happy they won, since I believe they had the best team this year - and the best team deserves to win.
6. Big East teams are pretty good, even if they didn't make it into the championship game.
7. Do your research. Cory got UConn and Pitt confused... and put Pitt to win it all. He meant to put UConn. Not that it matters now, since they both got beat...

As always, it was fun to make picks and cheer on my teams. It was fun to write all over my bracket (which I crumpled up and threw away after Louisville lost...) I'm proud to get 3rd, though next year I intend to take 1st. The gauntlet has been thrown. In the meantime, I have nothing to watch on Saturday afternoons, and may need to take up a new hobby :)

Glass museum

When Cory was in the lower tri's, surviving week-to-week, students in the upper tri's would always tell us that "it gets better" and that we would have lots more "free time" when he reached the upper tri's. Well, he's now 2 weeks shy of the end of 9th, and entering his final trimester. Things are better... mostly. Alas, he doesn't really have the promised free time. Instead of studying non-stop, taking anywhere from 3-10 tests per week, he's now spending all his time treating patients. Case in point -- on Wednesday he had a rotation at one of the VA (Veterans Affairs) hospitals. He left home at 7am. He got home at 10pm. He had a 13-hour day at the hospital, plus 2 hours of travel time. The experiences the school provides to the students are great... just time-consuming. So, while we don't have much free time, and I still get to see him less than I would like, it's been wonderful to watch him transition from 'student' to 'doctor.' He's growing into his own and preparing to support our family -- and I support him 100% in that. We do what we can, and catch time together whenever his schedule allows.

Yesterday was such a day. We took the day off and drove down to Corning, an 1 1/2 south of us, to see the Corning Museum of Glass. It was pretty cool. I had no idea glass was so complex!

We watched a guy blow a glass bowl, start to finish, and it was so neat to see the process:

We also watched a guy work some glass rods (in the left hand corner of the picture) into an eagle, using just a blowtorch. Wow. In the forefront of the pic, you can see some of the other whimsical creatures he's made. Impressive.

They also had an extensive museum, filled with glass everything -- from glass viles that date to the Roman Empire, to modern-day pieces (like this glass table). It was really something to see!

It was a cool place to visit, and a wonderful way to spend time together!

Confessions of a college-hoops crazed fan

March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the "official" beginning to spring, the sun is starting to shine with greater frequency, and the best of college hoops is on glorious display. It's such a great time of the year!

One of my favorite annual traditions is making my March Madness picks. This takes me many tries to get it just how I want it. I print out like 5 brackets, fill one out ... think about it ... crumple it up and throw it away ... and repeat the same process. I read any and all online advice, from college hoops experts to 'bracketologists'. Once I get my bracket how I want it, I cling diligently to it, and cheer with gusto the teams I've picked to advance. I carry it around with me for the entire tournament. When my teams win, I happily circle or highlight them (and tell everyone within earshot how smart I am) and when they lose, I angrily 'x' them out (and get sulky).

I watch as many games as possible. I watch them on TV; I watch them online, streaming live. When not watching, I check the scores online, and refresh the page about a thousand times so I am updated with the latest information. As soon as the game is final, I whip out my bracket and circle or 'x' them. By the end of the tournament, my bracket has been folded, crumpled, scribbled upon, stained with food and generally battered (and occasionally cried on).

Since it's so abused, why fill out a bracket? Something magical happens when you have a bracket and you're cheering on a team with all your might. There's always one team that no one saw coming that swoops in and destroys your bracket. The surprise, the riveting games, the buzzer-beater shots, the agony of defeat and the thrill of advancing ... that's what March Madness is all about ... and I love every minute of it. Bring on the madness!!

The proof is in the pudding

As many of you know, I work in the Office of Institutional Quality and Assessment, at NYCC (the school Cory attends). A few months ago, we got a new boss. As a getting-to-know-you exercise, he thought it would be fun for everyone in our division to complete an online questionnaire, called a DiSC profile. It's based on the Meyer-Briggs personality test, and you're supposed to answer the questions to describe your work persona. When you're done, they label you as a D (dominance), I (inquisitive), S (steadiness) or C (conscientious).

Anyone want to guess what I am?

Apparently, I am an 'S'. Coming in a very close 2nd place was D. Coming in at a not-so-distant 3rd was I. And coming in at the very bottom (meaning apparently I have none) was C.

Yep, I am an achiever. This really didn't come as any surprise.

The profile they give you also comes with some adjectives that supposedly describe you. Some of mine are: adventuresome, decisive, competitive, inquisitive, charming, confident, amiable, convincing, serene, possessive, self-assured, generous, defiant, obstinate, sarcastic.

*Sigh* It's pretty spot-on. At least I've got some positive traits in that list. When I told my mom that it had labeled me as competitive and obstinate, she just laughed. Sad... but true.

Deluged

Well, it seems as if I got my wish... sort of. Our temps are at least out of the single digits, which is a definite improvement. We got a few days of temps in the 50's, but we got almost 2 inches of rain. Consequently, this is what our yard looks like:

Alas, we're in for more snow. Spring is not quite here yet... but at least it's not 5 degrees. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

Having nothing to do with the weather... I read a great book over the weekend. It's called The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester. Really, it's quite excellent. I would recommend you go out and get your hands on a copy. The storyline is great, very imaginative, and keeps you reading 'til the very end.

School work is ever on-going for Cory. There are 4 national tests that you have to pass in order to be licensed as a chiropractor. Cory has part 3 this weekend, so everyone keep your fingers crossed for him :)