I thought you might like this, Vanessa

There's 6 to 10 inches of snow forecast for Friday, so I was checking out the radar to see where the storm is now, but I found this interesting. I used to live smack in the center of Pennsylvania in none other than Centre County! I love how the ice/rain demarcations are highlighting the mountains. I do not know the meteorological elements producing this, but I'll ask the resident meteorologist tonight.

Get one on your lap, get one free!

We have a two for one sale going on lap tops.

9th Grade Success!

Rob has begun his successful career as a performer. In the spring musical, he is none other than........

Onlooker four!

Whoo Hoo! Go Rob!

Margaret Alfieri

I had lunch with Pam. Pam lives in the same city where my son attends school. It made me feel old because I met Pam during my first senior year in college. (It took me five years to graduate. I had a lot of parties to squeeze in.) How did I get old enough to visit my friend and tell her about my son in college and his friend who goes to our old college?

I took our picture, but it made me think of all the pictures we've taken over the years.


This picture was taken outside our dorm at a party in the spring of my graduation in 1985. Pam had to stay for one more semester and Margaret had decided not to come back. You can see the sense of impending change in the picture. No one wanted to stay forever, but there was also loss in leaving.

Here we are at my wedding in 1986.

The back of this picture said 1988 in Buffalo. I think it might have been Pam's wedding shower, but I can't remember. I suspect I was on a a whirlwind tour between moves or a summer visit. I think I lived in Maine at the time.

This picture was taken in Buffalo 1993 at Allison's baptism. Notice that Margaret is missing. She had moved, but we were all still in touch. I'd had one child, and Allison was Pam's first. Combined, we are up to five now.

In around 2003 I got the glasses I wear now, in this next picture. While there have been a few styles between the big red ones and today's, it was today's little glasses that prompted me to begin telling my children that when I'm old and they are thinking that it's time to put me in a home, please get me new glasses first. Today's glasses style are so small, I can't see as much as I could back when hideous big glasses were in style. I would tell the kids, "Before you put me in the home, get me big, luxurious glasses, like we wore in the nineties. I sure could see then. I never even had to turn my head. One glance of the eye and I could zoom right in on anything!"

It was a shocking realization of why old people wear old styles. They know something we don't know!

When my kids found this picture of me and Pam in our big red glasses a few years ago, they loved it! They thought everyone else was walking around in little square metal frames, while I wore big red plastic frames. They were shocked to see Pam in similar glasses. How could we all do that?

In our defense, we were just doing what everyone else did. I got the next picture to prove it:

Here we are in Pam's house as I insist, "We have to take it like the kids do, ourselves!" It looked so silly in the camera screen that we asked Allison, now a 10th grader, to take one of us just standing there. We looked more authentic in this one, though.

But now we don't know were Margaret is. So Margaret, someday you will google yourself and I want this to come up, so:

Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri, Margaret Alfieri

of Henrietta near Rochester, of Henrietta near Rochester, of Henrietta near Rochester, of Henrietta near Rochester, of Henrietta near Rochester, of Henrietta near Rochester

who went to Geneseo, who went to Geneseo, who went to Geneseo, who went to Geneseo, who went to Geneseo, who went to Geneseo

email me!

We need to take a picture.

Cute!

I can hear it now: "Cute? I'm not cute. This is my Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. This is serious business."

Mamaaaaaa.....Just killed a man.......

My son Rob's anxiety level has kicked up a notch. Tomorrow he faces the auditions for the school musical. As a high school freshman, he might be facing the most stressful event of his life. How did he deal with it?

By singing Queen all morning. I drank my coffee wondering, Is this my real life?

He's a pretty good singer, though, so I encouraged him to have faith that life had just begun. Don't throw it all away by not auditioning, just to avoid some stress. (He's tempted.) I guess that was the wrong thing to say. He said, "If I'm not back again this time tomorrow-Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters."

Then I got some pictures in my email. This is my brother with his band, Blues Mission. They live in Phoenix. I can't wait to show Rob. My brother Steve is the one in the green Hawaiian shirt.



Funny these should come today, huh? I don't see my brother much, since we've always lived so far apart. My perception of his present self is far more colored by my memories of him as an angst teenager than by any information I have of him as an adult. I am smart enough to know that the person he is today is probably a far cry from his high school self, created by his varied life experiences, challenges, and successes. I just don't know that much about those experiences.

Tonight I'll remind Rob, "You're not just a poor boy from a poor family. You come from talent!"

Rob will tell me I don't understand, that "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me-"

And tomorrow, he'll face off with him. I'm putting my money on Rob.

And if he doesn't get a part? By Monday he'll be happily singing, "Any way the wind blows...."

We'll be awhile before we know the real Rob. I'll wait for that knowledge in a joy-filled hope.

Raising the Environmental Bar

Mark installed a metal bar across our laundry room.

Now I can hang my hand laundry to dry in the laundry room, instead of on the shower rod in the spare bathroom. The bar is also large and sturdy enough to hang a load from the machine to dry. I plan to try that. I will not bother to wash the small stuff with the intention of hanging to dry. I'll sort the small stuff and wash that all in one load once a week, but wash and hang the big stuff one load per day. We'll see how it goes.

Now my spare bathroom, known as "the pink bathroom" is due for its renovation. I tore down the wall paper already, oh, maybe three years a go. I hate to rush. That bathroom leaked water into the downstairs entry, so I need to recaulk and fix the grout. I'm going to reseal it all, too. Then I'll check for leaks, sand and paint, then think about ordering some cabinets and a new mirror/light fixture. I've painted every room in the house except the bathrooms and down stairs entry. I hope to do all three bathrooms over the winter. That should keep me out of trouble. If the pink bathroom passes its leak test of sustained bathroom use, then I'll fix the downstairs entry and paint it. That will mean I've repainted the entire house. What a job!