Life in the Bristolwood

Last evening, the kids went to a concert down in Naples with the proceeds benefitting the family of their friend who was in a serious automobile accident a few weeks ago.  The young man involved in the accident showed up last night.  He is wearing a neck brace and his arm in in a cast as it was injured quite severely.  We are all just thankful he is okay!

As the kids were at their concert,  Mark, the Scotties, and I sat in the truck, watching a hockey game on the laptop. The game was very exciting,  as it was a preseason game against the Detroit Redwings.  Buffalo has been so hard pressed to defeat this team, but they did last night, taking the game 3:1!

Of course, Angus got bored after a bit since the laptop didn’t offer food or anything inviting for a Scottie! So, he decided to stand guard duty in case anyone might try to slip too close to the truck!

We parked in a space in front of the Naples Pharmacy and I decided to take a few photos.  I must digress just a bit and explain that I didn’t get out of the truck to take any photos, as I was suffering the results of a ridiculous headache I had awakened to yesterday morning.  I have never had a migraine, but every now and again,  I get a massive tension headache (in the back of the neck and spreading to the shoulders) that just refuses to leave.  Thus, I spent a good portion of yesterday lying on the bed.   The temperature was a tad chilly last night and I just didn’t have any ambition.  So, photos from the truck….

I noticed that St. Januarius Catholic Church already has a sign up for their annual yard sale during the Grape Festival.  The festival is next weekend.

This brought to my mind a news story I had read a couple of weeks ago. 

Naples is “on the  map”, if you will,  for two *famous* things.  Those two entities are the annual Naples Grape Festival and Widmer’s Winery.   Well, we have been informed that within the next eighteen months,  Widmer’s Wines will be moved away from Naples and relocated to Canandaigua. 

I cannot help but wonder what kind of impact this move will have on the tiny village of Naples.  I’m not certain of the statistics, but I would venture to guess that many of the 55 Windmer employees are from the area.  In reading through a history of Widmer’s, this winery has been in the Naples location for over a century, when Swiss born John Widmer established the venture in 1883.  The winery has survived some tough times, including America’s spell of prohibition.

 The town is assured that the move might be a positive one, as the Rochester Institute of Technology has shown an interest in the property.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  The Widmer property is a fairly large portion of Naples and has presented itself nicely over the years.   The distinct building sitting on a side road running parallel to Main Street has been an important part of the town for many, many years. 

Time alone will tell how this move will impact the lives of the people of such a small community…..

Saturday night, I went to bed late. Too late to get up yesterday at 5 am!  But, I did indeed get up and awakened the rest of the family as well.  After all,  we had planned a busy day!

We were off and out the door by eight, but our journey was drawing us about ninety miles from home.  We headed north, then due west.  The kids chattered in the backseat and we made good time,  reaching the parking lot in Buffalo at almost exactly ten-thirty.  We hustled inside and found our seats.

So….what was it we were attending?

Sabres training camp!

Don’t worry….I will only show a few of the many photos I took!

The next photo is of player Drew Stafford.  I really like Drew, although he needs more consistency in his play.  Shortly after taking this photo,  I looked at my Twitter account and found out he had just signed a new two year contract with the Sabres!

Terri,  if you are reading, the next photo is for you!  It is hometown boy, Tim Connolly!  Kind of a crummy photo, but, hey, it’s Timmy!

And my one action shot I will show is teammates trying to score on goaltender Ryan Miller.

We had a great time watching the team scrimmage.

When we left early in the morning,  we had to decide what to do with the little Scottie boys.  Mark wanted to take our two kennels (cages) with us,  but one is so cavernous, it takes up tons of space.   We decided to take the Scotties and one cage.  We parked in the parking lot specifically for HSBC Arena.  The truck has a cool feature in which the bottoms of the rear seats pull up to the back of the front seats, then the back of the seats drop down, forming a large flat surface in the rear seat.  This was perfect for the Scotties.  We kennelled Angus, as he is the more “vocal” of the two.  He tends to jump up on the seat and look out the window, while Murphy just curls into a ball and sleeps.

When I went out about midway of the practice,  sure enough…..Murphy was rolled in a ball, sleeping on a blanket.  Angus didn’t seem to mind the cage much and the two were quiet and calm.  They were such good boys!  The temperature in the parking garage never exceeded 65 degrees, so the Scotties were cool and it worked out perfectly!

As soon as the practice was over,  we hopped into the truck and headed off for lunch.  Everyone ate at Mighty Taco, excet me, as I was holding out for a Greek salad from John and Mary’s!  After Mighty Taco, we headed to Anderson’s Frozen Custard.  We bought a quart of Vanilla custard and split it.  Mmmmmmmmmm!

We made our way towards Darien Center so the kids could go to the amusement park for a couple of hours.  We stopped only to pick up my salad,  then went to the park.  The kids rode for a two hours, then we headed towards home.

We stopped in Geneseo for some grilled Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The kids were hungry after their rides, after all!  When finished (Ididn’t eat as I was still rather stuffed  from my salad!)  Mark and the kids shopped in Wal Mart for awhile. 

We got home again shortly after nine o’clock and as I began to enter this into my blog, I realized I was too exhausted to even hold my head up!

Ben best summed up yesterday, commenting,  “This was just an awesome day!”

Today seems like a blur that whizzed past so quickly!  We were so busy!

We needed to get a new set of tires but Mark just finished doing research on available models and made up his mind. We were all up early this morning, scurrying about getting various little jobs done.  While Mark worked on the tailgate of the truck,  I finished de-winterizing the camper.

Afterwards, we were on our way to the tire store for the new treads!  Mark and the kids wanted a sandwich from Wendy’s, so we pulled into the parking lot.  As we were sitting there,  I heard a firetruck coming our way.  I pulled out the wee Panasonic camera and positioned it to fire!  As the firetruck came within my sights,  I pressed the shutter button.  Oops!

Yes, look at that deputy looking right at the camera!  You can barely see the firetruck going down the road behind the police car, but *it* was in focus! 

I really liked the pretty flowers planted at the drive-through at Wendy’s….

We were off to the tire store after the brief stop for a bite to eat.  Even though it seemed like there were a lot of people there waiting for service,  our truck went in right away.  Within about forty-five minutes, we had the new tires mounted and ready to roll!  (Notice all the water on the truck….yes, we have had yet another day of rain!)

From Canandaigua, we drove on to Rochester to do some shopping.  As we drove on the highway, I made Mark speed it up a little so I could take a photo of the Rochester Amerks (Americans)  Hockey team truck! Very cool…I had never seen this before!

After a very *full* Friday, we were headed back towards home.  The sky was very beautiful with baby pastel colors washing across it…with lots of clouds and the setting sun peeking through here and there.

We just got home a short time ago to two very-happy-to-see-us Scotties!  I am so tired, I just want to flop into bed!

Tomorrow is a big day….America’s birthday!

Well, what else would you expect?  Sorry, but it seems like every time I see a Mallard Drake, it is as though I am seeing one for the first time! They are soooo beautiful!

Although today was a little slower paced than days past,  I found myself ready to fall into a heap this afternoon to fall asleep!  Yes, all of the busyness is beginning to catch up!

Today was pretty warm out and Ben and I ran up to Canandaigua this afternoon for Mark.  After errands,  I pulled into an ice cream stand that sells such wonderfully delicious frozen custard.  Thinking perhaps my boy would like a nice Chocolate Almond cone,  I was a little shocked when he chose Vanilla!  Egads, the kid is like ME!

We took our little dishes of the tasty dessert to the City Pier and sat,  watching the coots, ducks, and gulls playing in the water and entertaing any people who stopped by to watch.  In the photo below, I caught all three….coots, ducks, and gulls!!! Click twice to see the big picture and look at that (mouthy) seagull on the left.

The lake was a little less choppy today and the Buffleheads were closer to the pier than I had caught them before.  You can see in this photo that the Bufflehead is quite small in stature…the Coot might be bigger. 

This evening, Mark and I watched a Portland Pirates game as they are in the AHL (American Hockey League) playoffs this year.  They beat the Providence Bruins 3:0.  Portland’s goalie, Jhonas Enroth (from Sweden) was stellar in this evening’s game! 

We were really bummed by the fact that Buffalo didn’t make it into the playoffs this year.  Unfortunately, when the Sabres’s goalie, Ryan Miller, was run by Scott Gomez, he sustained a high ankle sprain that left him unable to play fourteen games.  It is nearly impossible for a backup goalie to come in so late in the season and maintain a winning status.  Thus, we suffered.  I might add that our “backup” (Mikael Tellqvist, also from Sweden)  goalie to the “backup”  (Patrick LaLime) played fantastically well his last two games, with Sabres wins.  I guess the bottom line is that Ryan Miller might still be recouperating from the injury and maybe it is better we didn’t make the playoffs…..after all, there is always next season, eh?

I have discovered that having two teens in the house makes for much busyness!  Seems like the kids have something up their sleeves much of the time.  So, last night’s agenda was to attend the Teen Skate once again.  The skate would have typically been scheduled for next Saturday night,  but because the Christian radio station (which is housed in the same building) is having a big “Sharathon”,  (to raise money to continue broadcasting….this is done every year in April and November)  the date had to be moved ahead one week.

While the family slept yesterday morning, I decided to sneak on down to the lake to see if there was anything worthy of photographing.  The problem (smacking my head!) was, I would have been trying to shoot directly into the bright eastern sun.  Instead of taking photos, I just watched people launching their fishing boats and the ducks swimming in the water.  The ducks were out so far, I had no idea what type they were.  With the sun directly on them, they were just “dark”  colored.  I don’t think they were Mallards, though, as they kept diving underwater.

I came home and took the little Panasonic camera for a little walk around the house and yard.  I really liked this photo of the sky reflecting off the ugly grey pool cover, complete with leaves….

I guess I was feeling rather “artsy”, as I also got a photo of some dead grasses on the hill behind the garage.

I had wanted to leave the house early to go shopping in an area not too far from the center where the kids were going.  Unfortunately, not everyone in the family was quick to leave!  We left quite a bit later than anticipated. I still brought both cameras along, but as time passed and we had to stop for this and that, it was obvious I was defeated! No interesting photos!

We went to Pizza Hut and got a special which was a large stuffed-crust pizza and a family-sized serving of lasagne.  Mark got the pizza with half “veggie-lovers” for Michelle and me and half “meat lovers” for Ben and himself.  I ate some pizza and was instantly “stuffed” myself!  So, we placed the lasagne in the back of the truck for later. (Mark took one piece of the veggie pizza that was left and realized HE liked the veggie side better!)

We dropped the kids off for the skate, then hurried on down the road to our “designated” parking place. There was another Sabres game on and we were excited to see this one.  The Sabres have been doing rather poorly the past few games.  With Scott Gomez running our goalie, Ryan Miller, Ryan missed 13 games with a sprained ankle.  Even though we have fabulous backup goalies, the team missed Miller and we went into a slump.  Ryan returned to mind the net on Friday and we won! 

The playoffs are coming right up and we are trying to claw our way back into postition to play.  We really need to win the last few games of our regular season to even hope for a playoff position.  Miller’s presence in net was vital! The fact that we were playing in Montreal was against us. Our record was 9 losses in the last 9 games played there.

While Mark set up the computer, I did a little test. I photographed McDonald’s, first with the Panasonic…..

Then the Nikon.

The Nikon won.

I just have to comment that sitting in a parking lot watching the Sabres game with a Scottie on each of our laps, with the windows down in March was just so totally surreal!!!

Mark got everything set up and we watched the game. The Sabres came out blazing and scored. They scored again!  A little later, Montreal scored.  And again. And again.

During the periods, there was an interview with Tim Connolly….

Tim is a fantastic played who has had so many injuries and physical problems! Last year, he missed out much of the year because of a concussion.  This year, we lost him to a broken rib that needed time to heal.  Now he is back and he is a force to be reckoned with by other teams!  The Sabres signed him on again last month to a two year contract. 

Of course, while the interview was on, McDonald’s called out to Mark and he had to make a slight side trip!

Lousy photo…taken through the windshield while Mark was moving forward. I am surprised it even turned out at all! You can see the windshield wiper at the bottom of the photo!

Oh,  Mark got a hot fudge sundae.

Time passed so quickly.  The game ended in a 3:3 tie.  So, the game went into overtime.  We had to pack up and couldn’t watch because it was now  time to pick the kids up at the center!  We came right home and got into the house just before 11.  I trudged up the stairs shortly thereafter, totally tired out!

Of course, I just *had* to see the score of the game before dropping off to slumberland!  We won! No one scored in the overtime, so the game had to go to a shootout.  Bottom line, Ryan Miller made six saves and our Finnish-born  defenseman Tony Lydman got the puck past Montreal goal tender, Carey Price, ending the game Sabres:4, Montreal:3.

Goooooooooooo, Sabres!!!!!

Last night, the kids had planned to go skating at the Christian center in Bath.  The weather has been so tremendously kind lately,  Mark and I figured it would be fun to take the kids, then park the truck and watch the Sabres game via our server (computer) from home.  Mark was enjoying the warmer weather so much, he wore a short-sleeved shirt, while I wore a shirt, along with a sweater.  NO winter coats!

We dropped the kids off right at seven, then headed towards town.  We hurried and grabbed some fast food, then settled down to watch the game. 

I was impressed at our location, as the nearest food at our home in the Bristolwood is quite some distance! As we looked out the driver’s side,  towards the front,  there was a huge travel trailer sales business located up on a high hill.

Directly to the front of the truck was a grocery store. (Boy, how convenient that would be near our house….seems we are always running out of something or other!)

Just a couple hundred feet outside my door was the familiar “Golden Arches”!

I must admit that the quality of these photos is horrible, but that is because I was too lazy to get outside the truck and take them. You can actually see the smears on the windows in some of the photos.  The good part of this is that during intermission between periods, Mark and I tried to clean the windows a little.  It was hard, though, as  1. it was rainy and very humid, and, 2. with two people and two Scotties inside,  we were only adding to the humidity from outside, making it virtually impossible to eliminate the moisture on the glass!

The game was already well into the first period when we tuned in,  but the score was tied at 1:1 at the period’s end.  Below is our backup goalie, Patrick LaLime.  He has been doing a rather impressive job the past few games, after our starting goalie, Ryan Miller, injured his ankle when a player mowed him over a few games ago.

I must admit,  my “chair” was so fantastically comfortable, I fell sound asleep during the game, awakening when Mark asked if I was going to REALLY watch the game?  Oops! Perhaps I *should* have stayed asleep, as we lost the game.  The final score was Ottawa, 6: Buffalo, 3.

The game ended just shortly before we needed to pick up the kids.  What fun this was! Sometimes being married to a ‘puter geek can be very entertaining!

For my dreadful headache!

At about five o’clock yesterday afternoon, I began to feel hungry.  Rightfully so, as I had not eaten all day, save a sliver of Michelle’s terrific cake.  At the same time, I also decided enough was enough with the lingering headache, so I was going to take some Ibuprophen. 

Ben has culinary skills that rival those of top chefs, I am so convinced! He has come up with the perfect omelette of spinach and feta cheese that would make any restaurant proud to serve!  I ate my omelette, along with a slice of whole wheat toast….it was so fantastic!

The Buffalo Sabres played last night against the New York Strangers  Rangers, and Buffalo was doing a terrific job! We were winning, when in the third period, one of their finest players slewfooted our goalie.  Our goalie, Ryan Miller,  has been showing up everywhere in ads and such, as he is such a terrific player.  There was no reason for this player to have taken Ryan out of the game. (slewfooting is when a player comes from the rear and rams his knee into the knee of the player in front, taking him down and possibly causing some serious damage)  Scott Gomez said he couldn’t stop in time, but everyone who has viewed the replays believes it was an intentional move on Gomez’s part.  Playoffs are important and Buffalo is struggling to move up in the standings, hoping to make it to the playoffs.  I was too tired to watch the game last night, but listened via radio.  When Mark showed me the play later, I felt sick to my stomach….

I went to bed feeling somewhat better, but still not “well”.  This morning, though, ahhhhh! What relief to have that headache gone!

Too bad I don’t have a picture of a beautiful red Cardinal to insert here for Valentine’s Day, but how about this adorable face?

I wondered about the Goldfinches….they are a kind of “olive drab” during the winter months, but bright yellow in the summer…So, when do they change color?  If you look at the little bird above, you can see the bright patch of yellow under the beak.  I have noticed bright yellow on the finches here and there.  I wonder if this is because their breeding season isn’t too far off?

I went wandering about in the woods a little to see what kind of damage might have resulted from the tremendous winds on Tuesday.  I was happy to see that the snow *finally* allowed me to show off the treads on my (not so) new boots!

Yes, I was waiting for the wet, sticky kind of snow so I could show the snowflakes on the bottom of my boots!

There are several trees down just in a small area I observed.  I wonder just how many more there are throughout our woods!  I did not photograph a large Basswood that broke open at its base…really weird….looks like it imploded! I dislike Basswood!

I feel so spoiled this Valentines Day!  Mark and the kids got me flowers…..

A cute Valentine balloon bouquet……

And, (so very dear to my heart!) TWO boxes of Walker’s Scottish Shortbread cookies!

We took our kids, along with two others, over to a small party in Penn Yan today.  Mark and I got to spend some time alone….gads, it was soooo incredibly quiet!  We drove around a bit and went to Geneva to look in a couple of stores.

Last night, Mark and I watched a Buffalo Sabres game on television.  The game was held in Buffalo, and the NHL (National Hockey League) offered to postpone the game in light of the tragic plane crash in Buffalo Tuesday night.  The management decided that perhaps the game would be good for the people, bringing them together in a spirit of unity.

Before the game began, there was a moment of silence in memory of those killed in the crash.  It sent goosebumps up and down my arms, seeing this huge arena, full of people, heads bowed in silence.  During the game,  short clips of the coach were shown with him speaking about the crash. It was obvious this was a very difficult subject for him. Several of the players on the Sabres team live within minutes of where the accident occurred.

The game went on with Buffalo in the lead against the leading team in the western conference.  As time passed, the San Jose Sharks tied the game, then scored another goal,  leading the game 5-4.  As the closing minutes of the game wound down, it looked for all intents and purposes, like the Sharks were going to win the game.  With 3.9 seconds on the clock, Buffalo scored, tying the game as it came to a close!  You have never seen such a standing ovation! Fans screamed and cheered for what seemed like forever!

The game went into a fourth period, which is played 4 on 4, for five minutes. Neither team scored, so it was time for a shootout.  After several players went out, individually, to try to score on each goalie, the Sabres wound up victorious!! It was a very tense and nerve-wracking game, but the fans were nearly ecstatic! I do think that the game did unify the people in Buffalo for a time, and gave them something good to enjoy.

My heart and prayers go out for the families and friends of those on Flight 3407….

Believe it or not, we are almost entirely without any snow! It never reached the predicted high here today, but it was warm, and as the rain came in,  the snow just melted away.  The lawn looks pathetic….it is so matted with leaves, sunflower seed husks,  and dead grass.  It seems pretty unusual to see grass in February, though! I took a photo from the bedroom window this afternoon with the little Panasonic camera that has such a wide angle view….

Just last week,  there was about a foot of snow on the ground there! Wow!  Our warm weather will soon disappear.  Tomorrow,  the temperature is supposed to drop throughout the day and be accompanied by some high winds. 

After taking the photo outside the window,  I saw the puck we got at last night’s Portland Pirates game.  I forgot to tell about the great deal that really helped us decide to attend this game.

If fans purchased a 4-pack of tickets for $79.50, they also received a puck signed by Nathan Gerbe or Tim Kennedy,  a bucket of popcorn,  4 sodas, and 4 hotdogs!  The seating was in a great section for seeing the game, so we decided it would be a worthwhile trip!

As we went to pick up a puck, Mark asked which one we should get. I told him Nathan Gerbe, of course!  Well, just a bit ago, I was reading the Buffalo Sabres website, and I nearly jumped for joy when I read that Nathan has been called up from the Pirates to play with the Sabres tonight!  Goooooooooooo, Gerbe!!!

Well, now that that is out of my system…..My family loves me. I made my take on Chicken Spinocoli again for dinner and everyone is smiling.  The dishes are done and leftovers put away.  The game begins in half an hour…..Ah, think I will just put my feet up and realax!

Wow, what a game last night.  It was filled-to-the-brim with action, great skating, and some pretty hairy moments!

Buffalo is about 80 miles from our house.  We left a little early (or so we thought) so we could stop and grab a quick pizza at a place we love.  We called ahead on our way and ordered, so we didn’t have to wait at all and the pizza was so hot and fresh!  Did I ever say how much I appreciate modern technology?  Between the GPS Mark uses and our little computer/cell phones, life sure is easy on the road!

We arrived at HSBC Arena just minutes before face-off at 7:00 pm.  We had to get in line, though, in the ticket line, where our tickets were being held.  There were literally oceans of people there! Thankfully, there were probably about 10 lines open. We didn’t get up to our seats until well into the first period. ( a period is 20 minutes long, and a game is 3 periods)

We finally made it to our seats and it took several minutes to get organized.  I had my (big) camera bag and the Biker Babe Bag, so I had to figure where to put everything!

I changed out the short lens for my long one, and as I was doing so,  apparently, Nathan Gerbe was passing the Albany River Rats’ bench when one of the players began a fight with him.  Within seconds, the whiole thing turned into a massive brawl!

Because I was not totally ready and we were sitting on the “wrong side”,  I was unable to get photos.  However, they did replays on the big screen, and I was able to capture them off that.  I am not sure why they appear so terrible, but you can get the idea…..

I have NO idea ***why*** that referee got into the “mix”.  You can (barely) see his black and white striped shirt on the bottom of the pile of bodies.

As time progressed, it seemed like nearly everyone had a “dancing partner”!

In the end, there were gloves and sticks everywhere! What a MESS!  I read this morning, there was a total of 74 minutes in penalties given to 10 different players.  The worst travesty of all was that Nathan Gerbe was thrown out of the game, along with his attacker.  NUTS! That was one of the whole reasons I wanted to SEE this game!!! I really enjoy watching Gerbe play.  Ah well,  he got the opening goal of the game! (which I did NOT see….)

While all the brawling and then discussion between referees went on, Portland goalie, Jhonas Enroth stretched and anticipated resuming the game!

The young man in the centerof the following photo is Tim Kennedy, a Buffalo native.  The HSBC Arena holds about 18,000 people, and the crowd there was over 11.000 people!  I think many of the fans came to see Tim play.  He was called up by the Buffalo Sabres to play in one game and Buffalo is very (rightfully) proud of him.

I love hockey, and I am not looking for fights and boxing matches. I hate it.  As a young person, I speed skated, and I really love skating.  I would not balk or complain at all if fighting was disallowed by the NHL and AHL.  However, we are told that fans *do* like watching fighting.  Ugh….

We were in our seats only a short time when the period ended and the Zambonis came out to resurface the ice.  Michelle was dazzled by the fact that there were TWO Zambonis!  Of course  the Canadians must have a presence in the form of an ad for LaBatts Blue Beer…….

And Tops Friendly Supermarkets are headquartered in Buffalo!

Nothing like a slick freshly resurfaced rink….complete with the Buffalo Sabres Logo on the ice!

And the friendly little “Puck Warning”……

Oops…put this photo in a bit late, but it is just for my Dear Readers in Scotland! Hmmm….is MacDonald a familiar name there?

Actually, there are many players with Scottish sounding names. Hockey is the Canadian National Sport, after all, eh?  And we all know that there are many Scots in Canada!!!

After the testosterone rush settled down and the players began to play, there was a lot of good action. I must say, however, I have never seen so many skimishes in a game! Wow! These clubs must be arch rivals! This was an AHL (American Hockey League) game that was more of an exhibition game and it was sad there was so much brawling.  There were sooooo many little kids in the crowd….

And when the Portland Pirates scored……

It was a loud and crazy crowd.  We were greatly entertained by these fans……

Yes, they were dressed as Pirates, and they danced about the aisle like madmen!  You cannot see it, as they moved so rapidly, but they each brandished a (floppy, blowup) sword and one fellow had a rat on the end of his!

The game wound down and with only less than 5 minutes left in the game, it looked like the Rats were headed for a victory.

But with less than 30 seconds left in the game, the Pirates scored!

In hockey, when the game ends in a tie, each team earns one point.  However, the game then goes into a five-minute overtime period.  If no one scores, then there is a shoot-out.  Well,  the overtime period saw no score, so each team sent out 5 players to try to score on the goalie.  It was unfortunate that one of the Rats scored and none of the Pirates came through.  It was okay, though, as the Pirates did gain one point.

What a game! We arrived home shortly before 1, to two very happy, tail-wagging Scotties!  A most memorable evening and night!  Ah yes, and tonight?  We get to watch the Sabres and Ottawa Senators again!