Photo: If you ask this guy (Vash) what his favorite thing was this week, the above photo would be it...his buddy Matt home to spoil him rotten with tummy rubs and attention, even for just three hours.
READING: In all my reading, I have never read a single thing ever by James Fenimore Cooper, so I am rectifying that by going on a Cooper binge in reading. Sometimes I run across someone major that I haven't read like this and it amazes me that I haven't stumbled across some assignment or some reading urge to read his/her works. Going for this one now.
SWIMMING NEWS: Matt and IU the team traveled to Ann Arbor for a swim meet yesterday. The girls team won, the boys team had to acknowledge the superiority of UofM's men's team this meet. I think UofM's men's swim team is rankled like 4th in the nation, so if one has to yield a victory to another team, it makes sense that it would be such a good one. Matt didn't have any new best times, but he is right on his old best times, so that is good considering he is dealing with his new physique, a bit of changing by the coaches to his starts, turns, and strokes...all good and his times being this good in the midst of all of that is encouraging. His favorite part was that he got to swim the A relay in the 400 Freestyle Relay as he thought he was going to be on the B relay, so he was excited to be moved up to that first one in such an important meet. All in all, a very good freshman year so far. Here's the link to the wrap-up at the IU swim site and Matt gets a few mentions in the article so that is very fun to see. Go IU!
COOKING BYTES: Last month marked the end of the Tuesdays with Dorie blog along as all the recipes had been chosen, made, and posted. Here is a nice link to the Washington Post article discussing such. What a lot of fun these past four years baking with this group...I made a lot of wonderful friendships baking and discussing each week with so many of them. The group starts a new challenge in February...yep, I'll be there...we are going to be baking our way through the Baking with Julia book.
FAV NEW FIND: On New Year's Day Mark and I went to Bloomington to take Matt out for New Year's lunch and we rounded up Ian, Steve, Ryan, and Joe to take with us as well. Such fun getting to know Matt's teammates as this was the first time we had gotten to actually sit down and converse with Ryan and Joe, both of whom Matt enjoys hanging out with at IU. Since the dorms are not open over break, Ryan graciously housed Matt, Ian, and Steve at his place for those days as the swimmers all needed to be back on campus for practice the by December 27th. A fun time was had by all, as they say in my hometown newspaper, nothing to do but go to practice twice a day and hang out with no classes to attend. Anyway, it is fun getting to know some of the other guys on the swim team.
FAV THIS PAST WEEK: Of course, it was great seeing what Matt could do at the swim meet this week, so that's a given. Other than that, I think the near 60 degree temperatures here this week in January has got to be my favorite thing. I am not a winter-loving person. Enough said on the weather.
WEEK IN REVIEW: GCHS was back in session this week so it was nice seeing the students and hearing about their holidays/gifts/fun times over break; some of the college kids came around to visit while on break, so that was great seeing them; IU's win over OSU this week was huge, as was today's win over Penn State on the road, making the basketball team 15-1 for the season feels great, and having Matt home for a bit today was wonderful.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: Checking this out because it leaves in February: Art of American Indians: The Thaw Collection (click here) at the IMA. This is what's happening at the ISO this coming week: Hello Dolly in Concert, here is the calendar for it.
