Sunday's Snippets

READING:  I didn't quite make it to the library last week to get books by James Fenimore Cooper as the weather was a bit nasty and I contented myself with a new book that was already here...well, new to me, not new as in copyright date as that is 2009...the book is The Big Burn by Timothy Egan.   I happen to be on a late 19th/early 20th Century kick at the moment so this one fit in nicely...about a huge fire out of control in the summer of 1910 in Washington, Idaho, and Montana.  Lots of excitement and people like Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot popping up constantly and the movement for public conservation in the nation with national parks, etc., what's not to love about that?  JFC will need to wait...maybe this is why I have never read JFC before:  I get distracted easily with historical bits.
SWIMMING NEWS:  Matt and the team had no swim meet this past week, which might be good as the boy has had a cold which has been hanging on for a bit too long, so a week of not having a competition meet might have been nicely timed for him.  As of today, he says he is on the mend and almost over it all.  Just in time for the IU/Purdue meet this weekend.  Fingers crossed.
COOKING BYTES:  Caught up a bit last week for the blog-along groups, doing more of it again this week, maybe soon I will feel like I am where I am supposed to be with the rest of the group...although, truth be told, most of the groups are all over the place with where they are in keeping up each week, so I'm actually doing pretty good.   With the exception of the Flavors group, that one may have to be a just read-along participation at this point.  Sigh.
FAV NEW FIND:  Lately my favorite new finds have been people-related instead of material-things-related.  Just as well actually.  This week I came in possession of a photo that just warmed my heart...it's a photo of Daniel's mother and Matt at the Yuletide concert over Christmas break.
It's my favorite new find as in all the years of Matt and Daniel's friendship, I don't think I have a photo of Matt and Kathy like this and Kathy is just such a big part of Matt's swimming years, always so encouraging and always bringing her mother along to the meets to help in that endeavor for the CSC kids...the swimmers always knew they could look up in the stands and get a big smile and thumbs-up from Grandma and Kathy no matter what their time or placing was in the event. Kathy got Matt out to California for Nationals this past year and made sure he got to celebrate his birthday with a nice birthday dinner and little cake with a candle in it since he was away from home that day.  She's just that thoughtful always.  It's a very good photo of the two of them, Kathy as lovely as always and Matt as happy to be included always with Kathy's great plans for the boys over the years.  Kathy is one of those moms who is always looking for ways to brighten the lives of everyone around her and Matt and his CSC swimming buddies have benefited greatly from those ways over the years with invitations to concerts, meals, various house invasions for food, games, movies, hanging out, and trips to their lake house for boating weekends.  Over Christmas break she had all the college swimmers over for breakfast after swim practice on the day before they all had to leave to go back to their schools. Fun times, a fun photo for me to have for Matt's scrapbook. (Below is a photo of the Christmas break breakfast at Kathy's house, this was the dining room group, there was a whole other group eating in the kitchen...unfortunately I only have a photo from the group Matt was sitting with: hint to you swimmers out there who were in that other group, send me a photo of you all for the scrapbook!)
 
FAV THIS PAST WEEK:  It was a great weekend for watching Big Ten Basketball.  Okay, I know those Hoosiers did not win either of their games this week, and we were a bit disappointed, of course, as that removes us from the top ten in the national rankings, but one was a road game no one thought they would win and every team has growing pains...no one ever thought we would be as far as we are this year, so this didn't particularly devastate anyone.  There were some great games and wonderful surprise endings to a lot of games this week...which is what makes it all terribly exciting.  When it is cold and snowy outside there is always NCAA Basketball to keep one warm and happy. 
WEEK IN REVIEW:  This was a very slow week in printable news around here...a nice week, but nothing particularly noteworthy at all.  Mark and Alex went up to Grandma and Grandpa's to make sure they had everything they needed, help with a few household chores, salt the driveway for them, and have a nice little visit on Sunday.  The guy-time portion of the visit, i.e. ride to and from, went reasonably well, giving them some time to chat together.
LOOKING FORWARD TO:  Checking this out because it leaves in February:  Flow: Can you see the river?  It all looks so different in the winter! (click here) at the IMA.  This is what's happening at the ISO this coming week: Mozart, Symphony No. 40, here is the calendar for it.