A Championship Season

A year has passed since the last posting, but what a year it has been. The talented girls, last seen in blazing hot pink, returned this fall to capture the Patriot League title. Photos from Boston, Colgate (Hamilton), snowy Easton, and the Championship at American University in Washington DC.

Tired of Snow? Where should it go?

Snowed in again. And the week ahead doesn't look good.

Last weekend, we were off Friday and Monday for a planned holiday. Then it snowed and activities were canceled. Three of us were at Lafayette for Carly's official visit there, along with the other field hockey players and parents. That's deserving of its own blog post, but the snow owns this one.

Katie stayed home sick on Tuesday, and then we had a snow day on Wednesday. Whoohoo. A full day of school for both on Thursday, before school was canceled for Friday. And now Monday. And who knows for how much longer.

What have I/we accomplished? Together we've shoveled a lot of snow. We've made home cooked meals. Baked risotto, baked ziti with sausage (using Villa Cappelli Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup), and an experimental dish with pasta, ricotta, spinach, walnuts, and red pepper sauce (employing Merlano Red Pesto). (It needed goat cheese). We've made two loaves of No Knead Bread (see prior blog post), and one loaf of Irish Soda Bread. I've sampled Olio2go's Vincotto Fig Vinegar (now I know why people buy it by the case), and experimented with a lemon extra virgin olive oil. I've eaten spoonfuls of Livio Pesle Balsamic Vinegar Jelly, accompanied by cheese. We've gone through 5 boxes of Kleenex, and although we have "light", we are running out of lightbulbs. We will run out of laundry detergent before we run out of food. Our best accomplishment was a total cleanout of Carly's room. Sadly, we had to miss out on the Navy-Bucknell basketball game and Bucknell alumni event.

We have worked on our trip planning for our late June jaunt to Rome. I think we've found an apartment to rent. Six nights. Piazza Navona. Be there.

My favorite make-fun-of-the-news story was of the woman in Alexandria who threw out the food spoiling in her refrigerator after the loss of power. Sticking it all in a snowbank didn't occur to her. Duh.

According to the news today, VDOT was hoping to get the interstates plowed by nightfall. I wonder if they were successful? Our street looks amazingly good -- but that's because our Homeowners' Association has paid $1800. Our roads (for ~50 houses) are maintained by the Commonwealth of Virginia. They say we should have our first pass through by Wednesday evening. Uh-oh. There's another storm coming Tuesday, into Wednesday.

This has been a phenomenal amount of snow for a region not known for its snowplows. We're entertaining bets on when schools will again be open for a full day. See Facebook for more fun on this topic.

College Confidential, Facebook, Twitter, and various biographical Google searches have been conducted. Emails have been exchanged with old friends. UPS and FedEx have not provided service updates for the DC area. That's what I need to determine my work day tomorrow.

Current reading: The Last Amateurs, by John Feinstein about Patriot League Basketball.

College Bound -- Field Hockey Stick in Hand!

Carly is three for three on the college apps. When the first acceptance came, Tom laughed and said, "she's going to college." The first was nice, the second was nice, the third was the Big Thrill. It was the Early Decision Acceptance, and therefore binding.

On Thursday, December 3rd, I was the first one home, and I got the mail. There was a slightly thick envelope wth 61-cents postage. Postmarked December 1st. I probably haven't been so excited since I received my own acceptance letter. (OK, I'll fess up, I was excited about positive pregnancy tests ~ so this is the outcome?)

So, while on the phone with Tom, we had to wait for Carly to get home from school so she could open the letter. In the mean time, I held it to the light, flexed it a bit, and agitatedly waited.

So, she opened the letter and pulled out a sticker, then the acceptance letter, and then the deposit form. Lafayette generously sent a sticker for the car, which is, in effect, something like the very first tuition discount. Maybe.

Before the evening was out, Carly pulled out my checkbook, wrote the deposit check, and held it out for me to sign. I think she's excited!

Another milestone: Carly's Capitol Pegasus coach, Lloyd Conyers, has a tradition of announcing field hockey commitments. We've all see these milestones announced for others and it was a thrill to read Lloyd's email announcement on Monday, December 7th.

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Out of chronological order...

We spent most of Thanksgiving week in Palm Springs again. "Festival" is quite spectacular. It was truly the last of the uncommitted recruiting showcases for Carly. In her mind, she was already a Leopard, but we were there for great games and any other opportunities that might be needed and wanted. Tidewater Flash played well and they were coached by a very enthusiastic coach (thanks, Bill!). We had fun catching up with our CPeg Parent-friends, and will always have memories of those "Northern Virginia Girls": Carly, Kelsey, Kayleigh, Kim, Melanie, and Meghan.