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Kathryn and I have been going to Syracuse basketball games for the past 3-4 years as we share season tickets with 4 others. Eric has expressed an increasing awareness and interest in the fate of Syracuse basketball. Last year we took him to a couple of Holland Patent High School basketball games, but, of course, it just isn’t the same spectacle.

Last night we took Eric to the Syracuse vs. Maryland NIT game which Syracuse won 88-72. We chose this game because we could get extra tickets, there is no alcohol sold at the NIT games and the schedule permitted a pre-game nap. We were joined by friends Skip & Bob and nephews Mark & Matt who are shown below.

He enjoyed the whole affair: pizza and a soda,

watching the cheerleaders, looking at fans with orange wigs, and he paid special attention to Otto the Orange. He hollered and cheered during the game. A good time for a 5 year old.

Dad’s skin looks really good, the best in a long time. Kathryn took him in to have casts made so they can make new legs. The prosthesis lady is making these a little different since he is really not able to walk anymore and needs the legs more to stand/pivot. He should get them next week. He is really really looking forward to it. The transfer board is hard for him. Even with his legs, he is much more wobbly than he ever was. He has probably lost some strength by not being able to exercise/walk. Still, he is eating good (his blood sugars are great) and sociable as ever.

Ed & Izzabella followed Kathryn and Eric out on Sunday and spend the day before returning home.  A group shot is below.

Kathryn and I went for a nice walk on Friday.  We heard and saw Canada Geese circling around our ponds looking for open water.  We saw robins on our property.  On our snowshoe hike we followed a set of raccoon tracks where he went exploring during the warm weather.

We saw otter slides in the snow along the stream.

We had robins and killdeer on our property this weekend!

Kathryn made a dozen eggs which Kathryn, Eric and I colored on Friday night.

We heard red wing black birds this morning and although we still have considerable snow on the ground the birds offered a sign that it was time to order trees.  I made two orders this morning. Oneida County Soil & Water Conversation District (SWCD) annually offers a tree and scrub sale and annually I have gotten white spruce and white pine seedlings to plant.  This year I am trying Norway Spruce and I bought pussy willows and white birch for landscaping. At Christmas I received a gift certificate to Miller’s Nurseries and utilized that to purchase additional lilacs and grapes.

There is a kid’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day or something to that effect.  Alexander tells a story of all the bad things that happened to him during the course of a day.  Something like “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

Last night Kathryn had an upset stomach and went to bed at 8pm immediately after Eric.  Overnight she threw up about every 45 minutes through out the night and it didn’t stop until mid-morning. I have been giving her ginger ale and diet coke to sip, rubbing her back, picking up towels and etc to launder.

At 11:40pm Eric woke up with growing pains in his legs.  I rubbed his legs continuously for 20 minutes until the Tylenol took effect.  Then he slept through the night.

It rained hard last night and it was very windy, but no freezing rain.  This morning it was raining really hard.  I had let Scout out earlier but she wanted to go out again.  She stood at the open door, looked at the rain and went to the other end of the house where, I later found, she messed on the hardwood floor.  Fortunately it cleaned up OK.

I am stayed home from work to take Eric to pre-school and the babysitters and take care of Kathryn.  If I am lucky I will squeeze in a little snooze somewhere to add to the 2 hours of sleep I got last night.

If I remember correctly Alexander’s book ends with his Mom telling him “Some days are like that.”