SUMMER'S in full swing!

We had three of the most perfect summer days this past week.  On Monday, the day after the 4th of July, but still a vacation day for the working member of this family, the weather was absolutely delightful...about 80 degrees and little to no humidity.  So, after a quick errand, we decided a mini road trip was in order.  We headed up to Lake Ontario, but not on our side of the Genesee River... we headed to Webster!  Hadn't been there in ages, so thought it might be a great day to have an alcoholic beverage on draft and enjoy the view.  Well, the first place we came to was the Bayside Inn, which is on Irondequoit Bay vs. Lake Ontario, but that was OK & we decided we'd try it there.  The menu had a promising list of drafts + a mystery "ask your server for this month's microbrew selection". When our server arrived, we did just that, only to be informed that there weren't any drafts on tap that day, because it was too warm!  Too warm?  Huh?  Well, "no beer on tap" is pretty much a deal breaker for one of us, and ABSOLUTELY a deal breaker for the other, so off we headed to continue our search for a cold one to enjoy, while gazing out at the water (vs. driving on it as our boating friends and relatives like to do).  Almost within walking distance, we came upon Castaways, which is indeed on Lake Ontario, and to our delight, has beer on tap!  They were even featuring Harpoon Summer Ale!  Woohoo!  We were 2 happy campers!  Along with the beers, we decided to make it an early dinner and ordered up a lobster roll & a blackened talapia.  Great way to spend the last day of a long weekend!


On Friday, we were to meet up with friends for a long overdue dinner and the weather continued to be absolutely delightful.  The restaurant's outside seating was full, but the company of our friends (and all the catching up that we had to do) made the indoors aspect of the meal irrelevant!  Just the fact that it was another beautiful Rochester summer day, made it another hit!  And, for the record, some of the best beer-battered fish fry in Rochester comes from a place that actually brews their beer on site!  You can practically taste the style of beer that they use in the batter.


Then, on Saturday, Mother Nature decide that she'd treat us to another round of weather perfection and we had a day in the mid-70s and again there was virtually no humidity!  BAZINGA!  After a quick trip to grab a couple of lavender plants (to replace the dead one and the totally over grown one in our front landscaping), we headed to a place that we'd both been to with friends, but never together...HOSE 22 in Charlotte!  Well, not only did our luck hold with the beautiful weather, but our timing for dinner was perfect, too, since we had no trouble getting a table but, when we exited, the people waiting for tables was out the door and all around the entrance into the parking lot.  That had been the way it was the only other time that we tried to eat there so that time we kept on truckin', so to speak.  We can say that the food we chose was good.  One of us had a huge burger (with a steak knife inserted to secure all the layers together) and one of us decided to be adventurous and tried their specialty mac 'n' cheese with Buffalo chicken tenders embedded in their famous 4 cheese sauce...OMG!  Needless to say, the mac 'n' cheese lovers in this family will be clamoring for more when they visit, and we take them there to taste it for themselves!  YUMMY! 


Guess if we have too many more beautiful days, we'll run out of places to head out to, for optimum meal enjoyment but, what the heck, we'd love to keep up this wonderful summer habit.  Gotta love Rochester in the summer!

SPRING has sprung!

OK, it is finally here, but it is still pretty chilly.  I do think that if we don't get some warm weather & sunshine, those lilacs won't be anywhere near opening by the beginning of the 2011 Lilac Festival, this coming Friday.  Besides the upcoming Lilac Festival, visitors to Rochester, NY have begun to arrive (Son on break between spring & summer sessions arrived this weekend) and will continue to arrive as the weekend (and Lilac Festival) approaches!  Had good intentions to keep this blog more current, but a handful of trips to MI, LA & NJ have kept us on the go.  The one thing that can be counted on with travel is the time needed to pack, unpack and launder the necessities of life.  In addition, the surprise passing of a dear college friend (the first of our close knit group of Spartans), has hit us hard.  We did get the news of a niece & her husband expecting their first child at the end of December, so that month will join May and October as being exceptionally packed with special days.  On the other side of the family, a nephew is currently studying abroad this summer (with an itinerary of  Holland, Luxembourg & Belgium, that we are envious of).  So many times, as I have read the blogs, that I've come to know & enjoy, I've considered adding to what I have posted here, but life has gotten in the way (that, and I find as retirement/old age kicks in, I don't seem to have the urgency to jump from task to task, and without a list of specifics to check off, I can easily waste away the better part of any day with plenty of interesting, if not essential, distractions)!  Hopefully, this quick update will suffice for the moment, as the midnight (or should I say 3 am) oil dissipates.  I'm afraid that if I continue too much longer, my sentences will take on hieroglyphic appearances.  Until my next spurt of inspiration surfaces, and I return to continue this saga... remember, "life is a cabaret, old chum".  We'll miss you, Mike!          

Will it ever stop S - N - O - W - I - N - G ?

Ok, now this is really getting out of control.  Think I read somewhere that with 50" more, we'll break the all time snow record for Rochester, New York this winter, but the fact that some other time in Rochester history, another group of people survived this kind of snow nonsense is no consolation to those of us who are reliving it now!  8" to 10" of snow two weekends in a row is cruel and unusual punishment even for Rochester ... especially after breaking the all time record for snowfall in the month of December 2010.  Guess one good thing has come of it, though.  Someone actually commented that he's considering retirement rather that hassling with this element of winter for much longer!  Glad to hear that he's actually "THINKING" about it!  Knew it would happen eventually, but didn't know that I'd owe it to the snow to bring it about.

JEOPARDY + WATSON + Ken Jennings ... oh, my!

Well, this was the week all Jeopardy GEEKS have been waiting for.  The two all time Jeopardy champions...Ken Jennings & Brad Rutter would be taking on IBM's WATSON super computer which had been designed when the engineers, after watching the record breaking run that Ken Jennings was having after a dinner together in a restaurant, wondered if they could design a computer that could take on humans, like Ken Jennings.  Well, after much to do and practice, the event would play out on the evenings of February 14-16 which would include two games played championship style...two day totals combined to decide the winner of the event.  Monday included a lot of the back story + the first portion of the 1st Jeopardy game with Ken, WATSON and Brad (WATSON & Brad were tied with $5,000 each and Ken was in 3rd place).  On Tuesday morning, when I checked my TWITTER feed which is my normal morning routine, I saw a request by The Washington Post which started a chain of events that led to me posting the following on my FACEBOOK account about midday:  




 Checked TWITTER today & saw Washington Post asking for questions for Jeopardy's Ken Jennings, who is taking on IBM's Watson computer. The Jeopardy GEEK in me had to TWEET-I couldn't help myself-but I never thought my question would be chosen, let alone lead off the discussion. Can't tell you how cool it feels to ask Ken Jennings the FIRST question in a Washington Post discussion...yes, I'm that much of a geek!

Jeopardy! Champ Ken Jennings

live.washingtonpost.com

Ken Jennings, one of Jeopardy's most successful contestants, will be online Tuesday Feb. 15, at 11 a.m., to discuss his match-up against Watson, an IBM computing system, and the popular game show.

Ken Jennings broke the Jeopardy!record for the most consecutive games played by winning 74 games in a row during the 2004-2005 season, resulting in winnings of more than $2.5 million.

KEN JENNINGS :

Hey, this is Ken Jennings, resident carbon-based contestant on Jeopardy this week playing IBM's Watson uber-computer.  Looking forward to answering your questions!

• – 
  February 15, 2011 11:01 AM 
• Permalink

Q.

FROM TWITTER USER MICHST74

Did the Watson Jeopardy experience have an "Open the pod bay doors, Hal" feel to it? It creeped me out a little.

• – 
  February 15, 2011 10:55 AM 
• Permalink

A.

KEN JENNINGS :

Right, the circular Watson avatar looks a *little* too much like HAL's red light, right?  I think it's reading Brad's and my lips.  

When anyone mentions 2001 to them (or Terminator, or Matrix, or Tron, or...) IBM prefers to bring up the helpful question-answering computer on Star Trek.  C'mon IBM!  You just invented SkyNet!  Own it!

– February 15, 2011 11:05 AM

Only Al LIKED it, Adam placated me and Aaron said that he thought it was something important when I texted him to ask "R U there? Call me" when he refused to answer my call to tell him about it.  Well, I'm still majorly impressed that I "convo'd" with Ken Jennings in a discussion, even if no one else is!  (And my TWEET began an hour of LIVE discussion which included ~ 30+ questions & answers.)  

YEAH, me!

Groundhog Day 2011

WoW!  That little rodent from PA actually predicted that because he didn't see his shadow that spring will be coming early this year.  Excuse me if I have to see it to believe it, but since Groundhog Day fell on a day when the kids in our school district were out celebrating a SNOW DAY (the second one in as many weeks, I might add) and this winter has been one of the most snow intense in years, I'm not holding out much hope for an early spring.  I'd love to actually see it come to pass, but I don't even dare to hope for it, because all my energy is devoted to try to get through this most depressing and draining Rochester, NY winter weather.  I feel like, if I even acknowledge that there is the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel, it will just be another lake-effect snow storm bearing down on us.  This storm blanketed the country from Missouri to Maine, and we actually didn't bear the brunt of it...this time Chicago did, but we got a decent amount...8 to 10 inches (on top of what we already had)!  Mr. Phil, make it stop, PLEASE!  

Is it STILL January?

OK, I am pretty sure that this is one of the longest months I can remember and the snow and dreary days in Rochester have been pretty much nonstop (as if that doesn't happen every winter) so that has contributed to that fact!  For the past two weekends, I have actually talked Al into staying home from running errands, even, just so that he can relax vs. having to hassle with all that is involved with heading out into this messy weather.  It is bad enough that he's had to do that daily since the holidays.  Needless to say that we've had enough food in the pantry and freezer so as not to have needed supplies, plus there were those somewhat decent days where Al was already out and about for work and he'd stopped to replenish milk, fruit, etc.   It was crappy enough out, that Al didn't even argue that we really should head our for.... ????  Nothing was THAT important.  And today, I think HELL froze over because GCSD even closed due to subzero temperatures with nary a snowflake in the sky.  That NEVER happens around here.  To top it off, the day was resplendent with golden sunshine, so it really didn't seem that it could actually be a day when the schools were closed, but it was!  So basically, we've caught up on all DVR'd television shows, and actually cleaned up after the holidays and soon SPRING cleaning will be upon us... one can only hope, right?  Actually, this upcoming weekend we'll be heading out to GeVa to our first play of the new year -- I'll Be Geneseeing You written and performed by Chicago's Second City.  Hope it isn't too lame.  We'll also catch up with our GeVa buddies afterwards for dinner so that should be fun.  Now if we can only get that D*&^*& Rochester weather to cooperate! 

Another year, another birthday dinner @ Bernard's Grove House

After much discussion and thought about what the "birthday boy" would like to do to celebrate his day yesterday, the need for tradition prevailed and off we went to Bernard's Grove House like the creatures of habit that we evidently are!  Some of us were thrilled to find that the size of the margaritas had increased (but not the price) and that cleared up the mystery of why the parking lot was packed at 6:30 when we pulled in but only two parties were in the dining room (& all the other patrons were packed into the bar area).  


The rolls were as delicious as ever, but we refrained from the usual deliciously rich crab bisque, in an attempt to leave the establishment fully satiated, but not bloated after our delicious meal.  The salads were delightful...a mixture of field greens, iceberg lettuce and fresh bean sprouts topped with crumbly blue cheese dressing for me and the house lemon dressing for the guys.  (Passing my dark greens to Al, he decided next time... probably Kryssi's birthday/Mother's Day celebration... that he'd also order the crumbly blue cheese dressing... YEAH, Kris!)  


Aaron ordered a special 16 oz. grilled rib steak with broccoli rabe (forgoing his asparagus accompaniment for his dear mom, and accepting a substitute veggie).  Kris ordered the Shrimp Greco - shrimp stuffed with feta and wrapped with bacon (from the appetizers but upgraded to entree size with 5 HUGE shrimp) - served over a bowlful of bowtie pasta in a chicken broth sauce vs. the usually offered spinach and with Aaron's 2 asparagus spears.  Needless to say, Kryssi was a bit of a prima donna in ordering this meal.  The "birthday boy" chose a fish dish of ?(described as a white salmon) topped with a blue crab and served with ? Drawing a blank on this but I know I can pull out the photos that we took of our food for the details (or wait and ask Al when he comes home from work).  Pretty much I was absorbed in consuming my own scrumptious meal (or the effect of the second HUGE margarita had kicked in by that point).  


Even without the bisque (or in Aaron's case, the French onion soup) Aaron & I were unable to finish our meals, so we asked them to combine his steak & rabe remnants with the 1/2 plate of bowtie pasta that I'd left, for someone's lunch the following day.  (We'd figured it would be Al, but he informed us that he and Chris would be going to lunch and celebrating HISTORY FREE FRIDAY ... where Chris is prohibited from telling Al every last minute detail of the last chapter of the history book on the Wild West that he'd gotten for Christmas and that Al has been mercilessly subjected to countless times already this week!)  


As usual, Aaron won the GUESS THE AMOUNT OF THE CHECK game with Kryssi coming in way under with her stab in the dark guess and Al coming in over.  Aaron caught a photo of the SPECIALS board on the way out and Kryssi hit the powder room to deposit a margarita or two before hitting the road on the 20 degree snow covered Rochester night .  As she dodged the assorted Christmas decorations and bric-a-brack blocking the way to the ladies' room entrance, it dawned on her that she'd never used the facilities here.  Not surprisingly, the sink area and actual bathroom stall made the downstairs powder room in Hawthorne look spacious by comparison!  Note to self:  emergency use only and allow time to transverse the gauntlet of chotchkies or the results could be disastrous on many levels!  


We then headed back home for the annual opening of birthday presents (although the Giada DeLaurentus produce stand - as seen on her Food Network show - given to Al by Aaron, Adam and Abbey prior to his actual birthday could in no way be surpassed by the mundane gifts pre-purchased prior to the Christmas holidays by the mother of the family).  Aaron had procured the appropriate 59th Birthday decorated cake at Wegman's along with a Friendly's ice cream roll for our dessert.  Needless to say after phone calls from Grandma B. and Adam & Abbey, the birthday celebration was complete and fulfilling (especially after the Kodak crew had feted Al at work that am - including a 35 year anniversary certificate from Antonio to honor an employee milestone, and the episode with the keys to Aaron's Honda Accord providing an added amount of drama to a day already packed with potential).