Wednesday night Jennifer came over to play with Eric and make Easter eggs.

Friday night we went to the last of the Floyd Fire Department fish fries with Skip, Steve and Linda. Saturday Eric and his buddy Trevor went to the VFW sponsored Easter egg hunt with a scary looking Easter rabbit.

Saturday afternoon I went to the ADK Mountain Club Iroquois Chapter Open House. Most of it was pretty tame, but I bought a book, chatted with a couple of members and especially had a good conversation with Bill Ingersoll on possible and planned canoe trips.

Later Saturday afternoon we had Ed & family, Billie Jo & family for Easter dinner. Clockwise from lower left, Eric, Jim, Kelly, Ed, Billy, Dakota, and Billie Jo. Not in picture Kathryn and Izzabella.

On Easter Sunday we went to church and then to dinner with Mom, Robert and others. Upon our return home late afternoon we watched the common snipes and flickers foraging on our lawn.

When spring hits it comes with a rush. In the past week the ice has left the stream fed pond and about 1/4 of the spring fed pond is ice free. The Canada Geese are regular visitors to my neighbor Gary’s pond. I am hoping they settle there where they have taller grass and leave my ponds alone.

The Red Wing Blackbirds arrived two weeks ago, Robins last week and this past weekend we heard Killdeers. Last night Eric and I heard and saw a Night Hawk flying high, eating bugs and making their characteristic whoop, whoop, whoop as they dive for bugs.

The snow is largely gone. Here is our yard with a before and after pictures spaced about 2 weeks.

I follow the Syracuse University basketball program through out the year.  I often peruse a bulletin board devoted to discussions of Syracuse Basketball.  Sorting the wheat from the chaff in these postings is often difficult as some topics take a beating.  One poster said it best recently: 

1. Zone versus Man – 4 million mentions (mostly from one surly poster)
2. x is not a point guard – 2 million mentions over many years
3. Paul Harris can’t shoot – 1 million mentions over the last year
4. Carmelo…Carmelo…Carmelo – 1/2 million mentions since 2003
5. Hopkins Coach Where When and now…how much 400 times a day (but only in the off-season)
6. New uniforms – love them or hate them (a recent topic)

 You have to be a fan(actic) to sort through this stuff.

I have enjoyed sharing season tickets to the Syracuse men’s basketball games this winter.  Last night their season ended. Despite a furious rally from 17 points down they closed with a loss to Clemson in the NIT quarter finals.  Fortunately there are only 206 more days until Oct 15th – the 1st practice for the 2007-08 season.

I have a couple of bare spots on my driveway.  Most of the snow has slid off the metal barn roof.  The deck is mostly snow-free and dry.  The rain gutters are gurgling with snow melting off the roof.  The snow is settling on the lawn.  Come on spring…….

Last weekend we spent a day at Camp Boucheron; an annual event that began in Feb 2001. While others overnighted and enjoyed the brisk cabin conditions, K and I returned to home base to relieve the baby sitter and woke up where the water wasn’t frozen.

During the week Skip, Steve, Eric and I celebrated Bob’s 60th birthday at Okay Dokey’s . After our meal Craig brought out 5 pieces of pie: chocolate creme, coconut, lemon meringue adorned with candles. Eric provided the hats and noise makers.

Eric and I went swimming Thursday night to a empty pool, fortunately his buddies Trevor and ‘Big” Matt showed up after us so we could have a few games.

I have a pair of bent shaft wooden Gillispie paddles I purchased around 1984 or 1985. At the time they were $75-80 / paddle. My buddy Rich and I were competing in short canoe races (>14 miles) and those bent shaft paddles coupled with my Wenonah Jensen 18′ canoe gave us a competitive advantage. These paddles have been my “go to” paddles for recreational racing and canoe camping trips for many years. I have refinished the blade tips and shaft due to wear, but not done a great job. This past fall one of the paddles was loaned out and returned with a cracked blade. I exchanged emails with Brad Gillipsie about repairing and refinishing the paddles. Current replacements run about $125 / paddle and while they are a beautiful paddle I managed to get the refurbished paddles done for the same rate. My paddles returned this week looking almost like new. Now we just need spring.

How many blogs are too many? I may have crossed over that line. For the past 12-15 years I have been involved in the organization of a group of contractors playing volleyball every Thursday Lunch Time at the Rome Family Y from September – April. Recently one of the participants suggested a blog.

“Hey Jim,
We need a volleyball blog, with a calendar and weekly attendance check-box for each player, so we can cut the e-mail traffic, monitor whose coming, and properly chronicle the highlights of our weekly high jinks!!”

And Voila – http://thursdaylunchtimevolleyball.blogspot.com/ was born with a map to the Y, attendance list, reports and stories. All the current players are invited participants and hopefully will contribute to it’s content. I am sponsoring it as a trial until the end of April, we will see if it flies over the long term.

Of course it is snowing as I write this and the forecast calls for a possible 3″ of snow, but I witnessed two promising signs of spring this week. Earlier this week I heard the plaintive phoe-bee mating call of the chickadee – different than their normal chick-a-dee-dee. Yesterday as the temperatures rose into the mid-30’s I saw a possum crossing a large field. I suspect he ventured from a tree along a hedgerow, but when I saw him he was well out in the middle of this hay field. He was quite the anomaly as he walked on top of 3′ of accumulated snow.

I have had old Volvo cars (usually 240’s) for the past 20 years.  Last October my sedan reach end of life with 240,000 miles on it.  I recently heard of a 1991 with only 58,378 miles on it; mint condition; with extra snow tires.  I heard about it on Thursday morning, called about it, drove and bought it on Thursday night, got my registration and plates on Friday and put 270 miles on it over the weekend.

Last night Trey ate a bunch of sunflower seeds and thus spent the night battling an upset stomach.  He was in/out of the house multiple times last night.  We got a dusting of snow overnight and this morning there was a distinct outline where Trey had been laying.  It looked like the chalk outline of a murder victim.