Backyard

EARLY APRIL FOOLS

All week long I had been looking forward to grilling out some chicken tonight. Was going to sit in this chair, have a beer, and cook us our first bbq chicken of the year.

Started snowing yesterday afternoon, these photos were this morning, it kept snowing till just about 4 o'clock - so there is a little bit more than here.

It is a heavy thick snow, very pretty - when life gives you lemons....

Opening day is tomorrow - Not here, in the majors

Looks like it is 9 or 10 wet sloppy icy inches

That tiny black dot is Fletcher

Daily Koda

Old Man Winter.. that Old Man Winter....

 Will NOT go quietly into that good night , no sir-ree, he is in for the long haul here .....

 Early in the week the tv weather folk were all, " we are dodging the bullet on this one " bit storm coming but going to stay south.... till last night when it all changed -

To big storm a comin' to Mendon!

This is just sideways blowing ice and snow and all sorts of face stinging things

Even as it was happening they were getting it wrong, telling me that it was raining in the finger lakes when we were getting the full brunt of some early spring THUNDER SLEET. A few inches of ice pellets covered over by , at this writing about, 4 inches of snow... who knows how much it will be by morning.

Not a fit night out for man nor beast!

dinner

NEIL COOKED!

Close to my favorite dinner: 

Steak and Peppers

A treat after last nights barrel of Guinness that I had for supper - there were some hot dogs in there somewhere, along with dancing boys and folks in and out of the house , trips to the Hotel - a wild friday night here in the hamlet.

It's like if Gavin had married Jason..

England and Wales get the gay marriage!

( Scotland follows this fall )

Wolverine The Musical - Hugh Jackman

White in all the wrong places

Rochester: A City of Quality from Bryan Darrow on Vimeo.

A 1963 love letter - a sometimes strangely ominous one - to Rochester. Not a flake of snow or a person of color to be found.....

Dinner and Daily Koda, all in one.

Neil had some people over tonight for a meeting, and I fed them. One friend of ours, I had been telling forever that I wanted to cook her a Southern dinner - BUT, tonight there were also a few vegetarians. YOU try cooking turnip greens with out a smoked wing or ham hock. One of the vegetarians told me to use liquid smoke and smoked tofu - 

Daily Koda

• Pork Roast ( there were some NON vegetarians folks here!  ) 
• Gravy
• White Rice
• Squash Casserole
• Sweet Potatoes 
• Turnip Greens - which were not as bad as I thought they would be  - pretty good as a matter of fact.
• Carrot Salad

Getting all spring time ready! 

I made them all drink sweet tea - and it was not even all that sweet and it was fake sugar...

 There were South Africans and South Indians for my Southern dinner - the girl from South Africa could not understand a word I said really, I forget that I even have a funny accent

 Even made them a home made banana pudding - 

But it needed to sit longer ....

The Pittsford Monster

I hope I posted a photo of this before - I must have either on here or the FB . These very cool folks in the next town up, made this massive ice sculpture in their front yard this Winter, all lit with cool colors from the inside, it was massive - way taller than me. just a really big deal.

This is what is left of it as I rode by today.

Dinner

Salmon 

Rice

Greens

Baseball and REM ....

The Baseball Project - To The Veterans Committee (Live @ SXSW - 2014)



From AJC sports guy Jeff Schultz : Dale Murphy lost his final chance to be voted into the Hall of Fame by writers in 2013. Is it possible a new song written about him by another Hall of Famer will give his candidacy new life?

Mike Mills, an avid sports fan and the talented singer, musician and composer for the Athens band R.E.M. (inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007), has written a song called, “To The Veteran’s Committee,” which pleads for Murphy’s long overdue induction into Cooperstown. The song appears on the just released CD, “The Baseball Project: 3rd,” which is the third collections of baseball rock songs from the band that includes Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck (R.EM.), Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon.

“I was already touring with the Baseball Project,” said Mills, a long-time Braves fan (and sports Fantasy League player) who even remembers being taken to an Atlanta Crackers as a youth. “I guess you could say I was a bench player before and now I’ve been called up.”

Murphy met Mills and other Baseball Project band members for the first time a few years ago at a function at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York that included a private donation of 35,000 baseball cards and a panel discussion on the sport and race relations.

“I always felt Dale should be in the Hall of Fame just based on what he did as a player,” Mills said. “But after meeting him, I believed it even more. What a great person. He has all four qualifications for the Hall: ability, character, sportsmanship, integrity. It’s just stupid that he’s not in there.”

In, “To The Veterans Committee,” Mills writes an open letter to the group that’s empowered to put deserving former players, managers or officials into the Hall of Fame if the honor has previously eluded them, for whatever reason. There are now actually three 16-member committees, including the “Expansion Era Committee,” which is the one that would determine Murphy’s candidacy moving forward.  ( THE REST  )

Daily Koda

Nasty and raw today - did not get the crazy windstorm that they said we were going to get, a good thing. Winter just will not let us go

 But clear of ice and snow, there are a lot more people out and about, it is not just my and Koda's trail anymore.

He just will not look at the camera

life as we know it

Ok, after some original panic, it seems this is not as big of a deal as it sounds.

CHICAGO (AP) -- In a stunning ruling that could revolutionize a college sports industry worth billions of dollars and have dramatic repercussion at schools coast to coast, a federal agency said Wednesday that football players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first union of college athletes. The decision by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board answered the question at the heart of the debate over the unionization bid: Do football players who receive full scholarships to the Big Ten school qualify as employees under federal law and therefore can legally unionize?
 Peter Sung Ohr, the NLRB regional director, said in a 24-page decision that the players "fall squarely" within the broad definition of employee. Pro-union activists cheered as they learned of the ruling. "It's like preparing so long for a big game and then when you win - it is pure joy," said former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma, the designated president of Northwestern's would-be football players' union. An employee is regarded by law as someone who, among other things, receives compensation for a service and is under the strict, direct control of managers.
 In the case of the Northwestern players, coaches are the managers and scholarships are a form of compensation, Ohr concluded. The Evanston, Ill., university argued that college athletes, as students, do not fit in the same category as factory workers, truck drivers and other unionized workers. 
The school announced plans to appeal to labor authorities in Washington, D.C.  ( THE REST  )

The end of college football as we know it, right ? Not so fast - even if, and that is a BIG if , this ruling holds up on appeal, it would be a very narrow victory. Really, only Northwestern, and other private schools that wanted to try and unionize would be able too, IN non right to work states.

A MUCH bigger question is the fact that only two college sports make any money at all, football and basketball. And yes, they make A LOT of money - but they supplement every other sport, your swimming, gymnastics, soccer, everything you can think of . Also, title 9 means that you can not treat male and female college athletes any different, but the only players that will get to unionize( meaning at some point, getting paid) will be men.

PBS Newshour had a great story on the ruling tonight, I will post it here as soon as they do.

Three months of this season's epic winter, animated

If only Winter was ONLY three months long ....

1954

OUTSIDE

Yes, it is still pretty cold, but very close to snow free, so out we went. Felt wonderful!

 The first look at the swimming hole for the year - still mostly frozen. 

Great Photo

Scott at Pompanuck gets the vat ready to cook down the maple tree sap that has been running all winter ( I guess - what do I know about making maple syrup ) It is just a very good picture.

NYC Freedom Tower B.A.S.E. Jump

This is real  - happened last September ( so much for that " most secure place on the planet ) and only came to light yesterday. The story from The Daily News.

And HUFFPO NY 

Trailer | The Story of the Jews | PBS

Simon Schama is pretty much my number one online crush. I have his BBC History of Britain , all 15 hours, committed to memory. His Power of Art series is just religion for me. This starts tonight on PBS - I could NOT be more excited

What we woke up too this morning

Yes, I know, I said I liked it, and I very much do in October, November, December, January and February - even the first half of March....

It was thirty years ago today.....

Any Guess ?

Not so fast ....

Sure Spring kicked in this past week, but only on the calendar. Woke up this morning to an inch or so of snow, mostly gone by the late afternoon and tonight it is cold, back down to the single digits - they are saying it will warm up by the end of the week.

A few folks came over this afternoon, Dark and Stormys were drank, snacks were eaten. I have an obsession with odd colored carrots.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Was up and out early to help a friend with one of her Indian Dinners to benefit a school for girls in India - I guess I was super busy, because I only took one photo all day long.

Yummy Deep Fried Cauliflower...

Worked over there this morning, came home, knocked out a luncheon for 10

for Neils gardening group.

•  Sausage and Cheese Strata
• Creamy Grits
• Chicken Salad Sandwiches on Sweet and Plain Breads
• A Lovely Salad

see , it was lovely

Then went back and finished up over there... 

Back to Normal

Miss Sadie went back home today - I think we spoil dogs when they stay with us, Im sure she is looking out the next door window all mournful....

Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly) - Icicle Works

Obamacare? Are you nuts?

dinner

Ham

Rice/Wild Rice

Smoked Collard Greens

Golden Beets

K+B's hero

Fred Phelps is dead.

To quote the late great Moms Mabley : " They say you shouldn't say nothin' about the dead unless it's good. He's dead. Good! "

Story from the NYT if you must, I think the sooner this vile thing is forgotten dust the better.

Jim Cantore.

Dinner

IT WILL BE SPRING!

IT WILL BE SPRING!

 Bright and sunny afternoon, not too much snow on the ground - we will just pretend that Summer is right around the corner!

Daily Koda

White dog in mud, Upstate NY gets four seasons, Mud started a little early this year.

Neneh Cherry feat. Robyn - "Out Of The Black" (Official Video)

exactly

The Cambridges get their Irish on

LOADS MORE PICS.

Enjoy the pretty.

St. Patrick's Day '14.

I was not going to do anything today, you know, something else is happening this week. Was just going to leave this one to B'head.

Then THIS happened:

( THE STORY )

Number 1 :Really, you freaking Australian ? Have the Irish not drink beer on St. Patty's day ?

Number Two, as gay men, and as LIBERAL gay men, it was out duty to have at least one Guinness today , like I said on the fb " Sod You, Rupert! "

Beautiful , but pretty darn cold day. Clear sidewalks, the first in a while.

Our official salute to Rupert Murdock

Day drinking in a bar.

Some guys around us were drinking these things , and the bartenders, the only girls in the place, talked us into it . Hard core pressure " want one ? " Sure !  An Irish Car Bomb - way un PC , but pretty darn tasty! Half a glass of Guinness, a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey that is topped off with some Baileys. Don't judge us, we did walk -and they were very good!

Might as well have been a gay bar....

We had a very fun time , and were home very early - two good things!