New Link

As most of you know, I come from a family that has a strong interest in railroads. So strong that we have our own family railroad, The Sullivan Railroad. Over the past couple of years, my Uncle Artie has been working very hard to improve the operation of the railroad. Last week, he set up a blog to give the history of how The Sullivan Railroad came about, where it has gone and where it is going. The Sullivan Railroad, by far, has and will always be my favorite toy as a kid. And, I will never grow up!
I have posted the link on the right hand side of the blog, so please feel free to check out The Sullivan Railroad as it continues to grow.

This end up

Dennis had another one of hie quotable quotes last night that made me crack up. I figured I'd share it with the rest of you.
To set the scene: I decide to make a cup of tea last night. I enjoy a bit of honey in my tea and go to the cabinet to retrieve the honey bear. Lo and behold, it is upside down and there's honey all over the cabinet. Because I'm short, I need a chair to get into the cabinet and clean it. I'm wondering the whole time if I accidently stored the bear this way, or if Dennis threw it in there without realizing.
Dennis comes around the corner with a puzzled look on his face and this conversation ensues:

"What are you doing on that chair?"
"I'm cleaning all this honey up in the cabinet because it was in there upside down."
here's the quote-
"Well Rachel Ray says that once the honey is below the bear's belly you're supposed to turn him upside down."

I had no response to that...

Rochester Marathon

Last Sunday my younger cousins, Trisha and Michelle, Teresa and I ran the 2008 Preferred Care Rochester Marathon. We called ourselves "The Homefries."

If you have ever eaten at our Grandma's Diner, Sullivan's Diner, then you know that Gram served the best homefries in Horseheads. We also had to make sure we had a catchy phrase on the back of our shirts so then everyone behind us had something to read.

We all ran a good race considering the conditions we had to deal with. The day before the race it poured basically all day and the forecast called for the same thing on race day. (Thanks Hurricane Ike.) But to our surprise the next morning was the total opposite. It was 76 degrees, with the humidity close to 90%....but that is a problem, it was 5:00am, so it only was going to get hotter as the day went on.

Our overall time was 4:08:28, averaging 9:29 minutes per mile. We finished 40th out of 97 relay teams and finished 21st out of 49 teams in our race category (Mixed).

The splits:

1. Michelle for 6.5 miles ran 1:00:57 (9:22 mins/mile)
2. Trisha for 6.0 miles ran 59:35 (9:56 mins/mile)
3. Dennis for 7.5 miles ran 1:05:53 (8:44 mins/mile)
4. Teresa for 6.2 miles ran 1:02:03 (10:00 mins/mile)

I know, I know, probably to much running jargon, so here is a collection of pics from a few camera's on the course.

One last snack

The famous self-portrait

"Is everyone awake?"

Michelle running the first leg.

Michelle and Trisha at the end of Trish's leg (2nd leg).

Trish, Michelle and Teresa waiting for me to finish my leg, so Teresa can finally run her part of the race. Being the 4th runner, Teresa could have slept in later.Trisha, me and Michelle at end of my leg (3rd leg).

Teresa approaching the finish line.

Time to refuel with some liquids and of course pizza!
After a great run, in very undesirable conditions, we are all able to smile and celebrate a good race. Look for us next year and/or at future marathons.

Thank you to Mama Hall, Papa Hall, Mama Sullivan and Krystle for being our cheering section and transportation from point to point. We really appreciated you being there, and we appreciate all the well wishes we received from those that were unable to be there.

On the Road Again

We have been traveling fools for the past few weeks...(which explains the lack of updating!)

First stop was Greenville for my friend Lauren and Matt's wedding. Greenville is a small town just outside of Albany. They had an outdoor wedding and could not have had a more perfect day. It was gorgeous!
We clean up pretty nice, don't we?

The wedding was also fun because I got to see all my PT friends from school. I haven't seen these girls in way too long! I gotta give a shout out to Stephanie though because she knew all the updates from reading the blog religiously.

The next day we went to Horseheads for Kendall and Nolan's baptism. The kiddos are getting way too big!

They did great and were very proud all day. Dennis also obtained a few more godchildren this day. He's gonna have trouble keeping them straight soon!
Nolan was incredibly interested in what the priest had to say. If you look past the heads, you can see him right up in the middle of the action.

The next weekend was another baptism, this time for new baby Alexander. We hightailed it back to Horseheads to join in the festivities. Here's Alex with the proud parents.Jenn and Sam asked Dennis and I to be the godparents, which was a great honor for us. He didn't even cry when the water was poured on his head...maybe because it was 85 degrees that day.

Phew! After all that excitement, I think we'll lay low for awhile!