Graduation Cake

Today was Kirk's last day of physical therapy following his shoulder surgery last November. He "informed" me in his usual teenager way that it was tradition to bring in a cake on graduation day. Therapy graduation? Ok. I'll bite. The boy has had a long road back from this surgery and will be gone in a matter of months. I made the dang cake. Dark chocolate fudge. Mmmm...

Of course, as Kirk finishes, Jake starts. He saw the orthopedist yesterday who approved his healing, removed a stray stubborn stitch in his foot, and sent him off to therapy. We start next week. I say "we" because unlike Kirk, Jacob can't drive himself. *sigh* At least someone still needs me.

A Visit to Hanover College

Hanover...Hanover was lots of potential in the morning and had lost some of it's luster in the afternoon, literally. On the drive down, it was cold. Really cold. -5 F degrees cold. A large part of the drive paralleled the Ohio River through Kentucky where last Tuesday they had ice instead of our deep snow. Every twig of every branch was covered in ice. The vistas of the hills around us as we drove were visually stunning as the sun came up. First pink and yellow were reflected, then turning to storybook white.

The river itself was shrouded in swirling, eerie fog. When we reached Milton, Kentucky and had to cross the Milton-Madison bridge, it was like driving into nothing. The only thing you could see was the bridge iteself immediately around you. Not even a car length ahead or behind. Even though I could feel us climbing up, it felt more like floating. This two lane bridge has a main span of 600 feet and total length of 3,184 feet. It has a deck width of a mere 20 feet, and above the deck the vertical clearance is only 16.8 feet. Most big rigs can't even use it.

We were rewarded on the other side of the bridge with historic Madison, IN. It's so cute it hurts.

We made our way through town, stopping for hot chocolate and scones at a local coffee house and eventually made our way to the campus. The campus is high above the Ohio River and tucked back into the woods being what Jane Austen would refer to as "happily situated." We wound our way down aptly named Scenic Drive when the most amazing thing happened. The sun was just begninning to warm the trees and an ever so slight breeze was beginning to whisper through the branches. Without a cloud in the blue sky, ice began to flake away from the trees. It wasn't snow, it wasn't chunks, it was flakes of ice that sparkled the way snow just cannot. It swirled all around us, floating, dancing. By the time we reached the brick buildings and iron lamp posts of the campus, it wouldn't have taken much to convince me that we'd arrived in Narnia.

Kirk wasn't very good at reading the campus map and building names were obscured by the piles of snow cleared from walkways. We ended up at the administration building instead of the admissions building and everything just lost it's appeal from there. We back-tracked to the admissions building, were lucky enough to get a visitor's parking space in the poorly plowed lot and were greeted with a competent secretary, a warm fire, and no guide for our campus tour. Our guide eventually showed, but late. Bundling up we headed out into the bitter cold which rendered the etherial ice crystals less romantic while our perky sophomore guide tried to make her numb lips move. Some more history about the school would have been nice, but when you can't make your lips move, looking at old pillars just doesn't hold your attention. We did our best to stay indoors as long as possible. The science building was good for examining wooly mammoth tusks and the enormous skull of something prehistoric called a "Terminator Pig." I think its technical name is "dinohyus."

Because it was so cold, we power-walked through the tour rather than meandering and getting a good feel for the campus. We arrived at our appointment with the football coaching staff twenty minutes early. They were accomodating and toured us through the athletic facilities, which were impressive for a division three school. We watched a highlight video that reminded me more of high school ball than college ball and Kirk thought their players looked slow. Next came chalk talk with the offensive coordinator. This was completely lost on me. Kirk seemed to understand it, but I may as well have been listening to a physics lecture in Sanskrit. I tried to at least look alert and interested. I appreciated that it was readily apparent the coach had viewed and anaylized Kirk's film. Finally the head coach came in, to interview Kirk really. It was kind of stiff, but frank and honest. We left with a feeling that they wanted to know "what can you do for us" rather than "we think you're a great player and want you to be part of our team."

Next came lunch with the players. Our hosts were the quarterback and a wide receiver. Several of the players made a point to introduce themselves to Kirk while we ate. Food was decent, not as good as some of the other schools we've toured. The players seemed to spend more of our lunch talking to me than to Kirk.

After lunch was Elvis.

Lunch went quickly and we arrived back at admissions a full thirty minutes early before our next appointment. The competent secretary informed us that our assigned counselor was still at lunch, but she called to let him know that we had arrived early. He kept us waiting for 45 minutes, 15 minutes past the time we were scheduled to meet...with no apology. Kirk has already been accepted by Hanover so I was puzzled as to why they had even scheduled an interview with admissions. The competent secretary assured me it was mostly informational for Kirk's benefit. He could ask questions and so forth. Kirk had to spend a lot more time with the counselor than I did so it was a good thing he had a cold. I swear, the man had to have bathed in his cologne. It wasn't even an unpleasant cologne, but there was so much of it I wanted to gag. It permiated his office and clung to everything it touched. When he shut the door behind me I felt trapped with it like it was alive. I was antsy to leave, sure that I would end up smelling like him the way you leave a campfire smelling of wood smoke. You just can't help it. His hair was all one shade of black like it had been dyed. He even had longer sideburns. I vaguely recall him talking a lot about financial aid and trying to impress us with the fact that he was the second most senior admissions counselor at the school. He didn't look more than 24 and I don't think there was more than three counselors in the directory. He quoted a lot of statistics that did more to push my feelings away rather than endear me to the idea of my son attending the school.

When we were finally able to leave, Kirk and I drove by the stadium and paused at one of the best views of the river from the school to mark our trip.

I was so happy to finally be on the road home. We stopped for fudge at a little shop in Madison that was cuter from the outside than on the inside. The fudge was rendered quite unremarkable when we had to sit in construction traffic for 45 minutes to get back across the bridge. We were happily home before 5:00 pm. Kirk was invited for an overnight stay. I don't know if he'll go. Its biggest appeal is it's affordability among small private schools. If he gets accepted to them, there are other schools he'd rather attend. For my part, the best part of the day was getting to spend it alone with Kirk. We even drove home without the radio on, chatting about nothing important and complaining about Elvis.

Everyone loves a snow day. After four days however, cabin fever sets in. Over much complaining, the kids did manage to shovel the driveway and build a snow cave as well. We've had snow, ice and freezing rain, and more snow. The temperatures continue to be below freezing so nothing is melting off and the roads continue to be a mess. It seems salt was unusually expensive this year so cities bought less to stay on budget. We're paying for it now with ice that won't go away.

Jake's favorite part of the new snow was making Molasses on Snow Candy like they did in the Little House in the Big Woods. It looks kinda freaky, but if you like the flavor of molasses, it's super yummy. The worst part is probably the fact that it's so sticky it will nearly pull your fillings out.

A Stolen 24 Hours

Kirk had his second overnight recruiting trip. He spent all day Friday and overnight at Denison Univeristy. I think it's his favorite so far. We dropped him at the Coach's office Friday morning where he was paired up with a host from the football team. First his host took him to his admissions interview. Kirk had brought a suit to wear but didn't get to change into it before the interview. He said he felt all the essay's he written for all the applications he's filled out really helped him formulate good answers on the fly for the interview.

From there he attended a bio diversity class which was basically freshman biology. Kirk has already had AP Biology so he was very smug when he knew the answers to all the professor's questions and the college kids didn't. The professor tried to keep Kirk chatting too long following class when all Kirk wanted to do was go to lunch.

After lunch was Early Meso-American Literature. Kirk said it was all he could do to stay awake in that class. I'm glad he had a taste of both. Some classes are boring and some are interesting. You need to pass both to graduate. He had a chance to meet with the department head and discuss pre-med majors and opportunties at Denison. After that was dinner and I'm not sure how he spent his evening except just hanging with the other recruites and football players.

The whole ride up in the car Kirk that morning, Kirk and his friend Jimmy Walerius (another Loveland player being recruited) joked about who was going to get to sleep on the bed since dorm rooms have limited space and furniture. Further, they'd been asked to bring a sleeping bag. They made great claims about kicking their host out of bed and taking the bed for themselves, but postulated this plan was mostly likely to work if they were being hosted by the kicker and not a lineman. We were hysterical when Kirk texted us to let us know his host was in fact the kicker, but that he wouldn't be kicking him out of his bed because he out-weighed Kirk by about forty pounds.

In the meantime...

The coach had extended in invitation to the parents to have breakfast with him before picking up the boys so we opted to tag along and spend the night in Granville rather than let Kirk drive himself up. We stayed at the Granville Inn, built in the early 1920's. It's kind of old and drafty, but with comfortable feather beds and all the charm of a turn of the centurty inn.

Granville is a quaint, New England-style community located in Licking County (east of Columbus, Ohio) along the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau. It is the home of Denison University. The Village has a permanent population of 3200 and a total population of 5100 when the college students are in session.

Granville was founded in 1805 by settlers from Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut, who sought more fertile farmland. Before leaving New England, the Village design was planned in great detail using the traditional New England town center. Advance parties came westward early in 1805 to plant corn for the fall harvest and to erect a mill for sawing lumber and grinding corn. They also laid out the farm and village plats.

The Village began to prosper and achieved early maturity in the first part of the 19th century. The Ohio Canal (Cleveland to Portsmouth) was begun in 1825 and passed through Licking County several miles east of Granville. A feeder canal was constructed and the commerce that resulted made Granville a thriving community.

Educational institutions have played an important role in the development of the Village of Granville. Three weeks after the main party of immigrants arrived in Granville, a committee was appointed to establish a school for the eighty children. Academies and colleges were founded and flourished; eventually becoming an important business for the Village. The Granville Literary and Theological Institution (1831) later became Granville College (1845) and then Denison University (1856), one of the outstanding private liberal arts colleges in the country. In 1833, the Female Academy was founded. In 1867, the Female Academy was rechartered as the Granville Female College, which closed in 1898. in 1832, the Granville Female Seminary began and was later renamed The Young Ladies’ Institute in 1861. In 1886, The Young Ladies’ Institute was renamed as the Shepardson College.

In 1880, the Ohio Central Railroad came to Granville with the interurban street railway ten years later connecting the Village to nearby Newark. Granville has retained its small town charm characterized by quaint, locally-owned retail shops, historic homes and churches, tree-lined boulevards, and stately buildings located on College Hill. Granville maintains its ties to the past by preserving a historic district that contributes over one hundred buildings to the National Register of Historic Places.

We loved walking around town and looking at the New England architecture. The Green Velvet was a boutique of all things French. French ribbon, French soap, French paper...it's the kind of store that's just fun to look around in. I especially loved the chandelier outside the store.

We had hot chocolate and muffins at this little shop on Main Street while we planned out our day.

The old cemetary has graves from the villiage's original settlers. Many are faded beyond being able to read anymore.

Who would have thought this little place would turn up in middle Ohio? We didin't go in, but I couldn't leave without taking a picture. Signs said visitors were welcome to sit on the porch anytime. I'm not even sure the place was open. Many of the town's museums were closed for the winter season. January isn't a great time of year for tourism.

Of course even after a stolen 24 hours, one does have to come home. We had breakfast with the coach where we were surprised (along with other parents who had driven much father than we had) that there was no presentation. We just ate breakfast and chatted with the other parents. Then we picked up Kirk and came back to real.

Good News

The pathology results came back today on the tumors Jake had removed last week. They were all benign. We are heaving huge sighs of relief!!

Center College

We left at 6:00 am this morning in heavy rains. We were grateful it wasn't freezing rain or snow as was promised by the weather service. Our gratitude lasted until the rain picked up. We referred to this as "car wash rain" and it lasted the entire 2.5 hours to Danville, Kentucky. We faced thunder, lightning, big rigs, road construction, hydroplaning and the rain was unrelenting in the darkness. The sun didn't come up until we were almost there. We did stop for breakfast but I was so nervous I couldn't eat almost anything. Kirk slept just about the whole way.

We did arrive alive and the school was beautiful even if it was still raining. The Suttcliffe building above is the athletic building! Something like 15 of the campus's buildings are on the National Historic Register. I had never heard of Centre College before Kirk was being recruited. I was shocked to discover that US World News ranked them #44 nationally and Forbes Magazine ranked them #13, above MIT and Stanford.

I was very impressed with the school, the faculty and it may prove to be one of Kirk's more cost effective options, especially if he's entitled to any scholarship money. Centre is a D3 school and D3 schools don't do athletic scholarships, but they know they're expensive and try hard to find academic scholarship and grant money for their athletes. One thing that really impressed me about the school is that they don't schedule classes, labs, counseling, or any official school function between 4-7 pm. This allows teams to practice without having to sacrafice class or practice time. It also lets students eat dinner with each other and sort of "come home" from their day. It helps with time management. Kirk will be returning for an overnight visit sometime in February. I pray for better weather for that trip!

America's Funniest Home Videos

Ok, so I've been thinking I needed to wash the laundry room floor. I made a point of getting the laundry caught up today so that I could do that. I even vacuumed the floor. I hadn't gotten around to washing it just yet though. I didn't suppose that when I did I would make myself a candidate for America's Funniest Home Videos.

The pilot episode of Smallville was on and I was snug on the sofa and Jake didn't need anything at the moment. I heard a thud in the laundry room and from the sound knew that the laundry soap at hit the floor, probably during the spin cycle. (The bottle is too large to fit in the cupboard above the washer and I like to sit the spout right above washer's soap dispenser.) I didn't want to get up and knew the top was screwed on tight so I wasn't concerned.

About twenty minutes later I smelled something that was reminicent of nail polish, sort of a chemical smell that was trying really hard not to smell like chemicals. The show ended and I got up to move the laundry over and discovered the smell was coming from 110 loads of highly concentrated, high efficiency liquid Tide a-l-l over the laundry room floor...and under the washer...and under the doormat...and in the grout, and edging under the toe kick. Yeah, I've just spent the last hour squeegie-ing, scooping, washing and wet-vacuuming the floor. I'm sure I'll have to do it again once it dries. If I hadn't gotten the laundry caught up, it would have fallen on the dirty clothes, I could have scooped them up, and just washed them. Very little would have gotten on the floor. So much for being on top of the laundry...