Michael Veitch is (I believe) finishing up his class on 19th century horse racing history as I type. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll have a bunch of other classes from UPH U at the Hall. There’s still some room in these classes so come on by. For more information go to the UPH U website!

…or so they tell me. We’ve reached the season of the year when it’s lovely outside, but still kind of freezing inside UPH. I’m wearing a down-vest and was huddling near my space-heater for most of the day. I’ve been able to shut it off in the past few minutes, but only because I’m now numb.

The freezing-inside-super-nice-outside season is usually pretty short-lived. It means the end of the cold-outside/cold-inside season, and the coming of the boiling-outside-but-still-kind-of-nice-inside season. Who needs the standard spring, summer, winter, and fall!

I can’t even see the weather outside because all of the windows at UPH are stained-glass. Does anyone know where I can find a Saratoga-Springs webcam that I can consult for outside conditions regularly? Let me know if such a thing exists in the comments area.

Yes, it has taken me this long to sort out UPH University (and I’m still sorting a bit). The event was a huge success - we brought in over 200 people and raised nearly $25,000. There are still some classes available if you want to register. Go to the UPH University website for more info. Tonight’s class - Improv Theater - will be taking place at UPH in 8 minutes.

The second annual SaratogaArtsFest will be June 13-15 and UPH will be a major venue. There was a press conference today at Skidmore College and Gerald Clayton, the Jazz Pianist, was featured. Mr. Clayton will perform at UPH on June 13th. For more information about the ArtsFest, got to the website: www.SaratogaArtsFest.org. Or check out Channel 13’s coverage of the press conference here.

I’m totally swamped because of the upcoming UPH U event (on Thursday!) Check out the event here. I’ll get back to blogging more regularly as soon as I recover!

Board member Emma Dodge Hanson has just brought her new son home. It’s always great to get a new supporter of the Hall, and although he’s probably too young to come to UPH U, he’s pretty cute

The invitations for the Steeplechaser’s fundraiser UPH University, went out yesterday, and people began receiving them today. It’s a new concept for a fundraiser - in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an event like it. Basically, you come to a typical fundraising event, but instead of bidding on auction items, you get to register for one-of-a-kind “classes”. (For a full description of the event, go to: www.UniversalPreservationHall/UPHUniversity.) The invitations had some (but by no means all) of the classes that are being offered listed on it. One of them, by Steeplechaser Gabe Anderson, is called “Pimp my Web Presence” and it raised a few eyebrows in a meeting I was in today (I believe the exact quote was “Does this say ‘pimp’?”.

Actually, the full name of the class is “Pimp My Web Presence - Establishing and improving your personal or small business google presence” and is about how to improve the results that come up when someone googles your name or your business. The name is a play on “Pimp my Ride” - an MTV show on which people’s cars get made-over in really outrageous ways.

It’s just one of many courses being offered at UPH University. Check out www.UniversalPreservationHall.org/UPHUniversity to see a constantly updated class list! Tickets can be purchased by clicking here or by calling 518-691-9268

Happy February 29th. Some useful (or not) leap year / UPH facts:

The Hall was built in 1871 (not a leap year) making the Hall 137 years old. Since then, there have been 33 leap days (137 years x .25 leap years per year - 1) because there was no leap day in 1900 - leap days are only on end-of-century years (1800, 1900, etc) which are divisible by 4.

In 1999 the Hall was evacuated because it was too dangerous. Since then, there have been 3 leap days (including this year) since 2000 is divisible by 4 and thus has a February 29th.

The reconstruction began in 2003 - today is only the second leap day since then.

There are currently no weddings or events scheduled at the Hall for February 29, 2012 - make sure you’re not left out of this once in a four-year-period event possibility!

I’m not entirely sure why I find this so interesting, but for more Leap-Day fun facts, check out this essay from today’s New York Times. But only if you think February 29th is as scintillating as I do. Or if you really like Gilbert & Sullivan.

I’m having a meeting in about 45 minutes with the volunteer team from Leadership Saratoga which is creating a “history of UPH” timeline for display at the Hall. Elisa Sheehan (of Lis Design) is working with them to create the look of the timeline so I’m sure it will be beautiful. I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post a digital version on the website soon.

Until then, I’ve been updating some of the images on the site recently - make sure you check it out!

I had a fund-raising committee meeting today. Peggy mentioned that the website hadn’t been updated in a long time and we really needed to show more progress. I explained that our entire in-house web-department had gotten the flu recently but I would have them update the site as soon as they were back.

In reality, we don’t have an in-house web-department (yes, I have a large imaginary staff. No, I don’t think that makes me crazy), so I started updating the site myself today. The history of the restoration page is now up-to-date through Summer 2007. More updates, coming soon!