Win-Win

I love baseball, especially the Atlanta Braves. I've been following them for roughly forty years, through the dismal 1970s and 80s when they usually were mathematically eliminated from being contenders by the All Star break, into the exciting 1990s when they won a record fourteen-straight championships (most straight by any pro sports team -- not just baseball), and into the new millennium.

I also love to sing, and I've been a part of various choirs for longer than I've been a baseball fan. Currently, I sing in the choir at Midway Presbyterian Church. On Monday, my two loves were combined as my church choir sang the national anthem at the Braves game. We submitted a recording to the Braves about this time last year, and at the start of the season this year, they called to invite us. August 30 just happened to be the date that worked for the majority of choir members.

This is uncharted cyber-territory for me, but hopefully there will be a You Tube link here that will let you see and hear our rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.



Singing at the game itself was not uncharted territory for me. Back in the late 1970s, I sang in a community chorus that was invited twice to sing. That was back in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, so this was my first time to set foot on the grass of Turner Field. The Braves won the game, 9-3, and a good time was had by all.

Peachy Keen Part Three

After I left my mom's house on Thursday, I went straight to Emily's house so that I could give her some of the peaches. No one came to the front door when I rang the bell, but I could hear the kids out back. So I went around the house and found these sweet and goofy, swim-suited kids running around the deck and occasionally splashing in their small pool. (With parental supervision, of course.)

Happy Black Friday!

I'm not helping the retail industry recovery efforts today. This is the first year in a while that Emily and I haven't gone shopping at 4 or 5 a.m. Being 8-1/2 months pregnant is an excuse, I guess. (Her, not me.)

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at my house. Phillip's Grandma and Grandpa didn't know that he had come home, so they were naturally delighted to see him. He had acquired another crazy hat in Tampa, and here is Caleb testing it out. The only problem is that it's way to big on him, so he can't see a thing!

Fun at Grammy's House

Highlight of the Week

This week's highlight was a yummy seafood dinner celebrating my dad's 74th birthday. You may be able to guess the menu item that he chose. Daddy just retired at the beginning of October, so now he has more time for his favorite pursuit: bike riding. He regularly makes a round trip circuit of sixty-five miles! I have trouble driving that far! Four or five years ago he took a two-day bike ride of some 200 miles. That's not my idea of a good time by any means, but I'm sure I'd be in as great a shape as he is, if it were. And I might have made the same menu selection that he did.

When You Can't Decide

If you can't decide between cookies and candy, have them both. I've been taking Caleb and Alexa to the local library for story time each week. A nice surprise is that they also have a small craft for the children to complete. This week, instead of a craft, they had sugar cookies to decorate. These aren't very good pictures of the kids, but I wanted pictures of the cookies because I thought they'd be devoured, and I wanted Emily to be able to see what they did at the library. Both kids opted to eat all the candy and leave the cookie behind, though. Maybe they ate the cookies later at home.

Tonight's the Night

A few weeks ago I wrote about the taping of the 10th Anniversary of Good Eats, a Food Network program, that we attended. Reminder: Tonight at 10 p.m. is when the show airs.

Zoom, Zoom

I wish that were the sound of my new dream machine flying across fabric, but alas, it is the sound of my keyboard and calculator as I continue to play catch-up with American Vision bookkeeping. I made one lonely postcard this week, for my young friend, Liz, and her husband, Joe, who welcomed baby Jude this week. It turned out cute, and they have a dachshund, too. (The dog's name is Aberdeen, in case any of you were wondering.) (Not my blue, spotted dog -- Liz's dog.)Last Saturday's birthday party for my father-in-law was a success, if I do say so myself. He seemed please with it, and I was thankful that so many family members were able to come. In the background of the picture is his sister, Frances, who lives in Canton.When most of the party-goers had left, Emily was sitting on the sofa with two or three of her cousins who are sisters. It was a little disconcerting to overhear my father-in-law asking his daughter who the girls were. He knew Emily, but he didn't know his other granddaughters. I don't know if he's seen them since Christmas or not, but I was still surprised by the inquiry. It also means that he probably didn't know his nieces and nephews either, although he didn't let on while they were there.

Today will be a zoom, zoom day. After an early morning haircut (pictures later, if the hair and the rest of me look OK), I'll head to the Cobb County Civic Center for the 2009 Georgia Celebrates Quilts exhibit. This is an every-other-year event that I wish were every year! It is like going to an art gallery, and I never cease to be amazed at the skill and creativity of the participants. I'm just a dabbler, but these people are quilters and artists.

When I leave there, I'm headed to the grounds of the North Georgia State Fair. The fair doesn't open until Thursday, but I've decided to enter the selvage purse I made. I may enter some homemade pralines too, but those don't get delivered until Wednesday.

The final event for the day is a Braves baseball game. We've apparently entered monsoon season this week (2.5" of rain on Wednesday, 1.5" on Thursday, and 0.7" on Friday) and two of the last three games have had initial rain delays of over two hours. That doesn't really sound like a good time to me, and since the tickets were free, I won't feel too badly if we don't see an entire game.

Finally, as I left the house yesterday for some errands, I realized that I hadn't seen Blinky for a while. When I leave the house, I always like to ascertain her whereabouts to be sure that she didn't accidentally get shut up in a closet. Finally, I found her. The sheets were off the bed for laundering and she burrowed her way inside the spread. Looks good to me, on a rainy day.

The Big Day is Here

This afternoon is the party I am hosting for James' daddy's 90th birthday. I took this Boy Scout memorabilia (left) to the framing shop, and this is the finished product (right) that we will give him today. We'll even hang it on the wall for him. I think he'll be pleased.

Make Sure You Have it All

Make sure when you are about to take your baby out in the stroller that you have your purse, bag, purse, bag, and purse with you. You can never be sure what you might need. I wish I could have gotten a picture later of Alexa pushing the stroller. She had a hand on each handle, which necessitated the use of her shoulder to hold her cell phone to her ear while she jabbered away.

Good Eats, Good Fun

Last week I forgot to give you an update on the event we attended -- the 10th birthday party for the Food Network show, Good Eats. James and I agreed that it was one of the most fun thing we'd been to in years. We laughed through the whole afternoon. They were taping this show and occasionally the camera would pan the crowd, but don't expect to see us on television as our seats were high up in the balcony. Still, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center is not that large, and we could see everything perfectly. The show will air on Saturday, October 10th at 10 p.m. (10/10 at 10 for their 10th anniversary. Get it?)

All Wet

We made an impromptu visit to the Georgia Aquarium on Thursday. It was our first visit, even
though the aquarium opened almost four years ago! (Wow! Time flies.) Anyway, James had some comp time coming and he decided to take off on Thursday; and I thought it might be a good time to go since school has just resumed but it's still to soon for field trips. It was not crowded at all and we had a great time. Since I've been to aquariums in Chattanooga, Charleston, and Tampa, the only really new thing for me was the beluga whales, and they were worth seeing. I think I could have sat and watched them for hours; they seemed so calm and peaceful.

But I enjoyed watching these not-exactly-calm otters, too.

Fudge and Pralines

No, I haven't been making candy, although it's not a bad idea. We are going to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center this afternoon to see the live taping of the 10th Anniversary of Good Eats, a Food Network program featuring Alton Brown. I don't watch much of the Food Network, but Alton Brown is a local guy who often explains the science behind cooking, always in a humorous way. (Like why you stir pralines -- or was it divinity? -- while it is cooling, but you don't stir fudge. It has to do with the size of the sugar crystals. Hence, the title of this post.) His shows sometimes include visits to local food markets or kitchen supply stores, and that's fun to see, too. I'll give you a report of the show next week.

Where Did the Week Go?

It went by so fast -- unlike when you're working! Monday I made my usual grocery store and drug store runs. Run of the mill, that is. Also on Monday I went to the framing shop to order a shadow box of this Boy Scout memorabilia.This will be a birthday gift for James' daddy next month.The rest of Monday and Tuesday (excluding my dental cleaning -- no cavities) was spent doing the housework that didn't get finished last week. Also, I did some minor cooking in preparation for lunch with a couple of friends at my house on Wednesday. It was lots of fun looking at pictures from a recent class reunion and then looking up people in the yearbook when we had no clue who they were!

I went to Hancock Fabrics and Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts on Thursday. One of the things on my list was outdoor fabric to redo the cushion on the porch glider. I didn't come home with any. Bummer. I was also looking for Christmas fabric, but I'm still a bit early. They had Christmas crafting-type fabric out, but not really any dress fabric. Bummer. And I had to go to Little Quilts because neither of the fabric stores had leather thimbles, and I recently lost the one I had. Bummer again. Then... I had to go back to Jo-Ann's on Friday because I didn't realize that the sale featuring several things I wanted didn't start until Friday. This extra trip is beyond bummer, but I'm trying to keep it clean here. I got six patterns for $1 each. One dollar is about right. There's no way on earth I would pay $15.95 (the regular price each of three of them) for an envelope full of paper. If you want to look at my purchase Emily's way, I saved 94% on patterns! I also got ten spools of thread and a roll of quilt batting at half-price.

I spent a good part of Friday morning trying to figure out how to list something to sell on Ebay. I finally got there. Or here, if you prefer.

Finally, I've had this for a month and I keep forgetting to post it. When we vacation in the Charleston area, we usually attend Sunday worship at Eastbridge PCA in Mount Pleasant. When we stay on Isle of Palms, it's not a bad trip, but when we are at Folly Beach, it's nearly an hour drive. Come Sunday morning of vacation, James and I decided we didn't want to make the hour-long drive. (Takes longer to recover from the seven-hour Saturday drive to get to the beach.) So, we decided to go to the local Baptist church. It was an OK service, with a good, scriptural message. I love their slogan, taken from the bulletin:

Slackin'

At 8:30 on Saturday morning, I realized that I'm slackin' on my Saturday posting. It's been another busy week. I don't know how I used to work full time!

The purse I showed you last week sold, so I needed to quickly make another to take its place on Etsy. I pretty much did nothing else on Monday and Tuesday.I think this is my favorite one. (I say that every time.) I like the floral panel in the center and the floral handles. Here's the pocket detail inside.

Now I can't remember why, but I needed to use the scanner this week. So I opened the computer hutch in my sewing room and waited for the computer to boot up. Turned around, and "Guess Who?"

She would be sitting on the scanner that I intended to use.

The remainder of my week I worked at my bookkeeping job; met with a VA liaison for a couple of hours, working toward getting VA benefits for James' parents at the Assisted Living facility; cleaned house as little as I could get by with; and designed, printed, addressed, and mailed this invitation for a party at my house next month.This afternoon Angi and are are headed to the Braves game. 4:00 p.m. 90 degrees. Near-death experience forthcoming.

Way Past My Bedtime

It's Friday night at 10:35 as I write this. It seems I haven't had a spare minute all week. (But it was fun, Liz.) Part of my busyness comes from the fact that this time tomorrow night, I'll be asleep at the beach. At least I hope so. Anyway, you'll have to make do with a few pictures this week from Caleb & Alexa's birthday party last Saturday.

Fourth of July

The full extent of our Independence Day celebration last Saturday was inviting "the kids" over for a cookout. Wild and crazy party animals, we are not.

There Are Days...

There are days when this says it all:

The Winning Ticket

Shortly before I went to Tampa, I visited a used bookstore three miles or so from home. It was the first time I'd been there. They mostly have paperbacks and mostly current fiction or classics. I did find three or four books of interest. While there, I filled out a slip to win a $20 gift certificate. The owner called me on Monday to tell me that I'd won! It's not quite as big a prize as I won last August, but I'll take it anyway.

Tampa Trip - Baseball

I had a great time in Tampa last weekend visiting Phillip. After he picked me up at the airport, we killed a little time and then headed to Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays play. I didn't know anything about the team and didn't care too much who won the game, but I love baseball and the opportunity to see a different major league park. The week before I went, my first surprise was to learn that it's a domed stadium. Here's what it looks like from the road. It really does have a tilted roof.This really cool tiled walkway leads up to the main entrance where the startling line-ups are posted.The first thing that caught my attention inside was this water fountain alcove.This view as well as the game confirmed what I already knew: I don't like indoor baseball on astroturf.There's a "petting tank" of sting rays in right centerfield. The back side of the tank is accessible in a children's area. Phillip says it's the only major league live mascot that's in mortal danger from homeruns!The ceiling -- the roofline is higher behind home plate where there are several decks of seating and lower in the outfield where there is no upper deck.Before the game started, Phillip and I were able to walk all the way around the stadium. It seems very small compared to Turner Field. We had to laugh at the so-called "Party Deck" in the outfield. My picture was too fuzzy to use, but there are disco balls hanging in the concourse area, and the only "party-goers" we saw were at least 70 years old. We didn't stay 'til the end, but Tampa won the game, and it was fun.