Never in My Lifetime

Clemson Stuns No. 7 Duke, 78-74 Clemson is not known for its basketball team. Never has been. Clemson is the only original member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to have never won the ACC Tournament. They are closer now than they have ever been in my lifetime. Not since 1962 have they even been in the finals. They lost to Wake Forest that year. Tomorrow they get another chance. This time against the University of North Carolina. Today they beat the #7 ranked Duke. Tomorrow they play the #1 Tarheels. It's a mighty challenge. I hope the guys are up to it. I'm so proud of what they accomplished today. I almost came to tears at the final buzzer. I couldn't get PMF on the phone, so I called my friend Arnold who went to UNC. His son Adam answered the phone. I asked Adam if his dad was watching basketball. He said, "Duke and Clemson? Yeah." "You know Clemson just won that game." "Really?" "Do you know what that means, Adam?" "What?" "Clemson plays UNC tomorrow for the tournament championship." He says loudly "They're going down!!!" Then I got to talk to Arnold, and of course, Catherine. The game's at 12:30. I guess there's no going out for lunch after church tomorrow. Go Tigers!

Photo Friday

A new feature at Yarn to Knit! I've decided that each Friday I will feature a photo from my extensive library of digital photos. I've got a lot of them. I love taking pictures. I have them pretty well organized on my PC and have decided to share them with you, my blog reading public.
This is Starr's Mill in Fayetteville, Georgia. I went to Fayetteville with my PMF last Labor Day. When you go to the big shopping center in Fayetteville, you pass by this place. PMF had always wanted to stop there and this was the day. It's a lovely little park. We enjoyed our stop there and got some great pictures. Then we went on for a big day of shopping at the Fayetteville Pavillion. Great place to shop. Every big box store you can imagine. Well, almost.

New Computer!!!!

Y'all, I got a new computer. It's a Dell laptop. 2 GB of memory, 120 GB hard drive, DVD burner, and a wide screen. It's so nice. I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up on one of the many yarn totes and the computer in my lap. I'm wireless, baby!! I could be sitting in the bed doing this. To put this in perspective, let me tell you about my old computer - it was an eMachines desktop, 8 GB hard drive, and I bought it EIGHT YEARS AGO this month. Yes, I own a computer from the twentieth century. Today I upgraded from Windows 98 SE to Windows Vista Home Premium. Holy Cow! My PMF installed my wireless network and did a bang up job for me. I enjoy all the little flashing lights on the router.

I missed knitting tonight. I babysat for my boys, Jack and Gray, tonight and thought their folks might get home in time for me to go to knit for a little bit, but alas, they came in too late. That's okay, though. Next week we go to Panera. Yea!!

Kids and Knits!

These are the Sunday School kids (along with one mom - he wouldn't stop crying, it's his twin sister who has the broken leg and we think he misses her.) Anyway, I'm in the back with the two cute little girls in my lap. That's the PMF on the left. I love the picture below where it looks like he's getting a "wet willy." They're a great bunch of kids. Our lesson was "God wants us to get along." After the lesson I broke up two fights by saying, "Hey! God wants us to get along!" I don't know if they really got it, but they stopped fighting, so there!
That sad little white blob there on the left is my practice sock. The heel looks great. For some reason though it's kind of blobby in the instep. I think I'm trying toe up next time. The one on the right is Debbie's. It 's not blobby, though there is the interesting accent of a purl row on the right side. (Oops, she said.) Our group has one more week at Burger King and then we move to Panera Bread. I'm excited. Better food! And we get to knit in public again. I so miss knitting in public (KIPing).

The Yarn Harlot posted details about her Atlanta visit. I've made my reservation. I'll have to show her my sad little sock. How embarrassing!

Bubbles, Knitting, & Recipes

My PMF and I went on a Gazillion Bubbles buying spree yesterday. He found them on clearance at Kmart, so we had to hit all three of the Kmart's in town and scoop them up. It was hilarious. We bought 38 bottles. 304 ounces of Gazillion Bubbles. We spent $28.46. On Sunday we had bought some at WalMart - 120 ounces for $20. (Those are going back to WalMart.) We use them in Sunday School to help the kids transition from Mommy & Daddy time to Sunday School time. Also, we like to give them to our kids when we have the need - like the little girl who broke her leg last week. We sent some home with her twin brother Sunday.

After the spree he came to meet my knitting group. He calls me while I'm there and now they - well, especially Rhonda - have a face to put with his voice and name. Once he left I worked on my practice sock. I got to the point where I need to do the toe decrease and checked the time. 9:00pm. Didn't want to start the toe decrease at 9:00pm. I probably should have done that tonight, but instead I got online and started surfing and here I am - Yikes! - four hours later in the same chair.

Tonight's Dinner Recipe from Fitness Magazine:
Mediterranean Penne (approx. 500 calories)
2 ounces whole-wheat penne, uncooked
1/2 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
Cook penne and drain. Toss all ingredients in pot and warm for about 7 minutes.

It was good, though my oregano may have been a little past its prime.

Here's what I'm having for lunch tomorrow, also from Fitness:
White Bean & Pesto Pita (approx. 400 calories)
1/2 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp pesto
1 cup spinach
1 medium whole-grain pita.
Mix it up and fill the pita.

Have a great week.

Miscellanea

I had lots of fun at Six Flags on Monday (congrats to Dawn for following the link and figuring it out), though the heat was a lot to take. So much that I was persuaded by my PMF to venture into Skull Island fully clothed. I did feel much better afterward, but walking around in wet heavy knit fabric shorts for the rest of the afternoon was rather uncomfortable.

Work is very busy. I got back Tuesday and found I was scheduled to do two new commercials. It was a busy day. As was today. Plus, the GM wants me to continue to work on our design for our new logo. I thought we'd settled on the new logo. Guess I was wrong.

Tonight I was in the church nursery and got a call from the Children's Minister letting me know that one of my new Sunday School students (who is supposed to start on Sunday) is in the hospital with a broken femur (thigh bone). She has a twin brother. They'll be two-years-old next week. The PMF, who teaches with me, and I went to the hospital to see her. Those poor parents are going to be pulling their hair out with her in this horrendous contraption for four to six weeks. Cast from left foot to waist, then down right leg and the legs attached by a bar at the knees. I asked her mom how she's going to change a diaper in that contraption. She said, "They tell me it's not easy." They said when they were in the ER with her last night she kept telling everyone, "I sorry." All together now, "Ahhhhh."

I did miss knitting on Monday night. I called them from the Interstate outside Newnan to check in. A couple of the girls who've missed lately were back, and I was gone. It happens. I really should have taken some knitting with me. I could have made some progress on the sweater while the PMF drove. Well, hindsight's 20/20.

The Return of the Weekend

Wow! I like this weekend thing. It's so nice having a day when I don't have to work. My PMF (Platonic Male Friend) has been on vacation for a week and a half and got back to town yesterday. So he and I hung out and went to lunch and looked at his vacation pictures. Ahh. It was such a luxury and just delightful. Here are the postcards he sent me:

So cool! I love postcards.

Of course our lunch out followed me sleeping an hour later than I do during the week and getting up to a leisurely breakfast of grits and soy sausage with grapes on the side. Ahh!! I'm beginning to remember what weekends are about.