Happy Birthday Diane

Today is one of my sister's birthday - hey I have four of them - so have to mention this one. This is the other "middle child" of our family. When we were kids, we were both tomboys, but Diane had her own hockey stick. I have no real eye-hand coordination, she has it in spades. Also, I'm a lefty, but this post is about her.

I was so excited to have a baby sister or brother. It didn't matter to me. I didn't mind not being the baby anymore. And I always wanted to hold her. I was just over four when she was born and one day I tried to get her out of her playpen. The old wooden kind and I got her head stuck between the bars. Mom got her unstuck easily. Must of had some practice with that now that I think about it.

I remember one day she got yelled at and we had to look for her. She was hiding in the closet, crying. Quietly. I never did anything quietly.

I remember when she started walking around 8-9 months old. She was tiny even then and would walk right under the kitchen table.


If you have ever been to her house for a party, you might notice the divided plates. They're there for a reason. Ask her about it.

Happy Birthday!

Copyright 2010, ACK, for Generational

Football Match-ups

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away ...

I always wanted to use that line. But, it is how I feel about the Michigan - Ohio State match-up. I used to be a huge Michigan fan. Mostly because Bo Schembechler was at the helm of Michigan and the legendary Woody Hayes coached Ohio State. It made the annual game so exciting and fun. I can't even tell you who coaches M now. The last time I listened/watched was probably in 2006. While painting the living room and dining room of our old house in Michigan.

I think my fondness for the game is due to the memories of the 1978 Wolverine/Buckeye game Thanksgiving weekend. I think DH and I sealed our fate that day when he acted slightly out of character and pulled me on to his lap at a gameday party. A little over a month later we started bowling together as replacement bowlers on a team on one of the singles leagues the Ford Pendulum club sponsored. Then we started dating and the rest is history.

So while I have a lot of sentiment for that particular match-up, I don't really care if Michigan gets their but whipped.

Even further back, I was encouraged by a former boyfriend to like his team, the Michigan State Spartans - he was a freshman football player at MSU. I will admit that I would at that time rather root for any team other than MSU. Or Michigan for that matter. Back then I was a Notre Dame fan. Over the years, I became a fan of the underdog. I was always thrilled with Notre Dame or Northwestern clobbered one of the Michigan teams, or any Big Ten team for that matter. Today, I am again rooting for the teams I perceive to be the underdogs - Michigan against OSU and Michigan State against Penn State. I would really love to see MSU win a title.

Also playing today is my Southeastern Conference team, Tennessee. They expect to go to a bowl game, they have a 30 year streak of going to bowl games. I think they need to play well today to prove their worth. To me at least. Our own Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles - Ohio Valley Conference - finished 5-11 for the season. Their first two games were humiliations delivered by TCU (Texas Christian) and Arkansas. The rest of the games they lost were really close games except against Eastern Kentucky and Murray State.  TCU is undefeated and their game may be worth watching tomorrow. Also worth watching is the Arkansas - LSU lineup. Even the sports commentators agree with me on that.

Thanksgiving Day we watched the second half of the Lions-New England game. I wish we had watched the first half and then turned off the TV. Typical Detroit Lions game. Typical Thanksgiving day loss! Then last night we watched the end of the Nevada-Boise State Game. Talk about an exciting college game! It was super fantastic.

For those of my friends and family who know me and my attitude towards football, which is generally "Can we watch something else?" all I can say is that I am living in the South now and it is rubbing off on me. Next month Cookeville hosts the state high school championships, maybe we'll get tickets for that.

Clipart courtesy Clipartheaven.com

Copyright 2010, ACK, for Generational

What is Up with Amazon?

image courtesy of www.freakingnews.com

DH and I ordered something from Amazon. Honestly there is no rush to it but you gotta wonder what are they thinking? First of all, it started off in Lexington, Kentucky. Cool, that's only four hours north of here. So is it here yet? No. First stop was Hebron, Kentucky, which is at least another hour and a half north of Lexington, west of the Cincinnati airport. So I checked again and it was in Southaven, Mississippi.  Now, that is almost 5 hours southwest of us. Give me a break. What kind of game are they playing? So if you see my package zip by - say hi for me!

Copyright 2010, ACK, for Generational

Recycled Scrapbooking

I am enjoying this scrapbooking phase of my life. Once I get started on the 30+ years I have in bins, maybe not so much.

 I've been trying to convert our storeroom into a storage area/craft room. Last week I hung some floating shelves, which you can see to the right. This is an 8 x 8 room and one wall has two 6 foot high x 4 foot wide shelving units. My work table is my sewing machine cabinet. The sewing machine is not in it but in its case underneath the cabinet.

Over the weekend, DH and I attended the 10th Annual Art Prowl.  The scrapbook pages are made from a very colorful napkin I found at one of the art studios, and I've recycled handouts. Even the lettering is done from scraps I've saved from trimming 8.5 x 11 paper down to 6 x 11 (6 x 12 is the largest size I can use on my Cricut cutter.)  Not everything is completely glued down. And I have one more page to work on. If you click on the images you can see some of what we saw on the Prowl.

The art prowl is traditionally the first weekend in November here in Cookeville. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth seeing and it is free.

Copyright 2010, ACK, for Generational

Sparky Anderson

I saw this in the Freep and it saddened me to hear that Sparky Anderson, the architect of the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Championship team, has been placed in hospice. This man was so much bigger than life, that it is inconceivable to think that he has diminished in any way. All the best to his family in this sad time.

Copyright 2010, ACK, for Generational