Bricktown Showdown - Pacific Coast League vs. International League

Oklahoma City. Bricktown. The Showdown - International League Champion meets Pacific Coast League Champion for a one game, winner takes all display of superiority. IL repesentative -Richmond Braves, successful recipient of the Governor's Cup after playing a split-doubleheader on Saturday, September 15, 2007, arrived in OKC via charter flight. PCL representative - Sacramento River Cats, winner of three out of five titles for bragging rights in the West, swept the New Orleans Zephyrs in three games with the final confrontation taking place at Raley Field in Sacramento before a sell out crowd. Their travel to OKC was slightly more difficult: the team came in groups on three separate commercial flights arriving between 3 and 11 pm on Sunday night, September 16. The stage was set, the participants were ready for this fight to receive the hefty trophy for the Triple-A Baseball championship.

Richmond was considered the home team due to the IL's dominance at the All-Star Game in Albuquerque, New Mexico this past July 11. And we're off and running. Maybe the wrong description but the outcome became clearer as the pitching and batting of the West slowly wore down the Braves who continued to fight to win nevertheless. The final score 7-1 in the favor of the ..... SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS! The PCL and the Sacramento River Cats in particular had once again claimed the title for the best in Triple-A.

What a wonderful exhibition of talent and the best Minor League Baseball has to offer. If you haven't been to see a game, you don't know what you are missing.

Glenn McCoy - Time Magazine

Just received my Creative Knitting magazine, November 2007 and on the reader page a copy of Glenn McCoy's political cartoon and his view of Time magazine. I rolled on the floor! How true -- Creative Knitting does influence my behavior much more than Time. By the way, isn't Time an anachronism in this day and age? Knitting is definitely much more hip!

Kudos to Glenn McCoy.

Griffith Baptism

Brenda and Steve and their three adult sons, Joel, Mark and Andy, were baptized on Saturday in a neighbor's pool. Took this pic just before Brenda was immersed by husband, Steve and friend, Jim.

Brenda made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and a statement of why she was being baptized at this point in her life. Very important step for the whole family and I was privileged to be included as a witness to this momentous occasion.

Nicke Update

Here she is! What a sweetie. We've been going to obedience training. She tries hard but her owner isn't learning too quick. We may need to take this class again. Nicke's 5 month attention span is real-l-l-l-l short.

Vogue Stitchionary2 - Cables

Vogue’s Stitchionary2 - Volume Two Cables
Vogue has developed a series of knitting pattern encyclopedias which places six balls of yarn in various shades of one color on the front cover. Each volume uses a different color. This one the choice was brown and the topic was cables.

I have some partiality to cables, Arans and Celtic designs and so I was anticipating looking at the various patterns contained in this volume and I wasn’t disappointed. The first few pages give a short history of cables. It is believed that the cable originated with Celtic tradition via the Book of Kells in the 9th century. Further, there is some idea that the Book of Kells may have contained illustrations of cable-knit sweaters. The book relates that Aran patterns were used for fisherman sweaters and used for identification purposes which is somewhat suspect in current histories of Aran development.

The book is well organized and arranges the patterns from easy to most difficult. There are written instructions and a chart for each pattern. Some of the pattern names enable you to imagine the cable in your mind, such as:

Easy - mock, argyle, thistle, horseshoes and snow angels
Diamonds - embossed, tic-tac-toe
Pretzels - river run, Cleopatra, wheat
Braids - bean stalk, Pippi
Allover - honeycomb, waves, pie crust (lattice type), cable maze, ribbed cable
Combinations - Jacob’s ladder, rick rack and Art Deco

All in all there are 202 pattern designs from which to select to create your personally styled-cabled sweater. I’m hoping to use some of the above mentioned to develop a special design of my own. I would rate give this stitch directory 4 stars for variations in pattern and difficulty of knitting. The only disappointment is that the history section was a little short and some of it is discounted by several other historians.

Aerobics - YMCA Water Style

This last week I tried a new water aerobics class at the Downtown YMCA. Whoa! I thought I was in shape but it felt like I had never done aerobics before! Splashing around like an uncoordinated savage trying to keep up with the older regulars in the class. Not sure whether this is for me especially since I ached for more than half a week. Just recovering today. Maybe I should give it one more try on Monday after I've rested for the weekend.

Snickerdoodle

Yes, that is a Pennsylvania Dutch cookie but in this instance it's also a Labradoodle puppy we have adopted. She is black with brown eyes and curly hair and tail and ohhhhh soooooo cute! She has a great disposition and pleasant smile too. She is 15 1/2 weeks old and learning tricks quick. Frank and I are enjoying playing fetch with her and the many short walks Nicke escorts us on.

She's learned to climb the stairs, sit, and down. She retrieves a ball and brings it to you as well. We're wondering how much more we will be able to successfully teach her.

Rockies' Stitch 'N Pitch

Baseball and Yarn. Rockies' Dinger sporting a scarf and ready to knit another with large needles and a yarn skein in equal size, gift bags containing yarn, needles and a Interweave Magazine (current edition) and beautiful weather. All of which while being in the Mile High City with my wonderful husband. The game was exciting and included two HRs hit by the Rockies and ended with a win over the Dodgers with a final score of 6-2. What a fantastic event!

UnFinished Objects

UFOs - Hooray! No longer are they in that classification! Here is a Mystery Knit night belt / scarf completed last week. It's knit in two and threaded back and forth through between the completed sections to create the braided look.

Second - a pair of socks made from Jaeger sock yarn on size 1 needles. Yuck! The yarn split and gave me fits but they are finally done. Yessssss......

Doe and Fawn

Outside our home on the hillside, the does bring their fawns to eat and relax in the shade of the trees. Just love such idyllic sights! (Look closely in the grass for the fawn.)