Casper the Starkville Yellowjacket

Casper is proudly modeling his Halloween costume for Camille and Lindsay to see on my blog! He is very proud of this outfit and gets all excited when I start to put it on him. The hat is especially adorable.

Tennessee Bulldogs

Camille and Lindsay, you would have been proud of me as I broke in line to get this picture! I stepped up to the plate, used all my assertiveness training and asked for their autographs on this nice State visor I had just won as a door prize. Coach Stansbury saw us and asked what we were doing there and couldn't believe we'd made a special trip to Starkville so I could take advantage of this photo op--Remember when y'all got me a Penny Hardaway autograph? I never got to have my picture made w/him.

A Lauran Tradition

For over 50 years now, I have been a basketball junkie and have had my picture made w/my favorite players over the years starting w/Jack Butcher of the 1957 Memphis State basketball team. I moved onto Larry Finch and Keith Lee as my all-time Tiger favorites. My first favorite Bulldog basketball player was Rickey Brown whom we befriended when he was in a hospital in Memphis. I know somewhere there must be a picture of us but I can't put my hands on it like I can for the others. The next State player I was crazy about was Lawrence Roberts and now my heroes are a couple of fellow Tennesseans. Last night we went to "Meet the Players" night at MSU and I got to get my picture w/both of them, Barry Stewart and Jarvis Vanardo. They are the only returning starters from last year's team that almost beat Memphis in the NCAAs. I think we will be good again this year even though we are young and inexperiences. Did I mention Camille and Lindsay?

Lindsay and Camille

Camille suggested I start a blog so I wouldn't send 1,000 emails a day to tell her what we've been doing. I think of a blog in the present tense--like what's happening now--but I was reminded today that I had ignored the past and had not mentioned Camille and Lindsay. So here's a tribute to my loves who don't live near me anymore to take part in our daily activities.

We had Lindsay before Camille was born. We kept her while her parents traveled. We took her to see Christmas lights where she uttered her first word, "Ites" She was an only child for three years before Camille was born. She continued as part of our family and became Camille's pretend sister. They went to St. George's together and Memphis basketball games and went on vacations w/us. The only difference was in their eating habits. Lindsay only ate french fries and peanut butter while we fretted constantly trying to get Camille to eat anything--We spent lots of fun summers at Pickwick where the girls were forced to sleep in an inflatable boat because there were so many other people in our house that they got run out of their bedroom. As they got older, they still remained close although they went to separate schools and then Lindsay moved to Florida. They went to different colleges, live in separate cities now and fortunately I can keep up w/both of them through the internet. My friendship almost came to an end when, in college, Lindsay did something w/her away message that read "Dreaming of LHWingo" and I thought she was making fun of me and I wouldn't speak to her for weeks. I still, to the day, don't understand how it worked but apparently anyone who sent her a message got the same response but w/their screen name instead. The next post will be about the second time we almost disowned Lindsay. It was related to calling us to rub in an Auburn victory over our hapless Bulldogs.

Marathon Day in Starkville

The day began w/a lovely Southern brunch at T's and ended with a dance at the Shrine Club to the music of the "Cracker Jacks." The interesting part of the band is they are our age and have played at most of the weddings of ex-patriates from the Delta who have Memphis weddings. They play all the good music of the 60's and 70's and although we left before it was over, I am sure they ended w/"Shout." Sandwiched between these two landmark events were an open house at another Pike's house in Starkville, a very interesting basketball scrimmage and and a very boring football game v. MTSU that we won.

What's not to love about Rocking Rellenos for breakfast the next morning to top off the weekend? Everyone at my B n B gets Rocking Rellenos which is basically a egg strata w/cheese and green chiles. It is yummy. It is no carb. It replaces the standard monkey bread, hash brown potato casserole and sausage egg bake that Camille likes so much. After our guests left for home in Atlanta, I did all the laundry, etc. before I left so I would not have to rush down there this week to get ready for company. We are going to celebrate no company by going to Shipley's for hot donuts on Sunday morning. We play KY this weekend in football and have a basketball exhibition game after the football game so I am excited about that and Casper will wear his bumble bee suit all weekend. He looks adorable.

Camille, Please Come Home!

Casper and Jack

Homecoming and Pike Reunion at State

I know I need to post more visuals but I was too busy this weekend to think about a camera! I got to go to Starkville Wednesday night hitching a ride w/Jordan so I could get the house ready for my weekend company. Jordan was the MVP of presentations at the College of Business and Career Fairs Thursday and I changed sheets and vacuumed and tried to fluff the house. Dean and Henry and Jane got to Starkville about the same time and we got ready for pizza night at City Bagel w/the Dubissons and T and Gloria. It is a semi-religious experience. The pizza is hand-tossed and you can have either marinara or pesto for the main sauce and many choices for the toppings and best of all, we can bring our own wine--no corkage. Friday we toured the campus and got ready for the big Pike reunion at the Pike House at night--It was sooo fun to see people I haven't seen in 40 years. Most of the women went to the "W" and a few were State girls and it was great to see old acquaintances--we ended the night at George Sherman's new house. Then the marathon on Saturday got started early...

Saunders' First Big Hit as a Bulldog

I am glad I have a picture to share w/the readers of the blog. This is a picture of him standing proudly at first base. Apparently Gene Swindoll took notice as Dean said it was reported on Genespage and that's as close to the NYTimes as you can get! Did I mention he actually got two hits and was the STARTING PITCHER for the Marooon side of the Alumni Game last Sunday.

Bulldogs Lemmings Headed to Neyland Stadium

Thanks to a lot of organization by some very die-hard Bulldogs, this is a picture of us boarding the boat for the game. It was the highlight of the trip--Bottles of wine to buy and a perfect way to go to a game. There was also a very good dj spinning tunes for all ages!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good was how much we enjoyed our trip to Knoxville and seeing Wes and Carolyn for the weekend, the bad was our offense and the ugly was the UT stadium--It was a big dinorsaur w/tiny seats and dirty, dank corridors leading to the seats. We took a sternwheeler riverboat to the game w/200 of our best Bulldog friends and it exceeded expectations. We cruised the river on a a beautiful day and landed at the dock in plenty of time to eat dinner at Ruth Chris' and get to the game in pleny of time. The boat had a Dj spinning tunes and some people succumbed to the temptation of karaoke. We could buy wine by the bottle for $20 which was perfect for the four of us on each part of the ride. I would highly recommend this boat trip to any Bulldog who goes to Knoxville in the future. We may go again just for the ride and skip the game. The score was lopsided at 34-3 but it was only 6-3 at halftime and I thought we would win--nada--we cannot remember the last road game we won since the Snow Bowl. That's 8 long years of misery and we will rethink buying out of town tickets next year. I am glad Richmond won.

Capt. John Nicolai of Lulu the Lobster Boat

These pictures are way out of sync but I wanted everyone to see why we loved "Lulu the Lobster Boat" in Bar Harbor!

Makin' Cakes

Tomorrow is the Rotary Spaghetti Supper and I get to make two cakes! Since it is a Rotary project, I have help on this. Mr. Measurer is going to be sure I don't mess things up so he is carefully leveling the flour w/a knife, etc. However, with my track record for forgetting important ingredients, his help is welcomed! We are making my grandmother's pound cake recipe.

 

The Rest of the Trip

Once back in the US, we visited Bar Harbor, Maine and went out on Lulu, the Lobster Boat w/a very knowlegdgeable captain, John Nicolai, and watched him pull up lobster traps and we learned all there is to know about the lobster business. The most important part of the lobster business is in the eating of the lobster and we feasted on whole lobster from the ocean THAT morning. It was called soft shelled lobster as it had recently molted into a new shell and had not completely filled it up w/meat. The lobster was served in a pot of its own w/corn and potatoes and gallons of drawn butter and to die for.

Two wonderful days in Boston followed and we fell in love w/the city. On Sunday, we had a personal guide in Sasha, Camille's first friend from St Mary's and current Boston resident. She led us over quite a few miles of walking and we were exhausted at the end of the day and ready to get back on the boat for the night and eat more lobster. We did parts of the Freedom Trail, Boston Common, Beacon Hill, Little Italy and points in between. Dean and the Dews enjoyed the USS Constitution and Sasha and I sat on a bench and talked about all kinds of things. She works for Facing History and Ourselves and had to work Monday so we went out on our own to see a few more things and Harvard. We were amazed at the age and beauty of the buildings and the lack of landscaping throughtout the campus. Mississippi State is much more beautiful.

Back from Canada and New England

I had always wanted to see the fall foliage in New England and this year we found a cruise that would fulfill my dream. The only problem was that there was very little fall foliage to see. We flew to Montreal from Memphis and were very disappointed in that big city but were equally impressed w/Quebec City the next day. It was very European and charming. We were sitting outside at cafe and some Bulldogs from Meridien who recognized our Bulldog paraphenalia as well and we had a nice chat. A sea day was welcome since they only had Team Trivia on sea days and we only had two. Dean went w/me and I chose our teammates from the waiting group. I am good at this and found a family and their only daughter who are as intense as I and to prove it, they already had a name, The People's Republic of Berkely. We won naturally and I got one correct answer that they didn't know--it referred to colorful Braniff Airlines. We won baseball caps--I look terrible in caps so Tony got mine. The next day was microscopic Cornerbrook, Newfoundland. We did a float trip w/a 21 year old who was quite charming. He could not compare to Cassanova II from South Africa, our bar waiter and Chirs our dinner waiter who looked like Harry Potter and from S. Africa as well. One day was the lavish gala buffet which we have tons of pix,