Marathon

Nope, this is not a column on running. It’s about this great old building we visited this weekend. One of Chris’s friends was part of a one-night art exhibit. Most of the art was very intersting—some of it beautiful and some of it really fun and whimsical. But I was just as amazed by the building it was held in. It's part of a group of buildings called Marathon Village, which was originally an automobile manufacturing plant. The building has a lot of the original woodworking (beautiful), and you could see parts of the old freight elevators that were used. The current owner is apparently an artist as well, and he’s put together great old photos of the cars built there and sculpture pieces made from machinery parts he found in the building. It was all a very cool experience, and a really beautiful restoration job in the interior of the building.

Sometimes I’m so pleasantly surprised by the little things in Nashville that I just didn’t know existed.


*Angelina Cardigan Progress:
Ribbing for entire cardigan done!
Back lace done!
Now for the front lace and the sleeve lace.

This post brought to you by the letter J and the number 2

Johnny fixed my blog! I don't know what I'd done to mess it up or how he fixed it, but I'm very grateful! Thanks, little brother.

I have two skeins of yarn left. I measured and mathed, and I've found that I will need more than two skeins of yarn to finish my cardigan. I was so sure it would work out! Oh, well. I called and they still have more of the dye lot I need, so I'm in good shape now. No worries.

Weekend in Franklinton

Grace's christening was this weekend, and she was just precious. She slept through a lot of the service, then woke up for the ceremony and just kind of looked around at people for a bit before drifting back to sleep. She's so cute--very sweet and smiley! I was glad I got to be there for the weekend and to visit with everyone there.

If you're interested in how the Angelina sweater's coming along, take a look at the last photo of it, imagine it maybe one inch longer, and that's about where I am. It was just a bit too large for me to take it with me on the plane for my weekend trip to Franklinton. Instead I just did some dishcloth knitting--always good on the go.

Guest Post from Chris: A Nashville Story

I work for a vocational rehab out in Franklin, TN - and we use horticulture as our program to help people with disabilities learn how to work at a job better. On Thursdays, I set up a produce tent up in Leiper's Fork- just down the road, in the parking lot of an old general store named "Puckett's"...Leiper's Fork is a real interesting little spot- all kinds of locals and newbies intermingling into this hodgepodge of old farmers and young, rich artsy people...some you've heard of , some more behind the scenes kind of people...(one of my favorite meets was meeting the producer of WKRP in Cincinatti, Rod Daniels....go Les Nessman!)

Anyway, one Thursday a while back, I was particularly late for setting up at Puckett's and I was barreling down the road to get there...as I pulled up to the store, I could see a couple of kids with a lemonade stand set up right where I set my tent up. My first reaction involved sweat running down my forhead and choice words under my breath...but as I pulled in, I realized I could handle this one of two ways...that way, or a much nicer way- after all- they are cute little kids...

So, as I walked up to their tiny little table and yellow sports cooler sitting under the afternoon Tennessee sun, I said "Whatchya got here?!"
"LEMONADE!!.....WANNA BUY SOME!!!!!!!?"
I looked around and took a quick assesment...2 adults, both female- casual biker-like attire of sweats t-shirt and dew rag...2 kids, both wearing designer clothes...one table with Gatorade-like cooler full of lemonade...one floppy poster with magic marker scribblings that said 'lemonade'....
"Well, I'll tell you what....how would you like to sell your lemonade under my tent here, this way you can get out of the sun and maybe attract more people?"
After a second of good thought, the young girl agreed and the two adults both grinned sheepishly, realizing they were in already staked out parking lot plot....but I was genuinely more than happy to share and accomodate..
As I set up- the little girl took her poster and stood dangerously close to the passing cars on the road....shouting her iron-clad slogan
"If life gives you lemons - make lemonADE!'
I looked over at the boy, probably her little brother...sitting by the Puckett's BBQ grill and rolling his eyes...."Gracie!...."
One more car came by......"If life gives you lemons....make lemonADE!" Finishing off strong with the high-pitched "ade" ...
And on and on as each car went by...
One of the 2 adults, a woman with dark hair, wanted to go shopping for "Auntie" for Mother's Day....so she took off....leaving the other woman with lighter hair....as I set up, both her and the little girl asked questions about the Center where I work and I asked who they were selling lemonade for. The young boy, who was dressed in serious hip-hop garb (complete with SERIOUS bling bling in each ear!) told me all about the "BackPack Kids" who would be getting all the proceeds form the sales...this kid had it DOWN! Like he was their proffessional spokesperson....I told him I was really impressed with him and how cool it was that they were doing this for such a worthy benefit like this one (BackPack kids are kids who go to school every day hungry because their families cant afford a good meal for them every day)...didnt think that happened here, did ya?)

Anyway....the girl intoduced herself to me "I'm Gracie"
"Nice to meet you Gracie, I'm Chris"
She says...."What are you selling?"
"Well....today we have a buch of great organically grown lettuces like spinach and Kale and Mesculin Mix..."
After some more good thought, Gracie asked "Well, can I make up slogan for you?"
"Sure!"
A couple of minutes later, she came back with another poster that had "spinich" on it....
She ran out to the road and began to shout...

"It's Green, it's Crunchy......so why don't you buy a BUNCHY!"

I fell over. We all did....that had to have been the cutest moment ever in history.

Gracie was clearly pleased with our reaction to her brilliant slogan, so she beemed as she flagged down cars to tell each one of our miracle lettuces.

Moments later, a long caddilac pulled up and an older woman with red hair got out...her liscence plate said "FAITH".....
She bought a cup of lemonade and she looked at me and I said "Hi".....then she got in and drove off....later someone asked if that was "MeMa".......
"Yeah" said Gracie "She gave us a hundred."
"Well I guess she can just about afford it", they said.....
I'm thinkin........who was that?

Well after about an hour of wonderful hangin around and sellin the lemonade and 'Spinich'.....a large, black Hum-V pulls up and they all shout "Here comes Mamma..."
It was Wynona Judd.

Gracie said her quick goodbye- her little brother waved and the last adult kind of said 'see ya' or something, later thinking about it- I realized that one of the adults was probably Ashley Judd...Mema was obviously Naomi....then they were all off.....

Classic Leiper's Fork moment...

Now, every so often....I'll see the black Hum-V coming along the road and in that arching sound wave...quiet, then louder - loud - then quiter , then gone

"....It's green it's crunchy SO WHY Dont you buy a buncheeeeeee...."
And I'll wave hello.

July 4th Weekend

July 4th weekend Mom, Dad, Johnny, Natasha, and Grace all came up to Nashville to visit. It was really nice to have them here, and to see precious Grace again. She is much bigger than she was the last time I saw her, and she kicks around and smiles and gurgles and grabs knitting needles (yep, clearly she's a natural). It was a great time, though I was rather tired after they left.

We got to see a Sounds game, we ate at Famous Dave's (always a good choice in mine and Chris's book, and Dad REALLY liked the food), and we saw the fireworks at the Shores and Stripes festival Monday night. Grace seemed pretty enthralled by the fireworks. We worried the noise would scare her, but she seemed pretty thrilled to just watch the pretty colors. I, on the other hand, was terribly afraid of fireworks until I was 18. Well, maybe not quite 18, but I was scared of them for a very long time. Yeah, sure, they were pretty, but people seemed to be missing the fact that there was FIRE FALLING FROM THE SKY!

But, I'm over it now, and I even went to a second set of fireworks on Tuesday night. The crew left to go back to Louisiana Tuesday morning, but Chris and I went to the big fireworks show downtown. It was beautiful! They do a really good job of coordinating it to be a very impressive show, especially set to the music.

But all things have their season, and so this weekend in lieu of busyness and fireworks, I'm reading and knitting and enjoying the simple quiet of it all.

Angelina Sweater Is Coming Along

It's taken longer to do each row now that all the sleeve increases have been done, but it's so mindless that I can watch tv and knit without a problem. I'm over halfway through with the main sleeve part, and then I'll start the decreases. Still lovin' the yarn.