The dumping of the iPhone photos, part 2

Work

Spoiled puppy

Beautiful day for a Bearcat football game

To a sold-out crowd of more than 10,000!

The 100th anniversary of the Administration Building at Northwest

I think my reading pile has gotten a little out of hand ...

One of the last garden harvests for the season 😦

Preparing to play tennis ... badly

Attempting to make green tomato pickles (another post for another day)

A view from my drive to work every day

The perfect gift, the perfect chicken and the perfect fit

Tonight I was cutting out fabric to make a sweet gift for a coworker’s coming baby, half-watching Man v. Food with my husband on the Travel Channel. It switched to a commercial, and we were not paying much attention when all of a sudden, we saw a quick peak of a long recognized Pittsburg hot spot – Chicken Mary’s.

We both stopped midsentence and stared. Surely, Pittsburg, Kan. was not just on national TV. And then we saw it – a woman wearing a Chicken Annie’s tshirt that looked exactly like the one hanging in my closet. NO. WAY.

The new Food Wars show on the Travel Channel, which begins airing in March, is claiming to finally put an end to the chicken wars in Pittsburg and declare a chicken champion. How amazing is that?

And, what brilliant marketing is this? At our house, we are huge lovers of anything they show on the Food Network and the Travel Channel. However, it always angers us that they never seem to leave California or New York for anything. It’s almost comical at times. Bobby Flay is going to throw down for the best Maine clam chowder in …. Manhattan, NY? For the best empandas in …. Manhattan, NY? The best southern fried chicken in … New England? Bravo, Travel Channel, for spreading your boundaries outside of the traditional filming areas. Those of us in the Midwest are thankful that you are recognizing that there is life beyond the coast. And, beyond metropolises! Not only can you drum up more interesting shows, but you can increase your viewers in the Midwest. The New York Times is unlikely to cover your TV show when you film yet another wonderful restaurant in New York City, but I know that Pittsburg’s regional media was all over it.

My family experienced the same excitement recently when watching American Pickers, a show based out of a small town near the small town in Iowa that my entire extended family either lived or currently lives in.

Now, if only we can get the Travel Channel to Maryville for a Hangar vs. Pagliai’s pizza showndown …

Anyway, back to the quilt. I love fortuitous finds. (Hence the extreme excitement over the Pittsburg TV show.) My coworker, who hopefully isn’t reading this (Darren, if you’ve read this far: LOOK AWAY), is nicknamed The Rocket Scientist. He is always solving problems, constructing solutions and fixing computers. When wandering Sarah’s Fabrics in Lawrence, the most amazing fabric store within a 2 hour drive, I stumbled upon the Rocket Scientist collection of fabric by Keri Beyer for In The Beginning. I couldn’t resist picking out a few and am so excited to make a sweet little receiving blanket for the babe to be.

In a world of mass media, mass design and mass consumption, here’s to finding the perfect fit.