Tomorrow evening I’ll attend a baby shower for my friend Amanda who is now the Director of Budget Management at CoxHealth. Since I left that position a few months ago she has been busy creating a budget along with her bundle of joy that’s due in a few weeks and I’ve been busy knitting for her.
I made a Baby Bunny Blanket toy and since she and her hubby are choosing NOT to know the gender in advance, I included ribbons for both a boy and a girl – then she can remove the one she doesn’t need. I also made the light yellow blanket shown underneath the toy – it’s a lacy pattern that had an easy repeat pattern and was really fun to knit.
I’m also working on a hooded bath blanket for the granddaughter of my best friend Bev – this baby, currently named Gravy, is due at Thanksgiving so I still have plenty of time to complete that project!
This week marks the 2nd annual Tour of Missouri Bicycle race and today’s leg from Clinton to Springfield was the longest stretch of the week at 126 miles. Amazingly these professional cyclists rode it at an average speed of almost 28 MPH and take it from someone who has ridden part of this route, those roads are full of HILLS!
We volunteered for the event once again and were assigned to gather economic impact surveys from those attending the finish-line festivities. It was a picture-perfect day with the sun shining and lots of energy from the crowds, especially when the riders went streaming by on their 3 final loops around the downtown area.
Shown here are the 3 winners of today’s stage – taking first place for the 2nd day in a row was the Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish riding for Team Columbia. Cavendish also got the jersey for Best Young Rider today. Local favorite, Brad Huff of Jelly Belly Cycling Team, came in 6th place today and is among a large group of riders who are currently 20 seconds off of Cavendish after 2 days of riding.
It was fun to see these riders, many of who were in the Tour de France, and also to see their awesome bikes. We left ours at home – didn’t want them to feel bad about not being race-ready!
And to son-in-law Steve a big shout-out of ‘CONGRATULATIONS” for the new job with Century Tel in Branson. Those of you who follow Steve andTammy’s blogs already know the stress these two have been under for the last 4 weeks since Steve’s former employer closed shop. I know they have been tested much further than they could have imagined but they passed with flying colors and I’m proud of them both. Way to go Steve – and Tammy too! We all know that behind every successful man there’s a great woman who helps make it happen and Tammy has been a Super Trooper.
