Fratastic

First, Foxfield Races are coming up this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia...this means more seersucker, pastel colors, sundresses, and for this occasion, being after Lent, 100 proof Southern Comfort (SoCo) and Coke (I gave up Coke for Lent). We fly up Friday, head to the Corner to Fratmore and Coupes, Saturday are the races, and then Sunday we head to the Fan in Richmond for cocktail parties relating to Garden Week. Fun times.

Second, I found a new website/blog: Fratting Hard. Very funny and good information...where are my Costas again??

Third, this is way more cheesy, but check out the advertisement for Smirnoff Ice's Raw Tea. It's a "rap" video with a bunch of New England fratty and sratty kids...pearls, tennis, yachting, topsiders, etc.

Hokie Hope

The second picture is Beta Bridge at UVa, where typically more normal things are painted on a weekly or even daily basis (i.e. come to Sigma Kappa's Hoos in Sync). It really shows that the Hoos are for the Hokies.

In addition, tomorrow is Hokie Hope day. According to I flyer I've seen: Virginia Tech family members across the country have united to declare this Friday, April 20th, an "Orange and Maroon Effect" day to honor those killed in the tragic events on campus Monday, and to show support for Virginia Tech students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and friends. "Orange and Maroon Effect" was born several years ago as an invitation to Tech fans to wear orange and maroon to Virginia Tech athletic events. We invite everyone from all over the country to be a part of the Virginia Tech family this Friday, to wear orange and maroon to support the families of those who were lost, and to support the school and community we all love so much.

On a lighter note, the first forecast for Foxfield Races is 71 and sunny....I've sufficiently recovered enough from Cup to be excited about this!

Today we are all Hokies

The Hoos and the Hokies are finally coming together...unfortunately it takes a tragedy to do so. Obviously vigils are being held at UVa (and other places) and President Casteen from UVa is going to the 2 PM convocation at Virginia Tech. Tech is closed at least for the rest of the week. This must cause crazy disruptions into school schedules, but that will be dealt with later. Hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again.

In other news, there were snow flurries in Atlanta on Sunday...insane for late April.

Freeze warning in NW Georgia/Bad Traffic on I-20

A Freeze Warning exists from midnight tonight to 8 AM tomorrow (Friday) from LaGrange to Douglasville to Dahlonega (although that map is a bit misleading because it really does not include Inside the Perimeter or most of Cobb County). This weekend should be even worse, with temperatures at night through at least Easter morning in the 20's...should make those sunrise services eye-opening to say the least! This is why you don't put your summer plants out until after April 15 (the date of the average last freeze). I knew the recent warm weather would fool people into planting (which it did).

Speaking of gardening, I braided & folded over all the spent daffodils, which makes things look a lot better and makes the pansies look bigger now that all that foliage is hidden. I'm going to cut the grass tonight...even though it's only been 4 days, it looks ragged and long. I still need to clip the hedges for the first time this year and also power-wash the sidewalks/driveway. There is always a ton to do in April.

I-20 was a mess today. Q100 had a promotion where people getting to the park before 9 would get in free. Apparently EVERYONE showed up, and the park was at capacity by 5:45, when the gates opened at 5:30. Some people where there as early as 3:30 and some not getting there until 4:45 did not even get in! Yikes.

Finally, The Masters starts today, with live coverage from 4-7 on USA network, and then they're showing an encore of that coverage from 8-11. It won't be in HD, but it'll still be pretty!

UPDATE: A Freeze Watch has been issued for the top 2/3 of Georgia (obviously including Atlanta) for Friday night and Saturday night. This means temperatures could flirt with or break the records, which are generally in the high 20's. One forecast I saw shows 25 on Saturday night!

The Masters and Watering Restrictions

It's Masters week in east Georgia. The practice rounds end today and the real thing starts tomorrow (on USA network, which unfortunately is NOT in HDTV yet). However, this weekend will be great with Easter and all and coverage of the Masters on CBS-HD.

In related HD news, The Weather Channel will be going HD in September. I hope that Comcast gets on the ball & picks this up...I noticed they did just add about 10 HD channels though!

Finally, mid-April is when Georgia's water commission comes together to decide on new water restrictions, which most likely will raise us to a Level II drought (See the rules here), which means no watering in the evenings anymore. Of course, that won't matter much for me because I usually set the timer to water from 5:30-7:30 AM (on Sun, Tues, Thurs) and then manually set the timer again from 7:30-9:30 on those days. Fortunately it rained a lot last night so no need to water yesterday or tomorrow.