Exams and Experiences - Cindy's Broccolli and Raisin Salad

It's exam time for college students so there are no Gardner Webb basketball games this week. That gives me just enough time to post a few pics from some of the four home games from last week. And to reflect on the college experience. And experience in general.

With all of the scandals in college athletics our experience with both Wofford Football and Gardner Webb basketball has been a blessing. These are real student athletes. They work hard, train hard, play hard and they learn some hard lessons on and off the court.

But first and foremost they are students.

In the middle of all the practices and team meetings and road trips and home games, Jay has been learning and writing about things like the European Debt Crisis and the politics of Somalia. Recently one of Jay's professors had their political science class of eight students over for dinner so they could taste the cuisine and discuss the places they have studied this semester. That's a real college experience and I appreciate the very personal committment to academics at GWU.

It was great to have four home basketball games after the seven road games and even greater to see the continued steady improvement of the Runnin' Bulldogs. With eight new players and only 2 seniors on this year's team there are plenty of adjustments to make and it is really interesting to watch how it all unfolds.

The Bulldogs won three of the four home games so their record is steadily improving. It feels like it's beginning to jell - when a team becomes a coherent team instead of a just a group of individuals.

It's not just the gamescores and players that make it all interesting. The Holtmanniacs are always fun - creative and energetic and sometimes a little edgy like college fans are supposed to be.

One of the halftime shows last week was a juggler who kept several tennis racquets in the air at once. That was about as close to a tennis racquet as I have been recently. He also juggled fire and fortunately for everyone there was a fire extinguisher close by. My favorite half time show so far has to be the cute frisbee dog.

On the subject of animals, Dingo and Mr. Cat have been very helpful around here. Dingo helped us get the boat out of the lake before the water level was lowered for dock repair. At the lake David picked up a fallen evergreen limb and when I mentioned that it looked a lot like a Christmas tree, David stuck it in the umbrella stand on the dock. O Christmas Tree. We both thought it was perfect for Lake Lure.

And Mr. Cat helped us decorate the Christmas tree at home - twice. It seems Mr. Cat found it irresistable to play with the shiny tinkling ornaments. To get to some of those irresistable ornaments Mr. Cat needed to climb up in the Christmas tree. So the other night we heard a loud, swooshing, jingling crash and ran into the living room where we found the tree sideways on the floor. Mr. Cat seemed very nervous.

After a little gnashing of teeth - mine - David tied the tree securely to the windows and we redecorated with ornaments that had flown all over the living room. Looking on the bright side the majority of our family's favorite ornaments are unbreakable. And it was an unexpected bonus to remember sweet stories about the various ornaments for a second time this season.

O Christmas tree. Experience is a great teacher.

Cindy's Broccolli and Raisin Salad

Cindy made this salad for Merry Thanksgiving and it was so good that several people wanted the recipe. It is sort of healthy because it has broccolli and raisins in there but in true Lattimore tradition is also has two of the best flavors in the world. Bacon and Mayo. Hopefully that doesn't cancel out all the healthiness.

Salad:

4 cups broccolli florets
1 cup Golden raisins (the golden part is key)
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup pecans
10-12 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (it's easiest to do this Sister's way - cut the bacon before cooking and then you can kind of stir fry it around in the pan as it cooks)

Dressing:

1 cup mayo
1/2 cup sugar
3 TBSP vinegar

Mix the dressing together and then mix into the salad. Refrigerate overnight.