Bobby Knight Visits Knoxville!

Today, something significant happened. Bobby Knight visited Knoxville! That's right! He was right here. Sitting in the same arena that I'll be sitting in just a few short hours from now...

Oh - and ESPN College Game Day was here too...

It was the first time that the "basketball" version of Game Day came to Knoxville. So that makes it a pretty significant event. They were set up at Thompson Bolling Arena doing the show. Digger Phelps had his signature matching tie and highlighter (yellow for today) - the college crowd was going crazy behind the set (I'm surprised nobody had a Teddy Valentine sign after the officiating debacle last game - especially since Teddy and Bobby have a little history!).

And then the General walks out. The crowd goes crazy. The chanting starts - 'BOB-bee KNI-eet BOB-bee KNI-eet'. It was great.

And the best part was the interview. Not with Bruce Pearl. Nope. Not with Bobby here. Not with Bobby being the winningest men's basketball coach of all time. Not when the winningest WOMEN'S coach (in fact - the winningest coach of ALL TIME) is still coaching in Knoxville. Not when she has won 999 games. Not when the floor in Thompson Bolling has her name painted across it!

That's right - the interview was with Pat Summit! And I have to say - it was really cool seeing the two greatest coach of all time sitting next to each other and having fun! And who knew that they actually coached together about a million years ago? That's right! Remember the Pan-Am games? The year that Pat was coaching the women's team, Bobby was coaching the men's team. And they ate lunch and dinner together everyday and talked about nothing but basketball. It almost sounds like a dream vacation!

So - by next week, Pat should have crossed the magic 1,000 win threshold. Bobby probably put it in perspective the best. He said, "Now - not many coaches win 33 games a season. Most coaches would kill to have a 33 win season. And to put a thousand wins into perspective, a coach would have to have 30 years of 33 win seasons and still be 10 games short of what Pat Summit has accomplished."

Well said Bobby...

The dogs love snow!

Well - we've been waiting a couple of days to post this. We really hated to post about snow when so many of our family and friends were buried in inches of ice with no power

But now we've heard from everyone - and all is well. Or at least everyone has power again! Not having heat in the winter really sucks

But before the big ice storm hit the Ohio Valley - we had a little snow in Knoxville. Everyone got into a panic, rushed out and bought milk, bread, and eggs (I'm not sure why everyone wants French Toast when it snows). And we just sat back and enjoyed the day.

Look at that snow

And the most fun was playing with the dogs! It was the first time Foxy saw snow! She and Izzy ran and played (and slipped and slided) all over the deck and backyard! Actually - Izzy and Foxy have been playing a LOT lately! It's been good to see Izzy back to her normal "running around" self (although she's asleep on the living room rug right now!)

Wow! Snow is FUN!

Hey - can you eat this stuff?

This stuff is sticking to my back!

Come on sis! Let's go play!

Flipside Runner

Remember the "good ol days"? For the Leengrams (and a whole host of our friends), the "good ol days" encompasses multiple trips to multiple cities in multiple states to go see a band called the Velcro Pygmies. The music, the comedy, the banter between Cam and Blake - now that was the good ol days.

Then we got older. We moved to other states. The Pygmies got another guitar player (then another, and yet another...). We find it hard to stay up to 3am to stay in a bar so filled with smoke that you can't see the other side all while drunks are burning holes in your clothes. Oh my. We really are getting old.

But last night we broke out of the mold. We actually went out on a Saturday night! To see a band! In Knoxville!!! The band was "Flipside Runner". Before you ask - I have no idea where the name came from. Perhaps we are attracted to bands with strange names! They reminded us a lot of the Pygmies. The music was good and the band was very entertaining! And their antics reminded us a lot of the Pygmies. There were even jokes between the singer and guitar player about the singers mom. You could close your eyes and be convinced that it was Cam and Blake.

So - are they better than the Pygmies? No way. But the Pygmies don't come to K'town very often. So when we are wondering what to do on a Friday or Saturday night - we'll be looking up Flipside Runner. And if you come to visit us - just ask and we'll take you to see them too!

Behind the times (but catching up)

First of all - for those of you who have not discovered Netflix yet - I highly recommend it! I can send back a disc one day and have another one two short days later. And we are on the "3 disc" plan - so there are always a couple here to watch.

And Netflix has helped us not be behind the times. I'm sure that you have all heard of the TV show "Lost". And if you remember - it came out shortly after the Tom Hanks movie "Castaway". I remember thinking "here's another show that is based on a movie. The movie was great - but the TV show will never be as good". So - we never watched it.

But we would go back to work the day after a new episode and it would be all the buzz. Everybody was talking about it. Everybody except the Leengrams, that is.

So we tried watching a show. The problem was it was 4 or 5 episodes into the season and it made absolutely no sense to either of us. So we never watched again and we fell farther and farther behind the times.

Then a couple of years ago we signed up for Netflix. The sent us movies. We watched movies. We sent the movies back. They sent us more. And the cycle continued.

Until one day we discovered that Netflix also rents TV shows. Here's our chance to be one of the cool kids again!

We are finishing up season 4 of Lost now. We didn't quite get it all done for the premier of Season 5 a few days ago - but never fear. We have it recorded - and we should be ready to go very soon!

Talk to you all soon - we've gotta go. Jack is getting ready to have is appendix cut out...

Christmas Pictures!

Finally!

It's been a while - and there have been some technical difficulties - but the Christmas pictures are finally available for your viewing pleasure!

There are even nicely organized by family! Just click on the Ingram's, the Lee's, or the Epley's and you will be amazingly taken away to the Kodak site where your eyes will be dazzled by our photographic genius. Ok - that last part might be over the edge a little bit - but you will indeed be able to view the pictures!

Hopefully, I'll get the pics from Heather's wedding uploaded tonight (we'll see). When I get them done, I'll post a link to them too!

And one last tidbit - the kitchen is one step closer to being finalized. The last element was the flooring and wall tile. We met with "Marni" (yep - it certainly is an unusual name!) who has been helping us with the tile. The floor was pretty straight forward, and after meeting with her on Saturday, I believe the wall has been finalized. We are waiting on the final drawings (hopefully they will be done tomorrow) and then EVERYTHING will be finalized! The cabinets should be here in about 3 weeks. And the REAL fun will begin in about 4 weeks! Don't worry - there will be plenty on pictures of that mess!

Excuses and Kithcen Updates

Yes - I know. I promised to post every couple of days. And I promised to get those Christmas pictures posted for everyone to see. And I promised to get the pictures from Heather's wedding posted too.

Let's face it - I'm behind! There are multiple reasons (aka "excuses") and I'll happily lay them out for you and ask for forgiveness!

The first big one is work. Yes - there was a time when one of the Leengrams was on "Christmas break" and the other one was "winding down the year" at work. Squeezing out a few minutes during the middle of the day wasn't a problem. Now - one of us is in "back to school" mode, and the other has been given a "new project" at work. We are lucky to have time for lunch. So much for posting during the day!

The second big one is basketball. We are now right in the thick of the season! And the Vols are doing pretty good - especially when you consider that they have 4 freshmen and 3 sophomores and 3 juniors in the 10 man rotation. That's right - no seniors! So, with that in mind, a 10 and 4 start to the season is pretty good - especially when 2 of the losses were to a fantastic Gonzaga team and another loss was to last years national champions - Kansas. The unfortunate part was the second Gonzaga loss was at home - snapping our home game winning streak. Before that loss, we had the second longest home winning streak in the country. Never fear - I'm confident we'll get back there. After all, Coach Bruce Pearl is 53 and 4 at home. But alas - the games during the week mean that we get home late (it was about 1am for the Gonzaga game) - no posting on those days!

The last - and maybe the biggest - reason is this kitchen remodel. We went in to this thinking that we could pick some cabinets and countertop and be done. HA! We spent a month just finalizing the new layout! We spent weeks just finalizing the company we were going to buy the cabinets from - much less finalizing the actual cabinets! I kid you not - every day we have been doing one task or another related to the kitchen. Sometimes it's only a few minutes. Sometimes it's a few hours. Sometimes it's all day.

Well - those are the excuses. Add them all together and i can honestly say that this is the third time I've had the computer turned on since before Christmas. And one of those times was to pay bills! But I think we are on the downhill side, and the posts should start picking up again!

Now - on to the Kitchen update!!!

Yes - we have indeed been busy with the Kitchen. Here's the current "state of the kitchen" address...

The design has been finalized. Drawings are complete. Contractors are selected and the construction contract has been signed (that's right - this is a complete "gutting").

The countertop has been selected and the deposit on it has been payed. We decided on a "man-made" countertop over granite. Non porous, more stain resistant, and you can buff out scratches. Sounds good to me! The sink color is still a question - but it will be finalized this week. We know which color we want but there has been some confusion with the name of the color and we need to confirm our choice (with the correct color name). The countertop name is Livingstone "Mesa" - just in case you want to look it up...

The cabinet design, layout, model, and color have also been finalized and ordered! We are going with the "Dura Supreme" brand "Sophia Panel Plus" full overlay cabinet with the soft close drawers and doors. And the drawers are "full extension"! We should find out in the next couple of days when the estimated delivery date is...

And the appliances have all been selected, ordered, and have actually been delivered! They are sitting out in the garage - waiting to be unwrapped. They are black Kitchenaid appliances - bottom draw french door fridge, smooth top stove with convection oven, built in microwave, and a dishwasher. It was a surprise when they came in - I was expecting 2 weeks and it took 3 days!

The latest (and hopefully last) big decision is the tile. We've been to several places and have some ideas. Now we just need to finalize the decision - hopefully this week if everything goes according to plan! I'll keep you posted...

Until then - I promise, I haven't forgotten about the pics. I'll get them posted soon!

Take care everyone!!!