African Violet Show

Kathy, a friend of ours, raises African Violets and shows them in competition.  She invited us to attend the SAHBA (Southern Arizona Home Builders Association) Home and Patio show at the Tucson Convention Center today.  The flowers were judged yesterday and were on display at the show today.  Gerry has raised African Violets in the past but they are very difficult to take care of in the motor home so she gave that up a few years ago.

Kathy won various places in the show including a Best Of Show for one very pretty flower.  She also had other flowers getting first and second places in the competition. 
 

Gerry and Kathy were checking out some more of the flowers and there were some very special ones on the tables.  

After checking out the flowers we went into the convention center to see what was there.  Since most of the exhibits were centered around homes, there wasn't that much there of interest to us.  Gerry did spend a lot of time talking to a lady from Cathy's Vac & Sew.   The lady was demonstrating a Baby Lock machine.  With a price tag of $13,000 Gerry won't be rearranging the motor home to find space for it.  I found a chair where I could watch the Arizona-Wisconsin basketball game.

One exhibit did interest us and when/if we buy another home it would be nice to have one of these water fountains in the rec room.  

Later on we went out to dinner with Kathy and two of her fellow African Violet growers.  The El Minuto Cafe was right across the street and I was very thirsty by this time.  We sat outside in the shade and had a nice conversation and meal.  Kathy and her friends had to return to the show to finish up their day there.  We decided to head back home and bid them a fond farewell.

It has been hot here in Tucson the past couple days and today was no exception.   Of course it was a "dry heat" so that explains it all.  Dry or not, it was very hot in the direct sunlight.  We sat outside under our awning this morning and finished up our coffee.  It was a comfortable early morning with a breeze and lots of shade.  It reminded us of being outside in the Florida Keys when we spent so much time down there.

Gerry's sister and bil surprised us with a phone call today.  We chatted with them for over an hour and caught up on their lives.  They have a new puppy and had it spayed on Thursday.  Poor thing!  Since it was so cold and windy in Annapolis, they decided to hang around home and watch some movies.  Sounds like they had a relaxing day after a busy work week.

All the teams I was interested in have lost in the NCAA mens basketball tournament so I won't be watching any more games except the final game.  The Univ. of Maryland finally had one blue chipper commit to their basketball program.  I don't remember when they had a highly regarded player commit, so maybe we can get a couple more and be more competitive in the future.  

It's hard to build a program with so many one and done players entering college now and leaving for the pros a year later.  I would like to see the NCAA make the schools give each scholarship for 4 years and if the player left early for the pros, then they couldn't use the scholarship until the 4 years expire.  It would make for more competitive teams and maybe some of the "student athletes" could actually go to class and learn something.  Fat chance of this happening since there is so much money involved in college sports now.  For example, the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) will be paid $28 million this year for their part in the tournament.  That goes a long way to pay for their uniforms and basketballs.

So much for my little rant and I'm sure most people who read my blog don't care one way or the other about college sports.  

That was our day, how was yours?