Sprout

In an otherwise forgotten conversation yesterday, PP told me proudly that in her four years spent at the institution of higher learning nearest the State Fairgrounds, she had not set foot on the football field. I know that I spent a few moments there at one time or another about forty years ago, before they went to the large scoreboard and artificial grass, but I had no photos to prove it. Since I had the day off from the tennis wars after five consecutive days of trying to beat some other senior gentlemen, and since the US Open final wasn't scheduled until 4:30, I went with my camera to my alma mater to seek out the football arena. It doesn't compare, really, with the new TCF field at the University of Minnesota, but it has a nice feel to it. They keep the artificial grass really green. This one's for you, PP.



And while I was in the neighborhood, I sought out the vegetable garden that PP helped organize last spring and one where I helped plant some squash plants. The time for harvest has arrived and I wanted to see if the garden was producing. The garden is located behind the Hamline Methodist Church, across the street from the Manor House dormitory, a dormitory that was old when I was there in the 60's. The garden is doing pretty well. A lot of tomatoes have been harvested, as has the summer squash, peppers and cukes. The corn has some ripe looking cobs that need picking, but I guess the harvesters have been picking veggies and donating most of them to charities and food shelves. PP said that she has taken part in the harvesting, and even cooked some of the summer squash a while back.

I think the name of the student organization is pretty cute - SPROUT.


I spent four and a half hours watching Juan Martin del Potro outlast Roger Federer in the US Open Championship this afternoon. My predictions for the men's and women's winners - Serena Williams and Roger Federer were wrong, but it was a very entertaining tournament. I was quite happy to see Kim Clijsters and del Potro win. There were some very entertaining runs and some very good tennis matches. The best shot of the whole tournament was the between the legs retrieval shot by Roger Federer in yesterday match with Novak Djokovic. The shot came in the last game of the match and Federer later said that it was the best shot of his career. I've played tennis since I was 10 years old and I've never even tried the shot. But. I love this game.