Orange isn't my favorite color, but you go with what works

Yesterday evening I went down to my friend Christine's house and spent the night. We rose at dark-thirty to walk her dogs and then head off to the Germantown flea market, held the first Saturday of every month. I contributed nothing to the sale this month other than a table for Christine to display her wares. She had a very good month. She covered her expenses, made a few dollars, and (this is the important part) got rid of a bunch of things she didn't want in her house anymore.

This afternoon I took care of my own dogs and then went in for a Very Special Pedicure. Had to have my toes painted with some orange polish, to celebrate the first Clemson game of the season. It's just this thing I do to celebrate my alma mater in a way that is personally meaningful to me. Clemson won, which didn't have anything to do with my toenails, but I am happy for the team and the fans. Go Tigers!

This game was held down in Atlanta, and my friend/college roommate Amanda F. was there. I am sure she and her family are all having a happy evening now that the close game came out well. All wins are good wins, and now, if I know them, they are looking forward to the first HOME game. If you haven't ever been to a Clemson game, you should go sometime, it's an experience. Picture about 80,000 rabid fans, wearing mostly orange, faces painted with Tiger Paws, ready for "the most exciting 25 seconds in college football," when the team runs into Death Valley. The stadium is nicknamed Death Valley...Southerners are NOTHING if they are not fond of exaggeration and hyperbole. It's in a valley, it's near a cemetery*, and back in the 1940s some coach told a sports writer that he had to take his team to Clemson to play in death valley...WELL, that's exactly the kind of thing to make a Southerner's toes curl in ecstacy. Frank Howard Field at Memorial Stadium is so commonly known as Death Valley that I am willing to bet that there are diehard Clemson fans who hardly know the stadium's real name. Frank Howard even got a rock from the actual Death Valley, which is right there at the top of the green grass in the end zone. It's called...Howard's Rock.

*Thanks to Clemson University, my parents are now the proud owners of a plot in the cemetery on the hill near the stadium. So one day, their earthly remains will rest peacefully near Death Valley...not a bad thing for a Clemson family...