Miss America, Raspberry Pie, and Goal Tending

Three things that have nothing in common once you leave this blog post. :)

I'm taking a break from watching Miss America. Yes, I admit, I'm a sucker for beauty pageants. I've been watching bits and pieces of the Miss America reality show on TLC this month, so I already had some favorites before the pageant even aired. In case you're not aware, "they're" (who is "they," anyway?) trying to reinvent the image of the pageant, because it has been declining in popularity in recent years. So these ladies have been in training for the last month trying to "de-pageant" the pageant and make it more modern. I'm impressed with a lot of the changes, but the talent round just ended and I sincerely felt like I'd just left a snippet of Miss Congeniality. (Complete with opera, out of control tutus, and baton twirling.) I'm interested to see how it ends though. Miss Indiana is still in the running, so that's exciting.

In other news today, I made my first ever raspberry pie. I love to cook, but my mother is kind of the resident pie making champion for the greater tri-county area. (Not as in REALLY a champion...it's just that she's really really good at it, so why should I learn to make pies?) But tonight I just decided I wanted pie. Real pie. Not a deli pie made last week or a frozen pie crust with a can of filling. A real honest-to-goodness, from scratch pie. And I did it! A small puddle of the filling took up residence on the bottom of the oven (woops!) but the pie tastes so good. I'm not quite the crust-maker that my Mom is, but it sure wasn't bad for a first attempt!

And finally, proving that I can take in knowledge on the weekends, I learned new things at the basketball game today. I've been going to ball games this season and am gradually learning to cheer on my own and not as a response to the cheering of those around me. I came into the season knowing little more than how to recognize a free throw and the proper stance to take during the national anthem (which is more than I can say for a significant majority of the student body...but I digress) and each game, I learn a little bit more. Today I learned (thanks Ronda, for teaching me this one!) about goal tending. My day is a success.