Pasgetty, please.

Great things are happening this week.

1. The Odyssey of the Mind team is serving up a spaghetti dinner Saturday night from 5:30 - 7:30 at Mill Glen Clubhouse. Adults $5, kids $3. Join us for dinner and help us get the kids to World Finals at Michigan State University! We're selling tickets so we get a head count for the masses of tasty sauce we're simmering for the fundraiser. Post here if you'd like to support the team and eat hearty at the same time.  Darlin' daughter will have presold tickets at Will Call, but walk-ins are certainly welcome as long as the sauce lasts! (Thanks to Mill Glen for letting us use the clubhouse for free.)

3. The City of Dunwoody is taking ownership of our Parks. Hurray! Nothing like a little local control to improve things all around.

4. Peachtree Charter Middle School's Blue Shadow Jazz Band was stood up by DeKalb County Schools transportation department. Despite months of practice, getting dressed in their tuxedo-shirt best, packing up their instruments, and showing up at school on time for the bus . . . they weren't able to compete in the annual Georgia Music Educators Association Jazz Band Competition on Saturday morning.  Because the bus never showed up. Oh, the transportation rep said sorry, but that didn't get the kids to the competition. Huge disappointment for the kids. And I bet we don't see a reimbursement for all the fees the school and parents had to pony up for the competition. And for the 8th grade students, there's no give-back for a lost opportunity to shine.

Nonetheless, they did a stellar job as part of Peachtree's Spring Band Concert, an outdoor event held this past Saturday night. Loved the solos, the crazy clothes (the theme was That's Crazy!), the great percussion bit with trash cans, and the huge turn out by friends and family.  Dunwoody High School's band was a special performing guest, giving the middle school band students a taste of the excellence ahead. Thanks to band teachers Mr. Shores, Mr. Hickman (PCMS), and Mr. Henderson (DHS) for leading the students so capably and enthusiastically.

5. Congratulations to Seth Inman, Valedictorian, and Graham Goldberg, Salutatorian for Dunwoody High School. Side note: both are members of DHS' Mock Trial Team, an amazing group of students who put lots of time and effort into this intensive competition each year.  Yeah, they did lots of other stuff, like take a kazillion AP classes, participate in sports and student government and service organizations, and get major scholarships to impressive schools. And get really, really good grades while juggling all of the above.

6.  School's out on Friday. Summer break begins.  I'm relieved that the stresses of school will go on hiatus. But rather than head back to school on August 9, in the heat of a Southern summer with the highest power bills of the year when we're in dire straits economically, I'd love for us to have year-round school with three-week breaks between sessions. Imagine getting that nothing-planned feeling four times a year! There's a reason Europeans take a break in August from school and work. It's HOT.

7. I'm nearly finished with the neverending Nora's Sweater from Interweave Knits. Can't wait to wear it next fall. But what am I going to knit on the plane and in Michigan during the Odyssey of the Mind festivities?

That wraps up Monday's thoughts. Busy, busy, busy week ahead.

Leisure knitting and leisure suits.

I cast on a new project this weekend, the Diminishing Rib Cardigan by Andrea Pomerantz. I'm working with a soft cotton yarn in a pale chartreuse, a lovely texture and shade for spring. There are tricky parts (tubular rib cast on) and easy parts (raglan structure and stockinette). I'm in the slow increase section so chatting during today's knitting circle gathering at St. Luke's should be quite easy.

If I'm not talking with kindred spirits, I like to have a movie on when I'm knitting. But sometimes either my latest NetFlix hasn't arrived yet or Classic Movies lets me down. So I  trolled NetFlix via the computer and decided to watch instant plays of old TV shows from my childhood. What a hoot! Talk about major cultural changes . . .

Last night I caught an episode of Emergency! that had the paramedics come across an accident during an off-duty fishing trip. The injuries were severe, the road was isolated, there was no traffic, and they had to just sit and hope for another car to come along. No cell phones! Here, in my lifetime, we've gone from depending on yourself and luck to being just a cellular call away from help.

Oh, good grief, the hair styles. And the nurses in white . . . now that I miss. When you've confused the cleaning staff with a nurse in the hospital, you know things have gotten way too casual. Huge walkie-talkies, coppertone ovens, large-size newspapers, leisure suits, beyond-tight pants on men and women, dorky shoes, phones with CORDS, writing everything down rather than keying it into a computer, hairsprayed updos . . . amazing.

Bonus: my tween crush Bobby Sherman was on one of the episodes. Wow . . . what was I thinking?

NetFlix also has some really good British shows in its instant-watch playlist. I've visited Ballykissangel in Ireland with a new Catholic priest, escaped reality with Torchwood, a spin-off of Dr. Who, and tried to understand rather thick regional dialects in some procedural cop shows.

The best thing about these instant-watch options? I rarely can watch a show from start to finish - too many must-do's and kid distractions. So pause, even turn off NetFlix and it remembers where you were the next time you sign in!

Now that's convenience.