Yesterday I joined the Y again. I went with my friend Sandra to a water aerobics class at the Flowood Y and quickly decided it's where I need to be. The instructor was as intense as any Army drill sergeant, the class lasted for an hour and a half, it was all in deep water (no jarring of joints), and there was very little chance for chit-chatting among the 15 exercising ladies. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy talking as much as anyone, but when I'm spending good money for a work-out, I'd rather wait until after class to visit. If I do this regularly, I'll be in really good shape. BIG IF.

The Water Lilies ate at the Hilton on Weds, had a good Blue Plate Special including drink and dessert for only $6.99. WOW! Today I ate with some Democratic ladies at Papito's in Madison. The conversation was better than the food, IMO. It was great to talk politics in unguarded tones, not something I get to do nearly enough, another reason I blog. Tomorrow I'm meeting George at Sweet Peppers, more unguarded Democratese, yeah! And tomorrow night I'm planning to attend a Debate Party on the other side of the Rez.

McCain has still not said he will be there for sure, but after having spent $5.5M for this event, Mississippi has not cancelled and probably will not cancel without inflicting severe damage to McLame. His campaign has been suspended (have you heard?), even though ads are still running and campaign staff members are not doing anything differently from what they were doing before it was "suspended." Shouldn't the FOX station have nothing but a test pattern on it if the McCain campaign has truly been suspended? Anyway, I'm looking forward to the party. Democrats are so much fun, I can hardly wait.

I did get some great news from my favorite Republican today, so I hope you'll forgive Gramma for indulging in a proud moment of bragging. Ricky sent this glowing account of Cooper's ballgame last night. Here's a sneak preview of our 2020 Pro All-Star:

Cooper batted cleanup tonight and was the starting pitcher. He pitched 4 scoreless innings, but then after an error by the third baseman allowed the leadoff hitter in the 5th inning to reach base, that runner scored the first (unearned) run for the Warriors. Cooper was lifted for a relief pitcher and the Bulldogs trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning. Cooper stepped to the plate as the leadoff hitter in the inning and drove the first pitch over the 200' fence in Left Field to tie the game!! The game went into extra innings (7) but the Warriors took advantage of one more error (with two outs) by the Bulldogs defense and the Warriors score two more Unearned runs on a 2-run homerun and win 3-1. After 11 games, the New Tampa Bulldogs are 9-2. Ranked 7th in the State among 67 12-year old teams. Cooper is hitting .536 and has a 1.09 ERA pitching in 3 games.