Episode Transcript
Mandy. Hi Katie. And Maggie. And she's gone. And she's gone. She just pops up like a little
whack-a-mole every once in a while. Yeah. Oh goodness. Yep. Well it's been a wild
week. You know normally I have to like come up with stuff to talk about because
I don't do anything outside of work. You know living in the country is nice and
quiet. But this week has been you know it's the high holy week for church. So
it's been a busy week but a good week. So I have been watching some
basketball since I'm picking teams. And there have been some great there been
more buzzer beaters. That Yukon buzzer beater game with Duke has just been
amazing. And all my friends that are North Carolina fans anytime we text
about it it turns out I've been spelling Duke wrong all these years.
It's D-O-O-K. And I didn't know that. But now that's how I spell it. So
that's been fun to watch. So that's been keeping me up later. And I've
been staying awake which is great. But it's been fun. So that's been good. And
then the other thing I started doing I was getting I don't know if it's
spring cleaning when it's emails but I was getting like hundreds a day of
just junk. And so I have been unsubscribing from everything. Highly
recommend. Highly recommend. Yes because there is nary a thing that I
buy because somebody sends me an email about it. Now do I use products from
some of these companies. Yes I do. But I am not going to order because they
sent me an email. So unsubscribe from everything. And it's life changing. I
should have done it months ago. I should do it as I go. It's wonderful.
So if you haven't done that in a while it is really. It's so nice. So
do you do that like in spurts like I do or do you do it like as they come.
You're like I don't want to do it. Every time an email pops up in my
inbox. OK. I need that. I don't want to subscribe. I need to do better
about that because it really has been so nice to not have five bozillion
emails coming through all day and night. I need to do that. The other
thing that is really. Well it's good and bad. It's good that it's spring
because it is beautiful down here. The azaleas are in full bloom. The
native azaleas smell like honeysuckles. So it's a beautiful time of year.
But y'all the pollen is awful. I can hardly see the pretty things
because my eyes are watering so bad as I walk around outside. But it's too
nice not to. So we've enjoyed our walks but Lord my eyes water 24 7 and
I sneeze all the time. Welcome to my life. I know right. And the
gnats are back. Yeah. Yeah the gnats are back. So it's a mixed bag
down here in spring. The other thing that I did this week is I took
Maggie because it was getting hot. I took her to be groomed and with her
UTI that we had last week I was advised by my friend that's a
veterinarian to get her lady bits trimmed especially close. And so I
told them at the place to give her a Brazilian and they thought that
was hilarious. They never heard that. Well I mean of course she
heard because why not. So Maggie got a clip. She looks great. They kept her
mohawk because that is her personality. So they were thrilled. It's the
people that have always clipped her. So they were thrilled to have her
back. They love honey. Honey got a bath. Here she comes again. Honey got
a bath and Maggie kept her mohawk. So they're very very sweet. They
loved honeybee. And I need to get the pictures because they took pictures of
them when they were done. Of course Maggie is posing like the princess that
she is. And honey is the most awkward looking like goofy nerdy dog. It is just
their personalities in pictures. So if I can find them I'll send them to you.
It's so sweet. But I'm glad to have Maggie clipped. She needed it and it
helps with the hair in my house too. But the other thing I've been doing which I
did today and I'm gonna do again Friday is I went up I mentioned it last week
but I went up to Mulberry today and heard my friend who is the chaplain
at Westland preach and I got to sit in the pew and be and absorb someone
else's words and thoughts about scripture and it was just great. So I am thankful
for those opportunities. They don't come very often for me anymore. As you all
know I've talked about all the time because I'm always looking to find
that part of my faith still fulfilled. And so this week I'm doing it as much
as possible. So it was a beautiful thing but it's so nice to sit in the
pew. Good. Yeah so that's what we've been doing. It's been a full week. We've
got our Maundy Thursday drop-in communion tomorrow and then good
Friday on Friday. So that'll be nice. How about you Mandy? What's going on? I
gave you a topic that I wanted to discuss so I hope that's okay. I made
it to church Sunday. I didn't have to come home. Love it. Love it. And rescue
the dog so that was good. Yeah baseball is back. Yes it is. I'm so happy. I
left here Thursday driving to New Orleans and was able to turn on the
Cubs game and listen to that all the way to New Orleans. And then the Braves
played Friday night. Their opener was Friday night. I didn't really get to
watch it obviously but still you know was keeping up with it on the phone and
they won. And so listen y'all we are not gonna be starting 0-7 again this
year. We are already off to a better start. And they did you know they
played with some excitement and some fire and some offensive power which is
always fun to watch. And then on Saturday night they had a walk-off Grand
Slam. It was just exciting. It was fun. And then at the same time so my sister
texted me Friday night and she was like I can't remember exactly what it was but
we have an acronym now which stands for anchor the F down M F'ers. Okay okay.
She texted me that and then said go home Tennessee. Well I didn't realize it
was the Bandy Boys UT weekend. I thought she was talking about because UT was
still in the March Madness and I was thinking they had played and they had
lost. Which they did later but that did not happen on Friday night. Well
what happened on Friday night was the Bandy Boys walked them off. And then guess
what happened on Saturday afternoon? The Bandy Boys walked them off in
approximately 111 innings. And then Katie guess what happened Sunday
afternoon? Did they walk them off? The Bandy Boys walked them off. There we go.
Well let's UT all three in walk-off fashion. I love it. I saw where your
buddy Tony Vitale is not starting off in this listening in San Francisco
very well. And on top of it that's next on the list. Tony Vitale. Oh I see
that now sorry. Is losing and making a fool of himself at the same time.
Yeah. Could I be happier? Tony Vitale for those of you may not remember is
the former coach of the UT baseball team. Back in the D&C days UT's
baseball team sucked. They were not any good at all. They hired Tony Vitale to
come in and to his credit he made a good baseball team. But they are the
most unsportsman sportsman like group of fellas you have ever seen. Yeah.
Several years ago Tony Vitale got kicked out of a game for chest
bumping an umpire. Which like y'all you don't make contact with an umpire.
He chest bumped an umpire and was kicked out and suspended for a game.
And the way that man chose to handle it at an educational institution a place
of higher education where young minds go to learn and grow. He thought the
thing to do would be to put on a sandwich board that said free chest
bumps and stand outside the stadium. Because listen that's a lesson we want
our children to learn. That's classy with a K. He should run for
political office. He probably will. So he was hired by the San Francisco
giant baseball team as their manager in this off season. And he debuted as
a manager in the big leagues. He's never played in the big leagues. He
played at the University of Missouri y'all. He never played in the minor
leagues. He never played in the major leagues. The man hadn't played
baseball since he was in college. He debuted as a manager.
It was actually opening night is what they called it because they played on
Wednesday night. The rest of baseball opened on Thursday or Friday. So
this was the very first game of the 2026 season. It was on Netflix.
Netflix paid about a billion dollars to get that game and like three
other games that they're going to broadcast. So it's like this big
deal that Netflix's first baseball broadcast. Guess what? Tony Vitelli got
shut out. Shut out. And on top of that he's been doing all these press
conferences and just making an utter fool of himself. I was watching or
listening to, I can't remember if it was baseball today. It was one of the
John Boy baseball podcast because it was Trevor Plyve. And Trevor has
been real, he's a former player. He played in the big leagues and he's been
kind of like, I don't know how a college coach is going to do in the big
leagues, whatever. And he's like, everybody I talked to that had him as
a coach loves him. I don't doubt that.
Trevor was just going off on him. He gave a press conference after
because I think the Giants have now won a game, but I think they were
0-3 to start the season. They got swept by the Yankees. And Vitelli said
something about how he thought it was his fault because he had gotten too
far in Brimstone and the locker room and it had gotten the players too
excited. This was a bunch of grown men, y'all. This ain't the boys
from Sevierville. These are grown ass men who have played a lot more
baseball in their life than you, Tony Vitelli. Sit down and shut up.
What are you talking about? Anyway, Trevor says something about,
they were like, he's 47. Oh, he looks really good for 47.
It's great till he opens his mouth.
If you look in the dictionary for toxic masculinity, right next to
our Department of War head, Pete Hegseth, you will see Tony Vitelli.
Anyway, it's probably great joy. I love that.
I knew it would. I did have a question about that.
The Braves did great. How did you feel about their pitching?
Because that's what we're so worried about.
Chris Sale's great. He's our number one. He did great.
Ronaldo Lopez is our number two. He came to the Braves year before last
partly because they promised him he could start where the past few years he had been out of
the bullpen after coming up as a starting pitcher. He did really great his first year,
and then he got hurt in the middle of last year. There was just some question
as to how he was going to be coming back from an injury.
And then his last spring training game, his velocity just tanked.
So everybody's like, what in the world is happening?
But he came in. He did great. So they won the first two games.
The third game, Grant Holmes pitched the third game.
The guy that looks like Kenny Powers.
And he did fine, but they lost the game. They didn't have any offense that night.
But he looked okay. He did fine. Now mind you, we're playing,
although I guess Grant pitched against Kansas City and their decent team.
So our second series was against the Oakland A's.
And Bryce Elder, when Bryce first got called up, he was an All-Star his first season.
And then the second half of his first season and since, he's been not good.
Right. And so he actually, I listened to a
podcast interview with him this morning and he has worked really hard in the off season
with a guy out in Utah. And so he's feeling good.
You can tell he's feeling confident.
They also were talking on the broadcast about how he had gone out to Arizona
and met with Greg Maddux.
And Elder's not nearly as good as Maddux, but he's that same kind of pitcher.
He's sort of a throwback. He doesn't throw a hundred miles an hour.
Right. He places pitches.
And so he kind of talked to Greg Maddux, who was also that kind of pitcher.
And so he had said that had been really helpful. And then so he won his game.
Last night was our fifth game. And that's really the one where we're like,
we have no idea who's going to be our fifth starter. None at all.
And the guy who started his first inning, he looked really good.
And then his second inning, he couldn't just have no control at all.
But the good news is the other guy who could be our possible fifth starter who came in
in long relief, he did look really good.
But we lost that game last night.
And then today was Chris Sale again.
And he looked, he was nails.
Good.
Good.
So, you know, we'll see. The pitching has looked OK,
but it was also against not necessarily great teams.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We left today to fly to Arizona and they're a decent team.
So that'll be interesting to see.
It was really more exciting to me that the offense looked,
had a little more life.
Everybody says Ozzy's got to have a comeback season.
And he hit a home run in his first at bat.
So good. You love to see it.
Yeah.
So yeah, so that's all very exciting.
Katie wanted to talk about the ABS, which is the, what's that even stand for?
Automatic Balls and Strikes System.
OK, so this is a new rule that they have instituted in Major League Baseball.
They went through, I think we had talked about,
they went through and measured every player
because the strike zone is now, you know, going to be, what's the word?
Every player has their own strike zone, basically.
Because of their height differences.
Right. So, Ozzy Albies and Aaron Judge do not have the same strike zone.
You can't throw the ball in the exact same place
to both of them and have it be a strike.
Because a high strike for Aaron Judge would be over Ozzy's head.
Yep.
So, I think we could talk about it with that.
And so the way it works is anybody can, any player can challenge.
They cannot challenge from the dugout.
But I thought it was just pitcher, catcher, and batter.
Well, that might be true.
That's probably the center field.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But anybody involved in the, in the at bat can challenge.
And you get two per game.
If you are successful in your challenge, you retain it.
Yep.
So, as long as you're right in your challenges,
then you get to keep both of them.
The Braves were playing Kansas City.
And Kansas City's catcher is a guy named Salvador Perez.
He was the catcher for the Venezuelan team.
Okay.
If you watched the WBC, you saw some Salvi.
Salvi is a veteran.
And he was killing it behind the plate with his challenges.
I think he had like four in one game and they were all correct.
Yep.
Versus, I think it was Sunday maybe,
the Braves lost their two challenges in the first inning.
Okay.
No more challenges.
Nice.
The most teams are telling pitchers not to challenge.
Right.
Because pitchers are always going to think it's a strike.
Yep.
The best thing I've seen so far is old CB Buckner.
Yes.
He was a notoriously horrible umpire.
He was in Cincinnati calling a game against the Reds and the Red Sox.
And uh Eugenia Suarez, who was also on the Venezuelan team,
he was the one that kept preaching and praying to God on the Venezuelan team.
Amen.
He was at bat.
CB Buckner called it a strike.
They challenged it and it was a ball.
So the at bat continued repeat on the very next pitch.
The same thing happened.
So when the guy should have been rung up twice, he actually ended up walking.
Yep.
And the crowd in Cincinnati was going wild.
Nice.
So a couple things that I think and that this is why I want I want your opinion on it too.
First of all, I used to date an umpire.
My ex did it for fun, played baseball forever.
So I know it's not easy.
It is not an easy thing.
However, even I know that as an umpire, you're supposed to move the
strike zone for every player anyway.
Like that's something that they should have been doing.
You know, that's if like you said, if an Aaron Judge gets up there,
I know it's not the same strike zone as a short king.
I mean that you just there's no way you can just have a stagnant thing.
But you know, it's really been interesting.
CB Buckner is the one that's been getting the most hate for it.
I mean, he missed by like two inches.
And there was one of the Braves game that was so bad that they didn't even give you
the measurement like it was so far.
It was so low because what they're doing is y'all as they're showing on the screen
and it's challenged, then they'll flash it up and show like how many inches off
it was or whatever.
This one was so bad.
They didn't even give you the measurement.
So and this was the other question I have for you.
I don't I'm not sure if this is a CB Buckner vintage call or if this was in a game this
season, but he was on the bases and the guy was running to first.
The ball misses.
It's an error by the I think second baseman totally misses first base.
The guy touches first, the ball's not even caught by the first baseman
and he calls him out and he says he wasn't touched.
He didn't touch the bag.
Well, then you look at the replay and CB Buckner wasn't even looking at the bag.
That must be vintage.
I hadn't heard about that.
Okay.
So I didn't know if that was same season.
I thought man, he's had a bad week because if you look at him with the challenge,
his shoulders drop like he gets angry when he gets something about how he got man,
but I thought that was at the ABS stuff.
So I don't know.
He's notoriously bad.
He somebody said something about a bunch of kids on the Cubs broadcast right now.
They have taken off their shirts and it's cold in Chicago.
Somebody said something about CB's really mad that Angel Hernandez retired last year
because that'd be the only thing that would help him.
And also CB got hit by a ball in a game today and was injured and left the game.
So coincidence.
I know, right?
What I've heard with the people that I follow, the sports people, is that
maybe it eventually will get to a place where even the umpires will want to have
it for every pitch and they're just there for the swinging stuff and in case it goes out.
Because I think he would have rather especially just call the whole thing.
Like don't question me about every damn pitch.
And that's kind of where I think because he was getting very frustrated.
Well, you know, they have some and I don't know the details on it, but I know they
have talked about robot umpires just all together having.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it'll ever get to that.
No, I think if nothing else fast, it moves fast.
It doesn't take very long at all.
It's I will say it's it's sort of like, you know how when they started instant replay,
how now there's some of those tags on second.
It's like so close and it's like, is this really the spirit of what we're trying to do?
Yeah.
And like today, dance me challenged a strike call and when they show it's like.
Really tiniest little bit of the baseball was on the plate.
And so like those are kind of hard.
And I don't fall the umpire for those.
I mean, if it's that close, like that's not it's the ones like with him where it was two and
three inches.
I mean, like some of them are just like, come on, dude.
And over and over and over.
Yep.
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
What what do you think about the future of it?
Do you think we'll get to a place?
I think it's here to say I don't think we'll ever get a robot umpires.
Or at least just the balls and strikes being called by ABS.
I don't know.
I think we'll have to have ABS for several years before they take that up.
Yeah.
I just thought it was interesting.
I heard an interview with Joe West.
He's another retired umpire this morning and he was saying they were asking him about it.
And he said, he said, I don't really know.
He said, I'm really playing golf.
I'm not watching that much baseball.
He said, but here's the other thing about what they're doing.
He said, the strike zone is three dimensional.
Yeah.
And all they can do with this, it's still linear.
Yeah.
He said, so until they can get a three dimensional
evaluation, I don't really have that much of an opinion on it.
Okay.
That makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it'll be interesting.
We'll see what happens.
Yeah.
Yep.
Other than that, I got to go to New Orleans,
which pretty much New Orleans, such a good, such a good city.
So fun.
But even better was just being with old friends.
I love it.
I was with our dear friend and listener, Elizabeth,
who I get to see a lot because she lives close to Nashville.
But we met through our mutual friend, Amy.
And Amy grew up in Cordele and we were pledge sisters together at Mercer.
And then she and Elizabeth went to law school together at Mercer.
I took three years off.
So I missed them.
They were out by the time I came back.
So I never actually met Elizabeth until Amy's second wedding.
But since then, Elizabeth and I have been best.
Amy and I go back to, you know, 18 years old.
And it's just so funny.
We were talking.
So both of them are eldest daughters.
And it's funny how many of my friends are eldest daughters.
I think it's because my sister, I'm just trying to like,
that's my model for friendship is my relationship with my sister.
And I just drawn to eldest bossy ass daughters who will tell me what to do.
But anyway, they were cracking at laughing at this.
They could not believe what a rule follower I am.
And so that became like a topic of conversation.
So like we were walking down the street and I was like,
see, I'm even, I'm scared to throw my coffee away because it was,
you know, trash can somebody who rolled down to the street
and you know, people get mad about their trash.
Yes.
And I was like, I'm scared to even throw my coffee cup away.
And Amy stopped and she turned around and she said,
do not ever say you are scared in my presence again.
I love it.
But you know, she was like, what are you, you're Mandy Caldwell.
You're not scared of anything.
What are you talking about?
Scared.
You know, it's just always fun to be with those people who have known you for so long
and knew you when you were a young thing, you know, to remind you of that.
So then I came home, I got home on Saturday and my dear friend, Lee Bailey,
who lived in America, but now they've bought a house
at Lake Blackshire and they're living on the lake.
I still need to get together with them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they were here, they had dropped their daughter off for spring break
in Panama City and so they just came over and stayed for a couple of days.
And so then I got to be, you know,
spend all this time with Lee, who literally stole my name.
That's how long we've been friends.
Yeah.
Oh, and so it's just, you know, that's just great.
It's just fun to be around.
Yes.
People who have lived with you through everything.
Yeah.
Super fun.
Super fun.
Love that.
Good.
Good.
We both had good weeks.
We had lots to do.
Look at us.
That's why we're drinking energy drinks at the moment.
Yes.
Yes.
I'm sinking.
All right, Katie.
Well, tell us about, it looks like you have a book for us.
I do have a book for us.
It is in the other room.
So my friend down here, Jennifer, who I talk about all the time,
she's my best friend here.
Just love her.
She is very, very like I am woman, hear me roar.
And I love her for that.
And she and her sister-in-law have both read this book and they're like,
Katie, you have to read it.
You have to lead us in a book study of it.
We want to hear your perspective on it.
It is not for the faint of heart.
I will tell you that, but it is a very important book to read.
It is called The Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings.
And it is not a how-to to be a well-trained wife.
It is the story of a woman who got caught up in that movement
that came out of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida.
Um, she eventually gets sucked into the world of like the Duggars
and that faith tradition and got the crap beat out of her from by her husband
and how she gets out of that.
And so it is how she deprograms herself from this idea of being a well-trained wife.
The idea that if your husband's not happy, it's your fault.
You should be more submissive.
You should make sure his needs are met.
Like all of that was ingrained into her.
Um, and, um, she survived that abusive relationship and got herself out.
And now she's written a book about it.
And it is, I think even though I've never been married,
I have been in abusive relationships.
And, um, I think it is important for every single one of us as women to read.
So I highly encourage it.
Prepare your spirit before you dig in.
Even though this is a real extreme example of that kind of thinking,
like even I can see some of the things that were said
in what was a very progressive church at the time
in the nineties and early two thousands in churches, in all churches.
There are hints of that.
And I'm just so thankful.
It makes me thankful over and over again
that, um, somehow I survived all that, um,
and did not buy into that kind of culture that was in front of all of us back then.
So, um, it's really good, very important book.
I highly encourage you to read it.
Okay, interesting.
Yeah, it is very interesting.
Um, very heavy, but very important.
I promise I'll get back to the summer reads later.
No, it's not summer yet.
Yeah, right.
So Mandy, what about your favorites?
Okay, so I have a couple of New Orleans things
and I have a couple of things that came in handy in New Orleans.
I love that.
Um, a couple of things are, it's from the old Navy gauze line.
Okay.
If you like their, like, gauze clothes.
I got a top and shorts that, you know, sort of like a set.
Okay.
Um, and I was showing Elizabeth because Elizabeth and I love some old Navy finds.
Things we just struck out again.
Dance me.
Dance me.
Oh, so she, she looked at it and she goes, are you long-waisted or short-waisted?
And I said, I'm all torso.
I don't know what that means.
Long-waisted.
Long-waisted.
So anyway, yes, the shirt, so like if I have the shorts on and I have the shirt on
and I lift my arms above my head, a little bit of my belly would show.
Okay.
So if you too are long-waisted, you might want to size up for length.
But it was so cute.
It was perfect for walking around New Orleans on, uh, what day did we do that?
Friday?
Saturday?
I don't remember.
Um, and yeah, it was cool because New Orleans was warm.
Yeah, already.
You might imagine.
And so I was able to stay nice and cool and, um, I highly recommend it.
So the old Navy gauze.
And then I was wanting to share with y'all a couple of places we went
in my old Navy gauze outfit.
Um, so Amy had shared with us an artist.
I could share her too.
She was a freaking riot.
Um, her name is Ellen Macomer.
Okay.
B-L-L-E-N-M-A-C-O-M-B-E-R.
Okay.
And Ellen is a very New Orleans artist.
Okay.
She, what triggered Amy's thought for us to go visit is Elizabeth likes to wear a lot
of like caftans and kimonos and they're so cute and so fun.
And when she put one on Amy's like, because Ellen makes these.
Oh, I just pulled up her textiles.
Yes.
They're art.
And so they're just beautiful.
Um, and she's like, she's a very New Orleans artist.
She also makes like beautiful fringe earrings, you know, that are a foot long.
Headdresses.
She, she makes headdresses for Mardi Gras.
She's getting ready to do some pop-ups in Louisville to do fascination.
Yeah.
Um, she had these things that were alligator tails and she takes like,
you know, a piece of an alligator tail and paints on it or whatever.
And then attaches, you know, something like fringe or something to it.
And then attaches that to like vintage jewelry.
Love that.
Um, they're cute.
And then she also has paintings.
I bought a little painting of like a map of the French quarter
that was framed in like a medallion.
Just so cute.
But she's it's her studio is by appointment only.
And we just reached out to her that morning and had her there, had it over there.
Um, and it's this beautiful old house that she has bought
and she's working on restoring.
And listen, she is a hoot.
She is a hoot.
Let me tell you, it's worth going on there.
She has vestments.
She has preaching vestments.
There you go.
When I can wear them, you can't wear them in the Methodist Church too.
You're ordained.
When I can wear them, don't tempt me with a good time.
They're very affordable too, ladies of the 12th.
I love this.
The website alone is worth the peruse, my friends.
So, oh, Ellen and McComber are all added in here.
I did.
I just did.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
She's and she's you'll just know that you're buying from a fabulous human being.
She was hysterical.
She ended up, she was telling us about her house.
And finally, she was like, do y'all just want to go look?
So then she like took us back into her house
and like showed us what she's her yard
and everything she could do it like she was dying.
But then she said that she's like, hey, what else are y'all doing?
And we're like, well, we're just kind of, you know,
wandering around and say we were in the lower garden district
is where her house is.
And she's like, well, y'all should just go right around the corner.
There's a couple of different shops.
And then there's the Saint's Pizza and then Patron Saint Wine Bar.
And so we had dinner reservations, so we didn't get pizza.
But we did.
We walked around the corner
and we stopped at like three or four different shops kind of along the way.
And ended up at Patron Saint Wine Bar.
And y'all, it was just delightful.
It's you can buy wine like they have wine that,
you know, bottles of wine that you can buy or you can sit.
You can be like a little wine tasting or they have fun little cocktails.
And then we got a cheese plate and it was just delightful.
It was just lovely.
It's obviously a neighborhood spot.
You know, people are coming and going.
Kids are riding in on their little bikes with their parents.
And I think they must be associated with the pizza bar
because the focaccia was killer.
And I saw like the chef from the pizza bar come in.
I think it was his wife.
But they were obviously like talking to some wine vendors, whatever, whatever.
It's just a real neighborhood spot.
Let me tell you on a Friday afternoon.
But yeah, it was just so great.
And there's great shops all along that strip where it is.
So highly recommend that.
And then for brunch the next day, we went to Palm and Pine.
And y'all, my mind is still blown.
My mind is still blown.
That food was so good.
We went for brunch.
That brunch menu was killer.
We were like, we're going to have to order one of all of these.
And like really, other than the salad, we almost did.
We skipped the salad.
And they didn't get two orders of pancakes.
But y'all get a cinnamon roll.
I meant to get a cinnamon roll to go.
And I forgot because we had two orders of pancakes.
The potatoes, the potatoes.
They're bacon fat potatoes.
We, this truly was like some of the best potatoes I've ever had in my life.
They were that impossible to obtain texture of like crispy and soft.
Oh gosh.
They were just so good.
And we did not partake of the cocktails because it was the day we were leaving.
And so we were driving.
But the cocktails looked delicious.
Just great place.
Great place.
Super nice people.
Highly recommend.
Love that.
Yeah.
So there you go.
There we go.
Well, what do you have going on this week, Mandy?
Well, I am leaving tomorrow.
Y'all pray for me.
I have to get Miss Mercy ready to, who has, it's 345 where we live.
And she has decided right now to begin her dinner campaign.
She's staring at me.
She is going to boarding in the morning.
Yes, here she is.
There we go.
Whack-a-mole.
She is going to boarding for two nights.
I'll be back on Saturday.
I'm going to Montgomery for my equal justice initiative field trip.
Love that.
Which I told Elizabeth and Amy about.
And they were laughing and making fun of me for going on this field trip
because they're like, what are you doing?
You're going to be with a bunch of strangers.
Oh, well.
Anyway, so it's going to be funny.
But I'm excited.
I'm excited.
So I've done the Birmingham Civil Rights Museums,
but I've never done the Montgomery one.
So I really am excited to hear how that goes.
And listen, I now have Boo Mama's cell phone number.
Stop it.
I feel like I have a famous person.
You do.
When they ask you who the most famous person is on your phone,
you can say, Boo Mama.
Yes, that'll be fun.
I'm excited.
Amazing.
Good for you.
Love that.
What about you, Katie?
Well, it's the Super Bowl of Jesus.
So we're High Holy Days-ing it.
I'm doing a lot of communion for shut-ins this week.
And then we've got a drop-in communion for the church tomorrow.
And then Friday, I'm going up to the Good Friday service.
Saturday, we're doing an Easter egg hunt in town.
And Sunday's the big day.
So we'll have a great service for Easter.
It's just a busy week, which is great.
And then next week, I catch up on everything
I haven't been able to do this week.
I'm getting my hair done, stuff like that.
My therapy session, which I'm going to need.
So very important.
So there we go.
That's what I'm doing.
Everybody has a great Easter.
I hope the Easter bunny is good to you.
And I hope that you have not heard
Maggie snoring this whole time.
Not.
We have not.
It's hot in my lap.
All right, friends.
Y'all have a good week.
