Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg 1 at a time. Add the vanilla and pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.
In science, a Meme (pronounced to rhyme with “theme”) is a self-propagating unit of thought that is spread from one host to another. Richard Dawkins invented the term as a kind of idea-gene. Like genes, as Memes spread they mutate or die. Only the fittest Memes survive.
For bloggers Memes have become synonymous with internet quizzes, surveys, and novelties that people link to and pass around on their blogs, forums and via email, things like the “which superhero are you most like” test…
So here I go with Laura's meme:
Ten random things
1. Magazines subscribed to: Atlanta Magazine and a few online newsletters for thought leadership and communications (Dan receives Sports Illustrated, Wired, Esquire and a few others that I sometimes look through)
2. Aside from cramming my brain with useless Bravo reality TV (or insert a favorite hobby here), my favorite pasttimes are: cooking, entertaining friends, dreaming up craft projects that I rarely fully execute, watching movies, thrift shopping
3. If I were not an account manager at a creative agency or corporate communicator (insert your own profession in place of designer), I would be: a counselor, entrepreneur, chef/caterer or maybe even real estate agent (though like my weekends and nights too much to do the latter of my four alternate professions)
4. I am irrationally worried about: it's a probably a toss up between not drinking enough water in a day and not eating enough vegetables
5. If I were the opposite sex: I would not be afraid to break some gender stereotypes
6. The thing I miss most about childhood is: not having many responsibilities (and time not elapsing as quickly as it does today... where does all the time go?)
7. I like to collect: photos, antique furniture, fun shoes, costume jewelry
8. Though I’ve never been there, I feel inexplicably homesick for: the wide open West (I am dying to go on a road trip to California so I can soak in the unbelievable landscapes, skies and rock formations)
9. I’ve never really liked to eat: horseradish, mustard or wasabi
10. When I have nightmares, they’re usually about: being chased
Thanks for the mental break, Laura!
No, it's not quite time to celebrate my first anniversary with Dan. We still have just under 11 months until that rolls around.
I will celebrate an anniversary before October 4, 2009: my anniversary with my current employer!
Historically, the company has given employees their favorite bottle of wine, a balloon and a nice card on their employment anniversary. This has been well appreciated by our 30 or so employees—at least until our company president came up with an even better idea. Here are some excerpts from his e-mail announcing the new anniversary gift plan:
To remind everyone, we are changing how we recognize employees on their employment anniversary date. From now on, we are giving employees Kiva credit, which you will use to make microloans on the Kiva website. Oh, and balloons and the card with a touching comment from me, too.For this year, we will be giving everyone $50 for every year they've been here. After this year, we will add $50 in Kiva credit on each of your subsequent anniversaries. Pretty quickly, [our company] will be approaching $10,000 in Kiva loans.You can get to our team page by visiting kiva.org, clicking on community and typing [our company name] into the search function.I, too, have $600 in our team loans. I made my loans this morning. I elected to complete two loans that were not yet fully funded. One was to Beatrice Kimbugwe in Uganda who owns a small general store. The other was to Juliet Algekaen in Nigeria, who also owns a small general store. It felt great that my $600 worked out perfectly to complete both of these loans.I look forward to choosing my loan recipient on July 1, 2009. How cool is that?
Derek Baldry did not have a position, did not know where to line up, and wasn't quite sure how to get into a proper stance.
"I just wanted to make sure the coaches didn't know I hadn't played high school football," he said. "I was basically playing copycat, watching the guy in front of me and trying to emulate him."
So, what was this 24-year-old former Army Ranger and football novice doing at an open walk-on tryout at the University of Florida in the spring of 2006?
The answer is on his left wrist.
SPC Ryan P. Long USA Ranger
A CO 3/75 KIA 03 April 2003 Iraq
This is the inscription on a metal bracelet that Baldry wears on his left wrist to honor a fallen friend. This is the inspiration that sent him chasing after a dream that many thought was uncatchable.
It all goes back to Afghanistan, in the fall of 2002. Baldry, a 2000 Gainesville High graduate, and Long, from Delaware, had gone through Ranger training together about a year before 9/11 and now were best buddies with the Third Ranger Battalion. When the soldiers were not on missions, facing deadly enemy fire, the conversation often gravitated to football.
"Every Monday night we would get together with friends and watch Monday Night Football and talk about the games from Saturday and Sunday," Baldry said. "We used to play football in our time off.
"We were just kind of egging each other on about the game one day, and Ryan said, 'You have the size and speed and the right attitude. You should try to play football.' "
No one was talking football on the day of one of Third Battalion's early missions. It was a rough one - and an action that made headlines across America the next day.
"The headline in The Gainesville Sun said, 'Two Rangers killed,' " said Baldry's father, Geo, who works for the School Board of Alachua County. "That's the only time in my life my blood ran cold.
"He called us a week later and was talking about it. He said he'd been on a mission and he'd made it back. He said later they all went into a hangar and the coffins of the two dead soldiers were there. That's tough for an 18-year-old. I was really proud of him."
It was tough, but Baldry made it out and back to the states after a three-month tour. So did Ryan Long.
"It was definitely an experience," Baldry said. "Our mission was to try and seize high-value targets and the ultimate mission was to find Osama bin Laden, obviously, but it was to no avail."
A little more than a year after returning from Afghanistan, Long was back in the Middle East, this time in Iraq. He had only a few months to go on his enlistment and was considered a short-timer. Baldry was stationed at Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga., at the time.
"The Army told him he didn't even have to go over there if he didn't want to, but he said he wanted to go," Baldry said.
He did not come back.
On April 3, 2003, Long and four other soldiers were killed when a car bomb detonated at a U.S. checkpoint.
"That was a shock," Geo Baldry said. "Derek and Ryan had gone to a car race (in Atlanta) just before Ryan went back over, and they had talked about being roommates. Ryan had only about three months to go. He had such a short time that the Rangers tried to protect him by putting him behind the front lines."
Long was working security at a road block behind the lines when a pregnant woman jumped out of a car and began screaming.
"He and four or five other guys ran up to see what was going on and a guy in the car detonated the bomb," Derek Baldry said. "It hits you pretty hard. Everybody in the Rangers had somebody they knew or fought alongside that was killed.
"It's weird. It hits you at odd times. You'll be doing something and all of a sudden you'll find yourself remembering and missing somebody. But you have to move on."
Long was buried in a small town in Wisconsin. Baldry attended the funeral. Less than two months later, Baldry was back in Afghanistan with the Rangers' 10th Mountain Division, where he would spend the next 10 months.
It was a different country than the one he left after his first tour.
"The first time, all the bad guys were still in the country," he said. "The second time, a lot of the refugees had come back and we were among the population. It went from us being on the offensive to being on the defensive. There were a lot of ambushes (by the enemy) as opposed to raids (by the Rangers). There were particular areas that were more dangerous than others. A few of those ambushes were pretty scary."
Baldry survived and returned to Gainesville (and civilian life) when his enlistment was up in April 2004.
Baldry said he always knew he would need a college education, and his time in the Army had reinforced that. His goal was to go to the University of Florida and pursue that football dream his Ranger buddies, especially Ryan Long, had put in his head back in Afghanistan.
His first move was to enroll at Santa Fe Community College.
"I knew I wanted to go to UF, but I didn't have the grades," he said. "I went to Santa Fe for one year, got my grades up and then transferred to Florida."
In the spring of 2006, Baldry attended a walk-on tryout at UF not certain what to expect because he had never played organized football. What he did have going for him was his sculpted 6-foot-5, 225-pound frame and impressive speed and athletic ability honed by Army Ranger training.
"I'm thankful this school holds open tryouts every year and allows a certain number to walk on," he said. "I think they saw my size and speed and took a shot on me."
Baldry was invited to join the team as a walk-on and was put at tight end. He dressed out for six games last season - including the BCS national title game in Glendale, Ariz. - and saw playing time late in the season against Western Carolina, earning a Hit City award from the coaches for one of his blocks.
Baldry played some defensive end this past spring and is slated to be a starter on special teams (field goals and extra points) this season. He's a 25-year-old junior with the kind of work ethic one would expect from a former Army Ranger.
"Derek is a tremendous guy," UF tight ends coach Steve Addazio said. "He's a high character guy and very accountable. He has a burning desire to help this team any way he can. I love him. He's all Gator."
Baldry will never forget one of the main reasons he is now a Gator.
It's right there on his left wrist - the bracelet honoring a friend who made the ultimate sacrifice.
"It's not like I felt I owed it to Ryan to try this," Baldry said. "But we always talked about it, and I decided I might as well go out and see if I could do it. It's better to have tried than to wonder about it the rest of my life."
Baldry said the only time he takes off the bracelet is for practice and games. He said he thinks about his friend often.
"I just remember the times over there and what he was like," he said. "I don't have any bad dreams. I'm fortunate. I don't really think about or remember the bad stuff."
Robbie Andreu can be reached at 352-374-5022 or andreur@gvillesun.com.
Posts
All Comments
