Olympic judging

I should first say that I am not a sports judge nor have I ever been a judge and don't want to be a judge. I did, however, judge a poster contest...twice, but I don't think that would count. Yes, I watched the Women's Uneven Bar competition last night. I feel like Nastia Luikin was robbed. He Kexin made a few mistakes during her performance. The handstand that wasn't vertical and held for too short a time should have been a good size deduction. Then the misstep on the landing. Nastia had a few mistakes also but they were smaller deductions and she nailed her landing. Had the scoring been correct at this point, then there would have been no tie! Thus, no tie-breaker controversy. Nastia should have got the gold. Of course, this is just my humble opinion. And that's not even getting into the age thing! If He Kexin is 16 then Shawn Johnson is 30! Stepping down from my soap box!! Enough said!

Wanted to send out a heads up on my blogging. I am taking Thursday and Friday off this week to help out Amanda with the kids. So there likely won't be any posting. The town she lives in has what they call Blue Bird Days. It's a small fair like event with rides and fair food. (Resist the elephant ears!) They also use it as an All Town Rummage sale (Resist the elephant ears!). I will go over in the mornings to help with rummage sale and then when the kids get tired I will take them to my house for naps and playtime. Was hoping to get a new puppet made before this but, alas, Sally Sock is still in the sewing bag. Will have to see if I can get to work on that project. In the mean time, here's some Indiana and World news history for you all.

This Day in History:

August 19, 1909

First race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world's most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.

Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana's growing automobile industry. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other. After seeing what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.

The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track's surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.

The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed "The Brickyard," the speedway reopened in December 1909. In 1911, low attendance led the track's owners to make a crucial decision: Instead of shorter races, they resolved to focus on a single, longer event each year, for a much larger prize. That May 30 marked the debut of the Indy 500--a grueling 500-mile race that was an immediate hit with audiences and drew press attention from all over the country. Driver Ray Haroun won the purse of $14,250, with an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes.

Since 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has been held every year, with the exception of 1917-18 and 1942-45, when the United States was involved in the two world wars. With an average crowd of 400,000, the Indy 500 is the best-attended event in U.S. sports. In 1936, asphalt was used for the first time to cover the rougher parts of the track, and by 1941 most of the track was paved. The last of the speedway's original bricks were covered in 1961, except for a three-foot line of bricks left exposed at the start-finish line as a nostalgic reminder of the track's history.

Take care.....(Resist the elephant ears!) until next post...
he he he I crept back in and added some NASCAR to my sidebar :)