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 :)

Fay and the Olympics

Meant to post earlier but I got to watching my Key West camera at Sloppy Joe's and I lost track of time. If anyone wants to check it out go here. http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/ Once there you can also click the 'Crowd Cam' and it's a camera they put on the roof. (For as long as it last) Had been a long time since I checked out this website. I used to have it up everyday watching for my brother to pass by and wave :) When I first got to work today and started watching, it just look like it had been raining and quit. Just some of Fay's outer bands going through. Soon you could tell the wind had kicked up and the rain started. Now, in a matter of minutes, the water in the road is up over the sidewalk. I had some very, very good times in Key West!! I didn't get to attend any hurricane parties (Thank God!!) but people down there seem to take them in stride.

OMG! just in the time it took me to type this much, it's up over people's ankles now!! For any of you that don't know, Key West's highest (and I stress...highest) is only 24 inches above sea level!! I haven't heard how high the storm surge for Fay is. Or even if Key West is in the path of the storm surge. Check it out!

On the home front, Jack was back in the emergency room last night. I wish Amanda would have called me but she didn't want to drag us out at 2am :( He keeps getting these fevers that spike. Saturday his fever went up to 106.3. I was on my way to their house (we only live 5 miles from them) to watch Maggie so they could take him into ER because he had a 105 temp. When it hit 106 they put him in the tub and the fever broke. He hadn't eaten and when he did it didn't stay down so they could give him any meds. When I showed him 'MawMaw's Cheez-it's he wanted some and we gladly let him. He ate a pretty good handful so we got some Motrin down him. The fever stayed down until late last night/early morning. He has strep throat again!! They gave them a stronger antibiotic so hopefully it will get it cleared up and out of his system!!

In the midst of all that...WOW go Phelps!! What an amazing athlete. And I just love watching his Mom's reactions. I thought one of the American girls would take home gold in the final gymnastics then the Romanian girl did her floor event and man did she nail it!! She really deserves the gold. I really felt bad for the Chinese girl. She knows she could have done better but some days you're just off. Then again I can't stand to see someone cry.

Update on Key West camera view: rain has stopped for now and water has gone down. It's still over the sidewalk but not by much.

Ok, I gotta get some work done so it's a short post today. Take care! Until next post.....

Another week coming to a close

Winding down here at work for the weekend and I wanted to pop over here and update. Lots of things going on. Checked the NASCAR page for practice times and saw Jeff Gordon was down in 11th position (sigh)! Running out of races before the Chase begins. Jeff had over a 500 point lead last year going into the Chase and it didn't do him any good. So, maybe, they are just playing it safe and making sure they are in the Chase and then hammer it down. Hopefully!!
The Olympics have been riveting so far. Phelps just might break Spitz's record of 7 gold-7 world records. I'll be watching that! And, yeah!!!, women's gym.!! They fought back and got some gold.

Metal Count (top ten)

US 46 (14 gold)
China 41 (26 gold)
Australia 20 (5 gold)
Russia 19 (3 gold)
S. Korea 18 (6 gold)
France 18 (3 gold)
Germany 14 (8 gold)
Italy 14 (6 gold)
Japan 13 (6 gold)
Great Britain 8 (3 gold)

Something else that caught my eye yesterday. On CNN they had an article about gas usage being down in June. DUH! Here's some numbers they threw out:

• people traveled 12.2 billion less miles in June
  
• used 400 million gallons less gas June
  
• 53.2 billion fewer miles overall from Nov. 2007 to June 2008

This is a larger decline than the whole decade of the 70's (49.3 Billion fewer miles) with gas embargo and gas lines!

People who were having a hard time making ends meet before all the gas increase sure isn't going to have the money to keep up with rising prices. Ours went as low as $3.61/gal until Tuesday when the British announced that they had shut off a pipe to-and-from Georgia (Russia invaded) due to the conflict. BAM ours went from $3.61 to $3.89!!!! It was either that or because the US women didn't win gold in team event. One of those 2 reason LOL I'm kidding!!

And just because I can and it always makes me smile....



I like to go boating! :)

This Day In History:

August 15, 1935

Will Rogers killed in plane crash

On this day in 1935, beloved actor and humorist Will Rogers dies in a plane crash in Alaska while flying with his friend, aviation pioneer Wiley Post.

August 15, 1945

Hirohito announces unconditional surrender

On this day in 1945, Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces the news of his country's unconditional surrender in World War II over a radio broadcast to the Japanese people.

August 15, 1969

Woodstock music festival

On this day in 1969, Woodstock begins. A massive rock festival in Bethel, New York, Woodstock drew vast crowds and served as a defining moment for baby boomers. Among the many performers were Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

On Aug. 12, 1994, the much-publicized Woodstock II music festival takes place in Saugerties, New York, near the site of the legendary Woodstock concert of 1969. An estimated 300,000 people attended the event, marked--as was the original--by bad weather and pervasive mud. Some 50 bands and singers performed, including the Neville Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, Bob Dylan, Green Day, Jimmy Cliff, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

It's downhill to the weekend!!

Now that I have my temper worked off my weekend is looking pretty good! lol The blog is all cleaned up. The house is cleaned up, dishes caught up and the laundry's done so there was some good that came out of Weds. anger! After work yesterday had to stop by the vet. to get some flea meds. for Natasha (Momma), Nadia and Sami (short for Samhein Esmerelda-we got her at Halloween). I think we carried the fleas into the house with us since none of these girls EVER go outside. All day long all I could think about was getting home to a glass of Merlot and a long soak in the tub.

I never did open the bottle of Merlot but while Hubby was eating I fill the Jacuzzi with hot water and grabbed a book :) The Merlot could wait for the weekend! Heaven!
Hubby was talking about going to visit his Mom on Sat. so I may take that day for a 'my time' day. I'm thinking, boot him out the door, get the Merlot and a stack of Johnny DVD's should just about do it! We'll see.

The 'boys' (nascar drivers) are at Watkins Glen this weekend. It's a road course and Jeff used to be the 'Road King' but the other drivers have caught up to him. I blame this on the computer games. The drivers have said this themselves. That they play to get familiar with the tracks. Does that mean I could go out there and be competitive with them? NOT! lol

High School Band Day was at the State Fair weds. The Southside Rebels won it. Here's a link to the local newspaper who has a video of their morning performance.

http://tinyurl.com/6azaxq

Believe me I KNOW how HARD these kids have worked. Not only from my own experience but because I drive by that school daily on my way home and have seen them practicing in this heat! There must be special guardian angels for band kids and their parents!

I got a call from Amanda at lunch. Seeee, I took a lunch break and you didn't even miss me! ha ha! She and her hubby were to go out to eat tonight for their anniversary but Maggie's babysitter had to back out. So, guess it's MawMaw to the rescue! I'll swing by and get her on my way home. Jack is staying with an Aunt on the other side of the family. At least she's the easy one to keep up with, for now.

Looking forward to the Olympics. I will definitely be watching the Opening Ceremonies. I'll fess up now and say I've already been checking out YouTube and it looks like it will be awesome. We have always followed the Olympics. Me, Hubby and the kids would always watch the ceremony together. The winter Olympics more than the summer. Was very surprised when Beijing won the bid for 2008. They have a lot of issues with other countries but hopefully everything will go smooth. So far the only problem has been the smog.

Ok, gotta get some work done. Take care......until next post