Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

It almost makes me want to take up sewing. Hmmm....maybe I will. :)

You're HOW old?!?!

Have you heard of this girl? When I first heard of her, I couldn't believe it. Oksana Chusovitina is competing in her FIFTH Olympics. Pretty impressive, huh? Well, it gets better...her fifth Olympics in gymnastics! What?! How is that possible?! I know I thought the same thing. She is 33 years old and still competing at the international level in gymnastics. It is unreal. You should watch her bar routine at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. (Gymnastics certainly has changes!) And here's her vault that won her a silver medal in Beijing. She is 33 years old! I still can't get over it. I tried doing a back bend the other day and nearly had to go to the emergency room. Oksana says she might even try to compete in London in 2012--do the math! That's gotta be some sort of record.

P.S. On a different, but still Olympic, note--on one of the blogs I read, the girl made an observation that American gymnast Shawn Johnson looks eerily like a beloved cartoon character. Take a look--I think she's totally right!!

Slurpee Salvation

Yesterday a Slurpee saved my life.

It has been very hot here in the Seattle area the past few days. (Thankfully a sweet storm is rolling in right now, taking the edge off the miserable heat.) The news Friday night said there was an "excessive heat warning" in effect--whatever that means. I guess it meant it was going to be 90 degrees or above the next few days. Now for you Arizonans, that may not seem like anything compared to 115, BUT we don't have air conditioning in our homes!! You sit and cook in your house and think of reasons to drive places, because at least (if you're lucky) there's air conditioning in the car.

I was doing just that--sitting in my oven...I mean...house, cooking. It was so hot I could hardly stay awake and yet I couldn't sleep because it was too darn hot. Finally, I couldn't take it any more so I decided to walk to 7-11 to get some liquid refreshment...ah, a Slurpee.

The good news--7-11 is two blocks from my house, just a quick walk through the park--literally. The bad news--I had a bit of a panic attack on the way there, brought on by a heat-induced headache. What if there are no Slurpees at this 7-11? Gasp! Is that possible? Knowing my luck it just might happen. Never fear, there were some Slurpees left by the time I got there.

The Slurpee area looked like it had been ransacked. Very few cups were left in the dispensers. (I had to get a 32 ounce one since all the 24 ounce cups were gone.) Straws and lids were strewn about. Sticky puddles of melted Slurpee coated the counter and floor. And the Crystal Light flavor was out of order. Sad. But I got a Gatorade/Mountain Dew Slurpee. I know it sounds kind of disgusting, but it didn't actually taste too bad. In fact it was the best Slurpee in the world! It saved my life...at least that's what it felt like.

Speaking of the Olympics...

**Spoiler Alert--if you don't know the results of the women's gymnastics team finals, DO NOT read this.**
I'm watching an average of 17.5 hours of Olympic coverage per day this week. Mostly gymnastics, with some swimming, diving and equestrian thrown in for good measure. China is apparently ahead of the US in the medal count now. I don't know for sure, but I think the US usually comes away from the Olympics with more medals than any other country. China is really asserting itself as a sports superpower. But I don't think they are playing fair. Case in point:

1. Cute girl singing during the opening ceremony. Remember her? Well, she was actually lip syncing, because the little girl who was actually singing had a good voice but was just not cute enough. Come on, she a little Asian girl. She's adorable.

2. Firework during the opening ceremony. Some of them were digitally inserted into the broadcast. Reportedly, the Chinese officials were concerned that the cameras would not be able to capture the awesomeness of their pyrotechnics well enough, so they doctored the video.

3. 16-year-old Chinese gymnasts. Yeah, right! Did you see them?! My bet is 12, 13 years old, tops. But they won the team gold, so the end justifies the means, I guess.

**Spoiler Alert #2--If you don't know the results of the women's all-around final, DON'T read the comments!** I'm just saying...you can if you want to know that the winner was....j/k But seriously, you need to watch it already, because it was awesome. I don't know why you didn't just watch it live. I mean it didn't go that long, just like 1:30 am. Come on, it's not like you have to go to work...oh wait, you have to go to work, but I don't. Sorry.

A Walk in the Park

I'm still loving my park. (It doesn't hurt that it's been perfect summer weather recently. Can you say 78 degrees?!) As I was enjoying a walk yesterday evening, I saw a cute, pudgy little girl come trotting along the trail right in front of me. She had just arrived with her parents and she made a bee-line to a puddle left over from a Seattle summer rainstorm the other day. The little blondie pranced right up to the edge of the puddle, she dabbed the toe of her shoe into the muddy water, then hesitated as she looked to her mom. Mom was oblivious and the girl took this as a green light. She energetically jumped in with two feet and splashed a few times. Then, as she exited the puddle, she proudly raised her arms above her head in a two handed salute that would make any Olympic gymnast proud.

The questions begs to be asked...Why do kids LOVE jumping into puddles so much? I see it in my line of work more often than I would care to (remember this is Seattle). I am forced to be mean by insisting shoes stay ON at all time--I don't care that your socks are wet, you should have thought of that before jumping in every puddle on the school grounds, no you may not call home, or go to the office, or spend 20 minute cleaning your shoes. And still they jump in puddles. A mystery of the universe.

We get it China...

You invented EVERYTHING!


Unless you live under a rock, or possibly are on a mission in Georgia, you know that last night-- 8-8-08--was the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics. (I LOVE the Olympics!!) China really put on a show. They spent a reported record amount--tens of millions of dollars. It really was quite entertaining. Just ignore those guys yammering away in the background--how many times do we need to be reminded that "This is China's coming out party"?



The sheer scope of the performance was amazing. Thousands of performers all perfectly unison with their choreographed drumming or light-up unitards or jack-in-the-boxesque printing blocks. And the fireworks...amazing. Not that all those pyrotechnics really helped with the city's smog.



China showing itself to the world. We get it China, you invented gunpowder, and paper, and printing, and kites, and computers, and dancing, and painting, and sports, and boats, and water, and air, and fire...London I don't know what you are going to do for your little show. What did you invent? Nothing, just stole everything from the Chinese--not very entertaining.

Sky Harbor International Airport

I always thought that was a lovely sounding name for an airport...Sky Harbor. So much better than SeaTac. But I don't think those Phoenicians (or whatever people from Phoenix are called) have their act together as much as it sounds. Here is a recreation of a sign I passed on one of my many trips to that airport this past week:

"There are THREE terminals: #2, #3, and #4."

WHAT?! I understand that terminal #1, the original, was bulldozed quite a few years ago, but really--you couldn't renumber them? That is ridiculous. Plus, even with that sign, it is a very confusing airport to navigate. I'll take my brusque-sounding, but easily navigated SeaTac International any day.