VP

Sarah Palin? That was unexpected. Having, you know, never heard of her before, I can't really make any judgments yet, but at first glance I'm encouraged that he picked someone unconventional - it almost reminds me of the McCain I used to like. It does kind of confuse me as McCain's biggest gripe has been inexperience, but I guess we'll see how that plays out.

Ace at the Signature Theatre in Shirlington

Tonight we headed back out to the Signature Theatre to see their new production of "Ace", a new musical about, well, its hard to summarize, but there's a kid who is put in foster care while his mother is in the hospital and he slowly starts learning about who his dead father was. (A fighter pilot, natch.)

The show was good, with some clever lyrics and a good smattering of funny lines. But the best part was the casting. It was a solid cast across the board, with lots of Broadway performers. (George Dvorsky! Florence Lacey! Christiane Noll!) But can I just say how much I love Emily Skinner? She played the foster mom, and while everyone knows she can sing, boy is she just a terrific actress. So lovely. Also terrifically amazing was eleven year old Angelina Kelly. Unlike in movies where you can edit together a child performance, in the theatre lets just say not too many child performances are all that moving. But this girl was hysterical, and quickly won the audience favorite award, even earning several shouted bravos after her solo. Sweet.

As we walked out of the show, I had to sit David down on a couch in the lobby, because I had to give him the bad news. "David", I said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you like this, but I am dumping you for Jill Paice." "And I'm sorry too," he replied, "because I've already dumped you for her."

Jill Paice is crazy awesome! She just got back from playing Scarlett O'Hara in the London musical version of "Gone With The Wind", and watching her here you can totally see why she would get picked for a part like that. I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was on stage, whether she was speaking or not. She is gorgeous, with an amazing voice, and eyes that open up her soul. Sorry, I'm running out of adjectives, but she was so compelling and exciting to watch. That is why I love going to the theatre, to see magic like that. She reminded me a lot of Audra MacDonald in "110 In The Shade", even if this role wasn't nearly as joyous as Audra's was. But she had that same special spark that deserves a Tony.

The story of the show moves along pretty well, though I think there have been some pretty major rewrites from the demo version of the show that I've heard, with just a few last holes that probably need to be cleaned up before they reach their goal of going to Broadway. But thanks to some really great performances, this is probably the best show we've seen since we've been in DC. Yes, "The Visit" had Chita Rivera, but the show itself was a mess. "Ace" might not be the next mega-hit, but it is solid enough, keeps you interested and I left the theatre humming the main theme, always a good sign. But what I will remember most is Jill Paice. Wow.

Next spring they are doing a new musical based on the movie "Giant". I can't wait!

Back to the vacation update

OK, time for some more vacation updates. Because I know you are dying to hear about more Newfoundland.

After Gros Morne, we headed north again up to the land of the Vikings. (More on that later.) Much like the 101 in California, the freeway followed the coast all the way up, so it was gorgeous. We stopped and did a few little hikes along the way to enjoy what was turning into the sunniest day of our entire vacation. We passed cute fishing village after cute fishing village. At least we assumed they were fishing villages, because what else would they be? The photo to the right of the dark scary forest was an unexpected little detour, and you can see David with his hands up in the air - he is gallantly trying to knock down the spiderwebs that are taller than him because I kept complaining when they would hit me in the face. (awwwww!)

I have to admit there weren't very many bugs for us to get excited about. In fact there were hardly any bugs at all. So we were happy to find these monster dragonflies. (Well, we saw even bigger supermonster ones in Taiwan, but still these guys were impressive.) This one decided to make David his friend for a brief rest. I'm not sure what they were eating to get that big though, since we didn't see many other bugs treats flying around.

More on Obama tax cuts

In case you just aren't a graph person, try this website as an alternate way of calculating how much taxes you'll be paying under Obama as opposed to under Bush McCain.

Saturday events

What is it about the marathon that makes it so compelling? We just sat for two hours watching the men this time run around the city. The lead pack went out so fast the commentators kept telling us they would fade, but while they eventually spread out no one else ever caught them. I was totally rooting for the guy from Morocco, who kept falling behind but then somehow always managed to catch up, and then he'd pass another guy, and then another. He ended up winning silver, which was pretty exciting. The American we were told to root for came in tenth, which was still pretty great, although another American came in 9th that for some reason didn't warrant a video package.

I love the commentators for gymnastics, mostly because after three Olympics I am just used to their voices and styles of speaking. But my favorite commentator, by far, is Cynthia Potter on diving. Besides the fact that she can see every wiggle of an athletes third toe, she can also describe every tweak of a two-second dive as if it was all happening in slow motion right in front of her. Like in Spiderman when he gets into the fight in the cafeteria and he can see the punches coming at him in slow motion - that is what Cynthia Potter can do. But besides being a savant with superpowers, she also has a totally wicked sense of humor. "That entry was basically a cannonball." "They are going to have to re-fill the pool after that splash." Or, my favorite, "Look out! It's a tsunami!!"

Most of the diving events lacked much excitement, due to the fact that the Chinese were so much better than everyone else that it was a forgone conclusion that they would win. Though, how much splash can you generate when you weigh all of forty pounds? I did feel a little sad for Laura Wilkenson, but she had Sydney so she can't really complain. But they saved the best for last, when Aussie Matthew Mitcham came from behind with a near perfect final dive to win gold. He was the only competitor to show much emotion during the contest, so I was already rooting for him, but watching him be totally overwhelmed when he won was exactly what the Olympics are all about. Best overheard quote ever as a teammate walks up to him and says "Matt Mitcham just won the Olympics" and he starts crying. Also, she said it in an Australian accent which made it even better of course. Come to find out, he is the only openly gay male athlete at the Olympics. Go The Gays! I did feel a little sorry for the Chinese boy though, as this was the only diving event where China didn't win gold. Actually a lot sorry for him, cause he was totally amazing, he just missed one dive but that was enough.

Does volleyball never end? The American women win silver, but seem disappointed. I hate that.

It turns out I only like track if there are Americans competing. I fast forwarded through most of the rest. The women who won the relay were AWESOME.

Tero Pitkamaki, simply put, is dreamy. The javelin was, of course, given scant coverage (like all the cool track events that didn't involve running), and perhaps his bronze win wasn't the most exciting moment of the Olympics. But talk about eye candy. He and Lolo Jones win the gold in the looks department, hands down.

So I just have Sunday's events still to watch. Which I might not finish, because if I have to fast forward through one more commercial for that very stupid looking Christian Slater show, I might throw a shoe through the screen. Can we say overkill? (But then, you all probably aren't watching as much of this as I am, so maybe I'm just getting more than my share.)

Some more Olympic thoughts:

People who run fast can't seem to carry a little stick at the same time. I actually didn't really care, with the exception of Lauren Williams, whom I have a big soft spot for even though I don't really remember why I remember her from Athens, but I LOVE that she ran her leg of the race even though she was already disqualified. More cool were the winners of the women's final, with several countries who had no chance of winning a medal...winning a medal. I love that kind of joy. (Though it totally sucks for Great Britain that Jamaica's mistakes took them out of the race too. Talk about a new rivalry.)

I can't help but to find it funny when the commentators call the synchronized swimmers and rhythmic gymnastics athletes. Don't get me wrong, I loved both events. But to me it is dancing, which is more of an art than a sport. I never considered myself an athlete when I was a dancer. I don't think of the contestants on So You Think You Can Dance as athletes. I know that these competitors are vying for medals and are being judged as a sport, which technically makes them athletes I guess, and again, I mean absolutely no disrespect for them, because they are crazy talented. I loved it when the girl was breakdancing on the water surface using the other swimmers as a "floor", and of course anytime someone can wrap their leg back over their shoulder in front of their head I get weak in the knees.

Thank goodness for all that Olympic basketball, because it gave me something to fast forward through. Team sports at the Olympics are not my cup of tea. (I hate that expression because I hate tea. But what do I drink? Maybe I should say they are not my cup of, uh, water. They are not my chocolate chip oatmeal cookie? They are not my Shawn Johnson winning a gold medal?)

What was up with the Decathalon coverage? I wasn't watching anything besides Sesame Street when Bruce Jenner won his gold medal, yet his win made him so super famous that I know his name 30 years later. And this year Clay won the event so decisively that he basically didn't even compete in the last event his lead was so huge. So what is up with the super truncated coverage? They didn't even show half of the events, and the ones that they did show only featured two or three athletes. How much do we have to sacrifice in order to show every single volleyball match? Actually I thought it was pretty lame that Clay came in last in the final run. Yeah, we know you didn't HAVE to try harder to win, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have. Not very exciting. I'm sure you were exhausted, but so were all the other guys. Still, doesn't his win qualify him as the greatest athlete in the world? Why isn't NBC selling his greatest hits video? MIchael Phelps only competed in eight events, Clay did ten. (snark snark)

Fencing is super weird. I had no idea what was going on. Ever.

Tired but still kicking after some overtime

OK, I have so much blogging to catch up on, including more Canadian awesomeness (never imagined I'd say that, heh) and we are still slugging through the last two days of Olympics, but now that it is officially over I find I'm running out of steam. Some things are meant to be enjoyed in real time. But, briefly, what is up with rhythmic gymnastics replacing the ball with a stupid rope? Obviously the ribbon is the best, but ball was second over hoop and the stupid clubs. But the rope is even lamer than the clubs. If I promise not to complain about the total mystery that is rhythmic gymnastics judging, why do you mock me with your lame rope routines?

However, I have to make a brief comment on the chatter over the Democratic Convention this week. I only saw snippets of Michelle Obama and Hillary's speeches as I was walking in and out of patient rooms, and haven't paid attention to much else. Because, in general, convention = boring. However, I find it funny that all the pundits and commentators and even many of the bloggers I otherwise admire are all taking Obama to task for maintaining his message of hope and calm insight. They want him (and his surrogates) to come out swinging against McCain. But, guys, I know that would make better television, but you are missing the point that the fact that this is a primary reason why I'm so excited about his campaign in the first place. If all I'd wanted was a fighter, I'd have voted for Hillary. I don't think politics has to be the schoolyard fight that it has become. McCain has fallen into the Rove trap already, simultaneously farting out his mouth that it was hypocritical for Obama to choose Biden for his VP since Biden had previously been critical of Obama during the primaries, while also complaining that the only reason that Obama didn't pick Hillary is that she was...critical of Obama during the primaries. What exactly does Obama have to say? McCain is destroying his image all by himself.

So I could care less if the media tries to paint Obama as weak for not lowering himself to McCain's level. That isn't weakness. It takes true strength to hold yourself to a higher standard and then actually walk the talk.

John McCain wants to raise your taxes!

Now this is interesting. Take a look at this graphic comparing the results of the tax policies of each candidate.

John McCain, not yet rich enough apparently, wants to give himself a tax break almost big enough to pay his maids. Obama on the other hand, is willing to pay an additional $700,000 in taxes in order to pay for running our country. (Hey, its all in the rhetoric, right?) Of more concern to me, is that under Obama's plan I pay considerably less, a perk I hadn't expected. Me likey. I wonder if my dad's head is exploding at the idea that voting Republican means higher taxes. ::nudge:: (Note: It isn't, because he won't believe it.)

PS - I love to give my parents grief, (and especially in my Dad's case, who as he grows more and more senile actually enjoys Fox News) but fortunately they are ideologically more Libertarian than Republican, so we don't clash nearly as often as you might think.

My favorite Obama gag yet

America, you've just been Rickrolled.

Now who is the pampered elite again?

This has little to do with deciding who would be the best president or anything, but John McCain doesn't know how many homes he owns? I mean, who can keep track after the first five or six I guess. I can't tell from the coverage if any of the homes are rental properties, which might be more defensible I suppose, but it hardly seems like John McCain is the landlord type. When asked about it, he actually said "I'll have to check with my staff". Like he has a staff member whose job it is to research how many homes he owns.

Again, I don't think knowing how many homes you own is a prerequisite for becoming president. (Or remembering when the last time you pumped your own gas was.) It's just kind of funny. (Though I am still a big wigged out by the fact that someone who wants to be President can't/won't/doesn't think it is important to learn how to "get online".)

Update: It seems that of the count of seven homes the Obama camp is using, one house is indeed a rental property, which I think is more of an investment rather than a home per se, and one is a $700,000 "loft" the McCain's bought for their daughter as a graduation present. Dang, my graduation present was a camera. Mom, dad, you sure missed the boat on that one. ::grin::

Second Update: The McCain's spent $273,000 last year on "household help". That is over a quarter of a million dollars just paying the maids. Holy crap they are rich.

Third Update: This story just isn't going away. But here's a statistic for you - if your annual income was as much as what the McCain's spent on their maids, you'd be richer than 95% of American families. No wonder he wants to keep taxes for rich people low. But then, it must be weird to live in a world where you choose to take a nine-car motorcade to grab a cappuccino at Starbucks.

I'm just a dork with a blog, but this dude is supposed to be a real "writer". So how come he sucks so much?

::sigh::

I just read a very stupid article by Orson Scott Card in the Mormon Times. And I am so sick and tired of people talking out of their butts when it comes to gay marriage. If you oppose it, fine, but at least have the integrity to have real, valid reasons for it, even if your reasons are simple bias or even just a desire to not talk about it. Whatever, I can deal with that. But relying on half-truths and distortions and, sorry, hysteric stupidity, is just too annoying anymore.

So I'll grit my teeth that he likes to put gay marriage in quotations, as though the thousands of gay couples that ARE married in Massachusetts and California are somehow just a illusion. As a matter of fact, I don't like the term gay marriage either, I think plain old marriage is more accurate, but I don't think that is what he meant.

He starts off with

The first and greatest threat from court decisions in California and Massachusetts, giving legal recognition to "gay marriage," is that it marks the end of democracy in America.

These judges are making new law without any democratic process; in fact, their decisions are striking down laws enacted by majority vote.

Oh no! The end of democracy! We are doomed! The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Except that, well, it isn't. Lets see, so what exactly is the job of judges? They look at laws, and either a) decide if people broke the laws, or b) decide if a new law is compatible with all of the other laws that were passed before it. That is pretty much it. Sometimes they decide a very popular law is incompatible with current law like, say, rules meant to deny minorities the vote, or to ban interracial marriages. That isn't anti-democracy. That isn't "judicial activism". That is their job. If we don't agree with their opinions, then there are legal recourses to take: appeals, or in many jurisdictions where judges are voted into office, you can not vote for them, or not vote for the legislators who appointed them, or whatever you want. Forgive me, but that sounds an awful lot like democracy to me.

Secondly, these "judicial activists" in Massachusetts and California were hardly acting all by themselves in a little bubble of activism, forcing their will on the masses. In Massachusetts, the Legislature voted to uphold the ruling. Several times. The same legislature that was voted into office by, gasp, the people of Massachusetts. Which, again, is exactly how democracy is supposed to work. We don't have popular votes on every single question our government has to answer, we elect people to answer them for us. Again, if we don't like the way they start answering, then we have the recourse to vote for someone else the next time around. The thing is, not a single person who voted for marriage equality in Massachusetts was voted out of office. On the other hand, several people who voted against it, were voted out. Sounds like the voters of Massachusetts had their voices heard to me.

In California, their elected legislature voted TWICE for marriage equality. The elected governor vetoed it both times, saying, in a bit of irony, that instead of having the elected legislature make the move, he wanted to wait for the judges to decide. The double talk was pretty silly, but whatever, it was his right to make that call, and if I was living there and was annoyed enough by it I could have voted for someone else the next election. So how do you call the decision by the judges "the end of democracy in America"? They did their job, the legislature did their job, the governor (who is standing by what he said and now opposes the new ballot initiative) did his job.

Even the ballot initiative, which I obviously oppose for all sorts of reasons, is STILL the way democracy works. So, Mr. Card, and all other lazy, lazy writers on morality out there, get a grip.

The rest of the article is similar, and makes me wish I had a valium to give Mr. Card, as his hysteria seems to know no bounds. If I could just use a marker to indicate every time I had to roll my eyes as I read the article, it would be a lot easier. Especially funny is when, talking about the one man, one woman model of marriage he says "These two premises are so basic that they preexist any known government. In most societies through history, failure to live up to these commitments has led to extreme social sanctions -- even, in many cases, death." Why does he mention that? Does he think it is an appropriate punishment? That is somehow bolsters his argument? I'm just curious what he thinks of his own heritage then, was Brigham Young an "activist prophet"? I know, that is just a snark, but c'mon.

Finally,

With "gay marriage," the last shreds of meaning will be stripped away from marriage, with homosexuals finishing what faithless, selfish heterosexuals have begun.

I guess I just don't get this magical meaning some people put into a word. To me, marriage is a union designed to maximize personal happiness, establish financial responsibilities and protections, provide some stability to assist with the raising of children, and so on, but mostly to help a couple stay together through good times and bad and to encourage families to take care of each other as we get older. That is why we give one spouse the social security benefits of the other after death. That is why we let them inherit each others money without crazy tax consequences. That is why we let them visit each other in the hospital when they are sick without having to call in a lawyer first. (And I personally know people this has happened to, in New York City no less, so don't say that it doesn't.) We want to encourage them to stay together and take care of each other. I just don't get how giving these same CIVIL protections and responsibilities to gay people is going to destroy our democracy, or whatever. But tell you what Mr. Card. You vote for your guy, I'll vote for mine. And how about you stop advocating for civil war if you don't get your way.

CD Baby: 1, David: 0

Back story: While we were in NY, David recorded some songs for a cast album of standards that was supposed to be an original show about the history of Judy Garland growing up in a vaudeville family. At the last minute the Garland family withdrew their support, so the album was instead released under the generic name "Made In America". A few years later, after we had left NY, they re-recorded the album using the same leads, but since we were gone they replaced David, and re-released the album.

Cut to last week. David says to me, "CD Baby gave me a slap to the face." Turns out they sent David an email since we've bought a few things from them before, suggesting things he might want to buy. One of them was "Made In America". He laughed and clicked on it - but it was the version he isn't on! D'oh!

Bad hair day

I've been biting my tongue, because if you can't say something nice and all, but really, shouldn't Bob Costas be able to afford a better toupee?

I don't hate Michael Phelps, BUT

Why is NBC trying to make me hate Michael Phelps? Look, I think what he accomplished has been amazing, the win by 0.01 of a second was astounding, and as long as he NEVER drinks and drives again, he seems like a nice guy who makes a great role model. Plus I love his mother, and his crying sisters made me cry along with them. But come on, how many times do I have to sit through yet another video montage about him? I watched all the races, I don't need to be reminded about how amazing he is every other commercial break. Then I notice at the bottom of the screen is "To purchase the Michael Phelps video call 1-800..." NBC, sell your crappy videos on your own time. This is the Olympics, and all this screen time could be far better served with another video montage of, say, A DIFFERENT athlete. How about Alicia Sacramone, who I think is a hero in her own right. Or what about Usain Bolt, whose completely ridiculous 100-meter dash amazed me. Yeah, I think it is sort of lame that he started celebrating and slowed down before he reached the finish line, and yet still he set a world record, and if winning was his real goal, well, that is his right I guess. Or how about Shelly-Ann Fraser, who was totally adorable after she won the same race for the women. Heck, pick one of the vollyball players, or the trampoline jumpers, or the bicycle chase race. I watch it all, but I'd enjoy it all more if I knew more about the athletes. And that means that as much as I love him, I am now done with Michael Phelps. Time to move on. (The HEADLINE on yahoo today is how Michael Phelps wants to eat some junk food. This is news? Really? I mean, really?)

The American volleyball team is currently killing the Japanese. Their star player to me looks like a sexy version of Richard Hatch. Well, he does.

I have to admit that I watched the entire women's marathon. In real time. I am such a nerd.

Seriously. There is ANOTHER Michael Phelps: The Greatest American Champion commercial airing right now. Who is really going to buy that? I hate you NBC.

So many of the runners have yellow shoes. I like that. One woman in the marathon, where most everyone was running in variations of a bikini, was wearing a little green mini-dress. Why couldn't we have a video montage about her? I was so curious!

I go back to work tomorrow, which after almost three weeks off I can't really complain about. But I'm working an overtime shift next week too, which means I'm going to really fall behind again on the Olympics. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but thank God for Tivo.

We tried to have burgers today at a new place in the neighborhood that is run/owned/whatever by some guy named Spike that was on one of those Top Chef shows. (I know, a reality show that I didn't watch? Amazing!) But they were closed until dinner. I know fancy restaurants sometimes close between lunch and dinner, but this is a burger place. Whatever. We were not impressed by your pretend fanciness, burger joint.

CV - Ferry to Newfoundland

We took a ferry (with our car) from Nova Scotia up to Newfoundland, which ended up taking about eight hours. We met some people onboard which helped pass the time, since the ride was fairly rough and lots of people were getting sick. Even I got borderline queasy, which has only happened once before on REALLY rough water going scuba diving in Puerto Rico, although I blame it on the stinky and greasy french fries with gravy that David ordered for lunch. ::grin:: The port city of Port aux Basque was much more attractive than I'd assumed it would be with its colorful houses all over the shore. Our biggest concern was that due to delays we'd arrived over two hours later than we thought we would, and still had almost a four hour drive to get to our next destination. People kept warning us, "Don't drive after dark. Seriously, you will hit a moose." Just to prove the point, just out of the terminal we stopped at the information center and as we pulled up the attendant was out on the lawn. "A moose just ran by, I hope he doesn't run onto the freeway!"

Moose. Awesome. As long as we don't hit one, of course. Luckily, we had run into some line problems getting onboard the ferry, with someone ahead of us having some sort of problem that backed up our line for almost an hour. We were sweating it, but once we were finally let on board we ended up being 3rd in line to get off, so at least we were able to get going right out of the gate. We thought about stopping, but didn't want to pay for a hotel when we had a free room waiting for us. We called our hosts, and they were much more casual. "Be careful, but we make that drive at night all the time."

We made it all but the last half hour in daylight. The first moose we passed was on the side of the road, we could barely see it in the shadows until we were right next to him, just a big shadow looming on the periphery. The next one jumped right out in front of us and made me slam on the brakes - luckily I was driving far under the speed limit. He was massive, with a huge rack on his head. We scared him as much as he did us though, and he trotted awkwardly over the guard rail and disappeared into the night.

Our new couchsurfing hosts were terrific. One of them works for the Gros Morne National Park, and the other was a retired teacher who was managing a writers/music/theatre festival. They host a lot, so we were lucky they had room for us, someone else having just left that morning.

The next day we spent the entire day hiking, doing three different hikes in the park. An amazing lookout trail, where we saw three kinds of carnivorous plants including pitcher plants in bloom. As we were walking down that trail, rather briskly, David was ahead of me, and as I turned a corner a huge lady moose lifted her head out of the bushes not even two meters off the trail. (We decided to use Canadian measurements while we were there, but that is less than six feet.) She looked at me, startled, and I looked at her, startled even more. My first thought was "Find your escape route!", so I dashed past her along the trail so I wouldn't be separated from David. My second thought was "Get a picture stupid!" But it was too late. Once I was past her she went back to eating, so I was able to get a photo of her butt, but it isn't a pretty picture I'm afraid. I was tempted to go back around, but she was just too close, and I didn't want to risk upsetting her. Moose are big. BIG. Even the ladies.

We then did a hike down to the ocean, and then another to a place called the tablelands. The earth there has been thrust up from deep down inside the earth, and is such a rare and weird kind of soil that no plant on earth has adapted to growing in it. So it just sits there, reddish and barren and pretty amazing.

We hiked somewhere around ten miles that day, a good portion uphill, so we were pretty pooped. We still had some more fun in store, but I'll have to get back to that. We are finally caught up on the Olympics, but there are more airing right now, so I don't want to get behind again.

Mostly swimming

Watching all of the Olympics from the weekend, so lots of swimming and gymnastics. Surprisingly there hasn't been much else besides the bike race, but I suppose there is plenty more to come.

One thing I'm a little bummed about is that I don't feel like I'm getting to know the athletes as well as I have in years past. I love all the video packages, but so far they have all been about the athletes I already know - Aaron Piersol, Natalie Coughlin, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and of course Michael Phelps. Not that I mind getting reacquainted with people I loved in Athens and even Sydney, but I just wish there was time for more.

I'm sad for Brendan Hanson. Also that crazy good Chinese gymnast from the parallel bars that made my heart jump and then she fell and despite clearly being one of the best there won't get to compete for a medal. Sucks! But how rad are Dara Torres and Oksana Chusovitina? Both have had babies and yet are still in shape to compete at this level. And Oksana is competing against girls almost half her age, in her 5th Olympics as a gymnast, that is just crazy. I haven't seen her medal attempt on the vault yet, just her qualifying round, but wow.

I love the gymnastics of course, although I wish the girls were all older, if not in their 30s at least in their twenties. Those Chinese girls look about 12. Somehow for me it just means more when an athlete is old enough to really appreciate things. I was a mess at 16, well, relatively speaking. No way I could have handled that kind of pressure.

Speaking of that, had my life been, you know, totally different, I would have liked to have been a competitive swimmer. I'm not psychologically suited to the stress of gymnastics (nor would I want to sacrifice my 6'1" height), and diving is similarly not my style. But I love the water, and I could see that being super fun and rewarding. Plus I'd love to be able to eat 10,000 calories a day. Can you even imagine? Man oh man, you know once he stops swimming Michael Phelps is going to be fat. There is no way you can go from eating that much back to a normal person diet. Ian Thorpe was in the audience (I heart him!) and while he was always a bit more on the thick side, he was looking positively chunky in his retirement.

Oh, Katie Hoff, you almost had it! I can't feel too sorry for someone who just won a silver medal, but dang that was close and you were looking so much better than we were led to believe you could do. You are awesome. Jason Lezack, holy crap, I can't believe how you won that relay. Those French boys are so sad right now. I can't believe how they crushed the world record, by four seconds - the Swiss team in 5th place and even they beat the previous world record. How can you be disappointed with that? But I bet Lezack just earned himself the most memorable moment of the Olympics. (But I'd sure be glad to be wrong about that!)

CV - Hopewell Rocks

From Saint John we were going to drive up to Sydney in Nova Scotia to take the morning ferry across to Newfoundland the next day. On the way up we stopped at a place called Hopewell Rocks. The tides in the Bay of Fundy rise and fall 30 feet, which in itself is pretty amazing. But here it has carved the rocks into some cool formations, which you can only see in low tide. They have warnings all over to make sure you get out before the tide comes back in and traps you - they even have an "escape platform" just in case someone is stranded to at least keep them out of the water until the next low tide. It was far too crowded, which always diminishes the luster of a place, but it was still pretty cool.

We were intending to camp once we arrived in Sydney, but it was raining pretty badly, so we went to a cute B&B instead. The place had just opened two weeks earlier, and was immaculate and gorgeous, right on the water. We've never stayed in a B&B before, and were totally spoiled. I even took a photo of the mattress label I slept so well.

David had read about the blueberry-man statue somewhere, and was intent on finding it. We did, and he was happy.

CV - random thoughts

Things we noticed about Canada:

They sell milk in gallon-sized plastic bags. Like, "Honey, can you go pick up a bag of milk?". Weird. I asked Andrew why they sell it like that, and he matter-of-factly said "Oh, we just cut off the bottom corner and drink from it like a nipple."

They have sharps containers in public bathrooms, which is pretty cool. I'd think America would have a way higher proportion of diabetics, why don't we have anything like that?

Canadians share my taste in cars. There were red Matrixes everywhere. Also the look-alike Vibe and a Honda. It was funny.

CV - Saint John, New Brunswick

The last night in Acadia it rained like crazy, and sadly after a few hours our otherwise awesome tent started to leak from the seams. The rain stopped long enough for us to pack up, and nothing really got all that wet inside, but we were happy to stay in a real bed the next night.

We drove up to Saint John in Canada, and made our first couchsurfing stop with Andrew and Jeff. If you ever want to visit New Brunswick, look them up, they were the best hosts. Not only did they take us on a great hike (where we may or may not have run them a bit ragged with our New Yorker pace, but they were too gracious to ever admit it), but they even took us shopping for a tarp to protect our tent from the rain.

Best of all, they gifted us with music, songs of the Maritimes that we listened to while we drove. We had brought lots of music with us on the iPod, but the only thing we actually listened to was the Anne of Green Gables musical, but more on that later. I hadn't realized how much Irish and Celtic influence and history there was to the Maritimes, but we loved all the Irish jigs and fiddles and literally sang our way across Canada.

They took us to a great little pub, where David had a "rich man's fish and chips", which was made from salmon. He still hasn't stopped talking about that. Then they took us candy bar shopping. For some reason they have all the candy bars we have here in America, but then they have all these other weird ones. My favorite was called a Wonderbar, or something. Peanut buttery deliciousness, and I am hardly a candy bar kind of person.

Couchsurfing, we love you. Seriously, everyone should do it, it is the best thing ever.

Opening ceremonies rock

Those light drums are ridiculous. How the heck do you choreograph that? Amazing.

Wait, there are people in those moving boxes? Speechless. David is crying now.

Their suits light up! Their suits light up!

Gosh darnit, you know we just missed like a million dollars worth of effects during that lamely placed commercial break.

I don't understand how this show was put together. I've done group choreography with just a dozen people that took hours and hours and hours to figure out the spacing and how to keep our lines, and we always had markings on the stage to keep our place. How are 2000 people able to keep in concentric circles? It boggles my mind, I absolutely cannot fathom how what I'm watching is being done. This whole thing is obviously a trick of CGI. Otherwise my brain will melt.

Sydney had an amazing opening ceremony - heck, it was that event that got me hooked on the Olympics in the first place. Athens in 2004 was, well, ok, pretty visuals but not all that inspiring. This, though, has been truly spectacular. How is London going to top this? Dang I wish we could have been there in person.

We've just decided that at some point we are going to go on vacation and see an Olympics live. Summer for sure, probably not London, I want something more exotic. We'll have to see who has them in 2016, that might be our year.

Olympics

The actual Opening Ceremony hasn't even started yet and I'm already crying. Crap I love this.

CV = Canadian Vacation

Things that only happen to people like us:

At our campground in Acadia lived a dove. Not just an ordinary dove, but a dove that loved musical theatre. Specifically, "Tradition" from Fiddler On The Roof. He didn't know the entire song, just the first five notes of the intro, but every time the bird would call, all I could hear was musical theater. Cute, but the bird needs a bigger repertoire if he wants to attract the discerning lady doves.

SYTYCD Finale

Not much to say, too busy thinking about Olympics, but this was a great season for dancing. I wish they'd done a few more of Katee's routines, because I loved virtually everything she did. I have no problem with Joshua winning, he was awesome and charismatic and fun. But Katee was, for me, the best dancer of the season, helped by the fact that virtually every dance she was given was great. (She never had to be a matador or whatever for example. Kherington was robbed!)

I LOVED that both Mary and Nigel danced. They may not to be able to do some of the things they could do when they were younger, but you can tell they both know what they are talking about when they talk about dancing.

Please, don't have Adam Shenkman back next season. Please.

Also, Cat kept making jokes about how if people didn't stop goofing off she would "have to get nasty" with them. And no one called her on it! I imagine everyone in her presence is just so spellbound they can't manage to speak, even when she hands them a joke on a silver platter.

Canadian Vacation

Our first stop was Acadia National Park in Maine. We camped there two nights at a great private campground on the quiet side of the island. We were lucky enough to be there just days before the summer season onslaught started, so the campground was nice and quiet.

The drive through Maine was gorgeous, despite some rain clouds that followed us around the entire vacation. Actually we were very lucky with the rain considering how much of it we got. Ten minutes away from our campground it was pouring down and we weren't sure what we were going to do, but as soon as we arrived at the spot the rain stopped and didn't start again until late that night after we were comfy inside the tent.

The next day we did a gorgeous 6-mile hike along a lakeside, and a few smaller hikes down to the seaside. (We saw the coolest mushrooms, brown ones and red ones and orange ones and purple ones and grey ones and even fluorescent yellow ones.) At times the fog was so thick you couldn't see the boats in the harbor. We had wanted to do some hikes up the mountains, but with all the fog we knew there would be no view to see so we just kept it simple, but had no complaints really. Even with all the hiking we did, this was probably the only part of our vacation you could call relaxing. David and I don't really vacation, we travel.

We are home.

Yesterday we drove for 19 hours, through ten states (and one Canadian province), getting home at 3:30am this morning. We thought we would stop, but we were just on a roll (and didn't want to spend a hundred bucks for a lame hotel just to get stuck in traffic driving home in the morning.) So we pushed it and David was awesome and even drove the last two hours once I started seeing double.

Anyway, we are pooped, happy, and have lots to do. I'll be blogging a lot coming up, because not only do I have tons of awesome vacation stories (Newfoundland ROCKS!), but also I have the freaking Olympics to watch and talk about. I have, what, like 40 hours Tivo'd to watch to get caught up on, and then the next week and a half are sports gold for me. We came home from Canada a bit early, for a few reasons including too much rain, utter exhaustion from driving and hiking and exploring, but also I am a crazy Olympic fan and couldn't bear missing anything.

Sorry if I sound distracted, but before we start Olympics we have to watch the finale for SYTYCD. Joshua and Katee are currently being gorgeous. I'm expecting him to win it, but we'll see.