The I Have to Tip My Hat to Him Even Though I’m Still Irritated with His Behavior:

• Usain Bolt of Jamaica did what no one has done (in the Olympics) before. And that’s win both the 100m and 200m races as well as setting world records in both.  Carl Lewis was the last to win both back in 1984. Michael Johnson set a record in the 200m in 1996, I believe it was, that most people thought wouldn’t be broken in our lifetimes. I’m still really irritated by his showboating at the end of the 100m.  And somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m having a hard time believing he did all that without some kind of “help”, if you get my drift.  But the fact remains, he was really amazing.

The Rants:

• First of all, NBC News, you are being sent to the Naughty Chair.  Thanks SO much for ruining the outcome of the Balance Beam tonight.  I spent the entire day doing my best to avoid finding out the results ahead of time, and then you nonchalantly spoil the results that are going to be shown later on your own station!  Wth???  I have been watching the Nightly News during the Olympics because 1) you have cool stories about the Olympics and 2) you haven’t spoiled the results that follow in primetime…up until now.  Won’t be making THAT mistake again.
• Softball is losing its status as an Olympic sport at the next games in London. Why?  Well, I don’t know for sure, but speculation says that it’s because the USA dominates the event.  Okay, if that’s the case, let’s also get rid of Table Tennis and Badminton (which are not really athletic competitions anyway, if you ask me) since the Asian nations are the ones who always win all the medals anyway.  Oh, and let’s also just wipe Diving off the boards as well since no one wins Gold medals in that sport except China.  (I miss you Greg Louganis!) Especially the most boring sport ever invented - Synchronized Diving.  Could there possibly be anything more boring than that?  I bet if it was some other country dominating softball other the USA, it would be kept in.  

The Great:

• Our men swept the 400m Hurdles.  Way to go, USA!  Bring back our Track & Field glory days! ;)
• Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their 107th straight beach volleyball game en route to a semifinal win that puts them in the gold medal game.  You go girls!

The Should Have Been Great But Was Derailed By Stupid Scoring Rules:

• Nastia Luikin tied with a (13 year old*) Chinese gymnast for first place in the Uneven Bars standings, but because of a the most convoluted and ridiculous tiebreaker system known to man, she won the silver instead.  Un-friggin-believable.  Yet again, one of our girls was robbed.  Ugh.

Have I ever mentioned that I love Dunkin’ Donuts? I do indeed love Krispy Kreme as well. In fact, I’ve never met a raised doughnut I didn’t like to be perfectly honest. However, when I was a kid we went to Dunkin’ Donuts on a regular basis and my very favorite doughnut there was the Bavarian Creme. I would always always ALWAYS get a Bavarian Creme doughnut there. (For those of you who don’t know that doughnut, it’s basically a Boston Creme with powdered sugar on it instead of chocolate.) In my later years, I also came to love the Vanilla Creme doughnuts, and those were my two very favorite doughnuts in the big wide world.

I don’t actually go to Dunkin’ Donuts very often anymore. They’re not located anywhere that is very convenient for me to go there on even a semi-regular basis, but every now and again, I’ll get a craving and I’ll make a special trip. So several weeks ago, I got a craving and headed over to the closest shop with LG and promises of “doughnuts!” I got there and it. was. CLOSED! For remodeling! Until the “end of June” it said! Okay, it was about mid-June, so I figured I’d wait a couple of weeks and try again. (I’m not mentioning the crying and carrying on and the trip to another store that also was closed for remodeling that took place on that same day. Oh, and the crying wasn’t me. On the outside at least. )

So, early July arrives, and I make another trip to the store. Which is still closed! And the sign still says re-opening in late June. Um, wha? I tried to find some info, but no luck. However a couple of weeks later, I read an article in the local paper that said they’d be reopening August 15. Well, finally!

So, August 15 (that would be last Friday) arrives. LG and I had several errands, so I left that one until near the end of our trip thinking that by 10 am, the crowds would have thinned out. Well, we drove up and there were signs and a big giant coffee cup…and a line all the way out to the parking lot. I decided we’d try again this week when things would surely be calmer.

So, we went this morning. Still a line out the door, but I decided to brave it anyway. However, by the time we got up to the counter, they were out of Bavarian Cremes and Vanilla Cremes. Very, very, very sad. I got LG a jelly and me a sugared raised and we took our sorry bag of two doughnuts and went home, my dreams of a half dozen cream-filled doughnuts dashed. They were still very good, don’t get me wrong, they just weren’t what I had dreamed of.

So, we’ll wait another couple of weeks and try again after the excitement of the reopening has died down a bit. And I will get my cream-filled doughnuts. I will, I will, I will!

First of all, this is late.  And I may have run out of things to talk about now that Michael Phelps is finished.  But, I’ll give it a go.  (Don’t read if you haven’t watched last night’s Gymnastics yet!)

The Good:

• Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luiken take home silver and bronze for the Floor Exercise. It’s a tiny bit disappointing because Shawn was leading until the last gymnast, and Nastia was a bit robbed on her marks.
• The US Women’s Eight Rowing team won their 9 zillionth gold medal.  Okay, not that many, but I’m not sure they’ve ever actually lost that race.

Everybody Needs Gadgets

Pretty disposable dishes

Now you can make grilled cheese in the toaster.

A microwave for your car.

Food! Glorious Food!

Homemade tomato juice

Molten chocolate cake with caramel filling

Carrot-buttermilk tart

All about bell peppers

Chocolate pudding

Creative Pursuits

A simple idea for framed art.

How to dye pasta

What photography equipment should you take when you travel?

How to shoot light trails

One of the coolest laptop cases I’ve ever seen.

Techno Geekery

Diarised helps you pick the best time for a meeting.

Need to escape from a meeting or a date? Here’s your solution.

Let the Games Continue!

What does Michael Phelps eat for breakfast?

Why are there so many world records in the Water Cube?

13 weird, wacky and sometimes heartwarming Olympic stories.

How the camera follows the divers.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or at least one bad joke.

Can you be a world class athlete and a mom? You betcha!

Life Is a Highway

Much too cute

How to tell when leftovers go bad.

How to make hospital corners.

Is there any animal as photogenic as a Panda?

Are you as fascinated by word origins as I am?

10 creatures people didn’t think existed.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Good news about caffeine

6 interesting things about the Metric system (May we never change!)

Women who live in the past.

Good Reads

I only wish there were pictures.

For the Kids

How to organize kid’s puzzles. (Why didn’t I think of this?)

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

For the Shakespeare and/or Facebook lovers among you.

Weekly Features

Pretty recipe of the week

Pretty recipe of the week 2

Pretty recipe of the week 3

Cupcake of the week

Cupcake of the week 2

Cupcake of the week 3

Tip of the week

Tip of the week 2

Video of the week

I’m falling asleep and I was distracted by Michael Phelps. Surfer Sunday will be up later today (hopefully).

The Golden Man Who Lived Up to the Hype:

• Hype is pretty normal in the sports world.  And it’s also pretty normal that most of the time the hype is not lived up to.  Until tonight.  Tonight, Michael Phelps lived up to it.  He never disappointed.  He came through every time.  And I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to accomplish what he has.  Michael, you made us all proud.  But he didn’t do it alone…

The Almost but Not Quite:

• My hero, Dara Torres, got the silver, and missed the gold by 1/100th of a second.  Had she had just that little bit better of a start, she’d have won the gold. I really wish she’d have won the gold, but still, winning a silver at age 41 against swimmers who are half your age or less than half and who you are old enough to have given birth to most of them?  I think that’s some damn good swimming and she should be so proud of herself.  You go, Dara!
• And the women’s medley relay got silver, too.  Natalie Coughlin has quietly had a fabulous Olympics, earning 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze for a total of 6 - the most of any female swimmer in one Olympics.

The About As Exciting As Watching Paint Dry Award Goes to:

• The women’s marathon.  Really, NBC, you couldn’t find something more interesting to shove down our throats for two and a half hours?  Do we really need to watch people running a marathon?  Could there possibly be anything more boring?  I know some people find the Tour de France boring, too, but they actually have very interesting moments during the race.  Marathon - not so much.  Just get to the good stuff already.

The Awesome:

• Michael Phelps.  Athletes are hyped all the time.  Most of them don’t live up to the hype.  But Michael just won his 7th gold medal in this Olympic games.  Only one other person has done that.  Ever.  So I’d say he’s lived up to the hype.  And the end of the race?  I was screaming my head off. He literally won by a fingernail.  Un.be.liev.a.ble.  If you don’t believe this is meant to be by now, I don’t know what else to say to you.  One more race tomorrow.
• And my personal hero, 41 year old Dara Torres, swam her beautiful and ripped self into the 50m Freestyle final.  Oh, how I want her to win that gold medal! (And what a sportswoman she is, too!  She made sure the race didn’t start without the Swedish racer whose suit had ripped.  Dara, you rock!)

The Good:

• It was an all-around good day for the United States, especially in swimming and gymnastics.
• Nastia Luiken and Shawn Johnson.  What can I say?  They made me cry. Nastia, long-legged and graceful; Shawn, compact and powerful.  Two very different girls.  Two medals in all-around gymnastics for the first time in US Olympic history.  Gold and silver.  Awesome.  And Mary Lou Retton was there to witness it.
• At the pool?  Michael Phelps continues to live up to the hype.  And how often does that happen?  6 gold medals.  6 world records.  Can he keep it up?  We’ll see tomorrow.  And the US also won 2 more golds, a silver and 2 bronzes.
• On top of all of that, the US won a silver in Shooting as well.  So far, it’s shaping up to be a very good day for the US of A.

The Good:

• Jason Lezak, hero of the relay race the other night, won his first individual medal, a bronze, in the 100m Freestyle.  Really happy for him!
• Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their 104th straight match in Beach Volleyball.  Talk about dominating a sport.

The Adorable:

LG:  Are we gonna see Michael Phelps tonight?

Me:  I don’t know if he’s going to be on tonight, honey.

LG:  Pretty please?

Me:  Do you think he’s cute?

LG:  Yeah.  *giggle*

The Boring:

• Is anyone else as bored with synchronized diving as I am?

The Good:

• I haven’t mentioned it yet, but some of these venues are just architecturally gorgeous and amazing.  The Bird’s Nest is beautiful for sure, but the Water Cube? That is maybe one of the most beautiful contemporary buildings I’ve seen.  It’s just so cool to look at - it looks almost otherworldly or science fictiony.
• Togo wins their very first Olympic medal - a bronze - K1 Men Kayaking.  That’s what I love about the Olympics.  Not just watching my own country win medals, but seeing athletes from other countries excel and make their country proud.
• Michael Phelps wins two more gold medals, making him the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.  

The Good:

• Three gold medals in the pool for the US of A.  Michael Phelps and Aaron Piersol broke the world record on their way to the gold and Natalie Coughlin won as well.  Good stuff!
• The Men’s Gymnastics Team put together some ridiculous (in a good way) performances and even without their star (and most experienced) performer, won a Bronze medal against all expectations.

The Ugly:

• The way one of the announcers on USA network was pronouncing Great Britain during his call of a Field Hockey match between Pakistan and Great Brih’un. Drove me insane. And the worst part?  His color commentator partner was FROM Great Britain.

What a difference five months makes. Remember this post about how LG wouldn’t participate in her tap class? That was back in March. I tried a mother/daughter dance class early in the summer and that didn’t go much better. So, even though she was old enough to go to “formal” dance class this fall, I wasn’t holding out too much hope. Until I found out her best little friend was going to take the same class. Then, I thought, maybe just maybe, she’d do better if she had someone in the class with her that she knew. And it did help! She did a fabulous job today. I think getting brand new shoes a few weeks ago helped, too. But more than anything, I think those extra five months helped. I’ve seen a change in her these past months - not quite as shy and fearful of things - more talkative and willing to engage with people she doesn’t know very well. So, having a friend helped, but so did being a few months older. My heart is much happier today than it was when I wrote that earlier post.

On the other hand, how in the heck did my kid get old enough to be in dance class? I remember when Marlene’s Princess started dance classes and we discussed how LG would start in three years. How on earth has it been THREE YEARS already? Someone said, “The days are long, but the years are short.” And it’s so true. So true.

I’m going to end this with some bragging, because it’s my blog and I can! Now, she didn’t do everything perfectly (or even close), so I don’t want to give you that impression, but holy cow, that kid can point her toes and stand on tiptoe beautifully (and way better than anyone else in class, thank you very much!). I know it’s many years away, but I won’t be surprised if she’s one of those kids that can dance on pointe. We’ll see!

The Awesome:

• One of the best relays I’ve ever seen - if not the best was the Men’s 100m Freestyle.  Oh. my. gawd.  I didn’t think they had a chance when the French pulled ahead, but the anchor swam the fastest relay split in history and came back to win that race in smashing World Record time.  I literally screamed out loud when they won.  Luckily LG is a heavy sleeper.  That was so exciting!  Take that, trash-talking French!