Gold Medal Blogs

Need another way to obsess about the Olympics? (And believe me, no judgment here if you do.) My less-obsessed husband found this site where you can track the blogs of numerous Olympic athletes.  My personal favorite is the blog of Dave Durante, who is the only alternate on the US men’s gymnastics team not to get to compete in the team competition.  You might also know him as the man NBC would not get the freakin’ camera off of when he broke down in tears at the end of the team competition.

But maybe the coolest thing about this blog ring is the plethora of athletes found there.  One of the most common complaints I’ve heard about coverage of the ‘08 Olympics has been the focus on American athletes rather than the entire field.  Well, this site lets you get to know a little bit more about athletes from all over the world, in both major and minor sports. It’s pretty interesting to read the thoughts of so many athletes, rather than only hearing interviews (often given by horrible, annoying interviewers – I’m talking about you, Andrea Kremer) with the winners.

I will say, however, that I am less aggravated by Olympics coverage than so many other people.  I think a lot of the problems come from the 12-hour time delay.  They can’t start live coverage any earlier than 8pm because it’s 8am there.  Do you want the athletes to have to wake up at 4 in the morning or earlier?  I didn’t think so.  And while I agree that many times they have focused on American athletes, they are trying to squeeze a lot in, and their audience would be pissed if they didn’t focus enough on the Americans.  And, quite frankly, in the competitions that the Americans haven’t been competitive in, they have focused on the other countries.  For instance, in the men’s gymnastics team final, you barely saw Alexander Artemev, let alone Jonathan Horton.  So, give them a break – they can’t please everyone. But if you are pissed, go read the blog ring.

Olympic Onslaught

I love the Olympics.  I especially love the Opening Ceremonies.  I love to see how other countries choose to celebrate and how they dress walking in the Parade of Nations. I love the crazy facts that Matt Lauer and Bob Costas throw out, such as the president of Venezuela’s choice to change the country’s time zone to half an hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time because he felt his athletes would perform better if they were used to waking up to earlier daylight.  I feel like the Olympics provides geographical, political, and cultural lessons with a little bit of athleticism thrown in here and there.

And I’ll admit, tonight the Opening Ceremonies are just the break I need.  I gave my class their final exam this afternoon, and I both love it and hate it.  I love knowing that the class is over; I love having students tell me they’ll miss me or that they enjoyed me class.  But I also dread it.  As they take the exam I worry about how well they’ll do, if I prepared them enough.  I hope that they’ll leave my class having actually learned something.  And when I leave campus I can’t help but reflect about the steps and missteps I’ve taken as a teacher over the last six weeks.  It’s a bit of a confusing day for me.

So, it’s nice to be able to let go of my own thoughts and concentrate on the more than 200 hundred countries walking into their Bird’s Nest and their pride and possibilities. And then tomorrow my competitive nature will kick in and the calm contemplations of tonight will be over; unfortunately I’ll have the ugly business of grading exams to distract me.  Awesome.

Not Speaking Too Soon This Time!

THE RED WINGS WIN!  In game 6, after two of the most nail-biting hockey games I’ve ever watched, the Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup.  It was an amazing series and will hopefully bring some new fans to hockey.

For now, though, I’m just basking in the glory and recommencing friendships with my Penguins-loving friends, one of whom (Amanda) was lucky enough to attend all three of the games in Pittsburgh and even stuck around to see the Wings receive the Stanley Cup and take pictures of it for me (such as the one below).  Now that’s a real friend!

Go Red Wings!

Spoke Too Soon…

I said a couple of posts ago that I was getting used to a schedule of reading all day, every day.  I think I spoke too soon.

This morning I got up about an hour earlier than usual so that Potter and I could go walking with my friend Lucy and her dog, Reese.  I had no problem getting up, enjoyed the walk, and had a fairly productive morning.  Right around noon, though, exhaustion hit me.  I fell asleep reading and, while I’m not normally much of a napper, I was deep asleep, so deep that I didn’t wake up until (I think) about an hour later when a not-so-pleasant dream woke me up.  I had been in such a deep sleep that I had a terrible problem feeling 100% awake for the rest of the afternoon and had to find more active things to do and put aside my reading for the day.

So I went to the grocery, came back and made oatmeal raisin cookies for the drive to Somerset this weekend, and made a more time-consuming dinner than I had originally had planned (which, if you’re curious, was Spaghetti Pie and it was awesome).  I think I’m safe for the rest of the night, though, as we’re watching the Red Wings’ game (by the way, the Wings just scored the first goal of the game while I type this).  Game 5 on Monday made me so nervous that I literally felt nauseous and had trouble getting to sleep when it was over (which probably had more to do with the unfortunate way the marathon game ended).  So, I’m hoping tonight’s game will be a little less nerve-wracking, though I doubt it, but I apparently need to be able to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight.  My fingers are definitely crossed. I will, however, not be speaking too soon on this issue.

A New Member of the Family

Today Dave and I welcomed the newest member of the Altmaier family. This, everybody, is Bess:

This baby is my new bike! I haven’t had a bike since my 10-speed, so Bess is a big deal for me. I’ve wanted a bike ever since Dave got his, but we never had the money we were willing to spend on it. But then Dave told me a couple of weeks ago that, as a reward to me for finishing classes, he wanted us to buy a bike for me. Well I couldn’t have been more pleased, and so the shopping began.

Though we looked at a lot different bikes, the experience was much like shopping for a wedding dress. We researched bikes on the internet; then we went to a few stores and just browsed a week or two ago. Then today, after narrowing down our choices, we decided to “try on” some bikes. Just like my wedding dress, as soon as I hopped on this beautiful Cannondale WSD Six13 I knew that she was the one for me. So we left the store, test drove another bike at a different store, drove half of the way home discussing our options, and then turned around and went back and bought her.

To celebrate, Dave and I went for our first bike ride together. And let me tell you, nothing is more flattering than cycling gear:

(Notice I’m showing you the pre-ride picture, from the chest up, without the helmets.  And still it’s not so good.) I have to tell you, I had a blast riding, but I am definitely VERY out of shape.  Dave, bless him, was practically coasting the whole time while I huffed and I puffed behind him. But I was brave and ventured onto busy roads way before Dave was willing to when he started riding; that’s something right?

And while I don’t know that I’ll ever be the competitive cyclist/triathlete I know Dave secretly hopes I’ll become, I really love cycling. We’re going to hit a longer but much flatter course tomorrow.  Maybe my bum won’t hurt so badly after that one;)

A few more pictures of my girl Bess:

She’s perfect right? A little feminine but not “girly.” But don’t let the design full you.  She’s hardcore.  And so am I.

Time to ice my bum.

Big Red Madness

Dave and I have been busy having a fantastic weekend with my mom and Pete (Mom’s SO), which I will captivate you with and offer pictures of later, maybe even later today (two blogs in one day, oh my!). But I wanted to take just a moment to say a big hoorah for my (and Dave’s) alma mater, Western Kentucky University, and their men’s basketball team’s major win over Drake in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

We took Mom and Pete to our local farmer’s market today and Dave (without even really thinking about it) wore a WKU shirt. One of the vendors we walked by remarked that he must be proud of their big win. This is much better than when Western’s football team got stomped by UF at the beginning of last fall; the positive recognition feels good and is well deserved by our Hilltoppers.

We’ll be cheering for them against Sienna, too, in the battle of the underdogs tomorrow.

And in case you missed it: