"staff of the gods"

As Gustav ("staff of the gods") nears the coast of Louisiana (AGAIN!), the people are being evacuated and FEMA is already in place. This will be a better result, I hope. I'm also impressed with the evacuation of the animals prior to the arrival of the Storm. I saw a clip on an evening news program this evening and I started to cry when the owners expressed how thankful they were for the service. All the animals on this news clip were evacuated in an air conditioned semi and the people were taken in buses, all to the same place and they were each tagged so the owners would be found quickly. I pray these people don't lose their homes and belongings, but hopefully this time they won't lose the animal members of their families. I'm glad we can learn.

What the....

Just when life was getting better with my computer...I was learning how to program in a language there is no class for and getting quite good at it...I made a boo boo! One afternoon I decided to treat myself to a Sprite and I was happily sitting at my computer getting back to work when I reached for my drink. It slipped out of my hand, bounced and spilled about a table spoon's worth of Sprite on my keyboard. There was no smoke or sparks, but I knew I had to clean it up as fast as possible. SO with water and paper towels I followed the instructions on a website and tried to get it cleaned up. After about 15 minutes of drying, I tried to resume my computering...well, I couldn't get my "s" to work. I cleaned some more...NOTHING. I went to Target that night to get the special compressed air keyboard cleaner...didn't help. SO, I went to bed thinking: what am I going to do? I awoke in the morning after several prayers to try my keys again...YES! I GOT MY "S" BACK! But I had lost the "L"! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! To make a long story short, two days later, it came back as well. PHEW! I ordered a replacement keyboard after I couldn't get my "L" after the first day, but I will replace this one anyway (it was less than $25 dollars for a new one...I can handle that!). Lesson learned: sugary, carbonated drinks are bad for computers, it makes them misbehave; Sprites are not for computers! :O)

I learned something about myself this weekend...

...I 100% bleed red if cut. WOW, I have been a Michigan fan almost my whole life. I dreamt of getting in there. I was almost jealous of people who I learned had or do attend. I was so excited to go there for my conference last week (so much so I skipped some talks to go just SEE The BIG HOUSE!) And yet, when I watched the game (having to go to a friend's house because I don't have ESPN2, leaving my friends who were watching the BYU game, the reason I was invited over in the first place) I realized, I am a UTE! I was happy to watch my team, my WOLVERINES LOSE to UTAH! It wasn't as pretty as it could have been, but I'll take it. This season is going to be very interesting. Oh it was a great weekend for me for college football too; the Stanford Cardinal won their first game and have a winning record for the first time in what seems like forever, Cal won a big game (and yes, if you know anything about that rivalry, I DO have a hard time chosing every year, but I usually root for the Bears), Sac State won a home game, Cal Poly won a road game, and UMass won its home opener under the lights! WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND! Welcome back college football! NOW, it is too bad I don't have ESPN or ESPN2...oh well, that is what friends are for :)!

Now that the games are over...

...I'm going to finish up my sporadic Olympic coverage with my top five sports of the summer Olympics. In no particular order:

(1) 10 K open water swim
Yes, I watched every minute of these races (men's and women's) live. They each swim for about 2 hours straight, pulling up to the feed stations and eating/drinking on the fly just like their running counterparts. Absolutely an amazing example of endurance and perseverance. Besides the men's winner from the Netherlands was diagnosed with Leukemia a few years back and fought back to be the swimmer he is.

(2) Triathlon (men's and women's)

Maybe it was just because I like participating in Tris myself, I love watching these athletes compete in Beijing. But please, what is up with the sticky blue carpet they had to ride and run on? The coefficient of friction on their tires was so much higher it caused them to expend a lot of energy.

(3) Flatwater Kayaking!
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0821_SD_CFB_HL_L1097
Grace, power, speed, and water (why have my first three included water?); it doesn't get any better than this. So, much so I had to include a video of the women's K1 final. Just enjoy.

(4) Mountain biking
This was part of the course. A course which had been ripped on by the racers prior to the Olympics after they raced a world cup qualifier there. It was too easy they said. So, the officials made it harder by putting in more drops, rocks and fun things to cross. Well, they got what they wished. Women walked, men dropped out, and people rode away with BIG victories; I LOVE IT!

(5) FencingAnd finally fencing. I have always loved these events, but I got to watch more of it online WITHOUT COMMENTARY! Which I loved. Again, grace and power with a bit of fancy footwork and handwork thrown in. Oh and some jumping and lunging :)! Ancient sport kept new and fresh with technology; same old moves, but a new sound. Besides who wouldn't love the only sport that is played in the dark. Obviously the athletes are highlighted, but the audience is in the dark, just like a play, an artistic and beautifully choreographed play.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: (Mostly because they are sports I played :)!)

I would have put beach volleyball on here, but I don't think any sport that has a rule that women have to wear bikinis should be vilified.

Indoor volleyball is an awesome sport, especially since the introduction of the libero (back row specialist...what I was in High School without the fancy name).

And finally, women's soccer. We all know how much I love this game, but to have won the gold again, even with a keeper who scares me to DEATH, was wonderful and worth my time :)!

So, here is what I want to do: I want anyone who wants to, to tell me what your favorite moment or sport of the Olympics was. It doesn't have to be anything special and it could just be a moment, as I said. I would just love to hear what other people saw and thought.

Final note: Here we come LONDON...

You think with David Beckham as their "spokes person" London's goal will be the football gold? I mean, 119 is a fine goal, but I bet they want one more than any other on their home turf!

SO here is what really happened in Michigan!

I'm sure many of you have been waiting for REAL pictures, as in pictures with ME in them...here you go:


The three of us drove in a car across NY essentially to Michigan and had a blast! We actually all got along and talked most of the time...11 hours there and about 10 back. Not bad for three PhD students! We didn't nerd each other out!
Oh yes, we ate...mmmmmm cake! Don't worry I split it with two other women. Yes, I'm changing my ways. Remember the time Lex would just have eaten the whole thing and not shared?!?!?!??!?!
Remember, this was a biomechanics conference, so there were some really cool toys...ok there was one. This machine worked you pushing out and coming back in (concentric and eccentric) . I was sore the rest of the conference after my full work out on the first day.

And there was MUCH silliness. I couldn't believe that a sign like this exists. (I mean, what, if the line in the bathroom is too long, do you try the one across the street? seriously!) SO, I of course, had to "attempt" a crossing. :) OH, this is 90 which travels across the state of New York. I mean, why would anyone even THINK he/she could cross a MAJOR highway?

This has got to make you feel better!

We can all have a bad day, and we are all aloud to have a bad day but watching this really did make me think: wow, maybe I'm not that bad a rider, I mean, look at them! These are some of the crashes at the Olympics by the women in mountain biking. Unfortunately, I think the German rider near the end, the one who doesn't get up for a while, really does hurt her shoulder, but we will not laugh at them, just admire the grace, and maybe remember the times you did something VERY SIMILAR! :) The mountain biking at the Olympics was MUCH better than was hoped for. Anyone up for a trip to Beijing to try it out?


http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0822_SD_CMW_MN_L1206

Now this is real sportsmanship!

Really, if you need a pick me up story, you need to see this clip...

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0820_SD_MUL_AU_CE517

It is almost that time.

I got distracted today by old SI covers. Some of which I thought I would share because of my desire to get skiing again. I'll put together another slide show soon with another topic! But for now...(Oh, and some of the comments may be best understood by some of my skiing friends, so don't hesitate to ask if you care what they mean.)

There is competitive, then there is this...

This is a link to a video of the American pole vaulter, Jennifer Stuczynski, getting an earful from her coach after she earned a silver by losing (if you can call it that) to the number one pole vaulter in the world who had to set a world record to win. I hope she fires this coach...what a JERK!

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0818_HD_ATW_HL_L1722

Finally, a gift

It may be that you can only barely see the rainbow, it wasn't THAT strong, but it was a welcome sight. After all the rain, we finally got to see a beautiful gift. (So I got to a nice little pond as a nice scene for the image, although I lost some of the starkness of the colors.) Trust me, it was nice to see. Oh, and the golden colors on the trees was just from the sun, the "colors" of New England haven't come YET...but this year should be great with all the rain and the coming cool weather. So, stay tuned!

Mishigami

The name of the state of Michigan, while being named after the lake is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigami, meaning "large water" or "large lake". WOW! you say. Well that is where I was last week so I thought I'd start off with an interesting fact. Now on to the good stuff. I was there for a biomechanics conference. I'm still amazed at how so many "nerds" in one place could actually be so cool :)!

These first pictures are a few from our trip into and out of Canada. It was supposed to be two hours shorter, but it ended up being over an hour longer because of traffic. Well, because we sat about 100yds from the gate out for over an hour, possibly closer to two...FOR NO REASON. Except maybe for the storm, which you can't see in the bridge picture, to move in on us while we were on the bridge, which you can see in the picture with the two flags as we were on the bridge.
Just as we passed the Welcome to Michigan sign you can see we were once again stopped (it took us forever to get across the bridge in the storm) and while we were just sitting there the bridge got struck by lightening just feet away from us...we were VERY glad to get off that bridge!




Sorry for the "picture" on this video; I didn't realize i wouldn't be able to rotate it. But it is the sound that matters anyway. Listen to the song. I think someone goes in and plays the "clock" for a half hour at noon every day. After one meeting a friend and I came out to this...

..on a state college and everything! :)

The following "show" are just some pictures from around campus!

On Thursday of the conference we had a banquet at the Henry Ford museum. As one might expect, there were MANY cars: JFK's limo, a few older cars, a nice old jeep, but there were some other things as well, like an exhibit on Chocolate, the fastest car EVER, the Oscar Meyer Weiner car, and some nice old planes. For those pictures, just personally request, but I wanted to share my two favorites. Firstly, there was a whole section on bicycles. The picture on the left is a bike with 10 seats. Check out the rear chain ring! I'll take that spot! Anyone wanna try it up Hobble Creek with me some day? The second picture (right) is a picture of the inside of the bus Rosa Parks had her famous ride on. It was there in a section devoted to the American experience and growth as a nation. Sitting on the bus and thinking of the story, one gets a feeling for how far we have come, and how far we have to go.

LIVE FREE OR DIE!

I mean, really, how could you not just LOVE that motto!?!?!?!?! Thank you, New Hampshire. Now, why would I write that? Well, that is where I rode this morning. You can see the "path" in my new section: Ride of the week (which won't be updated for a bit because I'll be out of town next week, but I couldn't think of anything better to call it...please forgive :)!)

This is just a picture essay of what I saw today...















I love the contrast of these signs. One is nice and has the motto; which may scare someone. The other looks as if it has been there since the 70s and is kind of an after thought. And, yes, that is a FRENCH welcome to our friends from the north!

This is the Ashuelot River I followed the whole time I was on 119 NH. It was super pretty. Sometimes rushing and sometimes calm. It is just south of the Pisgah State park, a place I fully intend on checking out soon!


You may notice the "face" on the NH signage. They are in "remembrance" of the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in the Franconia Notch, until the formation fell apart in May 2003. My plan was to only ride to Hinsdale, then I saw this sign and I changed my mind. I turned right and stayed in NH, but next time I will turn left and go into VT. Also, check out the house with license plate siding. I wonder what they would have to do to register their house? HA HA HA, just kidding. This is just on my mind because I had to register my car in a new state this week and it was a learning experience.

Ok this is one of my favorite things on this ride (I'll pause to let you read.) As far as I can tell this is a descendant of the Hatfield, not Hadley/Amherst Dickinsons (Emily's family), but I could be wrong. But what a memorial. I love the "other side": poor Asahel, he hung out with the wrong crowd.