Auspicious start of my 41st year

First, gratuitous dog photo:



Loki running in the snow. He was running toward the door to get back inside after taking care of business. I guess he wanted to catch a few snowflakes on the way. Snow is a rare treat in these parts. Texas A&M will be delayed until 10:00 am tomorrow. This is assuming I even feel like going in at all. I celebrated my 41st on Sunday; in addition to some neat gifts, birthday greetings and hearing an excellent dharma talk, I got a cold.

I have plenty of sick leave and my work is not so terribly important that its worth infecting others.

Today, I felt like getting dressed and off the couch. Even stood on the porch to film the snow. Yesterday, it was bed or couch. The oddest thing about yesterday is that I channel surfed for hours and did not catch one bit of Law & Order, not even one little donk-donk. I made up for it today by watching part of an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

I tried to watch some Olympics because I've become rather fascinated by curling but all the NBC-Universal stations that my cable provider carries were acting up.

Would it kill NBC to have a commentator explain curling or at least provide a crawl with a definition of terms & how the scoring works? I suppose I could drag my laptop to the couch and look up this stuff while watching but I don't feel like doing that and what about the viewers without wireless networking?

I become fascinated by curling every four years because of the absurdity of the sport.

This blog got a shout-out from uuworld.org: the interdependent web.

Bodies

Off the Mark and Days of Thunder brings today's comic page theme - strategically placed props

Speaking of the human body check out this slide show from the New York Times. The stats are mind boggling and given the diversity of body types all these athletes consume about the same amount of calories.

Boxing fascinates me because of the wide range of sizes that participate. From nbcolympics.com:
Weight classes (kilogram amounts are official)
• Light flyweight (Up to 48kg/106 lbs)
• Flyweight (Over 48kg/106 lbs up to 51kg/112 lbs)
• Bantamweight (Over 51kg/112 lbs up to 54kg/119 lbs)
• Featherweight (Over 54kg/119 lbs up to 57kg/126 lbs)
• Lightweight (Over 57kg/126 lbs up to 60kg/132 lbs)
• Light welterweight (Over 60kg/132 lbs up to 64kg/141 lbs)
• Welterweight (Over 64kg/141 lbs up to 69 kg/152 lbs)
• Middleweight (Over 69kg/152 lbs up to 75 kg/165 lbs)
• Light heavyweight (Over 75 kg/165 lbs up to 81kg/179 lbs)
• Heavyweight (Over 81 kg/179 lbs up to 91 kg/201 lbs)
• Super heavyweight (Over 91kg/201 lbs)

Athleticism comes in all shapes, sizes and ages.

Yesterday, I did my jump rope for the Gold's Gym Games: 1 minute 36.44 seconds. This is a personal best according to the way I count (I count the number of times I go over the rope): 102. Then I ran 4 miles and never felt lighter on my feet. I need to add jump rope to my regular training routine. My coordination has improved as well as my running.

Later today I do the leg press. 155 or 160 pounds depending on what the gym scale says today. I'm weighing with my shoes on because I wear them while working out.

Not waiting for Godot

Leroy again demonstrates how well read he is. This allows him to deliver insults about Loretta's cooking beyond, this tastes like @#$!.

One of the male announcers for the gymnastics competition irritated me with his tortured metaphors and attempts to reference material he did not really know. Some of his commentary has been so awful that I wonder if he was simply reading what someone else wrote.

Waiting for a turn on an apparatus is nothing like Waiting for Godot. [Spoiler Alert!] Godot never showed up [end spoiler] but Shawn Johnson did complete her vault.

I did 45 sit ups last night for the Gold's Gym Games.

My dentist checked my blood pressure and pulse: 111/56 and 45.

Olympics

Where can my dear husband see a good video of the drumming countdown to the opening ceremony of the Olympics? We tried nbcolympics.com but all the videos either edit that part or talk about how spectacular it was and then not show it. MSN also does not acknowledge the existence of my TV provider so I had to say Dish Network in order to see some of the archived videos.

I spent a good portion of the weekend watching various Olympic events. Can someone from another country explain to me what is so damn exciting about soccer? It is more fun to watch than golf, poker and fishing but not by much. I understand the existence of soccer hooligans, now. I watched soccer games on both CNBC and Telemundo.

Watched women's beach volleyball. US vs. Japan. The Japanese team is the second shortest team in the tournament at 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches! Caught a bit of men's rowing, and a little of women's indoor volleyball.

The men's light heavy weight boxing matches were boring. Jab - hug - jab - hug - jab - hug - jab - hug. The welterweights and light welterweights were much more interesting fights. I'm becoming a fan of Tony, one of the fight commentators. He sounds and looks like an old boxer that took too many to the head. He provides some of the best unintentionally funny commentary. For example, 4th round in a light welterweight match, the scoring was close and Tony says this match will come down to whoever can establish his identity. I did not realize boxing had so many dimensions - punching, bobbing, weaving and identity formation all in two minute rounds. Most of the boxing matches have been on CNBC and Telemundo but be sure to watch a few matches on CNBC for Tony's commentary and a segment called Tony's Corner. NBC needs to bring Tony into prime time.

I'm cheering for a 33 year old gymnast competing for Germany - a woman competing in women's gymnastics.

Watched a sport new to me - synchronized diving - much more impressive than synchronized swimming.

For those on Suddenlink Cable the channels are 6 (NBC), 21 (Telemundo), 23 (USA), 37 (CNBC) and 64 (MSNBC). I'm annoyed with NBC for not showing Olympics on all their channels at the same time. They only use two channels at a time and seem to go to commercial at the same damn time. I like to see various events and want to jump around during commercials. I guess NBC got too much grief when they added Sci-Fi to their Master's coverage so that one get left out for the Olympics.

I don't know why I'm so interested in this Olympics (I signed up for the alerts for Track and Field). I don't think I will get much done in the evenings for the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of games, I will be doing my first event in the Gold's Gym Games tonight - push ups. I'm aiming for 25, my personal best so far 21.