Lewiepalooza 2008

Last weekend was the big 90th birthday bash/family reunion my parents threw for my grandma.  I’m sure you have all been unable to sleep at night, waiting for the update, so here it is.  With pictures, to boot!  Please try to contain your excitement.                                            

AE sits in the birthday girl’s lap as my other grandmother looks on.  My parents’ mothers are best friends, so family events have always included every conceivable relative on both sides.  Fortunately everyone gets along pretty well so it has never been much of a problem.  Assuming, of course, you don’t mind a bunch of loud and harmless crazy folk offering you food constantly.

There are times when trying to take a nice picture with your 5-year-old is just an exercise in futility.

Hitting one’s brother upside the head is fun stuff.

Miss T and my aunt clearly enjoyed whatever ridiculous song my cousin had Blue Doggy “singing” for her.  Apparently my sister found it mildly embarrassing.

Ah, my cousin.  He’s always finding new and exciting ways to amuse and embarrass all of us.  Lewiepalooza happened to coincide with his 39th birthday, but he doesn’t act a day over nine.  What a dork.  🙂

Hopelessly pointless Olympic wrap-up

Like much of the world I have spent many many hours watching  Olympic coverage over the last few weeks.  I was sad to see it end, as I always am.  I’ve loved the Olympics since I was a kid and I think this go-round has been better than ever before.  Things I observed during the 17 days of almost continuous coverage:

Michael Phelps winning the gold by the slightest of margins during the 100m butterfly has to be about the most awesome sports moment that I have ever seen.  Was that not the most incredible thing ever?  His mom’s reaction made me want to cry – she simply could not believe it (I don’t think he could believe it at first either.  They both thought he had lost his chance for that 8th gold medal.)  So cool.

Jason Lezak’s awesome finish in the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay was a close runner-up for BEST SPORTS THING EVER.   Take that, France!

I found myself cheering out loud at several points during each of Phelps’ races, which is totally unprecedented for me.  I am not a cheerer, but I couldn’t help it!  Michael Phelps ROCKS.  (Sorry, husband, but he does.) 

I was also beyond thrilled when Nastia Liukin won the gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around.  Not that I didn’t also like Shawn Johnson but for some reason Nastia was my pick.  She got totally and completely screwed in the finals for the uneven bars, though.  The new tie-breaking system is about the most cockamamie thing I have ever heard of in my life.  ‘Twas crap.

Yay for Shawn Johnson winning the gold on the balance beam, although I still was inclined to think Nastia’s routine was prettier.  But it didn’t have a higher start value so there you go.

And as for some of those Chinese gymnasts being anywhere in the neighborhood of 16 years old?  NO.  Just, NO.  When some of them are sporting gap-toothed smiles because their adult teeth haven’t yet come in, that seems to be a dead giveaway.  But what do I know.

My heart broke for Lolo Jones when she hit that 9th hurdle during her one chance for Olympic gold.  She was so close and in an instant it was gone.  She was so crushed, and then the damn reporters were all up in her face immediately afterwards.  That has to be infuriating.

Maybe Jamaica’s Usain Bolt could use a lesson in humility, no?

Rhythmic gymnastics is kind of weird.  Impressive, particularly given how flexible all of the women seemed to be, but strange nonetheless.  It seems that the scoring would be awfully subjective.  N doesn’t think it should be an Olympic sport for that very reason.  I think it is kind of neat though, and I have to wonder why it hasn’t caught on in the US.  Actually, it seems that most of the competitors were from Eastern Europe so evidently it is really big over there. 

During the closing ceremonies, N and I noticed that London’s mayor looks a little…goofy.  He’s recently elected and wasn’t a part of the city’s bid process to bring the Olympics in, so maybe he was unprepared for the cheesy flag-waving transfer thing that they do.  Either way, would it have killed him to maybe get a haircut first?  Also, he obviously didn’t know what to do with his hands at first and was clearly having a dilemma – in the pockets?  Waving at the crowd?  No, wait, down here by my sides.  There we go.

The closing ceremony in general is always strange to me.  It never seems quite as grand as the opening ceremony, and last night I was puzzled by the double decker bus that, according to the commentators, was “opening like a lotus flower”.  What?  Nothing about that said lotus flower to me, and also, I had no idea that lotuses were such a part of British culture.  I think I may have missed something.  The psychedelic umbrellas were interesting too.

All in all, I was very sad to see it end and am looking forward to the winter games in Vancouver.  Come on, February 2010!!

Anticlimactic but good

Dropping AE off at his first day of kindergarten went well.  He followed his teacher’s instructions for hanging up his backpack and storing his lunch.  Then he was all, BYE! and that was that.  Not quite as epic as I had expected, but I am glad that he was so excited and  not stressed about it.  I did not cry either, by the way.