Grant

Grant 001
Originally uploaded by elizabethw

My cousin and his wife welcomed their third child last Friday. His name is Grant Alan, and he is too cute!

It seems to be the time for babies, as my friends the Syvertsens are expecting a baby in March. I'm so excited for them and this addition to their family.

Mystery Plant

Mystery Plant 001
Originally uploaded by elizabethw

The mystery plant is a mystery no more! It has produced at least 8 zucchini, with more to come. I'll have to find a good zucchini bread recipe.

In other gardening news, I am overrun with tomatoes. This is my favorite time of year for produce, because everything tastes so good! I'll never look at a store-bought tomato the same way--they taste like sawdust.

Gold

That's 10, baby!

Trials of TV Programming

Michael Phelps
Originally uploaded by nataliebehring.com

This wonderful picture of Michael Phelps was taken by Natalie Behring, a photographer based in China.

He looks great, doesn't he? Well on his quest for 8 gold medals this Olympics.

Unfortunately for me, I have managed to miss all three of his races so far this Olympics. Why am I always missing the swimming? Why? I think some of it has to do with my expectations of what NBC's coverage is, and the actual reality. Take Sunday morning. I got up at the obscene hour of 6:30 in the morning to watch the US Mens soccer game against the Netherlands, because Saturday night the announcer said "Coverage starts at 6:30 tomorrow morning." The game didn't actually start until after 7, and then it wasn't on MSNBC as advertised in their info blurb. I watched Italy v South Korea on the tv and the US v Netherlands game on the internet.

No wonder I have missed Michael Phelps! I'm gonna have to research the times for the rest of the sports I want to catch (womens gymnastics - yes, badminton - no) so I will actually see them.

Planty

Nationals 08 017
Originally uploaded by elizabethw

Last month, I went to Nashville for the North American National Championships for Irish Dance. It was held in the Opryland resort, and the day after my team danced, we wandered around the hotel. We discovered this leafy street performer, and my friend's kids had a great time watching her be plant like and twine around the pole here.

Disappointing Start

The official start to the Olympics is Friday night with the opening ceremonies, but the games have already begun. This morning the women's soccer rotation started, and I watched most of the first half of the US v Norway game. We're down a great offensive asset, Abby Wambach, who broke her leg last month in a friendly game against Brazil, and it showed. The team was not settled at all, resulting in a 2-0 loss to Norway, who scored both goals in the first few minutes of the game. I wasn't able to catch the rest of the game, so hopefully we played better than the first half. This team better ground themselves and dig in to make a comeback so they can defend their gold medal from Athens.

Happenings

It's been a busy few weeks since I last posted. In that amount of time I have managed to:
-Go to Nashville for the North American National Championships for Irish Dance (my team placed 3rd and many of our youth soloists placed)
-Take lots of pictures and promptly lose my camera battery charger--this is bad because my battery is dead and I can't take the pictures off my camera
-Discover the huge mystery gourd/melon vine growing in the compost heap
-Finally work in the garden after neglecting it for almost a month
-Work like crazy to make up the holiday weekend
-Zumba like it is out of style
-Dogsit for my favorite St. Bernard (Ruby) and Newfoundland (Harry)
-Visit briefly with my best friend on her birthday before she went back to Minnesota
-Paint the waiting area at the Celtic Academy

This week is proving to be very busy as well. This weekend is the Celtic Festival (and Friday is my bday!). I'll be teaching Irish social dancing on Friday, performing on Saturday, and working as volunteer on Sunday. This in addition to working like a fool and trying to fit the rest of my regularly scheduled activities in. I think I'm not going to make my softball game tomorrow,but I better make it home in time to watch So You Think You Can Dance! Plus, I have family members and friends celebrating birthdays as well in the next week or so, so I'll be shopping for cards whenever I get a chance.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Old Dog. New Tricks.

For some people, packing for a trip is an art form. Clothing is chosen with care and placed in a suitcase precisely, toiletries are in the correct ziplock-type bags to prevent spillage, etc. For me, packing for a trip has been a study in procrastination. I leave everything to the last minute. Case in point, when moving to Prague to teach, I left off packing until the night before. I ended up with way more stuff than I needed, and it was jumbled together in my suitcases in a tangle of clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous junk. You would have thought I would have learned from my past mistakes and started culling the things to be packed for my return journey to the states last year in plenty of time to fit everything I needed into two suitcases and been able to ship the rest. Not so much. I crammed as much as I could into two suitcases, boxed up some stuff to ship home, and left the rest while I went out with my roommates and friends to drink more than I should have with an international flight the next day. I ended up having to pay a fee because my suitcases were over the weight limit for the domestic flight from New York to Ohio.

It's a year later, almost to the date, and I have a trip coming up. It's not so big as a trans-Atlantic move, and I'm not flying--I'm driving to Nashville for the North American National Championships for Irish Dance. I leave Thursday morning, and wonder of wonders, I started packing my suitcase last night. This old dog has learned a new trick.

Welcome to the World

Monday morning, Kaden Allen entered the world. I'd like to congratulate mom Lori, dad Chad, and big brother Kegan!

Opposites attract

More meaningful posts later, but watching giant Kournti learn foxtrot from shorty Jean Marc Generaux was the funniest thing I've seen in a while.