Olympics: The Victory Lap

20 August 2008, 9:34 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise, Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Run at a dead sprint for 1, 3, 6, 26.2 miles so that when you cross the finish line you collapse and sprawl out on the track like someone hit a whole bunch of flies with a fly swatter (Did you see the men’s 400m last night!? They were all sprawled out on the ground just beyond the finish line). Then get up, weak, sweaty, and out of breath, and run around the track one more time, slower this time at least, carrying a flag behind you.

But that’s what runners and field athletes dream of. So somewhere inside you, probably in your heart because your legs don’t have anything else, you find something else to get you around one more time.

And if Kenya is doing that lap, I love watching it even more. If just one of them gets a medal, any medal, then each Kenyan in the race gets a flag and they do the victory lap together, because nobody does a race completely alone. That’s team work, if one succeeds, they all succeed.

The Deseret News Marathon used to run down the whole parade route. Now it is just a block. But that block was my victory lap. I started and finished a marathon that morning. That makes me victorious. All those people watching the parade did was sit on their backsides. 🙂

I think BMX racing is one of my new favorite Olympic sports. That’s some intense stuff there.

And I want a pretty Chinese kite to go with my pretty Chinese fan that I want.

On the baby quilt front – the first box arrived today, the baby did not. So that’s good. I’ve quilted the stars on the quilt. But as I’m looking at it I can’t decide if I want to do some free motion in them or not. I’ll sleep on it (the idea, not the quilt), and make a decision in the morning.

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Olympic emotions

19 August 2008, 7:09 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise, Family, Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Saturday night I watched Phelps win his eighth gold medal. It was memorable. It was history.

But I really enjoyed watching the women’s marathon. No, I will never race at their level (the winner went about a 5:30 or so pace, that’s almost twice as fast as I ever hope to go), but in a lot of ways, I’ve been where they’ve been.

One of the runners was interviewed before hand and said that the body is not meant to go that far, so you have to train it to trick it into doing that. Looking at the sprinters though, I have to believe the body is not supposed to move 30mph either and that requires a bit of trickery as well.

Watching the marathon winner finish was inspiring, but I think even more was watching those who weren’t going to get a medal continue pushing and struggling till the finish. With something like that, it’s the finishing, and for a few, even just the starting, that is important. Almost brought a tear to my eye.

I’ve enjoyed seeing just how international the US team is alone. There are athletes and coaches who grew up in other countries and probably could still be competing for that country. But they have adopted the United States and want to represent the United States. Without these immigrants, the US team wouldn’t be doing nearly as well. Thank goodness for diversity. I love how much of it is staying in the family for so many of them as well.

Another thing I really like seeing is how many of the athletes have added gold somewhere on them. The gold headband. The gold nail polish. The gold shoes. The power of positive thought, and more power to them.

The quilting. I’ve put the spool quilt on hold till I finish up the baby quilt. I got the quilt top finished and basted Saturday afternoon. Saturday night I got quite a bit of quilting done on it. But Sunday my free motion quilting foot broke. I’ve actually sewn enough to break a foot. That’s a bit of a piece of pride for me.

So I brought the feed dogs back up and did the straight quilting for the border and then put the binding on. Monday I got most of the binding stitched to the back. I finished it today. That’s my least favorite part of quilting. If it’s going to look nice it has to be done by hand. And since I don’t do it but very rarely, it hurts my fingers. I don’t need callouses for quilting, but for binding I do, and I just don’t do it enough. The last few inches just really hurt.

But the binding is done. And I bought a new free motion foot yesterday, so it’s back to quilting now. Depending on how distracting the Olympics are tonight, I might finish it up completely tonight.

Sunday Brett looked at what I had finished and did the ooooo and aaaah I asked for, and even threw in a free ooooh. Then he told me the baby was going to be finished before the quilt was. I agreed that was a possibility. So yesterday I mailed off a box of receiving blankets for my nephew. I sent it priority, so it should get there tomorrow, which should be before he gets here. At least from talking to my sister today that box will get there before he does.42D

Update: I have finished all the free motion quilting on the baby quilt while watching the Olympics tonight. Who thought that green thread on green fabric was a good idea? I could barely see my stitches in a few places. Now I just need to straight stitch 16 stars and it’s done. I’ll do that tomorrow afternoon. I need to get up early to get a free t-shirt tomorrow.

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Olympic moments

16 August 2008, 1:35 pm by Giggles
Categories: Olympics

Last night Michael Phelps won his seventh gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, tying the previous record for gold medals in a single Olympic game. And he has one more race to go.

And while that moment was certainly memorable, and his reaction when he realized he’d out touched the other swimmer to win, I had other moments that I liked more. Like his mom’s reaction. I would love to know what was going through her mind, but I doubt even she could tell you what she was thinking. I think she was in shock.

And Cielo Filho from Brasil, when he won the men’s 50m freestyle (“splash and dash,” he didn’t take a breath the whole race), that was memorable. He was overwhelmed as he left the pool. I wish they would’ve shown his medals ceremony.

Speaking of fast things – less than 10 seconds to run 100m? Wow! I was thinking of what I can do in ten seconds while watching that. Not much. And yet in those ten seconds there is time for strategy, and more than just “run like crazy.”

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Wednesday & Thursday at the Olympics

15 August 2008, 12:47 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Beijing is 12 hours ahead of New York right now. That means when it is 8am in Beijing, it is 8pm in New York. So the New York prime time coverage is live. When looking at the schedule, that means that what is scheduled for Thursday morning we watch on Wednesday night. What is scheduled for Friday morning we watch on Thursday night. And so on.

Then, Arizona is three hours behind New York due to Daylight Saving right now. According to the clock. But my prime time coverage starts at 7pm, not 8pm. And somehow that means I’m only 11 hours off of the schedule when I’m watching it. So if something happens at 11:30am on a Thursday, I’m watching it at 10:30 pm on a Wednesday.

Does your head hurt yet?

Wednesday night a huge storm moved through Tucson. My lights flickered several times. The lightning was intense. The thunder was rolling through all night. About 11pm a HUGE wall of water moved through my parking lot. The storm alert on the bottom of the screen was warning people “DON’T DROWN.” I found that funny, but it really isn’t because there are people who do in the flash floods.

I kept hoping that power wouldn’t go out because I didn’t want to miss any of the Olympics. It flickered several times around 8:30. Power didn’t go out for me, but it did for about 15,000 people in Tucson, and as of Thursday night, there were still 4,000-7,000 people without power. The power company went around handing out blocks of ice and cold drinks today as the temperature got near 100 degrees. Oddly, that storm won’t register on our monsoon total this summer because only a trace fell at the airport. That’s a desert storm for you though.

Amanda and I have continued to enjoy the Olympics together. We’ve started commenting more on the actual sports and athletes instead of the commentators, for the most part. Bob still cracks me up. After Phelps‘ win tonight he said “Yeah it’s impressive. Yeah it’s historic. But at this point, it’s also ridiculous.” And then yesterday he was just waving that scorpion on a stick around during that segment.

I am amazed when there is a tie in the swimming. They time those things down to the fraction of a second, and it’s just amazing to me that two people can finish that exact close.

Part of last night we had to figure out where the term pommel horse came from. According to what Amanda found, this is where it came from (I don’t know where she got this information, you’ll have to ask her):

Gymnastics event for men. It uses a padded rectangular apparatus supported by legs and with two pommels (U-shaped handles) on the top. The gymnast performs various swinging and balancing feats, holding himself over the horse by means of the pommels or by grasping the front (neck), centre (saddle), or rear (croup) of the horse. The apparatus stems from a wooden horse used by the Romans to teach mounting and dismounting.

Although I’d like to see a horse stand still for what they do with the pommel.

The gymnastics judges have plants on their table. That’s interesting.

Two big OUCH moments during the men’s all around on Wednesday. I hurt just watching them fall like that. I hope they are okay.

They were talking about the research and improvements in the swim suits this year and there was a British man who explained that they were designed to hold the “wobbly bits” tight. So there’s no fat flapping around. Wobbly is such a fun word and I laughed at how it sounded when he said it with his accent.

Watching medals ceremonies I’ve noticed that other countries don’t put their hands over their hearts or salute or anything like that. Although there is Lochte, who looks more like he’s feeling his spleen than putting his hand over his heart. I love that Phelps still gets emotional, it hasn’t gotten old for him. I think if it ever does get old, that’s when it’s time to stop.

Speaking of getting emotional with the medal, I got emotional watching the medals ceremony for the women’s all around tonight. I think my favorite outfit was the Chinese girl who got bronze. That was pretty with the gold sparkly swirls on it. But for Liukin to win, when her father won 20 years ago, and have him there with her coaching her, what a family legacy. They said her mom doesn’t watch, so as soon as she knew she made sure her mom knew. (Pssst, Amanda, telling me that you understood what the guy with the flowers said, meant he said it in English, kind of gave a bit away. 😉 ) I really liked the music for the bronze medalist’s floor exercise though. That was fun music.

Also, on the quilt. I am happy to report that all of the blue border that was available has been quilted. Yippy! Next is the spools. I needed to roll it a bit first and wasn’t sure how I was going to do that by myself. I can’t hold both corners tight at the same time. So I was very glad that Brett randomly stopped by tonight. We’ll need to work on his c-clamp skills, but he has a good idea of what’s going on. So I got it rolled once.42D

During the prime time coverage tonight I didn’t work on that quilt though. My nephew is due next week. And I want him to go home from the hospital in a quilt I made. So that means I need to make his quilt and get it shipped, fast. Anjuli, you cannot have him till you get a box from me. I was able to cut out and piece the whole top tonight.

Due to the limited space in my apartment, I’ve had to lay out the baby quilt underneath my bedspread on the frames. It makes me smile to see the two like that.

This is going to be one cute baby quilt too. I’ll try to get it basted and start the quilting tomorrow (machine quilting on this one). Hopefully I can get it in the mail on Monday, and I’ll ship it fast.

3 Shared thoughts

Tuesday Night at the Olympics

12 August 2008, 11:12 pm by Giggles
Categories: Olympics

Tonight you get Olympic commentary from Amanda and I as we “watched” them together via the internet. We watched them on the TV and chatted on the internet. And since she’s on the East coast, she is two hours ahead of me. She did a real good job of not spoiling anything for me.

Lisa: Olympics are just starting for me here, so don’t give anything away. 🙂
Amanda: They do a spotlight about pandas! Sorry. That was too exciting to not share.
Lisa: I saw one just before a commercial break yesterday and I thought of you.
Amanda: yay! Other than that, I’ve seen one volleyball match and a thing about Michael Phelps‘ schedule. It’s crazy!
Lisa: The news here just talked about what he eats.
Amanda: Lots o’ food, basically
Lisa: 8000-10000 calories a day
Amanda: I think I eat that in a week.
Lisa: The recommended daily allowance on the box of Cheerios says it’s for a 2000 calorie diet. So yup, you probably do eat about that in a week, maybe a little more. That’s why you see a lot of real real fat former athletes. Because they keep eating like that when they quit the sport.
Amanda: That’s a lot of food. I can’t imagine eating like that if I’m not working out that hard

Lisa: Wow! Those divers hit the water at 35mph!
Amanda: I know! Crazy!
Lisa: That’s the speed limit on part of my street.
Amanda: Very fast for a human being. I like that dude’s goggles. [/random]

Amanda: “They have a curious strategy. They’re not blocking.” And later: “You have to get up to the net in this day and age. Maybe you could do that in the Paleozoic age, but not now”
Lisa: Badly worded comment from commentator during USA men’s volleyball game last night after just giving an update on the mother-in-law of the coach who was stabbed and her husband who was killed – “That’s a good kill”
Amanda: Oog. That IS the right terminology, but still.
Lisa: It is. But that was very bad timing.

Lisa: Was there beach volleyball during the Paleozoic age? What kind of random thing are they thinking that that came to mind?
Amanda: I have no idea. My roommates and I just laughed.
Lisa: I’m going to start saying that more. “Maybe you could do that in the Paleozoic age, but not now.”
Amanda: lol do it
Lisa: I’m sure it could apply to all different situations. (now watching synchronized diving, the team from Mexico) “uno, dos, ariba” I understand that.
Amanda: I understood the Canadians too, who do it in French. “Une, deux, trois”

Lisa: I want a pretty Chinese fan.

Amanda: The Romanians look like Rainbow Brite.

Lisa: I liked the interview with Micheal Phelp’s mom.
Amanda: Me too! She’s cute.
Lisa: I liked it when the interviewer said that when the race started she grabbed his knee and started screaming “Go Michael!” and he was thinking “hurry Michael” as her hand got tighter and tighter.
Amanda: heh

Lisa: Men’s beach volleyball now
Amanda: yay! You’ll hear the Paleozoic comment!
Lisa: We need to illustrate that with trilobites playing beach volleyball
Amanda: hehe I like it!

Lisa: Did you see the commercial for the laptop with the sumo wrestlers?
Amanda: Yes.
Lisa: That one cracks me up
Amanda: Definitely. But some of the commercials are getting old, like the United ones. I like that there are enough Visa ones to not get obnoxious.
Lisa: They are different every time.
Amanda: Yep. Except the Michael Phelps one about being part fish. I could watch that one over and over.
Lisa: I like the “Go World” ones. They tear me up.
Amanda: Yes indeed.
Lisa: There’s the blocking comment.
Amanda: 🙂
Lisa: There’s the Paleozoic era
Amanda: Isn’t it just totally random?
Lisa: It really was

Amanda: Okay. What I’m watching right now is really cool.
Lisa: Gymanstics or swimming?
Amanda: Swimming

Lisa: Here’s the Panda thing. My parents went to the reserve. “Building up hind legs leads to satisfactory love making” (comment by the commentator about pandas)
Amanda: hehe

Lisa: Michael’s schedule
Amanda: So crazy.
Lisa: His two finals are an hour apart?!?
Amanda: Yep
Lisa: You’ve already seen them both.
Amanda: Yes. But I’ve been very good and haven’t said anything. 🙂 That gives away anything
Lisa: Yes you have.
Amanda: That gives away anything.

Lisa: Men’s 100m freestyle – well that record didn’t last long.
Amanda: 🙂
Lisa: I’ve never understood why Australia uses yellow swim caps
Amanda: I don’t know either, but they are easy to follow.

Lisa: Phelps is swimming
Amanda: yay!
Lisa: His strokes are slower than the guy in the first lane, but they must be stronger because he passed him. Holllly smoookE!!!
Amanda: Right!?
Lisa: WOOOWW!
Amanda: The fly right?
Lisa: Thinking back to how I breathed during the marathon, I have no idea how they get enough oxygen to do that. The individual, yes. The relay is in an hour.
Amanda: Sweet. Yeah. I get out of breath within 25 yards of swimming laps
Lisa: Look at the coach just twitch and then raise his eyebrows.
Amanda: From an interview (that I just watched), apparently his goggles filled up with water. during the individual race which is why he tore them off so quickly at the end
Lisa: Not cool.
Amanda: Bob Costas – So, if you were wondering if he can do it with his eyes closed, the answer is yes.
Lisa: Bob and the other guy are just funny.
Amanda: Agreed.
Lisa: Listening to them talk about the outfits at the Parade of Nations would’ve driven Heidi crazy though.
Amanda: Probably 🙂
Lisa: How’s that for being prepared? First commercial break after Phelps wins more gold medals than anyone ever and Visa already had a commercial congratulating him on it.
Amanda: I know! With Morgan Freeman 🙂
Lisa: It was good though. Yes. With Morgan Freeman.

Lisa: My mom likes the Chinese women’s gymnastics outfits, and had to comment on all their different colors of eye shadow on Sunday.
Amanda: They are very shiny. The faces
Lisa: I want to wear face glitter like that. Maybe I will tomorrow. No, I’ll do it at Alisa’s birthday party Saturday.
Amanda: Have you seen the Romanian uniforms tonight yet? Yay face glitter!
Lisa: Not yet. Gymnastics just started.
Amanda: Okay.
Lisa: I seem to recall them looking like that last time though too.
Amanda: Definitely channeling Rainbow Brite
Lisa: Speaking of channeling. Have you ever read the book “Skippyjon Jones“?
Amanda: Nope
Lisa: It’s adorable. When you read it, you have to picture my sister channeling a real old Mexican man though.

Lisa: The US team has different outfits from Sunday.
Amanda: Yep
Lisa: I like these more.
Amanda: I do too

Lisa: Romania has been more rainbow-y in the past.

Lisa: Crap.
Amanda: ?
Lisa: Deseretnews already has the results on their site. I KNEW I shouldn’t have checked my reader.
Amanda: Silly Lisa
Lisa: I figured I’d be safe. Utah is still watching it too. You’d think the Utah papers wouldn’t be reporting it till after it airs there. I was able to check the BBC and was fine.
Amanda: Well, it’s not like you can be surprised about certain events. It’ll still be amazing to watch.

Amanda: 🙂 ok. bed time. I’ve stayed up far too late
Lisa: Night.
Amanda: Night
Lisa: Your wow thing is coming up soon.
Amanda: Yay! Enjoy! We’ll talk about it tomorrow 🙂
Lisa: okay. I need to go quilt anyway.
Amanda: Good plan! And break!

Me watching the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay after Amanda logged off – Dang! Dang!… Dang!

And I found a blog of a marathoner – RunZuzanaRun

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More thoughts on the Olympics

11 August 2008, 11:26 pm by Giggles
Categories: Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

SUNDAY

Every time I watch diving I think, and sometimes say, the line from the movie Peter Pan – “No splash!” And I try to say it like a not so intelligent pirate too.

One of my students from last semester, Joel Greenshields, was on the Canada men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. I’ve taught an Olympic athlete! That was an amazing, tense race too! Five teams came in under the previous world record. There have been so many records broken in swimming so far. Canada came in sixth. I saw Greenshields on tv before the start of the race and was cheering for Canada to do well.

MONDAY

I am my mother’s child. Men’s gymnastics was incredible tonight! When the US team was on the high bar I was making loud gasp noises, like my mom does, when they’d let go of the bar and do their twists and flips and stuff. Artemev, just for his routine on the pommel horse, is my favorite US men’s gymnast.

As for the quilt, I did about 50 inches of a 6 inch border with a 2 inch lattice today. I’m almost done with all the available blue border before I’d have to roll up the side I’m working on and unroll the part that’s rolled right now. I’m going to start working on the spools in the middle soon.

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Olympics and more quilting.

10 August 2008, 9:06 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Thoughts watching the Olympics Saturday night:

  • Artemev’s pommel horse last night elicited an audible “Wow!” from me. I didn’t need the commentators to know that his routine was amazing.
  • I find myself correcting the commentators every time they mispronounce a Brazilian name.
  • I like the Visa commercials with Morgan Freeman narrating.
  • Yup. I was cheering for Park from Korea in the 400m freestyle.
  • I love when they show the parents of the athletes in the stands, because nobody does anything like that all on their own.
  • Commentator comment while a Chinese gymnast was on the rings – “That right there (what you are seeing happen), that’s impossible.”
  • No, Brett, I’m not just going to find a nice spot to tie it off and call the quilt done. I’m going to quilt the whole thing.42D

I have heard several people say that they think the Olympics are boring. Boring? How can watching people do things that you could never imagine doing in your dreams be boring? The feats these people are doing are absolutely amazing. It’s a wonderful display of the miracle that is the human body.

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