One World, One Dream...

Ok, so I have become an Olympics junkie! It is the first thing I look for when I get home from work, and it doesn't really matter what the event is.

I have to say that the opening ceremony in Beijing was the most impressive performance I have ever seen. I am also completely amazed by the facilities. My mother had an opportunity to visit China recently, while they were preparing for the games. She was surprised at the lack of progress they had made toward being "Olympic ready"...and now here we are a few months later and it is truly amazing to see and watch.

I was sitting tonight watching men's synchronized diving, who even knew that was a sport, and I got to thinking about how amazing it is that we are watching an Olympic games in China. It just amazes me that we are seeing a country that has been known for centuries for their privacy and secrecy has opened their country to the world and are letting us all stomp around on their land and judge them more openly that usual. I would like to say that I believe that the experience of hosting the Olympics will really make a difference in the Chinese approach to the world, but I guess you can call me a cynic, because unfortunately I think once the world games are over things are likely to return to normal. But that is enough of the politics...no matter what happens I love the Olympics.

It is the only time that you can see three US young women sweep the medal count in fencing, watch two people dive off a platform in nearly perfect harmony, watch male gymnast stop their entire weight with just their biceps, and most excitedly watch the women of the US gymnastic team fight injury and misfortune to move forward in the series towards the gold!

Yeah for the Olympics and Go USA!

Ten on Tuesday

Ok, so I am going to try something new...old to many but new to my blog...10 on Tuesday
The topic this week is "10 things to do when it's too hot to go outside"

1. Read a good book
2. Have a really cold glass of lemonade
3. Eat a big bowl of ice cream
4. Plan a trip to a cooler locale
5. Go workout
6. Catch up on DVR recordings
7. Do house chores
8. Take a long cool shower
9. Take a nap in the air conditioning
10. Work on the long delayed dissertation (it may never get hot enough for that to be a top choice)

That was fun...I am going to try and commit to doing this on Tuesday.

By the way...happy 50th birthday to NASA!

A Week in Waco

Well I have been in Waco since Monday and I am leaving tomorrow. I am here for a work conference and I have to admit that it would not have been my first choice for locations. It is an EPA sponsored conference for our region and I figure we should be able to find someplace between New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana that is not quite so desolate, but apparently not!

So I probably did not come into the city with the best attitude, but I have to admit it is kind of a neat city. I did not spend much time driving through Baylor, but from what I saw it is a beautiful campus. I am also impressed that there seems to be so much redevelopment in the downtown area, I am a big fan of revitalization of cities.

Here are a couple of the neat things that I did while I was in Waco:

The Cameron Park Zoo

It is a really neat small town zoo. I of course forgot to bring my camera, so all of the animals were crazy exciting. There was a black bear swimming in a pool, big tigers using a log as a scratching post, a capybara just hanging out under the water fall, and meerkats that were just too cute.

The Dr Pepper Museum

I had a plan to just go to the gift shop and skip the museum, but I am glad that I went through it. It was really interesting. I found out that Dr Pepper was invited at a drug store here in Waco and originally people would come in and ask for "a Waco." The museum explained how soda pop became known as soda pop, why the first soda fountains were in drug stores, and why there is no period after Dr in the name. And the best part is at the end you can go into the Soda Fountain shop and order an original Dr Pepper. It is made with the syrup and then soda water is added...it is the best Dr Pepper I have ever had!!!

So I guess the morale of the story is you can't judge a city by its lack of reputation!