Shut Up, Dick Button!

Seriously. I'm a total die-hard Olympic fan. It's fairly obvious. I mean, I watch the Curling for the love of Pete. And avidly, I might add. Chris was calling me with the updates the other night. I've gotten into it. But I digress........ I've had just about enough of Dick Button. And so has Christopher, for that matter. Thank goodness they have Scott Hamilton with him sometimes announcing the figure skating, or I'd just have to reach through the screen and throttle him. The first night of the pairs skating, he went on and on about how delightful the throw triple axle was. Tonight, he was, "fond" of one of the Ice Dancing routines. One of the American men's free-skate was a "total diaster." He's just so darn dramatic. Sure, Scotty gets into it, but he's excited and disappointed for them - like he's felling it with them, whereas Dick is all about the drama, and really, he just needs to button it up!

Did I mention I love the Olympics? Love it all. But, I'm not terribly impressed with the coverage this year. The only competitions they show in their entirety are Curling and Hockey. Sure, I've been watching them both, but I'd love to see some biathalon or some other equally obscure event. Isn't that what the Olympics are all about? Watching these crazy sports that we know so very little about and then geting into them and crying with them? I've totally been into the Cross-Country skiing. Completely in awe of what those athletes can do. I'm even in awe of the people who come in last. How do they do it? I totally got teary-eyed when the Italian relay team took the podium to collect their gold medals (even thought I really wanted the Norwegians to win. Little did we all know, there's an on-going rivalry between the two, but the Italians are 100% cheaters - well, not literally, but sort of). And then there are the Ski Jumpers. Crazy. Six-foot tall men who weigh like 130 pounds flying through the air on 8 foot skis. Is that even legal? I've also been taken with the speed skating. Long-track, short-track, it's amazing. I'd surely fall on my face.

Tonight we were watching the Ice dancing, and wowee! Those are some interesting outfits. I've never seen so many women sporting six-packs in my life! We actually enjoyed this event quite a bit. But, if we have to hear about the expression and emotion of the skaters and how so many just don't match the music and blah, blah, blah, I'll have to spit on someone or something. Oh, and that American woman, the one who just got her citizenship (whe was Canadian). Holy cow, she's just gorgeous!

And, on the Scooby front, he's fine now. Drugs are good.

My Broken Scooby

Yep, Scooby's broken again. Friday we went to the vet for the third time this year. Count 'em - one, two, third time! Little stinker. Apparently he over did himself on the non-parentally supervised jaunt he and Mimi took the other day. I noticed that evening that he was moving slower, but I chalked it up to him being obstinate. After all, he is a Scottie Dog. The next morning, I noticed he was walking funny. By the afternoon, he was actually limping. I noticed it too late to take him to the vet that day (Murphy's Law), so I took him at 8:30 the next morning. Mimi came along for the ride - can't leave her alone at home. And, when we got a mile or two away, they both started freaking out. I think Mimi knew something was wrong with Scoob, she was hanging around him a lot more and checking him out a lot. As we got closer, and then I left her in the car, I thought she was going to blow a gasket. The limp was way more pronounced at this point, but it wasn't enough to dissuade my lovely boy from marking the bookcase in the Vet's office. Way to establish your territory Scoob. I'm so proud.

After a short visit, he was pronounced fine but with a probable muscle or ligament pull probably around the elbow area. We're to give him pain/anit-inflammatory drugs and keep him from playing. Great. Two things that go over well with him. By that evening, he was a 3-legged dog. A Hop Along Scoobady if you will. I felt so bad for him. It had to hurt pretty bad for him to not use his foot at all, but he was still trying to chase the cat. It was the funniest darn thing I've ever seen. He'd hobble after the cat and then look up at us with these pitiful eyes then hobble after the cat some more. Oh so funny. Just don't chase the cat, dumb dog! I'm happy to report that the drogas seem to be doing their job because the boy is on all legs again and rarely even limps. Now we're supposed to keep him from playing, running, and jumping for the next week. What fun!

dum dum da dumdumdumdum

Hum it to yourself. It's the Olympics theme. Can you feel the excitement? It's here. It's in the air. It's everywhere. The Olympics opening ceremonies are tonight, and I just can't wait. We've got an hour and a half and I wish it were here already. I can't even tell you how much I love the Olympics. It's the one time of the year that I actually watch the Today show (other than where in the world is Matt Lauer). I love the stupid background stories (say it with me..."Everybody's got a story"), the interesting history, the pins, the athletes, the stupid outfits, all of it. And I cry. Oh how I cry. I started crying during the Today show this morning. Finally had to switch it to the Nanny for a few minutes.

I don't like to cry. Don't like it at all, but you would think it was a paying job for me the way I cry at the Olympics. I'm proud, I'm happy for them, it's just the coolest. I cry during the personal, touching stories, I cry when they do well, I cry when they do poorly, I cry at the medal ceremonies. Might as well put a bucket under me. I just love to watch the parade of athletes. I'm always interested in the order of the countries. It's based on the way the host country's language spells the names. Very cool. I do have to admit, I hate the Roots hats. Really, wearing a beret (or something that looks even remotely like one) goes against everything I believe in. 

So, we all know where I'll be tonight, all night. In front of the tv. If anyone dares speak during any part of the preceedings, they will be summarily shushed. Unfortunately, this may be difficult because my cousin and his girlfriend are coming up for the evening, so it won't just be us. That's ok, they will be informed of the rules upon their arrival.

Babies

So, we went to visit Rachel in the hospital, and I was so impressed. By the hospital, by Rachel, by her daughter, by everything. The hospital and the people working there were awesome. If I ever decide to do that whole baby thing, totally going there. Rachel is amazing. Chris and I think she's already looking 100% skinny. I'm sure she doesn't feel that way, but we thought she looked awesome. And, she's stepped into the role of mommy with such grace and ease. Totally impressed. Oh, and guess I'd better mention the kid. Gorgeous. Absolutely a doll. I can't wait to go over and take pictures of them.

My babies gave me a huge scare today. (yes we call the dogs our babies, we're disgusting) I let them out into the yard for a potty break and when I went back to let them in....no babies. Maybe I didn't let them out? Came back inside, no babies. Must have been right - outside. Only, our yard is little, and by little I mean tiny. 8x8ish. Even though they're fairly little and hard to see at night, it was full daylight out and I wasn't finding any babies. So, I'm calling them continuosly, and as I'm calling them I hear LOTS of barking from not very far away, and then a split-second later I hear collars jangling. I open the not-quite-latched-tightly gate and what to my wondering eyes should appear but two tired, panting, dirty Scottie dogs looking at me like, "hey mom, where ya been?" I was not so happy. And they knew it. Didn't say a word, but they knew and instantly put their ears back and got closer to the ground. If Scooby'd been a human I'd have thought he was going to cry. They know they're not supposed to go out without parental supervision, and they knew they were in trouble. I know, I know, sounds crazy, but it's true. They know when they've done something they shouldn't, and I can usually tell whose done it because they put their ears back and get low to the ground (not because I hit them - duh! their being submissive). My heart definitely stopped beating on that one. I was not looking forward to the phone call to Chris telling him I'd lost our dogs.

Speaking of Scooby, he's driving me insane. I often stay up later than Chris. I'm definitely much more of a night owl and more of a morning person, but I digress. So, I'll stay up on the computer or working in the office doing stuff. Well, Scooby would really rather be in bed, but he wants us all to go at the same time.  He'll go in with Chris and I'll close the doors so I don't bother any one. As long as the doors are open, he's fine, but as soon as I close them, I hear the tell tale bang with a little nail scratch at the end telling me Scooby wants out. So, I let him in with me. Where he stays for a while, and eventually I hear the bang and let him in with Chris. And on and on the cycle goes. Thank goodness Mimi just stays with Chris. And when I say with, I mean right up against, as close as she can get! She used to try to hang with me, but it just didn't work for her.

Scooby has also decided that's it's a good idea to "mark" plastic bags. He's done other things, but mainly it's plastic bags. And, it's not with vast regularity, but it seems to be happening more often. Maybe it's because he sticks his head in every stinking plastic bag in hopes that there is something for him and when there isn't he wants to let us know what he thinks. I don't know, but it's incredibly annoying. When Mom still had her Christmas decor up, he conviently lifted his leg on some garland she had hanging around a door jam. Nice, huh? At least it was on tile and not carpet. Don't get me wrong, if there were no plastic bags on the floor, he wouldn't be able to pee on them, but what good is life if you can't be totally lazy about putting away the many unnecessary purchases made at Target when all you went for was a gallon of milk?

Happy Day!

What a happy day! Yesterday morning, we got a call that a couple of hours before, my friend Rachel had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Alyssa Meredith. We are so excited for her and her husband Josh. Rachel and I met a few years ago at a scrapbooking event, and have really gotten to know each other over the last year, and I just totally love her! I'm so darn happy for her. It's kinda funny because we've become dinner buddies. Every week or two, we go out to dinner last minute and have a great time. So, we did this on Sat. nite, and I mentioned that earlier in the evening I'd told Chris that one of these days we were going to have plans and get a call canceling them because they were going to the hospital. So, after dinner, we were on our way over to Josh & Rachel's house for dessert (gotta pawn the fruits of my cake decorating class off on someone) when we got a call from Josh saying not to come over to their house because they thought they were going to need to go to the hospital. He called a couple of hours later to update us, and then at 10:45 yesterday morning he called again to tell us that at 8:30, she was born. Too cool, huh? Did I mention I'm sooooooo excited for them? It is kinda weird, though. We had dinner with them and the next morning they had a baby.

I was pulling for a boy. Don't get me wrong, I love little girls, but I just seem to do better with boys. The tomboy in me gets along well with them! Funny thing is, a few weeks ago a scrapping acquaintance of ours did a "test" on Rachel to determine the sex of the baby (did I mention they didn't know?). She took a pencil and stuck a threaded needle in the eraser of the pencil. Then, she held the pencil (actually she was holding the thread) and waited for it to move. The movement of the pencil would tell us the sex - circles would mean a girl, and back and forth would mean a boy. It started back and forth and then did circles, so Beth repeated the test and it was seriously going in circles. Then we tested it on a gal who knew she was having a girl and it moved in circles as well. Turns out every single time she's ever done this test, it's always been right. Looks like she's still at 100%!! Bob and I are going to see them this afternoon. I can't wait!