Summer Olympics...Live from Beijing

We've seen a lot of great performances so far in this 29th (modern) Olympiad. Graceful and powerful gymnasts sailing through the air and landing without a bobble. Nice work, China! Long and sleek swimmers driving their bodies through the water to break world records, and their competition (sorry Team France). Go Team USA!!! But all of this insomnia from us late night spectators is a bit much...

When will it end? How can I make sure I don't miss my favorite events before it does end?
Well, the NY Times has a new tool to help you!
Their 2008_OLYMPICS_TRACKER.html

In my tracker, I've moved the rows for Triathlon, Beach Volleyball, and Cycling to the top of my list. I clicked into each sport and chose the specific rounds and events I wanted to add to My Favorites. (No more boring pre-qualifying rounds to keep me up late at night!) Then I went back to a few events I'd already missed and read the news about what made them great.

For example, the story about women's cycling Time Trials Gold medal winner Kristin (not Lance!) Armstrong's unexpected win. She had been training roads in Idaho that mirrored the course elevation profile in Beijing according to her GPS, and clearly, it worked. Or cyclist George Hincapie's long and storied career of professional cycling which has lasted over 15 years, many of those in Lance's shadow earning him the nickname Grandpa.

These are the stories worth reading in the Olympics, not the faux-drama about cyclists wearing face masks (that were given to the athletes by the IOC organizers) and then apologizing for insulting the host city. The air quality is clearly an issue, but it's the athletes I care about, not the gossip. Save that stuff, keep showing the good, hard competition. May the best athletes win and a great Olympics be had by all!

Brooklyn and NYC with Chelsea

More photos from our visit to Chelsea, Prospect Park, and the New Museum of art in NYC are in the Brooklyn, July 2008 photo set on flickr. Captions and stories behind each photo are in flickr -- run the slideshow or click through the set!

Mass State Triathlon

Last Sunday, just after returning from Brooklyn on Saturday, Matthew and I went out to Winchendon, Mass, for a triathlon. It was the Olympic Distance Mass State Triathlon and I raced in the Athena Division against only 5 others. Turns out that in spite of early rain, cloudy skies, and blistered feet (from bad sandals walking 3-4 miles in Brooklyn), I had a great race! I passed lots of people on the bike and run, making up 8 minutes on the first Athena exiting the swim. Here are some photos -- the complete set is on flickr:

from before the race, checking out the lake

from mid-race taking off on the bike

and from after the race with my first place Athena goods -- a new tech t-shirt!

Lastly, our team's president and other teammates cheer the Wheelworks Multsport team as we won our fifth consecutive USA Triathlon team champions in Massachusetts.

Coney Island's Wonder Wheel and Thunder Bolt

Coney Island's Wonder Wheel and Thunder Bolt
Originally uploaded by matthewsunessa

I'd never been to Coney Island until this weekend's trip to visit Chelsea in Brooklyn. For people who don't know, you get there by riding the Q train to the southern end of the borough. (Given my lack of knowledge outside Manhattan, you could've made me believe it was on Staten Island...or even New Jersey.)

Just up from the entrance, these two rides beckon like giant neon bugzappers. Chelsea doesn't like ferris wheels and I'm not crazy about electrical shocks, so we passed them both by. Just walking down the boardwalk proved entertaining enough, with all the people around killing a Friday night or playing midway games. I'm sure the history is there and it has the hot dogs, but give me a couple hours walking around Soho or Greenwich Village over Coney Island any day.

Summer time!

HPIM0939
Originally uploaded by matthewsunessa

from the beach at Provincetown weekend, all smiles!

Ajuga in bloom

DSCN6498.JPG
Originally uploaded by matthewsunessa

This picture from May shows the vibrant purple flowers ajuga kicks up when it gets good light and ample water. (The pipe in the background is a downspout, which the flowers are happy to live near.)

All of this ajuga came from an original group of plants that Katy sent from St. Louis. Less than two years later, we're moving offshoots to other spots in the yard. We didn't expect the excellent flowering, a very pleasant side effect of copious spring rain.

Garden progress!

This year saw leap-and-bounding changes to the garden "space" (not much) that surrounds our house. Although the house reaches almost the boundary of the property, the trained eye can detect patches on non-house that I believe gardeners call "dirt." Naturally, the largest amount of this growth-enabling substance is right where the sun doesn't shine, along our house's eastern side and in shade of the neighbors and two trees. Here's how that area looked in April of 2006.

To improve the space in general, we added a gravel path to the side yard in 2007. This meant pulling up the bony bricks, lining the path with something practical, and adding an initial line of plants to the front sidewalk, which runs along the top edge of this photo. In went a pair of rhododendrons, some pachysandras, and a couple of other flowering plants. That helped, but looks even better this year after the new terracing and a half-dozen flora species.

Of all the flowers, I look forward to the lilies the most. They come in a beautiful orange-red, as seen below. If only they stuck around more than a couple of weeks! Maybe a complement of long-bloomers will add some balance to their burn-out-young mentality. 

Our best shot of this year's lilies, which bloom a gorgeous deep red.