Flip Flops

These are the best flip flops ever. I meant to post this at the beginning of the summer but there is still lots of heat left. In fact, I wear these year round. I had never heard of these before my trip to St Croix in October. I bought these there and they are the best and most comfortable flip flops my feet have ever slipped into. I guess I had never heard of them because you typically find them in surf shops. They come in several colors. You can Google them - The brand is Reef and the style is slap and they cost around $42.00. That's my "tip of the day" for comfy cool feet.

Blogs in general

I was thinking about all the blogs out there. There are elaborately designed blogs, fun blogs, funny blogs, boring blogs, bragging blogs, enlightening blogs and lots of other types of blogs. There are too many to name. I think it is really fun to read random blogs....blogs of people you don't know, who you will never know or those of unknown people that are friends or relatives of people that you do know. In thinking about the blogs that I read of the people that I do know, I have come to the realization that they are exactly like the personalities of the people that write them. If the people are fun, then their blogs are fun and funny. If the blogs are only ever just one topic, then those are the potentially boring people who have no interests outside of that one thing that they blog about daily. Some blogs even manage to mix in a bit of spiritualism and that is nice. I have found cool websites to visit from reading random blogs. I've also found some pretty stupid ones as well though!!! Jen, you are one of my favorites. You talk occasionally about you and Gary personally but mostly about funny stuff like shoes, TV shows and "special" movies. I think I might have you edit my format when you guys are here in October. It needs some zip. My least favorite blogs will remain anonymous as they are for the most part anonymous and have been nixed from my viewing list. Anyway, I'll try to keep mine entertaining, more so than enlightening and free of spelling, grammar and punctuation error as well.

Nothing much new in Palm Desert. We're just looking forward to watching Michael Phelps swim again tonight for number seven and to watching the girls gymnastics from last night. It finished so late here last night that I could only stay for the vault and the parallel bars. I love being able to watch history being made!

More Olympics

OH MY GOSH! For those of you following the Olympics, you know HE IS the Olympics. For you that aren't, well all I can say is that I feel sorry for you and your kids (if you have any) for missing it as this IS history and THE story of past, present and probably future Olympics. I've always liked swimming and water polo and as I previously said, I was the stat girl for both boys teams throughout high school. This just reminds me what great sports they both are. This kid is so amazing and likable. I couldn't wait for the results of tonight's relay final and had to peek on the computer as I was so nervous. Sounds crazy but this is so huge and to win two gold medals in one night, well.....need I say more. Now I can watch both events on TV in relative calmness since I know the outcome. I watched the men's WP this afternoon and they upset Italy and now have a chance to medal. It was tense to say the least. Well, that's the sports report for today. Gymnastics are on and although the US is struggling, it's great to watch as well. The killer is that I have to stay up so late to see all of the medal ceremonies which get to me every time I watch but it is well worth staying up for. Hope you are all watching and having as good as time as I am!!!!!

Olympics

What a weekend of sports on TV. I don't think we changed channels all weekend except to go from one Olympic event to a different Olympic event. Although in the past I have not been overly thrilled with the opening ceremony, this time it was spectacular. We watched it on the big screen which is not high def and it was fabulous. I can only imagine how great it would have been as HD. If you missed it, you can watch it on NBC Olympic site.

We got up early yesterday to watch USA mens b-ball. That was good but not as good as last night's gold in swimming - the men's relay. What a moment. Even the diving last night was great. With all the digital channels that are covering this, I think there will be events on all day. Love it! That's it for the weekend report from Palm Desert. We did manage to tear ourselves away long enough for church on Sunday and to buy new tires for the Corvette on Saturday (ouch!!!). Now it's back to the TV to watch more events. I guess the new book I bought on Saturday - Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand, will just have to wait till this is all over in two weeks.

Lightening, Thunder and Rain

What an awesome day. We have a storm complete with rain. The proof is in the pictures above. I wanted to be out in it so I left the house to get a Diet Pepsi, gas (we're down to $4.13 a gallon) and a breakfast burrito from Carl's. It was raining harder at the house than at the Mobil 1/2 mile away but I could see the storm better from there. The mountains were just barely peeking through the dense clouds. We even have a National Weather advisory for flash floods now. I can't believe what a big deal the news makes over this kind of stuff. I can understand tornado and hurricane warnings but the monsoons and tropical storm reporting seems to be much ado about nothing. There must be no news to report today. This is too funny....Now the emergency alarm beeping is going off on the TV to really get our attention warning us again about this major weather event.

Well, that's it from the site of the ferocious storm in not so sunny Palm Desert, CA. PS - the temperature is only 80 degrees!

Water Polo Update

Update: The 12 , 14 and 16's are in the finals and will play later this afternoon and tonight. These pictures are also of Sami playing (she's No. 3 in the white cap). These were taken Thursday at Newport Harbor High School and she's playing the field since we were so late getting there from the last game. I laughed and told everybody that the last time I was at this pool was when I was in high school. I was one of the stat girls for the boys water polo team and Newport Harbor was in our league. The girls thought that was pretty funny. I have to admit though, I've forgotten most of the rules after all those years.

We're finally home from church. There are days when a coke is a want and other days when it's a need. It was a definite need after Sacrament Meeting today. Two beastly kids in front of us that didn't know what the word no meant and a mom that let them get away with it. We won't be sitting near them again.

Water Polo

We are all back home after another fun week at the beach. The water polo pictures are from Sami's Junior Olympic tournament played all over So California. Sami is Nan and Sam's granddaughter, the goalie on the team and we've watched her grow up since she was very young. We have already volunteered to be pseudo grandparents as we all think we'll be seeing her in the 2012 Olympics in London. She already has (as a junior in high school no less) a letter of intent from both Stanford and UCLA. Imagine that....an offer of a full scholarship to either of those schools and she hasn't even started her senior year. She will probably get more offers from more schools as her senior years progresses on. We missed seeing Cody and Abby play. Cody was flying back from Brazil after having played a water polo tournament there. She did make it back along with two other players from her team Saturday morning and now both Sami's and Cody's teams are in the semi finals of this tournament. Abby, who is only seven years old was playing at the same time as Sami on Thursday but at a different location and we just couldn't get there in time so missed seeing her play and Cindy help coach that team. There were games in Rancho Santa Margarita, the Irvine Aquatic Center, Newport Harbor High School, Canyon High in Anaheim Hills, Villa Park High and I'm sure a few other places as well so it was widely spread out and when the girls played up, it made for mad dashes to other locations to try to get them there and into those games. Fun, fun, fun and quite serious as well when you know college scholarships and spots on a future Olympic team are on the line. Nan told me the coach from Stanford was there for Sami's game Friday night. The coaches aren't allowed to talk to the girls as they are still too young. He was allowed one contact in her Junior year only so until the senior year gets underway, he can only say hi. We saw other college recruiters there as well so this is a big deal. Although it was crazy when Gary was playing lots of sports and we were traveling all over, it was the best. This was a reminder of how good that it is. Playing sports makes far more sense than kids wasting away in front of the TV or fighting over the PS2 games.

The weather was awesome at the beach. Cool until the afternoon and then got up to the high seventies. Perfect! Nothing else much happening around here. Church at 1:00 so soon it will be time to get ready. I'm going to run now and get a Diet Pepsi with lots of ice as I need it!!!!!