Boredom = Redesign

Had some time on my hands today at the office, hence the change of the blog design. You likey or try, try again?

Olympic Volleyball Joy

I avidly watched the Olympics but paid special attention to the indoor men's volleyball team because 2 players and the head coach came from my alma mater, BYU. I worked for the athletic program when these three won a national championship. I also think that volleyball is really exciting to watch. Almost all of their matches were during the day so I would sneak away from my desk to watch on the big screen HD TV in the conference room. Unfortunately due to timings the matches were always in the daytime.

The team got through pool play undefeated then played Serbia and Russia to get to the Gold Medal match versus Brazil. THEY WON! It was really cool because members on the team are considered old being in the 30s and most are previous Olympians. It was great to see them finally achieve their gold medal aspirations.

It did irritate me that they only got prime time coverage on the last night AND to make matters worse they didn't show the entire match only the final 4th set. Stupid NBC. I was quite annoyed.

They played really well together as a team and overcame some tragic events with the death of head coach Hugh's father-in-law and attack on his mother-in-law while sightseeing in Beijing. Congrats guys!!

Here is the picture slideshow from the Gold Medal winning performance.

US Open!

It's US Open time!  Hooray!  I'm going on Saturday, Thursday night the 4th and to the Men's Final on Sunday morning (sorry mom about missing church).  I'm so excited!  I love this time of year!  Do you get the sense that I'm a little pumped for the tennis goodness.  

Going out on a limb to say that the final will be a Roger Federer v. Rafael Nadal battle if I'm lucky since I missed the Wimbledon final because of my return flight from Hawaii.  Thanks a lot Delta.  Haven't a clue who will win on the women's side.  So my shot in the dark prediction is that Dinara Safina will take it just because I think her 2000 US Open champion brother Marat Safin is a very nice looking man.  I have my priorities.

Excitement on 97th Street

While Netter and I were enjoying the majestic feats of Olympic athletes last Sunday we heard a horrible crash sound coming from outside.  (My living room windows look out onto Lexington Avenue which is one of the busiest on the East Side so hearing loud car noises isn't a big deal but this time was different.)  We immediately jumped up to look out the window and what we saw was a SUV that had flipped on its side and was now going the wrong way.  Half of the neighborhood that wasn't already outside was looking out their window.  People on the ground called 9-1-1 and before too many minutes passed we had 3 fire trucks, 1 ambulance, 2 NYPD patrol cars and the "beast".  I was most excited to see the firemen because the finest of the FDNY are truly "fine".  ;)

Luckily the driver of the flipped SUV merely opened the passenger door and climbed up and out of his SUV.  The beast pushed and flipped the SUV to remove it from the road.  It was another moment of New York neighborhood bonding.  

A little redesign...

...after my two month sojourn in my humble abode I got really tired of looking at the same color on the four walls of my living room.  I decided to make a change, nothing drastic just a little paint on a wall.  I chose this past Saturday to do my spruce up the apartment painting project.  Let me know if you approve of my choice to add a little "lavendar lipstick" color to my previously drab beige walls.

Oh Olympics!

The Olympics are causing havoc with my sleeping schedule. Beijing is 12 hours ahead of New York time so all the live "prime time" events don't start until around 9:30/10:00pm. I want to watch them and would generally just set my DVR to record but I haven't as yet put the So You Think You Can Dance episodes on DVDs yet so my DVR is full; meaning I'm staying up WAY past my bed time to watch the marvelous accomplishments of all the athletes.

Must go to sleep early tonight because otherwise it is going to be a very rough trip down to Atlantic City tomorrow morning.

The Doc Is In!

My favorite Doc has returned to the US after her triumphant travels in the far away lands of Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Lucky for me she hopped on a flight about 48 hours from her return to come see me and Netter! I love when Doc comes to visit because it is like we were never apart plus I get to go shopping and out to eat with her.

Our time together thus far has been pretty standard with movie viewing (review to be forthcoming), eating out, lots of pinkberry consumption, talking about our hopes and dreams, planning our futures and determining which country had the hottest male athletes after the parade of nations on Friday night.

Since Saturday was truly the only day I had off to play, we took off for Central Park and then made our way with the ever efferverscent Netter to Brooklyn to try for some Grimaldi's pizza, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory yuminess and a trek across the Brooklyn Bridge. The park was gorgeous and full of the characters I like to see while people watching. We hopped on the subway and headed across the East river to the pizza heaven. The line for Grimaldis was LONG, not just long, but L...O....N...G! No way was I waiting in the heat so instead we opted for the longer but faster moving ice cream line.

While wandering on the wharf we saw the Water Taxi. This is one thing I have never done in New York...ridden on either the Hudson or East rivers. We all thought it was about time so we booked our passage and took off on the Water Taxi. Lucky for us it was during the time frame where Olaf Erricson's Waterfalls were in full view. They were beautiful.

Ended the evening with some good eats at Blue Smoke and headed back to turn on Ed and hunker down for more Olympics viewing. Oh the life I lead. It wouldn't have been half as fun to do all these things without the company of Doc. Can't wait until she joins us in December for the 7th Annual New York Fun Day. Hooray!

One of the waterfalls under the Brooklyn Bridge

Doc & Netter so happy to be on the Water Taxi

This city is truly beautiful

The three amigas - Netter, Doc and me

Top Ten - #9

I'm a sucker for "pretty" dances...so it makes sense that I really enjoyed the Viennese Waltz performance by Courtney and Mark. It was an added bonus that the song chosen was by the latest American Idol that I actually know the name of. Whoa!

Courtney & Mark's Waltz choreographed by Jason Gilkinson

Top Ten - #10

Twitch made it to the Top Ten fair and square and was supposed to partner Jessica but she had an injury so it was bye bye Jess hello Comfort. Lucky for Miss Comfort, she and Twitch nabbed a Dave Scott routine and rocked it.

So here it is #10 of the Top Ten - Twitch & Comfort Hip Hop choregraphed by Dave Scott

Meeting of the Minds

Walking from Central Park on Saturday provided this opportunity to view the meeting of two yellow cabs...one a Taurus & the other a mini-van. Needless to say, the mini-van won.

Yet another New York moment to document.

SYTYCD ends...

The summer is officially over in terms of good television viewing for me. So You Think You Can Dance had its grand finale last night where they crowned Season 4's Favorite Dancer. My money was on Joshua taking home the crown and lookey there, I was right. If only I had actually put money on my prediction. Oh well.

It was a fun show with things occuring as I thought including Courtney's early elimination and the routines chosen as "favorites" were not huge surprises. I was hoping for a few less contemporary pieces and more variety like a broadway or ballroom but alas I can't determine everything. While watching I thought it would be smart of fox.com to do a poll for Fan Favorite Performance from the season and then see it again at the finale. It might be only one day to vote if you include the Final Four's routines from the previous night, but I would be interested in seeing what others liked in comparison to my faves.

The tradition will continue and starting tomorrow I plan to do a daily countdown of the top 10 of my favorite routines from Season 4. Today I will start with some of my favorite Group Dances:
TOP 6 Choregraphed by Mandy Moore:


TOP 16 Choregraphed by Mia Michaels:


TOP 10 Choregraphed by Nakul:


TOP 5 Girls Choregraphed by Mia Michaels:


It was a great season, now I just have to wait many moons until Season 5 starts in May of 2009.

Birthday Celebration

My big 30th birthday has now come and gone.  It was somewhat anti-climatic but very enjoyable because of the people I shared it with.  Thanks to my dinner and party people!

Dancing Queen, Master Bowler, Moi, Big Mike & Netter at dinner

We are some good looking people!

Dancing Queen and Master Bowler are so psyched for the birthday celebrations!

I blew out all 3 candles with one breath.  Love my birthday cupcake tree.