The LPGA is adopting a policy that will require its member golfers to speak English or face suspension. All players who have been on the tour for two years could be suspended if they fail to pass an oral evaluation of their English proficiency starting at the end of the 2009 season, while new members will be required to pass the proficiency evaluation immediately. Current LPGA membership includes 121 foreign players from 26 countries, 45 from South Korea. LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway says this new rule "is not meant to be punitive in any way. There are very few players who don't speak English. We don't think suspensions will happen, but if they do, we're not going to say, 'Boom, go home and try again next year.' We'll work with them on identifying areas for improvement." While I can understand the tour's point, I'm not sure requiring the golfer to speak English will in any way make their product more marketable or profitable.
On the other hand maybe the message of English is good for the sponsors has been lost on some people. When asked about the new rule, LPGA State Farm tournament director Kate Peters said "This is an American tour." She continued by saying that it is "important for sponsors to be able to interact with players and have a positive experience." So which is it? I believe the first is overshadowing the second in many peoples mind so let me offer these two facts:
1. The LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association not LPG of America 2. The 2008 schedule includes a total of 37 stops, 25 in the US and 12 on foreign soil
With 32.4% of the stops outside the US, I am hard pressed to consider the LPGA tour an American tour. I guess if the tour really wants things to be fair, then requiring the golfers to learn Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Mandarin and English would be fine by me. But who says sports is fair.
Woman and Child is the name of this prized 1921 painting by the French cubist Fernand Leger which had been given to Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center. The painting was given to the museum by then director of the Davis John McAndrew and it has hung on the walls of the Davis for most of the time since. However after loaning it to Oklahoma City Museum of Art, while Davis under went major renovation efforts, for an exhibit that ran from March 2, 2006, through April 8, 2007 the painting has gone missing.
Officials have concluded the painting was returned but not uncreated back in April because Davis was still under renovations. It is feared that the painting was simply thron out when the creates were sent to be destroyed. It has not yet been revealed how much money Travelers Insurance but Leger's work fetches an average $2.8 million per painting and while the insurance company does currently have a $100,00 reward for the painting and is still investigating the case, nobody holds much hope for the return of the artwork. While this maybe largest loss Travelers ever had, 2.8 million will never bring back the Mother of the Child.
I haven't watched much Dancing With The Stars but I have to admit I kind of got into it last season with Kristi Yamaguchi, Jason Taylor, Cristián de la Fuente and Mario [I have blocked out the fact that Marissa Jaret Winokur came in fourth place]. This year's crop of stars is a larger group [13 instead of the traditional 12] and cover a pretty large age demographic [82 to 18 years old]. With the list of stars being announced yesterday, I thought I would put together a quick odds sheet on the pairings for season 7. just in case anyone is interested is some friendly wagering:
Cloris Leachman & Corky Ballas 100:1
Nothing against the 8 time Emmy award winning actress, but history has shown us that DWTS is a youthful pursuit. Plus having a first timer as a partner won't help any.
Susan Lucci & Tony Dovolani 50:1
On screen, Susan plays Erica "the woman you love to hate" Kane but in real life people like Susan and I expect her to be as elegant [or even more] than last year's surprise Priscilla Presley [and I think the older generation will vote for her].
Toni Braxton & Alec Mazo 25:1
Love her music but I have found her to be a little stiff, which just won't work on this show. Perhaps her partner, who won the first season, can loosen her up and surprise us all.
Jeff Ross & Edyta Sliwinska 23:1
Comedians have not done so well over the past 6 seasons so I don't have high hopes for Ross. Being a relatively unknown personality could be a problem in the early rounds and the bodilious Edyta will only carry him so far.
Ted McGinley & Inna Brayer 20:1
Not sure why but I am expected McGinley to have the moves on the dance floor but ultimately I think his propensity for joining a show just to have it jump the shark will be his ultimate demise. Hope he doesn't take the whole show with him.
Rocco Dispirito & Karina Smirnoff 14:1
Rocco is a complete dark horse in this, given his profession doesn't naturally lend itself to performing. If his red hot partner, Karina, can get him into the dancing thing it could get interesting.
Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson 12:1
Ok Sapp is a former Professional football player and while other stars like Rice, Smith and Taylor have all done well but Sapp is a much bigger guy. Kym Johnson has done pretty well over the years but can she tame Big Boy Warren?
Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer 10:1
Lance has always come off very light hearted which I think the mainstay viewers will like but I'm not sure he has the moves away from the NASA training facility to go deep into the competition. Wonder if he will perform to Moon Dance?
Brooke Burke & Derek Hough 8:1
Brooke has been around the TV dial for a while now and has gained most of her fame based on her looks, which doesn't hurt for this show. I think people will find Brooke and Derek cute together just like they liked him and Shannon last year.
Maurice Greene & Cheryl Burke 8:1
Take one physically gifted runner and add a dancer who HATES to lose and you could have a pretty powerful team.
Kim Kardashian & Mark Ballas 6:1
Kim is one of those people who is famous for being famous but if she can keep up a nice girl image, I imagine her good looks will take her far. Hey they got her on to DWTS in the first place. Oh yeah, she also has the winning dance pro from last season so watch out for double K.
Cody Linley & Julianne Hough 4:1
Not sure if Cody is much of a dancer but he is part of the Hannah Montana phenomenon so he's got a built it fan base AND his partner is two-time DWTS champ, recording artist and all around hottie Julianne Hough. She could just win it again.
Misty May-Treanor & Maksim Chmerkovskiy 3:1
Athletes have fared quite well over the past 6 seasons and I expect two time Olympic champion to continue that tradition. Having a partner who has been to the finals in seasons 4 and 5 doesn't hurt either. Plus May-Treanor is used to having a partner and she hates to lose. Out of the gate, she is my favorite to win it all.
So there you have it. Now let the dancing [and the eliminating] begin!
The movie about a movie about a real war that the actors thought was a movie was the best comedy of the summer, hands down. It had us laughing out loud and at times so much that you would miss part of the following dialog, but that was just fine by me. The cast was pretty good - Ben Stiller plays a smarter version of Zoolander while Jack Black is the less than funny strung out comedian but it is Robert Downey Jr. who really shined as the Australian actor who is so method he never breaks from his African American 60's persona [until the end of the film when he removes his wig and gives us his best Aussie accent]. Given those three guys it is ironic that a serious actor like Tom Cruise would steel the whole movie as the overweight, balding and foul mouthed studio head character who runs a tight ship and can get Low with the best of them.
The thing I really liked about this film was the writing and timing. When they went for a joke, they went all in and did not feel it necessary to try and sprinkle in a little humor is each scene. This allowed the funny scenes to be very funny while the serious or action scenes to remain true to the story. And not to be outdone by the real fake film about a fake real war, the fake trailers before the film and after the real trailers [confused yet?] were awesome. Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown, The Fatties: Fart 2 and Satan's Alley gave each of the stars a chance to star in a really fake movie coming soon but it was the fictional rapper Alpa Chino promoting his two brands Booty Sweat energy drink and Bust-A-Nut candy bar that had the greatest shock value.
I guess it's not too shocking since Paramount Pictures announced that it would be marketing the energy drink which is shown throughout the film. The product is going to be marketed in college bookstores, Amazon.com, and other retailers so be on the look out for some good ol' Booty Sweat.
Today marks the end of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and the beginning of the countdown to London 2012. For the USA, this Olympics marks the 4th consecutive games that we have led the world in metal count with 110. The US also has remained very consistent with 36 gold metals, which is only 1 below the average gold metals they have won over the past 14 Olympics [not including the boycott games of 1984]. Some of my favorite stories from the games were:
- The Redeem Team redeems US Men's Basketball - Men's gymnastics loose the Hamm brothers and still take a bronze metal in the team event - Women's Basketball Team makes it four in a row - Nastia Liukin [individual all around gold, uneven bars silver, balance beam silver] and Shawn Johnson [balance beam gold, individual all around silver, floor exercise silver] - Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh repeat in Beach Volleyball - Men's Volleyball gold metal after the coach's father-in-law was murdered the day before competition began - Last and certainly not least, Michael Phelps wins 8 gold metals, 7 in world record time
In a final tribute to the Olympics, let's take a look back at Phelps being Phelps:
Knowing their fan base, the guys over at Lost begun their third alternative reality game called the Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project. At a minimum, it gives us Lost fans something that is connected to the show while we wait another 5 months for season and along the way we get some show clues, which is what we really want. In this year's ARG, the Dharma [Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative]Initiative is recruiting new members to join their exploration into fields such as meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and Utopian socialology. As a tie into the game and as a bridge from season 4 to season 5, the following video was leaked during/after Comic-Con:
The video shows a transmission from 30 years ago by Dr. Pierre Chang [who is also known as Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Mark Wickmund and Dr. Edgar Halliwax from other orientation videos] who has knownledge of current events as well as those to come - like The Purge, which from his perspective will happen in about 14 years from the time he broadcast this video. He also urges that the DHARMA Initiative be reconstituted to finish the important work he and his colleagues had been engaged in which brings us back to the ARG. I can't wait to see where the games takes us and how it all ties back into Season 5.
At the tender age of 3, Gabriel Greenberg lost his sister to a car accident in 1985. Unable to really look at the items left behind by his big sister, Greenberg typically just didn't look at them until one day back in 2005 he came across a cassette "with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together." Flash forward 2 years where Greenberg asked his friend Thomas Bartlett [a.k.a. Doveman] to re-imagine the entire album with which they "could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made."
With this eerie and haunting cover of the Footloose soundtrack Doveman and company have found a new way to stretch music across genres as well as generations.
David H. Nunes, a Colorado real estate developer who has worked with Donald Trump and the Wampanoag Indian tribe, said yesterday he is considering building a casino in town - of course that will only be possible after Massachusetts lawmakers legalize casinos. Nunes called his plan "very, very, very, very" preliminary however he is "looking around" town for up to 500 acres of land for a Foxwoods-type destination, which he discussed with the town selectmen in executive session last month. This past February Nunes also spoke with the town officials of Johnston, RI pitching a casino project that would included a 27-hole golf course and an upscale hotel, so it would seem he believes New England could be the next great gambling hotbed.
It is projected a casino could generate an estimated $50 million a year for the town in taxes and payments in lieu of just taxes. This would be a great boost to the town and the surrounding communities but it would come at some cost. First a project like this would create jobs - some temporary like hotel construction but others would remain once the casino opens. However with all those jobs comes traffic, energy consumption, use of town services, housing growth, overcrowding in the schools and many more people in and around our still small town.
Overall I am in favor of casino's in Massachusetts and I think putting one near the intersection of the Mass Pike and Route 495 is an ideal location and if the state, town and the developer can lay the ground work properly, it wouldn't be such a bad bet.
Saturday at 2:30 PM, I pulled into my neighbor's drive way and for a split second she was giving me that look that said we do no have time for this. Just then she released that there were 50 people standing in the driveway waiting to say SURPRISE! Her mouth hung open for several minutes as she first tried to get her head around all of the people there to help celebrate her 40th birthday [which we will be in Hawaii on the day]. Not being the planner in the household, she really thought I wouldn't be able to pull something like this off. Well guess I can. After weeks of planning, emailing friends and family we really got her.
The afternoon was beautiful [thank you god for a nice non-thrunderstorming day], food was delicious, the beer and wine was flowing, the music was oh-so-80's and the laughter, smiles and love was mighty. Once the sun went down, we retreated home to prep for the night of dancing to our long-time friend Chad LaMarsh. On a side note, Lisa and I met at a bar in Boston on a night when Chad was playing and his booze cruise of 1996 was the excuse Lisa's girlfriend used to get her to her wedding shower, so it was more than appropriate Chad was part of the big 4-0 party.
All-in-all, it went better than expected and as great as I had hoped. Thank you to everyone for their help [Lisa is right, I really couldn't do it alone], especially the hosts - you guys really made it happen for me - and thank you, thank you, than you to everyone who came, it was the surprise I was hoping for and the party she was dreaming of.
In the wake of writers strike, some tv shows couldn't make it to a second season because they lost their steam with a 100 day hiatus in writing. In an effort to try and rebuild those returning shows, ABC has but together Starter Kits for 9 of it's returning shows, including Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who?, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. The kit includes an overview of the show, highlighting the main characters, how these characters are connected and the ABC's of the show. This is a great way to try and reboot those shows which took a hit at the end of last year. Let's hope this helps Eli Stone [one of my favorites from last season] get better ratings this year.
Th Special Olympics are outraged at the use of the term "retard" in the film Tropic Thunder, which is used to describe a character with intellectual disabilities. "Our population is hurt and offended," Special Olympics spokeswoman Kirsten Seckler said yesterday. "You wouldn't throw around the N-word like this." By contrast, Seckler said Peter and Bobby Farrelly approached Special Olympics before filming "The Ringer," a comedy in which Johnny Knoxville pretends to be mentally challenged so he can win the Special Olympics. "The Farrellys did sensitivity training with the cast and also hired people with intellectual disabilities," Seckler said. "They were absolutely great."
Sure everyone needs to be more sensitive to those who have an intellectual disability however I have a few problems with the statements above:
1. It's a movie 2. Retard is a shorten version of a medical the medical term Mental Retardation 3. Retard has entered the general lexicon as someone who is acted/spoken in a stupid manner but does not have any diagnosed metal disabilities 4. On the other hand, Nigger is derogatory term used to refer to dark-skinned people who's origin is the accusative form of the Latin word niger simply meaning black. 5. While the Special Olympics are a wonderful organization, they are no American Association on Mental Retardation 6. I suggest Kirsten Seckler watch Pulp Fiction [or other Quentin Tarantino film's] or even listen to any hip hop artist in the past 10 years 7. It's a movie
Hopefully in hindsight the Special Olympics will see how [insert word of choice here] it is to attack satirical material and instead focus their energy at providing events for the intellectual disabled here in the US.
PS: Thank god I named my stupid blog the Bottom Of The Barrel instead of Mr. Wino's Retarded Daily Ramblings. I don't need that kind of publicity.
Last night in Beijing, Michael Phelps won his 3rd gold metal of the 2008 summer Olympics in the 200 meter freestyle. This marked his 9th gold metal [starting with the 6 he won in Athens 4 years ago] and it put him in very elite company. Only 4 Olympians prior to Phelps had won this many gold metals:
Paavo Nurmi - Finland (3 in 1920, 5 in 1924, 1 in 1928) Larissa Latynina - Russia (4 in 1956, 5 in 1962) Mark Spitz - US (2 in 1968, 7 in 1972) Carl Lewis - US (4 in 1984, 2 in 1988, 2 in 1992, 1 in 1996)
Today Mr. Phelps joined an even smaller group of athletes - just him all by himself. Winning both the 200 meter butterfly and 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay, Phelps now has won a record setting 11 gold metals and has a chance for 3 more in these games, which could be a total of 8 gold metals surpassing Mr. Spitz's record for a single Olympics. As for the only other metal record he would not hold, he would have to come back for a 3rd Olympics to pass Latynina's 18 overall metals.
I'm not sure there are any words that can describe how impressive Phelps has been so far - 5 events - 5 gold metals - 5 world records. And if he could go 8 for 8, this will be sport domination that will only make sense sometime into the future when we can grasp how dominate he really is.
Staring Bob Saget, Jamie Kennedy and featuring Stu Stone. With cameos by John Stamos, George Lucas and Tara Reid as club goers and Terry Crews as the bouncer.
If you are an avid reader and are not sure what to do with all those books once you have read them, try Mooching. Book Mooch is a web site for exchanging used books that you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.
The clever part of the site is the point system. In order to mooch books from others, you need to earn points which you use up as you get free books from other people. You earn points when you add your book inventory, give away books and respond to mooch requests. You use up points when you mooch books or when you give your points away to charities. Here is the point system breakdown:
Add a book to inventory + 1/10th Give away book (within your country) + 1 Give away book (to another country) + 3 Mooch a book (within your country) - 1 Mooch a book (from another country) - 2 Acknowledge receiving a book you mooched + 1/10th
Over the past year, their membership has grown by 90k and at the same time a total of almost 1 million books have been mooched. Interestingly enough, the number of members who have shipped a book is almost 10k more than the number of members who have received a book so I guess this community is made up of givers.
I can't wait for my first book to arrive and for the first book I shipped [today] to get to it's destination.
In the pinnacle of the 3rd act in Will Ferrell's new movie, Step Brothers, he gets on stage and belts out a good rendition of Andrea Bocelli's Con te partiro [Time to Say Goodbye]. This song marks the 7th film in which Ferrell breaks into song and while the movie was over-all just a ok comedy, his vocals were damn good. As for his other films, here are my top 5 [Wreckless Eric's (I'd Go The) Whole Wide World (Stranger Than Fiction) just didn't make the cut]:
5. Love Me Sexy - Will Ferrell (Semi-Pro) Ok Jackie Moon is basically an extension of Ron Burgundy but give the guys credit for writing an original song that is oh-so 70's and for even creating a full-length music video.
Let's fill the bathtub with sweat...
4. Blades of Glory - Bo Bice / My Humps - Black Eyed Peas (Blades of Glory) So neither of these renditions are really any good but it is the ease at which Will throws them into the scene and dialog which makes them good.
It is provocative!
3. Baby It's Cold Outside - Frank and Lynn Loesser (Elf) Buddy joins Jovie in this duet while she is showering at work. The dichotomy of the song plays perfectly against the entire scene - two people who seem to be from different worlds going in different directions but ultimately come together.
Extra points for this film also containing Buddy delivering an on-the-spot singing telegram to his dad complete with awkward body language, a very confused Walter Hobbs and some pretty straight forward lyrics.
2. Dust in the Wind - Kansas (Old School) Frank The Tank pays tribute to Joseph "Blue" Palasky after his untimely death while preparing to oil wrestle two more-than-willing coeds. Even in death, Ferrell kills.
Your my boy Blue! Your my boy.
1. Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) Mr. Burgundy [and the Channel 4 News Team] break into song to try and describe what love really is. Champ drops the whoop on cue, Brink and Brian hit the mid-lyrics on high and the whole team brings it home at the end.
Genius. Pure Genius. Plus bonus points for a recording of the entire song, with video in the extras area of the DVD.
Wonder what songs he has up his sleeve for Land of the Lost, due in 2009? Can't imagine anything that fits the plot but if his movies over the past 5 years have shown us anything, Will will find a way to add his own Lyricus [which means the snakes vibrations - seriously look it up] to his movies.
Staying at the Hard Rock in San Diego during mytriptoComic-Con was really nice. The hotel was very Hard Rockish [posters, guitars, outfits, ect] and the staff was great. After my stay there, I was sent an email for an online survey. I completed the survey and gave the hotel and staff high remakes. The only thing I pointed out as less then satisfied with, which I prefaced with some level of understanding, was being asked to wait outside the elevator bank while a large group was waiting for an elevator. Now I was not able to see who was there, but I can say that there were as many as 6 people with 3 or 4 security folks, so it totally screams big-time personality. Anyway, I commented on the survey that being guests and adults, I thought this type of extra security was unnecessary. I didn't think much of this comment at the time, expect that was how I felt [especially giving the people we were going to meet over the next few days], but this morning I received an email for the hotel manager, which read in part:
"As Hotel Manager, I take total responsibility of what transpired and personally apologize. I am saddened that your stay was not flawless. We take tremendous pride in delivering Service Excellence to every guest, and in this case, it is apparent we failed.
I have communicated your concerns to the Director of Security, to ensure this issue does not re-occur in the future. I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused with the added security during the Comic Con Convention. It is this type of honest feedback that allows us to examine our current training and procedures and make the necessary changes to not only meet, but also exceed our guests’ expectations."
It is refreshing to see a company listen to the customers and I think it is this kind of attention that will help the Hard Rock Hotel chain to grow in the US.
The Cock Punch list orginally just had a list of names of people who need a good old fashioned punch in the baby maker. Well the guys over at 23/6 have taken the idea a step further in launching Dickipedia - A Wiki For Dicks! Yup a full on wiki (a monolingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia) dedicated to those people who are dicks. The site currently contains several catagoires of dicks from Political dicks like Eliot Spitzer to Media dicks like Ann Coulter to Entertainment dicks like M. Night Shyamalan or The Beckhams to Sports dicks like Kobe Bryant (or The Beckhams again) to International dicks like Hugo Chávez to Miscellaneous dicks like Donald Trump or Your Mom. The site is off to a good start and I look forward to all the future dicks that get their very own Dickipedia page.
Plane tickets to Paris? Check. 18 Suitcases? Check. Duty-free shopping from airport? Check. 3-year-old daughter? Not so much.
A policeman found the girl wandering around Ben-Gurion airport on Sunday, crying for her mother. Israeli airport police said the couple had managed to board the flight with their 18 suitcases and duty free shopping, but had not remembered to take the girl. She was the youngest of five children in the family, which was running late and made a mad dash for their flight to Paris. In the confusion, the girl was left behind. She was later found near the duty free shopping area.
Really? Too busy being late, getting in all your shopping and dragging around more luggage than a UK football team made you forget that you have 5 children not 4? Didn't notice one of the seats next to a parent was empty beofre take-off? Never head of a head count? I wonder if they did a quick head count after they were notifed by cabin staff, who had been contacted in mid-air by airport police, of their other children?
Luckily, The child, accompanied by an airline staff member, was put aboard the next flight to Paris where she was reunited with her parents. Hopefully the parents enjoy the visit they are sure to receive once they return to Israel by the local child services authority.
I knew this day was coming for the past 7 weeks and yesterday it finally arrived. I was feeling down and depressed, almost to the point of anger. It was one of those days where you know your in a bad mood but can't [and frankly don't want to] get yourself into a better place. My wife told me this is what PMS feels like.
At 1:30 the layoffs began and as I sat with the first guy I was letting go I suddenly had a rush of anxiety like you feel at a wake. Where no words come to mind and you feel like anything you do say to try and ease the person into this loss - it feels like it is only lip service and nothing I can say will be right or be helpful. An hour later I was finished and in the end the two gentlemen I have to let go made it as easy on my as I could have hoped for - no yelling or tears or accusations or anything like that. Just stoic nods over all the paperwork and a hearty handshake as they left the building.
I knew getting a management job and have a team report to me would have it's own stressers I had not had to endure as an individual contributor, but acting as the messenger in a job consolidation was one I was not fully prepared to handle. Let's just hope that this is an activity I do not have to be part of again for a very long time.
Woman and Child is the name of this prized 1921 painting by the French cubist Fernand Leger which had been given to Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center. The painting was given to the museum by then director of the Davis John McAndrew and it has hung on the walls of the Davis for most of the time since. However after loaning it to Oklahoma City Museum of Art, while Davis under went major renovation efforts, for an exhibit that ran from March 2, 2006, through April 8, 2007 the painting has gone missing. 
I guess it's not too shocking since Paramount Pictures announced that it would be marketing the energy drink which is shown throughout the film. The product is going to be marketed in college bookstores, 
Knowing their fan base, the guys over at Lost begun their third alternative reality game called the 
At the tender age of 3, Gabriel Greenberg lost his sister to a car accident in 1985. Unable to really look at the items left behind by his big sister, Greenberg typically just didn't look at them until one day back in 2005 he came across a cassette "with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together." Flash forward 2 years where Greenberg asked his friend Thomas Bartlett [a.k.a. Doveman] to re-imagine the entire album with which they "could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made."
Saturday at 2:30 PM, I pulled into my neighbor's drive way and for a split second she was giving me that look that said we do no have time for this. Just then she released that there were 50 people standing in the driveway waiting to say SURPRISE! Her mouth hung open for several minutes as she first tried to get her head around all of the people there to help celebrate her 40th birthday [which we will be in Hawaii on the day]. Not being the planner in the household, she really thought I wouldn't be able to pull something like this off. Well guess I can. After weeks of planning, emailing friends and family we really got her.
Last night in Beijing, Michael Phelps won his 3rd gold metal of the 2008 summer Olympics in the 200 meter freestyle. This marked his 9th gold metal [starting with the 6 he won in Athens 4 years ago] and it put him in very elite company. Only 4 Olympians prior to Phelps had won this many gold metals:
The 