Monday, March 1, 2010

My Take on the Olympis...and Other Things

Everyone knows the Vancouver Olympics wrapped up on Sunday. Let me just say that they definitely saved the best event for last. The gold medal game of the men's hockey tournament was definitely the best part of these games. It was exciting and intense. It also didn't hurt that it was US vs Canada. It was quite obvious that these two teams had a not quite so friendly rivalry going on. The game was hyped by the network and it didn't fail to deliver. Canada wasn't the only winner of that game. The world discovered that the US is a force to be reckoned with in hockey. Hockey itself was, probably, the biggest winner. I have a feeling that there are quite a few more hockey fans in North America now and it wouldn't surprise me if there is a league wide attendance rise across the NHL.

Though there were a lot of positive aspects to this years Olympics, the most glaring blemish, the death of a Georgian luger aside, is the reaction of the Russian government to their country's "abysmal" showing at these games. The Russian president and prime minister even went as far as to call the efforts of the Russian athletes embarrassing and calling for the firing of certain Russian athletic officials. If I recall correctly, it was back in the cold war days that the Soviets viewed their showing at the Olympics as a direct reflection of their political and military standing in the world. It's well known that Putin is old school KGB and that Medvedev is pretty much his lackey, but I thought the Russians had moved past all that. I would think that both Putin and Medvedev would have more important things to worry about rather than how many medals Russian athletes win at the Olympics. The world has moved on boys, it's time you did too.

Time to jump off the ol' soap box give a review of my weekend. I started coming down with a sore throat on Wednesday and by Friday I had a nasty little cold. I was on call all weekend and though we only got called in four times, three of them were late at night. As the amount of sleep each night shrank my cold got worse and eventually developed into a full blown upper respiratory infection. I got so little sleep last night from all the coughing that I decided to stay home from work today and go to the doctor. After some antibiotic, cough syrup with codeine and some sinus meds I'm finally starting to feel a little better. Hopefully, after a good night's sleep I'll be ready to get back to work.

Friday, February 26, 2010

I'm Baaaaaack! (Again)

Due to popular demand (read Chris' demand) I have decided it's not a bad idea to start blogging again. I do have quite a bit to share, I've just been too lazy to take the time to share it.

Let's start with last weekend: Saturday was a great day. The rain came down pretty good most of the day and we really enjoyed it. Chris went in to school for a couple of hours in the morning, so I decided to take Andy out and run some errands. We went up to a farmer's market to buy some honey only to find that most everybody had already packed up due to the rain. Wimps!

Since we had time I decided we should stop at a local Asian market I had heard about. Lee Lee Market is an awesome place. I've never seen such a diverse selection of foods. There were things in the produce section I'd never heard of before, let alone seen. There was Indian eggplant, bitter melon and even tamarind. The fresh seafood section has a huge a selection of fish and shellfish, all fresh and mostly intact. The meat counter has a wide variety of fresh meats including cuts I've never seen in a supermarket. There was boneless duck and chicken feet, three types of tripe, brains and even coagulated pig's blood. Mm mm good! Every aisle was dedicated to a different region of the world. There was an aisle just for Indian, one for Thai, one for Japanese, one for Chinese, one for Indonesian, and even one for African. I was absolutely in awe. And the prices were very very reasonable compared to the supermarket. I will definitely be going back for certain hard to find items.

After Lee Lee's I stopped at McDonald's and got Andy and Chris some lunch. Then it was nap time...for all three of us. I can't remember the last time we all napped at the same time. It was wonderful. After the nap it was a relaxing evening at home.

Sunday: Sunday morning started with Chris and I doing some cleaning. I handled the dishes while she took on the project of cleaning out and rearranging the pantry. We threw out a lot of expired stuff and made a lot of room. After that we packed up Andy and headed out to Famous Dave's for a great BBQ lunch. After lunch it was a quick run to Trader Joe's and then home.

All in all, a very productive and relaxing weekend.

Monday and yesterday mornings I spent doing EKG's on the Cleveland Indian's major league players as part of their annual physicals. We had a good time and it was cool to get to meet some of the players we watch on TV.

That's about it for my first post back. I look forward to having some more interesting things to share in the near future.