Saturday, July 21, 2007

Blog Rating

Courtesy of comments at http://interchangeableparts.wordpress.com/, which if you haven't checked out, well....you're missing out....bigtime - so check it out... I discovered http://mingle2.com/blog-rating which will rate your blog according to the movie rating system.

So I plugged in the trusty URL of Great Blogspectations and.... (drumroll)... (envelope please)...
Great Blogspectations is rated PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned - Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
fucking (3x)
fuck (2x)
pain (1x)

Oh well, better luck next time Great Blogspectations. Guess "muthafuckers" and such didn't show up. I will have to start spelling my profanities in a more proper and correct manner.

Lament on Leaves

Just in case you're not aware, we are currently in the month of July. In the Northern Hemisphere, July is one of the months of which Summer is composed. However, today during my run, I could not help but notice that there were leaves, leaves that had changed colour, lying on the ground. Leaves changing colour and lying on the ground is considered a property of Fall (Fall, like leaves fall to the ground), otherwise known as Autumn. Now don't get me wrong, I love to run through the fallen leaves on the ground in the Fall, in fact it's a highlight of the running year and I wish we had more of the leaves & in prettier colours, like other areas in the country do. But, I lament seeing this in July. Furthermore, I do not ever recall seeing this EXCEPT IN THE FALL. Damn that Al Gore, this is one of those inconvenient truths. Damn global warming - I'm running over leaves and people in England are swimming across the street. Blimey. This is a spot of bother isn't it? I think I'll go have a cup of tea. Maybe Miss Marple can help solve this issue. Or we can just listen to Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent.

The Heckler Interjects

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Remember, you should be reading that as Al-leh-han-dro!!!!! Val-vair-day!!! Say it with flourish! Like that dude from Princess Bride [I am...] but done as an over the top melodrama)

(I can't help myself....it's temporary Tourette's)

What a great name....

Friday, July 20, 2007

Vive Le Tour! Part 5

Ha ha. I tricked you all. You thought I was off Le Tour but I was just hanging back in the peloton, grimacing as though I was having a rough day, while secretly plotting my big move. (Boy, we'll all be glad when the Tour is over for another year won't we).

17. The names. Like the guy I picked to win. Alejandro Valverde. AL-LEH-HAN-DRO VAL-VAIR-DEY! That's a great name. He even sounds like a winner. Although a guy I know said he sounds like a latin lover. I don't really know much about this Valverde guy, but I love his name. Yeah, this picking winners by name thing explains my great success in wagering on the ponies. But come on...Alejandro Valverde. Is it possible to be in love with a name? Is it possible that was a rhetorical question? Rhetoric. Another cool word. WTF. I think somebody slipped something into my food or drink. Anyway, there are some other cool Tour rider names but I'm gonna have to leave those out because I've decided #17 has to be about VALVERDE. Alejandro.... ah....

18. I miss Robbie McEwen. Yeah, I didn't even know this guy a week and a half ago and now I'm sad he's gone. Here's to you Robbie.

19. The team names. The announcers kind of ruined Cofidis for me. In my mind it sounded really cool but when they say it it just kind of sounds flat. However, Phil (I think) saying Liquigas is pretty funny. It always sounds to me like he's saying Leaky Gas. "The leaky gas team is...." Oh dear. And this really has nothing to do with team names but when the commentators say things like, "ohh, looks like so and so is in a *spot of bother*..." that cracks me up. Here's this guy competing in this crazy ass sporting event and they're going 'oh dear, he's in a spot of bother isn't he? shall we have a nice cuppa then?' Snort.

20. The descents. Holy fuck. Excuse my language but holy fuck. I need some stronger swearing for this. But I'm now remembering some of these Alp descents and I'm having difficulty speaking (you know, speaking through the keyboard). These professional cyclists are crazy ass mutherfuckas. Do you know how fucking fast they go downhill? Very fucking fast, that's how fast. And sometimes they screw up their line and crash. Some of those mountain descents - you go over the side, wow, it's a long way down. A long, long, long, long, long, long long, long way. I can't remember the name of the climb (the Col de something ;) ) but my stomach plummeted just watching them hit the top as the road completely fell away. Wow. Awesome descents. I was scared to death just watching.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming...

Must be a rest day for the Tour posts.

So here's a snippet from a conversation I had recently...

Them: So I watched this show about this guy who kidnapped women blah blah blah. He would give them pedophiles and paint their toenails and stuff and (xe keeps talking...)

Me: Uh, did you just say "give them *pedophiles*"?

T: (laughing) Yeah, I did. See, I told you I do stuff like that. I meant pedicures...

M: No kidding.

The conversation continued and we got to the point where we were saying our goodbyes....

T: Have a great day!

M: You too.

T: Go get yourself a pedophile!

M: (Shaking head)

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Vive Le Tour! Part 4

Wow, these Tour posts are starting to rival the number of stages of the Tour de France.

13. Like taking a trip without leaving the house. I've enjoyed seeing the scenery of the various areas. The aerial shots can be quite spectacular and the broadcasts give some history and so forth.

14. The combination of team and individual in this sport. Each rider is part of a team but there is also a lot of individual stuff that goes on. I suppose you could say the same is true of any other team sport, except that sometimes a group of individuals from different teams will work together. Basically the strategy determines what will happen, so two riders might help one another at one point and do the opposite at another.

15. The different jerseys. By this I mean not only is there the famous "maillot jaune" for the race leader (which can switch backs each day) but also a polka dot king of the mountains jersey (polka dots though??!) and a green jersey and a white jersey for best virgin. (Ok, that last part wasn't *totally* true).

16. Sprints. The sprints at the finish are something to behold. Sometimes parts of the stages can get pretty boring, but near the end it's a crazy mass of bikes and bodies. This can't be captured in words, you need to see it.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Vive Le Tour! Part 3

9. This sporting event has it all. I've talked about the toughness, the speed, etc., but it also includes eating! Eating is so important, in fact, that on the route map they show the t.v. viewers they include the location of the feed stations. Here people stand with feedbags that the cyclist must grab while zipping by. (And they also must try not to end a sentence with a preposition, all at the same time!) And these cyclists throw stuff into the crowd when they're done with it (e.g. water bottles). I'm just picturing the gleeful dreamlike state I would be in for 2 weeks after the following transpires (screen goes wavy, back in time music)....

TdF cyclist: "Zut! Triple ZUT! Zeye deed not order ze tuna! I vanted ze egg! Ze egg dammit!"
In utter disgust he hucks his tuna sandwich into the crowd. It goes sailing at speeds like that of a baseball pitch but for one GB it is spinning end over end in slow motion. Fascinated, she stares, nay, she gapes, open mouthed, eyes as big as saucers, no - as big as dinner plates! as the sandwich comes ever closer. In the last instance, time returns to normal speed and WHAP! the sandwich smacks her smartly in the forehead, leaving a red mark and a light tuna residue. She picks it up, holds it in her hands, delirious. And for the next 2 weeks she walks around in this state. Except she doesn't hold the sandwich for the whole 2 weeks, that would be gross. Instead she has it coated protectively, like Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and it sits proudly in her sports shrine in a place of special honour from then on. (Fucking prepositions).
And imagine the story she will tell, no party, no social gathering will ever pass without "hey, you know what happened to me once...."

10. Did I mention the scenery yet? I can't remember. This blog moves as fast as a moderately fast stage. But anyway, in one shot in an early stage, they showed this castle. With a moat. I think I'm in love. I am in love. This is my dream to have a place like this. (I am a rock...I am an issssssssland....). A moat! That's too f'ing cool. If there had been a fire-breathing dragon I probably would have collapsed in utter glee. Perhaps if I could afford the castle I would have enough to get me a fire breathing dragon. Or at least one that could get a few flames out every once in awhile.

11. The changing route. Yes, I was that naive re: the tour that I didn't realize it wasn't the same all the time. Oops. But now that I do know, I find this pretty cool. In one way it would be cool to have the exact same route, but it's also kind of neat to shake things up, keep it fresh (like my carbonite tuna sandwich).

12. No weather cancellations. Sweet. See the entry about tough. These athletes don't mess around. Rain delays are for pussies. (That sounded wrong somehow). I hear at one of the shortly upcoming alps stages (maybe they've even started it, I'm a little behind on my watching) there was snow the other day.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Vive Le Tour! Part 2

5. Robbie McEwen's finish line victory move. They had a little segment on where he got the idea from but at any rate, I was somewhat amused. He does these arm motions like he's running really fast.

6. The involvement of the spectators. They get in the way sometimes which I find funny - can you imagine a pitcher trying to throw a ball around a spectator? A hockey player getting his stick ripped from his hands by a spectator? And for a sport in which the athletes speed by you in moments, it's pretty cool that fans line the roads like that.

7. The toughness. This is a biggie. Nothing against soccer, but when you watch the best in the world writhing around on the field and then getting up as though nothing has happened...
The Tour is like hockey - these guys have these crazy crashes and get all beat up and still continue on unless they are absolutely unable to. Not to mention just the normal pain of riding that far for that long, day after day. Impressive.

8. As one of the commentators puts it (Phil Leggett??) 'we don't want to see crashes but they sure make for good t.v.'. Sure, I don't wish these guys to have terrible crashes and have to withdraw or get seriously injured, but WOW, those crashes are something else. Refer back to point # 7 - these guys are TOUGH.

There is so much more to come...we haven't even gotten into the mountains yet (more dumb TdF "humour").

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Vive Le Tour! Part 1

So I read some of Lance Armstrong's books and he made the Tour de France sound pretty exciting (even though his books don't even focus much on that). So last year (?) (& 2 years ago?) I watched some and was a bit disappointed that it didn't come across quite the same as Lance's descriptions. But there was something there that seemed to have potential so I had thought I'd have to tune in the next year and *really* follow it. So when I saw the ad for the upcoming Tour, I made a note and have been PVRing the broadcasts. There are moments I find rather dull, but I've also kind of fallen for it. Here's a few reasons why...


1. The beauty of the peloton. Especially the aerial shots. Rainbow of colours.


2. How difficult a sporting event it is. I think this year it's about 2,200 miles, including riding over MOUNTAINS.


3. The multinational aspects. For example, teams consists of riders from various countries rather than other sports where particular countries compete against one another. Today I learned that the prizes are in euros (due to the European Union) but the fines are in Swiss Francs (because the governing body is in Switzerland which apparently uses it's own currency still). I just find that funny/cool/interesting. (You know, this post was a lot funnier/cooler/more interesting in my head).


4. The speed involved. On bikes going 40+k/25+mph. Wow. It makes me think of when you watch world class marthoners. They are holding a pace that is the equivalent to my sprint pace, but over 26.2 miles! WTF!?! That's messed up.


Well that's the prologue complete. Look for more stages to follow... (that's some TdF humour)

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Musing on Mousse

Awhile ago I ran out of mousse (for my hair - not the chocolate kind, who'd ever run out of that?!) so I went to get more. I found the same kind but with a new name/packaging. So I adopted a bottle by paying the adoption fee and brought it to its' new home. No more having to sit on a shelf with all kinds of other mousse and hair care products - now it would have a brand new home on top of my dresser. (That's a set of drawers that you keep clothes in, not a person who dresses me - although the latter might be kind of cool).

Now you may be thinking, wow, like the shoe thing wasn't bad enough, now we're reading drivel about your hair product buying and, to add insult to injury, just when we think it has potential because you allude to having a personal dresser, we find out it's just a chest of drawers. But, just like when you bring a puppy home from the pound, my mousse adoption didn't go entirely smoothly....

The first time I went to use it, I could not get any mousse to come out. Eventually it did work but I had a fleeting thought about how healthy that was - fleeting image of an explosion due to a glitch in the packaging or something. I did consider returning the mousse and bringing home a different one, but I didn't want to hurt the mousse's feelings. How nice is that being replaced so callously?

Time went by and my mousse seemed to become more coooperative. I think I forgot about the exploding possibilities. They became just a distant echo in the recesses of my mind. And eventually found out what else was lurking there and got too scared to even echo.

But then, the other night, I was getting ready to head out for the evening and my mousse again refused to cooperate. This is frustrating to me. I'm not one of those people who spends a lot of time doing their hair. I spray in leave in conditioner, I put in the mousse, and then myself and my wet hair hit the road. My entire hair doing routine takes a minute (I know, that's probably nothing to brag about. It reminds me of a friend... someone would say [proudly] "I got this haircut for $6!" and my friend would say [with a glorious expression on xe's face], "There's no need to point out the obvious." Ha ha, BURN! But anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm sure the suspense is killing you.) So the reason I mention my quick hair routine is that once that mousse goes in, the hair part of getting ready is done, so when it doesn't work, this is an irksome delay.

So I fiddle with the mousse bottle, trying to make it work. All of a sudden there's this weird noise - kind of a compressed air suddenly being released kind of noise - and I think I see something tiny go flying across the room and then the mousse works. That is to say that my hand is suddenly filled with mousse. Now it's probably a good amount to use, but I generally go pretty easy with the mousse. Got up the next morning and my hair pretty much still looked done, guess that's alright. But the point is, I'm a bit concerned that the mousse bottle will one day explode and my face will be filled with shrapnel. Besides the obvious suckitude (I think I stole that word) of that, oh! the disfigurement!, I would then be traumatized and going into a drugstore or hair salon would make me fall to the ground, flailing wildy & screaming while intermittently yelling, "take cover! take cover!" while other patrons worriedly grabbed their children to shepherd them away from the crazy person waxing the floor with her own body. And I'm sure my hair would look terrible too, just increasing the crazy person image. Then I'd probably end up in a mental institution, rocking in the corner while self-flagellating with a hairbrush.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Life Ring

After my attempted drowing (http://blogspectations.blogspot.com/2007/06/fool-in-rain.html), I was out on the same route with a walking partner. We encountered a section that was packed with parked cars - a garage sale (sans garage) - I guess that makes it a yard sale. Whatever, let's not get lost in the details. As we walk past, he points out one of those big red life preserver things - mocking me for having been nearly drowned. So I told him my take on the 911 conversation (commentor Sid inspired my comment in the Fool in the Rain post). He was quite amused. Now I'm wondering if that whole yard sale was inspired by my near drowning. Can't you just see it?.....

"Maude" Honey, we should really have a yard sale. We have no use for so much of this stuff and others could benefit! We'll have less clutter AND we'll have helped other people get something they could use.

"Maude's Partner" Come on dear, this is a bunch of junk. Face facts. No one wants any of this crap.

"M" Oh really?! What about that poor girl who ran by the other day. She nearly drowned! You don't think she could've used that life preserver from your father's boat???

"MP" (grudgingly) I suppose you have a point there. Sigh. Let's do it then.

"M" I'll make some signs!