Waiting for Mad Men

If you can't wait for the premiere in August (or you've never seen it and wonder what everybody is talking about) you can catch season 1 on Comcast On Demand. Then you can watch season 2 by begging, borrowing or stealing...or buying, for that matter, the dvd set.

And if that doesn't do it, just catch Betty's blog, Welcome to the Drapers.

Hilarious.

Father and Son Tour de France

Before the start of le Tour, Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG site had a video of Lance running into a father and his 8 year old son riding the Col du Columbiere. Lance was on his final training ride and he passed them--and they were all decked out in their LIVESTRONG gear.

Tour de France Stage 20: Final Training Video | LIVESTRONG.COM

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They are from California, and they're doing a blog about their trip, 2009 Father & Son Tour de France.

After their encounter with Lance, they've also appeared on Trek's website:

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/trek_life/video/10/episode_ten

How fun would this be? I can see taking my girls on a trip like this (they speak French fluently, so of course I would have to take them). We would, however, not be riding bikes or camping....in fact a lot of French hotels are "rustic" enough for us. And unlike most Americans, I can drive a 5 speed, so I think we'd just rent a car...and we are pretty good hikers, living on that mountain. So I can see it happening. Better start saving!

What a trip and what a memory.

Widespread Panic

Well, I just looked at the calendar and that long summer stretching in front of me is fast approaching the end. School starts August 10th around here and J3 will be a Senior. My third time through this, I know I won't have a moment's peace until sometime next August when we (hopefully) send him away to college. Not that that's a sure thing, considering his first attempt at the SAT. Gawd awful is all I'm going to say.

Anyway, I digress.

The major panic set in when I realized that I have only this week to get the rest of J1's stuff together, packed, painted, etc. before the move to Houston. Even though we're not going until the 25th, we'll be gone the whole week prior and we'll arrive home, throw stuff in the moving truck and start driving. Yikes. Right now she's packed with the idea that she's moving into a dorm room. In fact it looks exactly like when she left for college....she took a few thing, left the rest where they were and said "so long, see ya sometime". I think she's not getting it. She's moving. For good. Take it all with you because we are not your storage shed.

The battery in her car is dead and the trunk won't open, so that needs to be taken care of this week before we leave for Bermuda. I have 4 chairs to paint, a table to refinish and a store room to go through to see what else she will need. I'm staying on a few days in Houston, but time flies when you're trying to put a house together.

And I should be working. Like right now. I haven't filed anything for a long, long, long (I mean LONG) time and everytime we need something we have to go through piles. The boss is not happy. At all.

And the kicker.....well, it's le tour. I can't stop watching. I'm addicted. I watch it every time it's on--that's 4 times a day.....live in the morning, then reruns, then expanded prime time coverage. I can't believe I'm going to be in Bermuda during the last week and driving all day to Houston while they're climbing Mont Ventoux.

Thank goodness today is a rest day. I gotta get something done.

Shopping Tip

I strongly suggest that if the only thing you've had to eat all day is a peach, a banana and a frozen strawberry bar, do not go to Costco at 3 pm. On a Saturday.

Some weird and funky stuff will end up in your cart and you will be $300 poorer.

FYI.

Berry Berry Delicious

I'm pretty sure I could eat the entire box in one sitting. 80 calories. Berry yummy.

Lazy Days

The dog days have arrived. These have to be the dog days, because our school starts so early, we'll be back in 4 or 5 weeks and summer will be kaput.

J4 has one more day of summer school left and I am praying he passes math. He can drop his lowest test grade and lordy, he surely needs to drop it. I think it was a 47 that he earned the week we were gone....with tutoring. So hopefully we can say bye bye to that one and hello to sophomore standing next school year.

J3 is working this week, filling in as a counselor at our church's day camp. He's such an airhead, he didn't even realize that this is the week that his classmates are off to Europe. He never even brought it up, so who knows if he ever heard the announcement about signing up for it. The girls went between their Junior and Senior years, but he never even asked. Not that we'd let him go...he was in too much trouble this year. But I find it quite telling that he's clueless that it's even happening.

J2 is off to Indianapolis this weekend for a Dance Marathon convention. She's on the steering committee for Tech's DM, so she's driving up there with 3 other committee members. J4 went to Orlando for the same thing last summer. Hey, a weekend away is a weekend away. Four girls in a hotel with college students from all over the US....well, what's not to like about that?

And speaking of weekends away.....DOTR is heading to Michigan to go fishing. His friend's brother keeps calling and bragging about all the walleye he is catching. Well, them's fightin' words, dontcha know! So off they go and I'm all for it. He's leaving Friday morning and won't be back until Monday night. Ah, a blessed weekend alone. Who could ask for anything more?

I always say that in my next life, I'm coming back as one of my kids because they get to do everything. Well, I'm never disappointed. J1 spent the weekend of the 4th with 8 members of her training class. First they went to Boston and crashed for one night at the apartment of one of the guys who went to Boston College. Then they headed to Newport RI to stay on the sailboat belonging to the family of one of the girls in the class. They sailed around the islands and watched fireworks from the boat (I have always wanted to go to Block Island and I even have a file full of info on it). And in another case of "it's a small world after all", when J1 mentioned that she had preffed a girl from RI who joined her sorority at GT, it was OF COURSE a close family friend of the hostess. DOTR and I even met her parents and had lunch with them at Family Weekend. She's off to New York City this weekend and will stay with DOTR's 25 yr. old cousin who is a playwright (and recent UNC-Chapel Hill grad).

I'm just hoping that I'll get all the laundry done this weekend.

Le Tour

Team Columbia HTC rocked today.