Flashback Friday - Olympic Flashback

It seems like it's been FOREVER since I participated in the Flashback Friday.  With Christmas, the New Year, getting back to work, etc., I just hadn't gotten back into my "groove" ... things are finally settling down into my new normal, so I'm thrilled to be participating today.  If you'd like to play along or read everyone else's flashbacks, click on the button above.

Did you and your family watch the Olympics when you were growing up?
Yes, indeed.  Back in the day before cable and the plethora of sports channels/programming, the Olympics were perhaps even a bigger deal than they are now ... in no small part, I think, because all the athletes back then were amateurs, not professionals.   

Which was your overall favorite - summer or winter?
I love the luge, ice hockey, speed skating, skiing and curling.  But I also love diving, gymnastics, and swimming.  I don't care for the more "artistic" events (like ice dancing or synchronized swimming).  I guess I prefer the winter Olympics, but only by a slight margin.


Which individual events were your favorites?
Ooops, I answered that above.  

Since blogging is international, which country did you cheer for? 
The U.S., unless they were no longer competing in a particular event.   

Have you ever been to an Olympics or known anyone who competed? 
No, the closest I came was when the owner of the company I went to work for right out of college had a daughter who was an excellent swimmer and was competing to enter the Olympics.  She was very good, but she never was able to make the final cut.

What are some of the hallmark memories of the Olympics that you remember? 
I'll be showing my age here.  I remember Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10, Keri Strug who helped the US win the gold medal by competing even after she injured her ankle, the 1980 "Miracle on Ice", the 1968 black power salute on the medal podium, the 1972 terrorist attack, the heartbreak of Dan Jansen in 1988, Derek Remond's father helping him cross the finish line in 1992, Eric Heiden winning 5 gold medals in 1980 and Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals in 2008 ... I'm sure that there are others that I'll think of later.

Did the Olympics ever inspire you to take a certain sport (or practice more!)? 
No, but then back in the day, there really weren't any organized sports for girls.

Do you prefer watching them the old way when everything was delayed in the days before 24-hour cable and internet? 
No.  I prefer watching the events live.

Do you watch them more or less today than you did when you were growing up? 
More today.  There's just so much more coverage (and hype?) with all the cable networks covering now (as opposed to one network coverage back in the day), so more obscure sports (like curling) and more of the preliminary rounds are covered.  And now that I'm retired, I have the time to watch during the day as well as in the evening.

What about the Special Olympics? Have you ever had any involvement with them?
No, I haven't, other than financial support.

Food for thought

A friend posted this on his Facebook page, and I thought it was worth sharing with you all.

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT. DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND, "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE."

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS, WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH .

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING, BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:  "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE."

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE FRIEND REPLIED, "WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.

BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

Today is not a work day, so I'm working on my quilt.  I've got all 42 star blocks finished and am now squaring them up.  After I've finished that, I hope to start sub-cutting the strips to make the logs and start sewing together the log-cabin blocks.  Squaring up is slow, exacting work, so I don't know how much I'll get done today ... but it's nice to have a whole day to work on this quilt. 

I haven't done any quilting on the doll quilt, so I'm going to try to get to that this evening (I like to sit in my recliner in the great room with DH and do handwork in the evenings).

I took a cooking class (non-participatory) last night at a local grocery store ... went with my friend/neighbor next door and another neighbor.  The food was delicious (but most of it was definitely NOT low calorie!).  It was pretty pricey; I'm still waiting for the day where DD & I can taking classes at the Viking Cooking School over in St. Louis; the price for their classes aren't that much more than the one here locally, but it sounds like the lessons would be far more useful.  And while I enjoy my time with my friends, nothing beats spending time with DD.  ;-)

We have snow flurries in the forecast ... haven't seen any yet ... soon, I hope.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - Super Bowl Prep Edition

Joyce has come up with 8 more wonderful questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge ... a nice combination of easy-peasy questions and thought-provoking questions.  If you'd like to join in (please do!), just click on the button above.

And now, without further ado, I bring you the answers to this week's questions:

1. Will you watch the Super Bowl? If so who will you root for? If you are outside the USA what is the 'big deal sporting event' in your own country?
Yes, I'll watch the Super Bowl.  Not because I'm a football fan (because I'm definitely not), but because it's just THE. THING to do.  Besides, it coincides with some birthdays in the family, so we usually have a birthday/Super Bowl combo party.  I'm not much of a fan of either team, so I'll probably cheer for who everyone else in the party is cheering for.

2. Is ignorance bliss?

In my little world, yes.  My glasses are very definitely rose-tinted.  But I know that it's not realistic nor healthy and that living in reality is best.

3. Which of the seven dwarfs are you? (and just in case your Disney is a little bit rusty, here they are-Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy)

Bashful ... I'm really very shy until I get to know people well.  But I'd like to think that I've got a decent amount of Happy in me, too ... life is too short to spend it grumpy or negative.

4. When you are riding in the car with another couple how do you organize the seating? (Men up front? Women up front? Couples sit together?) And thanks to Lori at Mountain Woman at Heart for the question! Everyone go say hi to Lori. 

We usually do men in the front (so they can talk about their manly things) and women in the back (so we women can talk about the IMPORTANT things ... like grandbabies!).

5. What is beauty?

TRUE beauty is not what you see on the outside, regardless of what the world tries to tell us.  And the Judge of true beauty has told us Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.  1 Peter 3:4

6. If someone asks you to bring an appetizer or a dessert to a party in their home, which would you choose? 

Dessert, simply because who doesn't love a good dessert?  Besides, desserts are easier to prepare/bake ahead so that there's no last-minute scurrying about in the kitchen.  Most of my favorite appetizers require a good bit of work and are best served piping hot right out of the oven, which isn't very conducive to taking to a party at someone else's home. 

7. What is your crowd pleasing go-to appetizer? 

Since I do dessert (see #6 please), I'm not sure I have a crowd-pleasing go-to appetizer.  If I'm asked to bring an appetizer to a party, I'd probably do something dessert-ish like a chocolate chip cheese ball or strawberries and dip. 

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm so sad ... our snow is melting (am I the only one who immediately thought the Wicked Witch of the West's line "I'm melting ... I'm melting"?).  The good news is that there's more snow in the forecast for tomorrow and early next week ... they're not predicting just how much yet, but another 3-6" would be awesome.  In case you didn't know it by now, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE snow!  ;-)

Weekend Wrap-up

It certainly wasn't a dramatic or overly exciting weekend, but I did spend it doing what I love to do, so I am counting it as a good weekend.

Friday night, I did some hand quilting on T#2's doll quilt while watching All About Eve (I can't believe I'd never seen it in its entirety ... I love those old B&W classics).

Saturday, I made some decent progress on the star blocks that form the center of the log cabin blocks of T#4's big girl quilt.  I have 1/3 of the star blocks sewn together, and I've got another 1/3 strips ready to sew into star blocks.  Piecing quilts is my least favorite part of quilting, and this one seems to be especially tedious.  And triangles give me fits.  I thought I would have better success with a specialty ruler, a quarter-inch foot on my sewing machine, and taking my time to sew carefully ... but my triangle blocks still aren't as precise as I would like. 

Sunday I attended church, did a little shopping on my way home, organized/decluttered the bookcase in the basement, and watched some football/had dinner with our friends next door.

Like I said, it wasn't a very exciting weekend ... but it was still a good one.

Blog design help?

I have a 17" screen on my laptop at home, and my background shows up nicely there.  I'm at work right now, and my columns are so wide that my background is virtually invisible.  I tried using a 2-column background, and while you could see more of the background, the columns overlapped the background in a way that looked wacky to me.  I went back to the 3-column background (that works on my laptop at home), but still, all I can see is just a little bit of my background.  I was wondering first of all if any of you can see the background (maybe it's just a "flaw" in the monitor of my work computer??).  If any of you don't see much, if any, of the background, perhaps some of you more experienced bloggers/blogger pros might have some advice or suggestions?  Thanks!

Greetings from my igloo!

At least that's what my cubicle feels like.  It was -3 today when I left the house to come to work (with a wind chill of -13).  I may have to go back to the supply room to see if there's a space heater back there.

Yesterday was a snow day, so I got to stay home and sew ... I did some more piecing on T#4's big girl quilt.  This quilt (a log-cabin variation) has 42 star blocks that form the center of log cabin blocks ... the star blocks are pieced from 5 solid squares and 4 pieced squares (which form the points of the stars).  I'm piecing the squares into strips, and 3 strips are joined to form the star block.  I've got 1/3 of the strips sewn together, and I'm hoping to get them sewn into star blocks over the weekend.  Then I'll "only" have 28 more star blocks to work on.  <sigh>  The good news is that once I've got the star blocks finished, the log cabin strips should sew on fairly quickly.  I should have a picture of a star block to post next week.  I also started hand quilting T#2's doll quilt; it was part of my local quilt guild's challenge to finish a UFO by May.  Since it's a doll quilt, I shouldn't have any trouble getting that quilted and bound by May. 

The forecast is for sub-freezing temperatures for the next 10 days or so ... so our 12 inches of snow will be here for a while.  And if that's not bad enough, we've got an inch or so in the forecast for tonight and 3-6 inches in the forecast for Sunday evening/Monday morning.  This is waaaaay more snow than we normally get ... but I'm not complaining because as most of you know, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE snow!!  So bring it on!  ;-)

Snow Day

It snowed last night ... oh yes it snowed!  DH measured the snow in the driveway, where there was 10".  This is a shot of our patio table on the deck.

All the schools here, including the University, are closed.  Even though I won't get paid (since I'm part time), having a snow day is still welcome news ... having an unexpected, unplanned day off is always a pleasure!

I'm going to do some quilting today ... I'll piece the star blocks for T#4's big girl quilt (hopefully I won't have to rip as much as I did in completing the first star block - ha!).  I also would like to start quilting on the doll quilt I made out of some leftover blocks of T#2's big girl quilt; I didn't finish it when I made her big girl quilt because she wasn't into dolls then ... but she got a doll at Christmas that she seemed to really enjoy ... so perhaps it's time to finish the doll quilt.