Showering At The Olympics.

Seems like time is flying. It's day 7 of my 8 days off in a row, and it doesn't even feel like I've taken time off. It's been a blur of house work, classes, showers, and Olympic games. I still don't feel rested. I start work on the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, so I'll probably have something interesting to say about that.

But I did ponder a few interesting thoughts this week.

Yesterday we bought some of the big ticket items from our baby registry, namely the mattress for the crib and the glider chair. The mattress was easy to assemble, I just slid it into the crib and called it a day. The glider was easy to assemble too, but the realization was that it's a large chair and it's a small babies room/Dan's closet. So with a little bit of maneuvering, I think we've found the spot for the glider along the wardrobes that are full of my clothes. At first, I was a little disappointed that I had to now perform a blend of tai chi and yoga to slink around the glider to get to my clothes. But the more I think about it, after Sean Patrick is born, I'm not gonna be wearing the nice clothes I've got boxed in. This all may just work out.

The Olympics are over. I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal. I really do like the Olympics and sports in general and as I've said before, it's always nice to be exposed to different cultures and their choices in sport. America loves competition, that's why we had the most athletes and the most medals. I was sad at first when the women's softball team lost the gold medal game to Japan, and at the same time, happy we lost thus proving softball is a world sport, and should remain in the Olympics. Sort of the same way I felt in 2004 when our basketball team only got the bronze.

And speaking of accomplishments, how about that Brian Clay guy winning the decathlon at the Olympics? Why proud? Da buggah when go Castle High School, where I went grad.

And speaking of Hawai'i, I was quite proud of those little leaguers from Waipi'o. The pretty much walked all over Mexico in the finale. I stumbled on a chat room thread at the Honolulu Advertiser website regarding the little league win. I can't find it now, but it was really interesting because there was one person posting and everyone else was attacking him. What he was saying was designed to incite anger and retaliation, mostly by saying that Hawai'i people put to much emphasis on state pride and being a rabid fan was ridiculous. Claiming to be a former wide receiver at the University of Florida, he stated that college and professional athletes have no respect for the fans, especially the ones that hang on every win and loss.

Since I can't find the thread, I'm going to post my rebuttal here.

While I agree with you that rabid fans are ridiculous, saying that you have no respect for them is really a kick in the teeth to all professional athletes. Fans are the ones that pay their salaries. Fans are the ones that can give the psychological boost to the players when needed. Why do you think the term, "home field advantage" exists? There are many fans out there who love there sport and love their team, but aren't living and dying by wins and losses. They at least deserve your respect, because they give you respect for your talents. I also find nothing wrong with a little Hawai'i pride. As a state, we get little respect as anything but an exotic vacation spot that also happens to speak English and takes U.S. dollars. When we show that we have more, like talent on the playing field, we have pride. If you had seen the game, you would have heard the parents chanting, "USA! USA!" against the opposing team chanting, "Mexico! Mexico!". And before I step off the soap box, it should be noted, that others were putting the emphasis on Hawai'i before the Hawai'ians were. As if to say, "We can't believe Hawai'i has another little league team in the world series! The first one wasn't a fluke!"

I pick up my soap box, and leave the corner...

We also finished our baby classes this weekend, save one tonight on breast feeding. I found the classes informative and interesting, but what I didn't much care for were some of the other couples in class who couldn't seem to grasp the concept that the teacher was telling us about all the things that COUL D happen during child birth not that everything WILL happen. I think my favorite question, "Will I still get vaginal tearing if I get a C-section?" Um.... No.

It was also a good advertisement to show that the interweb machine doesn't always give you good information. There were a few couples asking questions that you could see in the teachers eyes that they were just being alarmist. I just wanted to hear the teacher say something like, "Did you look that up on the internet? Yeah, I thought so." with a roll of the eyes. Instead, she would answer as politically correct as she could that there was often a less than 1% chance of that happening during their birth. Just because the internet says it happens doesn't mean it will happen to you.

My favorite part of the entire 4 classes was when the teacher asked for any mother who's not going to let the father touch the baby raise your hand, and one lady did. When everybody looked at her, she basically sold her partner out by saying he was going to be too rough with the baby. Nice going lady.

And finally, we had our baby shower this past weekend. We saw people we hadn't seen in years. Thank you all for coming and showering us with some terrific gifts. We have some very giving friends and some very talented ones to boot. Big Mahalos to Shawn and Mia for having the party at their house. Their backyard is gorgeous. Here's some photos I stole from Anita. Thanks Anita!

It ain't a party unless it's catered by L&L Hawai'ian Barbecue! A little bit of home here in L.A.. And everyone likes it, I think.


Somehow, Mimi keeps showing up for the important events in our life. She was at our wedding and now she shows up at our baby shower. Why is this amazing? Because she lives in Pittsburgh! She is a talented young woman. She made the baby gifts herself!



And speaking of talented, here's another one, Rachel. We hadn't seen her in quite sometime, mostly because Dan is always on tour and getting together when I'm home never seems to happen. But she also made all the baby gifts herself. We are so lucky to have friends like this. But sadness.. She is moving to New York City soon.


This is Kevin "Mutherf**king" Cauley. The ONLY single dude to show up at the party. The other men where there with their significant others. Thank you Kevin for the awesome gift. It's already given me hours of entertainment.


I don't know who these two chicks are, they just sort of showed up at the party drank our wine, ate our food, mumbled something my blog and then left.

...