Chills, Thrills and Spills!

Let me tell you this -if scary things, exciting things, heartbreaking things are high in keeping one on edge, and by doing that, away from foods too, then much of what I experienced today should qualify as at least some of the top 10 fat burners and as such, should have burned off lots and lots of calories for me!

First off, there was the episode this afternoon when I took Sammy out for our walk. Now the walk alone is a good fat burner, for sure but when we got oh, about a quarter of a mile from the house, we encountered our neighbor and his granddaughter out walking their new dog. Hmm. Right there, the adrenaline began to kick in for Sammy and also for me!

I'm thinking uh oh, another dog on a leash and how are these two going to react to each other.

Well, they did their thing with the sniffing every inch of the others body, of course and then, there was the obligatory little growls too but very shortly the way they were hopping around, jumping at each other, Joe (my neighbor) and I decided it looked like they would not get into a fight and could be considered to be friends.

It was just about that time though that Sammy -who may be small in stature but has a whole lot of strength in him -made a little lunge at the other dog -in playfulness -and in doing that, don't you just know he snapped the lead on his leash then too!

Wonderful! NOT!

It took me a little scampering around in the middle of the road to grab him and pick him up and then, I had to carry him back home to boot! The carrying of the dog should have counted for the extra caloric burn I would have had if we could have finished the entire walk, don't 'cha think?

So I got home and hurried up to call Mandy -who was over in Clearfield with Maya, attending a birthday party for one of Maya's classmates at the Fun Central there to tell Mandy to stop at Walmart before coming home and pick up a new leash for simple Sammy. She wasn't overly excited about doing that till I reminded her without a leash, there will be no walking him and with no walking him, no exercise for me plus there would be the added attraction of cleaning up unwanted doggie messes in the house then too.

I think the latter part of that paragraph is what got her attention and she came home with a new leash for Sir Muttley.

Then, this evening I was working on the tabletopper -of course -and watching the weekend version of Inside Edition and lo and behold, what did I see but a bit about the World's Wackiest Weatherman! Anyone seen this guy? Well, it's Jim Kocek, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, which is the place where I worked for seven years back in the 90s! He's on YouTube and yes, he is crazy as a loon with some of the antics he goes into while giving the weather forecasts! It was -for me -a bit of a thrill to see someone I know, that I had worked with -on national tv, ya know!

The rest of the night I spent embroidering -yes, indeed -and also watching the Olympics from Vancouver, BC.

I really enjoy the Winter Olympics -a lot! I like the Summer Olympics well enough -true, but I do enjoy the Winter Games a bit more.

Though it was heartbreaking to realize that one of the Olympians had lost his life yesterday in the luge accident, the competitions I was really most interested in tonight had their fair share of excitement -lots and lots of thrills as well as spills too.

I like the Speed Skating Competitions and tonight, watching Apolo Ohno compete, you have to know I was pulling for him to win. And for a while it didn't look like it was going to end up with him getting a medal until the two Korean skaters -who had been in, I believe, 2nd and 3rd places, wiped out at the very end of the race! Wow! Talk about excitement there was a lot going on there and I was really fired up then too. Then I thought about how heartbreaking that also had to be for the two skaters who had been in front of Ohno and J.R. Celski and how they had victory right in front of them and then, just like that, had it snatched from the too. Don't get me wrong -I'm glad Ohno and Celski came in 2nd and 3rd and that gives the U.S. a silver and a bronze medal but I just have a soft spot I guess for a hard-fought race to the very end -and that's what that was, wasn't it?

The Moguls Ski Competition is one of my favorites of the Winter Olympics too. And I will confess that a big part of me was rooting for the Canadian Skier, Jen Heil, to bring home a gold medal and have the added honor then of being the very first Canadian to get a gold medal on Canadian soil.

If you saw her race, you have to admit she is good -damned good. That's for sure!

But if you saw the races, you also have to concede to the excitement that the US Women's Skiers brought to this event too!

No doubt about it but Hannah Kearney sure did put on explosive show in her run and showed everyone what a great skier she really is. That she took home a Gold and Shannon Bahrke of the US team won Bronze with Ms. Heil in the middle, with a Silver, speaks legions about the abilities of all three of these young women!

Incredible skills demonstrated, really, by all the competitors in this race. I watched with my heart in my throat, as each one came down over the course -doing the jumps, weaving in and out with such precision and yes, I confess that I cried too over the competitors who lost their footing, their balance and chance for this year's Olympics to bring home a medal for their own country too.

It was definitely an exciting night for me and one I'm not likely to forget either -not for a long while. I'm proud as punch of the competitors who represented our country and won, as well as those whose luck didn't hold out this time. And, I'm also equally proud of all the athletes I watched perform tonight regardless of what country they are from.

Great games! Terrific games!

Oh -and before I forget -yes, I finished the tabletopper too! All that excitement had my fingers and needle moving faster than ever it seemed.
Maybe watching the Olympics gives me that competitive surge I need to get some more of my embroidery projects completed quickly too! One can only hope!