Bicycles & Sailboats

I took down the American flag on Wednesday morning and put up the sailboat flag...this will stay up until I put up my Virginia flag on August 23. I cannot believe we are that close to football season!!!

Now that Wimbledon is over (which ended with an awesome 5-setter pitting Federer against Nadal), I have started watching the Tour de France, which is interesting, but at this early stage, it is hard to pick someone you like. I think once the mountain stages start, the peleton will spread out and the leaders will emerge. Probably nothing like what happened when Lance Armstrong was on the Tour however.

Some new shows I've started DVR-ing: Ice Road Truckers (History Channel) - About trucking goods from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada to a diamond mind near the Arctic Circle; The States (History Channel) - Never seen this, but it's an hour-long show about 4 states at a time...recommended to me.

Drought news: We've actually had a decent amount of rain, and it's been awfully cloudy lately, but no loosening of water restrictions yet. Tuesday is the last day for me to water my new Japanese holly, but I'm not worried because I feel it will stay alive. The gigantic Japanese holly I was given and that I cut back has plentiful new growth on it, so I won't be replacing that either. Looks like I'll be down to the traditional 10 hours/week.

Finally, getting ready to go to Huntsville, Alabama next weekend...we're taking the most direct route, using state and county roads to get there, since Mapquest takes us all the way to Birmingham and then north, which cannot be any faster and will definitely be much less scenic. This way we'll get to see Lake Guntersville and Cloudmont Ski (yes skiing in Alabama) area. The wedding is a 250-person black-tie affair.