Not so sleeping giant

The Strib was disappointing today. A bunch of people must be on vacation or something.

But I am fascinated by the lengths to which China will go (and can go) to make itself fit to host the Olympics. The latest installment: an AP story from the Strib and more detail found by Google News.

I can't imagine living in a country where (a) this amount of clean up would be required, and (b) the government could just shut down whole industries or ban car traffic to achieve it.

What you've been waiting for

Here we are, flying through the air on the canopy tour. This was the nice, short, relaxing first zipline where we were instructed to sit upright and smile for the camera. The rest of the time we had to sit back in a sort of upside-down crouch, and probably looked a bit more scared or much more exhilarated, depending.

Random useless information about my life

If you've been listening to me complain about how swamped I am at work. you'll be happy to know I got nearly caught up today. It was mostly because not a single agency called me all day. Not one. I actually thought the IP phones were down again (an almost weekly occurrence) but they weren't! A few more days like this and I might be able to start taking occasional lunch breaks again.

I love Redbox, the machine that rents movies at McDonald's. Crazy John said it was the best thing ever, and I finally tried it. It had a surprising array of movies for $1 per night, and it will send you polite emails letting you know when you have rented and returned a movie.

I had a baby spinach salad for dinner tonight. This wouldn't have been exciting, except that the cats discovered their intense love for baby spinach. They kept trying to run off with the spinach leaves. I would have taken a picture except I was worried about the puking that would follow if I let them actually ingest a leaf.

Oh, and a nice young man called from the U tonight to thank me for my recent donation (to the scholarship fund that paid a portion of my master's). I enjoy good strategy--and that was excellent strategy. I will totally give to the U again soon. Macalester could learn a thing or two.

Mexico was great

I honestly don't think I used my brain for an entire week. It was great.

Our favorite view


Mexican beach peddler with Vikings backpack

Almost famous

Finally, the dynamic duo of Jackson and Audrey have made it to the pet sitters' website. They're about midway down the page, and they are pretty darn excited about it. In fact, they're sitting here giving me the usual vacant looks just to prove it.

I'm honestly a bit worried they like the pet sitters more than they like me.