Back in Action

Sorry for the delay! Our new interesting development here in the media center is that security guys have started walking by with some sort of sensor that makes noise kind of like the ticking wands they wave over you at the airport. Sitting on the aisle in our prime real estate by the tv monitors (11 of them- none of which play video, just stats), my new Croatian work buddy and I are trying to figure out what sort of rays they're emitting and what kind of threat they are hunting. I also had trouble logging into the blog this morning and got scared, but it's a go!

I managed to steal away for a dinner out with some TV friends I worked with in Valencia at the America's Cup who also happen to be working here. As nice as the village is, only going to a social dinner twice since the 30th is reason enough get out of dodge. We ordered a Teppanyaki assortment type thing and it was great to just eat something outside the village cafeteria, but then the chef dumped a bowl of a diced meat explained to us as, "It's like a snake." I didn't think it was eel either, so resolved to pass on that-- especially when the bowl was filled with part meat and part gelatinous blood-glop. Luckily for us, he was cooking it for another table and it disappeared before we got a chance to get too grossed out.

As I talked to my friend about the changes in professional sailing, I brought up the infamous fact that some of our friends were in the cast of the movie, "Wind." Little did I know my friend sitting right beside me played one of the most talented and memorable (minor) parts in the whole thing! He played Spidey, who climbs the mast to save the day and is tragically knocked unconscious. At that point, you think he might be dead. My heart went out to Spidey every time as I watched him clunk his way down the mast. It looked like it hurt, but he said they paid him a hefty sum to do that stunt, just once with three helecopters. So, every time he banged the mast he just thought, "Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching!" My friend said he was "hamming it up" and everybody made fun of him, but I wondered how you can ham it up if you're playing dead. How can you play extra dead?

Today's picture is an example of the ratio of volunteers to "the rest of us." The best part of this shot is that it is one tiny girl holding the Finn dolley, and all the boys just stared at her without helping. When the angry sailor asked her to pull up, she was too weak and couldn't do it. She was leaning into it, and even tried to sit down and dig in for some hidden strength, but still no help from the boys. (You'll see one boy crouching down with her, but he was just kind of making fun of her and pinching her bicep.) After all that the sailor ended up doing it himself.