Stuff, Stuff and more Stuff

Well, I finally finished watching the Tour de France last night and I have to say I'm a little pissed at the organizers. As the peloton entered Paris they announced that due to the rain that they would take the time at beginning of lap 1 of the Champs Elysees and that all time bonuses would be eliminated. The sprinters would still be going for points for the Green Jersey, but there would be no time bonuses given. Okay, that meant that Levi Leipheimer finished in fifth. Well, the track dried out and Alexandre Vinokourov went for the stage win (which he totally deserved). I was happy for him since his team had treated him so abominably during the Tour. But then the organizers announced that since the sun had come out that they were re-instating the time bonuses and therefore Vino passed Levi for fifth place, but from what I could tell from the broadcast that news was never passed on to the riders. Levi therefore got screwed. Thor Hushovd of Norway managed to hold onto the Green Jersey and I was happy.

For the first time in Tour history, after the podium presentations and the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner Bernard Hinault (five-time Tour winner) handed Lance a microphone and the winner gave a speech. He gave credit to Jan Ulrich for being a worthy competitor these last six years (Jan didn't race in Lance's first win) and then he talked about how hard it was to race against 2nd place finisher, Ivan Basso, as he's a good friend. Unfortunately, OLN felt the need to show "rock star girlfriend Sheryl Crow." The only good thing about her dating Lance is that maybe she won't record any more records. God, her voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard.

And that will conclude the 2005 edition of Kathleen's Assessment of the Tour de France.

While watching the coverage for the tour, however, I saw a commercial for America's Cup. I was thinking that knowing nothing about this type of racing that it might be interesting to check out. Then I saw when it'll be – June 23, 2007. I'm sorry, but why on earth is OLN advertising TWO YEARS IN ADVANCE??? And I just found out why OLN is only on Comcast cable here in Detroit and not WOW or dishes, it's because Comcast owns OLN. So, even though I hate Comcast with a passion, I can never give them up as long as they continue to cover the Tour de France. Now if they'd just cover the Vuelta a España later in the year I'd be really happy.

It's nice to someone trying to fight off Wal-Mart. Who knows how successful they'll be, although all they really need to do is threaten to set up a union and Wal-Mart will be gone faster than you can say AFL-CIO.

I found this column to be extremely interesting. It talks about the love affair that this country has with the present President.

And this is one of those feel good stories that so rarely occur. A mother is reunited with her daughter three years after she's kidnapped by the father and taken out of the country, and this is how they've reconnected.

Yesterday I was getting ready to leave work when the heavens opened and just dumped rain on the metropolitan Detroit area. I mean, it was coming down in buckets and the wind was blowing the tree outside the window sideways. I decided that I would wait until the rain slowed down a touch before I started my walk home. I'm really really smart that way. And joy of joys, it was cool throughout the night and I got some sleep and even was able to put my make-up on at home. Pure excitement! And this lovely weather is supposed to stick around for at least a few days. Yippee!!!

I was back the gym yet again trying to lose this extra weight. I've gotten desperate. I did an hour on the treadmill and then another hour on the elliptical. That's one good thing about the new 8 hour workdays, I can get to the gym before the majority of people and can get an hour in, instead of the usual 20 minutes when people are waiting. Will it work? If it doesn't I'm going to pick up the fucking treadmill and throw it through the glass blocks. LOL! Yeah, right. Like I'm doing any weight training!