Olympics, and ride with me to work

When I was growing up, the Olympics in our house was huge. Down right unpatriotic not to keep up with all the events.

Fast Forward, I'm 53 years old, so I'm remembering back, prior to the BIG money, prior to the professionals, prior to the high-tech, when the Olympics for Americans was about amateur athletes, young folks who sacrificed around school, jobs, and families to reach their goals and get to the Olympics. When the amateurs friends were sleeping in or out partying, they were practicing 7 days a week.

Now, along with the American athletes, 90% of the world altheletes you see competing in the Olympics are Americanized, they train and live here in the US. Heck, they are all good friends, they train together in the same facility, and have the same coach but they're representing different countries. They have agents - it's contracts, commercials, sexy magazine spreads, reality TV. After these Winter Olympics, I'm sure a few of 'em will be forever plastered on the tabloids along with Tiger, Britney, Paris, and Michael. There's no underdog athlete for me to pull for anymore. My patriotic loyalties seem kinda silly.

In 1913, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic decathlon and pentathlon medals, because he had played minor league baseball for $25 per week. His medals were eventually returned, but not until almost 30 years after his death. In the 2008 Beijing games, the USA basketball players made a combined $160,552,278 last year in NBA salary alone. That's over $160M, between 12 men. While Thorpe's medals were eventually returned, the fact remains that the Olympics were originally intended to be an amateur competition, and while some sports have stayed true to that, too many have turned into exhibitions of multi-millionaires.

Hey, I don't blame anybody for making money, if the opportunities were there for me, I'd be grabbing for a big piece of the pie too. I'm just sayin' as a spectator, I still enjoy the Olympics on TV somewhat but with all the gloss and greed now involved, it just doesn't hold the appeal for me like it did years ago.

Feb 14 photo's

We actually saw the sun today but our local weatherman says - We got a look at the sun today and temperatures were milder than recent days. Hope you enjoyed the break--because it's going to be a long, wintry week!

Here's a cute Valentine girl, very pregnant


The 6 girls did some picking on a sunny bank.




another cute girl, also pregnant, due April 1st

the sunshine sedated us like a drug

coming up our road

snow day & Broccoli-Cheddar Quiche

Joanna didn't have to go to work today, Appalachian State University shut down due to the blizzard. The University HATES to close, the powers-that-be have to really be cornered and under duress first.

Broccoli-Cheddar Quiche, here's what I do, I don't actually measure anything, quiche is difficult to screw up. Here is a basic recipe, throw in whatever you like or have on hand - crumbled bacon, minced onion, spinach, etc. You can use different cheeses too, we just like sharp cheddar the best.

1 deep-dish pie crust
1 cup or more of sharp Cheddar Cheese
3 Tbs melted butter
frozen broccoli florets, or chopped broccoli
5 fresh eggs from your darling girls,
(old, factory eggs from the grocery store if you must)
1 cup of fresh goats milk from your precious girls,
(cows milk full of horomones from the grocery store if you must)

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Bake the pie crust for a few minutes, then pull it out, sprinkle half of the cheese evenly onto bottom of crust. lay in some frozen broccoli covering the bottom, add remaining cheese.

BEAT eggs, add butter and milk until well blended; pour over ingredients in crust.

For the outside crust, I beat one egg and some water in a small bowl, coat the edges well.

BAKE 45 min, making sure the center is fairly solid
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To Matt at FootHillsPoultry - FYI, since the Morganton Poultry Show cancelled, we've planned to meet Pat in Marion Saturday morning to pick up the Wheaton Rooster. Thx for your help.

blizzard & hanging with the girls

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At the conference, two gals from our 3rd-party administrator also attended, we had a good time together. Leslie and Heather took me to Sticky Fingers.

At the Concord Mills Mall, MakeupMan put on his moves.

blogging from the motel room

Lucky me, I won a free trip near Charlotte to a 2-day Drug and Alcohol Program Manager Compliance Training Conference :-( . I took some photo's and a video before I left the mountain. Now, at 11:15PM, in my room, I'm eating grapes and pistachio's as I type.


Drove down, checked into the room, high tailed it to the IMAX theatre, $14 for the ticket, $11 for the popcorn and coke, and watched AVATAR in 3D, awesome. It's basically "Dances with Wolves" in outer space; the tale of a U.S. soldier "going native." Lot's of life lessons and things to ponder in that film. I'll be thinking more about this movie the next few days, taking my NyQuil now.

Closed & Quiche

The Boone Police Department is advising that everyone stay home. The National Weather Service’s Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for the High Country until 4:00 p.m. Saturday.

That's the bad news but the good news is - everything in Town shut down due to heavy icing and snow, and I didn't have to go to work today! When the University shuts down, it must be treacherous. I got the "call" at 5:45AM, since I'm the media person, I contacted the radio station and updated some webpages, and went back to bed.

Got up later and I threw a quiche together.

Mike's out shoveling.