the mad sports man

end of august and lori-ann muenzer. good grief. end of august already. lots happened. my birthday, darrens visit, the athens games, and the world cup of hockey tournament began yesterday. canada played its first game today and beat the u.s. 2-1. got to meet olympic gold medalist lori-ann muenzer today. very cool.got her autograph and got to check out her medal. its heavy. gourgeous medal. a once-in-a-lifetime chance and i fulfilled it. great end to august.

a great sunday night what a night! the closing ceremonies happened in athens tonight, and it was fantastic. the u.s. finished the olympics with 103 medals, then russia with 92 and china with 63. canada finished with 12. next up - the winter games in torino, italy in 2006 followed by the summer games in beijing in 2008. meanwhile in atlanta, barry bonds hit 2 more home runs to bump his total to 696 career hr's. san francisco has a 6 game homestand against colorado and arizona from august 31 to september 5. he might hit the 4 hr's to make 700. then its babe ruth with his 714 hr's. there is a ways to go to the end of the season. he MAY get to babe ruth. well see.

two more medals and night racing from bristol canada picked up two more medals today. a silver from ross mcdonald and mike wolfs in sailing star class and a bronze from caroline brunet in womens k1 500m kayaking. very cool. we now have 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze. great race from bristol, tenn. dale earnhardt jr won on the 0.533 miler. dominated the race and led the most laps. a great saturday for sure

how about a gold to go adam van koeverden just picked up a gold medal. WOOOOHOOOO! that to go with his bronze at this time yesterday. wow. what else can i say? wow. we now have 10 medals. 3 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze. atta boy, adam.

a silver, a night at telus field and barry bonds canada picked up a silver way earlier today (more like early this morning here). marie-helene premont in womens mountain bike cross country cycling. heard about it at 6:30 this morning. went to watch the trappers at the ball park tonight. the trappers beat salt lake stingers 3-0. andres galarraga is with the stingers. anaheim angels signed him to a minor league contract. i hope to see him in the majors again. got his autograph too. a great night there. barry bonds hit one home run against atlanta tonight. he has 694 home runs now. getting there slowly.

canada just got a bronze adam van koeverden picked up a bronze in the k1 1000m finals. just happened 40 minutes ago. meanwhile steven giles finished 5th in the c1 1000m finals. lori-ann muenzer came home with her gold. she landed at the international airport at 10:52pm and got to meet up with family and friends. hopefully more medals.

a golden greek moment WOW! fani halkia of greece wins the womens 400m hurdles. a great moment for her and for greece. ive been pulling for any greek athlete. moreso when i get to watch on t.v. i turned to the cbc halfway through the race and iinstantly heard the cheering crowd. i instantly knew there was a greek up front, so i started rooing for her too. the greeks are celebrating (i think they still are - they are 9 hours ahead) and im happy for her. go greece.

2 medals today canada got 2 medals today. a gold from lori-ann muenzer in womens 500m sprint and a silver from alexandre despatie in the 3m springboard diving. great job guys.

a silver lining and october weather canada won its third medal today. tonya verbeek won it in womens wrestling in the 55 kg class. way to go. it sure felt like october today. rainy and windy on top of it being very cool out. got up to 11c. world series weather, and its only august. very unisual to wear a winter coat in the middle of august. obviously hasn't been much of a summer.

a golden day and another home run canada got its first gold today. kyle shewfelt wins it in mens floor exercise after, if i heard right, a complicated tie break. meanwhile in the mens 100m. it ended up the closest finish since 1980. the winning time was 9.85 seconds, won by an american. 2nd was 9.86 and 3rd was 9.87. barry bonds, with one homer today, now has 693 home runs. i can almost smell 700 here.

another medal for canada and part 4 canada got their second medal in womens trampoline. cangrats to karen cockburn. that gives us 2 medals - a silver and bronze. track and field events begun today. hopefully more medals. all the hacked up branches are gone. the cherry tree will be trimmed up tomorrow. by the end of the day, all the branches that got put on the truck today and the branches that'll go tomorrow will be buh-bye.

barry bonds and a late back yard makeover part 3 barry bonds hit one homr run in the second game of their doubleheader against montreal. he had one at bat in a pinch-hitting role and popped out in the 8th inning in game one. his home run gives him 692 in his career. the giants next game is friday at home to the n.y. mets to begin a 3 game set. the yard overhaul happened on sunday. the remainder of "the growth" between the sidewalk and the house is gone. there's a lot more room in the "forest" in the backyard. it's called the forest because it makes the backyard look like and reminds me of being at a campsite. lot less branches. the trees are still there - except the spruce tree is gone. the "crew" will be back friday. at least thats the plan. the cut up branches should be gone and the cherry tree will be trimmed. the whole yard should look good. part 4 to come soon.

barry bonds, mark texiera, ray houghton and my 100th post barry bonds hit 2 hrs tonight. he is at 691 career home runs. the giants play a double header tomorrow. meanwhile mark texiera of the texas rangers hit for the cycle. thats a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. he also drove in 7 runs in a 16-5 win over cleveland. a good friend of myself and darren is heading for south korea in a matter of hours. yep ray is heading there to teach english as a second language (i think thats what he's doing). a 13 hour flight leaving at 6:25 tomorrow morning. ouch. how do i know? he just phoned me and told me so. a great finish to my 100th post with these events. i already looked all that earlier info, so you dont have to. the countdown is at 0. let's go racing.

canada's first medal in athens canada won its first medal. a bronze in women's 10m syncronized platform diving. congrats to blythe hartley of vancouver and edmilie heymans of greenville park, quebec. hopefully more to come.

olympics and racing day 2 of the olympics happened. puerto rico beat the u.s. 92-73 in mens basketball. ouch. got the car race at watkins glen going. the race was this morning, but with the olympics on, the race got taped and it is now being aired. what can you do?

a great opening and barry bonds a wonderful opening of the 28th olympiad in athens today. 4 plus hours of coverage. 202 nations in this years olympics. made for a long night, but that doesn't matter. it's all about the athletes. it was worth watching and its on tape. hopefully the olympic games go well. barry bonds hit his 689th career home run tonite. yes, only 11 more to 700. periodic updates will happen. he will get there.

hours away from athens yes we are hours away from the OFFICIAL opening ceremonies in athens. could be a very cool experience. they will begin at aprox. 20h athens time, which i figured out it is a 9 hour difference between edmonton and athens. i must tape the opening ceremonies. of course competition started already with womens soccer and archery. let the games begin.

2 days to athens and 2002 memories the olympics are close. little more than 48 hours to the opening ceremonies. im excited. im raring to go here. im excited now as i was in 2002 in salt lake for the winter games. at least the 2002 games i got to watch. of course that was helped when darren and i went to saskatchewan for his china farewell tour and my holiday from work. that was fun. great memories for sure. even darren watched some of the olympics. whether it was at his grandparents in north battleford or at his aunt's and uncle's in saskatoon, the olympics were on. quite the trip and quite the olympics.

major yard work part 2 and brickyard 400 more major work yesterday. the "mutated" bush in the front got cleaned out. no more dead branches, needles on the ground, and other growth - like another tree by the sidewalk. as far as the growth between the house and the sidewalk, bigtime eyesore is gone except for the bit in the corner. no bush either. some in the back dissapeared too. there WAS a tree growing there too, and now its gone. geex there sure are a lot of branches and bags. i dont know when they will be back. probably within the next day or two. jeff gordon won yesterdays brickyeard 400 in indianapolis and yes the home of the indianapolis 500. what makes his win remarkable - it was his 4th brickyard win in the race's 11th running. added to that the fact that four drivers have won the indy 500 four times as well, and that race has been running since 1911 (interupted a couple of time by two world wars). the indianapolis motor speedway was opened in 1

a beginning of major yard project a major undertaking began today, with help of some friends that we know here. a major tree removal started this afternoon. it was going when i got home from work. lot of dead branches removed from one of the trees in the front yard and the grass and bushes between the sidewalk and house going to the back also. more will be removed during the week. front tree made the front yard a little more wide open. looking forward to one tree in the back to come down. make more room and create more daylight. gonna look good.

a bluegrass evening and unfinished business 3 hours of bluegrass tonite. yeehaa! not minister faust for "the phantom pyramid" so rob baker has 3 hours of bluegrass tonite. no doug richie tonite either. he is at the folk fest, so rob is going solo. hmm he probably feels lonely, ha ha. a wonderful thursday night i got some "unfinished business" completed today after work. yesterday i STARTED mowing the lawn, but after two rain delays (and an attempt to mow the side lawn - wet) i decided to postpone it until today. good thing it was a nice day. otherwise i would not have been happy.

san francisco evening san francisco giants beat cincinnati reds 11-0, helped by barry bonds 2 hr's. he is up to 687 career hr's. getting closer to 700. after that milestone, babe ruth's 714. that may happen late this season or early next season. right now, we worry about 700.

a great birthday today is my 30th birthday. the day i dreaded ended up being a pretty good one. got to hang with a few friends after work today, which made it even better. of course my co-workers made my birthday pretty good too, so i can't complain. almost time for bed though. i'm wiped.

almost time to dread, baseball and car racing aaahhh car racing. taped it while i was working and now i'm watching it. racing in pocono. my favorite track - its 3 sided. meanwhile im keeping an eye on st.louis and san francisco. barry bonds is 15 hr's away from 700. he may get there come the end of the season. i'm dreading tomorrow, being my, ugh, 30th birthday. i may or may not like it, who knows.