The Spirit of Sport

Ok, so Partner Sweater is finished as of about ten o’clock this morning.  [grand cheering fills the stadium]

Stealth Project Green is 70% finished (I told you, it’s small).  

As part of a greater project to move the garden beds in the back yard, Partner gathered the remaining onions and carrots from the back yard.  So I’ve been doing things like this:

And this:

These carrots look a little slimy, I know, but really they’re just wet.  And then I decided I needed one of these (because I am always ruining shirts by leaning against oily things on the edge of the counter.  This one is big enough for Partner as well, who is wearing it in this picture):

And I needed one of these (because the plastic bag I was using just wasn’t cutting it anymore):

These last two were made out of some fabric I inherited from a neighbor (and which was almost given away in the famous not-cleaning-out of my craft closet earlier this summer.  You might recall that I filled a trash bag with fabric I was sure I’d never use, and I was worried I’d not be able to get it out of the house.  And lo, here I am digging through the not-given-away fabric bag for something very handy.  Sort of implies that my efforts to get rid of the excess fabric are doomed to fail, huh?).  It reminds me of old-fashioned mattress ticking, and truth be told, I have enough of it to make a small mattress.  

In between all of this, we watched bits and bobs of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies which we recorded last night.  We haven’t made it all the way through yet, so there may be other moments worth comment.  The ceremony has been incredibly beautiful so far.  We really loved the boxes popping up and down, and just as the plum blossoms popped out and we were thinking, ‘what a cool computer/mechanical coordination,’ I got totally choked up when the People popped out from under the boxes.  People, who must have popped up and down about eight-hundred times in the beautifully choreographed presentation.  Amazing.  

The Sonars really loved the bit where people were walking around on the globe/lantern thing.  Oh, and the giant LED screen on the floor.  Very cool.   

But was anyone else totally creeped out, when the kids in ethnic costumes were carrying the Chinese flag across the stadium (which was very sweet), and then the Chinese soldiers goose-stepped in and took up the flag to put it up the pole?  The bobble-heads on the tv suggested that it symbolized the Chinese state’s ability to ensure the future of their children.  Sure.