Mojo weighs 16 lbs. now . . .

. . . and he's teething like crazy. Fortunately, he's not one to chew on the furniture. Of course, since we are home with him or he is in his crate 24/7, he doesn't have many opportunities for his wicked Mojo side to come out.

The first thing he does in the morning is roll over so he can have his tummy rubbed, no matter that you haven't had you coffee and can barely bend over yet. It's his favorite thing. His second favorite thing is to meet new people on his walks so he can roll over and have them scratch his tummy. It could be a doggie serial killer for all he would care.

His third favorite thing to do would be eat. He eats his own food, but he keeps an eye peeled for yours.

The sky at our house in August . . . well, pretty nice

• Bill called me out last night as he was walking Mojo around the block to see the full sky rainbow (which was getting faint) caused by a sprinkling of rain and the remnants of the sunset. I particularly like sunsets since I'm never awake to see a sunrise. Only once in recent history when I had to catch a plane in California. In fact I believe that accounts for the top picture of this blog. A beautiful sunrise.

• Meanwhile the folks inside were getting ready for Hillary Clinton's big speech to the Democratic National Convention. It was quite good as was the keynote address by former governor of Virginia, Mark Warner. Since we graduated from the University of Va. and Bill grew up in Staunton, Va., we always like it when the state makes us proud. I have practically disowned Ohio where I grew up since it has gotten so ridiculously conservative of late.

• Bill Clinton talks tonight and word is that he wouldn't let anyone help with his speech. Should be interesting. What's even more interesting is the Bush announcement today of the handing over of a big province in Iraq to Iraqi police. Ha Ha - isn't that the timing of that fortuitous for the Republicans!

It was a gold metal finish for the 2008 summer Olympics

This past Sunday night was the closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. Although the Chinese took the most gold medals, the United States won the most medals. A swimmer, Michael Phelps, won the most gold medals ever, and many world records were set. Overall the Chinese hosted a spectacular Olympics, albeit with a billion people and seemingly endless funds to do it with.

2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London. Now wouldn't that be fun to attend - in a foreign country where you can speak the language. This excerpt from Business Week: As long as security is effective but not heavy-handed, London should manage to provide Olympians and guests a great time. As for attitude, the famously dry British humor was on display when reporters asked Boris Johnson if he had any criticism of the 2008 Games. No, the mayor responded, and then added jokingly in reference to the controversial dubbing of a young singer in Beijing's opening ceremonies: "Had it been us, I don't think we would have necessarily done the switcheroo with the girl."

Pictures taken from my TV - I'm sure NBC or whoever wouldn't mind granting copyright.

On Validation - by Nina, not Thoreau

Everyone, I would venture to say, wants their work or some aspect of what they are doing with their life validated. In other words, they want some R*E*S*P*E*C*T. Just ask Aretha Franklin. People need to get it at work, at home, from their friends, or even from the greater society at large. Or, of course, from their dog. We're still working on that with Mojo. He loves us, but sometimes the puppy still doesn't respect us.

At any rate, there is this expectation in our circle that after you retire, you are going to golf a lot, not just sit around on your rear end and read or do jigsaw puzzles or blog.

But, today I got a newsletter from my realtor that said retirement is a good time to consider such activities as enrolling in a college course, picking a new hobby such as photography, chess, birdwatching or ballroom dancing, traveling or beginning an ONLINE BLOG. Wow, my new hobby was validated in print. It's funny how much better I felt when I read that. Bill's doing the laundry and ironing and I'm blogging and it's OK.

However, I still feel like I better take my shower, get dressed and finish reading last Sunday's paper to get it out of here. Well, right after I go to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ and do my daily word match and read the daily quote. :-) Yesterday the quote was so good that I sent it to some of my friends at work as validation of their endurance during a difficult time they are currently experiencing.

Take some time out today to spread a little validation to a friend or family member.

Summer Olympics 2008 - Beijing, China

This summer China hosts their first Olympics, so they have gone all out to show what a fabulous job they can do. On the right is a picture of "The Blue Cube" where the swimming takes place. On the left is a gorgeous picture from the opening ceremonies, which I still have to see since we were in Quebec at the time. But in this day and age we record things on our TVs that we might miss; however, there is a limited amount of recording space, so Bill is always after me to watch the things I've recorded. Like from a year ago! What's his hurray?

Photos are from The New York Times.

Quebec: Churches, churches, and more churches

Parlez-vous francais? Un tres tres peu!

We spent some time with the natives in Quebec City this past week while they celebrated their 400th birthday (1608 folks!), and we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. For the most part we celebrated it in the rain as they told us they were having their wettest summer in 75 years. That must have put something of a damper on the celebrations, but the flowers sure were pretty, and I bet they never needed watering by hand.

Strangely, we both discovered that our 2 yrs. of high school French did us no good whatsoever. We could never even manage to decipher one word of the canned female voice message that spoke to us each time we exited the elevator. I wanted to ask the desk clerk, but every time we walked by they were busy; I'm still considering emailing them. If nothing else, reference librarians are curious and require answers.

All of the colorful characters in period costumes in the picture with me were part of the summer-long celebration. The guys with Bill were in front of one of the ubiquitous souvenier shops. We visited many to get out of the rain. We also bought 3 bottles of 100% pure Canadian maple syrup we at one (after looking at the 12,000 different kinds, price per ounce, beauty of the container, etc. and so forth) confiscated by Quebec security when they discovered them in our carry-on. Was Bill, the airline traveller (but not souvenier buyer), ever angry with himself! I, on the other hand, hardly pay attention to any of the rules at security as I walk around in a fog at airports I'm unfamiliar with. I have locational deficit disorder outside my own house anyway.

Our little hotel, at the foot of the famous Hotel Frontenac, was very comfortable and came with a free, though expensive, breakfast. Due to bad weather in Chicago on Monday, Aug. 4, we had to push back the trip to the next day, so we got to pay for an extra night at the hotel too. An extra bonus in the always unpredictable realm of travel. But we enjoyed the architecture of the old city, the flowers, the history, and, of course, the food. And it was our first post-retirement trip. Priceless.