* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOS

"She cries and blames herself for Enrique's departure."

(taken from Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario)

I'm watching an old episode of Degrassi from the second season. (I didn't start watching until season 4, I think.) They all look so young (they're only in grades 7 & 8). It's also so sad to see JT.

I posted pictures from my trip to Cincinnati.

I've be negligent in posting about the Olympics this time. I've watched at 30 hours of it so far from the Opening Ceremonies to tonight's gymnastics.

The Opening Ceremony was quite amazing. I don't really care if the footprints were digitally enhanced - Bob & Matt mentioned it, even if we didn't know what they meant at the time. What was really amazing was the synchronization among the performers - especially the boxes.

The highlight so far, which probably won't be surpassed, was the men's 4x100 freestyle relay. I haven't cheered that much from the coach in years.

This is the week that I watch the most, since it's the swimming and gymnastics. I'm already sleepy with these late nights, but I can't stop watching!

Last night I went to The National/Modest Mouse/R.E.M. show at Walnut Creek Pavilion. It was amazing - even with lawn seats. The National were playing at 6:30 PM (the moved up start time) - if not a minute or two before. I overheard people around me not knowing them, but being impressed with them. Yay! They closed with Fake Empire and Mr. November, which was really rocking. Their set was about 40 minutes. Someone's parent's were in row O and got a shout out (I couldn't tell who was talking at the time).

A good set from Modest Mouse followed. They're not one of my top 10 bands, so I really only recognized Dashboard, Education, The Good Time Are Killing Me, and Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. There were a couple other I recognized but don't know the titles of. No talk during songs, which differed from the other 2 bands.

Finally R.E.M. came on stage at 9 PM. They played about 80 minutes, briefly left the stage, and then did a 35 minute encore, just finishing before the venue's required end time of 11 PM. There's always something special about the Raleigh shows. This tour saw Don Dixon and Mitch Easter joining the band on stage to play with them during "Sitting Still", which was a nice recognition of their work together in the very early days. Johnny Marr joined them for "Fall On Me".

Set List
Harborcoat
Living Well is the Best Revenge
Bad Day
What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
1,000,000
Man-Sized Wreath
Welcome to the Occupation
Accelerate
7 Chinese Bros.
Hollowman
Imitation of Life
Houston
Electrolite
Walk Unafraid
The One I Love
Final Straw
Find the River
Let Me In
Horse to Water
Auctioneer
Orange Crush (My favorite - this made me very, very happy)
I'm Gonna DJ
Supernatural Superserious
Losing My Religion
Pretty Persuasion
Fall on Me (with Johnny Marr)
Sitting Still (with Don Dixon and Mitch Easter)
Man in the Moon

A great combination of new and classic. Michael said that we got to hear songs that were played when they first played the area. I'm not sure others get that many from the early days.

#remnc

I'm back. It's now 92 with a heat index of 99. And it's not even noon.

I've already had 30oz of water since getting back. I might just get in my 8 cups of water today!

I'm just glad I have this
.
Wicking and Quick Dry are great. Much better than my cotton t-shirt. I think I need to pick up a couple more since they're on sale for $9.

I managed to go until June without running the air condition. Now we have this:
.
Ugh!

I've got to go get my walk in before it gets any worse today (it's already 88.)

They updated my DVR software overnight. My shows marked "Do not delete" did not keep that status. So I think I lost of couple of things I was trying to save. Ugh.

I'm not a fan yet of the new look, either. It's too curvy - I like a cleaner look. However, the show search appears to be faster. This is going to take some time to get used to.

I was just browsing IMDB, as I frequently do, specifically reading about Jamie Bamber as I'm watching him in Battlestar Galatica this afternoon. (I still have half of season 3 to watch on DVD in order to star watching the new episodes.) He was also in the Horatio Hornblower series, so I went to Netflix to add them. Right there on my home page was this


Yikes!

I entered another drawing at the N&O Subscriber Zone and won a copy of Enchanted on DVD. That's a better winning record than I ever had calling into radio stations. I did win Indigo Girl tickets for the Taft in 1994 or 1995 from 97X, but never won any of the big CD prizes I tried calling in for.

I'm planning on going out for Record Store Day followed by the Earth Day celebrations downtown, but I'm really wanting a quick nap. Maybe just 15 minutes...