From the Inside Out

USA has taken the gold again. More specifically, Plano has taken the gold. Nastia Liukin just won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition at the Beijing Olympics. She trains at her family’s gymnastics club, World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, in Plano, TX. It’s the same gym where Carly Patterson (the previous winner of the all-around competition) trained. Yay Plano!

Coming in second place was another amazing girl from the USA, Shawn Johnson. Take that, China! After all the lies about the ages of the Chinese gymnasts, I feel like justice has been served. According to a news article today on Yahoo! Sports, nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government’s news agency reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13 making her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold metal earlier this week. The Chinese government states that her age was incorrect in that article. To quote Mike Myers from Wayne and Garth, “Yeah, and monkeys fly out of my butt.”

Regardless of the age controversy, the lies, and the cheating, the real champions showed up tonight and demonstrated that they can get the job done with honor, grace and integrity. I’m so proud that these are the girls representing my country.

Go USA!

For those “foodies” out there, it’s time to rejoice because this week is Restaurant Week in Dallas. What’s Restaurant Week? It’s a week when over 100 restaurants will offer three-course meals for the fixed price of $35. The meal includes an appetizer, entree and dessert. Since many of the participating restaurants are four- and five-star rated, this is a steal. Don’t feel bad for taking advantage of these fine restaurants, though, because it’s all to raise funds for local charities. A portion of the price will be donated to the North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope Home.

Restaurant Week begins on August 11 and runs through August 17, but some restaurants are extending the offer through August 31. Reservations and required, and availability is limited. When calling, you need to request a Restaurant Week reservation.

For more information and to view a list of participating restaurants, click here.

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics will air on television Friday night. Approximately 91,000 spectators and 15,000 performers will participate in this ceremony which is expected to attract a global television audience of more than 3 billion people. It will be a 5-hour spectacle that includes 35,000 fireworks — an amazing sight to behold.

Despite the controversy surrounding the host nation of the Olympics — including concerns over pollution, security and human rights — the games will go on. Athletes from 205 countries will represent their countries and compete to earn one of the most coveted awards in sports, the gold medal. This year, NBC will broadcast events live via the Internet. If you don’t want to wait for the tape delayed broadcast on TV, you can visit www.nbcolympics.com and watch what you want, when you want it. It’s the Olympics “ala carte” style. Simply pick and choose your events. You can even open two windows and watch multiple events at the same time. About 2,200 hours of programming will be available on the Web — impressive, huh?

Because of the time difference, while we are watching the opening ceremony on Friday night, the Olympic games will be gearing up in Beijing. To calculate the time difference, here’s an easy shortcut. Flip the a.m. and p.m. to go from Eastern time to Beijing time. Remember, it’s always ahead in China. So, 8 p.m. Friday in New York is 8 a.m. Saturday in Beijing.

The Internet viewings enable you to watch the games online Friday night and cheer on your favorite athletes while the events are occurring “live” Saturday morning in Beijing. Ah, the power of the Internet. Remind me again…why do we need broadcast TV? Oh yeah, so we can watch mindless commercials and advertisements, but that’s a different rant for another night.

Go team USA!!

For one week only, you can watch Joss Whedon’s latest project online for free. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a humorous musical story of a low-rent super-villain, a hero who is completely infatuated with himself, and a cute girl from the laundromat.

This Internet miniseries event stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. The characters, story, and songs are well-crafted (not that you would expect anything less from Joss Whedon). For those Buffy fans out there, the musical elements are reminiscent of the “With Feeling” episode he did on that show. If you are a fan of Joss Whedon, you’ve got to see this. If you’re not, check it out anyway. It starts a little slow, but keep watching. It’s hilarious.

Act one and two are available for viewing now. The final act will be posted on Saturday, July 19th. Don’t delay because these episodes will be removed at midnight on Sunday, July 20th.

Click here to watch now

View the trailer

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Sunday night.  This weekend passed so quickly.  I guess the saying is true – time flies when you’re having fun!  And when you have that much fun, it makes you really tired so here’s my brief “weekend in review” summary:

• Nicolas’s Belt Test:  We got up early Saturday morning to watch my nephew’s black belt test.  Gary received his black belt a few years ago, and it’s a big deal.  Anyway, I’m really proud of Nick.  He’s a great kid, and it’s so cool to see him achieve such a special accomplishment at a young age. 

• Pirates of Patmos:  After the test, we headed back to the church to prepare for Saturday’s performance of Pirates.  I’m happy to report that it was a great night.  We had a terrific crowd, outstanding energy and no major missteps.  A couple of the cast members were still battling sickness, but they made it through the entire performance.  You would never have known they were feeling terrible.  After the performance, we received rave reviews.  We even had kids and adults taking pictures with the pirates and the “princess”.  It was really cool.  The best thing is that one of the ladies who helped build the set made a decision to be baptized last night!  That makes it all worthwhile.  Isn’t God amazing?
• Sunday morning came quickly.  I had to be at church at 8 am for praise team practice.  I was wiped out — physically and mentally.  Somehow I managed to make it through both services even though I was close to losing my voice (please remind me to not sing after doing a play next time).  Jeff Manning preached today on “Jaws” (all of our sermons this month have been related to the ocean, pirates or boats to coincide with the Pirates production — they called it our Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series — cool, huh?).  Anyway, I really enjoy hearing him minister.  He’s just so entertaining, and he always manages to weave a great message into the midst of the entertainment. 
• One Life:  After church, we rushed home and prepared for the One Life young married’s group meeting which was being hosted at our house tonight. 
• Travel to San Jose:  Unfortunately, I had to miss the One Life meeting.  I really wanted to be there because Ben Sanders was speaking about faith.  He’s a good speaker, and I was looking forward to his discussion, but that pesky thing called a job was sending me elsewhere.  After cleaning the house, I had to get packed and ready to fly to San Jose.  I’m here now and will be here for the rest of the week.

Well, there you have it…my weekend in review.  It was amazing!  I can’t believe Pirates is actually over.  I have been working on it since January.  It doesn’t seem real yet, but I know it is. 

Now we move on to the next event:  Saturday Night Life, October 4, 2008

Have a great week everyone!