ok, so it is july, and my family spends each and every evening watching a taped segment of the tour de france. my mother's vcr is much newer than ours, so it looks very garbled on our machine. however, the portable tv/vcr combo handles the tape just fine, so we watch the tour tapes on a 9 inch screen. seems very americana for a family of 5 to be gathered around a 9-inch screen- kind of like radio days. last night the german sprinter erik zahbel (sp) finished 1/3 of a tire before 2 other riders- he retains the green jersey (for sprinting) but doesn't win the yellow jersey for overall leader because that is based on total time- today everyone finished about the same time. lance armstrong remains in 3rd place- he won't make his move til the mountains, where he can pull ahead with less risk of wrecking. sprints are prone to wrecks because everyones wheels are so close together. a bike wreck in a sprint with 20-30 riders starts off the domino effect..........anyway, today they ride in normandy- it will be relatively flat. they will come around the wetsern parts of france before taking on the pyrenees and then the alps. lance always bides his time until the mountains.

i got to sleep in til 8:00 this morning and do not have to go to work until about 2:00- we are doing a wedding starting at about 6- i have to put together some vegetable baskets, stuff 200 little buns with roast beef, make bean dip and artichoke dip, and barbeque 250 meatballs. surely i can do that in 4 hours. no alcohol will be served, so this event will not last forever.......when beer or wine is served, the guests tend to stay until it is gone........