Fernandez is a 'Manimal'

German Fernandez is back and in better form than ever. A few weeks back (see link) I introduced many of you to a young California track athlete that has set the running world on fire. Not this much hype has been thrown towards a high school track start since Alan Webb broke the Ryun's HS mile record back in 2001.

German just broke the 20+ year old record in the true 2-mile distance by two seconds, running a blazing 8:34. That is 4:17 mile splits, back to back. Or better yet, that's 1:04 for a 1/4 of a mile. Impressive? You better believe it. An also interesting note is that the third place finisher in this race will be German's teammate at Oklahoma State in the fall. I will place my prediction now, Oklahoma State will be a top contender in this falls NCAA championships...just throwin that out there. Watch the race below, if for nothing else to hear two of the funniest sport announcers I've heard in a long time...dude.

Jamie Lynn Solstice!

Its summer...
Ah...Summer. That great time of year where the sun is out, pools are filled and tans are darkened. We even have some great lyrics, like from Grease "Summer lovin...had me some fun" or quiet possibly the greatest summer hit ever...LFO's Summer Girls, with the AMAZING lines

"And I think its fly when girls stop by for the
Summer, for the summer
I like girls that wear abercrombie and fitch"

Ok, all joking aside, summer officially started today with the longest day of the year (though technically its tommorow...) and pagan revelers in England celebrated the summer solstice by hanging out at Stonehenge. Anyways, I hope you prayed to the sun gods and remember, there is no such thing as a healthy tan...now its time to go lay out...but WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah...Baby time!!!
Jamie Lynn Spears had her baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know riveting isn't it. Her and baby daddy Casey Aldridge welcomed Maddie Briann to the family in Mississippi yesterday...yeehaw! This is as good of news as that pregnancy pact that is setting the town of Glocester on its head...ah you gotta love hormones!

Cheers!

Dominica update...

Thar She Blows...
I have seriously been slacking in the Dominica department of late, REALLY late actually, so I decided I would do a little bit of an update. In all honesty, there was not alot of newsworthy updates to talk about. Except...whaling...

Dominica will not back a measure by Japan to reverse a worldwide commercial whaling ban that is being challenged at a IWC meeting that will begin next week in Chile. In an interview with Caribbean Net News, Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica stated that, "Our stringent environmental practices and philosophies have earned us the label, ‘The Nature Island’ and, upon careful review and deliberation of the issue, it has been determined that voting for an overturn of the existing worldwide ban on commercial whaling would be inconsistent with the standards and principles of sustainability that we so fervently advocate.”

Its a good thing too, as Dominica is known as the Whale Watching Capital of the Caribbean (among others) and has around a 95% success rate on seeing whales on whale watching excursions, which I have heard are fantastic. I only know of ones that originate from the Roseau area, hopefully when I return in the next couple of months I will embark on one of these trips. Any readers out there been on a whale watching trip? Pictures? Send them along!

Cheers

Hump Day Challenge #2

Today was the second race of "The Rouge's" hump day challenge running series. I did the Varsity Sports easy 5 again, similar to two week ago and wasn't really feeling like racing, but alas, this weeks race was free to Club South Runners members. So, I said what the heck and decided to head over and see how it would go. The honey bun I ate at 4 that afternoon was not very happy with me at the moment...oh well

I decided that, unlike two weeks ago, I would take this race with a laid back start followed by a faster second mile. This is called running negative splits. I ran the same time as 2 weeks ago and it felt so much easier, even with a faster second mile. Placed a little worse probably, but there are no awards, so no biggie there.

Sports, Sports and MORE SPORTS!

Tiger wins 14th Major
This is a post of sports and nothing but sports because the last few days have had some...interesting results. The first is the ridiculous feat by Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open this weekend. Tiger stormed back with some big time shots to take the lead going into the round on Sunday. Rocco Mediate maintained his sweet game and Tiger faltered, needing a clutch birdie putt to take the Open to a playoff.

Playoff was Monday, and boy what a treat. Back and forth, Tiger up by 3 strokes at one point then faltering again to Rocco Mediate to fall behind by 1 stroke. Needing another clutch putt on 18, Tiger pulled through again, taking the Open to its 91st hole. Rocco Mediate hit a couple of bad shots and left the cup on the course for Woods to take. Great weekend of golf and it was hard to decide who to root for this weekend, as Rocco Mediate is a great guy. But Tiger beat the world...on a bum knee. Crazy!

LSU Rallies...Again


Almost like guessing if Tiger is going to win another Major in golf, the LSU Tiger baseball team rallied in an amazing comeback to win against Rice in the College World Series. The video above is from a fans perspective of the game winning hit. Can you feel the excitement? This is LSU's 30th comeback victory (of their 49 wins) this season. They have earned the nickname cardiac cats...I wonder why. :-P

Celtics Win...Again
Finally, on this blog, the ole Boston Celtics won the NBA championships with the destruction of the LA Lakers. It wasn't much of a game tonight except that the Celtics were clicking as best they could. Paul Pierce (KU product...woot) was the Finals MVP and for someone who has been on an up and down ride with the Celtics. Going from the worst team to the best is quiet a feat, but he did have some help from Kevin Garnet and Ray Allen. I will see you later!

MINI's out of production...temporarily

Production shut down
The drastic rise in oil and fuel prices this year have caused ripples to form in the massive global economy. Last week in Spain, cargo carriers protested the high prices of diesel fuel. This caused traffic and shipping headaches and effectively shut down the production of my favorite new car...MINI's.

A key component of the car is manufactured in Spain, and with the drives on protest, MINI was forced to temporarily shut down production of the cars until the protests were resolved. This effectively shut down the production of around 700 cars per day and affected several workers. As of today though, it appears that the protests are fading and the parts are starting to arrive again. You can see the update here. Motor on!

Custom Emblems

I have decided to dress up Calie some more and put together some custom MINI emblems to put on the car. I pulled them off and started to sand, prime and paint the emblems. Minus the little hiccup that occurred when I was baking the paint, the process was simple and fun. Adds a little flair, what do you think?

This is before:








This is the new emblem:








This is after: