What a race! What a landscape improvement! What a cute little boy! And I didn’t even mention the Steelers’ 15-14 preseason victory over the Cowboys.
Thank GOD Jon and Kelly finished second to Chip and Reichen in this go-round of The Amazing Race. After last year’s Flo debacle, I don’t think I could have taken it otherwise. Big time bummer that Jeff and Dave, who up to this point had run a solid race, somehow decided that flying to Sydney would help them get to Hawaii faster. Like the computers in Sydney are better connected to the Easy Sabre travel system or Internet or something. That dopey move doomed them to a distant third place finish, which was a shame since they were likeable enough guys.
Admittedly, I could have done without Chip and Reichen’s obligatory “this is one small step for a gay man, one giant leap for the queer nation” speech at the end. Honestly boys, none of American viewing public tuned in and thought, “They can’t win the race because they’re gay.” It’s much more likely that they tuned in and thought, “That Reichen’s pretty cute.” At least that’s what I did, so why shouldn’t the rest of America?
Almost as fun as seeing Chip and Reichen win—wait, let me amend that—even more fun than seeing Chip and Reichen win was seeing Jon and Kelly lose. The best news of last week’s episode (and there was little to be had seeing Jon and Kelly’s third place finish was in a non-elimination round) was that Kelly declared she and Jon wouldn’t ever have kids. Please let that be true. The idea that Jon and Kelly are voluntarily removing themselves from the gene pool is a happy thought indeed. But then again, so is not having to witness their bickering, whining, boorish behavior any more. Jon and Kelly, you guys deserve each other. Happy trails.
Speaking of making happy trails—what a segue! what a segue!—the path down to the park continues to look great, and the Mormon guys who helped in that task were back again today to help clear stuff on the park side of the laurel bushes. It was hard, sweaty work, but Erin and I fed them well at the end of it, so I didn’t hear any complaints. They’ll be back on Tuesday, also Erin’s first day back at school (though without students), to finish up the work. I dare say the park side of the laurels will see a vast improvement over what was there before.
News on the Jonah front is this: He did not contract the chicken pox. We’ve seen no evidence of them. Instead, we’ve seen a happy, giggling, smiling little boy who for the first time today turned himself over front to back and back to front. This would be more impressive if (1) he had been awake when he went back to front; he was literally asleep at the time he catapulted himself both over and awake, and (2) when he went front to back he hadn’t thwacked his head on the ground; he was none too happy about that! Nonetheless, it’s all proof that Jonah is making developmental progress and will, very shortly, pass the turtle—who can flip in neither direction—on the food chain.