Post Beijing

As promised, I've committed to continue writing, even if its for only my mother and aunt to read. I've finally gotten most of my Olympic stuff put away and most of the souvenirs handed out. I gave away some torch themed chopsticks, which seem to be a hit with the sushi lovers in my life. The souvenir though that wins the award was one I never told anybody about in the blog because it would have ruined the surprise. Remember how I went and visited the Today Show as one of my final activities? The Today Show that day had on as a guest, the U.S. Women's Soccer Team who had just won the gold medal the night before. My sister has just finished up a great career as a soccer player at King College earlier last fall. Being the media savy guy that I am, I had a hunch the women's team might be at the show. I had bought her a hat earlier in my time, and I had a sharpie I'd brought to Beijing, and the idea hit me. If I could somehow get close to the girls, I might be able to get a few signatures.

So after staking out my place along the back fence, just as the girls were being interviewed they were actually standing about three feet in front of me. I had watched a lot of women's soccer the previous week because, well what else is there to do when you're working for 9 hours at night in front of all the event feeds. You watch the sports. I knew all the starters faces and names, and most of the usual subs. So during a few commercial breaks I called over a couple of players to sign my sister's hat. Shannon Box first, Lauren Cheney second, Andrea Huckles, then Aly Wagner. Mission accomplished.

Last weekend our family all came together in Dalton, Georgia at my brother's house. My sister drove over from Memphis and my parents from Durham, NC. So when it came time to distribute their souvenirs from Beijing, I handed out shirts, mugs, and then simply gave my sister a hat with no mention. She then began to realize the who had signed it. Needless to say, it was a fun reaction. I think my Christmas present might get upgraded this year.

On another family front, Stacey and I have still not been reunited yet. She is on a visiting rotation in Houston, TX at the Baylor Medical School. She comes back to Atlanta later this month. It will be very good to have my wife back. She actually gets back in town right in time for her birthday on September 24th. Good timing on her part. There will be much to celebrate.

Finally, my best story line for the week is "Phil versus the Ford Taurus" We have a 1999 Ford Taurus which is usually driven by Stacey to school. We typically don't take it out of town. Stacey took my Honda Civic to Houston and it was a good thing. The Taurus has been acting a little funny lately. Mainly the speedometer has been cutting out while driving the car. Typically not a good sign. Then the transmission started acting funny, as the car would really jerk when shifting gears. Finally the straw that broke the camels back: the cruise control wouldn't stay on. Now I can take the speedometer not working, and I can tolerate a badly shifting transmission, but don't go messin' with the cruise control! The car never stranded me anywhere, but it certainly added some stress this week, and it seemed to act up most when I had the AC on. So here I am driving around in Atlanta in 90 weather with the windows rolled down. Needless to say I scheduled a service appointment. I took the car in and they diagnosed a faulty speed sensor. One sensor was causing a lot of issues. Its located in the transmission and it basically tells your car how fast its going. You can imagine the potential problems if your car doesn't know how fast its going. Changing gears for an automatic transmission gets exponentially more difficult. The service department fixed the problem and I was rocking and rolling again by the afternoon. Now Stacey will come back to a smoothly running car and life can go on.

Until next week, this has been the first PB (Post Beijing) edition of Straight From The Cobb