Meme

I got tagged by boschette:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

"I must pay attention to the feelings of my staff, Nacoya, lest I perpetuate Bunto's thoughtlessness."

Nacoya only nodded. Time for talk was past, as the painted red-and-yellow litter and rows of marching warriors filed into the dooryard. Mara fingered the emerald and jade bracelet on her wrist and strove to maintain decorum as the Anasati honor guard snapped to a halt and Jiro's bearers set down his litter before her doorway.


OK, that was four sentences from Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. Jim borrowed the trilogy from me and just returned the second volume this weekend. Hearing him talking about has kinda made me want to read it again.

I tag whomever's left that hasn't done this meme yet, except I think everyone already has!

Track and Field

My parents took me to the Montreal Olympics in 1976. I had wanted to see either gymnastics or diving, but they couldn't get tickets to those very popular events, so instead I watched a day of track and field. I remember that it was a broiling hot day, we got terribly sunburned, and that we had crepes for dinner at a restaurant before going back home. I saw Greg Joy win his silver medal in the high jump (Canada became the first host country not to win a gold medal at its own Games that year, so the silver was rather a big deal), I think I saw Edwin Moses run the 400-metre hurdles, and the phrase "Cold beer, bière froid" became forever engraved in my consciousness from listening to the vendors hawking their wares in the stands.

And I've loved watching track and field events ever since.

I found out, completely by accident, that the Canadian Track and Field Championships were being held in Ottawa this weekend. It is a mark of how little support this sport receives in this country that the event was almost totally unadvertised and was held in a stadium with bleachers not unlike what you might find behind a high school. I had to pick my father up from the airport on Friday and his plane was delayed by two hours, so I used the opportunity to breathe in a little track dust. It made my day. Jim was in town this weekend, so I dragged him down for several more hours on Saturday. Among other things, we watched Perdita Feliciens win the 100-metres hurdles by the narrowest of margins (she was favoured to win the event in Greece, but went down on the first hurdle in the final) and Nicholas Macrozonaris come first in the 100-metre sprint. Donovan Bailey--past Olympic gold medallist and ex-training mate of Nicholas's--used to call him Nicholas Alphabet because he could never remember his surname. :-)

Saturday was the tenth anniversary of the men's relay team's win at the Atlanta Olympics. Track and field events are so very not Canada's strength, so this was cause for much excitement at the time. The event organizers reunited the relay team--Carleton Chambers (who ran in the heats and semi-final, but not the final), Robert Esmie (who shaved "Blast Off" into his hair for the race and again this weekend), Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin, and Donovan Bailey--for the occasion. They drove out in a stretch limo, gave a little speech, then hung around afterwards for autographs. I got them to sign our tickets and already have them framed and hanging on my wall.

I am well pleased.