When the baby starts to crawl we want the floors and carpets to be clean.  Its not like we didn’t care about them before we had her, but now a clean floor has added importance.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have our carpets cleaned every week to make sure the little one is moving about on a semi-sanitary floor?  That isn’t going to happen though because carpet cleaners aren’t cheap and aren’t really all that good for the life of the carpet.

We could make sure we run the vacuum everyday, but with a baby in the house we have less time to do things like that.  Making better use of our time is hard enough without fitting more vacuum time in.

I’m thinking about getting a Roomba, but I don’t know which one is right for us and I don’t know if they are really worth it.  I thought this would be a simple purchase, “I’ll take a Roomba, please.”  Not so fast!  They have Roombas, Scoobas and Dirt Dogs or something like that and several models of each.  Each model has different features and I don’t have a clear understanding of how the feature descriptions relate to what I need/want it to do.

I just want the thing to go from room to room and vacuum.  How am I supposed to know if a virtual wall or remote control is necessary?  What I would like to know is will the unit that does 4 rooms on one charge mean it will only do those 4 rooms or will it eventually do the whole house and charge up in between.  Shoot, I still want to know if it will come close to cleaning as good as our Kenmore upright.

With all the time spent figuring this out, guess what I could be doing?  That’s right, I could be vacuuming!

I’m planning to separate from Kim and Pooh today, something that will be very painful for me to do.  Part of being a husband/man is sometimes doing something for your family that isn’t pleasant, but for the best.  Today will be one of those times for me.

I have to take them to stay with my sister (Kathy) while we deal with this storm (Gustav) here on the Gulf Coast.

Sheltering during the storm just isn’t a place I want a two-week old to be.  I have to do what I have to do to protect my family so this will have to happen.

I woke up this morning - think how hard it is to sleep with a newborn AND a hurricane on your mind - to see that Gustav has gained some momentum.  It almost seems like this isn’t fair to the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans.  The 3-year anniversary (I don’t like calling it an anniversary because that sounds like a celebration) of Katrina was just yesterday.

Check here and at 7daybuzz to see how things are going.  I will hopefully have computer access tomorrow, but after that things could get dicey.  It may be me and the almighty iPhone!

I have to go.  Today is going to be busy to say the least.

Here I go again right?  I have to say this because this is starting to get pathetic.

The USA women’s softball team lost to China and only won the silver medal in a sport they previously dominated.  Again, American failure.

Mark Lopez (I think Mark is his first name) got kicked in the chest at the end to lose the Gold in Judo.  Who is this Lopez guy and why does it matter?  It matters because now that he has lost we shouldn’t have to endure any commercials with him and his family kicking a phone around and jumping over swimming pools.

Now this really burns me up - the women’s 4×100 relay team dropped the baton and finished 8th.  I thought this was one of our things.

The grand prize for today’s failures goes to the men’s 4×100 relay team and I’m going to call someone out.  Tyson Gay pulled up lame at the trials and didn’t make the team in the 200.  Tyson Gay wasn’t right, because of his injury, and didn’t make the finals in the 100 at the Olympics.  So tell me, why would Tyson Gay be on the 4×100 relay team?  What ever brilliant person made this decision was a genius.  Tyson Gay messed up a hand off and the team didn’t medal.  I have some late breaking news.  Tyson Gay may not be a loser in life, but he is a loser when the spotlight is on him.

Thank goodness for Michael Phelps.

This is how I honestly feel about the Olympics.  Yes, we are probably going to finish with the most medals, but I think the Chinese are going to smoke us when it comes to the gold medal count.  I just feel like we are getting punked.

At the time of this writing, the United States had 22 gold medals to China’s 35.  Not bad huh?  Good thing Michael Phelps is in China since he has accounted for 8 of those 22.

Here are my reasons we aren’t doing as good as we should:

• We are totally getting ripped of in gymnastics.  Who made up this scoring system and how can they hand out some of these medals with a straight face?  We are really getting the business.
• Ditto for boxing.  The scoring system is so confusing they could almost literally get away with naming anyone the winner.
• We don’t perform as well as other countries on the big stage.  When the Chinese hurdler couldn’t compete because of injury the nation was hurt.  We have several athletes who aren’t performing, but we don’t really care that much.  I guess that is one difference we see when the athletes we embrace make millions of dollars a year.  For us, it seems to be as much about the money as it is the competition.

I have two questions about the Olympics today:

1. Why is there a competition where gymnasts jump and flip on a trampoline?  It looked kind of silly to me.  Guess who won it?
2. Are all Olympic athletes basically professionals?  If so, why did we send college players to the Olympics for so long in basketball?
3. Has anyone saw the Chines gymnast on the rings?  It only takes a second to see he is stronger than the competition.
4. We really don’t have a swimmer under 40 that can be our 50-yard freestyle women’s national champion?

Come on America, we have four years to get serious about this.

Well, the Olympics started yesterday and we (Americans) are sure to finish near or at the top of the medal standings. We are one of the dominant nations when it comes to the summer games. What if we really, really tried?

In my opinion, we don’t take the Olympics as seriously as other countries, yet we always do well. I also think we don’t always show up when the lights are the brightest, and we still do well. We get hurt prior to the games, get caught for doping, and we still do well.

Other countries think we are “Lazy Americans” and in some ways it fits.  Other countries train athletes from a young age for the Olympics - you could almost say they grow their Olympians.  America, on the other hand, can’t develop/train a young swimmer to beat out a 40-year old mother!  Does that say something about the 40-year old or something about the rest of the swimmers?  Hmm.

Look at basketball.  We invented the sport, supposedly have the best players in the world and are still underdogs to win gold.  How does that happen?

Yes, we have other issues that are more pressing the four years between Olympics.  But don’t you think we have a few good athletes we could train a little more seriously?

Oh, if you want ammunition to prove me wrong, click the Olympic rings above.