{"id":573883100,"date":"2012-04-07T23:02:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T04:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573883100"},"modified":"2012-04-11T04:06:04","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T09:06:04","slug":"the-hunger-games-the-drain-defeat-and-a-gymnastics-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/04\/07\/the-hunger-games-the-drain-defeat-and-a-gymnastics-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hunger Games, the drain defeat and a gymnastics meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

We watched The Hunger Games<\/a> last night. <\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

It was better than the Twilight Poorly Acted Emolodramas, though I could have done without the insertion of Team Jacob in the third act. It was not as good as its spiritual predecessors, Star Wars and Shakespeare. (And that’s the only time Lucas gets that I’d bet.) I eagerly await the second movie, The Hunger Strikes Back, even if we have to sit through Romeo and Katniss. I’m also looking forward to the inevitable anti-bullying campaign. <\/p>\n

Yes, I’m sure the books are dreadful. (Or the best thing since Potter, which might best Steinbeck and Hemingway in that crowd.) I don’t care to read them. Seeing Donald Sutherland as the most normal-looking guy should be left to stand without any further narrative.<\/p>\n

Did something incredible<\/strong> today. We lost an earring down a drain yesterday, but it isn’t the kind of drain you can take apart. So we Googled. And then we called everyone we knew to try to borrow a wet-dry vacuum. Finally we found a friend who’s father had a friend. That man let me, a total stranger, borrow his vacuum.<\/p>\n

So there we are, hands and knees, trying to figure out a way to get a four-inch hose fit inside a two-inch drain. Ultimately we settled with putting a little drainage tube inside the wet-dry hose. We kept the vacuum by stuffing the excess hose with a washcloth. On the end of the drainage hose we tied off a stocking. <\/p>\n

We delicately send the hose down the drain. On the third try, when I was ready to make intubation jokes, I found a second bend in the drain pipe and twisted accordingly. There was the trap. I slowly pulled everything back out. And at the end of the tube, held to the stocking by the power of the vacuum, was this important little earring. <\/p>\n

The Yankee sterilized it and put it away for safekeeping. I walked around like a hero for a while. It was a lucky stab, but it saved the day, so this is a “file it away, it might come in handy one day” story. And we couldn’t have done it without the kindness of a friend and a stranger. So this is also an “I love my town” story.<\/p>\n

Had a nice little<\/strong> 25-mile ride. I installed the potential new saddle for a test ride. Did a mile or so and realized it wasn’t set right. Off the bike, into the multi-tool. Move the seat approximately three centimeters, making a much better fit. <\/p>\n

It is is stiff as possible. Love it. <\/p>\n

As I got back in the neighborhood I got heckled by kids: “Get it! Get it! Make those thighs work!”<\/p>\n

I tried to put on a good show, but I doubt they were impressed.<\/p>\n

Gymnastics regionals<\/strong> were tonight, and they were very impressive. <\/p>\n

I enjoy watching them cheer in the background:<\/p>\n

\"gymnastics\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Not sure why they are in disguise though … <\/p>\n

\"gymnastics\"<\/center><\/p>\n

And, sadly, this is the last time we’ll see Laura Lane tumble:<\/p>\n

\"gymnastics\"<\/center><\/p>\n

The co-scholar-athlete of the year is graduating and moving on to other things. Shame, too. She was a lot of fun to watch. <\/p>\n

Six teams compete in the regionals. The top two teams in each region advance to the national championship. Auburn finished fourth, posting their second-highest<\/a> regional score ever. They’ll be somewhere in the teens, probably, in the final gymnastics rankings of the season. And, we counted, about half their routines this year were performed by freshmen. <\/p>\n

The future, as they say, is bright.<\/p>\n

More gymnastics pictures tomorrow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We watched The Hunger Games last night. It was better than the Twilight Poorly Acted Emolodramas, though I could have done without the insertion of Team Jacob in the third act. It was not as good as its spiritual predecessors, Star Wars and Shakespeare. (And that’s the only time Lucas gets that I’d bet.) I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,40,17,10,11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573883100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-auburn","category-cycling","category-movies","category-photo","category-video","category-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573883100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573883100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573883100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573883102,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573883100\/revisions\/573883102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573883100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573883100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573883100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}