destroy the world that we took so long to make

I decided that I had to slack off today; and by slack off, I mean work for nine hours and then come home to watch the Tour de France before having a conference call at 9:30pm. Walter was giving me race updates over IM until around 6:15, at which point I threw in the towel and came home.

The stage today was *amazing*; Lance Armstrong retook the yellow jersey, and the guy who had it at the beginning of today's stage lost approximately twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is a lifetime; Armstrong and the Discovery Team were completely unstoppable. I will probably do exactly the same thing tomorrow, although I'll have to do some work while watching the stage since I do have some things piling up. I love the announcers, though--we get the same commentary that is played on the Outdoor Life Network in the States, and I adore their British accents and their ridiculous euphemisms. However, I do get frustrated when Zee Sports cuts away from their commentary to have two Indians who are watching exactly the same coverage that is being broadcast talk about their opinions on the race. They clearly don't know a lot about cycling (neither do I, but I can spot imposters pretty easily), and one commentator actually compared a mountain stage of the Tour de France to an ice cream cone. This was, quite frankly, completely absurd. However, I do appreciate that they are called Zee Sports; as some of you know, I like replacing 'the' with 'zee' in online conversations, and so Zee Sports is made for me. They have several other channels, such as Zee News and Zee Cafe (Zee Cafe plays syndicated US sitcoms, like 'Friends' and 'Will and Grace').

I don't get Zee Sports in my room for some reason, and so I had to watch the Tour downstairs; one other person here is really into it, but it's hard to hear the TV over the clamor of people eating dinner. I have come to the realization that I really am turning into my mother; she used to say that she didn't like any kids but her own, and I am discovering that I share that trait. We both love all the kids related to us, but I have a fairly small amount of tolerance for strangers' kids. That's actually not true--kids are adorable, and they're fun to have around. However, I do not like to have them around when I've been at the office for thirteen hours and just want to have a quiet dinner without watching some three year old smear pasta all over his face.

I mean, the kids are really cute, but I think that I'm annoyed because I'm seeing this as an ongoing problem, since they're visiting their father for a month and so will be at every dinner from now until August. I can handle a meal at a time, but the prospect of sharing every meal in perpetuity with children who are not my own is a little daunting.

And that, friends, is as close as I will come to blogging about anything resembling office conflict :) This isn't even really a conflict; in general it's great that the guy's family was able to come out, and it makes this feel more like a home than a dorm. Now I will stop this line of thought before the pendulum swings back to annoyance rather than acceptance.

My eyes were apparently super-green today; they usually go unremarked, but every once in awhile they're apparently eerily green and draw several comments. I'm sad that I never get to see them in that state, since it always makes me curious. I don't know what triggers it; I'm always wearing something different when it happens, and I'm not usually in the same light source (today I was in the cafe). I'd like to believe that the color intensifies and fades with my moods, since that's a very romance-novel trait, but it's probably something more mundane, like the amount of allergen deposits on my contacts. Sigh.

Despite all this, Gavin Rossdale will rock me to sleep tonight. It's only three and a half weeks until I go to Europe!! Let's hope I make it that long...