CAN'T START 'EM TOO YOUNG
Peter Huston, our long-time friend...

...in Buffalo, New York sends this cute pic of his son Adam (first of three, they just had twins a few months ago) on a Lightning at, presumably, the famous old Buffalo Canoe Club. Peter says, "Can't start too young -- especially if you want them to make the Kahn Olympic Sailing Academy." A bit of an inside joke in re. the somewhat disappointing performance in Athens of the USA sailing team. Adam, glad to see you taking after your father in the sailing department but not, at least so far, in the hair department!

SCHOOL'S IN

Apropos school beginning...



...this week or next in most of the northern hemisphere --





"We be well edumucated."

LAZY INDIAN-SUMMER SATURDAY AFTERNOON

After a week of cool, rainy...



...and almost late-November-ish grey weather, it has turned beautiful today. Reminds us of those crisp, dry September afternoons in Michigan that made going back to school seem almost worthwhile. Those days make us forget, at least for a moment, the slush and grey of December-March both here and in Mich -- ugh!



I returned from Valencia Tuesday evening just before midnight. Stepped off the plane into 15 deg (C) Hamburg, having left twice that temperature in VLC that afternoon. Headed to Marseille tomorrow for "Act 1" of the 32nd America's Cup -- the first official pre-regatta of 13 scheduled between now and the start in 2007 of the Challenger Selection Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup. All reports are that preps go well, and it should be a big and exciting event. Six teams are entered. Details at www.americascup.com.



Meg's friend and ISH classmate, Fanny Aklundh (from Malmo, Sweden) is over this afternoon. Since Meg's new computer is temporarily out of order, they have to do something other than sit in front of it playing Sim City and IMing with friends. Nothing like a little "girl-talk" in the backyard hammock. Ostensibly, they are planning a joint birthday party on 18th September. Fanny turns 13 on the 5th, and Meg 12 on the 25th -- but the photog overheard them talking about the seven (!) new boys in their grade at school.

STRESS TEST

Courtesy of George Clyde...



...who is the Rules/Legal advisor to Cup team "GBR Challenge" and a good friend. He writes:

"I'm not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate. Read the full description before looking at the picture, below. The photo has two almost identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress level at St. Mary's Hospital.



"Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study of a group revealed that in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins.



"If there are many differences found between both dolphins, it means that the person is experiencing a great amount of stress. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences, you may want to take a vacation."

OLYMPIC YACHTING REGATTA

To be honest, I just liked...



...this picture. We've come a long way from boring white sails with only three black country-identifying letters on them (USA, GBR, CAN, etc.).

LA ARCHITECTURA DE VALENCIA

Nice article in the...



...International Herald Tribune yesterday about some of the buildings sprouting up in Valencia, which our team apartments and hotel overlook. Click here to see the article.

MICHIGAN VACATION FUN

Dad's Pix, Meg's Comments





Mostly I played a lot with my cousins, Kaitlin [see "Bend it like Kaitlin," below] and Brooke. I love them both sooooo much.





Brooke with her wireless laptop playing games and chatting on the web.





And I played with the Margolis kids. I have known them since they (we!) were born. Their mother, Liz, is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Nowland -- close friends of my parents.





King-of-the-Mountain -- the sandpile on PYC's beach late one evening.



And while we were playing in the sand, my dad -- as usual -- was making people pose for pictures....





Mr and Mrs Nowland, Grandpa Tom and Lynn.





We sailed three PYC races in a Flying Scot with my father. Grandma Jan and I crewed. I got to fly the spinnaker and steer the boat. Luckily it was light air. We won the first race I ever crewed in!





Grandma Jan did most of the crewwork on the boat. She's still very good. At

least I looked good!!





We had a lot of fun at Aunt Ruth's farm, too. One night we got her pet boa constrictor out of its cage and played with it.





I think we would look better in a feather boa.





Aunt Ruth also showed us the coloured eggs (no joke) laid by her "Easter Chicken."





Ruth being a bit silly with the blue, green and brown eggs from her farm.





And we did a lot of shopping (too much!), relaxing, and hanging around at my cousins' house and pool, at the Nowlands, and at PYC. One day Mr Todter, the father of my friends Ben and Michael Todter [subjects of a previous post or two, below] had lunch with us at the Club. He also went to the University of Michigan and was in Ann Arbor that weekend for a reunion.





I think Mr Todter looks a lot like George Clooney.





But it is good now to be home in Hamburg. Dad met us at the airport when we arrived Tuesday -- he had just flown in from Spain and arrived an hour before we did. I love my new computer, and have been playing with it alot this week. It's way faster than my old (1998) hand-me-down laptop. My parents say all the cooling fans make too much noise. I have been IMing on it with my school friends, and it will be good to see them when we start school next Wednesday!





1 gig of RAM running at 3 ghz, 160 gig hard drive, yada yada yada. I

like the red see-thru case and multiple fans with blinking lights!

CELEBRITY IN TRAINING?

Or "Bored Child with Old Parents Can't Wait for School to Begin" (Next Wed!)



So I turn on my laptop, which is about two metres away from Meg's desk (and her new super-duper desktop computer with a 17" flat screen monitor), and I find this long, apparently stream-of-consciousness IM ("Instant Message") on my computer from someone with the screenname "Celebrity in Training" -- turns out to be Meg's idea of for a new online moniker (too much time in the USA??):



celebrity in training says:

boring day what a boring day i need someone to listen so i can poor out my heart and soul to them and fill them with crazy things from the box of pandora you know what I'm saying homey?

celebrity in training says:

you probabl don't

celebrity in training says:

becuz no one heres my voice of justice

celebrity in training says:

no one cares about the tin mouse that was able to fool the cat

celebrity in training says:

they drown me in silence becuz no one wants to know that I have accelerated in intelligence

celebrity in training says:

they never put me in the spot light becuz if they did they would only see air and dust from the cold dark stage that the invisible girl stood on

celebrity in training says:

thankyou for listening to the cries of a lost soul searching for the light

celebrity in training says:

to find piece and happiness

celebrity in training says:

not piece and quiet no becuz I got enough fof that from living on earth

celebrity in training says:

stop killing the people who r supposed to live and letting the people who are destined to die live..it will only create madness

celebrity in training says:

stop me if you have heard all about the secrets of the universe from the lost soul

celebrity in training says:

crying out for help and destined to help the souls of others

celebrity in training says:

if I die today I am happy how my life turned out and death will only make i better and easier to say that I am a good person

celebrity in training says:

if a person gets more than she paid for would she tell the shopkeeper that the receipt was wrong and that they gave her too much? Or would she stay silent and get away before the shopkeeper realised what they had done

celebrity in training says:

Or maybe it is the shopkeepers fault for putting extras in the bag on purpose becuz the shopkeeper thought the lady was beautiful and deserved more

celebrity in training says:

But one will never no who to blame for this money situation.



Is this where poetry is headed in the digital era?

NEUTRAL MANAGEMENT

Michel Hodara...



...is now COO of AC Management, the America's Cup Organizing Committee. During the 2003 Cup he was Marketing Director of Alinghi when they won the Cup from defender Team New Zealand, and of course this time Alinghi is the defender.



Today Michel sent this cute picture with a note saying, "just to show that my son, Ben, is not defender biased!"