Watch out, Michael Phelps!

You all know Michael Phelps, the 14-time Olympic gold medal swimmer. 

Today, Spencer earned his first notch at knocking Mr. Phelps off the podium by winning his first swim meet!  He earned the High Point distinction for this 8 & under swim meet. 

Of the 10 individual events over the 2-day meet, Spencer got (3) 1st place finishes, (3) 2nd place finishes and (4) 3rd place finishes.  He was also on the 100m IM relay,placing 2nd on Saturday and on the 100m freestyle relay today, taking 1st place. 

Here's his 50m freestyle race from today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUUleDTTkGg

Although he's a very well-rounded swimmer, Spencer definitely shines in freestyle.  During the 100m IM relay on Saturday, his team got a great start from their first swimmer, then lost just a bit from the two younger swimmers in the 2nd and 3rd spots.  Then it was up to Spencer swimming the anchor leg to try for the win.  We didn't get the split time, but it was definitely his best 25m freestyle to date.  He needed about 3-5 more yards to catch the other team's last swimmer, but came up short. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdlg2tr2UYc


They made up for it today by winning the 100m freestyle relay.  Then, hearing he had won the meet as top swimmer, it was icing on the cake. 

I bet Michael Phelps can't wear a cape made from a towel like these guys.  To be 8 years old again...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

It only took ten years, one near-miss on a house fire and 3,500 imported twinkling Christmas lights to pull off a victory this year...We won first place in our subdivision's lighting contest!  I thought my work this year was pretty good, at least judged by my best supporters Spencer and Syd, yet there were some other homes in our neighborhood who I thought would take the awards this year.  And hats off to our friends and neighbors down the street, the Frank's, for taking in second place.  It was a good holiday on Buckeye Run!  Here's the winner:

All this took about 8 hours on the day after Thanksgiving to put up.  Trust me, there is a method to my madness, as I've planned, diagrammed and calculated amp ratings for weeks prior to all this. 

Ironically, it only took 1 hour to take it all down and put away.  Here's a photo of everything in the garage this Saturday:

You'll notice a couple of crates on the floor next to the table:

These are a portion the lights I bought during the sales right before Christmas when everything was heavily discounted.  I'm thinking I'll have roughly another 1,000 lights next year.  Now, you won't see me on any Extreme Christmas light shows on TLC or the Discovery Channel, but I'm going for win #2 next year.  There, I admitted it.  I have a problem and I'm okay with it.