The Best Rowing Movie Ever Made...

Today Paul and I watched a movie we got from the Bloomington Public Library called Miracle at Oxford. The review on the back said it was "the best rowing movie ever made". I'm not about to doubt that claim, but it was pretty good. Since both Paul and I have rowed (and Paul at Oxford), we were probably a little more interested than most other people would be in the film. But it was still really neat to say "ooh, I know that street!" or "Hey, isn't that the butcher shop we liked?" It also had some interesting commentary on how Americans are perceived in the UK.

What was a really bizarre coincidence is that one of the main actors, Dominic West, also starred in Mona Lisa Smile, which was filmed at Wellesley College while I was a student there.

So now I'm thinking it might be a good time to watch Breaking Away again - that's the movie about bike racing in the Little 500 in Bloomington, Indiana. It's always fun to watch a movie about a place you've lived, and now that I've been in Bloomington for over half a year I should be able to recognize some places!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

This morning we rented a boat on Lake Griffy. It's just $6/hour, so we figured that with the dog, an hour would be plenty long enough! We took Rewley for a short walk in the woods first, then we all got on the boat.

Here's Paul using the rowing skills he learned at Oxford (ok, so it's not at all the same kind of rowing, but it involves a boat and water)

From Boat Trip June 9th

Here I am bringing up the rear, or acting as coxswain:


And here's that handsome puppy smile. I'm amazed that we managed to keep him from jumping overboard, considering there were also ducks and geese on the water!


We're going to the vet today for the next round of shots. Training lesson #2 is tonight. Rewley's been doing great except for the "heel" command. I hope she had us learn that in the first lesson because it's really hard and will take all 6 lessons! We've had some setbacks with the neighborhood. With being just off a main road, there's trucks and busses going by, and lately Rewley's been really scared of them and trying to dash away home any time he hears an engine. So, we're using things like cheese to lure him along. Still, we're nowhere near where we want to be, but then again, he's just 11 weeks old.

Why MBA students are not professional athletes

You might recognize someone (wearing red) in the Hertford M4 boat. Pictures here:
http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2008/ot08/rowingon/Hertford%20M4.html