Ah, summer Olympics time again. NBC primetime seems to have this fixation on beach volleyball. Or volleyball. Or other mind-numbing sports. Thank goodness for the NBC Sports app, and that we still have minimal Dish. Download the NBC Sports app, sign in through Dish, and I could watch all the equestrian events I wanted. In fact, this week I found out I didn't need to download the sports app at all; I could get it through the Roku box. First I watched a little dressage, and then this week I've been watching show jumping. They actually did cross country before show jumping, but cross country is the most fun to watch, so I've done some of the jumping first. The individual show jumping had a killer jump-off for the three medals. The winner was Ben Maher (from Great Britain) on a cinnamon-colored horse named Explosion W (nickname "Ginger" or "Carrot"). What a rider! What a horse!

Also got a jolt watching dressage as Oliver Townend competed on Ballaghmor Class (his stable name is "Thomas") and wondering why the horse looked so darn familiar. And then I remembered:

In the midst of horsy happiness, did the usual housekeeping chores on Sunday and Monday, finished my July book reviews before getting too far into August, and finally put our vaccination cards away somewhere safe (which means we'll probably need them back out sometime soon). 

The weekend went a bit better: we got all the shopping done Thursday morning and then James had to go to the dermatologist for his checkup in the afternoon. She put in an order to have his right forefinger x-rayed; it's been enlarged since she removed a wart from it by freezing. Last week it was hot and swollen, as if in a gout attack, and the swelling went away. So we had the x-ray and then headed home.

(Oh, funny thing: James has sort of a small sore between his left pinky toe and left "ring" toe—you know, "the piggy who didn't get roast beef" toe—so we had the dermatologist look at it. She said it was a small ulcer caused by his toes rubbing together, and advised us to get something called DuoDerm hydrocolloid dressings. So, remembering what the podiatrist was always advising, I asked "What about MediHoney? Podiatry is always recommending that." She made a face and commented something about podiatry's "fixation" with "alternative medicine." I wanted to fall over laughing.)

I frankly don't know how I will manage DragonCon if I can't even get up early to go with James to go for an echocardiogram (he hasn't had one in a while, so Dr. Shash ordered one for Friday morning. We didn't even get up that early, only at 7:30, but I was in and out of the bathroom the entire time at home and when we were at TownPark. (I could have gone in the back with him and I was "pottying around" instead.) TownPark itself was a zoo; everyone was jockeying for parking spaces and I've never seen such long lines. One guy was in line (with a mask, thank goodness!) saying he had a slight fever and a cough! Good God, why did you come in the main building? Go next door to Urgent Care, you idiot! We had lunch when James was done, wings at Otter's Chicken—really, something I shouldn't have done, considering how lousy I felt, but thankfully it didn't bother me.

Saturday James went off to his club meeting, so I took the library books back (James also enjoyed The Secret History of Home Economics). I know it's because I'm still a child of the old libraries, with the wooden shelves and chairs—even as a teenager the clunky grey metal shelving in the "new building" at the Providence Public Library looked ugly to me, especially since they had a beautiful children's library room that they no longer used with dark wooden shelving, miniature wooden chairs and tables, and a big mural of literary characters on the wall. The old Arlington Library was like this, too, all dark wood shelving, warm and embracing and comforting. I'm not happy with the remodel at the Switzer (main) Library although I've always known it with metal shelves. They were at least tall metal shelves until the remodel, but they're now at least two shelves shorter, which means there are definitely fewer books than there used to be. I know they went for the grey/blue/white color combination of the furniture and rug to make it look cool, but under fluorescent lights it looks cold and reminds me uncomfortably of the waiting rooms at every Kaiser facility and at the hospital (at least with more comfortable chairs), which, based on the last five years, does not make me stick around and want to browse!