My thoughts on China:  Beijing was great because of the sightseeing that I got to do, but as a city it wasn’t that much different from lots of other big cities I’ve been to - but more polluted and with more traffic than most places I’ve been.  Surprised it didn’t have more of a distinctive character.  Oh, it was also hotter and more humid than Houston!

 

Shanghai was pretty cool, but it was raining the entire time I was there so I didn’t get a good feel for that city.  Shenzhen was surprisingly vacation-resort like, but that might be because I stayed at a hotel with a view of the coast and with small tourist attractions on either side and got to jog down nice wide palm-tree lined sidewalks.  

 

 

I’m definitely not ready for the work week to begin tomorrow.  When I got back on Saturday, I hung on long enough to eat an early dinner from the Outback Steakhouse and watch the Celtics/Lakers Game 4 on ESPN Classic - then I went to bed and slept for 15 hours!  My back still hasn’t recovered from that.

 

 

Thanks to the late start, today vanished in a flash.  Watched the Sox, the back nine of the U.S. Open, and the Celtics  -- don’t remember doing anything else.  Very disappointed in the Celtics game.  Garnett especially.  He really needs to have a great clinching game to change his reputation for disappearing in the clutch.  Missed a point blank tip in and three free throws down the stretch.   And getting in foul trouble (terrible 3rd foul call) in a game when we don’t have Perkins?  Come on, KG!  And Ray missed a bunch of wide open 3’s in the late 3rd/early 4th.  What the heck was Rondo doing midway through the 3rd?  Gave away 6 points in about 1 minute!  Tough game to watch because it sure seemed to me the Celtics were the better team in the game.

 

Funniest part of the game was the excerpt from Doc Rivers halftime speech where he asks “Why were we able to score in the 2nd qtr?”  A few players answer “We got stops” while Sam Cassell chimes in “We attacked the basket.”  Doc says, “Right.  We got stops.”  That was pretty funny.  Close second was when Sasha Vuyasuck fell down in the 3rd quarter and held out his hand to his teammate to help him up -- and got no response.  Third was when Vuyasuck got tied up and thrown down by Cassell for a jump ball, then lay on the floor like he had been shot.  Even soccer players were wondering what he was doing.

 

 

Looking forward to Game 6 on Tuesday.