Oh, and I need to tell you I’m obsessed with our new sailboat! We don’t even have it home yet and have never put it in water and I’m obsessed with it. I find myself daydreaming about it when I’m at work.

We take it for our first sail on Sunday, following a day spent Saturday in a boating education class. Boy will I be happy when we finally shove off!

The Guardian investigates the likelihood of binary explosives taking down a plane.

Are you tired of constantly being goosed yet?

(hat tip to Mike B.)

Thinking back on the recent terrist plot and its security changes, I was reminded of the flight out of Sydney back in March. The airport’s power being off wasn’t the only thing unusual about it. As the lengthy queue snaked its way to the nonfunctioning check-in desks, a pair of airport police at a table were hand-searching luggage.

They were particularly interested in the toiletries. When I asked innocently enough what they were looking for, one of them told me they were “just checking that my shaving cream container was sealed.”

I tried but couldn’t imagine how a shaving kit full of errant foam could bring down a plane. Shrugging it off to a side effect of the power outage, I forgot all about it until now. Perhaps its connected to the latest terror plot. Who knows?

Sunday brought the news that Tour De France winner Floyd Landis had been dreading: his B-sample test came back positive for testosterone. The lab that did the testing is not without suspicion itself, having claimed unsuccessfully that Lance Armstrong was doping. If it were a case of Landis alone triggering doping allegations, I might be inclined to believe he cheated. However, this same lab went round and round with Lance in what could very well be called a smear campaign. Suspicions are raised about the lab’s motives when it blatantly leaks (ha!) testing information to the press before the backup sample has even been tested. The athlete confidentiality rules somehow have gone out the window.

The climb Landis has to regain his credibility is taller than any peak he’s faced in the Alps. Yet he may be telling the truth. From what I understand about testosterone doping, he would have had to have done it far longer than one stage alone in order to gain any benefit from it. He was tested multiple times before Stage 17 and multiple times afterward yet only one sample tested positive. If he was doping it should have been readily apparent long before the first allegation. He’s either telling the truth or he’s incredibly inept at doping. Frankly, I have a harder time believing he could be that stupid.

In spite of this week’s sanctions against Landis, and until he says it himself, I’m still not ready to call him a cheat.

Savvy MT.Net readers might have noticed a few nautically-themed pictures in the gallery. There was also this post of lyrics to a sailing-themed song. Putting two and two together might lead you to guess that we’ve been looking at buying a boat. And you’d be right. On our “date day” two weekends ago, Kelly and I drove down Leesville Road from the stables to Lake Crabtree for some sailing. We passed this boat with a “for sale” sign on it and decided to have a closer look at it once we were done sailing. While Kelly waited in the car, I spent 5 minutes walking around it taking pictures.

The next day I called the owner, who proceeded to talk my ear off about the boat. He was sailing it because his family was growing to three kids and could no longer fit on it. I made arrangements for Ralph, my sailing mate, to take a look at it with me, which he did tonight. Soon after returning home and discussing it with Kelly, we made the decision to buy it.

It’s a 1985 Spindrift 22, similar to this one. It has a trailer, plenty of room for the family, sink, stove, motor, marine radio, and cd player. And its in great shape. Ralph was really impressed with its condition, which gave me comfort.

I’ve been sailing for sixteen years but this is the first boat I’ve ever owned. Things are a bit different when you’re the owner. Kelly and I both have a lot to learn about its care and feeding, though the sailing part should be a cinch.

We’re imagining a future where we spend weekends with the kids sailing around. I think early exposure to sailing will open up whole worlds for our kids. Hallie is excited about it and I know Travis will love it, too.

Once we’ve got it ready to go I’ll be happy to take MT.Net readers out for a cruise. Ahoy!

I was checking out my old Charlotte neighborhood on Google Maps today when I noticed Sharon Golf Course, the old 9-hole golf course up the road from where I used to live, has closed. I don’t remember ever playing there, but it used to be a landmark for me, anyway. My parents rented a house directly across from it when I was (anchors?) away in the Navy. It doesn’t look much like a course, now, does it? Though Google still thinks it is, according to its label. Now there’s a retirement home in its place.

I went searching around to find a story on the old golf course. Charlottean Ron Greene Sr. wrote a nice one which praises it for what it was: an everyman’s course. Its stuff like this I think about when I drive by the now-deserted Cheviot Hills course every day.

Like the eminent closing of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion or the end of Miracle Strip Amusement Park – a favorite from my childhood days – I find it sad when places where people used to have fun disappear.

Just when I thought cycling had turned a corner on doping scandals, the shocking news arrives that Floyd Landis tested positive on a doping test, showing elevated levels of testosterone.

Landis has denied cheating, and the second sample has not yet been tested. Still, it doesn’t look promising for this year’s Tour De France winner.

Floyd is still The Man in my book, but his time as The Man may be running out. Here’s hoping that there’s been some misunderstanding somewhere. I’ll be so disappointed if that incredible Tour turns out to have been nothing but a sham.

YouTube brings us Pug Bowling.

Happy Friday, everyone!!!!1!111ones!!!

(h/t Stacy Horn)

As I alluded to in a previous post, American Floyd Landis has charged back from the brink and willed himself back in contention to win the Tour De France. Like many, I’d written Landis off just two days ago but he proved me wrong. This Tour is anything but over.

Landis started yesterday trailing by eight minutes, eight seconds, having blown a ten minute lead in his disastrous climb in the La Toussiure stage. Whereas many would have rolled over and quit, Landis charged from the very beginning, leaving his struggling rivals in his wake. Not only did he win the stage – the last in the mighty Alps – he sliced his deficit to a mere thirty seconds! That’s right. Just one day after his disaster, Landis gained most of his time back, and he did it on one of the toughest climbs of the Tour. It was one of the most phenomenal Tour De France stages in modern history.

I knew athletes like Lance Armstrong could spot rivals eight minutes and then earn it back at will, but Lance never had to dig himself out of such a hole. No one’s ever done it as spectacularly as Landis did yesterday.

Even if he doesn’t win the whole race, yesterday’s win proves Floyd Landis is worthy of standing in Lance’s well-worn footsteps at the winner’s podium. I’m hoping he crushes his rivals in Saturday’s time trial so he can claim it all. He just might win after all.

Man, what a Tour!