The Paris Olympic Opening Show Brought it ALL Including Sheets of Rain

I hope that all of you (if you're interested in such things) watched the Opening Ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris yesterday. It was a magnificent show. Not everything was great - Lady Gaga was meh, for instance. But taken as a whole, and even adding in the heavy rain that Mother Nature decided would make the light of Paris even more interesting, it was MAGNIFICENT. Acrobats in the scaffolding of Notre Dame. Dancers and more dancers along the way for the anonymous rooftop runner with the torch. Music, fashion shows, and more acrobatics. Topping the whole thing off at the end ... Celine Dion. OMG - Celine! Her voice is as amazing as ever, and I stopped what I was doing and just soaked it in with tears in my eyes that she was able to pull this performance off and show the world what we have been missing. Wow! 

I'll try to watch the Olympics when I can today, it really 
depends on what work I have waiting for me, and how 
busy the store will be. I don't have the tablet this time which 
is very inconvenient. I had it for the Winter Olympics 
because DH didn't watch TV on his tablet at that time. Now 
he's discovered the wonders of Peacock and is always 
watching something or other. *sigh* I have my laptop, but 
I might not have time to watch much anyway. We'll see. 

I loved that Paris wanted to bring their best points into the show - the river, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and so many other locations. DH said "It's really a beautiful city." I agreed, and put it onto my mental list as possible places to visit in future. Will that ever happen? Who knows. He's a super big homebody, hates to leave home. I'd be travelling almost constantly if I had my way. Somewhere there's a middle ground, even if it's not readily apparent. 

I love the fact that the French made the Eiffel Tower a 
centerpiece of the entertaining for Opening Ceremonies. 
The laser light show they did with the Tower was absolutely 
fabulous! They've apparently done laser light shows in the 
past on the Tower, but I was enthralled. Very Well Done, 
Paris. Now ... let's have a great Olympics too. 

I took a bit of a gamble yesterday and bought a fruit I've never had before. It's a rather strange appearance. I stood in front of it for a bit, then Googled to find out more about it. Rambutan is a tropical fruit from Southeast Asia. It has this formidable-looking exterior, which actually isn't hard and sticky although it looks like a mini cactus look-alike. You slice into that exterior, peel it away from the interior grape-like structure, cut the "grape" away from its' interior seed, toss the seed and eat the pulp. It's FANTASTIC. I won't be getting some often, but I'll get some every now and again. This was an experiment I'll enjoy repeating. Yum! 

Rambutan - a fruit I've never even heard of before. But 
I was in the mood to experiment. I actually really love it, 
just wish it wasn't a stone fruit (stone fruits, like some 
plums, have central seeds that are firmly attached to 
the meat of the fruit. Very hard to remove efficiently.) 
But, Rambutan - VERY tasty. 

In between peeling fruit that appeared dangerous and watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony (twice), I harvested in the garden, prepped and washed veggies, and did some cooking. A standard "day off" for me, but a fun one. It was a very hot day (no A/C at my house), but I really wan't bothered by the heat. I did have the fan on overnight to allow for a comfortable sleep, and today is promising to be even hotter - in the low to mid 90's F (32-35 C). We'll be dripping. I'm grateful I'm working today, we have A/C at the shop - LOL. Have an excellent Saturday and weekend, and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini (who DO have a delegation at the Olympic Games).