My claim to fame

So with the Olympics in full swing Albert and I have been glued to the tv every evening to watch the US win yet another gold metal. We enjoy watching all the events even though normally we aren't big sports fans and that includes volleyball which neither of us liked playing in P.E.

One of the players on the men's indoor team is named Ryan Millar. I take interest in him because I actually met him in Italy while I was a missionary there and he was playing on a nearby Italian team. He and his wife came to church one Sunday and it was immediately obvious that they weren't from around there. He's 6'7" and his wife is quite blonde (like me!) and had a giant diamond ring (also like me) so they stuck out amongst the Italian congregation. They couldn't go to church very often because he worked on most Sundays so as missionaries we went out to visit them a couple times.

One time they took us out to eat Chinese food...I have to say that Chinese food in Italy isn't nearly as tasty as it is here. Kinda funny that he is now in CHINA playing in the Olympics and we ate at a CHINESE restaurant. I remember them talking about how he would play in Greece and then in China then he would retire from volleyball. We even went to a professional volleyball match to watch him play in the Italian league where the fans chanted cheers specifically for him. I had no idea that volleyball was so big.

In case you don't know who I'm talking about here are some pics I took of the TV of him playing:

I was telling Albert about how I knew a guy on the Olympic team and I seemed to remember that we took pictures of our lunch so I got out my old mission photo album. I even had pictures of him playing at the match, but I forgot to bring that one to be scanned. Here is the picture of him and his wife Suzanne when we ate at Grande Shanghai in Desenzano del Garda at Lake Garda on January 13, 2003:

I even kept the business card of where we ate...

Here's me and my companion at the time Rebecca.

I didn't really like how I looked in that picture (no wonder that a guy I ran into a few weeks ago who served in Milan with me didn't recognize me) so I'm including another picture of Becca and I also at Lake Garda that is slightly more flattering. When I got home in February 2003 I decided I didn't really like my hair that short and grew it out...my hair cut last week was the first time I didn't just get a trim ever since then.