Well, it's been a long five days and the Olympics have just begun! Time to rest for the night.

But before I sign off, there are a couple of things I'd like to share.

One is this photo. It's of the water cube where Ian Crocker will be swimming Thursday night. It changes colors and this gives it a Rubik's Cube look. Across the street from it is the National Stadium, with the Olympic flame at the top. I tried to get a photo of the two together, the Cube and the flame, because it's a spectacular sight at night, but it just wasn't happening. So here's the Cube in all its color glory:

Now I once again spent my day at the rowing venue. And I've got to share a couple of things I noticed on the drive out.

We passed a wetland area and there were several cranes flying or just hanging around. Beautiful, beautiful birds.

Then, I saw a bird which I can't name of that was stunning. Maybe you can help. It was about the size of a hawk. Its feathers were pitch black, except for the tips of the wings. They were pure white, as white as I've ever seen. If you can tell me what it is, I'd appreciate your help.

Now, the Chinese apparently are big into symbols for their highway signs. Every sign has one. I found two that were particularly funny, one for height restrictions, the other for weight restrictions.

On the height restriction sign, it has a picture of a giraffe sticking its neck/head out of the top of a car, with a crossed-out circle on the giraffe's neck. Obviously, you need to buy a shorter giraffe.

For the weight restriction, it is a picture of an elephant getting into the back of a pick-up truck, lifting the front end. Again, you obviously need a smaller elephant.

Finally, I'm no sports photographer. I'll leave that to guys like John Ewing and Greg Rec and Gordie and Jack and JP and Doug (did I get you all, guys?)

And admittedly this isn't a great photo. But it was shot from the press tribune and I wanted to give you an idea of how much the U.S. women's eight crew, with Mainers Anna Goodale and Elle Logan aboard, dominated their heat race on Monday. Here they are, just strokes from the finish line, with the second-place team barely in the picture:

Have a good night Maine.

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