This weekend turned into a bit of a motivational crisis for us when a forecast of rain turned into a beautiful, sunny weekend just perfect for shingling.  Unfortunately we were only mentally prepared to park ourselves on the couch and watch the Olympics.  What to do, what to do? 

We are proud to say we sucked it up, strapped on our toolbelts, and shingled, but we did need to make ourselves feel better by coming up with the:

Top Ten Reasons Why Shingling Is Better Than Watching the Olympics

1) Shingling doesn't make Cherie feel like she wasted her entire youth.

2) Even with our excessive use of the chalk line, we use a lot less chalk than the gymnasts.

3) Finding the right shingle for a specific spot can be frustrating, but not as frustrating as trying to figure out the rules for handball.

4) Leaving the baby to entertain herself in a playpen under a tree while we are shingling somehow feels less neglectful than leaving the baby to entertain herself on the living room floor while we watch water polo.

5) When we are shingling, we get to concentrate on one thing for a good amount of time as opposed to watching the jumpy Olympics coverage which frequently results in one of us yelling at the television, "Could we just watch an entire event for once?"

6) No one cares about possible doping scandals in shingling.

7) Our shingling speed isn't clocked down to thousandths of a second.

8) Shingling is better for Annabel's self-esteem because we don't keep telling her things like, "You know, you'll never be an Olympic volleyball player if you don't learn to crawl."

9) As great as he is, Michael Phelps and all his gold medals won't help cut our heating bill next winter.

10) In shingling, bad sportmanship is allowed.