Olympic Fever!

We're all about the Olympics at our house. I can't remember the last time I really watched the Summer Olympics; we're always gone or doing stuff in August. Fortunately, our August is very lowkey this year, which means we've got plenty of time to sit around the house with Olympic Fever. We started off with a Chinese themed-party on Friday night at Jen & Brandon's house (sis & bro-in-law). They had the house all decorated and we ate a ton of Chinese food while we watched the Opening Ceremonies. It was a great way to start everything off (thanks Jen and Ba Ba).

Things I Y:
- All the shots and stories about China! I've been to Beijing, so that makes it even all the more cool.
- The Opening Ceremonies were fantastic! Loved the LED screen on the ground and the drummers. It was huge and spectacular, just how it should be.


- How cool is it that George Bush has been at the events? And, he's buddies with the beach volleyball gals, being the first acting president to visit an Olympic women's volleyball venue. I also Y this picture. I guess Misty May told the Pres he could slap her butt. He considered it, but declined and just playfully patted her lower back. I too am TOTALLY that confident when I wear a bikini in front of important people!
- How one moment you can be so down about an Olympic moment (Katie Hoff losing the gold in swimming by 7/100 of a second), and it can completely turn around and make you ecstatic (the men's relay beating the smug French by 8/100 of a second -- that was freaking awesome!)
- The Olympic music; I get all choked up!
- That I thought Kerry Walsh's bandages were a cool Chinese tattoo.
- When underdogs win -- Yed when Pak Tae Hwan won the 1st gold swimming medal ever for Korea after being disqualified in Athens after jumping in the pool too early. Great comeback! And I love it more since he's Korean.


- The swimming cube -- it's so funky and futuristic, and I Y they call it the Cube!
- NBC's human interest stories about the Olympians. Choked up again!
- The Home Depot commercial where they show how many Olympians work there.
- The Oreo commercial with the Caucasian girl on one train and the Chinese girl on the other, copying the other eat an Oreo.



- YYY Michael Phelps. 'Nuff said.
- The Americans swept the fencing and won all 3 medals, but even better, each of the girls go to ivy league schools, are super smart (one's leaving early to go to law school), and cute! Yeah, fencing!
- The commercials for NBC's upcoming Fall season (more on that in Thursday's blog).


Things that bug
- Commentators assuming they know how the Olympians feel ("She is sick with worry about winning right now"). I only want them to comment on the actual event, not trying to fill time with psychobabble.
- I've watched probably 10 hours of Olympics this weekend and seen only 6 awards ceremonies.
- Speaking of that, I HATE the ceremony stand. John says it looks like they are at a convention or tradeshow. It's so un-fabulous!
- The camera was always on George Bush doing unflattering things in the Opening Ceremonies: yawning, looking at his watch, raising his arm to reveal sweaty armpits.
- The AT&T Olympic soundtrack is annoying and so is the music they play in the background at events. Do we really want to hear "Sweet Child of Mine" at the Olympics?
- The time difference really jips us on seeing all the events.
- That it took me 3 days to figure out I could hide the results on my MSN home page, so I'm not spoiled on who's won everytime I log unto my computer.
- The Redeem Team - gag! I know other countries use professionals to play basketball, but ours are SO overpaid already and they just don't seem as invested to be there as the other athletes. There's just not much at stake. Plus, they kept showing the NBA players walking into the stadium during Opening Ceremonies. I can see them anytime...show me the career Olympians!
- Those "cheerleaders" in white during the Opening Ceremonies. The athletes walked in and they were bouncing up and down. Very distracting. That didn't last long, about 15 minutes in, they all looked ready to keel over from heat and exhaustion.
- This doesn't bug, but it made me so sad when I heard that the men's volleyball coach's father and mother-in-law were attacked doing some siteseeing. The father-in-law was stabbed and killed, and the mother-in-law was seriously injured. Then the killer jumped to his death off a tower. That's just devastating.
- That annoying John McSame commercial about Obama being a celebrity. Obama's isn't great either, but at least it's not a "hater" commercial. I just don't want to be reminded there's an election going on while I'm watching the Olympics. I want to feel all warm and fuzzy, patriotic and the world is united!!! :)
- That McDonald's commercial where actors are posing as Olympians and they are talking about going for the....southwestern chicken sandwich.
- Katie is totally getting into the Olympics (which is great), but she's been such a pill about going to bed. Last night, she kept getting up and coming in to see what was happening. But to her defense, we were screaming at the top of our lungs when the men won the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay. There was no way she was sleeping through that.