Spoliers

During the 2-week circus that was the Olympics (and I mean that in the most complimentary way!) I made a conscious effort to avoid news sites, such as Google News, CNN, and the official Olympic site as well.   The reason being, with London 5 hours ahead of me, events took place hours before NBC's [mediocre] coverage began.   Knowing events were finishing up in the afternoon locally - evening in London- I stayed off those websites.   I wanted to watch the drama unfold on TV later.

What did I forget to avoid?  FACEBOOK!  Now, you would think that 'friends' would have the sense to avoid posting news stories to their status updates.   "Congratulations to the USA Women on winning gold" showed up on my newsfeed hours before.   I got so angry!   So I decided to avoid facebook like the plague until the games closed on Sunday.

It was actually pretty awesome.  Lately the updates I have been seeing on facebook are largely people complaining or trying to show off.   I enjoy the site for sharing photos and keeping up to date with friends who live far away but I enjoyed being 'removed' for awhile.    I figure if anyone really needs to get in touch with me, they have my email address and phone number and can get in touch 'the old fashioned way'

All in all I was glad I did it- if only for about 10 days.   Life continued to progress, and I was not spoiled once for the rest of the games!   I might have just been inspired as to what to give up for Lent in 2013. . . . .

Opening Ceremonies

First things first- I did not find there to be a legitimate 'battle' between Mary Poppins and Voldemort.   I know MP is awesome, but her simple act of flying in would not scare him away.   Where was the action?  Liars!

One of the good things about the opening ceremonies is that despite not watching with all my friends and family, text messaging means we can still share thoughts in real time.   Highlights are below

Pannie: The first half hour can be summed up thusly: YAY ENGLAND!
Al: What the @#$% is this crap?

Mom: A storm knocked our our DirecTV right when the Red Queen appeared!
Ashley: Suffragettes!
Al: Danny Boyle is apparently on more drugs than a Soviet athlete
Mom: Matt is pissing me off
Al: Holy @#$%^# Germany!   Stick with designing cars, not clothes 
Mom: Dad needs a Nigerian hat

And finally, my favorite image of the night, courtesy of many facebook friends

Opening Ceremonies!

No surprise, but if you need to find me this evening, I will be on my couch watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics Games.    I will also be making fun of Bob Costas [a given] and texting Pannie about all sorts of things including, but not limited to, finding her a boyfriend with a crazy long last name.   With any luck I will also learn a new word in the process.   Last time it was 'sartorial'   Anyway.

Besides drooling over the male swimmers and guys on the track team (I'd drool over the gymnasts too but they're all at least 6" shorter than me) I will be anticipating this pomp and circumstance.

British literary characters?  Check!    Mary Poppins?  Voldemort?  BATTLING EACH OTHER?!?!   What in the world?

Fingers crossed that He Who Must Not Be Named gets his ass kicked by the magical nanny.

The first of many Olympic texts

Pannie: Watching Olympic trials.  Backstroke event finals now (Aaron Perisol's event). yet he is now retired :(

Me:  No!  Find a new bf w a better last name :)  Pieter [van den Hoogenband] still swims*?

Pannie: don't know.  Will find out in a month, I guess!

Pannie Aaron will be hard to replace.  I loved him for reasons unrelated to last name. (that SMILE, good lord)

Me: OK I will stop being matchmaker now

Pannie: Well don't' stop.   I mean, you found me several possibilities during the last Opening Ceremonies.  You're good at it.

Me: OK if you insist.   I will focus on dutch and africans obv for names.  And all nations for hotties.

*Per Wikipedia, Pieter is retired.

A Lesson in Canadian Culinary Creations

What with all the Olympic coverage in the news, in the past 24 hours I have seen two references to poutine.  It got me wondering...what the heck is poutine?  I went to wikipedia to find out.

Now is a good time to admit that if I come upon a word I do not know while reading a book, I keep reading.  I can often figure it out in context, and can't be bothered to stop reading the book.  This explains my sub-par SAT verbal score in high school.  If I encounter it twice, I find out what it means.  Hence my poutine research.

Poutine, which originated in Quebec, is a essentially a diner-type snack consisting of French fries, fresh cheese curd, and brown gravy.  Now, I enjoy cottage cheese more than your average Joe, but I am grossed out by the idea of this snack.  French fries?  Good.  Cottage cheese?  Good.  Brown gravy?  Eh, maybe on pot roast.  But combining them all?!  Who thought that would be a good idea?  It looks kind of gross to me.  I suppose it's just a variation of our own cheese fries with shredded cheddar, bacon bits, sour cream, etc.  and yet I have no desire to taste this creation.

What rhymes with Olympics?

I can't think of anything. I think it's like "orange" and there is nothing that comes close. Anyway, while most of the country is getting eleventy billion* inches of snow to help them get in the winter games spirit, Florida is getting enough rain to strangle a frog** Good news is, this gave me opportune time to read --cover to cover-- the Sports Illustrated Olympics issue! (And also, evidently, post an anticipatory entry before Pannie! Who knew?!) The Olympic preview arrived last week, but I'm slow. In fact, the SI Swimsuit edition came yesterday, and I haven't opened it to see the gorgeous thin women and their swimsuits and body paint. Gee I wonder why. Probably because in recent days I have been eating frosting out of the container with a spoon. Seriously, I do that. I will 'read' the swimsuit edition, I always do. If only to motivate myself to throw the damn frosting in the trash.

What I have learned from the Olympic issue of the magazine is as follows:

• Skier Lindsey Vonn is kick-ass [and I hope her leg is ok]
• [Speedskater, in case you live under a rock] Apolo Anton Ohno is kick-ass***
• Speedskater Shani Davis seems to have some issues
• I am much too afraid to attempt any of Shaun White's snowboarding tricks
• Winter athletes have the coolest hats, ever! I shall have to get some when we move to NY
• There is a skier from GHANA! Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is a former safari guide, which I think is awesome.
• Bob Costas is hosting the Olympic opening ceremonies (AGAIN) and he is a fool who will probably say three more foolish things than Matt Lauer this evening***

*TM Pannie

**TM my dad

***To be fair, I knew these things before reading SI today