Oly on my mind

I have fond memories of the last summer Olympics. Jeremy and I had just moved to Bozeman, and we had two full weeks in which to do essentially nothing while we waited for school to start. Fortuitously, those two weeks just happened to be the two weeks of Olympic Glory in Athens. As I recall, we explored the wonders of Bozeman, watched the Olympics, ate, and slept. I find it hard to believe we'll ever have two weeks like that again.

Jump with me to the current Oly games, broadcast "live" from Beijing. I say "live," of course, because they're only really "live" on the east coast. But if you live in, say, the Pacific time zone, as we do, you are forced to watch the games on delay but still in the east coast time block: from 8:00 p.m. until midnight.

If you know us at all, you will know that the only time Jeremy and I stay up until midnight is when we are literally forced to--for example, by a tyrannical newborn. Otherwise, our engines shut down around 10:00. But for the sake of Sport, we have been keeping slightly later hours that we are wont to do, so we could enjoy the thrill of watching Michael Phelps compete "live" for gold, three hours after he'd finished racing.

Despite the late hours we've been forced to keep (I know there are many out there who are disappointed in my lack of Oly spirit), we've actually enjoyed watching many of the events. Phelps really is a wonder, and some of the "lesser" events--some shown, mercifully, during the lunch hour--have also been exciting to watch. Clara has loved watching midday "splashing in the ocean" (swimming in the pool), cycling, running, and sculling. It's been a good time.

But so help me, if I have to watch Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh play one more game of beach volleyball in their too-tiny "uniforms," (even Jeremy is bored with it!) I may make good on my threat to become a Canadian.