More Olympic Observations

So now the Olympics are over...sigh...I'm proud of my consumption this year.  I watched so much cross country skiing I know that track by heart.  What a torturous activity in appears to be...especially the uphill parts.  I got kind of bored with the coverage of all of it at the end...it was like "Lindsay Vonn, Lindsay Vonn, commercials about amputees, Lindsay Vonn..."  There were some exciting highlights though.  Such as...Kikkan Randal and Jessie Diggins winning gold in a cross country relay.  Apparently, there wasn't enough activity going on so NBC was able to replay the race about ten times but I watched it every time because I'm a sucker like that.  

It was awesome...they beat a Scandinavian (Sweden in this finish) in a cross country skiing event!  Jessie was the final leg and the one to cross the finish line and she was so full of joy it made everyone in America smile I think.  The big talk was about how Kikkan Randall was the only mother representing team USA although I swear I saw somewhere else there were four.  But either way, if you read any commentary on social media posts about her everyone was like "Blaaaah no one makes a big deal about male Olympians being fathers!  Equality!"  Yes, true, but in the context of being an elite athlete being a mother does kind of matter...Men don't lose at least a year of being in their physical prime to have a child and women inevitably do.  Even the best can't perform the same while pregnant and they almost have to lose the time training during pregnancy.  Nice work, Kikkan, I can't imagine!  

Speaking of Olympian parents, skier David Wise has two little kids.  David Wise won gold in the ski halfpipe event (such a weird event full of almost outlandish falls.  Almost every competitor ended up splayed at the bottom of the pipe at some point with equipment strewn all over the place).  The cameras loved showing his wife and two kids celebrating with him.  

So sweet...but I can't be the only one thinking this...two preschool age kids...one appears to be a toddler...probably who still wears diapers...so fun...bringing two little kids on a three week international trip...to South Korea...on a completely opposite day/night schedule as the US...OK.  Let's acknowledge how terrible this must have been for his wife. It's a once in a lifetime thing to watch one of your parents in the Olympics but that younger child won't even remember. I'm sure some other family members were present and maybe a nanny but probably not a nanny.  Most Olympians aren't rich unless they get to be in commercials.  Definitely not rich enough to fly an extra person to South Korea to babysit their kids.

Speaking of commercials, I almost enjoy Olympics commercials more that Super Bowl commercials.  The previously mentioned theme of amputees and inspirational para-Olympians can bring a tear to anyone's eye.  My favorites include the one about the various people being told they CAN'T and at the end the lady with the new prosthetic leg uses some VR goggles to take her first steps while virtually walking on a beach (I love the Killers song playing in the background), the one where the nurse picks up a baby born with missing limbs and we see her progress to a gold medal winning skier and the old but awesome one where the war Veteran who's lost his leg and has a prosthetic adopts the misfit dog who's also "been through a lot".  I even like the more upbeat and endlessly played commercial where Michaela Shiffrin zooms around charging a bunch of stuff on her credit card.

Another thing that stood out this year...the OAR aka the Olympic Athletes from Russia.  O.A.R. is a band I like so I constantly had their music in my head during this Olympics.  "Love and Memories" anyone?  And even with being banned from representing their own flag because no one can stop using performance enhancing drugs, two athletes STILL got caught using them at the Olympics.  I have to wonder how much drugs those athletes have been using all these years.  At least the OAR figure skaters still dominated while being clean.  I read an article that pointed out that at this Olympics there haven't been world records shattered constantly like in previous years and we may have reached the peak of human performance so I can understand (kind of but not really) how an athlete might turn to drugs to overcome their plateaus even if their plateaus are actually a peak.

A few more of my favorite moments:

When Germany and Canada tied for the gold medal in two man bobsled. It was a real display of unity.  These four were having a real love fest in their interview on TV together and it was cute.  What are the odds of a tie anyway?  They go down to the hundredth of a second!



The USA Women winning gold in hockey.  



You would think having a big love pile would be dangerous in hockey...all those blades!

I watched when Ukranian Oleksandr Abramenko won the first gold medal for Ukraine in aerial skiing.  Some Americans lost to him but I was still really happy for him.  He was delirious with glee and disbelief.



The replay footage this year was really good for all the events.  The skiing and snowboarding especially.  Camera technology has really come a long way.

I tried to watch the Closing Ceremony last night but it just got too weird as usual.  Once the athletes had paraded in I lost interest in the strange performances and music. Happens every Olympics.  After the giant dancing parrots from Rio two years ago nothing can really hold my attention. Watching the athletes letting loose is the best part.  I have to wonder if they get to enjoy a few beverages if they choose beforehand.  I would be all over that although not enough to dull my memory of the experience.  I suppose afterwards they go crazy if they want to.

Now I have to wait two more years for the summer Olympics in Japan.  Oh well, it will be here before we know it.

Valentine's Day 2018

Here I sit, surrounded by the wreckage of Valentine's Day.  With two kids in school to have Valentine's Day parties the influx of tiny cards, candy wrappers and little trinkets is bigger than ever this year.  They love it though, so what can I say?  It was a fun day.

Tessa had to make a box for her class party.  Ben's class made bags at school (yessssss) so he only had to bring his cards and candy.  Tessa wanted a Frozen box which was awesome because we have a lovely tube of Frozen wrapping paper in the basement.  It is technically Christmas paper but nothing on it was exclusively Christmas-y so it was perfect.  I tried to cut a few snowflakes with hearts in the patterns but they didn't turn out very good so she got juts plain snowflakes.  She plastered a few stickers at random places on the box and it was done.

She returned from school with lots of fun treats.  She herself chose Disney princess cards and heart shaped Jolly Rancher lollipops which are really delicious.  We practically had to give Milo an intervention because he was so obsessed with them. 

Tessa actually wore that baby headband to school. 

One lovely classmate had a whole bag of fun including sunglasses and a necklace.  

Here is Ben's bag.  I'm not 100% sure what it's supposed to be. 

He chose paper airplane cards.  He came home with lots of cards and candy treats.  He even got a Valentine from a 5th grade girl from the school bus.  So cute.  It was funny seeing the older kids (the older classes made boxes) hiking to school with their various creative ideas.  My favorite I saw was a giant cardboard box decorated like a rubik's cube.  Ben's Lego from the last two years of preschool is still intact in his closet.  Will it see another Valentine's Day? 

Here are my V-day flowers.  

I bought a bunch of Valentine candy the day after at Walmart. There were a lot of those heart shaped boxes left!  Maybe Russel Stover should consider removing those lethal fruit cream chocolate bites!  

Olympics 2018 Part 1

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  The traditional post of kids' Valentine boxes is coming but I will wait until they get home from school to see their haul and post about it later this week...or next week...or whenever...The Olympics are on after all so I've got some stuff going on. By stuff I mean I have to watch TV while following athletes and news channels on social media.  I am currently watching the luge where two people ride at once and remembering back in 2006 when the disgraced Matt Lauer and Al Roker went down the luge track together and screamed like little children and then people made a bunch of jokes about the movie Brokeback Mountain.  Hehehe I was in law school then and in peak Internet immersion mode and that was a fun time full of mirth and hilarity.

Anyway, the Olympics have not been going for a week yet but I already have some items to discuss.  Might as well do it before I forget.  First up-

I love seeing my first name anytime it appears because it is quite rare in the USA. It is popular in Norway so it's not really a surprise to see an athlete with the name.  Such as this champion ski jumper.  I love to ski and have covered some extreme terrain in the Rockies but ski jumping just makes me light headed.  Can you imagine doing that?  I have been at the top a Norwegian ski jump as a tourist in the summer and it is high.  It is very very high.  I'm glad to watch other crazy people do this.  Women were only allowed to compete in ski jump at the Olympics starting in 2010.  Way to go, ladies.  

Figure skating is always a favorite event.  A new development this year is the skaters can skate to music with lyrics.  I felt like the routines were a bit more modern when I first started watching but I couldn't really place why.  When I heard the news about the music I knew that was it.  I like the change.  You can only hear music from "Swan Lake" and other ballets so many times.  My favorite performance I have seen is the ice dancing routine by the Shibutani siblings of the USA.  

I usually get kind of bored with ice dancing because it lacks the thrilling jumps and spins but these two danced to "Paradise" by Coldplay and the medley they used also had excerpts from "Fix You" also by Coldplay and it was quite moving.  I had to go plug my phone into my computer and put some Coldplay songs back on it to listen to when I am driving.  

The Shibutanis are 26 and 23 and have been skating and dancing together since Maia, the younger of the two, was a toddler.  Meanwhile, my little brother/sister pair fight over who gets to sit by the faucet in the bathtub and who gets to use the freebie cup we got at Zorbaz this summer at meals.  

The big story so far, or at least the story NBC wants to be big, is the snowboarder Chloe Kim.  She is 17 and won a gold medal in the half pipe a few days ago/yesterday/I have no idea what day it is in South Korea.  She is very likeable and awesome at the half pipe, has immigrant parents, and you can't help but be happy for her.   

What annoyed me is during the finals there were apparently twelve women competing and NBC only showed five or six-the three Americans and a few other fillers who were getting top scores.  Which is fine if there are time constraints but they spent ALOT of time showing footage of Chloe just walking around and talking about stuff she wrote on Twitter.  Come on SHOW THE SPORTS!  

I would like to see more attention on this lady-Kelly Clark. She won the Bronze medal in the half pipe at the ancient for the Olympics age of 34.  Same age as me.  I tried to find a picture of her but every picture I searched for with her name and Olympics 2018 also had Chloe Kim in it.  Seriously.  I feel you girl-once you turn thirty it's a different world.  Have a kid and it's over.  This year I am realizing that the next time I see the Winter Olympics I will be older than all the athletes.  Ugh.  

This is an old picture of her from Sochi because that's all I could find.  What the hell?  I really wish the media would focus on a wider variety of athletes.  On the Today show there was about ten athletes from various disciplines hanging out at the set and Hoda and Savannah had to ask who they all were.  They were like "Uhh...I think we have a hockey player here?"  Kind of embarrassing.  

The other huge story-the wind and cold.  Apparently, after several winter Olympics where it was fifty degrees and cross country skiers were wearing sleeveless shirts (Sochi) and where the cherry and apple blossoms were blooming (Vancouver) actual winter is too much to bear for everyone.  I guess when you train in the mountains of California like most of the skiers and snowboarders it is hard to adjust to real winter.  I haven't even seen any real skiing besides moguls because they keep cancelling it because of the wind and cold.  

I am not impressed because I see a scene like this about 50 percent of the time I walk Ben to the bus stop in the morning.  Be tough, athletes!  Show your strength!

100 Days

I've noticed a silly trend as my friends have become older and the babies that were announced with joy on Facebook are now in elementary school.  It is now a "thing" to have a party at school to celebrate the 100th day of class.  I don't remember such a countdown when I was in school but Ben has known exactly what day of school they are on since day one.  The only time we counted the days of school was when I was a senior and one of my classmates made a paper chain like the ones kids make to countdown to Christmas to countdown our days left in high school.  Where did we keep such a silly thing?  It was in our senior lounge, which was located in an obsolete creepy basement locker room from the 1930's that I mentioned a few weeks ago in my school building post.  We kept our books on shelves in the old shower room and we had some very musty old furniture and a TV which only tuned in a few channels.  One was NBC, because we were able to view the soap opera Days of our Lives and I also remember watching the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia during lunch and after school which ended at 2:30 for most seniors.  The chain was draped all around the room.  There were many places to string it because the ceiling was mostly made up of exposed water pipes.

As day 100 drew near, I kept waiting for the directive from school for what sort of costume or theme day I should be preparing for but it never came.  The common themes I've seen are attaching 100 items (stickers, pins, etc.) to a tshirt and dressing like a centenarian aka an elderly person.  Or, what is the stereotype of an elderly person.  Something about that makes me cringe but I have seen it on the kids of friends from all different states and types of schools.  But, lucky me, for Ben's 100th day they made hats at school and did some fun activities and that was that.  Yayyyyy.

I want to dismiss celebrating the 100th day as kind of dumb and unnecessary but I guess public schools have removed many of the things I thought were awesome as a kid (Fall Festival instead of Halloween anyone?) so I can't argue with putting some politically correct and impossible to offend anyone fun back into the year.  Everyone believes in numbers, right?

Just for fun, here is a picture of the classic two year old doing what they do best-collapsing on the floor (this time it was the cold and dirty garage floor) because he didn't get his way.  So charming.