Olympics!!

I LOVE the Olympics. I look forward to them every two/four years. So I have thoroughly been enjoying gathering around the telly with whoever's around and watching Bob Costas (who has not aged in twenty years, thanks to Botox) introduce us to the night's activities. I would like to present my highlights from this summer's Olympics in London:

* The opening ceremony. I knew there was no way London (or any other city in the world) would be able to top Beijing's opening ceremony in 2008. But London seemed to have a ball with it.

- James Bond arriving at Buckingham Palace to pick up the Queen and then parachuting with her into the stadium.

- Kenneth Branagh as Abraham Lincoln. (Wait, who is Isambard Kingdom Brunel?)

- I don't remember Beijing having a huge Voldemort in their opening ceremony. What now, China?!

- Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) playing the Chariots of Fire theme on keyboard and then imagining he is in the running-on-the-beach scene. Hilarious!

- Hundreds of Mary Poppins descending from the sky with their umbrellas? Yes please.

- JK Rowling reading an excerpt from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Two of my favorite things!

- Lots of dancing, which makes me happy.

- And of course, the parade of nations is always so great. The world coming together. Although I must say I fell asleep when they got to the "C"s (ie. Chile). It was getting late.

(We will not bring up the huge creepy baby.)

* Swimming. Swimming and gymnastics are probably my two favorite sports in the summer Olympics. And I loved all the swimmers this year. Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer, Matt Grevers, Allison Schmitt, Cullen Jones, Nathan Adrian (hottie alert!), and more. My friend showed me a picture of Ryan and Missy in the warm-up room. She warned me I was about the see the most adorable picture on the internet.

(No, they are not dating. She's only 17 and has a crush on Justin Bieber.)

* Gymnastics! The Fab Five! I loved all of them. Where do I start? I'll highlight 3.

Gabby "Flying Squirrel" Douglas - someone pointed out to me that if you scramble the letters of her last name it spells "USA Gold". Cute! And it happened! Gabby won the gold medal for the all-around Olympic female gymnast. She also helped her whole team win gold.

Aly Raisman - she won gold for her floor exercise routine but my favorite part is her parents. "STICK IT!!!"

McKayla Maroney - thanks to my sister's blog, I came across this amazing new internet meme: "McKayla is not impressed". Someone found a thumbnail of McKayla's expression (after she won a silver medal on the vault) and the internet is going crazy with it. This website has made me laugh. A lot. 

* Track and field - always fun to watch. Right now I'm enjoying the hurdles and relays. (I'm so sad Lolo Jones did not get a medal in her hurdle race!)

* Trampolining and Dong Dong. Ok first of all, did you know trampolining is now an Olympic sport?! What!? But yes, it's true. NBC hasn't spent a lot of time on it, but there was one night when they showed some guys competing.  And I kid you not, there is a Chinese man out in this world with the name Dong Dong. At first I loved it. Then, I got annoyed at his parents. I'm sorry but if you're last name is DONG, please do not name your son DONG. The end.

Anyway, Dong Dong killed it and won gold. This video isn't from the Olympics but it gives you an idea of how awesome this guy is.



* Volleyball. I luff Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings! They have won three consecutive gold medals in beach volleyball at the Olympics. These ladies have won every match they've ever played at the Summer Games and lost just one of 43 sets. CRAZY!!

As far as indoor volleyball, the USA Women's team plays Brazil tomorrow for the gold. The U.S. women have never won a gold medal in volleyball. But this team could do it! They are sooo good. My favorite player is Destinee Hooker. (Again with the unfortunate names.) But she is a beast and spikes like a boss.

* A new event I have liked watching this summer - diving. I was never into it before, but I'm actually diggin' it. Both people doing it individually and synchronized diving. Someone put together faces of divers as they head down to the water.

And then because the internet is the internet, someone has to take divers and do this:

What about you, friends? Are you watching the Olympics? Favorite athletes or moments you want to share?