Olympic thoughts...

1. I'd like to donate all my snow to Canada. Can I do that? Who's with me? ;)

2. I think they should have a massive party for all fourth place finishers and that those athletes should each get a giant trophy. 

3. I love our new couch. (Yes, this is Olympics related as it's where I've been sitting/laying as I watch, lol.)

4. I think I could do a good job with the whole "standing at the starting line and yelling encouragement as the athletes start" thing. Do you suppose they'd let me do that?

5. Who gets to name the various turns and such on the tracks and courses? I'd like that job, too.

6. Who's responsible for the wardrobe of the NBC announcers? Is it just me or does it seem, um, not the best? ;) Nathan wondered whether possibly NBC's going so low-budget that the announcers are responsible for their own wardrobes, lol!

7. Yes, I've been watching too much Olympics again today. ;) On the plus side, I didn't watch any yesterday and have made a start on the front room. Even managed to clean the bathrooms and clear some more pathways through the house this morning before getting hypnotized by the tv and the couch.

Gripes

Just to get them off my chest...a few quick gripes...

1. Dear NBC, please (for crying out loud) don't interrupt my Olympics coverage to show Tiger Woods talking about something that isn't even sports related and that I could completely care less about. Your coverage is already lacking...don't waste what time you have.

2. Why, can someone please tell me, is size 9 for boys missing?! Seriously. Have you looked lately? They have size 8 and size 10 and often go from size 7-8 to size 10-12...but what about size 9?!! What's a mom to do when she has a 9 year old boy who actually needs a size 9?

3. Sigh. Why is it snowing again? Really.

Okay, that was all for now. ;) And, hey, still looking for more ideas for number 4 below (thanks, Carrie, for your comment!)...

Five on Friday

1. My layout's up over on the Good Grief Blog today. Check it out, pretty please? ;)

2. Is it just me or do the little headshots of the athletes they've been showing on the Olympics seem very unflattering and rather 80's-ish? (I personally feel that there seems to be a movement to bring back the 80's lately and I am not a fan, lol.)

3. Yes, the new snow covering up the ugly old snow is nice. But, I'd rather be able to see my ugly matted grass and start hoping for greenness.

4. Any ideas on how to keep boys occupied during a two day road trip? We'll be driving to LegoLand this spring and can only watch so many dvds, kwim? We're hoping to stop along the way and do some sightseeing to help break up the driving and have a few audio books to listen to as a family, but any other ideas would be very appreciated!

5. I hereby vow not to watch any Olympics coverage today until I make a dent in sorting the boxes in the front room. Really. ;)

The Olympics...

So. The Olympics. Here's what I have to say:

1. The watching of them is totally interfering with my ability to get anything else done. I'm weak like that. Please feel free to come help me sort my front room and basement so that we might finally put all the boxes away. The tv isn't in the front room. It's causing me trouble. ;)

2. Nathan pointed out, and I have to agree, that it's really quite sad to compare the reactions of Olympic athletes and American Idol contestants. The athletes who have trained day in and day out for years and missed the medals by a very little or even a very large amount still remain poised, take responsibility for their actions and (for the most part) remain positive. They recognize that this is not the end of the world and that these things happen. 

Meanwhile, the American Idol contestants (many of whom have trained not at all and had not dedicated their lives to this until recently) wail and cry and beg...claiming that the judges should recognize and apparently reward the fact that they "really, really want it" and declare that they don't know what they'll do because this is their (only) shot.

Makes you a wee bit disgusted, no?

3. Can someone please explain to me the judging system for the figure skating? Once upon a time, I thought I knew. Now apparently it's all changed, and I'm confused. Why won't Scott Hamilton explain it to me?

4. Does anyone know how to prevent four and seven year old boys from trying to duplicate the crazy, big stunts the snowboard half-pipe guys did? (And, no, they don't have snowboards, nor have they ever even been on skis. This is all happening in my family room.)

Things Micah talks about...

Lest anyone wonder what Micah talks about when given free reign to talk (such as on Mondays when his brothers are at Options and he has my undivided attention for those 7 hours), I thought I'd keep track just for kicks. Here, I kid you not, is a *partial* list of things he talked to me about yesterday (and by "talked to me about" I mean just randomly started in on unrelated conversations):

- his displeasure at not getting to go drop his brothers off in the morning (I thought I'd be nice and let him sleep in since Nathan was working from home for the day)

- his reasoning for deciding to wear matching socks for a change (yes, he generally has on mismatched socks...he just likes to be different)

- his matter-of-fact attitude about pairs figure skating (we were watching stuff we'd recorded the night before) and how, obviously, the man should be older and how at 36 and 31 the Chinese pair just went to show that and didn't I know that 5 years was a big difference in age?

- explaining how his pretend metal detector worked and how I was lucky that I didn't have any meteorites in me (after thoroughly scanning me)

- his wondering what an accountant was and why we were going to see one (dropping off the tax stuff) and whether taxes were anything like his allowance

- seeing if I could figure out what he was whispering (though he wasn't really saying anything)

- counting how many dolphins were in the painting hanging in the accountant's office 

- his amazement at the accountant's double ended pencil (he was fascinated and told her that he'd never seen anything like that and that he was going to tell his brothers all about it)

- wondering why an Asian food place wouldn't serve mac & cheese for lunch (Nathan and I decided to go out for a late Valentine's lunch since he technically had Presidents' Day off, with Micah accompanying us)

- making me quiz him on math questions like 21 plus 21 and asking for a reminder about how multiplication and addition were different

- trying to figure out how one would capture The Invisible Man on "Monsters vs. Aliens" and then concluding that the guitar playing must have given The Invisible Man away (note, The Invisible Man is mentioned for all of one or two lines in the show and no where is there any mention of guitars)

- trying to figure out why a bad guy would kill another bad guy (in this case, specifically, why Darth Vader would kill the Emperor in "Return of the Jedi")

- wondering what "fates" are and why they would be mentioned on in his fortune cookie

- a very one-sided conversation hypothesizing on why the waitress brought him two different sized spoons and who would be able to use the larger one that she brought

- an even more one-sided argument with himself about who was right among his lego mini-figures...no idea what "right" was, just heard him going back and forth talking out all sides of the conversation

- declaring that he wasn't going to have kids until he was 31 because that seemed like a good number and then playing with numbers quickly after asking how old I was when I had him (30) and finding it funny that he was four now and I'm 34 and how 30 plus 4 is 34 and how if you added our ages now you'd get 38

- wondering how dirt got on his finger (amazingly, this one lasted quite awhile as he didn't believe me that he'd simply touched something with dirt...then we had to go into how he might possibly clean it...and all the many options that entailed, lol...settled on waiting to wash his hands at the bathroom at Options because they have a little kid sink that's just his height that he likes, though (he informs me) it would be better if they also had an automatic soap dispenser and not that circle mirror because he likes rectangles better)

- trying to remember the name of the "Sharks and Minnows" game he'd played in indoor soccer (because Noah and Asher had played it at Options and he wanted to tell us all about when he'd played it but didn't think they had the name right because he thought it was called "Sharks and Minerals" and could not be persuaded otherwise)

- wanting to look for books about the Olympics at the library and discussing (aloud) why he has a hard time remembering to be quiet at the library

- adding his opinion to our discussion about what type of containers to get to hold the legos in the yellow room now that we've rearranged things and declaring his delight in finding a lego set that had a toilet (yes, really)

- discussion about the difference between steak and beef and ground beef, as we made tacos for dinner but he wanted to be sure they weren't steak tacos because he doesn't like steak and have I ever heard of any 4 year old who likes steak because that would be weird? (I replied that actually Noah liked steak when he was 4...Micah just gave me a dirty look)

- lots of cheering for Canada during the Olympics (mostly to irritate Noah who's very, incredibly partial to all US Olympians)

- and plenty of other completely random things.

And now you know. ;)