Me in Place

Here are MIP’s Best and Worst of the 2008 Summer Olympics!

Best Opening Ceremony Award goes to: The Opening Ceremony! Loved the drums, loved the cool screens, loved the girl who was too ugly she had to sing somewhere else and then the cute girl got all the glory. The only thing I give a B- to is Sarah Brightman (the original “Christine” from Phantom of the Opera), because whenever I see her I want to cut her stringy hair.

Worst Lines from Al Depresso-Matic Gymnastics Guy: While I appreciate Al’s depressing bios during the Ironman Triathlon coverage, listening to him during gymnastics about sends me over the edge. Or at least to Oberweis for a hot fudge sundae so I can erase the raincloud from my soul. A few of Al’s hyper-depressing hyerboles:

After a little teeny step by a little teeny gymnast: Is it safe to say… there goes the gold?

Before a routine: The next few seconds could change your life, if you think about that, it can be daunting.

Really, Al, Really?

After another teeny step: Can you imagine the devastation in the room?

And, as previously mentioned on this blog: after a small mistake in a routine: It would be like having a tear in your wedding dress as you walk down the aisle.

Best Bob Costas Line

The USA 4×100 relay teams laid giant goose eggs in the Bird’s Nest.

Best Moment

USA Beats France in the 4×100 swim relay!

Moment I Had Tears:

When Ryan Hall entered the stadium at the end of the Men’s Marathon. No, he didn’t medal – he came in tenth – but he did great. I love how the marathons end – entering the huge stadium with all those people cheering you on. Now, if they did that at the Morton Arboretum 5K, maybe I’d run a little faster next time.

And now for the medal ceremony!

The Bronze Medal goes to Commenter Janet, who consistently commented all through the Olympics and supported me outside the blogworld in all things Olympic. (Wow, Janet! This laurel wreath looks awesome on you!)

The Silver Medal goes to my kids who supported me in my Olympic Obsession and only twice said out loud, “We are so TIRED of the Olympics. Can we watch Clifford?” Thank you, guys! I love you! No spinach this week for you snoogie woogies.

The Gold Medal goes to Mr MIP, who – although he didn’t really totally completely LIKE the Olympics – let me watch as much Olympics as I wanted (Except for the fateful Yearbook night) and asked me questions about them and let me ramble on and on about who won and who lost and who was stupid and how the commies are one messed up group of people. Thank you, Mr MIP! You may return to your regularly scheduled programming!

And on the blog, we’ll get back to the Important Issues of Life, such as: why am I storing glue in the food cupboard?

If I think too much about the records every site keeps on what we browse and read and look up on the internet, it can be a little creepy.

I was browsing a news article when this popped up in the corner:

Based on your past browsing, we recommend the following articles:

Dump the Friend – but not THIS way
Aargh! — buried facts about pirates
‘Mummy’ star likes to dress correctly

Pirates?

Amazon recommends these books to me based on past purchases:

World War II Coloring Book
Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
Cut & Assemble An Early New England Village

Apparently I like to color and assemble my history. And what’s with the scholarly middle book there. Where’s Mary Higgins Clark?

And the last site I visited? The Pulse – Mark DeRosa’s blog. Now that we’re almost Best Friends Forever, I have to check in every once in a while. Go Cubs! (I was in sports heaven yesterday, what with the Olympics AND a Cubs doubleheader!)

Just as a reminder:
TEAM           W      L       %       GB
Chicago         73     47     .608      -
Milwaukee     70     51     .579      3.5
St. Louis        67     56     .545      7.5
Houston        61     55     .508     12.0
Pittsburgh     55     65     .458     18.0
Cincinnati     53      68     .438      20.5

GO CUBS!

Even after the Cubs are out of the season, baseball does go on. So what’s a girl to do when her team o’ peeps is home with their families watching ESPN, playing golf and having nightmares about the double plays they hit into?

A girl finds out the following:

1. Which team has not ever won the World Series or which team has gone the longest without winning the WS?

2. Who are her friends cheering for?

3. Which team has the least annoying/irritating/maddening history with the Cubs?

The answer to all three questions this postseason is the Colorado Rockies. And now I’m finding out what it is like to cheer for a team and have them actually pull through and win. To watch a game without flinching with every pitch. To watch as a hitter takes the count deep and then hits a three run homer! I didn’t even know that was possible!
The bad side to this postseason is having to listen to Chip Carey (or, as I call him, “Chipper Chip Chip”) and Bob Traitor Brenly call the games. (Bob is the Cubs’ announcer and should not be calling these games. If you call a loser, you are a loser. Go home and play some golf.) Chipper Chip Chip is given to superlatives (I don’t know what those are really, but he is given to them) and I hate his stupid “he gloves, guns and gets his man” and “He comes in, he goes out” after a home run. Go home and play your pickin’ guitar, Chippy. (My dream team of announcers? Bob Costas and Steve Stone.)

I love baseball and am a faithful fan of the game. I am a girl, however, so my remembrance of stats is not good. Men are amazing in their ability to spout off things like, “Back in ’86, there was this game where Smith struck out the side in the 6th. And Jones went 0h for six, even though he had a .386 batting average going into the postseason …” Whatever. I just know that it feels good when you win, it stinks when you lose.

So, go Rockies. Next year it’s our turn.

I realized today that so far this season the Cubs have lost each game I’ve watched. That’s three, if you’re counting. They’ve won three, and those were ones I didn’t watch.

Another goal met today as we attended a Chicago Blackhawks game at the United Center with Craig and Tiffany and Joel and Stephanie! Although I’ve attended hockey games before, this is my first pro game (well, as far as I can remember!). Here are some things I learned at the hockey game (forgive me if any of these are “duh!” ones to you – to me they were new info!):

1. This one I knew already, but I figured I’d remind you, anyway: Sit by funny people, it makes the game so much more enjoyable! (Score: Steph – 5, Kelli – 3 and Tiffany – 5)
2. If you drop your hockey stick while playing, you can’t pick it back up. You have to get a new one from your bench.
3. The Penalty Box is just like a Time-Out for the kids! And, from now on, when one of my kids is in time-out, I’m going to call it Mom’s PowerPlay!

4. There is a drunk, obnoxiously loud fan at every single pro-sporting event you will ever attend. Ours for today was a fan that periodically yelled in a gravelly voice, “Let’s go Blackhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawks!”

5. Frank Pellico, the Blackhawk’s organ player is a friend of our dear friend, Dee. How fun to hear him play his intermission!

6. The Blackhawks were tied 2-2 into the third period, but then the Calgary Flames scored… but the Blackhawks (amazingly!) tied it up with a goal – with only 44 seconds left in regulation time! Denis Arkhipov scored the winning goal in OT. Go Blackhawks!

7. President Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic was in attendance at today’s game (Or should it be the “Check” Republic? ha.). That seemed rather random. But cool. The Czech Republic’s anthem was played before the game, along with the Canadian and American national anthem.

It was a great hockey game to attend for my experience – OT, tied, goal scored in the final minute of the game and a couple fights (no blood..boo!). I rate the game an 8.

One reason I wanted to experience all the different sports, is because I’m fascinated by the fact that we each have our favorites – some of us are really into NASCAR (Tiffany!), and some of us couldn’t live without archery. How cool is that?

It’s my goal to attend one event of each Pro Sport (Defined as an event they’d have in the Olympics):

1. Baseball: Have attended: Cubs, White Sox and Brewers games.
2. Basketball: Attended Pacers v Bulls in Indy back in the Jordan days.
3. Hockey: Chicago Blackhawks vs Calgary Flames; Blackhawks win 4-3 in OT. 1/28/07
4.

1. Todd Walker (Cubs — 2004-2006)

3.