They have a luge relay! The whole concept of that event seems strange to me. But I also really liked it. That was a fun event the other day.

Our local news reported on the men’s curling match between the US and Norway and did not show the Norway team. Which considering that it was Norway seemed wrong. Then I had to pull up images of the team for Brett so he’d understand. I read somewhere that most people assume Norway won their matches because everyone always talks them and the news stories are always about them. Brett has decided you don’t have to be good if you have cool pants.

I really like the patchwork background at all the events. The diamond shapes and the fun variety of shades and patterns makes my quilters heart happy. I’d love to have a quilt that looked like that.

I was telling Brett that I like Noelle Pikus-Pace and he asked what she did. I said she’s an LDS skeleton. He thought that was taking baptisms for the dead a little too far. I got teary-eyed when she jumped the barrier to get to her family after her final run. Yea family!

And go Bode! That was a beautiful moment Sunday night.

I think I’m going to give up trying to explain the difference between ice dancing and pairs figure skating to Brett. But then I’ve only been at it for a week.

My new favorite sporting term comes from sprint cross-country skiing. For each heat the top two move on. And then they have the “lucky losers” who move on based on time. This is one of those events I have a hard time pulling myself away from as well.

I saw this commercial Tuesday afternoon while watching the Olympics and it made me smile:

And every time long track speed skating comes on, we quote parts of this scene from The Incredibles:

Brett has decided that being the favorite in an event is a curse. They keep falling down.

The women’s ski jump has been part of the Olympics for Iddo’s entire life. Which made me wonder if women have been running the marathon in the Olympics my whole life. Nope. Women weren’t allowed to run that far till the 1984 Olympics. Boston did officially let women run their race starting in 1972 though.

There’s a trick in the slopestyle skiing that involves “flying through the air without freaking out.” I can definitely see how that would be a trick. And one I would not be able to do well. Because the other part of the trick involves doing the not freaking out while you go backwards.

For the first weekend of the Olympics I realized my favorite sports have changed. I used to love the figure skating. I’m assuming most people do because it dominates broadcasts. But I get up and walk around the house during it. I’m not rushing back to see what happens next after getting the bath ready for Iddo at night.

But if it is slopestyle or the biathlon or super-suits (long track speed skating), I’m glued to the screen. Bode Miller? A guy who straps skis to his feet, wears a spandex suit with a helmet as his only protection going down a mountain at almost 90 miles an hour? I’m on the edge of my chair.

I need some speed. Some danger. I need less than a second to separate the winner and 12th place. I need some head-to-head competition. Give me some split second twitches of a foot that make the difference in the luge.

Speaking of luge – How does someone get into that initially? I saw that the dad of one of the US lugers built him a luge track in the backyard he started going down at the age of 7. I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what a luge was at the age of 7 to even ask my dad to build me a track.

Chicken Kiev verdict – It’s super yummy to eat but rather messy and involved to make. We probably won’t add it to the regular rotation but we’ll definitely do it again.

I love that the ceremony was indoors so the island nations could wear shorts and flip-flops. As for the US outfits, they weren’t the best looking ones. But what I want to know is who spends $245 on a turtleneck and $165 for fleece pants? I have $10 fleece pajama pants. The coats the Russian women wore were nice though. And while everyone keeps saying the German outfits were a political statement, the Germans have said they are not and they didn’t look like rainbows to me.

I really liked the way they projected an image of the country on the ground as the athletes went in. And seeing the former Soviet republics walking in was neat. I love the athletes that are the only representative of their country.

Go Heidi Kloser! She had to come in on crutches but she still came. And go unnamed fellow athlete who pushed her in the wheelchair when the crutches got too much.

I served my mission in Brasil. The mission home was in a section of town settled by Ukrainian immigrants. While I was serving in that area they had a heritage festival and I was able to attend and learn a bit about Ukrainian history from my mission mom, who studied Russian history. What are the odds! Watching the opening ceremonies I wished I’d been sitting next to her so she could explain it better than the US commentators who often just said, “this will mean nothing to you but it means a lot to the Russians and they will recognize it instantly.” Okay then, explain it to us. What are we missing? And they should be ashamed of themselves for calling St. Basil’s Cathedral the “Candy Land of Russia.”

The problem I’m going to have with the Olympics this time – Iddo’s bedtime is right in the middle of the broadcast. Brett handles the bulk of the bedtime routine but I still ran in at one point to help lay out the nighttime diaper and her pajamas and said “I need to hurry. It’s the Russian revolution. It’s going to get ugly. And I want to see how they portray it with ballerinas.” Which made Brett laugh. The irony was lost on Iddo. I’m glad they accepted and portrayed the ugly parts of their history though (for the most part). I did have to miss a half hour for her bedtime snack. Still made it back for the torch and the lighting of the cauldron.

Go Jamaica!

It’s the Olympics baby!!

We’re celebrating the opening ceremonies tonight with chicken Kiev for dinner. Competition started last night though. Which means my commentary starts today.

When my brother travels internationally (which is often), I ask him to bring me back a shawl or a flute. If he ever goes to Russia though, I want a matryoshka doll. I’ve wanted an authentic one of those since I was in elementary school.

The broadcast started last night with women’s slopestyle snowboarding, where the commentators revealed their northern hemisphere centric attitudes with this comment, “She spends her winters in Salt Lake City, Utah, and her summers in New Zealand…” Um, if she’s doing that she doesn’t have a summer. Instead she’s arranged it so she has winter year round to help her train. It’s winter in Utah the exact same time it’s summer in New Zealand. Which means that the commentator was saying she spends half the year existing in two places at once and the other half of the year not existing.

I understand that figure skating is one of the most popular events at the winter Olympics. But I’m not sure what I think of the team competition thing. It seems like just another way to make sure I don’t see any curling on the normal broadcast. The team competition in gymnastics makes more sense if only because it’s been part of the sport from the beginning and the team members each do more than one event.

Moguls still make my knees hurt to watch them. And that’s even when they don’t fall.