Deceived!

Okay, so a couple of nights ago I wrote about how exciting it was to watch the Olympics live and that it made up for staying up too late.

Well, tonight I figured out that I was deceived by NBC.

Bob Costas was setting up the events for the evening and mentioned that Michael Phelps would be swimming at 10:45 Eastern time. I looked at my clock and discovered it was currently 8:50 - which would be 10:50 Eastern Time. Hmmm. . .

I also saw on espn.com a link - Soni wins 200 breasts. I can only assume that was a typo. . . right? But that's beside the point. Probably a half hour after I saw that news we watched on TV as Rebecca Soni of the US prepared to race in the 200 meter breaststroke final - which of course, she won.

It clearly says "LIVE" in the top right-hand corner of my television. And yet it hasn't been. I should have known better. This all goes back to the way the networks schedule in prime time - there's only an hour difference between Eastern and Mountain TV schedules. For example, if Survivor is broadcast at 8 PM Eastern, it is simultaneously broadcast in the Central Time Zone (only it is 7 PM there). In order for Survivor to be on at 7 PM Mountain, it has to run an hour later than Eastern/Central.

For some reason I thought it would be different for the Olympics. I was wrong. I guess that's fine but I feel kind of ripped off.

Ugh! Too Late!

Last night after watching the USA win three swimming golds in a row (Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol), I was ready to call it a night. There didn't seem to be anything else really going on, my eyes were tired, and it was 10 PM.

Then I started watching men's gymnastics, where Team USA was giving the host Chinese a run for their money. And before I knew it, I was sucked in. Could they indeed pull off an unexpected medal finish? And so I stayed up until 11:45 to see them win bronze. And as a result, I was very tired this afternoon and not sure how late Olympic watching will go on tonight.

I've never watched much men's gymnastics - I suppose because the U.S. really hasn't been a contender. (No medals in the 1988, 1992, 1996, or 2000 Olympics.) But the stuff some of these guys can do is sick. They also seem to have a little better handle on their nerves than their female counterparts. Not that anyone goes to the Olympics with more pressure on them than the women's gymnastics team, but I'm just saying.

The best men's events are the high bar, the pommel, and the rings (in that order). The parallel bars look mostly like they hurt, the vault is kind of blah no matter the gender of the performer, and men's floor exercise is painful to watch.

The reason for the late night was that the event was "live" from Beijing, which was another thing that sold me on staying up. I really like the idea of live action for the Olympics. They have to show you what is happening right then and you can watch the drama unfold. I don't like stuff taped and edited and packaged up so that NBC can manipulate the drama - besides, you probably already saw the result on the internet earlier in the day.

My main point is that staying up late is well worth it if I get to see the event live.

Olympics Underway!

I think since the Olympics are only on every four years, it should be two-week national holiday and everyone should stay home and watch water polo and cycling all day. So far we have been enjoying the first couple of days of the Olympics. A few thoughts:

I'm not a big fan of Bob Costas, but I have to admit that it wouldn't seem like the Olympics without him sitting in the studio grinning like the Cheshire Cat. At least he tones it down a bit from his Winter Olympics act, when he sits by the fire in an Alpine lodge sipping hot cocoa and wearing a smoking jacket. It seems to me that Bob doesn't really age - he looks the same now as he did in 1986.

Some people don't like the little featurettes that are inserted into the Olympic coverage. Sometimes they're a bit overdone, but sometimes necessary to give a little background on some of the foreign athletes. The annoying part of the coverage for me is when Bob spends like an hour every night talking to people in the studio. Personally, I don't need to see a nightly interview with Bela Karolyi, who is basically unintelligible anyways. And I'm not any more enriched having witnessed the chat between Costas and the US sabre team. Come on! There's so many sports to watch! Baseball! Table tennis! Basketball! Water polo! Volleyball! And if those don't work, I'm sure there has got to be a swimming heat that hasn't been televised (although I doubt it).

We enjoyed the gymnastics coverage last night from Tim "Thundercloud" Daggett. With every slight misstep by Team USA, he reacted as if civilization as we know it might come to an end. I almost expected them to cut to a shot of Tim back at the hotel packing the girls' bags for their flight back to the US. Meanwhile, Al Trout Wig (not real spelling, but it should be) was preoccupied with the speculation that some of the Chinese girls might be younger than the required age of 16. Only in gymnastics would someone be accused of cheating for using a team of children.

Swimming commentator Rowdy Gaines had back-to-back bold predictions blow up in his face last night. After proclaiming Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini to be without peer, she failed to medal in the 400 meter freestyle. And he said more than once that the US would not be able to beat France in the 4 X 100 relay. Which, of course, they did. So far that has been the most exciting event of the Olympics, seeing Jason Lezak catch the trash-talking Frenchman on the final leg of the race and snag the gold for the USA. Afterwards, we mocked the French by rehashing the old Jon Lovitz SNL bit, "I'm Frenchy!"

Bye Bye Mr. Lynch

I never quite warmed up to John Lynch.

He arrived in Denver in 2004, just a couple of years after winning a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was successful here and was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons with the team, although it is debatable how many of those selections were based on his performance and how many were mainly on reputation. Did anyone from last year's edition of the Bronco defense really deserve to be on a Pro Bowl roster? Hmmmm. . .

He is enormously popular in Colorado. Any self-respecting store carrying Bronco merchandise had a rack full of #47 jerseys. In addition to being a good player, he has a good reputation in the community and superb media skills. Many skeptics (including me) believed that his popularity in Denver had a lot to do with the fact that he's white. He came along just in time to replace Ed McCaffrey in that respect.

Lynch was released by the Broncos last week, less than a week into training camp. He asked out after deciding he couldn't deal with not being on the field for every snap. Apparently the Broncos' plan was to take Lynch out of the game in passing situations. He is almost 37 years old and entering his 16th NFL season, so he is not getting any younger or faster. The Broncos wanted him back for this year, but of course it was on their terms, not his.

And so he took his ball and went home. Whether he plans to retire from pro football or play for another team is unclear at this point.

Getting back to the main point of this article, I never embraced John Lynch because he never seemed like a real Bronco to me. Real Broncos are guys like Rod Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Karl Mecklenburg, Haven Moses, and Floyd Little. Guys who enjoyed their greatest success in Denver. Even if they didn't necessarily spend their entire careers in Denver, they are still identified with the city. I mean, does anyone really remember Shannon Sharpe playing for the Baltimore Ravens?

In my book, Lynch is not anywhere close to those guys, although he is more of a Bronco than say, Tony Dorsett or Jerry Rice. To me, he's just a guy who came to Denver to polish up an already accomplished career. He's kind of like Neil Smith, who spent his entire career slamming John Elway to the turf as a member of the KC Chiefs and then joined the Broncos and won a pair of Super Bowls.

He proved this by walking out on the team - his own ego outweighed what the Broncos needed at that point in time. So maybe he'll go and continue polishing his Hall of Fame resume somewhere else, or maybe he'll retire. I don't really care.

There was some talk about John Lynch possibly being inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame. The Hall of Fame selection committee can do as they please - they're clueless anyways. But I hope that Pat Bowlen never decides that Lynch needs to be in the Ring of Fame. HE DOES NOT BELONG THERE.

Obviously, I've never met the guy. I'm sure he's great and I'd probably fall in love with him like every other Bronco fan if I did. But knowing what I know about the situation, I'm glad he's gone. I don't think the Broncos will be any better or worse without him.

Pizza Pizza. . . Pizza

So we've had this free medium pizza coupon from Domino's which has been burning a hole in our pockets for awhile. The other night we decided it was time to cash it in. But since pizza is one thing our kids will actually eat, we realized that one pizza would not suffice. I sort of figured a regular price Domino's medium pizza would be $7-10, and since there was a Little Caesar's close by, we decided to supplement with one of their $5 medium pizzas. The plan was to call in an order for a pepperoni to Domino's and then pick up a hot-n-ready sausage from Little Caesar's on the way. But the girl at Little Caesar's gave me a pepperoni, and then I couldn't remember if I had ordered sausage or pepperoni, so we wound up with two of the same. Sausage isn't that great anyways.

So we brought them both home. They were equally greasy, but as you can see, the Little Caesar's medium is slightly larger than the Domino's medium. But I was wrong on the price - the Domino's medium regular price was $4.99. So going to two different places was actually unnecessary. But that would not have permitted us to have a taste test. Elizabeth and I agreed that the Little Caesar's pizza was a little bit tastier. So even though it is more expensive by 1 penny, Little Caesar's offers a slightly bigger and slightly more tasty medium pepperoni pizza. And yes, our family did wolf down both pizzas in one night.

You Scream. . . I Scream for Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla ice cream is so great. I love it so much. You can keep your Chocolate, your Rocky Road, your Mint Chocolate Chip, your Neopolitan, your Tin Roof Sundae, your nuts, your hot fudge, your marachino cherries, your caramel. It's great just plain on a cone or in a bowl. But think of everything it goes great with - hot apple pie, brownies, as part of a cookie sandwich, or with a piece of chocolate cake. Nothing else works quite as well. I think it's also the best shake or malt flavor - pure vanilla - unsullied by brown chocolate or peanut buttter cups or cookie crumbs. Yum yum yum.

But sometimes I also like black cherry flavors or strawberry - as long as no nuts are involved whatsoever.

This post was not paid for by the Vanilla Ice Cream Makers Association.

Parking Protocol

I often look out window and find a red Toyota Tundra parked in front of our home. I wonder to myself who is here to visit us in such a shiny truck. Turns out - no one.

I believe it belongs to a gentleman caller of the daughter of our across-the-street neighbor. For some reason, he parks in front of our house and then crosses the street, even though there is available space in front of our neighbor's house. It's not like he's parking off to the side, either. He's directly in front of our house. I've noticed it four or five times. So far it is unclear to me why he does this.

When I drive my car to visit the homes of other people, I usually make every effort to park in front of their home - after all, that is who I'm visiting. If that's not possible and I have to park somewhere else, I usually choose a less conspicuous place such as in front of a fence or on the corner of the property. But maybe I'm just weird.

It doesn't bother me that he does this - it just puzzles me. Maybe it's because we're new to home ownership. We lived in a townhome community previously - and almost saw blood shed a couple of times over people parking in places that others did not approve of.