Thursday, February 18, 2010

Enjoy It While It Lasts

Where to start?

Many things happening, not much time to write because A) the Boss is off today and today is the last day we will have to get things ready for our "away from the things of man" tour; and B) before we can go, we have to take the laptop into the repair shop because there is an annoying digitized line running right down the middle of the screen.

So this might be the last post for a couple of days. I'm not looking forward to having my favorite steam vent shut off. To paraphrase Homer, "All destroying angels and no computer make Fatdaddy...something...something....Go crazy? Don't mind if I do!"

I have said before that having a blog is an excellent way for me to blow off the crazy things the runts do; it doesn't tick me off as much if I can turn it into a joke and the only reason to joke is if someone will laugh at it. So you guys are my therapy.

Last night it dawned on me that the blog just widens my audience a bit. The snide comments I make on here are pretty much the snide things I say to the TV when it's just the Boss and the kids, but they've heard all my "A" material before.

Repeatedly.

Now if only I could figure out a way to get paid for it...

Moving right along, I watched more curling yesterday and it made more sense this time. My sister in law made an excellent point in her comment yesterday that I had missed, though, and I wanted to share it with all of you in case you also missed it. She wonders why there is someone called "Skip" when everyone seems to be sliding.

An excellent question, and one that I wish I had been clever enough to ask. I'd call myself a Hack, but apparently that's the block they use to push off from when they start their slides.

The US men's team is still lousy. The US women's team is still cute. The German women did have a couple of cuties, but also a couple who were...um...the exception to the rule? Yes, that's the delicate way to put it. They were excellent curlers though. And I have to be honest here, I was expecting a little more from the Swedish team. Lousy stereotypes.

Something does need to be said about the women's hockey. I am seriously wondering about the format. Canada has won their two games by an aggregate of about 10,000 to zed. The US women have won their games by about 9,999 to 1.

At what point do we have a tournament amongst the other teams for the Bronze and just let the US and Canada duke it out in a Best of Seven for the gold? I won't watch anymore until the medal rounds, or until they put a mercy rule in place the way women's softball has. If some one is up double digits at the end of any period, the match is called. The winners don't have to suit up their managers and water-girls and the losers don't have to get pounded through the ice any more than necessary.

Honestly, it is kind of painful to watch.

But not as painful as the women's downhill. Now there are some TOUGH women. Did anyone else happen to see some of those crashes? Seriously, I cannot believe they all walked away from them. A couple of girls went through the finish face-first and one gal went past the line completely airborne; spinning like a top. I haven't seen that many rag dolls since our trip to the pioneer museum.

And that Italian girl (I think she was Italian) that went into orbit off of the last jump? She landed hard and then did the best imitation of a curling stone I have ever seen. They showed her go through the air for two hundred yards, and she easily slid another two hundred on her backside. My brother wondered aloud if she was going to have any material left on the backside of her suit.

She got up and walked off the course. That's guts.

Vince and Jerry certainly approved.

Well that's it for now. I'll keep taking notes and try to catch up when the computer gets back from the geek squad. No telling how long that might take. In the meantime, I'll try to sneak over to Beak's or Mom's to post a little something here or there.

Enjoy the circus and behave yourselves.

Yeah, right.

2 comments:

  1. I just read on slate.com today an article which inadvertantly supports your mercy rule:
    "At the U.S.-China women's hockey game I went to the other day, the huge contingent of China supporters (an outgrowth of Vancouver's large Chinese population, I assume) was having trouble finding anything to cheer for. After the first period, the Americans led 5-0 with a 24-1 shots-on-goal advantage. The China fans resorted to cheering whenever their gals got the puck within 50 feet of the American net. When they realized that this puck-goal proximity thing wasn't happening with a lot of frequency, the China fans lowered the bar again—cheering whenever China managed to clear the puck out of its own defensive end. When a Chinese player miraculously broke away and got a decent shot off the crowd leapt to its feet for a rousing ovation and a strenuous waving of Chinese flags."

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  2. Traci's Translation Service... direct from the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, UK.

    SKIP - the captain of the team/squad shortened from the word skipper. In Scotland and the UK skipper is the captain of the ship not the possible American meaning of young title or name for a boy.

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