women’s all around

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Watching the Women’s gymnastics All Around right now. I’ll be doing some running commentary since NBC insists on showing the meet one… rotation… at… a… time.

Aahhh… Svetlana Khorkina. I just love her. She’s such a diva and makes no apologies for it. I still remember when she slapped her teammate in the Sydney Olympics for falling off an apparatus in the team competition. Oh man. *shakes head* The sport won’t be the same without her.

Why in the world does NBC insist on putting those huge logos in the right hand corner of the screen?!? That thing is huge and very distracting. I don’t need to know RIGHT NOW during Courtney Kupets’s vault that swimming is coming up in 7 minutes. Grrr.

Random — NBC is showing swimming now and Markus Rogan (won silver in the 200m backstroke) is CUTE. Evidence here.

Anna Pavlova rocked that beam set. I’m pulling for her to medal.

Another amazing beam set from Carly. She is on fire.

Svetlana is way too thin. I’m scared she’s going to snap right in half when she lands a tumbling pass.

Love Courtney Kupets. Don’t like her floor routine. Which brings me to something one of the commentators (Elfi, I think) on the NBC coverage said… something about the floor choreography in this Olympics being some of the best. Is she crazy? Most female gymnasts now don’t even take any kind of dance training. It definitely shows and that’s part of what I dislike about the Code of Points for this quad. I guess I just remember the days of Lilia Podkopayeva (96 Olympic and World champion — one of my favorites), Svetlana Boguinskaya, and the old Soviet greats of the late 80s. Tangent, sorry.

Carly up on floor… OMG. Wheeee!!! YAY CARLY! 🙂 What a great meet — very, very happy for her.

Wow, Svetlana is happy. Shocking.

So, so close for Anna Pavlova. It broke my heart to see her cry. I thought she had a great night. But I’m not surprised at the podium at all. Carly, Svetlana, and Zhang Nan were the same top 3 in 2003 Worlds (CP and SK switched, of course).

NBC is playing that I Believe I Can Fly song in their ending montage. So cheesy.

No artistic gymnastics until Sunday night (event finals) so my blog should be gymnastics free until then. 😀

paul hamm — olympic champion!

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Still very happy for the US gymnasts (both men and women!) on their team silver medals. 😀 I just wish that American media would stop harping on the women for not winning the gold. UGH. Yes, they were the gold medal favorites and yes, they were the reigning world champions but I hate reading articles that focus on their errors. It’s not like they made mistakes on purpose! They wanted to win just like everybody else. Gymnastics is a completely unpredictable sport and the US team winning the gold was never a sure thing.

Err… yeah. Getting off my soapbox now, lol.

Men’s All-Around has started. YES! Possible Marian Dragulescu sighting. 😉 Off to watch…

I’M BACK — HOLY SH*T! I can’t believe Paul Hamm climbed out of such a huge point deficit to win the gold. Oh man, that was an amazing high bar set. I’m thrilled for him and his helium voice, hehe.

Oh and Alie, I vaguely remember taking a tumbling class when I was really young (maybe 3 or 4?) but otherwise, I’m just a HUGE fan of the sport.

Gymnastics is monopolizing my blog. I *really* need to find something else to blog about. But uh, probably not for another few days. HEE!

Sorry guys. 🙂

women’s gym AA

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OMG, I am so glad my boss is not around today. Cause I can’t believe what I’m doing…

I’m watching an Italian live feed of the Women’s Gymnastics All Around final. !!! I just can’t stand waiting until the delayed NBC coverage. I have to know the results immediately. Hehe.

I should so be fired. But really, I think I deserve a 2 week long vacation during the Olympics because I’m such a junkie.

Happy birthday to one of my oldest friends Carmen! 🙂 Hope you’re having a great day!

team USA gets the silver!

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YAYYY!!! The US women gymnasts won the silver!

😀

Oh man, what an exciting meet. I really thought Team USA had a chance but the Romanians were freaking fabulous. Wow. They really were the best team out there.

More thoughtful comments tomorrow… I’m sleepy.

Huh. I can’t seem to rip my new Jamie Cullum CD (highly recommended, by the way!). *grumble, grumble*

women’s gym prelims

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Yay! Women’s gymnastics is under way! I am, of course, extremely partial to the US team and I’m happy they had a decent showing to finish second in the prelims.

I have to say that I was so impressed by Mo — she was the rock of the team. I’m so happy that she’s performing well and will get a chance to win an individual medal in the Floor Exercise final. She’s so awesome. Now, on the complete other side of the spectrum, I feel so awful for Courtney McCool. She missed major connections in her beam routine and stepped out of bounds on the floor — so uncharacteristic of her. She’s usually such a confident and clean gymnast. But I guess once the nerves set in after her first mistake, she couldn’t quite recover. It’s too bad that the coaches left her off the roster for the team finals, but I understand that they can’t take the risk (especially with this no margin for error 6-3-3 format, which I don’t like at all but that’s another rant for another time). It’s really sad to think that her Olympics experience is over.

Random women’s gym stuff:
Carly Patterson’s beam routine ROCKED — she was solid and hit all of her big skills. Check out the link if you want to download her routine. I’m really hoping she medals in the All-Around.

Someone please take the glitter and eyeliner away from Terin Humphrey! She’s such a beautiful gymnast but her makeup is seriously overwhelming. (And this coming from a makeup fiend).

I love the Romanians on beam (Catalina Ponor — wow!) and the Chinese on bars (their swing and huge release moves are unbelievable).

It’s really sad to see the Russians (men and women) doing so poorly as a team. They used to be the powerhouses of the sport and now I don’t think they even have a chance at winning a medal.

Stuff on today’s competitions:
*So* excited for the US men’s gymnastics team and their silver medal! And of course the Japanese team on their gold! 😀 I just wish that NBC had shown more of the Japanese men’s routines. They won the gold medal and they were only shown on 2 events. Boo.

Marian Dragalescu’s vault was INSANE.

Why oh why are they not showing Sexy Alexei Nemov?! He’s my Russian boyfriend!

Paul Hamm has the weirdest voice.

It’s also really disappointing to see all the empty seats during gymnastics. In the past 3 summer games (the ones that I can actually remember watching), the arena has been jam-packed with people. If I could head over to Athens right now, I totally would.

Very happy for Natalie Coughlin and her gold in the 100m backstroke! I was a senior at Cal when she was a freshman and I remember reading about her in the Daily Cal — probably when she won NCAA Swimmer of the Year. Anyway, just happy to see a fellow Bear get a win in the Olympics. Oh, and does anyone think she looks a little like Bethany Joy Lenz? Just me? Ok.

Women’s team final tomorrow! Expect more exciting Olympics comments from me, heh.

One more thing — I’ve enjoyed seeing all the promos for the new and returning NBC shows. I have to remember to do a blog about that.

new p/jo layout

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Got bored waiting for the “evening shift” of NBC’s Olympics coverage to come on (women’s gymnastics, yes!)… so new layout! I made the screen caps myself. 🙂 I’m still on a Pacey/Joey high from the constant viewing of my Dawson’s Creek season 3 DVDs. True Love is one of my most favorite DC episodes — I just LOVE the end when Pacey and Joey sail away together.

day 1 of the olympics

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Saw The Bourne Supremacy last night — good movie but the shaky camera shots made me feel nauseous. I’ll have to rent The Bourne Identity to get more of the backstory.

I am so sad to hear about Craig Kilborn leaving The Late, Late Show. There’s something about the deadpan delivery of his jokes that totally makes me laugh. And the way he announces himself before walking out on stage… and 5 questions! You will be missed, Kilby!

Yay the Olympics have started! 🙂 (I’m going to apologize in advance for the Olympics talk that’s sure to monopolize my blog this next week). I just love the Olympics, especially the summer games — it’s the one time where I become a complete couch potato for 2 weeks and watch pretty much nothing else. I eat up all the coverage. I’ll watch anything and everything — dressage, cycling, race walking, etc. EVERY. THING. Which I guess is weird since the only 2 sports I regularly follow are figure skating and artistic gymnastics. Hee.

I recorded the Opening Ceremonies (Friday was Rob’s birthday so we were out at dinner) and I really enjoyed it. The human sculpture breaking up to form the Greek Islands, the parade of Greek statues, and the run to pay homage to past host cities — all very cool. My only gripe has to be that Katie Couric and Bob Costas are the worst commentators. They had very little to say that actually added value to what I was seeing on screen AND they mispronounced countries and athletes’ names. UGH. On a completely materialistic note — I absolutely loved the purses that the Greek women were carrying during the Parade of Nations. I think I need one.

Some comments for the first day:
First off, I can’t stand NBC’s coverage of the games. It’s all haphazard and crazy — half of an event here, the rest of the event about 2 hours later… grrr.

Yay for Michael Phelps! I’m glad he’s got his first gold medal. He rocked that 400m IM.

Yay for Ian Thorpe! He was so emotional when he won — he must have felt so much pressure to win considering he didn’t technically qualify for the event.

As for men’s gymnastics team prelims… I don’t really know how to feel about the US men’s showing because NBC barely showed any of their routines! It’s times like these when I wish I had an HDTV. I want comprehensive coverage! Anyway, as far as I can tell, the Hamm twins were amazing (as usual). I’m happy that Paul qualified for the All-Around *and* 4 event finals. He’s so awesome. But I’m so disappointed that NBC basically ignored Paul and Morgan and focused their attention on Blaine Wilson (the “rebel” who’s won like 50 US national championships but has never medaled at the Olympics). And I can’t believe the huge deal the commentators made about Blaine’s skill on the high bar “all of a sudden” being undervalued and he had to change his routine. WHAT.EVER. The FIG can’t just change the value of a skill all willy-nilly. They inform the coaches and the athletes ahead of time when the code of points change. I was so annoyed when he was being interviewed and he made it sound as if there was some kind of conspiracy against him. *deep breath* No love to you, Blaine Wilson.

Random note… love the laurel wreath that they’re giving out to the medal winners. I want to make one for myself. HAH!

teen choice awards

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So I turn on the TV tonight and what do I find? Gregory Smith and Chris Pratt presenting on the Teen Choice Awards! Squee!! Aww, they looked so cute. 😀 Greg has long-ish hair now (kinda like Zach Braff’s) — I like it. It makes him look older and not so Ephram-like. Although I guess it *is* Ephram-like now since Everwood’s already started filming for the third season. Chris Pratt looked really great as well — he jokingly said that he wasn’t wearing any underwear. BWAH!

I also really loved seeing the cast of The O.C. on stage together — I think they were accepting the award for Choice Drama. And of course, Peter Gallagher was wearing that long-sleeved black pin-striped shirt AGAIN! LOL, he’s always wearing that shirt to events! You can see him wearing it here during a visit to UC Berkeley.

As for the rest of the awards… they were pretty awful.

Also, if I hear “That’s hot” from Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie one more time… I’m going to scream. UGH. So annoying.

dress shopping

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Whew! What a long weekend…

I spent ALL day on Saturday looking for a dress to wear to Rob’s brother’s wedding (it’s on August 28) and after about 8 hours, 3 malls and what seems like a million dresses that I tried on, I ended up with NOTHING! So today Rob and I hit another mall and after trying on about a million MORE dresses, I finally found a really pretty pink floral dress with a flared skirt and ruffles. It sounds so girly, I just love it! I think Rob was probably more relieved than I was cause it meant he didn’t have to endure one more minute of shopping. Now I just have to find shoes and some sort of shawl… hehe.

I caught the E! True Hollywood Story on Women’s Gymnastics tonight (I think it was titled “Little Girls, Big Dreams”). The show itself wasn’t very exciting or informative but it was cool to see Shannon Miller (my all-time favorite gymnast! but uh, did she have a nose job?!), Dominique Dawes, and Dominique Moceanu talking about their careers, the pressure, and their Olympic experiences. They also showed the 6 members of the 2004 US Olympic team and my Olympics excitement has returned! Opening ceremonies on Friday! Whee! I’m such a geek.

Anyway, Happy Belated Birthday to Jill! 🙂

voldemort

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Lord Voldemort has been cast in Goblet of Fire — Ralph Fiennes! Good choice, I approve. Kel = shallow. Heh. 😉

So Rob and I watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle over the weekend… BWAH! I don’t know, I must have really weird and twisted humor cause I thought the movie was hilarious. You have to suspend belief a bit and also not be easily offended by stoner humor but otherwise, A+! I just about died of laughter when Harold and Kumar were singing along to Wilson Phillips. So. Funny.

Doing the Daily Dirt:
1. When is your birthday?
October 11. I’m going to be 25 this year. Guh.

2. If you change when your birthday was, would you?
Nope, I like October.

3. What was your favorite birthday party you ever had?
I think it was my 13th (or maybe 12th? crap, I have the worst memory) birthday and I had it at a roller rink. Aww, that was so much fun. 😀 However, I still vividly remember the outfit I was wearing and wow, it was horrible. I wore a black long-sleeved v-neck top, white shorts (the long ones that were cool back in 92), a really poofy black headband, and black flat mary janes. OMG. How embarassing. The next time I visit my dad I’ll have to hunt the pictures down and BURN THEM.

4. Do you have any original birthday traditions?
Nope, not really. I don’t even have cake on my birthday… oh wait, does going out to dinner with friends count as an original tradition?

5. Do you do any of the unoriginal birthday traditions, such as adding an extra candle for good luck, being the first to cut the cake, or smearing your name on your cake and putting it on your nose?
No… although I used to always try to get the day off from work, hehe. I remember on my 22nd birthday, I took the day off and ended up sleeping the entire day. That was awesome. Aww, I miss those extremely lazy, post-college, “I don’t want to grow up!” days.

Off to check out the blooper reel on my new 13 Going On 30 on DVD. Aww, Jennifer Garner! She’s so smiley and happy in this movie. Love her.