RIO 2016 OLYMPIC FEVER

The Olympics are back.
So I'm back.

OPENING CEREMONY

8:07 Dancing with space blankets!  Look at all the foil!

8:09 Oh.  Space pillows.

8:13 BRAZIL'S NATIONAL ANTHEM. WE ARE IN BRAZIL.

8:20 Rainforest things...

8:21 OOOH RAINFOREST DANCERS

8:23 I admit that I am a little distracted because I ordered KFC via Postmates and I'm tracking my delivery progress on my phone.  I AM HANGRY. I will have no filler commentary until I am no longer so hangry.

8:27 I like this shipwreck immigration choreo thingy.

8:32 My chicken is here!  What did I miss?

8:35 Now we're in a video game!  I dig it.

8:40 I missed a little more because I sat on my mashed potatoes and had to change my pajamas.  Cool.

8:44 GISELE!  Just struttin'.

8:45 ...Just struttin'?  Still struttin'?

8:48 YEEESSS sliding down from this street dancing set-up!  Dudes on a slide!  On a roller thingy!

8:50 So, sidenote.  I've been calling this since the women's gymnastics national competition before the Olympic qualifier.  LAURIE HERNANDEZ, right??!  Her and Simone Biles in the All-Around: a shocking upset for Aly.  Maybe?  Or if not, girl is going to continue to get some serious attention.  Love her.

8:55 I love all the Brazilians (including Gisele) losing their minds singing and dancing to this song.

9:06 Gimme my parade of nations already.

9:10 OHHH YESSS WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS 2012 RECAP / INTRO TO THE 2016 TEAM

9:14 PARADE. OF. NATIONS.

9:16 I seriously always love seeing the athletes loving this ceremony.  Cameras, phones, joyous faces, waving...it's real and exciting!

9:22 YES, Aruba!  Those costumes!

9:23 Independent Olympic Athletes!

9:29 Whoa, Barbados.  Those jackets.

9:32 YESSSS BERMUDA

9:36 Burundi is really pretty.

9:40 OHH CANADAAAA

9:42 Cayman Islands crew looks cute.

9:54 Croatia's checkerboard clothing!

10:07  U-S-A!  U-S-A!  AMERICA!  U-S-A!

10:54 I got distracted by my bunnies and my whiteboard.  Still watching!

11:07 How long until Tonga?  I'm on a west coast delay.  Shirtless dude hasn't even appeared on my TV yet, and he's already a social media sensation.

11:31 THERE HE IS!

11:43 Refugee team!

11:45 BRAZIIIIIILLLL!

SERIOUSLY?

SHAUN WHITE, YOU HAD ONE JOB.

OLYMPIC FEVER! Live-blogging the arrivals.

Yeah, I'm still alive.  Apparently I only like to blog about the Olympics.

AND THEY ARE BACK.
So I am too.
(Told ya.)

This time, I am in law school at night (HEY I'M IN LAW SCHOOL NOW), so I need to figure out how to watch my primetime coverage another way.  Perhaps I resort to severely delayed videos online.  Whatever.  I'm not missing all of the Games.


8:33pm: I have nothing to say thus far.  We're on a commercial break before the Parade of Nations.   I DO have to say that I am so sad that Apolo Anton Ohno is not competing.  But I am also happy that he'll be around doing his reporting stuff.  It is not the Winter Olympics without him.  Can we also discuss my love of Jason Brown??  And Shaun White.  And Charlie & Meryl.  And J.R. Celski.  I totally choose favorites.

8:37pm: There's Greece!  We are under way!

8:41pm: "No South American country has ever won a [winter] medal."  Interesting.

8:50pm: Aww, Venezuela's flag bearer is DANCING out!

8:53pm: German rainbow uniforms!

8:56pm: Zimbabwe's first Winter Olympian!

9:11pm: Independent athletes!  They're way less excited than the group in 2012.

9:25pm: USA!  USA!  OMG there is a "marcher's eye view" camera.  IT IS LIKE I AM MARCHING IN TOO.  I spot Jason Brown hanging out with Gracie Gold!  Shaun White with the Go Pro!  Shani Davis with a creative wave! All the cellphones and selfies!

9:33pm: Are the athletes from Chinese Taipei wearing Snuggies?

9:45pm: Jamaican bobsledders!

9:47pm: Russia is entering like rockstars.  The music changed, the crowd got loud, and their fur-accented jackets are amazing.

Less than a year until SOCHI 2014

Then I will be interesting, and I will blog again.

Emily's Olympic Highlights

Well, it's been 10 days since the Closing Ceremony.  I guess it's really over.

LONDON 2012, you were lovely.  Here are my official Olympic highlights.
 

Queen Elizabeth II: Bond Girl

Queenie starred in an Opening Ceremony video!  With Bond!  James Bond!



Gabrielle Douglas

This is my girl!  Loved her since the AT&T American Cup when she was only an alternate (and her scores didn't count for anything)...and outscored the actual winner.  Then she won the VISA Olympic trials.  Then she led the USA team in qualifying.  Then she was the only team member to count for every event in the team finals.  Then she won the All-Around gold.  (Then people complained about her hair? Haters gonna hate.) This is my girl!

And on that note...

USA Women's Gymnastics Team

Nailed it!  McKayla's perfect vault, Gabby's uneven bars, Jordan and Aly on floor, and Kyla to round out high numbers in each event...perfect well-rounded team.  You go, Glen Coco!

Will and Kate watching the Games

Look at them there, trying to be normal!  I am so thrilled to see them do very average things, like sit in $100ish seats rather than a royal box. Look at them being all adorable.

Plus they did the wave, and cracked me up.

 

Phelps/Lochte rivalry/bromance

It started with a bang when Lochte shocked Phelps in the 400m IM...and continued through the team's silver relay...and finally concluded with the 200m IM, when Phelps got his redemption.  Then they rocked it together in the 4x100 medley relay.



Men's Gymnastics little footie pajama pants

 

Little footie pajama pants!



"McKayla Maroney is not impressed"

 I can't hate on her silver medal smirk.  The girl is adorable.  And the meme is hilarious.



McKayla Maroney plays along!

"The pool is closed.. #notimpressed"
 
 
 
Triple Jump

Hop...skip...JUMP!  My boss actually introduced me to Triple Jump via a video shortly before track and field started.  Love it!  They're just like Super Mario in their approach.



Michael Phelps took his medals out to the club

Can you blame him for wanting to?


  
Victory celebrations

 

  
Mo Farah doing Bolt's thing, Usain Bolt doing the Mo-Bot.  I love seeing competing athletes being good sports, such as...


 
 Sam Mikulak during the vault finals

 

"I wanna see this guy!" "Dude, that was ridiculous!"  These were his competitors for a medal, but he really appreciated the talent there.
   

 
Sanya Richards-Ross's hair

LOVE that she had her hair mostly down while competing in an athletic competition.  Her little braid was like a little golden crown.  Golden, like her performance.

 
 
WE WON THE OLYMPICS...AGAIN!

#1 in gold AND #1 in total medals...USA!  USA!
 

Thank you, London, and goodnight.

Here it is - GOLD!

And here it is...
the winner of the first US gold medal/my heart is
Ryan Lochte

OLYMPIC FEVER 2012

LONDON, BABY!

It's finally here! Opening Ceremony day for the Olympics! I took the day off work (paid! full-time job perks!) and am PUMPED for the Opening Ceremonies tonight!

This is my board by the front door:

Alexa and I have been doing the Olympics together since TORINO '06, when we lived down the hall from each other in our college dorm. Tonight we celebrate another one.

Last Saturday, I met some friends at a bar in Hollywood.  By the time I got there, they had made friends with a random Australian...and somehow, the first thing I said to him was, "We are gonna KICK YOUR A** IN THE OLYMPICS!"  That was followed by, "We won Vancouver, and we suck at winter!" / "We're Australia...we don't even have winter. ...You have what, 127 million people?  We only have 26 million." / "Yeah, we have more winners! AMERICA!"

Oops.

Our medal tracker widget is installed on the blog sidebar!  My wine is ready for tonight's viewing!  I am home and counting down!

Who will be the first athlete to win my heart?  And by that, I mean the first gold medal...because remember, I love winning the Olympics.

*giggle*

This morning I read something online that also had a picture of a beluga.  Somehow, that led me to search for pictures of narwhals.  I giggled at each one I found.  Click to enlarge, giggle, find new photo, enlarge, giggle again.  They look so silly, like they shouldn't be real.  I love them.  And then I looked up other funny/cute animals.

Here's a recap of my morning:

Narwhals. *giggle*

Is it a beaver?  Is it a duck? What does a platypus think it is?

HELLO THERE, BABY HIPPO!

Baby sea turtle on a sand adventure

Alexa's chat about flowers

Alexa: I might grab some flowers on the way home. Daisies or Daffodils or something fucking cheery. Since i maintain those are happy flowers. Like sunflowers. They say "HELLO. CHEER UP MOTHERFUCKER. I AM HERE TO BRIGHTEN YOUR *DAY*".

Well this chat just brightened my day!

WE'RE ALIVE

What. happened.

So forever later...here I am!  We're both alive!

I got promoted to a new full-time position at work. I adopted the world's most adorable bunny. I registered for a half-marathon later this year, and I hate running.  Things happened.  And now we're back.

That's all for now though.  I leave you with the best photo I've seen on the internet all week:

One year until LONDON, BABY!

Okay, so Alexa and I aren't going to London...but the Olympics are!

LONDON, BABY!

ONE YEAR UNTIL OLYMPIC FEVER IS BACK IN FULL FORCE!

HEY, remember me??

In an effort to prevent this from being JUST Alexa's blog...I'm back!

I'm really bad at blogging.  I love the idea of it!...I just tend to start a blog and then lose interest. Which sucks.

And on that note, I unveil yet another blog! My Good Adventures...which means I better start having some adventures.

Happy New Year!

So. It's 2011 now. Living in the future, I experience three whole hours of 2011 before Emily did.

Emily has come up with an idea. The "Photo-A-Day" thing.

This is my shout out to Emily that we should do it here. Also-let's update the look of the blog. I'm not allowed (as she set it up). So, that being said.
Here it is, the first photo.

I'm teetering on the edge of being ill. It's not okay.

"You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life..."

Alexa and I are watching The Holiday "together" now: we're each watching it and we synched our "press Play" times so we can comment on it.

Merry Christmas, internet world.

Alexa is cheating on us with another blog

At least she's pretty well-spoken and clever while she does so.

Alexa's solo blogging adventure: Chronicles of a Lunchtime Explorer

It's Alexa's birthday!!!

Shopping WIN

I don't go shopping very often. I don't like going into stores and 1) not finding something I like, and 2) not being able to afford a lot.

BUT.

There is a Buffalo Exchange down the street, and I walk past it often while running errands. For the past few weeks, there has been an awesome summer dress in the window—teal and dark purple abstract pattern, asymmetrical hem, halter tie top...AKA awesome.

The thing about Buffalo Exchange is that it's a resale shop. They buy used clothing from people in exchange for cash or store credit, and they're kinda picky about what they accept. Think of it as a high-end Salvation Army or Goodwill, if you will. There is likely only one of any item.

Therefore, I felt a slight sense of panic/excitement when the dress was no longer in the window today. I previously felt too awkward about asking them to take it off the window mannequin for me, so I may have just lost my chance for the dress...however, now it was off the mannequin, and maybe I could still capture it!

I dashed inside and went right to the dress rack...and there was my beautiful teal/purple asymmetrical hemline halter-tie dress! Panic moment again: it's a size extra-small, and I'm more of a small/medium. Happy moment: IT IS STILL THERE, and I can at least try it on.

I wrestled the zipper up my back and debated—it has a low back, so although it was a struggle to close it over my ribcage, it still was doable. The top could be tied and adjusted to make it fit better. AND THE SKIRT PORTION WAS AWESOME.

As I exited the fitting rooms, the attendant asked me, "How'd it work out for you?"
"YES! For the win!" I answered.

The dress still has its original tags attached. I have purchased a $158 dress for $16.50.

And I now own my window dress, which the store only had one of, which magically fit me, that I have wanted for weeks.

Things I Want Right Now

• A car—specifically a Ford Focus with automatic transmission, power locks & windows, and 4 doors...that's all.
• My own bedroom (no more sharing a small space)
• Bunnies!

In short...I need money.

KATE WINSLET & HUSBAND HAVE SPLIT

IT'S ALL FALLING INTO PLACE NOW.

KATE + LEO 4EVER.

100th Post: A Retrospective

HEY GUYS, WE ACTUALLY MADE IT TO 100 POSTS! And it only took us...over a year. Whatever.

Now let's get all nostalgic and look at our favorite highlights:


Tool Academy obsession
So trashy...but so, so good.

Emily goes on TV shows
Ridiculous. Within about two months of moving to L.A., I was on Ellen DeGeneres AND The Price Is Right. Still to come: Mythbusters! (Yeah, I forgot to blog about that one. I'll make a big deal about it when my episode airs.)

Alexa visits L.A.
YEAH SHE DID! The duo reunited for one awesome week.

Black AmEx competition
Alexa got the first one...but I got more!

Alexa goes to Paris
Champagne on top of the Eiffel Tower. WIN.


See also:

• Alexa wants a robot, hates people, references Twilight, and really wants a robot


• Emily destroys a couch


• Alexa ponders boybands in a serious way

Here's to even more ridiculousness to come!