Day 3 & 4 Combine

I so wanted to post everyday!  So ain't gonna happen y'all!

So I've come up with my own Winter Olympics event it's called:
The Stellar, Useless, Obscure, Olympic Tib Bit Combine Post

Since most Combine Events take place over a couple days...I'll post at least every coupla days too!  (Great excuse  justification  idea huh?)

Where to begin this Combined Post?  Do we start with the Drama (with a capitol D) in the Men's Figure Skating?  How the media puts such pressure on our young athletes and then seems to drown in their own excited saliva when they fail to get the job done?  How about the way US Gold Medalist Seth Westcott's WWII vet grandpa influenced his Olympic experience?  Or the fact there is, for the second time in Olympic history, a prego momma participating in these Games?

Nah.  I think we'll start with the fact that if you want Coke, you don't drink Shasta Cola.  If you want a Xerox copy, you don't use a certain cheap @$$ printer that needs to be replaced.  And if you want an envious, high quality, international standard event on perfect ice, you don't use...

these specially made $1,000,000 off-brand ice machines.

Everyone knows you use the tried and true...

ZAMBONI!!!!

What did our Gold Medalist Seth Westcott bring to these Games with him?

"I had a pretty powerful moment packing that thing in my backpack."

- US snowboard gold medallist Seth Wescott on carrying his late grandfather's World War II service flag.

And the media?  Could they be any more houndish with our athletes??

How many ways can Lindsay say, "I fell people...I was young, dumb and reckless."

They were dying to get a story of redemption.

They missed it.

It was a much deeper, closer story than they could imagine.

And while they were slippin' and slidin' in their greedy saliva rushing to get the next big story...they passed this one.

In the same race Lindsay fell in 4 years ago in Turino and got the dreaded Silver,

Maelle Ricker crashed and was air-lifted out.

4 years later, while the media was stalking Lindsay, she was quietly readying herself for redemption.

While our eyes were glued on the red vest falling to the wayside...

Maelle Ricker crossed the finish line 20 minutes from the house she grew up in and became the female darling of Canada...

Way to go Girl.

One last fun little picture for this, the first Combined Post event, that shows the judges for the ski jumping.  Each time they were mentioned I wondered where they were located to be able to watch the jumps from the side of the mountain.

Now we know...

Good Night my fellow Americans!

May your popcorn have just the perfect amount of butter tomorrow night while enjoying the halfpipe!  The girls flying down the hills in Downhill!  Apollo...sigh, need I say more?  It's gonna be a grand eveing!

O Canada!

As Mary Carillo said, "The O in O Canada! no longer stands for Zero."

It was a 5 Kleenex Alarm in the Shooter household when Alexandre went down to hug his big brother, Fredrick, who he'd dedicated the race to and who suffers from cerebral palsy.

After almost 34 YEARS of never winning a gold on home turf...CONGRATULATIONS Canada!!!

The Crumb Snatchers began asking questions about the moguls and the snow as we watched so the answers I researched provide Day 2s fascinating, obscure Olympic Tid Bits!

It begins with moving in the "special" white stuff.

Followed by specialized construction.

One of the questions was, "Why is the snow so dirty when everything else has to be so perfect?"

The answer is, as the athletes are flying down the hill and through the air, they need something in the pure white to offer a contrast.  Give them a target so to speak. 

Alexandre had a whole country behind him...I found two of the CUTEST CANUCKS!

My own love of flowers lead me to this stellar find of Obscure Olympic Tid Bit...

The Victory Bouquet is made of indigenous plants and flowers from the area...except they only bloom in the summer.  So the indigenous flowers were grown and then flown from Ecuador.

They are literally changing lives in Canada.

The florists who won the bid to make them chose to partner with non-profit organizations that help "women who face barriers" when it comes to legitimate employment.

The girls that make them would other wise not be involved or impacted by the Olympics in a significant way.  They are recovering from addiction, leaving prison, exiting the sex trade or are victims of violence.

Instead, they all now have a viable future skill to fall back on.

Way Cool.

As we watched (and listened) to the pairs short programs tonight, one outfit (the shiny blue pantsuit) reminded me of a long ago Olympics America got the privilege of watching the Merrells favorite Olympic announcer - Scott Hamilton.

  I found the picture...

A few things about Mr. Hamilton outside the rink:

1) He survived testicular cancer.

2) After skating with the Ice Capades, he formed the Stars On Ice.

3) He was the first celebrity to grant a wish for the Make a Wish Foundation.

4) He is on he Board of Directors for the Special Olympics International.

5) He's a husband to this beauty.  And father to a 6 and a 2 yo boy.

6) He's a strong christian believer.

And for just plain ole fun...

Apollo Fans...

Dedicated, timeless Apollo fans...

Pray for our troops in harms way. Pray for their wives, children, mommas, daddies, sisters and brothers. They all sacrifice so very much for us to live our lives, watch our prime time tv, drink our fancy signature mixes and pray without fear.

God Bless America and our brave soldiers.

Let the GAMES Begin!!!

I've received too many emails about the Olympics to not try my hardest to post about these games!
So here's the answers to a few of the questions I keep getting:

YES...I'm still a total Olympic Fuh-Reek...therefore, so is my fam.  Some by choice, some by force.

Yes, we are turning it into a total learning lesson.  Big Shooter started it off by decorating the livingroom with big beautiful American flags, a giant world map, ski equipment and a surprise Name That Country By It's Flag game he made up on on the fly.  Sigh...he's a man who's captured my heart!

Yep, I'm going to be doing research each day about the happenings and all those fun extra little tid bits in these Games like I did for the Summer Games.  However, I cannot promise to be the most consistent at posting what I learn.  Sorry.  You may, or may not have noticed I've been absent lately from the Blogosphere.  Life.  It's happening all around me.

The 2010 Winter Olympics logo is named Ilanaaq, which is the Inuktitut word for friend.

The mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were inspired by traditional First Nations creatures, the mascots include:

Miga — A mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.
Quatchi — A sasquatch, who wears boots and earmuffs.

Sumi — An animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.

First Extra Odd Tid Bit:

Skating Diva - Johnny Weir has elected to stay in the Olympic Village bc it is "more easily secured than a hotel".  (He complained long and hard about his accomodations in the Village the last Olympics and had his heart set on a luxury stay this go round.)  He has received valid and serious threats from anit-fur activists and is justifibly concened for his safety.  (The irony of being threatened with your life from an anti-fur group just kinda cracks me up honestly.)  However, they should be a little less angry with him, bc he has given in and sacrificed style and design be replacing the white fox on his outfit with faux fox.

 Here are the adjectives the announcers used describing the Mens Figure Skating competition (no giggling):

* Deep

* Rich

* Staggering

* Unrelenting

* Exciting

and

*Unbridled

Please stop giggling.  They were ssssserious.

And therefore, so am I.  It starts tomorrow.  I'm popping my popcorn early to get a good seat!