The goal

There haven't been a lot, but I can remember some pretty great moments in sports over my lifetime. Like the time when Joe Carter hit the game winning homerun to win the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays 17 years ago. Or the spectacular catch by David Tyree off his helmet to make a crucial first down for the New York Giants, who then went on to win the Superbowl. Donovan Bailey's gold medal winning 9.84 second 100M run which was slowed by the fact that he raised his arm at the end.

Yesterday topped all of those.

My wife and I watched the Canada-USA hockey Olympic gold medal final together, just the two of us. We had invited others but they were either unable to make it or chose to go elsewhere for maybe a bigger party or whatever. I think it would have been more fun with more people, but what can you do.

I can't remember a more exciting game in my life. To me, I would have been happier to see Team Canada finish 4th by losing to the Slovakians than to lose to the Americans. It was so intense that both my wife and I were exhausted by the time we had finished watching the first two periods. Emotionally we were completely drained.

I was thinking about how destiny works, how God selects certain people in this world to do amazing things. Sidney Crosby had been somewhat ridiculed because he hadn't scored anything in several games, even though he was supposed to be the best player we had. Meanwhile Crosby was probably just playing like he always plays, creating opportunities, handling and battling for the puck, constantly being harrassed by 1-2 opponents, also not knowing himself when he'll be able to affect the game in some shape where everyone would notice.

And then there it was, he battled for the puck the corner, left it back for Jerome Iginla and then skated unobstructed for once, towards the net, and then called for it and slid the puck into the net. It seemed so innocent, not like the many other huge scoring chances.

Back home, my wife and I went absolutely nuts. We danced in front of the TV, shouted, we jumped up and down, we hugged, we hugged while jumping up and down (this is no easy task) and then we ran around the living room cheering.

Greatest hockey game ever.

I Believe

Lately I can't seem to stop humming the "I Believe" Olympic song. I've seen newspaper articles, blog posts, and people in general complaining about this song but I don't get it. It's a great song and it's got such a catchy tune. I love it!

Yesterday afternoon my wife had an eye appointment with a specialist because she had a hole in her eye. We actually weren't sure if the procedure would be performed right away or if it was just a check-up to ensure the diagnosis was correct. They'd have to dilate her pupils prior to any examination, so we knew she'd need a ride home.

Since the appointment was at Sunnybrook I had originally planned to take the day off so I could take here there and drive her home, but in the end her mom volunteered since it was closer for her. So the plan was to have dinner at her parents' house after the appointment/procedure.

Anything dealing with eyes makes me extremely nervous. Eyes are so important, and you've only got 2 of them. It's not like kidneys where you can survive with one. You need both eyes. When I was little I had this nightmare where my dad's eyes were expanding and stretching and he was in a lot of pain, I remember waking up in a fright and running over to my parents' room and hugging my dad.

So there I was sitting in the living room at my in-laws' house talking about Team Canada's chances against Russia with my father-in-law, when he received a call on his cell. It was my wife on the phone and they talked for a few seconds and dad passed me the phone. She told me that they had done the procedure and that it was all finished, the hole had been lasered and she could feel where her brain had been fried. Even if she was joking I was scared by that. I asked if she was feeling okay and she was.

For the next 30 minutes or so I sat their anxiously awaiting my wife to come home, while trying my best to have various coherent conversations with my father in law. Finally when I heard the garage door opening, I sprung up from the couch and waited at the door for her to come in. When she finally appeared I flung my arms around her and held on for as long as I could while she tried to wiggle her way out.

Dinner was great, the food was excellent as usual. There was only a moment of panic when the food was set on the table and I didn't see any rice. It's strange but as I've gotten older I've discovered that I really, really, like plain rice. Eventually mom-in-law brought out the rice and I immediately reached out to get some.

My in-laws have this tiny 12" TV in their kitchen and while we ate we were huddled around it to watch the first 5-10 minutes of the Canada-Russia men's hockey game. Games like these are absolutely great because the whole family is there cheering for the same team.

I had a friend text me from Vancouver to tell me he was in the arena watching from section 114, which sound like pretty great seats. I'm sure my friend had a great time, but to me, you can't really beat watching the game with family, there's no way to compare that with anything else. Plus he probably paid about $300 for those seats. There's just no way I would trade sitting with family (with all of whom are cheering and whooping it up), even on a tiny TV, for great seats amongst a bunch of strangers. There's just no way.

Liukin vs Kexin

Before I get into the matchup, just wanted to give a shout out the Jamaican girl who won the 100m. That had to be one of the funniest and silliest celebrations we've seen in the Olympics, she looked so happy running around with the flag, and confusing the cameramen by changing directions and falling over herself with pure joy.

Yesterday we watched and listened to the entire sequence for both CBC and NBC's coverage of the women's individual gymnastics on the uneven bars. There was some hoopla over the scoring for the event, mostly coming from the US, which ended in a tiebreaker that awarded the gold to Chinese He Kexin over American Nastia Liukin. Since none of the American commentators new the rules for tiebreakers, they ended making a huge fuss over it.

I actually thought Liukin's routine should have scored higher. Having watched both the US and Canadian coverage of it (each channel has a camera from opposite sides of the apparatus) it seemed to me Liukin made 1 or 2 less mistakes. "He" had a pretty awesome double release move, but at the end of the day they both had the same start value and difficulty, so you would assume the person who made less mistakes gets a higher score. But then again what do I know -- my experience as a spectator of gymnastics spans approximately 8 days.

I found it interesting that the CBC coverage simply explained the tiebreak, whereas the US coverage went on and on first about not understanding the logistics of the tiebreak, (at which point they were blaming the computer, which I take exception to). Then upon being enlightened of the rules, they thought the rules were stupid. Which is pretty much what anyone would say if they lost on a technicality, which Liukin did. But it still seemed pretty comical coming from the commentators point of view.. reminded me a little of a Pro-Line commercial and the US being on the losing side of one.

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Eczema and other annoyances

Over the past few years I've noticed that I get a rash in the summer time on my elbows and knees, but this year in particular it's been pretty crazy. I used to just wash it thinking it was just sweat, but recently I found out it was eczema. I remember a few years ago scolding AT over and over again for scratching her scars, and now I understand why she wouldn't stop. Boy is it ever itchy!

Now I'm the one with scabs all over my arms, elbows and knees. I'm the one rubbing steroids into my skin and trying not to scratch. What a pain in the butt this is. Maybe I shouldn't be using the word "butt". I'd hate for this thing to spread over there..

Ina and I have discovered while watching Olympics that we need to pick and choose the station based on the sport, which can have varying degrees of annoyances amongst the commentators. Either you choose the American commentators of NBC who are extremely biased towards the USA, or the Canadian commentators of CBC, many of whom have no experience commenting on the sport they've been assigned to so they often sound like complete morons.

So it comes down to US Patriots versus Canadian Idiots. I am one of those Canadians that absolutely *loathe* American pride. And yet in this case, I choose the bias because outside of swimming the US hasn't really been doing all that great. China seems to be winning everything else except for track and field where the Jamaicans are cleaning up. Besides, other than media types and journalists the NBC commentators have been pretty gracious.

CBC commentators are the absolute worst, particularly because they hired a bunch of former athletes who have no business doing commentary. This becomes apparent particularly in diving, where Anne Montminy seems to be reading from a script which contains these two lines:

1) That was a miss for him/her/them!
2) That was terrific!

She's got a 50% chance of being right, and it seems like she gets it right half the time so my guess is she's using a random number generator to decide which line to read. My favorite comment in diving so far came from her partner, who we heard say "Looks like the judges don't agree with you" after she had commented that one of the pairs of synchronized divers had missed badly.

Anne also believes these two women look exactly the same:
The second annoying commentator is Paul Romanuk, commentating for Olympic basketball. I can't think of too many guys who could screw this up more. Perhaps Rod Black, who thankfully works for CTV. There is nothing worse than a hockey play-by-play guy doing basketball.

Finally, if you have spent any time in the subways, or watching CBC, or driven by the billboards you should have seen Bell's latest ad-campaign. The annoying little beavers are finally gone, ill-advised if you ask me, and they've got this new "er" thing. Which makes very little sense, I have no idea where they are going with it, but I'm having a lot of fun.

Narrow eyes

Ina and I had a pretty good laugh after I showed her this picture, which has sparked a lot of controversy over the past few days. I've had some interesting conversations about this with various people. Since Jose Calderon is in the photo, there's been a bit of hoopla coming out of the Raptors community. Apparently some people feel Jose Calderon must be a racist based on this photo where he is spreading his eyes apart and supposedly offending all Chinese people as a result.

For me, it seems harmless enough. I happen to have narrow eyes, I was born this way and it is part of my identity. That got me thinking about what they could have done that REALLY would have offended me. I came up with a few ideas:

How about trying to make a mockery out of what was easily the most spectacular Olympic opening ceremonies in history of the world? How about if they blamed a bunch of accidents on Chinese people, who obviously purposely used toxic materials to make toys so that they could harm children? Oh, maybe they could make fun of our culture and diet, how we eat things that are absolutely disgusting that makes you want to puke. The Chinese won double gold in team gymnastics? There could be no other explanation other than that the Chinese were under-age, after all they've been lying about their age for years. Chinese people are all a bunch of liars. How about a picture of the Spanish basketball team all wearing gas masks because apparently the Beijing air is toxic and if you breathe it you will die, and 16 million people living there must be mutated because otherwise how else could they possibly breathe?

You want to offend Chinese people, see the above for ideas. Oh wait, they've all been done before.

Jubilation

... is the word I would use to describe the 4x200 men's relay in finals swimming. Watching the US overcome a significant lead by France to win the gold, with the help of an older man on the team. That was awesome, and helps Michael Phelps continue his quest for 8 gold medals! To see him celebrate in joy was great too, I think that picture will be one of those images we will see again and again for the next couple weeks. Simply awesome!

Before I begin the following rant, let me just say that the opening ceremonies were spectacular. They were by far the best ever without any doubt. I can't help but shudder at the thought of what Toronto could have come up with. Granted, China likely operated on a limitless budget, but still. What is Canada famous for? What legacies do we have, what are things we can be proud of? I wonder if Steven Harper would even bother showing up.

Ina and I have watched a lot of Olympics because of our ability to record everything. We've been recording the CBC feed, but have noticed that they re-run a lot of footage, and skip a lot of the things we want to see, while showing a lot of stuff online instead (which we can't view due to a slower internet connection). Furthermore, why would we watch on a little screen after we paid for HD content? That's been pretty disappointing to say the least, when you consider that in the past CBC has been a treat compared to the available US feeds.

We're at the brink of switching all our recordings to the US feed, who have more emphasis on things we actually want to watch, such as team gymnastics, swimming, rowing. It seems that CBC has "sold out" a little bit, putting more emphasis on Canadians, even though they all suck. Rarely do we get to see an event that Canada is not involved in, except for maybe beach volleyball. I don't know about the average Canadian viewer, but personally when I'm watching the Olympics I would rather see the best compete -- excellence, regardless of who is competing -- than watch yet another Canadian fail.

For example, why show the entire match of the Canadian boxer who got pummeled mercilessly by the Kazakh, 20-1? How necessary was it show that entire fight, not to mention twice more in various re-runs. You didn't make us watch Sue Nattress miss 25 shots in shooting, so why force us to watch a Canadian getting the snot punched out of him?

Also, say it with me -- "LAST PLACE". There is no such thing as 4th place out of 4 teams, 12th place out of 12 competitors. Nobody needs to be patronized. It's last, so just say it.