Winter Olympics

The 2010 winter olympics are almost over. The first week of TV coverage was very distracting. I found myself watching for hours at a time. I recall thinking that the olympics should be on year-round, but after a week I had enough and year-round olympics no longer sounded so exciting. Nonetheless, here are some olympic highlights according to Kim.

1. Figures Skating Outfits. This is figure skating's pair Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov. If this picture could talk, it would say "Sorry Honey, the swan ate my huevos."

2. Group Races. I most enjoyed short track speed skating, ski-cross, and snow-board cross. These races combine four key factors: high speeds, lots of turns, a slick surface, and athletes racing together rather than individually. This combination guarantees nail-biting suspense as racers try to avoid the inevitable: an ugly, high-speed crash. And unlike Nascar where highspeed crashes are often the highlight of the race, these olympic events do not require me to watch 499 uneventful laps just to see the one exciting lap.

3. Doppelgangers. I discovered that Chris's doppelganger is Apollo Anton Ohno.

All that Chris is missing is a gold medal or two...

Not another snow day...

Unlike my prior post, this post is not one of happiness and excitement. After numerous snow days this year, I am tired of looking out the window in the morning and realizing that I am running late because I did not allocate time for this:

I am not a morning person and therefore, I do not wake up in time for surprises like a thick layer of ice on my windshield or two inches of show insulating my car. Either I need a garage or else I need to move somewhere warmer, if not both.

Snow Day!

Last week it snowed again! When I left for school in the morning, it was raining. Two hours later, I was shocked to see that everything was covered in snow.

Being that I am a native Texan, I am not well-equipped for dealing with snowy weather. Before driving home, I scraped the snow off my windshield and windows. It was not until I was driving, however, that I realized I should have cleaned off the hood as well. Had I cleaned off the hood, my vision would not have been obstructed by the mound of snow that I removed from my windshield. Had I the forethought to clean off the hood, I would have had the forethought to clean off my lights as well, so that they would actually shine on the road before me as I drove home on a cloudy, sunless afternoon. Unfortunately, I did not have this forethought, and when I parked at home I did not realize that my headlights were still on because they were covered in snow.

Nor did I not notice that my car lights were on when I went out later in the day to take pictures of our snowy landscape. But I sure did enjoy the way our "backyard" looked.

Later that afternoon, my neighbor came knocking on my front door seeking a "boost." Earlier that day I heard him operating various hand tools through our common wall, so I thought he needed help with some project in his apartment. I was perplexed because I didn't know how I would lift-up (boost) this guy who is 6 inches taller than me, much less do it without blushing. My neighbor noticed my perplexed look right away. "Can you give my car a boost," he said, "I left my lights on."

Happy that I could help out my neighbor, I bundled up and headed out the door. I told my neighbor that we were really fortunate that I was parked right next to him in the parking lot, which would have been true had I not left my lights on as well. Chris arrived home from work within a half hour and helped us solve the problem.

In case you can't tell, Chris parked on my right and jumped my car. Then I jumped my neighbor's car. Then Chris and I went and took a lovely picture in the snow, at which time Chris told me I looked like Kenny from South Park.

All in all, it was a eventful snow day.

Coincidence or Divine Intervention?

Today, at exactly 1:56 p.m, I remembered that the ring tone on my phone had been set on silent all day. I quickly fished my phone out of my bag and turned on the ringer, even though I wasn't expecting any calls. Exactly five minutes later the phone rang. The caller id read "UNAVAILABLE" (the phone uses all-caps; it's the phone that's yelling, not me). I answered the phone with a suspicious, "Hello?," and was surprised to hear a familiar voice respond. It was a longtime pal (since the first grade!) who lives halfway around the world (in Norway!). We hadn't talked in a very long time, perhaps a year or more, and I would have completely missed the call had I not turned on the phone's ringer when I did. The initial excitement of the phone call prevented me from realizing the divine string of events that made our subsequent conversation possible. It was only after I hung-up that I realized this. Luckily, my longtime pal reads my blog, and she should get the message right about now.