late 4th of july post and the olympics wrap-up

the olympics just ended and i am feeling a little patriotic, so i have included a slide show of our 4th of july celebration at my parent's place. the olympics were fun to watch, but in a way i am glad they are over because i was losing way too much sleep over them. i lack self-control when it comes to going to bed at night if there is something on tv worth watching. no matter what i have going on the next day, i will fight the sleepiness and stay awake just to catch the likes of synchronized diving and women's gymnastics. but, truth be told, nothing beats watching runners run a marathon... enthralling entertainment that has me on the edge of my seat every time.

in all seriousness, i had fun watching the olympics. i think aim really enjoyed the swimmers and their attire. i thought i would quickly note some of my personal highlights from the olympics as well as some of the lowlights:

highlights:

1. us mens indoor volleyball beating brazil to win gold: i think this was one of the best stories of the olympics. coach's family killed at the olympics. team beats russia, serbia, italy, and brazil to win gold for the first time in over 20 years. some of the guys on the team had been to three, even four, olympics without having won a medal. plus two of the players and the coach went to byu. it's a tragedy this team and event didn't get more coverage.

2. us swimmers in relay beating france: amazing. unbelievable. i never thought i would stand up and cheer for swimmers... oh, did i ever. this was arguably the best moment of the olympics.

3. us mens basketball winning gold: the universe is falling back into place. the us team won gold, byu is dominating the mountain west and beating utah in most sports, the bar has ended. i grew up a lakers fan, but have never been a big kobe bryant fan. i have to admit that there is no one other than kobe who i wanted to see with the ball in the 4th quarter of that gold medal game. i changed my opinion of kobe and am happy he and the other guys were able to pull it off.

lowlights:

1. the coverage focused way too much on women's gymnastics, beach volleyball, and marathon running. women's gymnastics is great and all, but enough already. beach volleyball is fun to play, but not nearly as fun to watch and not even close to watching indoor volleyball. and, i love the fact that may-treanor and walsh dominate, but seriously, did we have to see that much of them??? i wonder if they would have received as much coverage if they didn't play their sport in string bikinis. marathon running??? are you kidding me???

very disappointed that the mens indoor volleyball team didn't get more pub. this was a true travesty.

2. the us men's b-ball team only beat spain by 11 points. this game about killed me. the perfect storm was brewing. luckily, kobe and wade pulled it off, but i would rather have seen them crush the hairy spaniards. where was the defense? oh well, i'll settle for 11 points and the renewed vigor i think this group has instilled in future nba olympic b-ballers. the gold should never leave us soil again in this sport.

3. china beat us in total golds. it's unfortunate that china got more golds than us. it's even more lame that they accomplished it by winning non-sport sports that have no business being part of the olympics.

that's it. enjoy the video.