I still think Bela Karolyi is the best commentator, followed by my beloved Dick Button, but Al Trautwig gives them a run for their money. He says ridiculous things regardless of which sport he's commentating; given that he commentates some rather out-there sports (like Olympic gymnastics and the Tour de France), he gets plenty of chances to make weird comparisons and absurd references. I love him!
I'm exhausted, but I can't stop Olympics!!! I had to be at work by eight a.m. today, and I made it, but getting through the multiple meetings the rest of the day was v. difficult. I left early and came home so that Tammy and I could keep on our death march through several days' worth of tivo'd Olympics coverage. We spent a couple of hours watching the women's team gymnastics final from Wednesday night; I already knew the results, and it was heartbreaking to watch it again with Tammy, hear the hope in her voice, and then watch Alicia Sacramone's meltdown. Not that the silver medal was all her fault, but watching the beam and the floor routines again was really sad.
We took a long break from gymnastics tonight to have dinner with Shedletsky and Joanna. Tammy picked the restaurant - Bushi-Tei on Post St in San Francisco. It was incredibly good, sort of Japanese/French fusion, and we stayed there for around three hours. We had a great bottle of wine, and then I ordered three starters as dinner. This is what I had (mainly for Felicia, who loves food): a tuna tartare with tobiko, wasabi-crème fraiche, coriander seed, and herb oil, a miso-marinated Wagyu beef with upland cress, apple, fennel, and French blue cheese, and green beans with fermented black beans and almonds. Of the three, the tuna tartare was really incredible; I like raw fish, and the presentations was gorgeous. The beef dish was good but I thought that the various flavors kind of overwhelmed the meat. However, overall everything was lovely, and I really liked the atmosphere -- we sat at the end of a big banquet table like we were aristocrats waiting for a dinner party to start, which was fun. We had a great time, and it was worth hanging out even if it means that Tammy and I couldn't get caught up tonight.
Now it's almost two a.m., and I'm still watching Olympics. Tammy and I got home from dinner around eleven, and spent the last three hours speeding through Wednesday's Olympics coverage. Tivo is great for fastforwarding through beach volleyball, and we can see the results of the swimming heats without having to watch every single race. But we haven't fastforwarded through any gymnastics -- we're on the last rotation of the men's individual all-around. The Americans don't seem to be doing well, the Japanese guy had a horrific fall on the rings and has come back to fourth at this point, and there's a Russian guy in third place whose name sounds like a bird call. All in all, it's fantastic.
No sharing results with me for tonight's women's all-around or Michael Phelps' quest for the gold -- we're watching that tomorrow night, and then hopefully will get all caught up. We have to go back through this past week's recordings and watch the diving events, and then fun things like track/field, synchronized swimming, and the gymnastics event finals start this weekend. Yay! But now I need to focus on gymnastics so that I can go to bed, get a few hours' sleep, and do it all again tomorrow!
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