Hollywoodland

My horoscope from yesterday:

Conversation is short and sweet. Exaggerations are unnecessary today. You will have an adventure in the next 24 hours that will have to be made into a three-part movie to be believed or appreciated.

So… the question is, am I being kidnapped by redneck aliens? Getting sucked into the search for a mysterious priceless emerald? Looking for the Ark of the Covenant? Or is the New Madrid Fault Line gonna shake, rattle, and roll? What??? Enquiring minds—like mine!—want to know! Especially if somebody like Harrison Ford or Pierce Brosnan might be involved….

And more importantly, can it wait until we get all our furniture and such moved in? Please and thank you!

But on to the Ice Dancing Free Skate Program…

It wasn’t nearly as dramatic and exciting as the previous night. But we still had some bizarre costume choices. Like there was any doubt about that.

The French team skated to Les Miserables and had costumes appropriate to that. Their program was very nice.

America’s Silverstein & O’Meara had a nice, sexy program.

America’s Gregory & Petukhov skated to Romeo & Juliet and were just lovely.

The Lithuanians skated to Phantom of the Opera and were damn good!

The soap opera Italians Fusar-Poli & Margaglio were still miffed with each other and not speaking. Heck, they weren’t even looking at each other when they got on the ice. They skated to Prince of Egypt which was… interesting. Ugly costumes, though. Shocking, I know!

The team from Israel skated to Bolero. Not a good choice in most people’s opinions. If you recall the 1984 Olympic Games, the marvelous British team of Torville & Dean skated to this music and were awarded perfect scores across the board. The Israeli team were okay, but they’re definitely not Torville & Dean.

The Ukrainian team had really weird costumes and their program was really boring.

The top Russian team skated to the way overdone Carmen but they were very good!

And then there were Belbin & Agosto. They skated to a medley of flamenco music. They were awesome! And they won the silver medal!!!! Do you have any idea how monumental this is? We’ve only ever won one medal before this. And that was a bronze THIRTY years ago!!!

And now for some comments about the Men’s Cross Country Relay. Okay, not the race so much as the fact I had such a crush on Norway’s Vegard Ulvang during the 1994 Games in Lillehammer. *swoon*

Then there was the fact this year that the Austrian team was up half the night because they got raided by doping officials! A banned coach had been reported in the area. But wait! That’s not the end of the story. When police tried to stop the coach’s car, he then supposedly tried to commit suicide by crashing his car through a police roadblock! As Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said, “Not even Hollywood could come up with a scenario like this.” LOL!

Italy won the event, by the way. And something odd I noticed/realized. The four man Italian cross country relay team have, so far, been the only ones I’ve seen from any country at any of the medal ceremonies that actually SANG their national anthem!!! Doesn’t anyone have any patriotism in their bones anymore? No matter what country they live in?

I’m coming to you live from our new house! I’m the only one here tonight which is nice. My patience was wearing a little thin lately.

Sorry I’ve been missing for two days! My bloody phone line went dead on Sunday and I’ve been spastic ever since.

Anyway… did anyone here see the movie Sahara? I haven’t seen it myself, but it’s based on a novel by Clive Cussler which I’m reading right now. I’ve only recently discovered Clive Cussler. I always thought I wouldn’t much enjoy men’s adventure type novels. Silly me. I love love love Dirk Pitt, the hero of the series. So far, besides Sahara, I’ve read Atlantis Found. And luckily for me, Cussler has written around 30 books, so there are lots of wonderful exciting new books for me to read!

On the television front, for those of you who are watching General Hospital again, how about the latest surprise Blast From the Past? It isn’t Anna like we all suspected, but Holly!!!

And now, on to the Olympics Report!

Ice Dancing Original Program. Or as I’m calling it, The Night of a Thousand Falls. Out of 25 couples, at least five of them fell! And some of them were the top couples! The announcers said later it was like watching the Demolition Derby. LOL! And we had lots of ugly costumes, too. What a shocker!

The woman from Israel’s pair had a skirt that looked more suitable for Swan Lake. Feathers and all! Remember that hideous dress the singer Bjork wore to the Academy Awards one year? That looked like a dead swan? *g* That’s what this chick’s dress made me think of.

The guy from the top French team wore this headband thing that looked an awful lot like something from the disco era which went really well with the Latin tempo music. Not!

The heartbreaker of the night was the team from Canada. They were awesome until their last lift spin. She lost her grip and slammed hip first into the ice. Luckily, she didn’t break anything, though she was afraid she had. But that was it for them. They didn’t participate last night.

Both of Italy’s teams fell. But the one that was the funniest, depending on your point of view, was the team of Fusar-Poli & Margaglio. She was SO pissed at him! She still wasn’t speaking to him at the start of last night’s Free Program! But more about that later. What a soap opera!

The Russian team of Navka & Kostomarov were very good, but her costume… let’s just say I’ve never seen any turquoise leopards on any wildlife shows, so I don’t think you should see turquoise leopard print on a costume. Especially when the skirt portion looked more like peacock feathers.

But Americans Belbin & Agosto? They brought the house down! Their program was sexy, hot, and put them in medal contention. (But I wasn’t wild about her costume. Detect a theme? LOL!)

Okay, I’m going to save the Free Skate until tomorrow. I’m getting tired of typing.

Well, I’m still stuck in our old house. Instead of moving yesterday, we had an ice/snow storm. Fun. NOT. It is pretty, though. Makes me feel like I should be in Torino on a pair of skis or a snowboard.

So. Since moving isn’t an option today, I’ll catch up on my Olympic Games reports.

Okay, so maybe it won’t be a report so much as a series of possibly rude comments.

Men’s Figure Skating - Evan Lysacek had a disastrous short program, but he was awesome in the long program! If his short program had been as good, he’d have definitely gotten a medal of some color. But what was up with all the guys having that five o’clock shadow thing going on??? Did they all forget to pack their razors?

Men’s Snowboard Cross - What a wild event! It’s like motocross crossed with NASCAR only on snowboards. Four racers run at a time. It’s a real nail-biter! Two of our guys were elimnated in the semi-finals, if I recall correctly. But Seth Wescott won Gold! One of those cute Slovakians, Radoslav Zidek, won the Silver.

Men’s Skeleton - I keep wondering if it’s called Skeleton because the athletes racing break so many bones? The Americans didn’t do well, alas.

Women’s Combined - The downhill portion of this event had to be postponed yesterday because of the wind. So they did the slalom portion instead. One of the Best Dressed Skier Awards goes to our Julia Mancuso, who instead of wearing a helmet (isn’t that kind of foolish? :banghead:) wore a tiara. Yes, you read that right. A tiara! The other Best Dressed Award goes to our Resi Stieglar who skied wearing a strand of pearls. Ooo-kay. Lindsay Kildow was still suffering from her fall several days ago, and fell again during her second slalom run, so she’s out of this event. Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the Gold.

Women’s Snowboard Cross - You may have all heard about, or seen, Lindsay Jacobellis’ mistake that cost her the Gold medal yesterday. She looked like she was showboating as she came off the final ramp. And she fell. She had the race in the bag because she was so far ahead, so it’s understandable she was excited. Hell, I’d have been excited too! And probably would have done the same thing! So I wish all the members of the press who are treating her like she’s a felon would just shut up!!!! She’s only 20 years old, for pity’s sake. Cut the kid some slack! Sheesh. Not that I have any strong opinions about it or anything….

Ice Dancing Compulsory - The compulsory dance was the Ravensburger Waltz which every team has to do. I love watching the waltz. It’s so beautiful when it’s done well. Rude comments first. The chick in the Lithuanian pair looked half-dressed. I kept wondering what had happened to the rest of her costume. For some weird reason the Ukrainian team looked pissed even though at that point they’d been put into first place. Strange. She also had a Really Ugly Costume. (Actually, there was a lot of that going around!) Our team of Silverstein & O’Meara skated very nicely. (And her dress wasn’t ugly.) Our Gregory & Petukhov were nice, too. Then there was the Italian team of Fusar-Poli & Margaglio. Their skating was wonderful! Their costuming… not so much. LOL! But they won the night and are in the lead going into the next round. The American team of Belbin & Agosto did pretty well, though they both said they could have done a lot better. They’re sitting in sixth place at the moment. But there are less than two points between first and sixth place, so anything could happen!

Whew! Now I’m caught up with all I’ve seen and made notes on.