Olympic Hockey

"I don't see any smiles on the US (Mens Olympic) hockey team," said my mother. "I don't understand why they're not grateful in getting a silver. I constantly see the skiers who get the silver w/ smiles."

I KNOW she meant well but when I heard the above I winced & wanted to bang my head against the wall. LOL

How do you explain to a non-sports fan that in competitive team sports, coming in 2nd means losing? When it comes playoff or tournament time coming in 2nd is the difference between going home w/ a championship ring & spending the ENTIRE off-season thinking how close you came but came up oh-so-short?

I avoided this dilemma by completely dodging the question & changing the subject (not to mention, passing the buck to my father by having her ask him). :)


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In other news...
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I cannot remember if I've posted this shot before but below is Leeann, a sister of one of my dearest regulars Lauren. We almost didn't get this shot because Leeann was off to Softball practice. I worked w/ her earlier that day but not w/ this exquisite windowlight. I convinced Leeann to indulge me for some more shots & viola! The rest is history.

Since I've graduated I've learned to treat family members of the Farenell Girls not as any other customer (unless they're wanting wedding shots) because 90% of the time I'll creatively come out ahead. It was a lesson I learned that summer & have regretted (but have gotten over it since) w/ another of my treasured subjects. It was simply a situation where I was going as they were coming.

I know very well the Farenell Girl in question doesn't hold it against me but its one of those things that if I could turn back the clock & change things, I would. Oh well. Live & learn.



Feel free & opine if you so choose.

Winter Olympics Coverage

For a network that has 4 separate portals to televise the Winter Olympics, I think NBC's live coverage downright pathetic.

They gave a stink back during the Beijing & the Sydney games that their ratings were crappy because of the 10-13 hour time difference (ahead of us). W/ the Vancouver Games, they are 3 hours behind & they have less coverage than than they did in 2000 (Sydney), 2002 (Salt Lake City), 2008 (Beijing).

Disclosure: I was hardly aware of the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, so I cannot say one way or the other in how it was covered.*

Course considering this is the same network that eased out the Late-Night rating leader because "it was his time" (as if there's like an expiration date that does not include death), hired his replacement, made a big tadoo about his arrival, shift the "expired" late-night's leader in a spectacular flop in prime time, only to not only fire them both, but then turn it around like it was the new guy's fault, & thus shift the flopee to his old job, the crappy sports coverage shouldn't surprise me.

Its even more pathetic when said results are plastered all over the news media before the actual event can be seen.

I was hoping to see more of the skiing events because A. I'm kinda a speed junkie, B. its just plain cool to watch, & C. its one of those things that's really cool to watch but am kinda have a phobia about doing it myself (its the breaking a leg thing that would probably happen).


*sigh*

In other news...

This here is Jenny.

She's always had this classy mom-thing going for her. Whenever she'd talk about them (or her husband for that matter), her body language would just light up. They were very endearing moments.

She's also an avid tennis player, so I decided to combine the classiness w/ my trademark randomness to get this shot.



Feel free to opine, critique, whatever. Just please leave a first name so I know who to address, if I choose to do so.