Let The Games Begin...Finally!

After watching the clock all day, I cast on RIGHT at 2:00 pm and got straight to work. And RIGHT at 2:30 pm, DH burst into the house and said,"Come on! We have to go to the bank! We got our tax refund check!" >sigh< It isn't that I don't want the money, really, it isn't but I was on a roll here, people! I was in the groove, on my mark, at the peak of my game...well, you get the picture. So I took a 30 minute break, feeling rather wimpy for breaking a mere 30 minutes into my event, and we headed off to the bank to do the income tax refund thang and because it was on the way, to the library to pick up the new KnitGrrl book I had reserved. More on the book later...

I have to say that I was VERY disappointed that I couldn't actually watch the Opening Ceremonies at 2:00 pm. You'd think with 900 channels on the TV here that SOMEone would have set up a channel for AllTheOlympicsAllTheTime but no. I have to knit along Olympicless and wait until 8:00 pm when the network coverage was aired. By the time the show started I was well into my sock, my M&Ms and my Killian's. "Drink First...Then Knit!" I could have blamed the Killian's but there were other people watching with me who weren't drinking and they were seeing the same weirdness I was so I know it wasn't the beer. I realize that the Italians are known for being cutting-edge in an aesthetics/fashion/we're molto-modern sort of way but all I can say is what were they thinking?! It's hard to describe without a lot of very Italianate gesturing and arm waving (to say nothing of the looooong breaks while I laugh my head off and wipe the tears) so I'll just put a couple of thoughts down here:

Sparks of Passion segueing into Ice. Can't view this as a positive omen.
The waltzing teenagers in the spotted dresses/tuxedoes were strange enough but when they added the giant rolling cow statues AND the "moo-ing" over the classical music...I put away the Killian's because frankly, I wasn't sure anymore.
Did Laura Bush do the wave with the rest of the spectators and why didn't the "dignitaries" have to don white capes like the spectators immediately around the arena floor?
The Sun and Moon-faced balloons were beautiful. The meaning escaped me but they were very artistic. Might make good tattoos.
The Dove of Peace was pretty but until that moment they just looked liked so many white spiders crawling about on a giant web. >shudder<>
Alps as a fashion choice. LMAO! What woman on earth wants her hips likened to gigantic mountains??
A Ferrarri doing donuts. Oh yes, molto Olympicia! OK, next time the Olympics are held in the USA...I say we combine the Daytona 500 and the Opening Ceremonies! If the Italians can do it, so can we! The athletes can all ride in in NASCAR race cars and line up in the pits. "Gimme a Budweiser, Bubba...there's the checkered flag and the figure skating gold medalist is gonna climb the fence now!!"
Did they use bootblack on Luciano's hair, beard and (only half of) his eyebrows?? For such a >koff< "fashion concious" people, that was one baaaad dye job.
Yoko Ono??? Umm, 'nuff said.

Even Bob Costas was confused, bless his heart. There was a significant amount of "no talking" air time and I'm sure they were all practicing the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" rule. That or they had the mics turned off so they could laugh *their* heads off and wipe the tears.

The best part, as always, was the March Of The Athletes. I wept at the visions of the countries with only one or two or three athletes. I just love that kind of dedication. There's a tall, beautiful dreadlocked man from the Bahamas. A cross-country skier, of all things! The only athlete his country sends to the Winter Games proudly marching in behind his very own Alp-fashioned GirlWithSign waving the Bahamian flag like it's his job. Now *that* shows Sparks of Passion! I'm rooting for him! Apparently he attended UNH right here in NH as a cross-country scholarship student! Yup, I'm hoping for a medal for the Bahamas!

As for my own event in the Knitting Olympics...I feel as if I am right on track. The start for the toe-up sock event was smooth altho' for the next sock I'm going to try to tighten up the stitches just a bit on the first couple of rows. I have completed the increases thru the toe and I'm knitting thru the foot now. I know it looks kind of funny in the pic but it looks much better *on* the foot. The yarn is knitting very smoothly and I'd knit with it again. DS likes the way the stripes are working up. I tried the toe bit on his Godzirra-foot and it fits like it were made for him! Wait! It *is* made for him! Funny how that works. >wink<>waving and snapping photos of my team like a good Olympian<

Stay tuned for more updates from the Olympic Village. I'm going to hang out at the Olympic Village shopping center today *with* my knitting, of course! Why, you ask? Because I need more yarn, natch!