Yay, Virginians

So, we watched some Olympics yesterday, swimming, men's gymnastics and day two of the 3-day equestrian event.

In regards to the swimming, I was really expecting Megan Quann to be more...outspoken than she is. She's gotten all this press about "talking trash" and being incredibly confident. Everything I saw her say was perfectly normal athlete patter.

The men's gymnastics was pretty good. The Chinese really *did* deserve to win, but I wish they had showed more of the Chinese kicking ass and less of the U.S. and Russian teams totally fucking up. The Russians looked very sad indeed to have lost to the Ukranians AND the Chinese. I don't think they are used to losing.

I really enjoyed the equestrian cross-country event, and the 3rd of the 3-day events are today: jumping. I've already seen some of it. What I love about the U.S. equestrian team is that every one of them is from east of the Appalachians, and 4 out of 6 are from Northern Virginia. The O'Connors are from The Plains. I always wondered who actually lived there and now I know. (The Plains is on 66 in Faquier County and we see it every time we drive out to Front Royal).[1] Linden Wiesman is from Bluemont (which, incidentally, is where I started my AT hike last year, and Nina Foutk is from Middleburg.

Obviously, I like horses. I used to show American Saddlebreds[2] (mostly in saddle-seat equitation, but I did have a 5-gaited horse when I got older) and while that's totally different than the Hunter/Jumper thing, thoroghbreds do rival saddlebreds for beauty, and that's really the most notable thing about saddlebreds since showing them doesn't involve racing, jumping or pretending to hunt a fox.

While I love Chicago and totally dislike the DC Metro area, I don't seem to have any problem calling Virginia home. I wish the state income taxes were as low as Illinois, but you can't have everything.

I'm watching the women's team gymnatics now. I'm always amazed that humans can *do* the stuff these women do. I can't even imagine launching my fat ass into the air like that. Not now, not at any point in my life.[2.5]Balance Beam and the Uneven Bars are cool, but really, it's the tumbling that makes my jaw drop. I used to prefer the vault, but not any more.[3]