It's all about me

It's valentines day. Since George the Elder and I have been celebrating V-day for a few years it's not all hearts and candy and roses around here. That's o.k. Too much pressure on one day to up the ante on the whole "romance" thing. We're pretty "romanceful" on a regular basis, so it's just a really nice opportunity to go and look at bunches of cards trying to find the perfect one. George the Elder is generally much better at this than I am. He has a real knack for finding that needle in a haystack. He did good again this year. Plus he made me a feta omelet for breakfast - so all's right with the world.

I'm trying to get the boys to head over to the zoo today. It's a glorious day here. Sun is shining, cherry trees are in bloom and I managed to spend 5 hours weeding yesterday so I deserve it. With the boys being a little older, they aren't quite as thrilled when the word "zoo" is uttered. We were regular visitors at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, we managed to hit the Frankfurt Zoo on a regular basis too. SF Zoo. Not so much. They've only been once, and I'm thinking that this will be the last. Really, what self-respecting 13 year old boy wants to hang out at the zoo with his lame parents watching the baby gorilla? Alas.

Watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Fridays night. My observations:

• For once, the West Coast is on the right time zone to watch the opening ceremonies at a reasonable hour. Still, NBS makes us wait until 8:30 to start. Just like the East Coast. So unfair. We always have to watch football games starting at noon.
• If you say the ceremony is going to start at 7:30 - have it start at 7:30. Please, please, please don't make us sit around listening to bad interviewers for the first hour +. That wasn't polite.
• Nice job with tribute to Canada and US relations. Disappointed that they didn't mention that Canada is the largest consumer of donuts in the world though. Guess they missed that little nugget.
• I want a pair of the mittens that the Canadian team is wearing. Love those little maple leafs in the palms. And they're red.
• Technologically the show was dreamy. Still, it was brutally long in spots. Could the amazing guy running/flying through the wheat fields have done that for about 5 minutes less than he did? Didn't he get tired? I know I got tired of watching him. Could the snow boarders and skiers called it a day and headed for a hot toddy about 5 minutes earlier? The whole up and down, up and down thing got boring. Very boring.
• Note to event planners: If you are going to have a Prime Minister give a prolonged, long-winded speech with the exuberance of a sloth on downers - please consider doing that earlier in the show. How that man managed to be an elected official baffled me. Obviously the ability to enthrall and arouse the passions of his constituents is not a requirement in Canadian politics. A consummate yawn-fest. And at midnight to boot.
• The following people are now out of work: 1. the man who installed and tested the wind blower thingy that was supposed to keep both the Canadian and Olympic flags fluttering proudly in the indoor stadium. The Canadian flag ended up nicely wrapped around the pole like wet laundry blown off the line that ends up hopelessly twisted around the neighbors tether ball pole. 2. The person who designed the malfunctioning pseudo icicle part of the flame lighting cauldron. Damn he must have been sweating that one out. Running around below the stage screaming, "Ascend you piece of icicle crap!!! Ascend!!" 3. The person who wrote the score for the music that was to have briefly preceded the flames ascent up the pseudo icicle funnels. I am sure that in a short burst the melody sounded good. However - given the malfunction and the time elapsed before the decision was made to move forward with only 3 icicle tunnels - repeating it over and over again gave it a porn film score feel. Not that I would know what the score of a porn film sounds like. Maybe it felt that way since we had to watch Wayne G. sweat through those uncomfortable drawn-out moments.
• Last, a note to KD... Dear KD, Please fire your stylist immediately. I realize that he has been out of work since his last employer, Marlon Brando, passed away. I'm all for giving someone a second chance - but damn - that was one bad suit. Also, Glamor do's and don'ts clearly states that when you choose to wear a three piece white suit (even an ill fitting one) that shoes are required. Yours truly, me.