Tag: Winter Olympics

Weekend Things: Winter Olympics Are Here!

Lauren2 Comments

If you didn’t stay home to eat pasta in your pajamas while watching the Opening Ceremony,

If you didn’t start Saturday with zero knowledge of the men’s slopestyle competitors then found yourself cheering on Red Gerard and saying things like “hold on, I’m trying to watch McMorris’s run” like you’re a slopestyle expert,

If you didn’t feel chills watching Adam Rippon finish his program or seeing Mirai Nagasu land her triple axel,

If you aren’t considering taking a two week leave of absence from work and going nocturnal so you don’t miss a single second of Olympic excitement,

We probably can’t be friends anymore.  Or we can, but not until February 26th.  Because even though Summer Olympics are my real jam and I tweeted that my Winter Olympic enthusiasm felt low this year, here I am, FULLY INTO IT.  It takes so little to get there, doesn’t it? 🙂

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I’ve been itching to be out of the house on Friday nights but there was NO WAY I was missing that Opening Ceremony!  Plus Pasta Plans™ meant staying in and not gonna lie, it was a nice change of pace.  I rate this Butternut Squash Baked Pasta a 10/10 and the Opening Ceremony slightly lower but only because I compare all Opening Ceremonies to London’s so anything less than the Spice Girls,* Mr. Bean and James Bond arriving with The Queen is bound to be a disappointment.  Biggest takeaway: Team USA is very very good looking.

*I just looked it up and the Spice Girls were actually part of the Closing Ceremony, but whatever!

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It was all snowy and cold on Saturday so we started slow, with pancakes, Top Chef and men’s slopestyle qualifications then braved the weather to go see The Post and yeah, it’s probably not Tom Hank’s most inspired role and it’s sort of distracting to see a bunch of well-known actors popping up all over, but I found the story FASCINATING and I know we’re all “Meryl again?!” when Oscar nominations come out every year, but she’s pretty incredible and her portrayal of Katharine Graham was so compelling.

Spent the rest of the day hibernating — oh the irony of watching super active athletes perform while you don’t move from your couch for hours — then pulled out pasta leftovers and some (possibly old) wine that I blame for my falling asleep on Joey midway through the Knierims’ performance (what is wrong with me?!).

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Sunday was a perfect day that started at this new coffee shop, which I immediately fell in love with!  Yes, they were playing The Head and The Heart inside and no, I didn’t love the coffee — I feel like something weird happened with our French Press because if I closed my eyes, I could have sworn it was hot water — but most importantly, the staff was beyond friendly, the breakfast sandwiches were big and bold and delicious and it was the most beautifully cozy space to sit and read in ♥

Afterward, we took ourselves to the grocery store(s), got lunches made and I made red beans in preparation for Mardi Gras this week.  I know red beans are for Monday so I feel weird making them for Tuesday but let’s be real, red beans are good any day of the week!  Finished up meal prep with time to spare so I took myself to yoga and though I complained that it was too easy, I am SO SORE today.

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Sunday ended with Joey making me our favorite Crispy Baked Asian Salmon plus seeing Jamie Anderson win gold and Team USA win bronze in figure skating and then we were in bed to read with lights out before 10 PM.  Help, we’re old and tired.  Will I even have the energy to stay up to watch all the Olympic fun for the next two weeks?!  Who knows!

Hope you had a good weekend and a wonderful Mardi Gras/National Pancake Day/Valentine’s Day this week 🙂

Most Memorable Moments of the 2014 Winter Olympics

Lauren4 Comments

As much as I’ve been complaining about the Winter Olympics — i.e. “Where is Michael Phelps??,” “Didn’t we already do this snowboarding event?,” “Ice dancing is so boring!” — I’ll admit that I still managed to get all caught up in it.  I found myself rooting for members of Team USA who I had no idea even existed prior to the games and I definitely looked forward to heading home after work and sitting around in yoga pants while super athletes worked their hardest to secure an Olympic medal.  Now that it’s all over — I’m watching the closing ceremony as we speak — all that’s left to do is look back at the most memorable moments.

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1. Bob Costas’s eye infection.

I have no idea what kind of infection that was that it seemed to never go away!

2. Jason Brown’s ponytail.

Or whatever term we’ve made up for ponytails on men.  Bronytail is it?  Either way, that thing was amazing.  If you’re wondering what I was doing at work on Tuesday, it was reading about Jason’s hair routine.  In other JB news, he gives the cutest interviews ever.

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3. Shaun White falls flat.

I can tell you basically nothing about Shawn White’s snowboarding career, but I found myself really rooting for him during the halfpipe competition.  I still think he got way more air than anyone else but I guess it just wasn’t his night.  His hair still gets a gold medal from me.

4. USA beats Russia in men’s hockey.

I guess I kind of like hockey now?  Anyways, this game was on at like 4 AM on a Saturday so there was no way I was watching live but even the replay (you know, after I already knew the outcome) was a nail biter!

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5. Jeremy Abbott’s crash.

I felt true pain when he stumbled and slammed into the side of the ice skating rink.  I think I was mostly sad for him because I knew how sad he was 😦  But once he stood up, the rest of his routine was flawless!

6. Olympic ring fail.

I mean I think we were all disappointed with the technical difficulty during the Opening Ceremony just because it would’ve looked so cool, but I won’t deny laughing at all the jokes about the guy who was in charge going missing.  Russian stereotypes are alive and well!  Also, gotta admire the Russian’s ability to poke fun at themselves in the closing ceremony.

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7. Ski and Snowboard-Cross

I think part of the “summer olympics are better!” argument is that so many of the winter events feature one athlete at a time and it’s much harder to gauge if they’re doing better or worse than the athlete that went before them.  For this reason, the ski and snowboard-cross events were so fun to watch.  Also, it was just plain crazy how many crashes there were right before the finish line.

8. Johnny Weir & Tara Lipinski

Before Sochi, I didn’t really care about these two people separately, but as a team?  Magic!  I just read an article saying their going to be critiquing Oscar fashion and I couldn’t be happier to see more Weir/Lipinski time!

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9. Sage Kotsenburg wins gold.

First off, how cool are snowboarders?  They all seem to have such great attitudes!  I loved Sage’s reaction to his gold medal-winning performance and his ultra laid back interviews were so amusing.

10. And finally… this.

Because I’ve never laughed so hard.

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So I guess the real star of the Winter Olympics for me was figure skating and people’s hair?  Oh and sorry for not including any curling highlights.  I just can’t do it.  Who wants to go in on a hotel room in Rio and hope Phelps makes a special appearance for the relay? 🙂