Shawn and Nastia rule!

Shawn got her gold on beam, and Nastia the silver. Both of their routines were basically perfect except for a small step on Shawn's landing and a small hop on Nastia's. I'm really glad they were both able to get golds.

I'm also glad that Jonathan Horton got silver on high bar. :)

Not so glad: I felt so sorry for the two Americans runners who lost their golds in today. In the women's 200m, Sanya Richards had an awesome first 100, but then her leg cramped up and was passed by British runner Christine Ohuruogu and a Jamaican runner. Later, in the 100m hurdles, Lolo Jones was way ahead until she hit the 9th hurdle and ended up 7th. Dawn Harper pulled ahead to win gold, but Lolo's loss was quite a blow. After crossing the finish line, she dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands. It was so sad. Times like these are always a part of the Olympics, but they're never easy to watch.

I watched some Tae Kwon Do online. I love it when they do spinning kicks. I hope I'm able to catch most of the finals.

BMX racing is really exciting! Lots of crashes. I'm glad they added that sport to the Olympics.

Screwy gymnastics scoring, vol. 2

Well, Nastia Liukin had a tying score with a Chinese gymnast for the gold in the uneven bars, but she ended up getting second because of a stupid tie-breaking rule. Other sports just give 2 golds if there's a tie. Why not gymnastics? That just doesn't make sense! Nastia got cheated out of a gold because gymnasts can't tie? That's completely ridiculous! I think Nastia's looked better, anyway. The judges have been scoring weirdly throughout the competition, and the new scoring system is pretty dumb. A perfect 10 is impossible now. They should change it back.

On a brighter note, American Jenn Stuczynski won silver in pole vault. Gold went to Russian Yelena Isinbayeva, who broke her world record and is really fun to watch. Pole vaulters in general seem to be really cool people. The male winner in Athens was pretty hilarious, dancing on the landing mat.

We also won gold in discus. Woo! Stephanie Brown Trafton.

Synchronized swimming is pretty fascinating. I had never watched a competition of it before last night, and it was fun to watch. It's set up kinda like figure skating. The teams have to do a technical routine with requirements and and then they have a free routine. Their suits match the show music, and their moves are built around that music. It's like they're dancing in the water, but they have to hold their breath most of the time while their legs are kicking around in the air. They're even judged on presentation and overall impression as well as execution and difficulty. It's an athletic performance.

"I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus rollin' down highway 41."

I rode on a Greyhound bus Wednesday for the first time ever to see Dave Matthews Band in OKC (which was a great concert), and it was pretty interesting. It kinda reminded me of a band trip, riding in a charter bus, but this time I didn't know any of the passengers. The stations are kinda like mini airports, and they were pretty nice--not really what I was expecting. My favorite part about it, though, was that the television inside the OKC station was playing Olympics coverage, so waiting for the bus was not a drag at all.

None of our men won medals in the gymnastics all-around, but I was glad to see the Chinese guy win. I like him. Our girls, on the other hand, were amazing. Nastia Liukin won gold, Shawn Johnson silver. I almost teared up when Nastia and her dad, who's also her coach and who won gold for Russia way back when, hugged and cried together.

And then, of course, Phelps gets another gold. Tomorrow's 100m Butterfly race will be more interesting than what we've seen lately because he's not particularly favored to win. We'll see. (Special note: NBC had Blue Man Group music playing on a Phelps special about his perfect swimmer physical features.)

I'm really glad that American James Blake won against Roger Federer in Tennis. Now that is an accomplishment, especially after losing to him 8 times already in the past. I really hope he goes on the win the gold.

I still have yet to see any Archery, and I'd like to catch some badminton at some point. But I did get to see a bit of table tennis. It was INTENSE. The most intense ping pong I've ever seen.