Only 1,042 More Days Til London

I love the Olympics, but I'm not really sure why. It's almost like that bowl of mediocre candy on my desk that I can't stop eating even though it isn't that great, only in this case the mediocre candy was totally satisfying. That said, here are my top ten favorite things about the 2008 olympics:

1. Synchronized Swimming - When America did their routine, I stood up from my couch at home and clapped and hollered. It was such a silly event full of perma-grin smiles and coordinated feet swirling that I couldn't help but be entertained (at least for one performance). It was almost as good as Martin Short's SNL synchronized swimming skit with the life jacket. It was fantastic.
2. The 4x100 Freestyle - I can probably count on one finger the number of times I jumped out of my seat because I was nervous/excited about the way a swimming race was going to finish. Kudos to Lezak for beating out the smarmy French!
3. Michael Phelps - He may have won, but he obviously cheated. It's not fair to have a dolphin swimming against human.
4. Beating the Chinese in medal count - They may have technically won more gold medal events, but the USA is taking home more gold medals since many of our gold medals were in team events. Take that, cheaters!
5. Watching people get recognized for excellence in sports that probably have less than 50 competitors in the world, including such events as competitive Badminton, Ping Pong, Horse Dressing, Trampoline, Fencing (now called the Sabre event), Handball, and Thumb Wrestling.
6. Women's Hoola Hoop Gymnastics - Just kidding. I couldn't watch this. Too painful.
7. Realizing that little islands make you run fast, as demonstrated by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda, who all had some of the fastest sprinters. And who ever thought a guy named 'Bolt' would actually grow up to be fast? That's like predicting that a guy named 'Toothache' would grow up to be a dentist or a guy named 'Shoemaker' would grow up to own a Chinese sweatshop.
8. Watching a scary looking American woman hurl a discus for the gold, beating out a scary looking Chinese woman and a scary looking Italian woman.
9. Watching our beloved USA basketball team finally take home the gold again.
10. Having something exciting to do every night for two weeks.