Olympic Mania

We've come down with the fever, Olympic Fever. We've stayed up way past our bedtimes watching as much of the coverage as we can. The following day, we read all the online news reports analyzing the previous night's events, predicting what will happen in the upcoming competitions, and of course, our favorite, the Olympic gossip.

The media coverage has been very interesting, to say the least. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits and comments reported during the broadcasts:

• Swimmer Michael Phelps ingests 12,000 calories per day. A typical breakfast is 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups of coffee, a 5-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, 3 slices of french toast topped with powdered sugar and 3 chocolate chip pancakes. For lunch, he'll eat a pound of pasta, 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo, and he drinks about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks. At dinner, he gobbles up another pound of pasta, an entire large pizza, and downs another 1,000 calories in energy drinks. HOLY MOLY!
• Volunteers used metal detectors to search the 17,000 tons of sand at the Olympic beach volleyball venue for American Kerri Walsh's wedding band that was lost during her opening round with partner Misty May-Treanor against Japan. Finding the ring was pretty much the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
• There is a Starbucks at the Great Wall of China. Seriously! You can buy a pork bun and a latte while waiting for the cycling events to start.
• And finally, this little piece of wisdom. While watching American synchronized divers Mary Beth Dunnichay and Haley Ishimatsu compete for gold on the 10 meter platform, the commentator shared some background info on the two. Evidently, Haley relocated to Indianapolis to train with Mary Beth because "it's very important for synchronized divers to practice in the same location." Really? Shocking!