Watched swimming on NBC today, [cue dramatic announcer voice]The Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool[/end dramatic announcer voice]. Actually watched a bit of it yesterday, as well, so two days in a row of seeing my pretty, pretty Aaron Peirsol. Too bad he's only 22. And completely out of my league. :P But still, the pretty!

Rented and watched both Miss Congeniality 2 and In Good Company today (I had a card for two free Blockbuster rentals, yay!), and I really enjoyed both. I thought that I would miss Benjamin Bratt more in MC2, but I thought Enrique Murciano was a suitable replacement, despite not being a love interest for Gracie. (Which was fine with me, I totally get that Sandra Bullock wanted to do a female buddy movie instead of another romantic comedy.) Of course, I've really only seen Enrique on Without a Trace (is he being typecast as an FBI agent?), and when it comes to that show, I'm really all about the Eric Close, but after seeing this movie, I think I will...appreciate him more in the coming season. He was totally adorable and sweet.

It also freaks me out how much William Shatner has grown on me the past couple years. Ever since he started being all publicly self-deprecating and funny, I have a new appreciation for him. This coming from someone who literally started clapping in the movie theater when Capt. Kirk bit it in the, uh, seventh? Star Trek movie. (Yes, I saw a Star Trek movie in the theater. Shut up.)

Loved, loved, loved In Good Company. This is probably blasphemous, but I can pretty much take or leave Scarlett Johannsen. Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace, on the other hand, I completely adore. And it was nice to see Marg Helgenberger as not!Catherine Willows. The movie even had me a little teary at the end. I think I'm going to put it on my Christmas list.

Thoughts about entourage tomorrow, although I will say that it was totally weird having Malcolm McDowell pop up in both In Good Company and entourage, since I watched them one after the other... Also, Melinda Clarke! Whee!

So, I was checking the FINA site for possible updates on who will be at the swimming championships in Indianapolis, and a little fact junped out at me:

Aaron Peirsol was in a freshman in college in 2003. I graduated from college in 2000. And it took me five years! (Engineering Co-op program...) Depressed now...

I got my hair chopped off this weekend. No particular reason, it just seemed like a good idea. Got it done yesterday morning, and I'm still getting used to it. It felt very strange to wash it this morning--there just wasn't enough of it. I think this is the shortest I've ever had it. I think I like it... People at work are telling me it's cute, but it still feels weird.

Can I just say how incredibly sick I am of the whole men's all-around gymnastics controvery? It's just annoying me. Part of me, which likes math and reason, thinks that yeah, the South Korean should have gotten the gold. But another part of me believes it is unrealistic to think it's that cut-and-dried. If he had indeed gotten the higher score that he (allegedly) deserved, we have no way of knowing if the rest of the competition would have proceeded in exactly the same way. Obviously, it's regrettable that a mistake was made, but the judges are human. This wasn't some vast conspiracy--it was human error. There's a reason that marks can't be changed after the fact.

But enough about that... Congratulations to Annia Hatch, Courtney Kupets, and Terin Humphreys for the Event Finals medals! And even though I'm not a big fan of hers, I thought it was really sweet that Carly Patterson prepped Courtney's bars for her. Too cute, and a nice indication of their friendship.

Lovedlovedloved the world-record setting 4 x 100 men's medley relay. Aaron Peirsol is just ridiculously delicious, and what a kick-ass first leg he had. Woohoo! I actually went mini-golfing on Saturday night, so I taped all four hours of NBC coverage so as not to miss that race. I ended up seeing it "plausibly live" at my friends' house anyway, but it's nice to have it on tape. :) And I am seriously considering going to the world championships in Indianapolis in October. ageofaquarius, you up for a road trip?

I am in a complete counted-cross stitching frenzy these days. Fun. :)

Loved last night's episode of entourage, although, get the fuck off my TV, Gary Busey. You are an asshat, and I loathe you. I think a big part of what made this ep so great was the increased Piven screen time. Lurve him. He and Eric could bitch at each other for the entire show with nothing else happening, and I would happily watch every week. Oh, and when Ari left the birthday party to go crash tha beach party? The Piven was looking magically delicious in that outfit. Damn.

Stolen from mrschimpf:

Your Gilmore Guy by mrs_murray
Your LJ User name
Your Soulmate	Tristan DuGrey
You	May 5, 2031
Your relationship	is sweet. He's truly your best friend.
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Okay, so the patriotic part of me is happy that Carly Patterson won the All-Around gold medal, but the truth it, I'm not a huge fan of the sparkly little pixie. She leaves me "meh." Honestly, I would have liked to see Svetlana Khorkina finally get the gold. Her performance last night didn't warrant it, unfortunately, and it's sad that such a fixture in the sport never got that ultimate prize. I've grown accustomed to her bitch-face. :)

I was much more excited by the three US gold medals in swimming, particularly Aaron Peirsol's, 'cause he's just yummy. And Marcus Rogan is seriously the classiest guy in the Olympics. He was so amazingly gracious and supportive during the disqualification fiasco.

Bought myself season 1 of Nip/Tuck on DVD yesterday, which I'm quite excited about, although I doubt I'll watch it until after the Olympics. It's just cool to have 13 episodes I've never seen.

Let me start out by saying,

CONGRATULATIONS, PAUL HAMM!

Ahem. Now that that is out of my system... I was so, so proud of him last night. He and Morgan are too adorable for words, although they really shouldn't ever speak. I have a soft spot for them because they're from Waukesha, which, despite being in another state, is only about an hour from where I live. Anyway, when he fell on his ass during the vault, I decided to get online and spoil myself as to the results, 'cause if he didn't even medal, I was going to go to bed. Imagine my shock when I learned he won the gold! What an amazing achievement. No bitching by the Romanians or South Koreans can even take away what he accomplished. Even though I knew what happened, I totally started bawling when he won. I'm such a wuss.

On a personal level, yesterday was actually a very sucky day. I'm stressing over work stuff...again...and just to make things even more fun, my mom had to go to the ER yesterday afternoon because her knee collapsed out from under her. She has some torn cartilage. For now, they're not planning surgery, but if it doesn't get better in a few weeks, with physical therapy and stuff, they'll have to go in. I sort of freaked out when she called and told her she was going to the hospital, because 1) I hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before, and 2) I was afraid they'd have to do surgery, and anesthesia scares the bejesus out of me. I left work early to go meet her and my dad at the ER, and being with her made me feel a lot better. And she saw the orthopedic surgeon this morning, and things aren't as bad as we'd feared. So that's good.

Self-absorbed people are so annoying. It's not all about you, bitchcakes. filmobsessed137 knows what I mean. :)

I need an Aaron Peirsol icon... eta: And now I have one...

The following was written last night at around 11 pm:

I am on a complete and utter Nip/Tuck high right now, so I feel compelled to write down everything I'm thinking in my adorable pink Strawberry Shortcake notebook, lest I forget what I want to post on LJ tomorrow.

This show just continues to blow me away week after week. How did I not start watching until partway through this season? I must purchase S1 on DVD pronto. ( Episode thoughts behind the cut )

Anybody want to make me an LJ layout featuring Aaron Peirsol, Lenny Krayzelburg, Ian Thorpe, and Pieter van den Hoogenband with the tagline "It's time to get wet"? I'd love you forever. :)

Okay, I take back what I said yesterday about having minimal interest in the Olympics. I ended up watching the men's team gymnastics final last night, and it just about killed me. I kept flipping the channels back and forth, because I got so tense and nervous. After the Romanian guy fell off the high bar in the final rotation, and it was the Americans' turn, I almost lost it. Seeing Blaine Wilson, in his third Olympics, his last chance for a team medal dependent on the performance of three of his teammates, unable to watch? Gah. I literally almost threw up, I was so nervous. And I don't even really like Wilson that much. And I was crying after each performance, particularly the Hamm twins, in that final rotation. I am such a dork. But woohoo! USA! USA! USA! I wish they could have gotten the gold, but silver rocks too.

Also, Aaron Peirsol is completely and utterly adorable. Can I take him home with me? So glad he got the gold medal in...some swimming event. They all run together after a while.

So, yesterday was the 27th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Oh, and it was my 27th birthday, too. It was pretty low key--went to my parents' house for pizza and presents. They got me the first season of Stargate: SG-1 on DVD! Woohoo! And thanks to all my awesome LJ buddies (kerfect, miskitt, vilandra25, stephdub, roxybluegirl7, ageofaquarius, and halfway2home) for their birthday wishes--they definitely made my day.