Sunday, with food and sport

[bironic]

Happy New Year, Valentine's Day, Sunday, Monday, day-before-House day, second full day of Olympics, or anything you might be celebrating today.

Like the partier I am, I ran errands this morning. That meant food shopping -- especially as more snow may be arriving tomorrow -- and since my reluctance to go to the supermarket usually correlates with not having any exciting recipes, I decided to give this pho recipe a try. Well, sort of a faux pho, since it's a bit Thai and a bit American and uses packaged soup stock. Regardless, I am quite happy with it. Even got to use the lovely new bowls that were gifted to me yesterday.







Hiding under all that cilantro:



In other news:

- I have Gordon Lightfoot stuck in my head (okay, one of his songs, not the man himself),

- Go Czech Republic! She looked so happy bearing the flag, and

- When will the IOC ISU finally allow same-sex skating pairs? Seriously. (a) plenty of m/f pairs are siblings or friends so it's not as if they're representing romantic relationships, if that were the regulators' conservative objection, and (b) I'm sure some pair skaters are or have been something other than straight, so (c) what gives? They think two women couldn't beat two men? They think two men couldn't beat two women?

Comments

[anoel.livejournal.com]

They don't allow same-sex pairs? Wow that's horrible. Someone needs to file a lawsuit or something.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Nope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_skating); their definition of "pair" is one man and one woman. So no genderqueer skaters, either. There was an alternative competition (http://www.gaygameschicago.org/sports/sports.php?mgroup=Figure%20Skating) for a little while there, but it looks like the ISU cracked down on it.

Interesting related article (http://olympics.fanhouse.com/2010/02/08/johnny-weir-says-mens-figure-skating-is-not-a-gay-sport/) quoting skater Johnny Weir.

[j00j.livejournal.com]

Hm, I think that says they had some trouble because they weren't sanctioned in Amsterdam several years ago, but then became part of the ISI? It looks like same-sex pairs skating is still on for the Gay Games in Cologne 2010 (http://www.games-cologne.de/en/sport/sports/figure+skating). Which is great, because same-sex pairs was awesome in Chicago (I was living there at the time, so I got to go watch!).

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. The "home" button on the Chicago Gay Games site just linked to that year's event, so (having not read the article carefully, and after no further research, heh) I wasn't sure there'd been one afterwards.

That's cool that you attended! What was it like?

[j00j.livejournal.com]

Looks like there's a main gay games site and then each individual event has its own site. Makes sense given different organizers, etc. but confusing if you haven't found the main site.

I really enjoyed it! I went to two evenings of figure skating events, so saw the higher level mens and womens events (or so they're labeled-- I don't presume to know if all of the skaters felt they fit into those categories; unfortunately most sporting events really like the whole gender binary thing), as well as pairs and the team performance. I skated as a child but never competed (just did ice shows), so it was nice to see people performing well, but at a comparatively low-pressure event. People seemed to really have fun with it, whereas the reason I never wanted to compete is because I thought I wouldn't enjoy the pressure (to say nothing of the hours of early morning practice). And same-sex pairs was really interesting-- at least some of the pairs took turns throwing or lifting one another, rather than having a larger partner always lifting a smaller partner. People who'd had time to practice and get creative with it came up with really fun routines. You could tell some other people hadn't had as much time to work with it, or perhaps were having a harder time with it, but I imagine it's difficult given that it probably couldn't take priority over an individual routine, and I don't know if all of the skaters necessarily had as much experience with pairs skating. I've never done pairs, so I don't claim to know much about it.

[l-eremita.livejournal.com]

Your meal looks very healthy! Go you!

What Gordon Lightfoot song? I find the one about "If you could read my mind" is particularly haunting.

P.S. If you haven't seen "Blades of Glory", you must, it's hilarious.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Edmund Fitzgerald, which is maybe my favorite of his. (Also "Don't Beat Me Down," but there are about a dozen more I am forced have grown to love because my mom played & sang them when I was little.)

Ack, I have to hide from iggy now that you've brought up Blades of Glory!

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

[zulu.livejournal.com]

I second this jpg! I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in a theatre. I pissed off my fellow theatre-goers through legitimate hilarity!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I knew I was in trouble as soon as this movie came up!