I’ve been watching Winter Olympics for decades, and I can’t recall a more enjoyable one overall, despite uncooperative weather in Vancouver. Ellen and I had talked about trying to go to the games ourselves, and ended up happy we were able to see it in the comfort of our living room instead. The figure skating was great TV throughout. We applauded the wonderful performances of Virtue and Moir of Canada and Davis and White of the U.S., gold and silver medalists. We also thought Belbin and Agosto were great, and deserved the bronze, but their time seems to have passed, at least in the judges’ eyes. At least there were no judging scandals at the ice dancing this year.

Yu-Na Kim rose to the Olympic potential we saw in her over the past year, and surpassed it, setting new scoring records and taking the gold easily in the women’s event. She was spectacular. Someday commentators will be talking about the “Kim” era with reverence, she’s that good. Mao Asada’s performance would have won gold in any other year, and Joannie Rochette showed amazing heart and courage to do so well just after the sudden death of her mother.

All the events we watched were entertaining and exciting. I loved the one with four snowboarders going over a tricky, hilly course at the same time, and the skiing was exciting, too. Oh yes, and there was apparently a classic hockey final which we didn’t watch. Even the final event, the 50K cross-country skiing marathon was pretty exciting.

The closing ceremonies, which we finally saw the last of this evening, were pretty corny, but occasionally funny and moving. Now the world moves on, and so to all those atheletes, some hoping to cash in on their new fame. I was startled to read in yesterday’s paper that Evan Lysacek will be on Dancing With the Stars starting in a few weeks. Well, knowing Ellen, we’ll be watching it, then. We saw Kristy Yamaguchi’s season on the show, and it was entertaining, though I prefer to see them on skates…