So far we’ve found the German, Danish and Italian coverage of the Olympics. The thing that they have in common is that they don’t comment during the events, only before and after each competitor goes. We’re watching the Italian channel because they sound sexier.

The other thing, and this is really cool, is that they show everyone competing in an event. In the US, we only see the top ten, the contenders. We’re watching the Women’s Figure Skating right now and seeing the foks who are coming in at the 18th and 22nd spot. It makes me really appreciate the top competitors in ways that all of the commentaries never do. I mean, this woman, who is the best figureskater in Uzbekhistan comes to the Olympics and sees what? 21 iceskaters who are better than she is. We’re talking about iceskaters so good that they win a medal even with fall. It’s not that the lesser competitors fall more, but the whole program is not as good. It’s very interesting. And you can see it in their faces when they finish. They know that they’ve got no chance of medaling; it’s just a matter of seeing how far down the ranks they are.

My house-husband is making dinner in the kitchen while I sip tea and write. He’s making peppers stuffed with massaman curried rice.

Today I went in around eleven o’clock to consult with Rosa and Sigga, our puppet wranglers, and Gummi Thor about new gloves for our puppets. Thor has come up with this new system so we can have wrist-entry for the live hand puppets instead of just elbow entry. It looks good, although there’s some questions about which way will be the default. I suspect it will be the elbow entry for the kid puppets because they are constantly throwing things.

I made a prototype glove using the new fabric they got for this season. As soon as I did that, we realized we might have a problem. When the new fabric stretches, as it does when it’s being worn, it shows the knit understructure through the nap. It makes it look like it’s threadbare. So we need to do a camera test to see if it’s going to work.

That gave me a great excuse to come home. My cold seems to have taken a turn for the worse after the airplane flight. Still have the sore throat, but have added a hacking cough accompanied by other details that you don’t want. We start shooting on Monday, so I’m trying to take it easy until then.