How boring was Olympic diving?

So boring I had to entertain myself by making pickles. Nothing fancy: just Joy of Cooking's bread and butter pickle recipe. There is a lot of chopping to be done, which I always find relaxing and therapeutic. Not as good as shelling favas, but good nonetheless.

I found ridiculously inexpensive organic pickling cucumbers and added red and yellow bell peppers for extra prettiness. I'll take some down to my parents' house next week and open them right up. Because otherwise they will "save them for a special occasion." I think if you want a pickle, and you have a jar of them in front of you, that's a special occasion.

And if diving is so boring, why didn't I just turn it off? Because then I might have missed my new favorite sport, BX bike racing. Seriously, it's the summer version of short-track speed skating. It has the best elements of roller derby: speed, wipeouts, unpredictability, near-instant gratification. You never know who's going to win because anyone can and someone almost always does go down. And it's short: start whistle, exciting race, bing-bang-boom, and we've got our medalists. Who knew that Latvia was such a BMX powerhouse?

But I'm ready for it all to end. My attention is starting to wander from the events to things like Bob Costas's pen. Have you noticed he always has one in his hand? And a single piece of white paper in front of him.To show that he's not just sitting there: He's doing something. Like making some really important little notes. He's just taking a break from this to talk to us for a minute. When he finishes and the camera begins to pan out, he moves his pen to writing position above his paper so we know he is getting back to business. Can NBC just get him a laptop?