Well that was fun, huh? A small, not-so-patriotic admission: I love the Canadian national anthem. But, in the end, we're still America and they're still Canada. I call that a win.

Also, congrats to my little brother, who will be attending Garfield High School next season. Really don't know what happened to the middle child. Ballard? Yeah, guess everyone can't be great.

Anyway, back to the Winter Olympics. Those same Winter Olympics I all but left for dead just a couple of weeks ago, after the death of a luger threatened to mar the games.

Well, it didn't. The IOC took much criticism. It look immediately as if they paid a day of respects before simply putting it out of site, out of mind. Which they did. But there wasn't much choice. The games had to go on. The Americans paid tribute a few days ago, about as well as one could expect.

Instead of that awful tragedy being the story of these games, as well as lacking snow and NBC, these games were the story. From the U.S. standpoint, these were some of the most successful Olympics ever. The U.S. men won the four man bobsled for the first time in six decades. Both hockey teams played in the gold medal game.

Despite some frustrations in places, the star athletes like Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller were great stories and medalists (as well as Sports Illustrated centerfolds).

The U.S. amassed 37 medals in nine different sports, far outstripping their then-record 25 at Tourin.

Here are the three things I most enjoyed:

Shaun White. The name is self-explanatory. I watched the entire half-pipe competition. White went last in both rounds. It was everyone else and then him. It was unreal. The kind of air he was getting defied gravity, even for a sport where that is routine. He had wrapped up gold before his second run, telling his coach that there was no way he could do anything at that point. But he did - oh boy he did. He pulled a trick words cannot do justice to, spinning three times and flipping two, all while suspended in the air above the pipe. When he landed, the place went crazy, with the realization that something that may never be done again was just done. If they gave away platinum, White would have take that too.

The celebration of the Canadian women's hockey team. Say what you want about it; I loved it. No, underage drinking should not be condoned, even if it is Canada where underage is nothing but a number. But, just take a look at the faces of those women, some of whom will never play hockey again, given that they don't have a professional league. This was so far beyond the pinnacle of their sport. Some beer and a cigar is a tame celebration.

What struck me even more was that they just sat on the ice. They weren't vandalizing anything (except maybe the driving of the Zamboni), but just sitting there, reveling in what they had just done. If there is a better scene in all of sports, well, it happened last night.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has to absolutely be loving his life right now, expecting his league to get a bump from the greatest hockey game ever, an overtime thriller between the U.S. and Canada last night, in which the game-winning goal was scored by the league's poster boy, Sid the Kid.

No one involved could have asked for a better ending. Oh, and you Pacific Northwesterners, check on Vancouver this morning please. Make sure it's still standing.

I was at a huge bar, which was full beyond capacity, in Washington, D.C. For the people I was around, it was a double whammy - watching the U.S. lose and having that goal scored by a hated Pittsburgh Penguin. It was also a stark contrast to what was going on at the same time: a NASCAR race in Las Vegas (won by, who else, Jimmie Johnson). Couldn't get too much more polar opposite could you?

Hockey is a sport Americans can love. It is played by midwestern types. The players are hardworking, no frills types that just love playing the game. Sidney Crosby is a guy that has dominated the sport at a young age, but there was not one hint of acting in his celebration after the game yesterday. He has won a Stanley Cup. This clearly topped it.

So, I'm sorry Winter Olympics. There is still some way to go to make this what it could be, but you won a lot of a fans this year. Just get rid of curling already.