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.