Was Trading Spouses on last night? Does anyone know? Promptly at 7 p.m. last night, the fog-like, misty aura of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games wafted into my home and sucked me into a trance-like state, where I sat, transfixed, in front of my television until the men’s U.S. gymnastics team won their silver medal in the team competition at around 10:45 p.m.

What is up with the Olympics and how can they fascinate me so much? At about 9:30 I looked at my husband and said, “Wasn’t there something else on tonight?” No North Shore so that wasn’t it…and I don’t think I looked at our satellite guide at all…not once…the entire evening.

Every year, about two months before the games start I complain about how “boring” the games are and that I probably won’t watch them…and every time I reincarnate myself as armchair gymnastics (swimming, diving, badminton) coach for 16 days. It’s really sad if you think about it. Even worse, I’ve discovered that during the day, Bravo and CNBC show lesser-watched events such as Rhythmic Trampoline Badminton and Synchronized Table Tennis live, because they’re just not the same when tape-delayed and ruined by the monotony that is Bob Costas. I don’t really watch these events because, well, I have a job that I need to do during the day but I keep the programming on in the background. Plus, I always feel like an underachiever when I realize that if I had just played ping-pong more as a child on the family’s table, I too might have become an Olympic champion. Sigh. I’m not sure what’s worse, waxing poetically about the Olympic champion I could have become or just realizing the only sport I could have qualified in was ping-pong.

But, I’m back in normal TV mode tonight with The Amazing Race. By the way, Stacy’s Olympic Name of the Day goes to swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband, just because it sounds really cool when you say it fast.