Olympic demigod

Mr Hazel and I have been tuning in every night to the Games, riveted as we watch Michael Phelps chase down Mark Spitz's gold medal count. Tonight we watched him twice as he won the 200m butterfly and then, less than an hour later (isn't he exhausted?) the 800m relay, his 11th total gold medal. He needs just three more to beat Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a single Olympic Games.

In a word, wow.

See his muscles? His shoulders are the length of my whole body. His wing span is probably 8 feet long. His chest is massive, bigger than a boulder. And apparently he eats 10,000 calories per day.

The dude is not human.

Watching all these elite swimmers, I was inspired to tell Mr Hazel that I would also love to be an Olympic swimmer. The only problem is I "swim" with a noodle. So he said the noodle would probably slow me down. So much for breaking world records.

At the top of the world

Though I've been cheering on the human rights protesters who tried to disrupt China's Olympic torch relay (and successfully snuffed out the flame in Paris!), I must admit I got teary-eyed with awe when I saw the pictures of the torch being brought to the summit of Mt Everest by a 19-member assault team.

Symbolically, the team was made up mostly of Tibetans.

On summit day, they broke camp at dawn and reached the summit six hours later, where they waved the Olympic flag to mark the moment.

It was a pretty awe-inspiring image.

(Photo courtesy of Washington Post/Getty Images)

I also love how one of the team members has a crazy-looking oxygen mask on while the others do not. Are their lungs that much better?

(Photo courtesy of Washington Post/Getty Images)

Apparently the torch was designed by rocket scientists, and is able to withstand the lack of oxygen at that elevation.

And yes, I realize that I completely fell for all the feel-good propaganda as intended, but it's very hard not to. Reaching the summit of Mt Everest is a truly amazing feat, especially because it is by no means guaranteed and a lot of people have died trying. You have to be in peak physical and mental shape to even make it past base camp. And consider that the area of the final assault to the summit on that last day is called the "death zone."

I have been fascinated with Everest stories for so long. It's my dream to someday visit the base camp in Nepal (if I don't faint first) - a friend of mine made this trip and his stories about it are wonderful.