I've spent the majority of my day watching Olympics coverage -- and I'm loving it!

I've watched men's and women's swimming, men's beach volleyball, women's volleyball, men's road race and women's fencing.

For the latter event, the U.S. swept the medals, and it was nice to see the final bout. (Of course, due to the 12-hour delay, I had already read about the outcome of that and the men's beach volleyball, but it was still thrilling to see it all play out.)

Last night's opening ceremony was so grand and fantastic. The most impressive parts of it were not the pyrotechnics, but the fact that there were thousands of performers working in such precision to create something so magical.

The parade of nations is always a joy to watch. This year, there were 204 countries represented, although I will admit that I gave up after the U.S. delegation arrived. It was a little hard to follow because the nations weren't marching in any alphabetical order that made sense to me. (Apparently, they were in order according to the number of strokes it took to create the Chinese character that represented each country's name.)

NBC's announcers -- Bob Costas, Matt Lauer and Joshua Cooper Ramo -- were dispensing random facts throughout the event, and I found all the trivial tidbits fascinating. (I don't remember any of them perfectly, but I can tell you that there was one flag that had the distinction of being the only one with different designs on the front and back.)

I missed the lighting of the Olympic flame, but I heard that was quite fantastic, involving eight Olympians and culminating with the last one airborne to send the flame flying into the cauldron.

Tonight, I'm looking forward to swimming and men's gymnastics. Well, at least a couple of hours' worth. Darn that tape delay.