There are a lot of hours in a day, 25 or 26 I think, but it’s not nearly enough. And with the Olympics going on, I need even more. It’s a real time sucker.

It’s not like I have any control over it. I just can’t stand to miss anything, and while I don’t watch every hour of coverage on every channel, I wasn’t about to go to bed while the U.S. and Norway were competing in men’s curling last night. The game started at midnight (my time; it was the next morning already in Italy) and ended at about 2:30 am. Well, I’m very often still up at 2:30 anyway, so it was no great hardship.

The problem was today, when I was supposed to be working. In fact, I think I had everyone convinced I was working, but it took me all day to do last week’s payroll, because I kept letting myself get distracted. I had recorded the women’s curling that was on at 5:00 in the morning (nothing gets me up that early that isn’t either explosive or deep-fried, jelly-filled and lightly glazed).

Hockey is on every day, and there’s a three-hour curling show every afternoon, right in the middle of prime working time. It’s going to be a long two weeks, because I’m finding myself working way later than usual because I’m not getting as much accomplished during the day.

The funny thing is, NBC usually saves the good stuff for its recorded prime-time show, and I don’t always give it my full attention. Right now as I write this, for example, they’re showing a speed skating event that a completist like me should probably be watching (and taking notes on).

There was a three-hour break tonight, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, when there was no Olympic coverage on TV in my area. That’s when I got the payroll finished and made crab cakes (with fresh crab, no less) for the first time in my life. But there’s more curling tonight at midnight, so tomorrow will probably turn out much like today. It’s a good thing there are 26 or 27 hours in a day, or I’d never get anything done.