SOFA, The Living Room -- The rumors are false: My living room actually does NOT look like the Situation Room -- either the one at the White House, or the one manned by Wolf (The Droning) Blitzer on CNN.

But it is a bit unkempt. There's the traditional flatscreen in the corner, hooked up to DirecTV satellite and DVR -- mostly for watching NBC and its mind-boggling array of subsidiaries, in HD. And then that white coax cable running up from the basement, across the floor, into a supplementary, non-HD TV (you have to make sacrifices somewhere) carrying the feed for CBC.

On the coffee table, a pair of dueling laptops, one to watch live coverage from Beijing, the other from which to file columns and posts to this site. Next to those: Hundreds of pages and numerous linear feet of TV schedule printouts and assorted other press-release flotsam.

The Seven-Day countdown has begun: One week to launch, and we're locked and loaded.

If you haven't guessed by now: I'm not going to Beijing. After covering the past five Olympics for the Times, I begged out of this one many months ago, mostly for personal reasons (getting married this summer, with potential date conflicts). But I did have another kernel of motivation: It's been 10 years since I've seen an Olympics from the outside, like most people do, rather than the inside. I suspected that gaining that perspective might open up an entire new field of commentary. And I hope readers will find the inside/outside comparisons illuminating, too.

So, starting at 4 a.m. next Friday with the Opening Ceremony (live on CBC; half a day later on NBC), I'll be stationed here, in Escrow Heights, taking in the Games via cable, satellite and broadband. In addition, when we're awake at the same time, I'll be communicating via telephone and Skype with friends on the scene. I'll be posting random thoughts on Games events, and critiquing media coverage, here in this space and in a daily column in the sports section of the printed paper. The two might share some information, but won't be exactly the same.

Assisting me with event triage -- at least when I goad her into it -- will be my wife, Emjay, another veteran Olympic journalist who will be breaking her own string of personal Games coverage by sitting out Beijing. Emjay, whose Olympic experience began when the five-ringed circus came to her hometown of Lake Placid, NY, in 1980, has been providing much of The Times' early Beijing coverage by writing (under her actual name, Meri-Jo Borzilleri) a weekly Olympic notebook in the Sunday paper, not to mention a large chunk of the Times' special Beijing preview section, which will appear in the paper this coming Thursday. (The section, which includes a fascinating guide to Beijing, full TV schedule and information on every athlete with a Washington connection, should not be missed.)

What it all means is more, not less, coverage of this Olympics by The Times, in spite of lean times in the newspaper biz. We will have an extremely capable, experienced team on the ground: Veteran columnist Steve Kelley will write daily about local athletes and the Games' biggest events. Reporter Kristi Heim, who is fluent in Mandarin and has traveled and reported extensively in China, will cover the Games from a broader perspective, offering insights into China's emergence onto the world stage. As she recently wrote in her blog:

When the Games start in Beijing, the events will be well choreographed, but the way Chinese authorities (and the public) respond to unpredictable situations will be the most revealing. Thirty years ago Deng Xiaoping ended decades of isolation, and now the Olympics will test how far China's door is open.

Photographer Rod Mar will bring all this to life, in print and online, with still images and some video.

In addition to their work in the printed paper and on the Times' Web site, all of them will add their personal experiences from Beijing on their own blogs on the Times Web site, at www.seattletimes.com/olympics. Links to all of our Olympic coverage can be found at that central location.

One another note: My Thursday column, Trail Mix, will be on hiatus during the Games. Sunday's The Wrap by Ron Judd will continue, perhaps taking a week off in the middle of it all.

It'll be quite the ride, and we hope you come along with us.

And no, you can't come over to our house and watch the East Coast feed of NBC.