Canada Wins Gold!

Alexandre Bilodeau of Quebec won the gold medal in the men's moguls - Canada's first ever gold medal on home soil...33 years and 7 months after the Summer Olympic cauldron was first lit on Canadian soil in Montreal!!! Jenn Heil from Alberta should have claimed the honour, but she ended up with a silver medal finish in ladies' moguls last night.

The sun came out on Sunday and it was about 15 degrees celsius and downtown was PACKED with people. I have never seen so many people in Vancouver in my 16 years here. A fun atmosphere but the result was huge lines everywhere, especially Canada House, pictured above.

As for the kids, they weren't happy until they got a free CBC / Canada flag Sheesh, it doesn't take much to put a spring in their step! I included a couple of pictures to demonstrate why I haven't been posting many pictures of the kids. Look at these two twerps! My beautiful daughter looks like she 's on her way to an Ozzy Osborne concert and Quatchi the Sasquath is more handsome than my son!

Taking In The Games

Judie and Justin took Harmoni and Haraboji to see the men's 5,000 meter speed skating today at the Richmond Oval. It was the first Olympic event for any of them...and hey, that little seven year old pipsqueak of a son of mine got to go instead of me!

Lee Seung-Hoon from South Korea captured the silver medal, to the delight of my inlaws, who cheered him on to an unexpected second place finish.

The gold went to Sven Kramer of the Netherlands. Hmmm, apparently getting gold wasn't good enough for his coach, who felt a need to roger the poor boy in public...maybe since he didn't break a record or something. Those Dutch take their speed skating seriously! Don't bend, Sven!!!

Go Canada Go!

No Canadian has ever won gold on Canadian soil...until the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, when all that's gonna change, baby! The opening ceremony is only hours away, and the kids were out to cheer on the torch bearer on his way to the stadium!

It has been a long wait, a lot of construction nightmares, a ton of dumbass protests, constant messages about traffic congestion, parking restrictions, lineups, ticket scams, and criticisms that Vancouverites care more about the Canucks than the Olympics (well, there may be something to that), but it seems to me that finally the city has got Olympic fever!

Go Canada Go! WHOOHOO!

Deutsche Haus

The games begin tomorrow, but the beer at Deutsche Haus started flowing at 10 AM today. Seeing that it is set up right below our office windows, and they've been disturbing us with their sound checks, we decided we would be the first in line for a German brew. Kerry and I had the first and second beers pulled, and they were delicious!

We even made it to the German Fan Fest website!!!

http://www.germanfanfest.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=49

(see image 17)

Flaming Sushi

When you dine at the world famous Tojo's restaurant in Vancouver, you expect to sit beside Morgan Freeman or Arnie, or some other Hollywood actor who's in town to shoot a film. But tonight I sat beside not a famous who but a famous what. The Olympic Torch was there with a group of Japanese Canadians and I sat next to it! Alas, I didn't have a camera to capture the moment.

You know, it does sort of look like a joint. How fitting for Vancouver!

Red Hoodie Frenzy

With the Olympics just days away, the hottest item in town has got to be the red full zip Canada hoodies at the Bay. There isn't a men's hoodie to be had this side of the Rockies, and today when I was there a full on feeding frenzy was in motion! An employee wheeled out a rack of fresh red hoodies and a dozen men swarmed him. It was like a sale on women's shoes at Barneys or something. Alas, every hoodie on the rack was XXL. I think the Bay misjudged what was going to sell - they can't keep Canada stuff on the shelves while all the Vancouver 2010 Olympics stuff is gathering dust.

My first ever Olympic event is on February 16th. Den Norske Bank invited me to the Canada - Norway men's hockey game! I'm very excited, even though I'll be sitting with the Norwegians. We also have the quarter final game that Canada will play in, assuming they're in...which they better be!!! Ken and I will be going to the bronze medal game, hopefully to cheer on the US v. Russia or Sweden. Alas, I didn't get the gold medal game.

On a related note, Deutsche Haus is right across the street from my office, and they set up a massive beer garden tent in the parking lot right below my window! Looks like it's oompah music for the next two weeks!

UPDATE: On Tuesday I went to the Bay at 9 AM, when the doors opened. There were about 30 people waiting outside. Lo and behold, there were two full racks of men's red hoodies. One rack was all XXL, but the other rack had M and L. I grabbed one and went straight for the cash registers. By 9:05, they were GONE. Every single one. As were all the white ladies ones they had put out. I overheard an employee telling a man that if he wanted one, he'd have to be at the store first thing in the morning. The man said, incredulously, "But you've only been open for 5 minutes!". I should have grabbed them all and sold them for $200 on the sidewalk. Anyway, I have MY red hoodie, WHOOHOO! Do you have yours?

G-O-A-L!

Justin had a great soccer game today. He scored his first goal of the season...a huge power shot on a breakaway destroying the back of the net...he very nearly scored a second...and he made a great sliding defensive play to stop a hard kick while the goalie was down! He played hard from start to finish in the rain, got muddy and trampled on a few times with no tears shed. Way to go mini-dude.