We start them young here

Hockey is really a way of life here. I like this photo simply because of the wee goalie with the Olympic Village behind him.

 

And this one as it's an action shot of the hockey future.

New Growth

February is coming to an end. I need a new theme (I think I abandoned this months theme a few times though). March I want to get back to some more artistic inspired shots. So no theme. Unless I am inspired.

Mega Olympic post. With photos!!!

I am procrastinating. While I was procrastinating shrinking and posting a bunch of photos of Olympic site stuff (from Friday) I have been given a new thing to procrastinate... finishing cleaning my bathroom... which started so that I could procrastinate on a few other things. I'm good like that. Eventually everything will get done as long as I can find something that I would like to be doing less then the other thing. Well it wasn't that I didn't want to post photos. It's more that I just find the shrinking and posting process to be a bit of a pain. Especially when posting more then one photo with the new photo posting process on blogger. But I will do so now. And not just because I am procrastinating on the bathroom front but also as I am waiting for someone to come on line for a meeting and I have played about as much spider solitaire as one can while waiting for a meeting to start.

I'll shut up now and let the photos tell the story.

Saw the flame on the last day of the torch run... day of the opening ceremonies. It took the tram to Granville Island. I think the European visitors are secretly laughing at our tram... it has two stops... one by my house and one about 2k down the road at Granville Island. This was done with the lift camera above head, poke, and shoot method of photography... not bad!

OK so then the first time I got downtown to see the hubbub was to go to Live Downtown for a drink before the Feist concert where we got to see us win a bronze on one telly and be awarded a silver for moguls on the other. Woot! Wendy was with us (and no there were no beds for her to fit under... and she only had one purple fizzy drink so she wasn't drunk enough to be talked into fitting into any small random spaces)

The next day Wendy took us to see curling. Which rocked (sorry couldn't help myself). The arena was raucous. Not your usual curling bonspiel crowd. It was awesome. And it was still very Canadian. They piped in the women. And when the guy next to us called over to Jennifer Jones (the Brier winner from a few weeks ago) who was in the media centre she looked up waved and blew us a kiss. In the bottom pic that's Team Canada in action right in front of us (thanks to Wendy... I stopped taking photos as I forgot I had my camera after the games started).

That night we saw the flame. Which I've posted before but here is a group shot. That's dude in line ahead of us.

Holy moly this is getting long. On to Friday! The day of St. Lisa - Saint of Random Strangers who give out tickets to suites at the hockey game!

Yup free tickets to the Sweden Belarus game. In a sweet. Where we snuck in a few friends.

So we took Nic and Terri with us for the rest of our tour around to the Olympic sites.

We couldn't find the mascots so we cheated a bit here.

And we ended the day at the medal ceremony. Which I didn't get any good photos of. But BC Place didn't look like a football field but was a strangely blue lit, white landscape with weird fake ice things.

And then we walked back across the bridge to home.

Do any of these count as photo of the day? No? Damn... off to find something to take a photo of.

Tribute to Alison

Anyone following Alison's photo a day will understand. Here's something pink in a tree against the sky - a kind of Team Pink meets Alison's arboriphilia.

This was in the yard out front of the world HQs of the company I work for (and where the two kittehs that have been featured here live). It was in the shade so the dew/front hadn't come off yet. The cherry trees are blooming, the crocuses are up, the daffodils will be out in the next week. February? Where?

Quite a Week

It's been quite a week here in Vancouver. The Olympics have been an amazing experience to be around! I think today, though, it finally all caught up to us and we've been worn out.

We've been on the go basically every night this week, trying to experience all that there is to offer. Monday night I went downtown with Rob to Live City to enjoy the first Victory Ceremony with a gold for Canada. Tuesday, Wendy arrived to visit and Amy and I took her out for sushi and tried to take in some of the things on Granville Island. We struck out at both Swiss House and Atlantic Canada House as they were huge waits to get in, but we hung around the French Quarter for a little bit before walking home. Wednesday evening we celebrated Maelle Ricker's gold at Live City again before going to the Feist concert at the Orpheum. Thursday we got to take in our first sports event of the games as Wendy treated us to the curling which was tons of fun! We got to see the Canadian women beat Germany in front of a very raucus crowd. Afterwards, we tried Swiss House again and were shut out for a second time. In the end, we headed downtown to be overwhelmed by the millions of people down there watching with baited breath as Canada barely hung on to beat the Swiss in a shootout.

Friday morning, Amy and I received an e-mail from Owen that he had mysteriously received tickets to the Belarus-Sweden hockey game that he couldn't use, and would we like them? Apparently, a random, innebriated young woman approached him at about 3 am Friday (Owen is working as a traffic cop downtown throughout the games) and suggested that they become friends. Being the nice guy he always is, Owen humoured her with some conversation in between shuffling partiers off of the street and out of traffic. After a little bit, she dug around in her purse and pulled out a pair of tickets for him and then wandered off. With Owen having to work again, he offered them to Amy and I and we were happy to take him up on it! Since we had three people though (Wendy was here until Friday night), we snuck down to the ticket office when it opened and asked about getting a single for the game. Luckily, one was available, so we could all go. When I then picked up the tickets from Owen, I noticed that they were on the 200 level, which are the really nice suites between the lower and upper bowl! I took the single seat and let Wendy and Amy go to the suite first. Before the game even began, we texted back and forth and Amy came back out with both suite tickets and brought me in to join them. It turns out that the random woman was from VANOC and was simply trying to make sure that tickets were being used when they hadn't all been given away to the Olympic Family. There were seven or eight other strangers in the suite who had received their tickets similarly. It even ended up being quite a good game as Belarus faught back from an early deficit to get within 3-2 before Sweden scored again in the final minute for a 4-2 win.

After hockey, we toured all over town checking out Quebec House, Sochi House, the Olypmic Cauldron and several other spots. Last night, I went out with the boys to celebrate Elvis' 40th birthday down in Gastown, and now, finally, I'm out of gas. I'm looking forward to lying on the couch the rest of this evening and watching this Canad-US hockey game. Go Canada go!

Seventeen days ago I posted this pot of tulips. Look at them now!

Took this on Friday but I'm sick and stayed home today and wallowed. Yes STILL sick and STILL sounding like a seal. So I am cutting myself some slack.

So I've abandoned this month's theme because there is something big happening here. Really Really big. The lines are big. The cheers are loud. The crowds are huge. It's been a great few days. Despite being sick. And sounding like a sick seal. Seriously I sound TERRIBLE. More on our Olympic experiences later though. Here's Friday's picture - of a building near the flame that I liked. I think if you click on the photo you can read it.

Vancouver's Hand Warmer

When we got there the new observation platform was open. And the line was only about 45min! For an Olympic line that's pretty sweet! The next day is was several hours long.

It really is something. You can feel the heat off of it from the platform and here the hiss of the gas.

Teeny tiny singer... big voice

Feist!

The coloured lights in the foreground are Christmas lights on the rigging of boats in the Co-op Marina (where a lot of people live aboard year round).

Sick

Forgive the lack of pictures. Stupid flu/cold thing. At least there's good TV on to veg out with. Go Canada Go!

Getting Chatted Up at the Grocery Store

With the torch relay not letting us into Kits yesterday evening, we had to skip our conventional Thursday night sushi date, which meant desperately trying to figure out what we were going to eat. I mean, we haven't had to actually make a decision on a Thursday in a loooooonnnnng time. So naturally, we decided to walk the two blocks to Whole Foods and have something from their hot food bar!

We sat down to eat and Amy's wasn't quite hot enough for her tastes, so she headed over to the microwaves to warm it up further. Little did she know that Liv would be coming by to chat me up while she was away. I heard all about Liv's brother and his birthday coming up. I even got to hear about Liv's birthday back in December. She told me that she needed a few dollars for the next day and wondered if I could help her out. Was Liv one of Vancouver's many homeless? Nope. Liv was 5 and wandering around while her dad and brother finished their dinner. And there's a bake sale at her school today. She wanted $6 because "you can get four bags of candy for $5!!" But wait, didn't she say $6? Because you see, this was a very enterprising young lady. We chatted for a while longer about what she had for dinner and how much she enjoys kindergarten, her first year at "real school". Eventually Amy and I finished up dinner and started to pack up to go. Liv was back with her dad and still discussing her need for $5 (she had given up on the extra dollar, it seems). The last line I heard after I said goodbye and we were walking away was "dad, do you think someone will give me $5 for a hug?"

Oh frabjous day!

Being lactose intolerant isn't really a big deal for most.  Most people can get by using soy milk and avoiding cheese. I on the other hand can't do soy milk. Soy milk hates me about as much as regular milk does. And cheese... well I love cheese. I need to go to CA (cheesaholics anonymous) but that is another story. And one that I can deal with using magic pills that allow me to eat cheese.

But soy and me? Not so much. And so coffee shops aren't a place that I really enjoy. The tea is usually second rate - See: Tazo brand nastiness or Tetley or no name or red rose. Once in a while shops will carry Twinings Earl Grey. But that I can get at home. Sometimes they will carry Mighty Leaf and that is when angels sing - the Vanilla Bean is AMAZING! and that I can't get at home. AND some place even go the extra step and will have loose leaf. Although that can be hit ot miss. The choirs sing and the horns ring but sometimes they are a little out of tune.

I haven't been able to have fancy pants coffees at a shop since I figured out that I can't with out wanting to die shortly afterwards. So tea in some sort of form it was until we got home then I could do up my own fancy coffee.

But not today my friends. Not today. Today is the dawning of a new era for me. Today I became the Ultimate Coffee Shop Princess. No not the "extra hot, skinny, no whip, extra foam, vanilla latte" type of Coffee Shop Princess. I went beyond that. I brought my own milk. I was so stoked to be having a mocha with everyone else after swimming this morning. And since I left the cartoon there and it has my name on it I get to have one next week... or maybe a caramel latte... or a London Fog! Or just another mocha.

It's the little things like being in the Friday morning post swim group and well known by the baristas of the coffee shop that have allowed me to do this. So for the first time in 10 or more years I had a milk based hot beverage at a coffee shop. And it was wonderful.

Love is in the air

Small cup, big shot of caffine

Not the shot I had in mind

This is not the shot I had in mind when I posted earlier but the lighting hasn't been right for that shot yet.

No picture attached

This picture a day thing? TOUGH. Though not as tough as a song a day like a friend of a friend is doing. And not just for a week a la Olafur Arnalds. Not to knock his Found Songs. Because his stuff is AWESOME and to have written and produced each of those songs in a day for a week would be nutty when there's more then one instrument involved. Anyhow. I think I've bitten off a bigger piece then I thought with this project. Especially this month's theme. I'm doing OK but the pics, for the most part, aren't anything special. I do get some good ones. But take Saturday and Sunday: one word: DESPERATION. (And BTW Sunday was a picture of a regular beer being "smallified" by the giant beer that was cracked for Superbowl. See? Desperate for something to fit the theme.)

Anyhow. I have a subject in mind for today but we'll have to see.

So back to the whole training/triathlon/life part of our programming. Things are moving along. I'm feeling successful and useful on deck. Especially today when I got emails from two of my swimmers that made me smile. It's nice to know that you are having an influence on people and helping them.

I've decided that this year will be all about the bike. First part of that will be to get out more on two wheels. With will get easier as the weather improves and (if) work becomes sane. I WILL conquer hills and what ever physial/psychological/psychophysical manification/emotional issues I have with them. So yeah. That's the goal. Woo! Goal.

As for running... yeah not so much. It's just not happening. It's almost been a year since I had a good run. Since I felt strong running. Since I had any kick in my run. Frustrated. But at least Brian's all about longer and slower this year so I can do that. Avoid the stop watch for a while more.

So that leaves life. Which has been hectic. Work has been pretty much non stop for a few months now. Not that I'm complaining. I love my job. I love my field. I love working more since more work mean more money. But it's mentally exhausting. But as the days get longer it gets better. I think I'm over the winter sleeps for the most part. Which is promising. Maybe I can start doing morning workouts again. Fight the return of the flabs over my abs.

Small treat

Big will power.

But we didn't buy any. We were good. Well except for the pizza we devoured.

Superbowl means superbeer.

Dr. Dan's box of small dohickeys

 

"I seem to be missing the little screw that holds the fender to the fork..."

"Don't have one... ask Dan. He has everything."

I was downtown today for the first time in a few weeks. It's only minutes away but we usually don't head that way. But today I was hanging out for a bit with my best friend's mom who was in town. And holy moly the olympic stuff that's going up and up and up. Pretty cool. This pic is of some paper lanterns that are in a "lantern forest" and were all decorated by childern of Taiwan and Canada. It's the Forest of Innocence or something like that. It would probably look really neat at night as each lantern (about 25 cm long) is lit from within. And seeing all the free attractions and country and province and cultural houses going up all over is pretty cool. It's going to be a fun few weeks I think. I'm excited for Wendy's visit as I'll take a few days off and tramp around the city with her experiencing it all.

The way he looks at me...

Oh I am RICKETY!

Surprisingly tough swim this morning. Don't know if it was me or the swim or the combo of the two. It's not like the turn overs was hard but it was a toughie none the less. Maybe my lane was just not feeling it. But we hung in. Unlike lane three which lost lane person after lane person through the workout due to various (sometimes not workout related) reasons.

And then work all day on a frickin' report which is finally out the door. Until tomorrow when it comes back to haunt us from the client for "wording changes" etc. Sigh. Oh well I have the night off from thinking about it which is really nice.

Then it was off to spinning. And that was TOUGH. It's the first week of the cycle (of 4 weeks: hard, harder, hardest, recovery) I'm scared to see what the next three weeks will bring. There was cadence drills and so much single leg torture and a surprise 15 minute "time trial" piece. Which was not mentioned at the beginning so when you got to 35 minutes and were told that there were not many happy campers in the room. But we survived. And no one vomited. So that's a plus.

So all that's left to say, or show, is today's photo. This is my pot out side our door. It was our house warming gift from Dan and Eileen. A pot of dirt. How sweet of them! But now things are growing in it. They might be small but they are growing and it's only February 3rd. And more amazingly (if you know my history with plants) something IS growing.

Meet Stanley. The other office cat. She's (yes another girl cat with a boy name) the kind of cat who likes to be the centre of attention. Like when you are working on the computer she will get right in your face. Kinda like this. Anyhow. Nelson (the black one) is my favourite but today I had a visit from Stanley so I thought that you should meet her too.

But she's not the pic of the day. Small things right? Which can be things that are physical small or metaphorically or that somehow fit the bill. Tonight was the LETC new members night at Speed Theory. So I took the chance to snap a pic of a super clean shiny cog. Because it has a small ring. And the teeth are small. And it's a small but rather important part of a bike. So it all fit the bill.

I'm looking forward to getting creative with this theme. But not until at least Thursday because I have a huge report do tomorrow and won't be able to send sometime planning my photo and making it super creative and artsy.

For all you Leafs fans...

This is what the younger generation thinks:

February Theme

The theme of the second month of photos will be (drum roll please)

The Small Things

Still Here

I've been absent from posting for a while. I've generally been resting on the laurels of Amy posting every day with her pictures and comments. Despite my absence though, I do have a few things to report, none being anything major.

First, I spent all of last week in Orlando where it was beautiful and sunny! But before you get too excited, I got to enjoy it for a grand total of 50 minutes of running at 6 am on Tuesday. I was down for the largest HVAC trade show in North America, where I was displaying the product that I manage. Between arriving a couple days early to set up our booth, doing breakfast, lunch, dinner and miscellaneous meetings, drinks with customers at the end of the day and then pulling the booth apart and getting it shipped back at the end of the week, I was pretty drained by the time I got back on a plane Friday morning to come home. Friday night saw me sleep for 13 hours and then lie in bed for another one listening to the Vinyl Cafe Saturday morning before finally being coaxed onto the bike for some trainer time.

I'm very glad to be back at the trianing though, even if it has only been a couple of days. With basically a whole week off, and all of the dietary disruption of the week, I just wasn't feeling myself. Yesterday brought time trials at the pool with the club and nice run with everyone afterward. The TT's started off well with me nailing my 100 m piece (1:21!!), but I think the length of my week caught up to me when I fell apart about 200 meters into my 800 m trial. At least I buried the bar deep for me to see improvement next time!

I guess the next excitement will come in a couple of weeks now. The countdown is just 11 days to the Opening Ceremonies and I'm pretty excited. My bike route to work has been shifted all over the map so that I can't get anywhere near the village or any other venues and traffic is starting to become a nightmare. Even the airport, two weeks in advance, was a zoo when I came in Friday evening. We've tickets to a few concerts and shows during the games and I'm pumped to just soak in the atmosphere with the whole world riding into town. And even more exciting, we finally had a friend say she's coming out and wants to stay with us (I totally thought we'd have friends from elsewhere lining up for our couch, but alas, no one asked until last week). It's going to be so much fun!!