The Vancouver Olympics started a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it's been really crazy over there. Fortunately we live across the water so we've seen little increased traffic. They took a big chunk of the Nanaimo Police Force over to help with security. Apparently they came back early. Everywhere I went on Tuesday I saw cars stopped for speeding. Surprise: We're Baaack!

We've just been watching the Olympics on TV. Actually it's been really good. We've had half a dozen or more channels to choose from. Even OLN was carrying Olympics. We were able to catch odd sports like Biathlon and Parallel slalom, which despite it's name is not one of those bizarre synchronized sports that have invaded the Summer Olympics. Most importantly we could usually find something other than Figure Skating. The biggest question on Canadian minds during the game however, was "Why do they keep running taped stories when we KNOW there is live action going on somewhere?" Some things never change.

Did you know that Whistler BC almost got the 1976 Winter Games? Denver was scheduled to host them but they bailed. Salt Lake tried but the IOC said no. They were offered to Whistler they thought about it and then declined. Finally they went to innsbruck Austria, mostly because Innsbruck had hosted them just few years before and had all the facilities in place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Winter_Olympics

The most memorable moments were Canada's first medal as a host country,
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/freestyleskiing/story/2010/02/14/spo-mensmoguls.html
The Womens Hockey team winning gold
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/hockey/story/2010/02/25/spo-hockey-canada-usa.html
and the on ice beer and cigar party afterwards.
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/hockey/story/2010/02/26/sp-hockey-women-drinking.html
Most Canadian's response was "So?" There was some comment about one of the players being under age, but that was only because everywhere in Canada has the drinking age set at 18 while BC has it set at OVER 18. We ended up celebrating the win, and the on ice party, by hoisting a couple of beers ourselves. We went with a local BC brand: Dead Frog Beer. Dead Frog is noteworthy for two things. It's a pretty good microbrew and their slogan which is: Nothing Goes Down Like a Cold Dead Frog.
http://www.deadfrogbrewery.com/


Probably the most inspiring story was a young Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette whose mother passed away just after arriving in Vancouver to see her daughter compete. She had a massive heart attack and passed away on Sunday. Joannie went ahead and skated the first round on Tuesday and then the finals on Thursday. She ended up with a Bronze medal and all of Canada is very proud of her accomplishment.
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/news/newsid=48407.html
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/figureskating/story/2010/02/24/sp-nyt-rochette.html
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skating/news/newsid=54194.html

Most noteworthy for me during the last couple of weeks was how everyone became 'experts' in these sports. "Oh yeah they Daffied that triple in-out toe-loop. Anyone could see that". "Oh that course is really icy I'd hate to be riding a Luge down there." (The latter said by a 350 lb salesman who walked with a cane since his bypass surgery. Let's just say it's unlikely to come up.)

There were a few goofs during the games. Wrong turns, false starts, and a coach that is likely now looking for a job.
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2010/02/24/spo-flase-starts-s.html

Tonight is the Gold Medal Hockey game: USA vs Canada. We don't know how it will turn out but if we win this is what we're looking to happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXxP-lAiFE

In the mean time here are some pictures of our cats protecting the house from a wandering neighbour cat.

Geiger started the stare down.



Soon Momiji joined Geiger so now there was two against one.



Intimidation complete


Retreat - the perimeter  is now secure.