I look a little excited, don't I? :) This picture was taken with Scott's new camera for the games, we're testing it out beforehand to learn the settings. 
So I found the majority of today's announcement on YouTube. Recorded for posterity and your enjoyment, check it out.
So Christmas has come and gone for another year. Lots of running around again this year. Hitting up not only our own family things, but each others as well, makes for a lot of events for both Beth and I. Throw in the fact that I'm working through the holidays, and I'm exhasted!
Anyways, enough bitching, onto the important stuff...presents! Of course, with our Olympic Trip coming up, both Beth and I were easy buys this year. We each got scarves, shirts, programs etc to help suppliment our trip. I thing with all the Olympic/Canada gear I now have, I won't need to wear anything but come February.
So, as good as all that other stuff is, the 'big ticket' item was a brand-spanking-new camera: a Panasonic Lumix.
Team Canada assistant coach Pat Burns was amazed by their raucousness as he watched the U.S. beat Latvia 4-0 Friday. Afterwards, he spoke with his NHL boss, New Jersey Devils president Lou Lamouriello.Gotta love that passion, even if it might end up being in a hopeless cause. Considering the tough competition in their group, its pretty likely that the Latvians will go 0-3 through the group stage, setting up a tough matchup for them in the Qualification Stage. Really, the goal for the Latvians should be to try and be the best of the 0-3 group teams, maybe setting up a game in the qualification stage they have a chance of pulling off an upset in. Anyways, onto the roster:
"I was talking to Lou, and said, `Can we buy them and bring them to Jersey with us,'" said Burns. "It's their Super Bowl. They take it very seriously. I was just hoping they would get a goal just to see them erupt."
Today, the defending 2006 Gold Medalist - Team Sweden. The Swedes bring back a tonne of the same players from 2006, but are clearly fighting the injury bug.
On Christmas Day, Russia unveiled their Olympic Men's Hockey Roster. Widely expected to compete with Canada for Gold, the Russians are a study in firepower.
Over the next two weeks, countries will be releasing their Men's Olympic Hockey Rosters. Its always an exciting endevour, finally finding out who is on each team after months of speculation. The list of when each team will be releasing their roster can be found here.
I'll be using these occasions not only to relay the final rosters, but to also provide a bit of a preview of how I think each country will fair. First to announce their roster is:
So I did something that was either really really smart...or...really really stupid.
With the launch of the Fan-to-Fan Marketplace, VANOC released another small block of tickets. One of the events that came up available was the Russia-Czech Republic Men's Hockey Game.
We already have eight tickets to this game, and only plan on using 4 of them. But that didn't stop me from picking up ANOTHER 4 tickets...bringing our total to 12. Why would I do that? Two reasons:
#1) To sell. Because the VANOC Fan-to-Fan marketplace allows you to sell above face value, if we don't have anyone out there who wants the extra tickets, we should be able to re-sell the tickets at a bit of a profit.
#2) To upgrade. We were originally going to use tickets in the 10th row, right behind the one net. Not bad seats at all!! However, these tickets that I just grabbed are on THE RED LINE! In the 9th row, right behind the player benches. I think this are pretty much THE best seats in the entire arena. So...we'll sit in these, and sell our 'crappy' ones behind the net.
Its a little risky to take on more tickets. But they all SHOULD sell, we SHOULD make a little money off the extra's anyways, and we 100% have amazing seats to that game now.
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I was very very close to buying Opening Ceremonies tickets today. They also came up as availible during the marketplace launch...but I just couldn't justify putting $2000-3000 on my credit card, even if they would almost certainly re-sell. Its not worth tying that much money up just to make a couple hundred bucks. So...I passed on OC tickets...
So over the weekend, Beth and I had a chance to see the Olympic Torch not only once...but twice!!
Thursday, December 17th - Toronto
First up was Thursday Night in Toronto, where we waited along the road at Yonge and Bloor. The torch was scheduled to pass Y&B at 6:06 PM, but was held up just north of where we were for about 30 minutes due to a protest at Yonge & College.
Anyways, once the torch did get moving again, it went past us really quickly. I don't know who the torch bearer was, but he was moving at almost a sprint. Consequently, between the jostling of the crowd and how fast the guy went past us, we weren't able to get any really good pictures.
We had Matthew Good tickets in Hamilton later on, so we weren't able to stick around and go over to Nathan Phillips Square. Soon as the torch passed us, we rushed down to Union and hopped on the GO bus.
Saturday, December 19th - Hamilton
So, since I still wanted to see a 'Community Celebration', Beth and I jetted down to Hamilton on Saturday night to see the torch again in Hamilton. We were able to stake out a really good spot, right on the 'rail'. As a result, our Hamilton pictures are a lot better than our Toronto ones.
We met up with BJ and his girlfriend April, and I think Pam was in the crowd somewhere. I'm really glad we went to see at least one of the community celebrations, I know Beth thought it was a really cool (if too cold) experience.
The final Torchbearer in Hamiton was Ron Foxcroft.
Missed Opportunities
I had planned on getting up and seeing the Torch Friday morning in Toronto on its way out of town, but the combination of the 6:15 time for it going past and the fact that I was seeing it in two other places was enough to keep me in bed for it.
The Torch hits Brantford tonight, going abotu 300m past my parents house. It would be really neat to see it go through my old stomping grounds, but its just too much to go see ANOTHER community celebration. They have been keeping the final torchbearer a secret in Brantford...wouldn't be surprised if it was Gretzky!
So, FINALLY, the fan-to-fan marketplace has been launched by VANOC. That only took forever.
Things seem to be up and running pretty smoothly, and its pretty impressive how seemlessly things blend into the ticketing website. You just go into your 'My Tickets', select the ones you're willing to part with, name your price, and post 'em. VANOC of course takes their cut as a 'posting fee', but colour me shocked on that one....
Got a text message from Pam, saying that she received her tickets safe and sound! Add another 34 to the pile!
Still no word on when Cowie is expecting his to arrive, or when I’ll get my second shipment. But we’ve now got about 2/3rds of our total tickets in-hand!
I also got an email from Stubhub regarding where and when I can pick up the two tickets I ordered through them (Canada v. Sweden – Women’s Hockey). We can pick them up 48 hours in advance of the event from their ticket distribution centre in Vancouver. Thankfully its downtown, so it won’t be too far out of the way for us!
So I've decided to bump up this post, in honour of the torch arriving today!
So tomorrow, the Olympic Torch arrives in Toronto. In preparation for that, I thought I'd take a quick look back at the Torch as it went through two of my favorite Canadian Cities: Ottawa and Quebec City.
So we had a party the other night to celebrate Beth’s Birthday, and I got talking to my friend Andrew about the Olympic Torch Relay. He was a little disappointed to learn that large chunks of the relay are in fact driven, with the torch-bearers only running selected stretches in each major centre. I said, fair enough, but that there was no way that one could actually run a ‘full’ torch-relay that stretched right across the country, it would just take too long.
So we kept talking, and did a little mental math, and he ended up convincing me. It would be totally possible to run a relay right across the country, with every single kilometre run by a torch bearer. Lets have a quick look.
So there you have it! Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin will carry the Maple Leaf into Vancouver!
My personal preferences were for Jennifer Jones and Glenn Howard, but I’m not terribly upset. First, my two 'anybody but' teams didn't make the playoffs (Ferbey and Scott). Secondly, and more importantly, both Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin were the best teams on the ice in Edmonton, and that’s exactly who I want representing us in Vancouver…the best…
Just got a notice from Air Canada, saying that they'd modified our flight times for the way out there. We're still on the same flight, but now it leaves/arrives about an hour later.
No big deal really, get to sleep in an hour later now, but it would have been nice to have that extra hour out there before the Opening Ceremonies. We now get in about 11:00 AM, so it might be like 1:00 PM before we get all checked into the Hotel.
So, after a few technical glitches, I was able to book our ‘Olympic Bus Network’ tickets for the various events we have at Cypress Mountain. At about $14 return, you can’t really argue with the price…although it maybe would have been nice if it was just built into the price of the ticket since there is no other option on how to get there. They are print-at-home tickets, and look something like this:
I seem to be on an NBC kick or something when it comes to videos. Anyways, check out this great vid highlighting some of the scenery in and around Vancouver and Whistler.
In a little less than half an hour, the Men's Finals of the 'Roar of the Rings' will get underway, and its the matchup that everyone has been hoping for. Its Martin v. Howard for the right to represent Canada in Vancouver. Its the best two teams in the world going head-to-head. What else can you ask for?
Men's Final - 3:00 PM
Martin v. Howard
We all know the resumes. Howard and Martin share between them 21 Brier appearances, 6 Brier Wins, 4 World Championships, and an Olympic Silver Medal. Thats before you add in the resume's of the rest of their teams, which is primarily made up of John Morris' old Ontario Junior Team (Morris, Laing, Savill).
It should be an amazing game, and either team will become the instant favorite for Gold in Vancouver. Martin has the edge in recent history, having beaten Howard in the round-robin, 1-2 Game of the '09 Brier, Round Robin of the '09 Brier etc...
However, for his part, Glenn Howard has had more consistent success on the international scene. 3 world championship appearances...3 gold medals. He also took the October 'Olympic Warm-Up' World Cup of Curling against the very teams that are going to be in Vancouver. In fact, he went undefeated...
On the basis of his international success...I'll be pulling for Howard to take the white blets to Vancouver!! But either way, I'm excited!
So while at home yesterday, I was finally able to get my hands on the first batch of tickets to be delivered! They're pretty snazzy, and will make for a nice keepsake. They're probably about 20 cm x 8 cm, give or take, and feature a really nice pictogram of each event. Anyways, have a look!
This is only about 1/3rd of our total tickets. I'm still waiting on all our Phase III tickets (coming in January), and Ben/Pam are still waiting on their deliveries. Pam is getting her's on December 17th, and Cowie hasn't heard as of yet.
So here we go...time to see who is off to Vancouver, and who is going home empty handed. Its the Battle of Calgary (errr..in Edmonton) - Bernard v. Kliebrink
So today in the National Post, there is a story on how to goto the Olympics on a budget. I think its pretty funny, becaue its almost exactly the way we're doing things for Jen and Beth.
Included in their recommendations are:
Ahh...Team America: World Police...
Anyways, if there's one thing I'm a sucker for, its a solid montage. CBC has been the official Olympic Broadcaster for the past few games, and don't get me wrong, they can do a great montage. Many a time, I've teared up over a solid opening to Hockey Night in Canada.
But when it comes to the Olympics, NBC has to get the gold medal. I suppose they're not TECHNICALLY montages, but ok, its close enough...
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