Olympics Schedule Update

Due to heavy rains, general admission seating has been blown away at Cypress Mountain's Ski and Snowboard Cross course, so I won't be going on the 23rd after all. In the meantime, we scored Short Track Speed Skating tickets for the 26th, so both Sarah and I will be attending.

Although I've posted a bunch of photos to the blog from the Olympics, none of those were from my good camera. Look for updates to the smugmug site soon, though the plan right now is to post everything first just to keep up, then go back and categorize and do some rudimentary editing.

Womens Hockey USA vs Russia

Inside BC Place

Victory Ceremony

Hello impulse ticket purchase for the front row.

New wall

A new wall was built on the luge track.

Joe Biden

Just shook hands with him.

Already preparing for the next winter olympics!

Whistler

The view of Whistler's main plaza. Less busy than on a regular winter
day I'd say.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics - Event Schedule

A lot of folks have asked what events Sarah and I will be attending. Well, without further ado, here it is:

Saturday February 13
Just Michal is attending men's Luge (17:00-20:35)

Sunday February 14
We had tickets for Men's Biathlon 10km sprint (11:15 -12:25) but we sold these because we didn't want to pay to spend the night on the 13th and this event is in Whistler, which given the late event on the 13th, would be difficult to make work in our schedule.

Monday February 15
Sarah's not going to this one as it is a work day, but Michal and Bill will be there to see the Canadian women's hockey team face off against the Swiss (14:30-17:00).

Wednesday February 17
Michal and Travis will be going up to see women's curling (9:00-12:00) with China versus Great Britain, Germany versus the United States, Switzerland versus Sweden, and Japan versus Canada -- all simultaneously (but on different sheets).

Friday February 19
We have a full day of events here, starting with the men's individual large hill ski jumping (10:00-11:05) followed by women's and men's skeleton (15:45-20:30).

Saturday February 20
Men's Pursuit (15km classic + 15km free) cross country skiing (13:30-15:00)

Tuesday February 23
I'm looking for someone to go with me to attend women's ski cross freestyle skiing (10:30-11:30 and 13:00-14:15) at Cypress Mountain -- this is the venue which has been closed since mid-January to try and preserve snow for the Olympics.

Thursday February 25
Nordic combined consisting of the men's individual large hill ski jumping (10:00-10:50) and men's individual 10km cross country skiing (13:00-13:35). Again, I'm still looking for someone to come with me as Sarah's unable to attend this event.

Saturday February 27
We have a conflict on this date, and we're going to try and sell the women's 30km mass start classic (11:45-13:45) tickets -- although if you want to buy these tickets from us and carpool up to Whistler, we'd love to do so. We're actually attending the Men's four-man bobsleigh (13:00-15:25) event.

All times are pacific times and are event times, not necessarily broadcast times. A couple of the events are subject to change if we manage to trade with other ticket holders for events which work better with our schedule. We'll update the blog and this post accordingly. I made a shared Google Calendar of the entire Olympic schedule which can be accessed here or you can view the PDF version from the official Vancouver 2010 website.

Signs of Spring

It's been so warm and lovely in January in Seattle this year that even
the cherry blossoms have started. Usually they bloom the first week of
august.

Seattle Christmas

Of course, after returning from Ohio, we had our own little Christmas here at home. Both Sarah and I have photos available.

Christmas in Cincinnati

 

This year Sarah and I spent Christmas in Cincinnati. It took a while, but the photos are finally available! 

Baby Laptop Cover

We stopped by Office Depot to buy paper and found this lovely cover
for sale for a buck. Sarah loves it.

Tree At Dusk

This is a tree just outside of work. The lighting was just perfectly
balanced between the street lamp on the tree and the sky.

Testing photo posting

Just checking whether I can post photos from the iPhone pictured in
the last post...

Applelicious

Guess who got a new iPhone today?

Montreal!

Last weekend Sarah and I had the great pleasure of traveling to Quebec to stay with our friends at their condominium at Mont Tremblant. This is the highest-rated east coast ski area, and while it suffers from the stereotypical East coast ice (which is really an artifact of artificial snow anywhere), it was actually quite fun. Not only was the nightlife in town very decent (as seems to be the case in most Intrawest resorts) but the skiing was good. Though I'm told the snow levels were somewhat below normal (and honestly, an extra foot to bury the occasional rock wouldn't have hurt), I did manage to find sufficiently challenging terrain.

The GPS indicated 40.5 miles skied on Day 1, and 43.9 miles skied on Day 2. I will try and post the GPS track soon. In the meantime, browse the photos.


And then on Sunday night, Sarah and I had the great misfortune of traveling internationally to the United States. We got dropped off at the airport 5 hours before our flight as that's how the travel schedule for everyone involved worked out, but at least we didn't stress too much. Sadly, the entire process was one miscommunication after another. The Delta check in clerk told us no carry ons were allowed except a camera, a bare laptop, and a woman's purse. I showed a different Delta agent my camera bag, and they said it would be okay, but when it finally came time to check in, the first agent said the camera must be around my neck and the bag would need to be checked. We also had to argue to get our formerly free carry-on rollerboards checked for free. She also told us our neck pillows wouldn't be allowed, but acquiescedto allow us to ask security -- who felt up the pillows but said they would be allowed.

After an hour or two of packing and re-packing, we checked our four bags -- one ski bag with accompanying (but free) boot bag, and our two rollerboards (including one with both the laptop and the camera lenses inside protected by a dinky lock -- more on that later). We proceeded to the security screening where they promptly told us Sarah's "purse" was too big. I say "purse" because we had taken a small bag and put her real purse inside it, along with some other small things (like books and magazines). Of course it was very subjective and personally distasteful as women with ginormous bags got through just fine -- as long as it looked like a purse it was okay, but if it was small but not a stereotypical purse it was bad. Seriously, some of the purses could have held my rollerboard.

Fortunately we had coats, and despite size, as long as everything could be pocketed, it was okay so we didn't actually have to re-check anything. At x-ray Sarah's heated boot caused much interest. Sadly not because it had wires and batteries inside the lining, but because all the Canadian security staff wanted to know where they could buy one. Whatever, at least that wasn't too much hassle. Then onto US customers (in Montreal?!) which had a bona-fide US CBP guy who looked at us sternly but didn't really say much. Then we thought we were through when we got dumped into the duty free store just like you get dumped into the museum gift shop on the way out of a museum. But no! A secondary screening (tertiary, perhaps?) consisted of 8 tables of 6 security people each. They proceeded to rifle through everything even opening the lipstick. But the seal of approval was a highlighter X written on your boarding pass. Then to leave the screening area you had to show another guard your X'd pass. Of course, despite their diligent checking, the security folks X'd both of my boarding passes and neither of Sarah's (they had failed to actually look at the departure airport on the passes). We went back, got the requisite X, then went on to eat and browse for 3 hours before our flight.

The flight itself was fine, and at least we got to move around and read if we wanted to. A flight to New York was told they wouldn't be able to get up at all. However, if you have a chance, please write your elected officials and let them know how idiotic these new travel restrictions are.

International Travel

Last weekend Sarah and I had the great pleasure of traveling to Quebec to stay with our friends at their condominium at Mont Tremblant. This is the highest-rated east coast ski area, and while it suffers from the stereotypical East coast ice (which is really an artifact of artificial snow anywhere), it was actually quite fun. Not only was the nightlife in town very decent (as seems to be the case in most Intrawest resorts) but the skiing was good. Though I'm told the snow levels were somewhat below normal (and honestly, an extra foot to bury the occasional rock wouldn't have hurt), I did manage to find sufficiently challenging terrain.

The GPS indicated 40.5 miles skied on Day 1, and 43.9 miles skied on Day 2.

And then on Sunday night, Sarah and I had the great misfortune of traveling internationally to the United States. We got dropped off at the airport 5 hours before our flight as that's how the travel schedule for everyone involved worked out, but at least we didn't stress too much. Sadly, the entire process was one miscommunication after another. The Delta check in clerk told us no carry ons were allowed except a camera, a bare laptop, and a woman's purse. I showed a different Delta agent my camera bag, and they said it would be okay, but when it finally came time to check in, the first agent said the camera must be around my neck and the bag would need to be checked. We also had to argue to get our formerly free carry-on rollerboards checked for free. She also told us our neck pillows wouldn't be allowed, but acquiesced to allow us to ask security -- who felt up the pillows but said they would be allowed.

After an hour or two of packing and re-packing, we checked our four bags -- one ski bag with accompanying (but free) boot bag, and our two rollerboards (including one with both the laptop and the camera lenses inside protected by a dinky lock -- more on that later). We proceeded to the security screening where they promptly told us Sarah's "purse" was too big. I say "purse" because we had taken a small bag and put her real purse inside it, along with some other small things (like books and magazines). Of course it was very subjective and personally distasteful as women with ginormous bags got through just fine -- as long as it looked like a purse it was okay, but if it was small but not a stereotypical purse it was bad. Seriously, some of the purses could have held my rollerboard.

Fortunately we had coats, and despite size, as long as everything could be pocketed, it was okay so we didn't actually have to re-check anything. At x-ray Sarah's heated boot caused much interest. Sadly not because it had wires and batteries inside the lining, but because all the Canadian security staff wanted to know where they could buy one. Whatever, at least that wasn't too much hassle. Then onto US customers (in Montreal?!) which had a bona-fide US CBP guy who looked at us sternly but didn't really say much. Then we thought we were through when we got dumped into the duty free store just like you get dumped into the museum gift shop on the way out of a museum. But no! A secondary screening (tertiary, perhaps?) consisted of 8 tables of 6 security people each. They proceeded to rifle through everything even opening the lipstick. But the seal of approval was a highlighter X written on your boarding pass. Then to leave the screening area you had to show another guard your X'd pass. Of course, despite their diligent checking, the security folks X'd both of my boarding passes and neither of Sarah's (they had failed to actually look at the departure airport on the passes). We went back, got the requisite X, then went on to eat and browse for 3 hours before our flight.

The flight itself was fine, and at least we got to move around and read if we wanted to. A flight

Montreal!

We've returned successfully from our visit to the great white north. So far all evidence points to the cat having been locked out of the house during the 4 days we've been gone and living in the garage. She's safely back inside, and so are we!

Early Christmas!

Back on Dec 12 and 13th, Sarah and I went down to Atlanta to visit her family and have a bit of an early Christmas.You can see Michal's photos and Sarah's photos.