Vancouver 2010: Biathlon

Our second day at Whistler was dedicated to biathlon. We got to see two races, the Men's 15 km Mass Start and Women's 12.5 km Mass Start.

Not that the XC and speed skating weren't festive and well-supported, but the biathlon seemed by far the most vocal and crazily cheered of the events we attended (though Nordic Combined was a special case). The King of Norway was there, supposedly. And lots of Norwegians. And Swedes and Italians and French and Germans and Czechs and Russians and Finns and many others. And Canadians. And Americans!

The view from our hill, which was very full and very convenient for watching.

The targets

Us

Flagpole of the man with the very loud dinner bell. The Norwegians near us called it a church bell.

I found the race particularly exciting. It's maybe my new favorite winter sport. Some biathlon races have staggered starts. I saw one on TV and it was so difficult to tell who was winning and who was close, etc. These races were mass starts, so the winner was the winner. It was crazy to watch the shooting and see the lead group dwindle as skiers missed targets. US racer Tim Burke was in 9th after two shootings, but missed several on the first standing shoot, and fell way back thanks to his penalty laps.

The men's start

Russia takes gold

And then celebrates

The women start

I was also amazed that some of the medalists had skied penalties, and still beat out some racers who had shot clean on all targets, or at least had less penalties. The penalty lap is 150 m, and supposedly takes about 20 seconds to ski.

Anyway, it was another beautiful day, with two exciting races. I want to see more mass start biathlons. I'll be keeping my eyes out. I can see why biathlon is so popular in other countries. The way the race can change in a moment is unique and exhilarating. It's something I could see Americans embracing, since it is fast, exciting, and involves guns. It probably won't happen, but it could, and should. It's a fun sport.

Vancouver 2010: Cross-country skiing

I am finally sitting here watching the closing ceremony and able to write a blog about some of our events up at Whistler. It's been a crazy busy week going up to Whistler and back 3 times in 4 days, our Career Day at school, a conference in Seattle, and helping host a baby shower for a friend. Phew... Next week looks fairly normal. Now all I need to do is get over my cold.

We went up to Whistler Olympic Park on Saturday on one of the many Olympic buses from Vancouver. The bus ride was pleasant and the weather was gorgeous! We got to Whistler Olympic Park, where they host the Ski Jumping, X-country, and Biathlon, early. So we hopped onto another bus and headed into Whistler Village. Even our bus ride was entertaining. We were the only ones on the bus except for a volunteer. Our bus driver was a Hatian man from Florida. He was so excited to be helping at the Olympics. When he found out we were from Bellingham, we learned that he had stayed in Bellingham for a few days before his bus was allowed to go into Canada. He loved Bellingham because his hotel was next to the mall and the Old Country Buffet! He said it was better than any other OCB that he had ever been too. He was so excited about it. It was so cute! He would eat one big meal there for all 3 of his meals. We walked around the village for a while but we didn't have too much time. We found the US Ski Team store but were disappointed and didn't feel like waiting in line for the regular Olympic store. Then we hopped onto another bus to go back to the park. This one was filled with official Russian Team members (not sure which sport). They were singing very loudly the whole time! It was very entertaining.

One of the reasons we chose to go and see the X-Country Pursuit was in hopes of seeing an old family friend from Andover, NH (where I grew up), Kris Freeman who is on the US Olympic Team. We got to the venue and it was packed with supporters. While changing into our snow boots, I just happened to see Kris's dad, Donavan, go by. I re-introduced my self. Of all the thousands of people, I actually saw him. We went and joined him and Kris's mom, Barbara, along the fence to watch the race. They were very excited that we had come to cheer Kris on.

The view from the hill. It was such a beautiful day out! Adam was just in his shirt and I had on only vest.

If you watched any of the x-country, this was the last hill before coming into the stadium. We could see them go by 3 times during the race here.

Go Kris go!

Kris was doing great the first two laps but then really fell back after the 2nd lap. We are not quite sure what happened. He has type 1 diabetes which is hard to manage for an athlete who competes in such endurance sports like x-country.

And a Swede wins!

It was really fun to be there to cheer all the athletes on! I loved the enthusiasm of all the fans including the Canadians. Even though the American's didn't do well, it was still such a fun day. We even made it home before Corbin went to bed. Thanks to Kevin and Meghan who came up for the whole weekend to take care of Corbin.

Vancouver 2010: Short track speed skating

As you've certainly noticed, the Olympics started several days ago (though you're just getting to see them now, due to NBC's tape delay and inspirational filler). With Vancouver just an hour away, we are heading up for four events, and the first was the short track.

By the way: The border was excellent. A lot more Canadians going to these games than Americans. Five minute wait in, five minute wait out. Plus, entertaining questions!

"How do you know each other?"

"We're married."

"Have either of you ever been arrested?"

"No."

"Never?"

"No."

Very persistent, that one.

We had to go into downtown to pick up our tickets, and unfortunately didn't have much time to check things out. Main observation: The quantity and variety of Canada gear is baffling. Canadian pride is in full effect.

The short track was at the Pacific Coliseum, where we have seen several hockey games, Dave Matthews Band, and J.K. Rowling. VANOC has the public transportation down pretty well, and it wasn't much trouble to get where we needed to go, via SkyTrain and bus. Plus, it was all free with our event ticket!

Our short track night consisted of several heats of different sorts, and the Men's 1500m final at the end. My favorite event in short track is the relays, because they give each other huge pushes when they "tag." We saw two semifinal heats of the Women's 3000m Relay.

The highlight, of course, the main event, was the Men's 1500m. We saw a whole bunch of qualifying heats, later the semifinals, and last the finals. There were a couple Canadian racers who came close, and it did indeed choke us up a little to hear so many Canadians cheering their countryman.

The US had two highly touted skaters, Apolo Ohno and J.R. Celski, both from the Seattle area. I was particularly rooting for Celski, because (a) Ohno wears headbands and (b) just five months ago Celski crashed and sliced his leg down to the bone. The skates are so sharp that the cut was so clean and a short recovery was possible. Quite the comeback.

He just sneaked into the final

Getting the ice ready for the final

The final was pretty exciting. Around the last bend three Koreans held the lead. But the third tried to sneak in for silver, and knocked his teammate and himself into the wall. Ohno and Celski cruised by for silver and bronze. Crazy that Korea could have swept if they weren't so competitive. Crazy, too, that it took a crash to give the US any medals. But that's short track; it's part of the deal.

Celski takes bronze

Ohno takes silver

It was great fun. This is Erin's third Olympics, and my second. For me, it's an opportunity for enjoyment of and participation in patriotic fervor, without any political undertones. Everyone there is just there to support their country and their athletes. No politics required.

When we were in Europe during the World Cup in 2006, we were watching in a restaurant and some English guys came by. They asked who we wanted to win in the England-Argentina match. We said it didn't matter. His response:

"Every hear of a little thing called the Falklands War?"

I guess politics can get in there sometimes.

Yesterday we spent all day watching the Olympics so we wouldn't miss Nordic Combined and the possibility of a first ever US medal. Erin found out the results early, but I kept my ears closed and found out as we watched. Pretty exciting!

Congrats, Johnny! It's fun to have met a medalist. Hopefully the team can work it on the 23rd and we can witness a gold!

We'll check back in after next weekend; Biathlon and Cross-country and the long bus journey to Whistler (twice).

Go USA! Go Canada! Go everyone!

Use that pumpkin 10

Chocolate chip pumpkin bread

Oh baby baby!

We are excited to announce that we will be having a GIRL! Corbin will have a little sister! We are so excited. I was hoping for a girl, even though two boys would have been fabulous too. I am getting ready for the flood of pink. Some will be ok but hopefully some other colors will shine through too. Yahoo a boy and a girl!!!

Splish splash

We decided to take the new car for a drive and decided to head to Birch Bay because it was such a nice day out. We also wanted to check out the Olympic store at the Birch Bay Outlets but it was disappointing. So to the beach we headed. We brought along Corbin's full rain suit :-) It was almost 60 degrees out but there was a little breeze on the beach and the water was cold. Corbin and Brindzi had a blast though!

New Wheels

So we finally decided on a car! After test driving 5 cars and agonizing over them, we went back to the Subaru dealer on Sunday and bought a brand new 2010 Subaru Outback! Holy wow! I can't say that the process of buying a new car is fun but we do love having it now! We pretty much got screwed on our trade in. We agonized and lost sleep over it the night after we bought it. Car dealers are sneaky. But the deal is done. We now know what to do differently next time. We can't go back, though if we did, we could have saved thousands of dollars. Ugh.

Here is our new car! We are excited. The new Subaru has more room inside, a little less cargo room than previous models, a built in roof rack, and gets up to 29 mpg, which is awesome for an all wheel drive vehicle. We can watch how many gallons we are getting on average, at that exact moment, and more.

It had come off the truck only the day before. So yes, that says only 6 miles!

Corbin likes all his new leg room! And the middle console comes down and is the perfect height for him to stick his sippy cup into the cup holders! He keeps saying "new car" over and over :-)

Enough room for 2 car seats, front and backwards facing, and a skinny person to sit in between!

We got all weather mats to go with it... Brindzi has already gotten her muddy paws all over! We wanted leather seats to go with her shedding fur and the cherrios that get smashed into it...but we can't get everything we want... next time maybe.

Corbin loves to walk around in our shoes. Dad's big boots were a challenge though!

Choices and hormones.

This has been a rough week for me. My pregnancy hormones are kicking in double time. Not to mention some tough choices and frustrations have come up to just make me go over the edge, emotion wise. I guess I should feel lucky to be able to even make some of the choices that I/we do. Especially when people around the world are trying to find food and shelter and safety. I am lucky. Very very lucky but still frustrated.

Adam and I went car shopping/test driving last weekend. And it sent me into a tail spin...I have always said I would NEVER get an SUV. Adam and I try to live eco-consciously, we car pool, ride our bikes, don't drive big cars, eat organic as much as we can, use cloth diapers, use earth friendly products, support our local economy, etc. etc. etc... but we get so frustrated when those choices become about money. We are two educated, employed (for the time being) adults with a modest (needs work) home, a garden, a great 19 month old, amazing families, a great community, and yet we still live pay check to pay check and have to decide between organic or cheaper food when it comes to our food budget. We have to look at everything we buy and say what impact does this have on our planet and can we afford it. Ugh. So like I said in the beginning, we went car shopping. Our great little Jetta is not going to work for two kids. We can't fit a rear facing car seat behind the passenger seat without having to move the seat all the way forward and have your knees up to your chest, Adam wouldn't fit. It doesn't get as good of gas mileage as we had hoped. It's just too small. So I have done all this research on cars and decided that the Toyota Hybrid Highlander (an SUV) was the car for us. It was perfect. It's bigger, it gets 30-32 MPG, there is a third row option, but new it costs from $35-45 thousand dollars! CRAZY. Even the used ones are expensive. We decided we didn't want to have a 7 year car payment for a 4 year old car. It just seemed insane. But made me oh so mad... here we are trying to make a conscious choice about our environment, not just about how much we spend on gas...and we can't even afford a 4 year old car. Ugh. So we are starting all over. In order for us to get a bigger car, we move into the SUV market. No, we are not ready for a mini-van yet (they get even worse gas mileage). They are making smaller SUV's with better MPG and more options. I am eating my words. We might get an SUV. Now there are more choices to make and none of them seem to be perfect... but we will see what we find.

Work has been tough this week too... but I think it will work it's self out. I just need to not take things so personally. I love my job but this week for the first time ever, I didn't want to go to work today for fear that I would start crying. That is how powerful my hormones are right now. It's hard for me to tease out what is really bothering me and what is just an over load of estrogen or something. So I went to work. I didn't cry. And things will get better. Education is a frustrating thing sometimes.

I am lagging behind on my Corbin updates. He is doing great. Talking up a storm. Stringing two and three letter words together. He knows his colors. He is becoming a picky eater. He has had little interest in potty training although he did sit on the toilet for 15 minutes the other day and say pee pee and poop over again without anything happening. He loves to ride his bike all over the house. When I get home these days he can actually tell me something he did that day with Melissa and Brody. He has gotten is two year molars on the bottom. When I ask him what the baby is doing inside my tummy he says "growing"!

Here are the three buddies sledding in Leavenworth a couple of weekends ago.

Dance and play

Game time

As one who will usually forgo food, drink, sleep, and probably other things in the pursuit of game, it is likely not surprising that I would encourage Corbin at the earliest possible moment to play with me. I've got some games picked out for him for the next several years already, and at Christmas we tried the first one.

Go Away Monster! is a non-competitive game (though there is a competitive option) that involves a slight degree of shape matching and recognition. The suggested age is 3 and up, so 18 months seemed like a perfectly logical time to try it. The point is to add objects to a bedroom, but if a monster comes out, to tell it to "Go away" and throw it in the monster pit. It's sort of supposed to help children deal with monster fears.

Corbin is not afraid of monsters, and I don't want to have this game make him think they are something that is necessarily scary. I think it will be OK. The first time we played he put a monster in the bedroom.

We played a couple times at the grandparents' in Bend, and he seemed to get the hang of it pretty well. Then, this morning, I told him we should play a bit before breakfast, thinking trucks, or barn, or whatever. He said, "Game! Game! Monser!"

So we played. This time he was much more into it, and really wanted to pull out a monster so he could wave his arms around yelling "Away! Way!" and then put monster in the "pid." He also tried to put the cat picture and the teddy bear in the pit.

We went to go work on breakfast, but he went back to the living room and got the game out again. So we played again. Then he played with Erin after we ate.

I am encouraged by how he plays. He's not always the most patient boy, but he seems to be very willing to wait his turn while playing the game. Maybe when he tries it with Brody and Melissa that won't be the case. But maybe it will. And maybe it will rub off in other situations. We'll see.