Now that the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino have come to a close, the spotlight turns towards my hometown of Vancouver. It seems like just yesterday that we won the 2010 bid and now its only four years away. Crazy. This will be my first ever Olympics games. I'm hoping to get tickets for freestyle skiing, snowboard halfpipe, and short-track speedskating. Of course, my dream would be to have ice hockey tickets for the gold medal game, but I'm pretty sure this will be next to impossible. Those tickets will probably sell for at least $200 a piece and will sell out the arena in about five minutes.

Coming back to these Torino winter games, Canada achieved a record medal count - 24 - this time around. Looks like the $110 million 'Own the Podium' investment is paying off. Personally, I don't care how high the dollar amount is, we cannot have a weak showing in the Olympics like we did in Calgary in 1988. For those who don't know, Canada didn't win a single gold medal in '88! Instead we won two silvers and three bronze for a total of five medals. Brutal showing and a pretty embarrassing result for a host nation. The 24 medals we earned this time around is pretty awesome and sets the stage for a strong showing in 2010. Go Canada Go!

This past weekend I ventured down to Silverstar Mountain with a couple of buddies. I've been working pretty hard at work, so I wanted to take a whole weekend to relax and also get some much needed exercise. Silverstar is located about a five hour drive east of Vancouver, about 10 minutes from the interior town of Vernon, BC. My buddy Tyson's family owns a rustic cabin right at the base of Silverstar. What else can I say? Nice weather, fantastic snow, great company, and a $100 bar tab on Saturday night all contributed to a superb weekend getaway. Here are some photos.

Tyson, Greg and J.P. on Silverstar Mountain

One of the many steep & narrow chutes on Silverstar's back bowl

A nice view of Silverstar's mini-village

The beautiful BC interior mountain ranges

The Job

Looks like my New Years resolution of updating my blog more often is the first resolution to be broken. Yay me! Haha. Seriously though, I've been crazy busy with work. Trying to make a good impression on my managers and peers. Working late, Working hard, working late, making phone calls, working late, travelling to different offices, working late... you catch my drift. I've stumbled onto a fantastic opportunity, working with a great group of people and I don't want to screw it up. This job can lead to great things in my career. Its very exciting. Lots of hard work needs to be done, but I'm certainly up the challenge.

Ski Trip

A couple weekends ago I ventured a few hours east of Vancouver and spent a lovely weekend at Sun Peaks Mountain. I had a great time skiing and hanging out with old friends from my SFU Ski Club days. We had some great times and great trips back then, and this was a nice reminder of that. Unfortunately, both SFU and UBC decided to have their ski trips up at Big White Mtn. that same weekend, so it was pretty quiet at the Sun Peaks Resort. I did, however, get some great runs in and I also realized the terrible, terrible shape that I'm in. For shame, for shame.

Birthday

A heartfelt happy birthday goes out to my friend Kristen. I attended her 27th birthday dinner at the posh Ambrozia Restaurant and Jazz Lounge on Denman this past weekend. Good times had by all. Like my buddy Ryan, I tried out the Dine Out $25 meal. I had a delicious greek (but not really greek) salad for the appetizer, a mixed grill plate consisting of lamb, beef, and chicken for the main course, and a sweet ass chocolate cake for dessert. Damn tasty, damn good. Worth every penny. I didn't partake in the wine recommendations (not a huge wine fan), but I did drink about 6 or 7 pints of beer throughout the course of the evening. My bill came out to about $75. Ouch. Posh restaurants are expensive.