I can't believe it has already been about 7 days since my last post. I felt like it was only about three days but I was way off!

In the past week I have finally been able to make a trip up to Whistler, see some of the bobsled runs at the Whistler Sliding Center, watch some speed skating races and I was in attendance at the Pacific Coliseum when Evan Lysacek won the Men's figure skating Olympic Gold medal. I'm hoping to go the USA v. Canada hockey game tomorrow as well. For all you canucks out there...Go Team USA!!!

Oh yeah, and I worked a few days in between there as well:)

Inside the Richmond Olympic Oval for speed skating. This is a brand new venue here in Vancouver.

On Wednesday I went up to Whistler and got a chance to see the "Winter" Olympics in action. I went up to Whistler to get one of our editors Joe as he needed to get back to Vancouver to catch his flight. Joe was working at the Sliding Center which includes events for the luge, skeleton and bobsleigh. On Wednesday they were running training sessions for the 2-man bobsled event and I was lucky enough to get some good pictures.

Joe got my picture during one of the bobsled runs. These guys are flying down the track! It doesn't look that fast but these guys are flying! I thought I wanted to take a test run myself but after being there I had second thoughts! I would definitely be screaming the entire way down.

I was actually amazed how close we could get to the track. I could have reached my arm out and touched them...which wouldn't have been a good idea but I could.

Below are a few pictures I tried to take of the bobsled runs. In my first shot I got nothing but track, the second I almost missed the bobsled team and on the third try I finally got the sled in the shot. Ha, I had to work on my timing a bit.

The view from the stands at the sliding center.

While I was up in Whistler I meet some of our BSN employees that work on the East Coast. It was nice to finally meet people that I have worked with for over a year but have never met.

Brian Scott and I. Yes, it was warm in Whistler too! I just can't catch a break on this cold weather stuff but at least we had snow.

Our control room at the sliding center. Jordan Keen (in yellow) one of our engineers.

On our way back to the Summer Olympics in Vancouver, Joe and I went to the Men's figure skating finals and met up with Kelly and Kevin (BSN West co-workers). Joe wasn't too excited to go but I told him it would be good for him to get in touch with his feminine side.

The last men's group warming up. Our control room is literally in the rafters so we definitely had a bird's eye view!

Kelly producing the event

Kelly and I in the control room before the gold medal performance.

Evan Lysacek with the gold medal during the victory ceremony.

The BSN crew after the US won the gold! Like I said....we are at the top of the building, can't get any higher! (Kevin, Me, Kell and Joe)

Raising the flag. Stars and Stripes forever!!

It was amazing to be in the building when the national anthem was played. I can't even imagine how the athletes must feel.

And...I'm spent. Hope everyone is doing well, talk soon!

Last night I got tickets from Paul to go to the Opening Ceremony. He doesn't really care for crowds so Kevin Ash and I went to the Ceremony. We work with Kevin at the Rose Bowl and this year he was the COO of the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship Game.

The Ceremony was cool but definitely made more for TV than for a live audience. I didn't know if I would ever have the chance to go to another Opening Ceremony of an Olympic Games so I was happy to take the tickets but I do wish that it was outside. It was sooooo hot in there, it felt more like the summer Olympics but they did a really nice job with lighting and adding "snow" on the ground to give it an outdoor feel.

Our view when we first walked to our seats

Lighting the torch

Team USA!!

Team Canada! A little far away I know but we still had really good seats!

Me in my ugly poncho we had to wear. It was more like a blanket though it was so hot however we had to wear them in order for the production to work so they could project the flags and other lighting effects onto us during the ceremony. If it wasn't for this ugly thing none of those effects would have worked!

Thank me later! :) Talk soon!

Finally I have a bit of a quite morning so thought I would get this in before the Opening Ceremony tonight.

Last night we finished the last of the team welcome ceremonies with Team USA at 8PM. The welcome ceremonies were a lot of fun to produce as we got to see every country come to the athlete village. Sandra Oh from Grey's Anatomy was our host and she was very nice and a great host with lots of energy. Below are some pics of the wrap-up party on the stage.

Me, Larry Ganson (Technical Director, LA), Christy Nicolay (VP sport Production, LA), Sandra Oh, Patrick (DJ, Studio City)

Me and Sandra Oh

Me and the Olympic Mascots, Quatchi (not even sure what he is) and Miga (not sure what she is either but they are pretty funny).

The great thing about working these events is that not only are the athletes from all over the world but so are the crew members and personnel. It's been really fun to meet and work with people from all over the world. Below are pictures of me with Keith (Panasonic, Dover, England) in front of the Path of Nations at the Olympic Village (basically a walkway of all the flags of every country competing in the Games) and Liam (Rio, Brasil) one of the drummers that was part of the entertainment crew at the welcome ceremonies.

Oh yeah, and Canadians! Below, Byron and I with his Quatchi backpack. Byron actually worked at Amgen in Westlake and then somehow got into production at the X Games. Not sure how he made that switch but he is really nice and quite the character! And he used to live in Westlake Village, small world!

After production, Dan "Panda" Valdivia and I backstage. It's finally cold in Vancouver! Panda works all of the UCLA basketball games and football games with me back home.

To prove it's cold...I have been using my mittens that Jason and Steph got me for Christmas. They have been keeping me warm and I can still use my hands to work. I can't believe there is someone more clever than I that came up with these things. haha, just kidding!

Okay, I think that's all for now. Got to go. I'll try to post again soon!

Vancouver, Day 7. It's been one week already? I just got here! Day becomes night way too quickly at the Olympics. So...this post might be a little on the long side but I thought I'd get it all in while I had the time.

Below are a few pictures of the athlete village. It's really cool how all of the countries decorate their buildings. It's very festive and patriotic.

The Swedes

My favorite...The Aussie's! I thought this was so funny. VANOC wants them to take it down but I like it.

Team USA!! We really need to work on our decorations. Sweden wraps their pillar, The Aussies hang the biggest banner ever and we get a few flags up...pssh. Although, if we were to decorate like those other countries everyone would probably think we were trying to showboat or that we were being jerks. Oh well, scarifies we make to be #1. Take that!

Today we produced the first day of welcome ceremonies at the athlete village. Team Lithuania. They had 5 people total (the US has 130), mainly cross country and biathlon skiers. This picture is from Saturday when we were setting up the control room behind the stage.

The below pictures are from today before we greeted the large congregation of Team Lithuania. While we were waiting for the team Jeff and I were importing files from DVD's into the playback system. Jeff looked at the gold DVD and said it looked like a medal. I then took off my credential and used the lanyard to hold the "medal" around my neck. Naturally I won the gold...Jeff took home the silver. They just need to make bronze DVD's and we would have the complete DVD nerd podium set!

Proud champions of the production Olympics! Jeff then mentioned that I looked more like Flavor Flav than a gold medalists. I wanted to tell him that no one remembers second place but I couldn't bring myself to ruin his Olympic spirit!

The last picture of the day is of me and Mr. Moose. Mr. Moose stands out front of the Team Canada building. I'm not sure what to name him so I will take suggestions. I'm also not sure why he is there or what the significance is. All I know is that someone must have had way too many Molson Canadians and said "hey, a candy-cane Moose would go perfect here eh!"

Mr. Moose and I signing off for the night! Talk soon!

2:30AM on Monday, finally went to bed after running around Vancouver. This is a picture from the condo I am staying in. The view from downtown across the harbor is amazing.

If that's not enough, the below picture is a beautiful view of the mountains from the kitchen. You can see snow on the very top of the mountains in the distance; its pretty spectacular in person. Now I just wish the snow would come down a bit more so it would feel like the winter Olympics and not the rain-like-crazy Olympics. I have yet to get up to Whistler but will take lots of pictures when I finally get up there.

Okay, so I'm going to try this blog thing, taking after my bro and Steph! Not sure how much I will be able to update this and get around to it but this is a good start at least. I thought I would start at the beginning of the journey and show the boarding and gate info at LAX on Air Canada. Not sure what the Chinese letters are all about but I think that means Gate 23 in Chinese. I know, I'm a master linguist!

After arriving in Vancouver we had to get our rental cars which ended up being huge trucks and official Olympic vehicles, which was cool. I'm sure I look like a midget in this car but I feel big time. Actually I'm sitting in the drivers seat in this photo, can you see me? haha, just kidding, but seriously that is probably how I would look in the car... invisible!