Olympian anxiety

sunny breaks, some snow squalls, mild - temps plus 3

Dear Lord, sitting here watching the Canadian men's curling team play Norway (their skip - siiigh) in the gold medal match. Heart pounding. Canada up 5 to 3, but Norway smart and well positioned. 9th End. there's one more end.

But - while the curling is on in the BG - I have to tell you about last night and the Olympics. Bal, Linda and Bethany came over and Bal and Michael immediately raced to the TV to watch the Canadian women's finals playing Sweden. Shrieks from the TV rooms as Canada battled Sweden...and finally Sweden prevailed.

Dear Lord, the Norwegians might score three in this end...

there are no atheists at curling matches. Yikes. Rock going down the ice...ooops - Norway just knocked our stones out of the rings. That can't be good.

So, last night the Canadian women won silver. We all ate dinner around the TV - mouths agape.

Then the Mounts ran back to the guest cottage and Michael and I watched the hockey - Canada vs Slovakia in the semi-finals. Unbelievable game. We won - but wow was it terrifying in the last minute. Slovakia poured everything the had - score was 3-2. Canada collapsed. The Slovaks were pounding shot after shot at the goalie. 20 seconds to go. One looked like it went in. The crowd was screaming. We were screaming. I think I could hear Bal and Linda in the cottage screaming. More Slovakian shots on net. All of Canada silent - hilding breaths...watching the clock. Slovaks pull their goalie...another forward comes on the ice to hammer the Canadians. 10 seconds... 5 seconds. A slovakian shot on goal - one last. And it misses.

Ohhhh - Canada won - but just.

And now we go to the finals tomorrow - Sunday - at 3pm our time. We've invited the mounts back...might as well scream together.

Busy but very fun day today...breakfast with Cheryl, lunch with Lili and David - saw Jacques and Louise tonight to celebrate his birthday.

Oh - Canada just got one more point at the end of the ninth end. score is now 6 to 3 for Canada. We might win gold. Still - that Norwegian skip. He might need comforting after this...

By the way, there's a wonderful post by Robin Agnew you might want to read...she runs Aunt Agatha's Bookstore in Ann Arbor - a fabulous mystery bookstore. She put up her favorite mystery/crime books each year so far this decade. Here's the link to the blog she writes with others...great name to 'Hey, There's a Dead Guy in my Living Room.'

Here's the link:

http://heydeadguy.typepad.com/heydeadguy/

It's a great blog - all the posts.

Martin now shooting final stone...for Canadian gold!!!! And - we win!!!!! Wow. I like Kevin Martin, our skip. Seems like such a nice man. The crowd just sang, spontaneously, O Canada. Very moving. This might sound normal, but it is, believe me, quite rare for a Canadian crowd to do that. All the more moving, really, when it does happen.

Wow. And the Norwegians - while I'm sure very sorry to win silver - have the grace to smile and shake hands and clap the Canadians on the back...to be good sports. Surely that's all part of being a really great, world-class competitor - being gracious in defeat as well as winning.

Off to Knowlton tomorrow. I finally found that record i"ve been looking for for decades...Billy Bishop Goes to War. Wonderful musical. But only available on LP...not CD. But happily, Maurice at the local radio station said if I take it to the station tomorrow morning he'll download it. Such a nice man. But he also asked if i could do a radio show for them.

After some discussion we decided it would be fun if I took a tape recorder with me to Washington for Malice Domestic - and recorded my experiences - emotions - events...some interviews perhaps with people there, both readers and writers. Give listeners a feeling they're there with us. So I'll be doing that.

But very excited to finally get to hear that record again. Especially as I begin the next book. More wonderful music to inspire and lift me...make me better than I actually am.

Speak to you tomorrow.