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.

Getting in your Facebook

mainly sunny, mild, temps minus 5

Lovely day. got up at 4:15 this morning, and drove in to Montreal with Doug. Him in his car, Michael and me in ours. Doug continued on to Toronto.

The trick, especially for Doug who needs to drive through Montreal, is to avoid rush hour here, and rush hour when he arrives in TO. The best way to do that is leave really, really early. We could have just seen him off and left later, but we quite like getting in early too.

So we arrived here about 6:15am - unpacked the car and went for breakfast at Nick's on Greene Ave. Lorraine served us eggs and bacon. And loads of coffee. Then home to do some copy editing. At 10:45 we decided we needed fresh air so we walked from the apartment along rue Ste Catherine to Michael's eye doc on Drummond street. Great walk...took about 25 minutes.

The doc gave Michael some drops to lower the pressure in one eye, but beside that everything looked great. Always a relief. Thanks to all of you who wrote to give support. You know what it's like.

Then we wound our way home stopped at the Nespresso store for cappuccinos and cookies and to pick up more capsules. What a gorgeous store/cafe. Beautifully designed and even comfortable.

Then to the DVD store - then the bank and picked up sandwiches and salads (and pastries) for a lunch at home...and some magazines. In Westmount Square, where we got the food, they'd set up easy chairs and a flat screen TV and everyone was gathered around watching the Olympic curling.

Speaking of which - Michael, Doug and I watched the hockey last night. Canada vs the US. Canada...lost!!! But what a great game. Fast - clean...hardly any whistles. And while the Canadian team played great, so did the americans...and their goalie Miller was wonderful. See, I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I generally don't watch hockey. Don't really like it. But Olympic hockey seemed a national necessity - as was the pizza Doug bought. Anyway, Canada lost.

However - far more important - Canada defeated the Americans this afternoon at curling.

By the time Michael and I got home we were hitting the wall and just trudging along.

Once home Michael put the curling on, I got our lunches ready, and he watched the Olympics while I spent the next 4 hours finishing the copy edits. Quite easy - but some gnarley issues - like at least one day lost and how to fix that.

Marjorie, from Connecticut - wrote to say she had no idea I was on Facebook. She just sent a 'friend request' and a gentle suggestion that maybe it would be better not to keep my social networking such a secret. I agree. So I'm telling you...I'm on Facebook. Now - I'm also a Facebook luddite...I have no idea what to do with it.

If you could tell others I'm there and they too can friend me, that would probably be a good thing too. And, since Marjorie seems to know how these things work, I've asked her help in also getting the blog up there.

If any of you know how to spread the word better - and how I might better utilize Facebook, please help me. I'm happy to do it, as long as it is absolutely no work. Ha.

I now feel like a stuffed toy...all floppy and tired. Time to sit and watch the Olympics. Go ice dancers. Now there's a beautiful sport!

Hope you're all well...speak to you tomorrow. Storm expected tomorrow night.

Avatar

partly cloudy, cool, temps minus 5

Nice drive in...crazy squeezing ourselves out of the house. Happily Pat and Tony and their dogs showed up to move in and that always helps.

We decided to visit a place called Bikini Village in downtown Montreal. Once we found parking we got side-tracked. Well, I was side-tracked...Michael was on the real mission. Seems he'd lured me downtown with the promise of Bikini Village, but the real agenda was to see Avatar.

I was in no rush to see it - the adds looked ok, but I prefer live-action to animated, or approximated, characters.

I was wrong. It was spectacular. The 3-D is magnificent. I even enjoyed the story. The critiques say the plot is thin - but I think they're confusing simple with thin. It was spell-binding. Highly recommend it.

Then, despite the fact the sun had already set, I dragged him over to Bikini Village. Not that I planned to buy a bikini - I'd have to be really batty to consider that. Sandals would upgrade us to our won desert island. But they have other things.

Michael, dragged against his will, bought two pairs of shorts. And I got a bathing suit and a skirt thing. More stuff to take to St. Lucia.

It's now 6pm and we've just arrived at the appartment in Montreal. Hectic day tomorrow. Michael's eye appointment - meeting friends for a quick lunch - Sharon and I will head to Charlie's hockey game while Jim and Michael head to the visition for our mutual friend. After the game Sharon and I will join them. Then Michael's son coming over for drinks, and the two men will go out for dinner.

I'll watch a video and try not to eat pizza. Hoarding calories for the buffet table. I'm a woman with a plan. Very powerful. Stand back.

Might not blog tomorrow - a little packed...but will chat with you Saturday.

Hope you're thriving. Stay well.