I'm glad you're chatty, Abby! I love hearing the insider view. Is getting around craziness?

It hasn't been so bad for me. My regular bus doesn't go all the way downtown, but I make one transfer that delivers me to my usual spot. So far, I've added maybe 5 minutes on my morning commute, and maybe 10 on my evening?

My office is right downtown, and across from the main Canada Pavilion, called LiveCity Downtown, and the amount of people around is crazy! The weather just turned gorgeous the last couple of days, blue skies, sunny & warm (14 celsius!), and we've got a great view of the goings on. I'm planning to take Monday off as my roommate is also off that day, and we'll run around all the free stuff.

Hey cool! I'm confused by the mascots. Is the sea bear a real (mythological) creature or did they make it up for the games?

Good question! From wikipedia I got:

• Miga — A mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.
• Quatchi — A sasquatch, who wears boots and earmuffs.
• Sumi — An animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.
• Mukmuk — A Vancouver Island marmot.

I'm deeply amused by the cute and cuddly sasquatch. It's only slightly less funny to me than a stuffed Cthulhu.

One commenter said that the mascots were a good representaton of BC because whoever created them must have been smoking a lot of BC bud at the time.

There's a quiz on the Web site where you can find out which mascot you are. (I love that in that graphic, the laptop plugs into a tree stump. Truly Canada is a magical place.)

I'm Quatchi.

(Also, Mukmuk isn't actually a mascot; he's a mascot fanboy. No, really. Well, okay, they call him a mascot "sidekick," but it comes down to the same thing. That's why he has that foam finger. No, really.)

I was just reading that, Steph. There is a set of the four of them downstairs that I've been eyeing, even though I know they are expensive. But they are really cute!

Thanks for all the brackets. She had a good last day. I held her lots and even took on on the porch wrapped in a blanket. I was so glad the doc agreed it was time.

I took a long nap and am basking in the healing power of the Bomer.

I'm running an "Olympics" camp this week at my school. We've actually spent a lot of time on the mascots. They're quite fun. I even have their story book, which the kids quite love. I think Sumi is their favorite mascot.