Yay! Blog!
Category: March 2006

The final game for the 2006 Winter Office Olympics was le Trike de France hosted by Norway's division-sister, France. It was a quick tricycle race that lasted between 26 and 55 seconds. Two athletes rode in each heat. They started in different corners of the conference room, and crossed paths to exit through different doors. They rode down parallel hallways and looped around the reception area, crossing paths again. There, they had to take a break to drink a small cup of water. Once they'd re-hydrated, they rode the homestretch back to the conference room where they crossed paths again to the corner where their opponent started. Three potential crash spots, but only one minor crash happened that I know of.

Nord Sylvia was our athlete. Before the race, she handed in her urine sample for performance enhancing drug testing. Host Brian didn't seem amused:

This was the funniest event of the games. The French team were great hosts giving out gold, silver and bronze sprockets for medals and a bonus: t-shirts!

The athletes didn't have to pedal, but they had to remain seated and their wheels weren't supposed to leave the floor. I guess that last rule was to keep people from picking up their tricycle and running with it.

Russia and Ireland went first and posted times of 39.4 and 32.9 seconds. Great Britain and France were up next. Great Britain, of course, put in a great time at 30.2 seconds making it look like they would win yet another medal.

I was stationed with my camera on the south stretch of the race. The funniest part was seeing the athletes heading back for the conference room. The looks on their faces!!

Germany and Norway were up next, but neither posted a winning time. Then three-time gold medal winner, Swiss Dean, was up. There were no boos this time as he took his seat on the tricycle. What a madman! It was his last chance for another gold medal, and he gave it his all. When he re-entered the conference room at the end, he didn't slow down, and ran right into the conference room wall! He posted the fastest time yet at 26 seconds and ended up flat on his back!

There were two heats left. Australia, New Zealand and Italy didn't post winning times. Italian Jonathan had some technical difficulty with the equipment when his front wheel went a little wonky. In the last heat, the U.S.A. squeaked into Bronze position, beating Ireland by 1.4 seconds. Swiss Dean won another gold, and Brit George (a girl named George) won the silver.

Go Norway!!

The second to last day of the Olympics, we had the International Food Festival. It consisted of a competition and a giganto pot luck. For the competition, each country offered one dessert and one entree to five judges. Points were scored based on taste and presentation of each. Norway entered stuffed chicken breast and apples with sweet cheesy nutty stuff on top.

My favorite as far as presentation was Ireland's Beef Stew with shamrock pastries and Bailey's Cheesecake:

I took pictures of all the dishes before the judges entered the area. Then I took pictures of the judges judging presentation. Then I was going to take pictures of the judges tasting everything, but the pot luck had already started, and things were moving slowly in the competition area. I decided to quit taking so many pictures and go stuff myself.

I didn't make it to all the countries. Ireland was out of food by the time I got there, so I didn't get to sample their stew and cheesecake. My favorite entree as far as taste was the stew from Switzerland. It had tender meat chunks, cabbage, carrots and potatoes.

The gold medal winners were New Zealand who had a meat pie with the olympic rings baked into the top crust and a tomato sculpted like an olympic flame (pictured). Ireland won the silver and France the bronze. My favorite desserts were from France. They had a creme brulee and some chocolate mousse or custard stuff that was out of this world.

Go Norway!!

Australia hosted the Bloomin' Onion Toss in which athletes had to toss aboriginal rings (painted embroidery hoops) around onions with flowers sticking out of them. There were three tables each with an onion. Each onion was worth different points. It looked easy, but must not have been because several athletes didn't get any of their five rings around an onion.

Nord Craig was our athlete. He didn't win a medal, but seemed to have fun with the event. Here he is tossing a ring at the 10 point onion:

The funniest part of the event was when the three time gold medal winner Swiss Dean entered the playing area. Many in the crowd booed him!! No one wanted to compete against this powerful athlete!! He tossed a ring, missed, and the crowd cheered! He tossed another... another miss and another cheer. Not very supportive was this crowd! All in good fun, though. Dean's a good sport, and the other athletes were relieved to have a chance at the gold.

The gold medal went to the host country's athlete, Aussie Pat. Great Britain, of course, won a medal (bronze) and Russia won the silver. At this point, Norway was out of the running for any of the overall medals. With two events left, though, we weren't giving up our olympic spirit.

Go Norway!!

Russia hosted Russian Hockey. I missed it because I was downstairs covering the Bloomin' Onion Toss. It looks like it was fun, though. Athletes had to hit four pink paper covered washers to the other end of the conference room table for points. They hit them with an upside down disposable food container filled with coins. Areas were marked off with triangles and squares and each area was worth different points. Athletes got two blue washer practice shots to begin.

Here's the scoring layout:

Nord Rob was our athlete. He didn't win anything. He wasn't the worst by any means, and he didn't lose points for hitting the photographer with a washer like another athlete did (it was an accident!).

The gold medal winner with 9 points was one of the ladies who hired me several years ago, Jan. We like to go to El Patio for mexican food sometimes. They have great tostadas and queso. Anyway... Jan was on the Great Britain team which doesn't seem to be able to lose an event. I guess that's why they call themselves "Great." Italy and Japan won medals, too. This was the first event in which Japan won a medal. It's always exciting to witness a first this late in the games.

Go Norway!!