Olympic Fever, Part Deux

I mentioned a while back how much I love the Olympics, and that it's the Winter Games that really get me. I'm all wrapped up again, glued to the TV most nights watching things I'd never otherwise watch (short track skating? sure! curling? you bet!), and in my old-man, not-uncool-to-say-this-anymore state I'll even admit to watching and enjoying figure skating.

Really looking forward to the US-Canada hockey game tomorrow. As many have written, the Olympic hockey tournament is the best hockey tournament in the world. Olympic hockey rules allow for a more free-flowing, artistic game and the national pride (especially in this case for the home team) increases the passion and desire to win to a whole new level. I remember the "Miracle on Ice" fairly well, but didn't really appreciate the game at the time. The greatest hockey game I can remember watching was the gold medal game between Canada and Sweden in Lillehammer in 1994 that ended in a shootout. The shootout itself was of course exciting, but I remember the whole game as being just awesome. Hopefully tomorrow's game won't disappoint; perhaps it'll be a taste of a possible gold medal game a week away.

Snowmaggedon

UPDATE: Apparently the videos weren't playing last week. Try them again- seems to be working now.


Thought you might like to see some footage from the first half of Snowmaggedon- the first one is midday Saturday at the peak of the snow, and the second is the aftermath. That's Googs and Scully with Brendan in the driveway. Owen is off in the distance towards the end of the shot.

A FinkBowl for the ages

Every year at FinkBowl, the same stories of memorable events from previous years are told and retold- The Finkless Finkbowl, The Leaking Ceiling, The Pirate Ship Cake, The $120 4-3 pot. This year most of those stories stayed locked away in the story box (wait- that's right, there are no locks on Story Box) as we lived what will one day become the greatest of all FinkBowl stories- The Snowmageddon Finkbowl.

It was clear by Friday morning that the DC contingent would not make it here before midday Sunday unless they raced the storm out of town. Thanks to an early dismissal from the federal government, Googs, Rachel, Lady V (aka The Tiny Cuteness) and Scully arrived here in the 302 just as the first flakes were falling. Ciaran and Atti had arrived earlier in the day to help us get ready for whatever was coming. We hunkered down as the storm ruined the travel plans of all of our other Saturday Taco Night scheduled attendees (though the Min-Salvs of NY were hell bent on coming, snow be damned, until common sense prevailed). Texts and calls from LA updated us on the latest flight Judge had gotten on to, only to be cancelled soon thereafter. By late Saturday night, the unplowed streets of our development suggested that the 6 adults and 4 kids currently in the house would be splitting a double batch of gumbo 10 ways the next day.

Then, things started to turn. Plows came through around 11pm to clear the neighborhood. Locals called in on Sunday to confirm that the big show was still going on. Puddin' rolled up in his Zipcar Sunday afternoon, and soon thereafter the biggest surprise- in the front door walked Judge, keeping his 14 year streak alive by catching the 5th flight he was scheduled to be on. Final tally was about 35 non-Finks who braved the weather and road conditions to be here for our little gathering.

A great game was the icing on the cake for one of the most epic FinkBowls in history. Not looking to duplicate this mess next year, especially since it kept away many of our usual attendees. But it certainly made things unique, and offered yet another perspective on the power of friendship.

Bartlett's got nothing on this girl

I never wanted this blog to be purely a listing of all the great and funny things the Fink kids do day in and day out (thus turning it into "The Family Circus" without the cartoons), but I think I forget sometimes that part of my mission here is to do at least a little bit of that. Molly's got more quotes and quotables on a regular basis than the rest of us combined, and I really should do a regular feature on them. We keep a book with some of the best of all the kids' quotes and favorite sayings, perhaps I'll go back and dig up a few someday to post here.

She let out a great one tonight- we were watching "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", and Ben Stiller's character was talking to the female lead, a historical museum figure come to life. I asked Molly, "Hey Molls, who's that lady?", knowing that she had just gotten a McDonald's Happy Meal toy of this character and her famous plane within the past week. She looked unsure at first, then remembered and said "Oh yeah! It's Amelia Airforce!"