Cypress was amazing. It was turn after turn in deep powder.

It was a little foggy, so we rode trees all day. Felt so good to get back in the snow again.

In other news, the costume design by Colleen Atwood in Alice and Wonderland is absolutely incredible.

I quickly decided that I am going to be sewing a dress from the movie for Halloween this year. The question is… which one?

The dresses are rich, lavish with tons of layering and detail. This “Alice Red Court” dress is stunning.

As much as I love the Red Court dress, I think the one I absolutely have to sew is either this “Blue Scrap” dress…

… or this off the shoulder piece. I can’t decide! They are both beautiful. Can’t wait till they release proper stills for the movie.

Believe it or not, I’m actually no stranger to sewing my own dresses and clothes. It’s true, they aren’t to the level of Colleen Atwood’s designs, but they were still fun projects to work on and wear!

I sewed this layered casual shirt and bow for a New Year’s house party one year.

Here’s a silk draped dress that I made in 10th grade in high school.

Yes, there were some fashion faux-pas that I unfortunately made in university for formals. Haha. But hey, I still sewed it!

But probably the most challenging project I’ve ever done was my graduation dress for the end of high school. We had no money to buy a proper grad dress, so I scrimped and saved and put together the dress of my dreams!

It took several months to sew all the tulle layers underneath the dress and drape all the satin.

It turned out though! And it held together for the event as well, which I was crossing my fingers for.

I still have it, and I am so glad that I did.

So, I’m really looking forward to getting back into sewing and putting together an “Alice” dress for Halloween… the only question is… which one?

First up, the Amazon Kindle. This device has singlehandedly rekindled (ha ha) my love of reading. Yes, I realize there is an Apple iPad coming out. I’m not concerned. The reason why I chose the Amazon Kindle is for one purpose: reading books.

The e-ink is amazing, and it is EXACTLY like reading a book. It looks exactly like ink on paper, but with a thin protective cover over it. This is why I will not be using an iPad for reading. Yes, I may use it for web surfing, but not for reading. I do not want to read on a backlit screen when I have to sit at work all day looking at a computer screen.

The device itself is gorgeous. It’s extremely light… lighter than a paperback book. Unlike a normal book where you need two hands to hold the pages open, I can read my Kindle with one hand. After reading for 8 hours straight, this is a huge benefit. I love the design of the Kindle.

The back is also really pretty, with brushed metal and a little bit of rubber for non-slip. I should note that this is the 2nd Generation Kindle, but it is not the Kindle DX. The Kindle DX is bigger and harder to hold in one hand… it’s better used for magazine/newspaper reading. Also — the Kindle is hooked up to 3G Wireless in Canada, so you can buy a book wirelessly no matter where you are. There is no data plan or package you have to buy… simply load up the Amazon store on the device and buy a book, and be reading within 30 seconds!

Since I purchased my Kindle a couple months ago, I’ve read 16 books and read over 13,000 pages (yes, the Wheel of Time series is long and took up a lot of that page count). The Kindle is also VERY thin. I bought a Flexstand Bookstand from M-Edge (pictured here) so that I can read it in bed or while eating without having to hold it up. I highly recommend this accessory.

Here’s a photo of all the accessories I have for my Kindle. I bought a pink leather sleeve for protection, a New Yorker leather cover for traveling or when out or about (it hooks into the Kindle deftly so it can’t fall out), and the Flexstand Bookstand. All from M-Edge Accessories.

Needless to say, I’m in LOVE with my Kindle. If you’re a book reader, I would say it is a MUST buy at only $250. After buying 10 books, you will have saved yourself back the cost of your device since e-books are only $5-10 compared to $10-30 for physical books. You. Will. Love. It.

Next up… my new Blackberry Bold 9700. I’ve tried so many different phones, from Nokia to different Blackberries and yes, even the iPhone. But Blackberry just does it right. Everything about a Blackberry is perfect for the type of user that I am. I am completely in love with this phone.

It’s fast, the new trackpad is great compared to the trackball, and the new OS is incredible. I love the new features. The new Blackberry Messenger is much improved, and since 60% of all my friends have Blackberries, it’s the perfect and quick way to communicate with most of my friends.

It’s really small and light. The new grippy back is a nice feature as well. I upgraded from my Curve 8900 to the 9700, and it’s not a huge difference. The 3G is a really great upgrade, and the new OS is too.

There are now tons of apps for the Blackberry, and Blackberry World is very slick. From budget software to games, I haven’t found anything lacking on the Blackberry that I’ve wished for that was on the iPhone. And the keyboard is a big plus. I can type faster than any iPhone user and much, much more accurately. Yes! I challenge you to a type-off. But seriously, I find typing on my phone an absolute pleasure. Everything I’ve ever wanted in a phone, is in my new Blackberry Bold.

So that’s it folks! My new gadgets. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!

The last Thursday and Saturday nights of the Olympics were the Club Bud parties… the main Budweiser one and the Lululemon party. At the Lululemon party, it was so crazy that the VIP athlete/celebrity line was MAXED and lined up around the block, let alone the normal lineup! Crazy!

We got to see a number of athletes and celebrities including Mayor Gregor Robertson, Torah Bright, Mark Valley, and well… of course the sexy Budweiser girls.

I was also super stoked to see Canadian medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Jessica Gregg, Marianne St. Gelais, and more. Also honourable mention to the Danish curling team… yes, the captain Madeleine Dupont is very famous for her appearance in a certain “calendar”. Take a look on Google.

The inside of the Lululemon party was super cool… they had a number of dancers and acrobats suspended from the sky. I brought my best friends Kim and Anna to the party. Kim actually owns a yoga studio in Vancouver and a number of her students and friends were the dancers on the ceiling!

Here’s me, Kim and Anna having an awesome time.

A huge number of my friends from business school in university flew into town to experience the Olympics. I can’t tell you how rad it was to see about 12 of my friends from school that I never get to see since they are all working in Toronto, New York, LA, etc. One of my best friends Erik was staying at our apartment, and so I inevitably got dragged along to party with him and the rest of our school friends. One of the nights we headed to Gossip nightclub to see Calvin Harris.

I’m not a huge DJ person, but the music was great and I also bumped into a couple of Allan’s friends there. Great atmosphere.

My friends of course managed to get a VIP booth which I happily tagged along and enjoyed!

So great to see everyone!

Afterwards Erik and I took a Pedi Cab home… that was fun.

On Saturday after the Lululemon party, Kim and Anna and I joined a couple more of my university friends at Barcelona Ultra Lounge where yes… they also had another VIP booth. Yeesh! These people know how to roll!

Here’s Robb, me and Erik. Thanks for having us guys! I was stone sober the entire night and it was pretty crazy to see them get kicked out multiple times, only somehow to get back to their booth. Note to self: Show up earlier.

The last day of the Olympics, Allan and I headed to the Hockey House to watch the Gold Medal game. We had tickets way in advance so thank goodness we weren’t paying the ridiculous amounts of money that people were paying to get tickets to that. We also managed to get there super early and so we got one of the 5 tables in the “non-VIP” area! Woohoo! We saw a number of Canadian athletes honoured for their medals…

… we saw Wide Mouth Mason perform…

… and the Odds, with so many guests!

We of course saw Canada win Gold, which was pretty much the greatest moment of my life. I bawled my eyes out for about 20 minutes straight. It was a proud moment. I will never forget it.

And best of all, we got to see Roberto Luongo after winning the Gold Medal with his beautiful daughter!

How cute is that little Luongo jersey?

Thanks for being so patient with me. I have lots more coming up to post over the next couple weeks including a couple of overdue snowboarding movies! We now resume our normal blogging… West coast, surfing, snowboarding, golf, Canucks, food, etc…. you know how it goes!

Sadly, I knew my body was getting sick about halfway through the Olympics but persisted with working full time and going to events, etc. The crazy thing is, I only drank 2 days of the 17 days and only stayed out late past midnight three times! I’ve been trying so hard to stay healthy. Still, it’s my own fault — I should have rested when my body told me to. Adrenaline got me through it but now that it’s gone, my body got really sick and I found out that I have pneumonia.

Unfortunately antibiotics is not an option for me from past reactions, so I’ve been spending entire days in bed and cannot seem to stop my coughing or fevers just yet. Not to mention some strange sharp lower back/joint paint that seems to be related to the virus. It hurts too much to sit even upright so not even watching TV or reading books are an option. It’s so sad! I’ve been stuck in bed with only my phone to have any sort of connection with the rest of the world. I am hoping that I get better soon.

Again, apologies for the lack of content this week… I hope to be healthy again soon and have more posts, contests, and photos soon. Sorry to complain so much! Thanks for understanding!

On Monday we watched the Men’s Canada-USA Curling game at the Olympic Curling Centre.  It was an intense game.

Of course, no curling blog post would be complete without a photo of the famous Norway curling pants. They have two different variations… these red ones and also the white ones with blue/red checkers. Awesome.

We had a blast. I honestly think that it’s almost more fun to watching curling live than hockey. *gasp* Yep, I said it.

It was great watching Kevin Martin and his team beat the US, especially after losing the hockey game the previous night to the US team.

Afterwards we headed over to the Hockey House where we spent the entire day with a group of 9 friends.

We managed to take tons of group photos, including this one with the hosts of the Hockey House. Awesome white suits. P.S. Check out my awesome 2010 commemorative hockey stick (I got it signed by a ton of people!)…

Cam Neely was also there… what a legend!

We spent most of the afternoon watching the on-stage entertainment and wandering around the pavilion taking photos of everything.

Oh, and lots of bubble hockey was played.

We made sure to get clappers, and took this group photo…

… which we loved so much that we got them made into 9 souvenir pins! Haha.

I loved getting a photo with the sexy Hockey House babes.

It was so much fun to watch the women’s Canada-Finland semifinal there… we won handily, but every goal was a huge celebration.

And the main event… we got to watch the Triple Gold Club celebration on stage. The Triple Gold Club presentation is for the 22 players who have achieved the three most important accomplishments in hockey… winning the Stanley Cup, winning Olympic gold, and winning the IIHF world championships. As you can imagine, this is an extremely prestigious award and very, very few players ever win this.

I love this photo of Vladislav Tretiak, Rene Fasel, and Gary Bettman. It’s kind of ominous… but cool. They did the presentation to all the players.

Peter Forsberg was there..

… and Alexander Mogilny…

And Joe Sakic!

Sakic is one of my faves. My old bedroom at home still has his posters plastered all over the place.

Rob Blake too..

Here’s Brendan Shanahan, Joe Sakic, and Rob Blake on stage.

Allan and I posed inside of the hockey mask…

At the end of the night, the band Five Alarm Funk took the stage and they seriously blew the roof off the place. They were a lot of run.

We made sure to take lots of photos with them when they came off the stage and partied with us.

DJ Skratch Bastid closed off the night and he was really good. He was great at reading the crowd and reacting accordingly.

The view of our group from the stage.

Yeah, we had a ridiculously good time.

Here’s myself, Amy, Chris Walts, and Rebecca Bollwit inside Club Bud.

NHL banners inside Club Bud.

The Stanley Cup, the holy grail of hockey also partied inside Club Bud

Here’s a photo I took of Chris Walts (the other Club Bud Party Crasher winner) and his friend Mike before the craziness started. Also check out the cute couple Rebecca and John Bollwit who were there to take photos/report on the red carpet as well!

Lainey Gossip (Lainey Liu) showed up on the red carpet with none other than Michael Bublé! She also showed up with Matthew Morrison and Mark Salling from Glee who all went out to dinner together. I’d say that Lainey rolls with a pretty awesome entourage!

I managed to grab a photo with him and make a stupid face

Here’s Lainey and Mark Salling (Puck) from Glee.

Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester from Glee) was also there. I managed to get a photo with every celebrity tonight but in the interest of not showing my ugly mug beside their famous faces I cropped myself out of most of the photos, haha.

Here’s the very sexy Jon Hamm from Mad Men.

Hayden Christensen (Star Wars) was also there.

Louie Vito (snowboarder) showed up! He is awesome and super fun.

There were a lot of figure skaters here tonight, including Patrick Chan, Tara Lipinski, and Kristi Yamaguchi.

Logan Huffman, from the TV series ‘V’ was also in attendance with real-life and on-screen friend Jesse Wheeler (plays Brandon in ‘V’) was there. I am a HUGE fan of ‘V’ (and sci-fi in general… the world needs more sci-fi shows) and I could not have been more excited to see them there. I ended up fangirling quite a bit with them, and Amy and I ended up talking to them most of the night. They were fun to hang out with!

I was also excited to see Stana Katic there from the TV show ‘Castle’… she’s a great actress and it’s my favourite Monday night show. She was super nice.

Also in attendance were Cammi Granato (US women’s hockey captain), Geoff Stults (October Road, Wedding Crashers), Warren Christie (October Road), and tons of TV station reporters.

The hockey ice sculptures inside were rad.

Kevin Bieksa (Vancouver Canucks) was also inside and Amy and I managed to snap a photo with him.

Stana Katic (Castle) dancing on the dance floor.

The Glee cast (Matthew Morrison and Mark Salling) dancing with people inside Club Bud.

Louie Vito watching the dancers.

It was a great night! I took a photo of Amy with the Glee cast as well, and here’s Chris Walts, Sunny (organizer of Club Bud from Karyo-Edelman) and myself… I’m making a pout/duck face because I am super tired after two nights of partying!

Phew! Well, big Canada-USA hockey game tomorrow. Can’t believe it’s only Day9/10 of the Olympics now. Is there really another week to go? Crazy!

Tonight I got to attend the Club Bud private Burton party with Allan at the Commodore Ballroom.

As many of you know, I’m a huge Burton fan so it was a dream come true to see some of the snowboarders! The inside of Club Bud is really neat, and it has completely transformed from the Commodore Ballroom into a pretty awesome party venue.

The inside is pretty amazing. It’s totally ice and winter everywhere, with lots of good looking people and sexy dancers.

We got to hang out on the red carpet and snap some pics of the athletes and celebrities coming into the party, along with Miss604 and Keira. My absolutely FAVOURITE athlete to see was Gretchen Bleiler. How cool is that! I’ve seen tons of her snowboarding movies, so I was totally fangirling over her. She is gorgeous!

Also present were Vernon Davis (Curling/football), Lindsey Jacobellis (SBX), Chris Spencer (football), Graham Watanabe (snowboarding), Carl Lewis (major Olympian, wow!), Bonnie Blair (figure skater), Elijah Teter (boarder and Hannah’s brother) and Mike Jankowski (snowboarding coach).

It was also pretty neat to see Seth Wescott after winning his gold medal…

… and Johnny Weir! Haha. He definitely made a big splash on the red carpet with his outfit.

The venue was really fun and Allan and I had a great time.

Not to mention it was completely open bar!

Totally loved the snowboards with the art painting going on.

WARNING: NSFW BELOW

Warning: NSFW... nude Club Bud girls with body paint and a Club Bud dancer.

It was absolutely NUTS outside on Granville Street… there was a huge lineup to get into Club Bud (even with invite-only tickets) and just the general insanity of the crowd.

An extremely fun night, and I can’t wait to go back to Club Bud tomorrow for the NHL party!

Club Bud is going to be hosting some of the most exclusive parties here in Vancouver during the Olympics so I am very pumped to be able to attend some of them. The other Party Crasher that has been selected is Chris Walts, so you can follow him and follow me on Twitter to get all the updates from the parties when we attend. I also understand that Miss604 is going to be attending some of the parties as well.

The Commodore Ballroom is going to be transformed into Club Bud, so it’s going to be an awesome venue. It’s about 19,000 square feet and they are expecting over 1,000 celebrities and athletes to attend the parties. It’s going to be seriously epic!

Here is the rundown of the Club Bud parties… I am going to be attending some of them… stayed tuned on my blog and Twitter for coverage:

Friday, February 19: The Burton party! This is SUCH a perfect fit for me as you know I’m a huge fan of Burton. They are saying Shaun White might attend!
Saturday, February 20: The NHL party. Chris and I will be attending this one!
Thursday, February 25: The famous Budweiser party. I’ll be at this one! Super excited.
Friday, February 26: Under Armour party… another Chris party!
Saturday, February 27: The Lululemon party… I’m going to this one!

I get to bring a guest to each event… so if you are interested in attending… just hit me up on Twitter or leave a comment on why I should bring you!

In other news, Allan and I got to attend the Team Canada vs. Sweden Women’s Hockey Game at UBC Thunderbird arena.

We had really amazing seats… Row 1 right beside the Canadian player’s bench!

The game was a bit of a blowout, but we had an amazing time cheering on our team and it was impressive to see the skill level of the Canadian team.

We ended up seeing tons of goals.

Meghan Agosta had an incredible game and ended up with a hat trick.

Hayley Wickenheiser is an icon, and I loved getting to see her get a goal and see her lead the team.

Megan Agosta and Jayna Hefford celebrate after a goal.

Donald Sutherland was spotted again at the game.

Here’s the coach going over a play with Agosta. I loved being able to see this!

Wickenheiser and Carla Macleod smile.

Here’s Marie-Philip Poulin giving us a wave and a smile.

Kim St. Pierre watches happily as the clock counts down to zero and Canada wins! Kim St. Pierre shut Sweden out for two periods, and then they let Charline Labonte play a period. Kim was such a sweetie on the bench… she smiled for photos and even made sure she wasn’t blocking our view during the game! Thanks Kim!

Here’s Team Canada celebrating.

This little girl and a couple other kids managed to get some sticks from the players. I thought it was awesome they took the time to throw their sticks over the glass.

Canada ended up winning 13-1. I am really happy that we got to experience women’s hockey at the Olympics and I can’t wait to see them progress throughout the tournament!

We got fabulous seats at Canada Hockey Place (a.k.a GM Place) and were literally Row 2 right behind the broadcasters. We got all ready for the game… we had our two signs, our flag, our face tattoos, and of course our jerseys.

It was seriously crazy trying to get into the stadium. There was a huge lineup of people, but fortunately we were at the very front. They made people wait for 2 hours before they could get into the stadium as the USA-SUI game had finished and they needed to clear people out and clean up. It was a long wait, and I was quite afraid someone was going to get trampled… but security and the volunteers kept it under control. They even split the group into two groups as you can see in the photos here.

The crowd went absolutely WILD when Team Canada stepped onto the ice. People were beyond excited to see our Vancouver Canucks goaltender Robert Luongo get the nod to be the starting goalie for Team Canada today. He looked relaxed, confident, and made some amazing saves throughout the game.

Here’s a shot of our amazing coaching staff with Mike Babcock and Ken Hitchcock, and one of our goalies, Brodeur.

Norway played great… they were fast and had some great goaltending… but not enough to stop Canada.

Allan and I were super stoked to be there as you can see from our excited faces here.

Jerome Iginla was a big fan favourite… he played extremely well… hitting, checking, shooting, passing… he played with a lot of heart last night.

Sidney Crosby also had a great game and I was surprised and impressed to see how tough he was playing, and with a lot of jump. I have a lot more photos on my Flickr stream.

Wayne Gretzky got a huge cheer when they showed him on the big screen. He says he’ll be around watching the games as long as Team Canada is playing.

Also spotted, Donald Sutherland, the two female goalies from Team Canada Women’s, my coworkers watching from a box, and a hilarious sign.

Chris Pronger had a great game as well and played solid defence against Norway. He loves to patrol the blue line.

Canada put a lot of pucks in the net, but here’s another one… we ended up winning 8-0. Sid congratulates Iggy as he gets a Hat Trick! A lot of hats were thrown on the ice.

There was lots of celebrating throughout the night.

It was rad to see the CTV broadcast happening at the other end of the rink. They actually have a collapsible “stage” that pops up and folds down in one minute so that they don’t disturb the view of the fans.

And to cap off a perfect night, we ran into the Director of Snowboarding for Canada, Christian Hrab, outside BC Place. He was proud to see his team up on the podium, especially to see Mike Robertson get the Silver Medal for Canada. He gave us free tickets to see the Victory Ceremony that night! Thanks Christian! Thank you for being so generous… loving the Canadian spirit around the Olympics!

And yep, we ended up watching the Barenaked Ladies perform live at BC Place from fantastic floor seats. I’m a huge fan (I even have their Christmas album), and I teared up a few times listening to them play some of my favourites. Allan and I ended up singing the songs all the way home and cheering ourselves hoarse at all the fans out in the city downtown. It was an incredible night, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Yes! I have finally drawn a winner for the 2010 Olympics Men’s Curling tickets contest for the Canada-USA game on February 22nd. We had 180 contest entries but only 171 were eligible. Watch the video to find out who won! Please note that the winner must contact me by e-mail (allie@vancityallie.com) by the midnight this Friday, February 19th or I will have to draw someone else.

This past week, my friend Amy took my camera up to Grouse Mountain where she got the chance to meet and see Michael Bublé and Matt Lauer on the Today Show. They are up there throughout the Olympics and they have quite the set up.

Here is Amy and her friend with Matt Lauer.

She took a number of pictures while there. Check them out.

Also, it was the torch relay in Vancouver all last week. I finally made it out on Friday to see the torch in person (after a failed attempt to see Trevor Linden carrying the torch… I missed him by one minute). I teared up several times. I was so proud to have the Olympics in Vancouver and seeing the torch passed from person to person throughout False Creek and Yaletown is an incredible experience.

Downtown Vancouver was CRAZY this past weekend with the streets completed filled with people partying, dancing, and singing O Canada.

Allan, Amy and I also got a chance to watch the Omega clock countdown to the start of the Olympics before rushing back home to watch the Opening Ceremonies (fortunately PVR-ed so we didn’t miss anything). It was a real thrill to have everyone countdown to the start. Watching the Opening Ceremonies with my closest family, Allan and my friend was so emotional. I thought it was beautifully done and really spoke to who we are as Canadians. I also thought it was a very diverse ceremony. Well done!

After a full day of watching the Games at our apartment with a group of friends, we somehow managed to wake up early to head to the House of Switzerland at Bridges on Granville Island.

I was asked to provide some coverage of a chocolate competition going on. When we got there, I picked up my media pass and we posed in front of the restaurant.

We also got to see them making the chocolate inukshuk and posed in front of it.

A note to visitors: Although we were there to check out the chocolate competition, please note that the House of Switzerland differs from other houses in that it is almost purely a restaurant (open for breakfast, lunch and dinner) but they don’t have an exhibition area or anywhere where you can walk around. The food and coffee is great there, but I recommend only going there if you are wanting a dining/eating experience. We ordered the Swiss Nespresso expresso and the Raclette macaroni and cheese.

We headed upstairs to check out the chocolate competition. They had a number of judges and we were there especially to cheer on Miss604 (Rebecca) who was a JUDGE! Wow!

We also saw Keira, John and Duane there. They got to sit at a special Friends and Family table with lots of different tastings! It was great to see Rebecca and Keira again, and to meet John and Duane for the first time. It was particularly neat to see Duane as he helped me through a difficult time when I had a surfing injury last year.

We got to taste the three different chocolates made by the competitors. They were all very good (Pecan chocolate bar, chocolate mousse, and heart-shaped chocolate biscuit), but we also loved the one that won the best… the Pecan chocolate bar. John has a great photo of the three chocolate pieces here.

Then we headed to the Atlantic House where we sat on the patio and sampled free seafood tastings for the afternoon. They were surprisingly good. We had a great view on the patio.

The Maritime beers and drinks were really delicious, although the most highly recommended beer of the day by my friends was the Blueberry ale. So definitely try it out if you get a chance to go there

And that was it! A really great weekend so far and I just CANNOT believe it is only Day 4. How are we going to get through the rest of the Olympics? It was fantastic to see Canada FINALLY win gold on home soil. Congrats to Bilodeau, Jenn Heil, and also all of Canada’s other medalists! Coming up… a special announcement also coverage from the Canadian men’s and women’s hockey games!

What did you do this past weekend?