Getting connected ...

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm doing fine now.

The big move to the city of Torino is complete. All I have to do now is hope I can get an Internet connection at the apartment. Things are also better now that I am hooked up here at the Torino Piedmonte Media Centre. I lucked out in that it is no more than a 10-15 minute walk to the place and I have wireless access, although it costs 5 euro for one hour, 10 euro for 3 hours and 20 euro for 8 hours.

Back at the apartment, which I am renting from Daniel, the son of the Mayor of Volpiano, I've got access to a DVD player, VCR, CDs of Green Day (one of Daniel's favorite bands) and plenty of reading material (albeit in Italian) at the ready.

My Olympics schedule is also shaping up (although things are subject to change) --

Feb. 15 will be my first day observing an event in the mountain area. If Adrian's out there reading, you know which sport I hope to see (in other words, if you don't know Adrian, you don't know what sport I'm talking about. Consider this to be a tease). This trip will also enable me to use the city's train/bus system and I'll report back how it is.

Feb. 16, Canada vs. Germany in men's hockey in Torino. I will be watching this preliminary game pitting Martin Brodeur, Scott Niedermayer and the rest of the Canadian squad against a young German team with some NHL talent, but probably not enough to stun the defending gold medal winners. If they do beat Canada, the story I write will need a slight adjustment.

Feb. 20, Women's hockey. OK, I'm not a WNBA fan and I wasn't a WUSA honk and I was never a fan of that women's football team in Long Beach (P-Ters know what I'm saying), but women's hockey might be different. It could pit U.S. vs. Canada in the gold medal game or one of these teams might slip to the bronze medal game. Either way, I am planning right now to see at least the bronze or gold medal game on this day. It's back-to-back and both games are at the same venue.

Feb. 21, Men's speedskating. The 1,500-meter final happens here. If Derek Parra, Chad Hedrick and Joey Cheek are skating in it, the U.S. has a real shot to come away with more than one medal. The Dutch are really into speedskating, this being the long track form, and tickets are sold out right now for this session, but I am still working on securing a spot for the festivities).

Feb. 22, Short-track speedskating. There's two prelim events women's 1000, men's 500 and one final, the 3,000 women's relay final. I have a potential story tied to this day and it would be great to see this athlete in action.

Then there's the debate (or maybe not at all): Either attend the men's hockey bronze medal game on Feb. 25 or the Closing Ceremony on Feb. 26. Both tickets might be tough to get, but the bronze medal game might feature a team whose fans are disappointed not playing for gold. That's where Ryan T. comes in to save the day! If I choose to attend the Closing Ceremony, it will be because I'd like one of my last days in Italy to be one in which I see the passing of the winter torch to Vancouver, eh?

Like I said, the above schedule is subject to change for reasons unknown right now.

But as I titled this blog ... I'll keep you connected!

P.S. To Ketan and Sapna, congratulations on the birth of your first child, a healthy girl, Sonia on 1/30/06. As I told Sapna in an email earlier today, I might be one of the few people who understands an out-of-whack time schedule since Italy is nine hours ahead of California!

Ciao!