Let me be completely honest. At first, I wasn’t that excited about the Olympics coming to Vancouver. I wasn’t opposed, I just wasn’t doing back flips. Well, fast forward a few months and I found myself with a severe case of Olympic fever. I couldn’t get enough… my television was always on, I even bought a Canada jacket and a pair of those red mittens. In fact, I was so excited, I talked my sister Denise into flying out from Toronto.

My sister arrived on Wednesday night and since we didn’t have any concrete plans, we went with the flow. I had to work Thursday and Friday, so my wife and sister spent the two days walking around downtown soaking up the atmosphere. They visited Yaletown and Robson Square. It was fun but when I asked my sister if she tried the Zip Line, she said she would have — but she didn’t have an extra six hours to spare. I asked if she got herself any Canada gear, maybe a sweatshirt or a toque — she said she would have but either Sidney Crosby was signing autographs or U2 was playing at the Bay; people were lined up around the corner just to get in. She figured she would just go back another day when it wasn’t so busy. Bad plan.

I started to feel bad — I talked my sister into coming out here, and for two days, all she did she was wait in lines with little to show for it. In an effort to spread the Olympic spirit, I took it upon myself to find a way to get my sister to an Olympic event.

Now as luck would have it, Slovakia was playing Latvia in Men’s Hockey Saturday afternoon at 4:30. My wife is Slovak and I thought she would love the experience of sitting with thousands of her people. I didn’t have tickets, but a gentleman I work with, let’s call him Skippy, phoned me at 3 p.m and told me he just bought a pair of tickets to the game for him and his daughter and he paid 80 bucks a ticket. I told my sister and my wife Andrea to head downtown and meet Skippy. He promised me he would look out for the ladies and help them negotiate the purchase of tickets.

At first, everything seemed to go well. Andrea and Denise bought a pair of tickets for 100 dollars each. They went through security and got down to Canada Hockey Place, but when they gave their tickets, they were for a different game. So the plan didn’t exactly work out.

We took my sister to the airport Sunday morning. Since she didn’t want to return home empty-handed with no memories or Canadian gear, we bought her a hoody and toque at the Olympic Store at YVR. We even snapped a few photos of us pretending to cheer. In the end, we decided to tell everyone the same thing when they ask about her trip to the Games: Whatever happens at the Olympics, stays at the Olympics.