Last year I was waking up in a cozy room with frosted windows that looked out onto snow-covered streets while the warm aroma of a roasted turkey dinner embraced me and my Hawkeyes sweatshirt.

We were lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with family in Iowa last year and unfortunately due to so many big events happening around town today, John wasn’t able to take time off to have a mini Thanksgiving at home with me – let alone a dinner at home since he’ll be working into the wee hours of the morning.

As a result, I’ve been following Tweetsgiving. How it works: Tweet “Thanks” to @4thanks, then make a donation in honor of anything you’re thankful for. Spread the gratitude by following @Tweetsgiving on Twitter and pass along information about the cause. $10,000 has been raised for charity over the last 48 hours by people all over the world coming together (virtually) in this way.

We’re hoping to get back to John’s hometown later this holiday season but for now, I’ll do my best to whip up a nice home-cooked meal (and some margaritas to boot) as John and I will have our own Bollwitt Thanksgiving tomorrow.

I’d like to wish all of our friends and family south of the border a very happy Thanksgiving. Please know that although we cannot be with you, we’re thinking of you and will do everything we can to get back and see you very soon.

A group of local radio stations are teaming up over at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice for a day of live broadcasts from 6:00am until 11:00pm.

Photo Credit: Dan Lilly on Flickr

Canuck Place offers specialized pediatric palliative care to over 350 children with life threatening illnesses and their families across BC. The demand continues to rise. Internal estimates suggest that only approximately 20% of the children and families that need the program currently have access. Your help is needed to reach those children.

Canuck Place relies on the generosity of individuals, corporations and organizations to provide its program at no cost to BC families.

Families, volunteers, and those who have been involved with or touched by Canuck Place will be sharing their stories on air with the following stations throughout the day: QMFM (103.5), The Beat (94.5), The Team 1040am, and Talk 1410am.

You can donate online to the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in many creative ways; by purchasing an e-card greeting, branded merchandise or other Precious Gifts.

Canuck Place is also making it easy to give this holiday season with their Precious Pages that you can setup and customize (upload a photo, a personal message) and send the link around to friends and family. They can donate to the cause in your honor this season in lieu of a gift under the tree.

Each year around the time of my blogiversary I write a reflective post or hold a contest. For 2008 I’m going to invite everyone celebrate the online efforts of others from across the region with the Best of 604, since being ‘hyper-local’ is what I do.

As often as I can, I try to highlight and promote local business, organizations, bloggers, and online triumphs. In 2007 I started the Best of 604 wherein I listed some of my favourite things around the region.

This year, I wanted to leave the nomination and voting to the public (that way no one can wonder what my mystery formula was for calculating winners). The nominees do NOT have to be blogs – they can be any website that fits into any of the 14 categories.

Who do you turn to for information? What site do you check first thing in the morning (or ten times a day)? Who do you love to read? This is all about the best of our region, and we should all be proud of the many accomplishments of our friends, neighbours, and peers. It’s the people’s choice awards for Metro Vancouver online.

How it works:

Head to the Best of 604 website and enter your nomination in the variety of categories – from Best News Site to Best Personal Blog – by leaving a comment. After one week (on December 4th) I will flip the switch and have official voting ballots available until December 11th.

Come on back and see if your pick has made the cut and together at a private awards reception on December 11th at The Cellar, we will congratulate the Best of the online 604 with recognition and prizes.

More info:

Rules, Nominate and Vote, Contact, and Sponsors.

Tickets for the awards reception are available through EventBrite and admission on the 11th is by (monetary) donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society (official donation envelopes will be available). Anyone who attends and donates to the Food Bank will receive one of their Community Angel pins.

Everyone is invited to attend the reception, although please make sure to RSVP through EventBrite.

Although Katkam‘s Western view has been the webcam of choice for years, during last year’s blogathon I found a site that listed over a dozen webcams from around the Vancouver area.

A few weeks ago on my Talk1410am segment I highlighted a few more area views and I discovered the many sides of the Vancouver.com webcam.

There are North, South-East, and North-East shots that give some amazing views on mornings like this.

I’m also a fan of the Numinous webcam as well as the Jericho Beach webcam. I’m curious to know if there are any more out there worth checking out.

You can find Celebration of Light road closure info here.

One thing I love about not owning a car and living downtown is that I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go either by walking or on transit. Buses, SkyTrains, West Coast Express, and my own two legs can be relied upon whenever inter-urban travel is necessary. There is much room for improvement (although not when it comes to my legs, I don’t think) so bearing this in mind you can now view the transportation concepts for the 2010 Olympic Games online.

Click to enlarge – City of Vancouver

the City of Vancouver has released a map of temporary changes to the city’s road network leading up to and during the two week event.

The temporary changes will include pedestrian-only areas, security zones, on-street parking limitations, and priority lanes for Olympic traffic.

The city plans to make pedestrian malls out of parts of Granville, Robson, Mainland, and Hamilton streets in the downtown core, and create priority lanes for Olympic traffic on Broadway, Hastings, West Georgia, Seymour and Howe streets.

Over the next month, the city staff members intend to meet with business, transportation and community groups to discuss the effects of the changes. [CBC]

With the Canada Line nearing completion, a need for more (frequent) sustainable travel options in the Eastern cities and the call for More Buses Now, how do you think Vancouver’s transportation plan will fare when we host the world in February of 2010?

Update March 11, 2009: Official Road Plan for 2010

Click to view the whole plan/map in a PDF

“Organizers of the 2010 Oympics unveiled on Wednesday an ambitious transportation plan that involves major road and bridge closures, expanded transit capacity and a plea to the public to ditch their cars and use alternative methods to get around.” [Source: CBC] You can view the entire plan here (pdf).

Update July 2009, 2009:

Click to view a larger size

Update October 14th, 2009: The transportation and road plans for the 2010 Games were finalized today. Check out TravelSmart2010 for more information.

Update January 7th, 2010:
Olympic Lanes soon go into effect:

Designated Olympic Lanes for TransLink buses and Olympic accredited vehicles will be in place from February 4 to March 1, 2010 for 24 hours, 7 days a week. Olympic Lanes in Vancouver will be in the curb, or right-hand lane during this period at the following locations:

All cars stopped/parked in Olympic Lanes or parking restricted areas between February 4 to March 1, 2010 will be fined $100 plus an automatic tow.

I have also published a guide to taking bus transportation from February to March, 2010.

Update January 25th, 2010:
Here are some maps outlining the Opening & Closing Ceremonies closures.

Visit this website to download larger versions of each map.