From tear-jerking Gold medal victories to heartbreaking 3rd place near-misses, the Olympics is jam-packed with glittering stories that leap off the newspaper page. It’s a reporter’s dream to cover the glory and the grief of the Olympic games. But I’m not one of those reporters. I revel in finding those peculiar stories, the hidden gems if you will, that catch my eye and make me chuckle.

Yesterday I set off in search of a weird and wonderful story of Olympic pride. I wasn’t more than 100m from my place, when I heard rumours of a sock puppet mascot contest being held at the CBC. Surely enough, when I walked in the doors of the CBC, I came face-to-face with over 40 googly, glued-on eyes, pompom noses, and pipe-cleaner whiskers. Some were simple, some were practical, and others were beyond the scope of my imagination.

The winner of the CBC Vancouver Welcomes the World Mascot Contest, David Julian Abhijit Xinshi by Susi Bainard, a three-eyed moose/beaver aka “Moover” was quite laid-back about his victory. He remained both strong and silent, when asked about his new-found fame.

You can see the masterful collection of sock puppets at the CBC on the corner of Hamilton and West Georgia open from 9am-6pm everyday until February 28th. Also, make sure to check out the daily “meet and greets” held in CBC plaza where you hobnob with CBC personalities and Olympians and pick up a limited edition pin.

If you Google “Olympic Red Mittens” you will find hundreds of websites dedicated to selling one of the popular souvenirs of the 2010 Games. The mittens are so popular that Official Olympic Store online is currently out-of-stock and sellers on Ebay are offering the $10 mittens at prices as high as $30.

Since I’ve kind of fallen in love with the Olympic Games since witnessing the awe-inspiring Opening Ceremonies pre-show on Monday, I’ve been on a mission to find a pair of those elusive red mittens.

I figured the best place to find them would be at the Official Olympic store at the Hudson’s Bay Company downtown. What I hadn’t planned on was waiting outside the store for ten minutes just to get in the door.

Once inside the store, I was instantly lured into the plush toy section where I made friends with a rather curious Sasquatch named Quatchi. Though we didn’t speak the same language, we bonded over the loud, annoying noises we could make with cow bells.

We spent many hours searching through Canadian hockey jerseys, slippers, furry hats, mousepads, and flasks of maple syrup. Any and anything they could smack an Olympic logo onto they did, including doggy rain wear! w00f!

Finally, I found my very own pair of red mittens! It was another lengthy wait to buy them, but it was well worth it. I slipped my hands in the fleecy warmth and headed out on the downtown streets to cheer on my fellow Vancouverites who are stuck in traffic due to Olympic road closures.

Dating on Valentine’s Day *sigh*