Reporting from Vancouver:

Piece by piece, it's coming together.

The ice is fast and frozen at the Richmond Oval, which looks even more gigantic inside than out (Canadian speedkskaters, in fact, already have spent weeks here training ... sorry, testing safety systems, etc., to begin working on their home-ice advantage.)

B.C. Place Stadium is going to require quite the makeover to put on a memorable opening ceremony. We still can't wait to see how they solve that lighting-the-cauldron-indoors dilemma.

And people better start hustling -- and spending that controversial $100 million loan from the city - -to get the Athlete's Village ready to greet the world in less than 15 months.

Those are some early impressions from a couple hundred media types here on the Vancouver Organizing Committee's "World Press Briefing," where editors, facilitators and a few nosey types like myself get an advance look at the inner workings of the upcoming Olympics.

It's a good chance to get the lay of the land, see where athletes will not only compete, but be available afterwards in media "mix zones;" find out where the sub press-centers are at each venue, and meet with Games planners about practical concerns such as lodging, work space, Internet connectivity, photo positions, all of that behind-the-scenes stuff that allows the 10,000 or so journos here to bring you sights, sounds and words from the Games for three weeks in February, 2010. (For many people, this is the only chance they'll get to do this before the Olympics. Scoping out the territory in advance is a big advantage in covering the Games.)

Peering behind the curtains this week for Team Times are myself and sports editor Cathy Henkel. We'll be in Whistler all day Wednesday and back in Vancouver for two days of briefings and further venue tours on Thursday and Friday.

More news as it develops. And we'll bring you some looks inside the venues if we get a chance to upload some pictures.

Meantime: Feel free to post questions here, if any come to mind, about the inner workings of the Games. We'll try to answer them, or find someone who can.