Posts from — February 2009

Lots of fun had at Sun Peaks this week for Larry’s retirement party. Stayed in a chalet on the hill that was literally ski-in ski-out. Just had to ski down to the Morrisey chair and then took a run back that took us to the doorstep of our place. I had been watching the weather in Kamloops for the last few months and it has been terrible for skiing. But, we totally lucked out and woke up to 16.8cm of fresh powder the first day. So awesome. Some of the best boarding ever. Met a guy from New Zealand who described it as skiing in custard. I’d say more like flour, but either way it was amazing. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to board again the next day since I was so sore (takes a bit of effort to pull yourself out of waste-deep powder all day), but it was too fun to not go. Day 2 was really chilly, but at least we traveled WestJet and received all of our luggage so we were dressed warm enough that it wasn’t so bad. The hot tub at the end of the day sure felt nice.

Thanks to Larry and Brenda’s great meal planning and Jeff’s good BBQing we ate like kings. Lots of fun had with Kevin, Tamara and the two little ones. I think I watched Finding Nemo with Sage 3 times, but luckily she was into that right instead of Barney (which she watched the entire way from Princeton apparently ). Here are a few pics from the week: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.sill/SunPeaks#

Lindsay will tell you all about our amazing week in Kamloops tomorrow but for now I thought I’d post a couple of random thoughts and things that we’ve (mostly I) been thinking and lately.

1) Have you ever changed your oven’s fumehood filter?   “Apparently” you’re suppose to wash it in hot soapy water at least once a month.   Who knew?  Apparently not us for the past 40 months.

2) Changing your lights to energy efficient lights is a good thing (yes, ‘a good thing’ is a Martha Stewart line).

3) Are you getting 5-6 servings of fruits or vegetables a day?  Doesn’t sound like much but monitor yourself for a week and see how well you do.

4) RUTRTW is back

5) Printers have become one big disposable item.  We just bought a 3-in-1 printer (for my company) and the cost of the printer was less than the cost to buy replacement cartridges.  How does that work? (apparently Bob had a similar, completely independent, epiphany about this same topic).

6) Water is great.  It’s solved Lindsay’s migraine’s.  If you’re feeling hungry?  Drink water.  Tired? Drink Water.  Thirsty?  Drink Water.  Also, did you know that you’re suppose to sip it throughout the day and not just chug it. Do you think Lindsay should write a book about her migraine experience?

7) We got 56 shots of espresso out of a 1lb bag of coffee.  That works out to about $.25 per shot of espresso.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Sorry to everyone who may have tried to access our site over the last few days and received an Internal Service Error. Something random went on but Jeff’s a smarty and figured it out.

Since our last post we got back from a fantastic time in Quebec. We finally got our luggage on Saturday afternoon, so only went without it for 2 out of 4 days. Turns out the moron Airline company mentioned in our last post, sent our bags to the wrong hotel. So, they sat in the lobby of the Hilton for 24 hours. That would explain why every time I called (India) they told me our bags had already been delivered. I guess they were right in a way…

Spent the next two days wearing all of my clothes so I was sweltering but so happy to have my snowpants and mittens. Went to see ice sculptures, tobogganing, the parade and tried to see Bonhomme. That dude is a celebrity in Quebec. He arrived at the parade and was mauled. I tried to get close for a photo op and the mob of fans tossed me aside. I guess I should have valued my time with Bonhomme back in ‘95 when I got my photo taken with him. He must not have been such a celebrity then as I don’t look too impressed in the photo. Once we get a scanner I will post that picture as I don’t have a digital copy of it.

Played Ice Bowl this weekend. The weather was so nice for February and the tournament raised about $5000 for the Women’s Centre. Jeff played an awesome second round and held his own in the Advanced Division (could have had a shot at the title if there weren’t so many sandbaggers). Mark has improved a hundred-fold from last year and this tournament marked his 1-year disc golf anniversary. I look forward to next year. I came first out of 1.5 ladies in the Women’s division. Jana, before your feelings get hurt, I’ll explain your 0.5 does not relate to your skill level, but the fact that you only played one of two rounds. Jana and I both got nice prizes and I have the trophy to take home again to collect some dust until I turn it in next year. See you all out for Ice Bowl 2010 (there’s a trophy up for grabs!).

Now we are in Kamloops getting ready to head up to Sun Peaks for 4 days for Larry’s retirement party. We even got a sprinkle of snow last night so I’m pretty excited. I better run and have a nap and rest up for the chaos of our niece and nephew as Kevin’s family will be joining us for the festivities.

I’d like to take this special opportunity to thank Air Canada for this wonderful Friday evening during Carnaval in Quebec City in my hotel room. There are many festivities going on but instead I get to write a blog and watch TV. This is because they seem to have misplaced our luggage. What a moron I was to assume that my bags would arrive when I did with my bathing suit, mittens, snow pants, socks, long underwear or even underwear for that matter…Good thing it’s not -20 degrees with the windchill…oh wait, it is.

So we decided to go for a nice dinner and stay in. Making the most of it. As misery loves company, we are happy to say that we were one of 25 on the flight that arrived without their luggage. Looks like they managed to lose an entire trolley of bags. When the carousel stopped, I yelled at Jeff to sprint to the baggage claim line as I was unable to myself due to a recent foot injury (and have been limping around the city). Luckily by doing this we were among the first in line…which was important as it was 1:30am.

(Brief reprieve from the sarcasm for a sec). Today we had breakfast with Mary Ann and Robert, which was a great start to the day. We spent the afternoon shopping for a few essentials (ok, so I totally used the lost luggage as an excuse to go shopping!). We also took in some snow sculptures and had lunch in a cute little boulangerie (bakery).

I just spoke to Air Canada on the phone and it sounds like our baggage is on the way. Received at the airport (hopefully the Quebec airport) and the delivery process has been initiated. This process has been initiated for 10 hours according to the website, but hopefully it arrives soon. In the meantime, luckily they provided us with a nice overnight kit with all the essentials: an extra large men’s shirt, men’s speed stick, and half a tooth brush (Jeff’s toothbrush is actually missing half of the bristles…).

It is really neat interacting in French again; all those years of french immersion for Jeff and I are paying off. It’s amazing how much we actually still remember, and even more amazing how much we have forgotten. There were 2 people today who actually went along with the conversation in french and didn’t immediately switch to english after I spoke. Perhaps it was because I was making sense, or perhaps it was because they didn’t speak any english (I like to think it was the former

Well, gotta run. Time to put my extra large t-shirt on and watch the second period of the jeu d’hockey (Habs against Avs).

Salut!

No I’m not talking about the weird cartoon in the Simpsons I’m talking about myself (Jeff… yes I haven’t blogged for a while but I’ve been rather busying with other online endavours).

Anyway, why the Itchy and Scratchy?  Well.  I have the Chicken Pox.  No joke.   Seriously, I’m 30 with the chicken pox.  So to answer some questions…

Have you ever had Chicken Pox Before?   Yes

I thought you couldn’t get the chicken pox twice?  That’s what I thought.

It all started on Saturday night. We were watching the Canucks game and I was really hot and started to get a lot of itchy spots on me.  Then Sunday went and played squash and had a TON of spots on me… We thought it was some sort of heat activated rash thing and that it was because we changed our laundry detergent.  Anyway, after not being able to sleep for a couple of night I went and saw the doc.  Turns out she’s seen 3 people that week (all around my age) who have had the chicken pox before with the chicken pox.  Crazy huh!

Funny story

When I was a kid I had the chicken pox BAD (like everywhere bad and worse then most kids).  Anyway, while I had the chicken pox I can remember lying on the couch yelling to my parents, “I wanna go to school”… my theory being that if I went back to school the itching would be gone.

I told the doctor who diagnosed me with this case of the pox and she laughed and said, “and you just never stopped going to school?”

Anyway, this time I don’t really need to go back to school or work but I wouldn’t mind the scratching to go away.  So if you haven’t had the chicken pox (and don’t want them) I would avoid seeing me for the next 2 weeks or so.

Yes, you read this correctly. Christmas in January? We had our staff Christmas party on Friday afternoon. Our original party was scheduled for December but was snowed out so we postponed until now. We spent Friday playing mini-Olympics at Shank’s North. We broke into teams and played bowling, mini-golf, Daytona racing and pool. Super fun times. I would recommend this for a stag or stagette. Perfect for a little healthy competition among friends.

My team made the podium, but didn’t come first. I found this strange as 3/5 of my teammates came first overall in one of the sports and one of the guys on my team finished as the top male overall. I guess with these sort of stats we must have shone at times and not so much at others. I really think pool was our downfall. I blame the lack of beer at this point. Who seriously plays pool sober? Afterwards a few of us headed back to our place for some fresh fruit maragarits and guitar hero.

On Saturday morning we had our second annual Garage Hack party. We started this tradition last year after we took up hacky sack after our fall league ultimate games. In the winter we missed it, so we had a hack party in our garage. Last year Jeff made omlets for everyone but this year we had waffles. Great work on breakfast Jeff thanks to the fun crew with the hack skillz:

The whole crew hacking

Nice focus Terri!

Weekend summary: guitar hero, Shank’s, hacky sack, disc golf, coffee, margaritas, squash, Superbowl party, Rock Band, ultimate. All the makings of a great (but a tad tiring) weekend!