Posts from — June 2009

Finished fourth overall (out of 6) but was very happy to make it to the semis. We ended up losing to the team that won the entire tournament.

Was good to play with different people and learn things. Neat that in our eighth season of playing, we are still able to learn a ton.

Good times had by all. Now we can ramp down and get ready to peak again for our next tournament in October

In other news, our cat caught her second mouse tonight, but unlike last time, she didn’t let this one get away. She played with it for 2 hours in the backyard. I felt bad for the little rodent, but we just let nature take it’s course. Hopefully they get the message and move out of our compost.

Went 2 and 2 on Saturday. Our team got progressively better as the day went on as we got to know each other’s playing styles. It is a random mix of people. Make that super fun and talented people.

Off to the fields now…should be a good day and we have a pretty good shot at the semi’s. Ok, time to quit procrastinating…and get going.

….not sure why this didn’t post on Friday like planned….arg.
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Kind of a random collection of blogs in one since we haven’t blogged in a while. My dad refers to many random thoughts grouped together as a “blogette”, so maybe that’s what we’ll call this (although dorks everywhere will probably disagree as they call a small blog a blogette, and now that I’ve been rambling already about this, this blog will probably be anything but small.

Biked home on Friday and flew to Vancouver. On my way biking home two little girls were walking by and shouted to me “thanks for saving our Earth”…very cute and also ironic as they walked along drinking from their disposable slurppy cups. We went to Vancouver for Jeff’s cousin Lynette and Arjuna’s wedding (congrats newlyweds). Jeff’s parents picked us up at the airport and we went to Steveston for dinner to Dave’s Place. It’s a little hole in the wall but the best fish and chips I have ever had (sorry fishies). You can read all about the lovely wedding and see pictures on the sillylog.com. One thing Larry and Brenda didn’t mention about the wedding was that Jeff’s cousin Val was there . Val won the UPA College tournament with UBC last year, which is a big deal. She was nice enough to trade us frisbees for one of her winning discs. Not sure it’s a trade if one person doesn’t take theirs…but we have a really sweet UPA winner’s frisbee. It was fun to play cups (or fricket) with her and the rest of Jeff’s family. Since it was an afternoon wedding, we were able to hit up all you can eat sushi at Shabusan (sorry again fishies…) and left completely satisfied and disgustingly full. As were walking along the street my friend Spud (Eric) spotted Jeff and I and he happened to be going to the same place we were, to our buddy Biller’s (Ryan) place. Eric took us there and back on the bus and even paid our bus fare since we seemed to be completely useless. Dylan came over to Ryan’s to visit as well. Ryan and Alyssa just had the cutest little girl, Olivia who is 8 months old. Luckily we got there early enough to visit with Olivia before bedtime. I think my arms are still sore from being a human jungle gym. We had a great visit with everyone (even Beettle who popped by for a little bit). Had a few beers and a lot of laughs! Was sad to leave as we don’t get to visit them very often when we go to Van since it’s normally for a hectic ultimate tournament or something.

We were staying right downtown on Robson at the Blue Horizon, so on Sunday we went for brunch with Jeff’s aunt and uncle and then walked along English Bay. The weather was sunny and perfect. Great weekend in Van.

On Monday we held a zone ultimate clinic for calgary ultimate association. The weather was not so nice so although 35 people RSVP’d only 9 showed up. Luckily when you play zone it is better if it is windy, so that worked out for the purposes of teaching. Very keen group and apart from the low attendance, it went well.

Tuesday was my soccer league’s wind up party. Sad that the season is over (Thursday was my last official soccer game) but it was super fun. As it turns out, there is women’s pickup soccer from now until October on Tuesday nights so I’m pumped that I can keep playing. Women of all levels from around the city are welcome, so come out to Scenic Acres fields (behind the community centre, intersection of Scenic Acres Blvd. and Scurfield Way, NW) on Tuesday’s at 7pm. Just bring a light and dark shirt and shin pads.

Wednesday was a sad day as we had to say “see ya later” to our dearest friend Heather who moved to Toronto on Thursday. We had league so we made her some goodbye pies (being on pi it was only suitable) and had a mini party afterwards with beer, spitz and hack. We will miss her tons, but it’s a good move on her part! Plus, playing frisbee is great since you get to see all your friends at tournaments often.

On Thursday was my last soccer game and we ended up playing 5 on 5 so it was ton of running but super casual and fun.

That brings us to today….we are getting ready for our first ultimate tournament of the season. We’ve decided to cut back and only play two this year (as opposed to one summer where we played about 15 tournaments). The tournament is in Calgary (Ho Down) and we play at Glenmore Athletic park on Saturday (10-5) and at the Calgary Rugby Union on Sunday (11:30-?). If you want to see some high caliber ultimate (maybe not personally, but in general), come check it out. Our team name is Ridgemont High and it’s a fun mix of people from Calgary, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

Should probably hit the hay as tomorrow will be rough…..

Were fortunate to check out The Offspring in concert on Friday. This has been a dream of mine to see this band for years! They have never put out an album I didn’t love. Some might argue that they had a few flops (Splinter for one), but I’ve loved it all. They have been putting albums out since 1990, so I wouldn’t exactly say they are in their ‘prime’ but that’s where expectations come into play (or should I say come out and play

I went in expecting to see a great band with wicked songs that are just beyond their prime, so I LOVED it. If we went in expecting it to be 1994 and hearing Self Esteem for the first time, we would have been very disappointed. In retrospect we should have gone in expecting it to be a horrible show, much like Jeff did with the Killers. He expected to be bored and was blown away. Having said that, I’d say the Killers are in their prime.

The crowd did not disappoint. Our seats were perfect for watching the mosh pit and the punk characters that the show drew. The crowd was full of energy from start to finish. As we were emptying the stadium the crowd was still yelling, singing, high-fiving and super energetic – I felt like we had just won the Stanley cup (WAY TO GO PENS!).

How flattering when a band gets drown out by the crowd of thousands screaming their lyrics? That’s the highlight of live music for sure. We got to sing the key part of “Bad Habit”. Another highlight of seeing Offspring is the Intermission. They played their song intermission and brought out beachballs – brilliant! During the show the lead singer Dexter brought out a piano and played “Gone Away” and that was pretty sweet.
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Got us pumped up to see Green Day next month- another band on the list.

This weekend we popped down to Lethbridge for a whirlwind visit with my dad and Susan. They were in LA (Lethbridge, Alberta not to be confused with Los Angeles) visiting their good friends Cathy and Albert. We were joined with Jane and Ray, visiting them from Brooks. The 8 of us went golfing at a cute little par 3, Bridge Valley. Jeff and I golfed with my dad and Susan and I think we all learned a lot:

-I learned that chipping is the biggest flaw in my game. I’m a powerhouse.
-Susan learned a ton since she’s an amazing listener and is a sponge when it comes to golf. I could see her game improving right in front of my eyes as we played.
-My dad learned that he shouldn’t try to compete with someone 25 years younger than him.
-Jeff learned that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and he’s pretty sure what side of the family my competitive nature comes from. Jeff put on a golfing clinic and blew us all out of the water (although I will say he got off to a slow start and was losing to my dad at one point.)

We all went for lunch at the Paradise Canyon clubhouse (a very nice course, and we pretended that we golfed there) and then over to Cathy’s daughter’s place for a quick visit. It was great to finally meet Kristy and her partner Scott as I’ve heard so much about Christy over the years and how similar we are. They have a gorgeous new showhome in LA and are expecting in the fall – Congrats!

Then, off to Cathy and Albert’s to sit in the backyard and enjoy the gorgeous weather that apparently LA gets and we don’t. Here’s a pic from their lovely yard:

In the backyard at Cathy & Albert's

The train

Susan & Lindsay at Bridge Valley

Thanks for the fabulous day!

Have so many blogs to write but we are doing many fun things lately and have no time to blog about them.

Last weekend we helped out with an ultimate 201 clinic that Jeff organized with help from the Calgary Ultimate Association. This was part 2 of 3 clinics we are teaching. The first one was the basics: throwing, catching, learning the rules. The second part was teaching basic offense and defense. The third part will be discussing zone offense and defense. Feels good to give back to the ultimate community since so many people taught us over the years. Thanks to the nine hardcore people who came out to learn through snow, rain, wind and hail last weekend!

After the clinic we decided to do some much needed yardwork as we attempt to put our yard back together from project sprinkler. The weather has really not been cooperating and thus the process is taking a long time. Once again, we were out there and were forced inside by the crappy June weather. We looked up and saw the sky turn gray and by the time we could gather our tools it was dumping hail. Check out this video:
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I was kind of happy to be forced inside as I was fighting a loosing battle with the dandelions. Jeff had spent 1 hour manually removing them and I got out there and if I didn’t see him doing it, I would have thought he was napping and not doing a thing. Then I spent another 2 hours pulling the bloody things out and haven’t even touched a quarter of our lawn. I swear they are popping up new ones during the time I’m pulling them out. Somebody really needs to find a use for dandelions other than for the bees.

After our yardwork last Saturday we went out to celebrate our dear friends Aubree and Amanda’s 30th birthday party (they are twins so it was a double celebration). Amanda and her boyfriend Casey came up from Seattle and it was so great to finally meet him and I’m so happy for them! Drinks and ice cream cake followed by a bit of dancing at the Mercury made for a fun birthday! It has definitely been a long while since I went dancing (probably since Amanda left for Seattle) but I almost got in a fight with the doorman when he told Jeff and I it would be $7 each for us to go in and listen to their loud music and drink their $13 martinis. Ouch!

Jeff and Amanda

Remember back in March when I announced the great race of 2009? Well, we finally have a winner!   Congrats to Curbside Recycling for beating the Crowfoot C-train.  It was a very close race and are only a few days apart.

Thursday was our very first curbside pick-up.   Unfortunately we were only able to put about 1/4 of all our plastics in the first load.  Which means we still have a garage full of plastics. At this rate we’ll have a plastic free garage by July!  The C-train grand opening is happening on Saturday morning with full service commencing Monday morning.  As you can see only 2 days separated the two events.  I wonder if they knew the race was happening and tried to make it close on purpose?   Sure was exciting!

Let’s all congratulate the city of Calgary for coming into the year 2000.  Curbside recycling and a public transportation system that is actually becoming more useful to the 100K+ people who live in the NW.

…at least that’s what my neighbour told me happens when you score a hat trick in soccer.

It’s true, I scored 3 nice goals on Tuesday night. That’s enough scoring for one night if you ask me….

Warning this is going to be a rather random post.  Why?  Because it’s our blog and sometimes this is the stuff that we Sills talk about.  No seriously, some of our conversations should really be taped as they’re both funny and pointless.  As an aside: I wonder if the word ‘taped’ is going to become obsolete as people don’t tend to ‘tape’ things anymore.  Should I use PVR instead?   People should PVR our conversations… ?!?! Anyway….

One of my favorite episodes of Family Guy is the one where the family all gets ’super powers’.  Peter gets the ability to change into any shape, Stewie gets to use his brain to do whatever he wants and Meg is able to grow her fingernails really fast.   (I tried to find the Youtube video but couldn’t get it)

I was thinking the other day about my super power.  I think it would be the ability to grow one eyebrow hair really long.  Either that or having two different sized feet.

I’m still trying to figure out Lindsay’s super power.  My initial hunch is that it’s the ability to not absorb water very good … but that doesn’t really seem like a very superhero like power.  It could be the ability to walk really loud too but that’s been fixed with orthodics.  Upon thinking about this for longer (yes, I actually thought about this… and had a little help from Lindsay) Lindsay’s super power is her sense of taste and smell.  Yesterday I had a bannana in the back of our car in my bag and she asked by our car smells like banana.

Willow’s superpower is the ability to be relentless.  If she wants your attention she’ll get it.

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that us Sills are a dangerous bunch we won’t able to see you or sneak up on you but we’ll be able to smell you and bug you relentlessly.

End random message…. Now back to regular programming.

As promised, I have finally uploaded my pictures from our weekend in SC (sorry for the delay but I have a few computer issues lately – mouse and keyboard on my laptop are both broken). We drove from Raleigh to Myrtle Beach on Friday after the conference. Google maps said it would take 3.5 hours and we thought we could make it in less time than that, but no dice. Slow going as we approached Myrtle as people were coming in droves for the weekend. We even got an early start thanks to the fire alarm going off in our hotel.

We hit the Nike outlet store on the way for a little break. I decided to get some new running shoes as the last pair I bought was in 2002. Either they make them very well these days or I don’t run enough.

We stayed at the Caribbean Resort & Villas. Highly recommended. Great location (right on ocean) and close to the Broadway at the beach, which we frequented often for dinner/mini golf/walking around.

So many great stories about the folks we encountered, food we ate, things we saw people carting into the hotel rooms,etc. We also learned that Myrtle Beach is a huge party town.

Unfortunately our visit was short as we had to leave Sunday AM at 6am to catch our flight back in Raleigh. It was nice to swim in the Atlantic (Jeff’s first time), play in the waves, toss the frisbee around and get a bit of sun. We even got some color (red wasn’t quite what we were going for….). Here are some pictures from our mini-vacation:

View from our hotel balcony

Lindsay waving from the pool

Birds over the Atlantic

Our hotel room at Caribbean Resort

Jeff enjoying his coffee on the balcony

The bowling pin shaped pool

Umbrellas on the beach

View along the beach from balcony

A visit from whales one morning (look closely)!

The lazy river