Anyway, Lindsay had an early morning work meeting with someone and then we headed out to hang out for the day.  We hit the disc golf course at the UNC campus… which is amazing.   It definitely rivals Pender Island as my favorite disc golf course…  It just has everything from the tightly wooded holes.  To wide open long shots.

One hole 15 we were walking along and I was watching the ground move below me and these beatles (as I thought they were) we’re moving really weird.  It was a very sporadic run as if they were jumping along or something… after steping on a few I decided to investigate these bugs.  Turns out they were cute little tree frogs.  I kinda felt bad for stepping on them but then we realized there were thousands of them. The little froggie is centered vertically in the picture and just left of half horizontally….  see if you can find him.

Anyway, was a fun day and we even learned a bit about UNC and NC.   Did you know UNC was the first public university in the US?  In 1789!

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.

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!

It starts at 10am on Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Parkland disc golf course (Park 96). You can get all the details and pre-register on the Alberta Disc Golf website. If you are a woman disc golfer in Calgary I recommend you come out. WOMEN PLAY FOR FREE! Also, I’m looking to defend my title and it’d be great to have some competition. It would be awkward engraving my name on a trophy if I played against myself and won. It also gives you a chance to play the private Calgary course if you haven’t already. Proceeds go to a great cause and they have some fantastic prizes.

Hope to see you there!

Editor’s note: We really didn’t send Christmas cards in 2005….but you get the point.

Yes, we have a Christmas Theme and used the word “Christmas” seven times in the last three sentences. If you don’t like it, move along. Anyway, onto the year …

Editors note: Comments from Lindsay in Red and Jeff in Green.

January

We were flying back from Hawaii (from our honeymoon) on January 1st. Oh Hawaii…What a great way to ring in the New Year!

We went to Sun Peaks for our good Friend Dylan’s 30th birthday (what an old man). It was great times with phenomenal snowboarding at Sun Peaks per usual.

February

The highlight from February was one of the highlights of the entire year: I discovered and solved my migraine mystery. Turns out the thing that was causing my migraines all along was water (or a lack thereof). Not chinooks, hormones, or exercise. Who knew? (I did) If you are reading this and suffer from migraines try drinking a ton of water. I mean drink so much water every day that you pee constantly and feel like barfing from having drank so much liquid. (No seriously, I harped on this for a while)

My migraines caused me extreme pain and suffering for years. I was on every medication under the sun (vioxx, anti-depressants, anti-seizure medication, vitamin B, others…) to prevent my migraines. The medications caused terrible side effects from dizziness, to nausea to numbness in the extremities. Not to mention the potential long-term damage I may have done by taking so much Imitrex and Maxalt to take the migraines away upon onset. They are wonder drugs but not so wonderful.

Now I just drink lots of water everyday (more if I’m exercising) and I’ve had very few migraines. Of the ones I’ve had since February, I can attribute about 90% of them to dehydration.

Anyways, sorry to hi-jack this Christmas post…but this was definitely a highlight when reviewing 2008. I guess my wishbone wish came true!

Also to note was a nice visit from Larry and Brenda in February and my publication in Nature magazine.

March

I started a company! President Jeff just had such a great ring to it that it seemed like a good idea.

He was nice enough to make his loving wife the Vice President.

In March we also attended one of the funnest parties ever: Robert’s 50th. Hard to believe anyone we play ultimate with is even close to 50…maybe in age but not in spirit. I sure hope I’m still running around (or even walking around) when I’m 50 after playing the equivalent of “tackle football without equipment” (as our chiropractor calls it) for so long.

We also welcomed a new family member, our nephew Conrad, on March 11th.

April

as a side note here. Blog’s are awesome. Seriously. The year in review is so easy to do because you can just Michael J. Fox back into time and “remember” what we did. You would think I’d remember but you’d be wrong.

Some people who read this blog may be bored from the repetition. However, those who don’t care to waste their time on our babble can just read this and treat it like the Cole’s Notes of our life recently.

May

Major highlight #2 for Lindsay: Addition to our family. After a lovely visit to see Jeff’s brother and my parents in BC,

May saw our Cat-Dog Willow enter our life. She’s was so little and cute and won my heart over. For the record (ie: Wriggs) I still don’t like cats. I like Cat-Dog’s. We call Willow our Cat-Dog because she really like to be entertained, played with and has a full routine in the morning. Cat-Dog’s are awesome

We ended May with a trip down to Bozeman, MT to have a weekend-long shower. Where we learned the game psychiatrist! So fun!

June

Brief trip to Victoria for work, but other than that, June was really uneventful, except for our Garage Sale and the Toppers Heroes for Hospice Race!

July

We made it through our first entire year of marriage this month. So far so good. That sure flew by. Seems like just yesterday I was cleaning up from the wedding…er…so maybe I was. Still working out what to do with the dress….

Another significant event in July was Regionals.

August

After all the hard work to get to Nationals, we had a disappointing finish, but I guess if you can’t be top 8, you might as well win the Ninals!

I went on a trip to Toronto and had a wonderful visit with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and my mom (who came with me). Luckily all of my extended family (with the exception of my uncle in Australia) lives in Ontario so it’s like one-stop-shopping. I also visited almost every casino in Ontario…(when in Rome).

Went to Golden with some folks for a little disc golf at Infinity’s Sports Ranch.

Also had a second medical breakthrough – discovered I needed orthodics. Solved my ankle problems, back problems and sore foot problem. Guess it makes sense, the backbone is connected to the leg bone.

September

Great times had in September. Quick weekend trip to Fernie (thanks Terri!) for some mountain biking and relaxation. In case you haven’t heard, we also went to Japan. Amazing country, friendly people and a wonderful trip! Japan is seriously cool. Such a unique place and definitely recommended and high on list of places we’d like to visit (again). Highlights include Bullet Trains, Raw Chicken and Beautiful Gardens.

October

I started working part-time at my ‘real-job’ and part-time as President Jeff. We decided that it would be a smart move because I could get a lot more done and hopefully grow the company a bit. The one question I get lots is how’s the company doing. It’s doing fine and I love all the concern people have, however, this is also one of the reasons that I never told people about my sites for quite some time. You see to get indexed in the search engines takes time (makes sense that you just can’t throw something up and be highly ranked in google). So things I’m doing now is really for the future and so it can be slow going while things are growing.

The end of October also brought Halloween, one of our favorite celebrations of the year. This year Lindsay planned a 30 days till I’m 30 party. Man was it fun. Some of the highlights include meeting our neighbours in sock feet, Egg-up, 12 (or was it more?) people shot-gunning beer (including my Pa) and Anasol.

We went to Victoria for Pumpkin Pull. It was the first time I had been back in about 5 years. So much on the UVic Campus had changed but not much around the city felt different. It still really felt like home and was hard to leave.

November

Jeff turns 30! (I’m an old man now)

Oh and squash club is back in full force which is super fun!

December

We’ve been too busy writing this post to have anything exciting happen in December. Luckily we are snowed in right now and have time for blogging.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST IN THE NEW YEAR,

LOVE JEFF AND LINDSAY (AND WILLOW)

I haven’t spent much time in Fernie at all (driven through it a ton) and it is fantastic! I forsee myself spending a bunch more time there, especially now that I discovered they have a disc golf course there. Jeff and I tried to play a course there years ago and then found out it was no longer open to the public. This weekend we were biking by some folks carrying discs and we asked them where the course is. Turns out it’s a full 18 holes with baskets! Unfortunately we didn’t have discs so we didn’t play but next time for sure. Instead we just lurked around the course, jealously heckling those that had discs and hacked and threw a frisbee around.

We got out biking twice. The bike trails are freaking fantastic in Fernie. I find the trails in Calgary only mediocre and it seems to go anywhere good you have to drive for an hour. In Fernie we left the car at the condo and could bike to the trailhead. We biked around by the aquatic centre on Sidewinder (exactly as it sounds…lots of fun switchbacks) and Broken Derailer. That wasn’t enough for Heather and Jeff so they headed up for another go. I was out of water and Terri had hiked 30km the day before, so we headed back and that’s when we discovered the disc golf course.

On the second day we started from Mount Fernie Park and headed towards a lodge. The trail had a ton of roots on it and was soooo much fun. I think I may have liked it more than Jeff as my full suspension was awesome!!!

It was such a fun weekend that I thought it was a long weekend. Lots of good eats (chips…yum!), good biking and good friends. You can read Heather’s take on the weekend too!

Here are some pics of the good times:

Getting ready

Terri braving the boardwalk

Jeff on the boardwalk

Driving down the highway with our reattached bike rack

Heather and biking funsies

Spent the long weekend in Golden. Stayed at Brad’s hostel (Kicking Horse Hostel). Saturday we headed up to Infinity’s sport ranch and finally met Mr. Solstice Bright Wizard of Destiny. He is busy renovating is house, but was able to fit in a few holes golfing with us. Got a chance to play the new holes, including a basket as well as the Packer’s Ace. No aces out of the 38 holes, which is suprising eventhough we all finished very low.

Disc golf was slightly delayed due to major incompitence. Two “idiot girls” staying at the hostel decided to take Tim and Kir’s dogs downtown golden (across the highway) for a walk. Then they decided to have breakfast and leave the dogs on their own in town. Maggie was able to make it back across the highway unharmed, thankfully, but Kody decided to stay downtown a little longer. After an hour of searching (2 cars, 1 bike and 2 people walking around town), he had turned himself in and we found him on the courthouse steps. He had a huge gouge on his leg and had been bleeding. Since there are no vets working on the long weekend, Infinity fixed Kody up until he could go see a vet back in Calgary.

Sunday also saw a few loopholes before heading out for a bike ride. First hurdle: 4 degrees. Brrrr. Didn’t plan for that. Second hurdle, busted valve while pumping up tires. Then, 1km into the ride, another flat!!! Decided to cut the ride short as the world didn’t want us biking. Played around on an ATV track which was fun.

All in all a fun weekend with friends.

Thanks to Conrad and Sara for checking on Willow while we were gone!

Happy Labour day everyone.

Our trip started off in the Okanagan where we played in an ultimate tournament, Sunflicker. It was a tryout for Bronco and we had enough people to submit two full teams: Bronco and OcnorB. The weather was perfect and both teams did really well. Bronco made it to the semi-finals and Ocnorb to the quarter-finals.

From Kelowna, we went to met our new nephew Conrad. Jeff’s brother Kevin and Tamara live in Princeton and have their hands full! New baby Conrad, cute Sage (who’s now 3 and full of energy), a rabbit, a guinea pig, fish, a bird, a cat and a puppy!!!

We stayed in Princeton for 3 nights. Played some disc golf on Kevin’s property (9 holes with tonal poles) and pretty much vegged out and recuperated from the tournament.

From Princeton we drove to Thrums (outside Nelson) to visit my dad and stepmom. There we went mountainbiking, disc golfing, played euchre and cruising along Baker street for the day. After a great visit, it was time to head to my mom and stepdad’s place in Genelle (outside of Trail).  We got to see mom and Doug’s new trailer…they warned us the they were trailer trash but it was anything but! The trailer was gorgeous and we made ourselves right at home. We went mountainbiking but it was stort-lived as I’m pretty sure I saw a cougar running through the bushes and totally freaked out so we left. Jeff, of course, remained calm and made me get on my bike and get the hell out of dodge.

We came back from BC with something. Do the quiz and then check back in a few days for the answer:

a.) a new full suspension bike for Jeff

b.) a kitten

c.) a new windshield

d.) a tent trailer

p.s. Happy Mother’s day to our moms Jackie, Susan and Brenda!

Not much to report. All done our training sessions and we survived all 10 weeks (Jeff and I had perfect attendance)!  It was a fantastic program and it has left just enough time for us to eat chips and get back out of shape before the weather gets nice enough to play.

In other news it’s Easter which means a long weekend!!! My parents will be in town for a visit so we’ll be doing a little bit of shopping as well as playing some disc golf at forest lawn.  Should be fun!

Here’s a great picture of Jeff inspired by the big Canuck’s win over the Oilers tonight! Looking good Jeff.

While I’m putting up pictures, might as well finally put up the ones of us painting!

And the final product:

However, I came in first and won a trophy!!!

It wasn’t really fair since I have been playing disc golf for 6 years and Jill and Jana just started, but we all got pretty cool prizes. I won the trophy (have to get it engraved and return it next year) and an ultimate bag. Jana came in second and won a t-shirt and a wooden frisbee and Jill won a frisbee. Jeff and Mark played really well but were in a more competitive division.

The wooden disc that Jana won is so cool and we had put a bid on one at the silent auction (got outbid by $1 in the last minutes..grrr) so Jana was nice enough to trade me the ultimate bag for the wooden frisbee. You can see a picture along with some other pictures from the day on our picasa site.

The tournament was a huge success. We raised over $5000 and a bunch of food for the foodbank and the women’s shelter. The tournament takes place in cities all over Canada and you should really consider checking it out next year if you play. Jeff and I will be there for sure, as I have a title to defend!