The Sills » canada

The Sills go to the Olympics

Linds — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:23:19 +0000

We made a last minute trip to Vancouver this weekend for the Olympics since it seemed like a shame not to drive 4 hours to join the festivities. We left Friday morning and spent the day wandering around the sites. The first stop was Granville Island to check out some of the Olympic houses. Got off to a bit of a disappointing start with the Atlantic house. Waited over an hour (which from talking to people wouldn’t even be considered a wait since most lines were 5+ hours) and upon entering we got an oyster, saw some flyers and got our picture taken.

Expected more….like beer or lobster, but was nice to try oysters again since my first experience in Hawaii with them wasn’t so great. Maybe I just like Atlantic oysters.

Friday I think was the first rainy day and it rained ALL day. We watched the men’s semifinal hockey game downtown in a crowd in Robson square. We only lasted one period and were soaked (with rain, and probably sweat from the last 3 stressful minutes of the game) and decided to head to a house party. On the way we got distracted by a warm sushi restaurant with a big tv and beer…so it was an obvious choice and a great place to see Canada pull off a win, by the skin of their teeth, against Slovakia.

Saturday we checked out the cauldron and the German House. Was fun to just wander the streets with thousands of other tourists. I feel like we managed to see a lot in a short period of time. We even caught a pirate protest.

We made it back to Kelowna in time to play indoor ultimate. It’s at a new indoor facility 5 minutes from our house on turf! The level of play was really good. Went out for beers with a few folks after (trying to find a league team

Spent today the same as the rest of Canada…watching the best hockey game ever! I’m hoping that after this game people stop talking about the 2002 gold medal game. I was in Guatemala at the time and spent an entire day walking around the small town I was in looking for the game. No dice…just lots of laughs from people asking me if I was Canadian. I’m just glad I caught this game. It was amazing! The closing ceremonies were quite good but I think it’s only a result of such a good Olympics and wonderful stories along the way. Luckily we got our cable hooked up just in time so I caught most of our victories but it was nice to relive them tonight. The highlight for me was Avril Lavigne’s performance. The Japanese were going crazy during her show. It reminded me of our trip to Japan where girls there are fanatically for Avril with her name spewed all over their t-shirts and backpacks.

Jeff and I were trying to guess the next artist. I really thought it would be Celine, but she never appeared. Being the geek that I am, I immediately Googled “why didn’t Celine show up to the Olympics?”. Some of the hits I got were quite funny “her ego wouldn’t fit in the arena” or “she got stuck in a very long poutine line up”….but then I felt bad for laughing once I found out the real reason – she’s trying to procreate. We were wrong on all of our guesses….in terms of why she wasn’t there as well as who the next artist would be.

I am so very sad the Olympics are over. The only good thing about it is that now we can get some much needed things done around the house. Here’s some photos of our trip to Olympics 2010:

Watching hockey in rainy Robson square

A Dylan sandwich at the harbour front

Update from the Sill house

Linds — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:39:16 +0000

Has been ages since my last post. That is probably a good thing and means we’ve been busy.

Got out for a round of real (ball) golf on Canada day. Weather cooperated, which was nice since the greens sure weren’t. The good news is that thanks to some really great chipping lessons and tips, and a night of practicing chipping at the park, my chipping game is really coming along. I think eating lots of chips has also helped

The Monday after Canada day, we took off up to Edmonton to see Green Day. **spoiler alert**.The Green day concert was absolutely wicked. They play for 2 hrs and 15 minutes and I loved every minute of it and was sad when it was over. Billie Joe was so full energy spraying the crowd with water, faking orgasms, bringing people up on stage to sing-you can read the full review of the Vancouver show (same as Edmonton) here. Not sure if it was the acoustics or the band or both, but their pitch was spot the entire show of singing and screaming. They started by playing their entire new album, 21st Century Breakdown. We bought that album a while back and I just couldn’t get into it. Then I saw it live and loved it! Actually, I’m listening to it right now. After playing the whole album they went old school and played songs from Dookie and Good Riddance. As with Offspring, I expected them to be out of their prime and I was so wrong. I’d say that they are completely in their prime and if you get the chance to see them on this tour you should definitely go . I’m so glad we went with the floor tickets. Jeff and I are venturing to say that was one of our favorite concerts ever. Edmonton is a bit of a dive downtown but we stayed at the Westin (which nice and we used Hotwire for the first time), caught dinner at a pub before the show and then spent the next day at West Edmonton mall.

Upon our return from Edmonton we were in full swing of Stampede here in Calgary. Managed to catch a few pancake breakfasts (probably an unhealthy amount), take in our favorite event of Cattle penning, saw sheep herding for the first time, and took in the chuckwagon races and grandstand show. They were advertising an “all new” grandstand show this year and I’d agree that it was new and way better than past years. They have cut down the amount the singing and dancing from the Young Canadians and have added an edgy comedian and way more action. It’s more like a cirque de soleil now instead of a bad Vegas musical. And they definitely did not cheap out on the fireworks this year. As I was watching them I was wishing I had an extra eye like the Simpson’s fish.

Saving Luna

Linds — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:18:39 +0000

Who’s Luna? He’s the cutest whale ever (and I think Willow in whale form…way too friendly and clingy for an animal). Jeff and I watched the documentary last night and I highly recommend seeing it. It is a story of an orca whale living on the West Coast of Vancouver island who loves to make friends with humans. And the best news is that if you missed it you can catch it again tomorrow on CBC:

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/thelens/2009/savingluna/

Saving Luna

Thanks for the great recommendation Sue — we loved it! So neat that you know the people who made it. I sure wish I met Luna. I imagine it was a lot like swimming with the dolphins in Hawaii.

If you tune in, be sure to bring some kleenex (and a dart board as you may need to get out some vented anger midway when you hear the ridiculous opinions of some people involved).

Painting

Linds — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:58:07 +0000

Not much new…just painting our spare room and Jeff’s bathroom. After 4.5 years of living in our house, we decided we can’t stand the beige/pink interior in every room. Two years ago we painted our bedroom chocolate brown. Now, the spare room is yellow. Nice and bright for our guests, but not too comfortable such that they outstay their welcome

Rona had a fantastic sale, buy 2 cans get one free, so we bought 6. That should keep us busy painting for a while. I find the most difficult part choosing the colors. Finally decided on red wine and sandrock in the kitchen. Should spruce things up a little. Great thing about paint is that if it looks like crap you just paint over it! Will post photos later.

The Canadian renovations tax credit was also a huge incentive. Maybe we’ll do some other renos while we are at it.

So far so good!

Linds — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:50:38 +0000

Japan is treating us well, considering we don’t know the language at all and are probably pissing off people on a daily basis with our lack of cultural know-how.
Jeff loves how any sense of politeness goes out the window. “No thank you” quickly turns to “No” and any form of greeting turns into a bow, which is easier than formulating a sentence.
We really thought that by arriving in Tsukuba and attending this conference would ease us into the Japanese culture. We were really wrong on that one. We’ve had to just dive right in. Very few people in this city of 200,000 speak English. We’re fine if we can point to pictures on a menu. However, yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant and the waitress did not speak English and the entire menu was in Japanese characters. We were screwed! We pulled out our little dictionary and learned the phrase “What do you recommend?” She pointed to something on the menu, we nodded our heads and waited in anticipation for what was going to arrive. Out comes noodles with pesto and prawns. Phewf! It was delicious. One of the best meals Jeff and I have ever had! That worked out!
The rest of the meals have not been such a success, but we are surviving, Jeff better than me since I’m a bit more picky….For example, I’m not such a fan of hot and cold served together or having my food touch. These two concepts go out the window here. In fact, they’ll just pile hot and cold things on top of each other.
Another things we’ve noticed here is how small the portions are…then we realized that they are an ideal size and don’t promote over-eating like in Canada or the States. We leave every meal satisfied, but not full. Probably good for us and that’s probably why every person here looks fantastic and fit. Obesity is not an issue at all. We’ve only seen one larger person in the whole time that we’ve been here.
Went to the welcome reception for the conference last night. Had some beer and met a few really nice people. The conference doesn’t have much going on today and it’s raining out so we’re just doing some work in our hotel room (I’m doing Cybera stuff and Jeff’s working on his company) and then we’re heading off to the Expo and Planetarium this afternoon.
It gets dark here really early, at around 6pm every night. Had I know that, I would have stayed in the hotel closer to the conference centre. Instead, it’s a 10 minute walk and Jeff has been escorting me there so I don’t walk by myself in the dark. I wouldn’t mind though since this town is extremely safe. It feels way safer than Calgary!
Back to work and then time to explore Tsukuba a little more!

Nationals Day 3

Linds — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:00:42 +0000

Well, if we couldn’t have top 8, Bronco took 9th!

First game was a blow out against Wannebego from Quebec. We didn’t play very well, but didn’t have to and won 15-4. The highlight of that game was some chick counting stalls to me in french.

Game 2 was super windy. We played Tundra and traded points for a while, then pulled away and won.

Game 3. Gecko. Because we like to stay consistent, we made nine-als (game for 9,10) way closer and exciting than it had to be. Ended up winning 11-9 in a time cap. Luckily Gecko spent so much time arguing with us, that they ran out of time!

All in all a fabulous nationals. Bronco played very well. I would have liked to have finished top 4, but we just couldn’t pull off a few key wins. Jeff and I had a super fun time. Maybe next year….

Now I’m Toronto visiting my family and putting the calories back on that I lost at Nats. Jeff is probably doing the same (back on the chips!) and taking care of Willow.

Canadian Ultimate Frisbee Nationals

Linds — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:03:19 +0000

Jeff and I will be representing Alberta at Canadian Ultimate Championships (CUC) this week. This year Nationals are being held in Calgary from Aug 14-17. If you are interested in checking it out you should drop by the fields one day. It’s a great opportunity to watch the highest caliber ultimate in Canada.

There are 5 different divisions being played at 2 locations in Calgary (Calgary Rugby Union and Glenmore Athletic Park) on 16 different fields (1500 athletes in total).

We are in the Mixed Division and our team name is BRONCO.

On Thursday we will play at Glenmore 8:30 AM (field 8), 10:15 am (field and 13:45 (field 7).

We will play again on Friday, it does depend on our Thursday finish. Most likely (fingers crossed) we will play at Calgary Rubgy Union at 8:30, 10:15 and 13:45.

On Saturday our first game will be at 8:30 am at Glenmore and subsequent games are dependent on how we do.

For information on field locations and the schedulte or just to follow our progress, you can visit the CUC website at: http://calgary2008.com

Games are played to 15 points or 90 minutes (which ever comes first). You can watch all games for free on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. If you do come by bring a chair, sunscreen and find some space on the sideline.

We will probably be pretty busy playing so might not get to say hi if you do drop by, but we appreciate the support.

Go BRONCO Go!!!!

If you’d like to volunteer on Thursday or Friday, it would be greatly appreciated and please email volunteer@calgary2008.com.

Also, happy birthday to both Larry (Jeff’s dad) and Scott Millar! Hope you both had a great day.