I joined club 3-0 last week. I’ve been told by the experienced 30-somethings that it’s like club med but instead of rides, med stands for the medications my aching joints will need (nice one Makar)!

For my birthday this year I got three awesome surprises -  lunch, 30 presents in a box and a guitar!!! Last year my friends at the university planned a surprise “Lindsay day” and we had a picnic lunch. “Apparently” I was fairly resistant to the whole thing and asked way too many questions and made the surprise difficult. However, this year, I didn’t notice a thing or question when Jana wanted to go for a walk to External Relations on campus (carrying what later was revealed to be an empty envelope), using that as a way to get me to the atrium for my surprise lunch. We even walked by the atrium and Jana said “oh, there’s Jeff” and I said “strange, I wonder who he’s having lunch with…”. So I have a couple theories: either I’m dumber than last year, or I’m more laid back. Let’s go with laid back We had soup, salad and sandwiches. Heather was even able to make it since she was in town for the holidays so that was a fun surprise.

Larry and Brenda were pretty clever this year. Must be all that time spent coming up with things to keep Sage and Conrad busy. They sent 30 presents that I had to open in sequential order. They were a trip down memory lane. They started with a bib for age one, shoe laces for age 5, keychain for 16, booze for 19. Each present had significance to a particular age. 28 represented our wedding and 29 our kitty.  Thirty presents are sure a lot to open so I must be old. Was really neat and very thoughtful – thanks L & B!

Jeff bought me an acoustic guitar. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play. I tried to learn once in university but then my roommate with the guitar moved out. Then I picked it up last Christmas in Kamloops with Larry. It just seems that every time I start to get the hang of it, I was time for me to surrender the borrowed guitar.

The first day was rough. I could practice for about 3 minutes before my fingers were bleeding. I really need to build up some calluses. In between home renos I’ve been practicing a bit more and toughening up my fingers so I can play for about an hour now. It doesn’t sound good by any means. I am a two hit wonder right now: This land is your land and Free Falling. I’m also working on Walk the Line by Johnny Cash. We bought a book and Jeff is also learning. Eventually we will buy an electric guitar and jam. For now, we’ll just work on our C chord.

Rock on.

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.

Went to see the Killers concert two Sundays ago in Calgary. They were fantastic and I recommend seeing them if you get the chance. I forced Jeff into going with me since we were getting off a plane from Vancouver and had to bust down to the Saddledome after landing. It would have been way more complicated to bring someone else so he came along against his will. He ended up really liking the show and was so glad he came. Our seats were super crappy but it was funny since we were 7 seats away from Mauri and 17 seats away from Scott…what are the chances with 11, 000 people in the Saddledome that we would all be in the same row? The sound in the Saddledome was brutal at the start but got better as it went on. How unfortunate since they were bang on with pitch and the only reason it wasn’t perfect was the acoustics. It was an all ages show and it’s interesting to see how the times have changed. On the slow songs all the young ones pull out their cell phones and wave them around. Cellphones, the new lighter.

In other news, life is slowly returning to normal. Funding proposal at work got submitted on time (with an hour to spare even!). Now I’m just playing catch up from all the work that got tossed by the weigh-side for the last two weeks (at work and at home). How convenient that a) our dishwasher decided to break b) inlaws are coming for the weekend and I can’t really see the spare bed because of the laundry. I guess they should just be lucky that we haven’t had to resort to piling dishes up in their room yet. Yet….. c) I don’t give a crap about all the stuff I have to do. I’m taking Friday afternoon off to go golfing!!!

Jeff and I got a golf gift certificate to a really nice course in Kananaskis for our wedding and plan to use it this summer now that we have all this spare time not spent playing ultimate. We are booked for August 14th so we have till then to get decent (by we, I mean me). We got out golfing last weekend at Highland Park (really cheap – $12 but you get what you pay for…greens? I’ve played on smoother ultimate fields) and my ball was drawn to every fairway but the one I should be using. We’re off to Cochrane this week to give it another shot, literally. Might as well get out and enjoy the spring rates!

Very exciting week coming up. Four days till we leave for Japan. The time should fly by as I’ll be super busy planning my company’s annual conference and Jeff’s trying to meet grant deadlines and write papers.

Good thing we haven’t left packing and planning this trip to the last minute…or have we?

Another super fun weekend, leaving no time to get organized. Hung out with our buddy Dylan since we was in town for work. Saturday we went disc golfing at Forest Lawn since it was a gorgeous day. Saturday evening we spent at a quick stop by Tim and Kir’s going away party as they are sadly moving to Whitehorse. We will miss them tons but they should be back often and now we have an excuse to travel up North!

After the party we went to a concert and saw Less than Jake and Reel Big Fish. You might be thinking “who?”…that was a popular reaction from everyone at the party who has never heard of either band.

They are both Ska bands, a mix between punk and big band and you can listen to them on YouTube: [youtube I0e6LUTjzX0]

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We were so pumped to to see LTJ, as we had never seen them before and we love them. What a disappointment!!!! They were terrible. At first we thought it was just the acoustics in Mac Hall, but we had seen concerts there before that sounded fine. At one point a song was just about over and I realized it was a song I knew. They were entertaining, although nasty at times, and definitely not appropriate for an all ages show. To be fair, it was the lead singer’s 32nd birthday so he was indulging a little… I think I’ll stick to listening to their CD’s from now on.

As for RBF, they did not disappoint. We have seen Reel Big Fish 3 times before (once with Goldfinger, once with Suburban Legends, once on their own) and this was definitely their best show. The determined for us that is was not the concert hall that sound bad, it was infact LTJ that sucked. They were so high energy and upbeat. Great show! I highly recommending seeing them if you are even remotely into ska of if you just have an appreciation for live music.

At least the crowd was entertaining during LTJ. One chick spent the entire evening taking bad photos. She never even tried changing her camera settings or taking the flash off. Bad photo after bad photo. She had Jeff and I laughing pretty hard most of the show. She must have taken 100 terrible photos. It was the best when the lead singer would come to the edge of the stage and she’d click the button just in time for him to turn his back and walk away. Timing wasn’t her strong suit.

As people got tossed from the mosh pit from crowd surfing, the bouncers would grab them. The first offense resulted in a marking on your arm, and the second time you were tossed from the concert. These bouncers didn’t mess around. Permanent marker, thick tip, 4 times up and down your arm. Saw a few dudes trying to wipe it off and head back to the pit. Yeah, good luck with that.

Had Mary Anne and Robert over for dinner. Was a fun evening (Jeff made fajitas) but now it’s time to hit the hay! Four more sleeps