After the conference, Jill, Mark, Jill and I got away to Vegas for few days. When you are burnt out Vegas isn’t the best place to go as it’s not very relaxing, but it sure is fun.

The first day we went disc golfing. We played the first round as a group and then Jill and I went shopping and to the pool while the guys stayed to play several more rounds. It was a hot sunny day and then the weather went to crap. Went to the Hoover Dam the next day and to the outlet mall. That evening was spent at Penn and Teller. Great show. I always wondered if Teller was really a mute or not, and I got an answer at the show. He just acts as a mute but he can actually speak. They are magicians who show you a few tricks afterwards, which is cool.

New bridge being constructed at Hoover Dam

The next night we went out for a really nice dinner at Mix, on the 64th floor of Mandalay Bay. Expensive, but worth it! I got lucky the first night on the slot machines and Jeff did well at blackjack on the last day and made $150 killing time before our flight. For once we actually came home with money from Vegas.

Having just got back from Vegas, we had a pretty low key Halloween. I dressed up as an M&M and Jeff as Flash. We got about 60 kids. We carved pumpkins…Jeff had to buy the biggest pumpkin he could find and I bought a medium sized one. My mom grew one this summer and gave it to us, so it seemed obvious to carve a pumpkin in a pumpkin in a pumpkin:

We also made pumpkin seeds, but instead of roasting them and then just sprinkling them in salt, we soaked them overnight in a salt brine. By far the best roasted pumpkin seeds we’ve ever made! We also made a huge batch of pumpkin soup and pumpkin muffins. I don’t think carving pumpkins are the most ideal for cooking and baking, but the soup and muffins turned out pretty good.

Just had dinner with my sister and Matt. Next post, I’ll tell you if she’s having a boy or a girl and post some pics.

I’m back! Now that my conference is over life can return to normal. Sorry to everyone that I may have ignored for the last several months. If an email or a phone call was not related to the conference, I probably just ignored it. My apologies for anniversaries, birthdays, etc that also got missed.

The good news is that the conference went well! It was in Banff and we had people come from all over the world, including a guy who came from Iran and brought me a present. He gave me hand crafted container to say thanks for helping with his visa. In the end we had 450 register for the conference. Jeff and I also got to see people we met in Munich and Japan at the last couple of conferences we went to.

It was wonderful to be out in Banff for the week. Jeff joined me on Wednesday night since he has Thursdays and Fridays off. We managed to fit a game of squash in and it was an eye opener. I guess it’s hard to stay in shape when you’re at a computer for 14 hours a day. We must have been playing with a triple yellow ball

Right from Banff we headed to Lethbridge with Mark for a disc golf tournament. It was a bit much to wake up at 6am and drive to LA, but that’s the least I could do to spend some time with my husband who I have been neglecting lately. We played 36 holes on Saturday and 27 on Sunday. Saturday it was 24 degrees, which was pretty extreme considering it was -21 degrees the previous weekend in Banff. Jeff played well and managed a second place win in the advanced men division. I finished first out of one in the ladies advanced division and Mark was inches away from winning the $360 closest to the pin pot. The course was super long and windy on Sunday, but we had a great time. A few pros from Montana and Alberta were in attendance so we got to see them crush the disc.

Looking up at hole 4 of Lethbridge course

Since we all had to work on Thanksgiving, we celebrated by taking this Monday off and celebrated Lobsgiving. Monday also included a visit with Aubree and Amanda since Amanda was in town visiting from Seattle. After our visit I went to Lobsgiving. Kris flew in from Halifax and brought 10 fresh lobsters. Thanks Kris! Thanks also to Jill for cooking and Janick for making lobster pie:

Lobsgiving

As a reward for all of our hard work, Jill, Mark, Jeff and I are going to Vegas on Sunday! Forecast is 30 degrees!!! Can you say ice cold beer and pool? We also plan to visit the Hoover Dam and see Penn & Teller. Viva Las Vegas!

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.

Willow had a play date with her BFF Bob today so she’s been sleeping all night. I went over to Jill’s place to work on a complicated budget for work and our cats played. Now she is exhausted and hasn’t moved (or been remotely awake) since we got home. Spending so much time on work budgets lately has somehow given me the desire to start my own personal budget. Jeff brought up the idea and Jill gave us a sweet template. It will be pretty cool to see where all our money is going.

Played a bit of squash and watched some TV. We’ve been slacking on the blog lately but it’s hard to get anything done with the tv, guitar hero, and “How I met your mother”. Big shout out to my stepmom Susan who has not been slacking on her blog! Nice work Susan. Keep the great stories coming!

In other news, I’m reading “Memoirs of a Geisha”. So far (about 1/2 way through), it is excellent. I’m probably biased however since I just went to Japan and can relate much more to the culture and history of Japan. Some of the places they mention I’ve actually been too, which is cool. And yes, we plan to post our pictures from the trip sometime in the near future (on our picasa site), but see above about being lazy and procrastinating. Speaking of my book…I should probably go read it. ‘NIght.

Jill and Mark were great fun! We had a blast showing them the in’s and out’s of sin city. Unfortunately I did not come back from Vegas this time with any diamonds, but it was great nonetheless.

Now Jeff and Lindsay are enjoying their 42 inches of plasma greatness. More later if we ever manage to put down the remote (or guitar).

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I guess we’ve been busy. Or perhaps we’ve been too busy playing guitar hero! It’s true – we finally broke down and got a playstation and guitar hero. Now that we have the new TV coming on the 14th, there was no reason not to get guitar hero.

Back to work this week…normally would be rough after having so much time off but luckily we have another vacation to look forward to soon: Vegas baby! Jeff’s company (Dynamic Blogging, not the University) is sending Jeff to Vegas for an Affiliate marketing conference. Being the President you get to make great decisions like this one. And of course the VP should go along for moral support!

Jill and Mark will also be joining us and I’m going to see my mom, stepdad, nana, uncle and my mom’s friends down there as well. Everyone decided to meet up there at once so it should be a blast!