Hey guess what's still going on?! Importing my car!! I fought with the government again today. i won again.

The February "visitor rush" is done and over. It was very good to see everybody that came out. Jenn and Adam were set to come first, but unfortunately their flight left the morning of the massive Ontario snowfall and the trip was not to be. Sad sad.

Then came Katie who had a delightful time with Bonnie. They did all kinds of girly things. We also had the poor luck to stumble upon that new "Grease" television show. So campy! So terrible! Everything about it was....well it was like "Snakes on a Plane" but it wasn't trying to be campy.

Then came Betsy and Justin. Went to the hill a few times with them. Was great to ski with my sister and was even cooler to watch her go up an entire level of boarding over the couple days that she was out there. Definitely scared them both up at Louise though :p hehehe.

Bonnie and I are making the new place ever more...homey. We actually just finished putting up some pictures. Speaking of pictures....

On my way to work today, I passed the garbage bins and there was a GIGANTIC picture sitting there ripe for the taking. So I stopped and threw it in my car. It's HUGE. What a find! Not-quite-buried treasure! Yar!! Fills up a nice, huge blank wall in the bedroom. Speaking of which, I still need to get some pictures of this place. I think Betsy and Justin liked it, though they did go out of their way to stress how small it is. It's COZY! If you want to see small ask Bonnie about her new "office".

What a find!!!! (the picture. not the office. though my place is a great find too).

Tracy and I are getting ready to do "Delirium Dive" up at Sunshine. I mentioned this a while ago in terms of "crazy skiing things I'll probably never do". Well...Tracy told me today she went to the top and looked down and that it is pathetically easy compared to what we've been doing. Something about a big cliff jump to start and then easy going the rest of the way. For the mom's out there, "cliff jump" = "gently rolling cobblestone path". Trust me. Would I lie?

Speaking of mom's...hey sauble mom and dad! I have a great time every day "sending my mail". Bonnie always rolls her eyes but i love putting all my coinage into that mailbox. Almost time to open it up again and see how much treasure is inside. Ooo boy!

Work has been interesting. Volume is picking up and the restaurant is slowly losing staff to snowboarding injuries and other things. We're quite short staffed right now. Who wants a job? Good, see you at 11am tomorrow. Amongst the most fun things to have happened is last Saturday morning when I worked from 6am till 2pm and the morning server didn't show up. Hoo boy!!! I made a lot of money that day but...it deifnitely sucked and the restaurant was not in a good state. *sigh* Got through it though! Much money!! Huzzah!!

In other news, my vacation home has been comfirmed!! April 11 - 19. With Bonnie!! Definitely will be nice to get home. See you all then!

Music wha?!

So after several months, I finally managed to venture up to the Banff Centre. What is that, you ask? It's a school for music and arts (amongst other things) right here in the small mountain town of Banff. How bizarre! In any case, it had its and downs.

First off, I was hoping to find practice rooms to break into, as well as musicians or artists to hang with as, to put it lightly, this town does not cater to that kind of person. There sure are a lot of bar-going, heavy-metal listening, australian snowboarders though!! Anyway, I found neither one. It appears that the Banff Centre provides 2 things in terms of music education: limited duration music programs for students from far away that they board and self-directed post-graduate performance study. Also, there aren't any obvious practice rooms. Perhaps I shall look again sometime. Bummer. Bonnie, however, has promised me that she'll move her upright piano here sometime in the near future -- Hurry up honey!

What was incredibly was how good it felt to hear the racket of numerous, conflicting practice rooms once again. How long has it been since i heard that? How long has it been since i LIKED hearing that? Never? Crazy.

I also checked out the gym there for Bonnie and I. I'm particularly interested in the climbing center and the squash courts. Should be fun! They also have a weight room, pool, badminton courts, and everything else a good fitness center should have. Not bad. Definitely considering it.

In one final bit of news, Jenn is coming out on Wednesday night and I happen to have Thursday and Friday off this week. Huzzah!!! Should be fun.

Epic!

Well after about a 2 week drought we finally got some new snow out here and WOW was it nice to ski today. We spent almost the entire day in the trees going through fresh powder up to my chest (that much hasn't fallen in the last couple days, we were just in very unused ground). The p0int is - there was more to it than just going down groomed slopes!! And I wasn't on a snowboard!! Hooray!

I mentioned a "list" a little while back regarding things I need. I still haven't really compiled one. Let's face it - I just don't need much. However, there are some things I would definitely like and would help

#1 - Pictures! Send me real (not digital) pictures that I can put up. Plenty of room.

Ok that's it really. Wow i'm easy to please!

A New Home! And A Pain In The Ass! (Bun Intended....HAHAHAHAHA)

So we'll start with the new place!! Had a bit of a housewarming party and invited Anthony, Tracy, and Tom by for drinks, bruschetta, and an attempt at sushi. Bonnie and I were very excited to try our various sushi paraphenalia that we got for Christmas. We were also thrilled that thanks to the help of Tom the night before for about 1.5 hours, we were done moving and unpacking by 3 and done shopping for it by about 4:30. How's that for a move?!?! We had a home on the first day.

The pictures were from the little party. I want the first picture of my place to look like a place people are having fun in and not some kind of pristine museum. It is actually much cleaner.

Little background on the place. A "real" family in a "real" house lives above me. It's way up on the mountain on the side of town, very quiet, and in a very nice neighborhood. Out my window (when it's light, obviously) I have a great lookout over the town of Banff and a large part of the Bow Valley all the way back to the Fairholme Range on the far side. It's just stunning. Can you believe I've lived in the mountains for 4 months now and have never had a view of them from my place? Anyway, without further ado:

The Cast


We're in the living room/kitchen area






A bad picture of the bathroom. Those paint marks generally don't look NEARLY that bad. Recognize the towel Betsy?


ZOMG!!! I HAVE A LAUNDRY ROOM!!!! (by the way, for all the non-computer geeks out there, "ZOMG" is pronounced "zoh my god"). I haven't had a laundry room since my first house in unversity. And living with Dad.


My "hallway". Bedroom behind me, laundry ahead, bathroom on the right, kitchen/living on the left


A terrible picture of the bedroom. What i really like is that this whole place has that little ledge around all the rooms for my knick-knacks. And god knows (pun also intended), Banff has a lot of knick-knacks.


Here we are attempting sushi!! Thanks for the set. We need practice






Well there's the place!! I'll get some daylight shots as soon as I'm able and a shot of the view and surrounding area. Definitely amongst the best in town for residences. Also a big thanks to Tracy, Anthony, Bonnie, Tom, and Rowan for all your help with the move and the crap with Paul.

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In other news (and completing the pun in the name of this post) I attempted snowboarding at Sunshine the other day. It is, without a doubt, the most painful thing i've ever put myself through. Even more-so than waterskiing (which was the previous champ). You're supposed to heel-toe to carve down the hill; i definitely preffered the face-ass method where I fell on my face, then on my ass, then i repeated 100 times. Here are some pics to mark the occasion because it will never happen again. I am defintely confused as to why anybody ever goes snowboarding twice.

This is me in my usual orientation


I look great! Next stop - Vancouver 2010


Anthony said he was teaching me, but now that I look at this picture....I need to talk to him


There's my girl looking all pro! Uber-pro even!


Skiers hate snowboarders who have to sit down and strap in all the time. Bonus!! Because you're strapped in, the board doesn't come off and you bounce around like a rag doll when you fall over


Riding the chairlift ride!


And some gratuitous sunshine shots to finish off the set. Until next time