Upgrades!

What's getting upgraded? Well...everything!

First off, the ski hills got upgraded. Yep, the last 2 weeks we had about as much snowfall as the entire winter and the ski hills have a hier snow base than any time in this season yet. We finally broke 2 meters!!! Had a 50cm dump in one night too. So the end of the ski season has been phenomenal - the best skiing of the year. Couple of places I've never seen open were opened up too, so there was even some new terrain to go on - can't much complain about that.

It's also just been nice to se ea little winter again. Sure it's late and all, but it hasn't looked like winter since early februrary and this place is so beautiful when it's snow ccovered.

Anyway it's over now. We're back up to Seasonal: in an around 8 or 10 degrees (45-50ish farenheit) and I have to imagine it'll stay this time. Maybe another snowfall - in fact that's almost likely (all the locals talk about the May snow). So probably one more good ski day for the season then it'll be time to wash the skiis off and put em away for less than 6 months before the next ski season.

Other upgrades? Well, this blog has been upgraded! Yep! A new camera (early birthday present from Dad. thanks dad!!). So you can expect to see photos on many of the posts once again. I like putting em up and I know everybody likes looking at them.

What else? A new computer. I'm still waiting on the case itself to ship, but I have all the guts at the house right now. I think I could just about run the town on Banff on this thing. New monitor too!! As much as I've liked that giagntic Sun Microsystems monitor, it's about time I didn't have a monitor that could double as an anvil sitting around the house. Nice 22" flatscreen beaut.

And what else? Bonnie and I impulse-bought Guitar Hero III today while we were in town!!! Huzzah!!! That should be quite a bit of fun that everybody can enjoy (we'll be bringing it out in the summer for sure).

T-minus 8.5 weeks to Sauble! Want some earlier scheduling? I'll bet you that Bonnie and I will get out climbing at least once in the next couple weeks. How's theat for a quick turnaround?

So Long To A Great Friend

2 days ago, mom had to make the difficult decision to put down our yellow lab, Jessie. Thanks to Bonnie for these pictures. Bye Jessie.

New Camera This Weekend! (Probably)

First off, gotta thank somebody this morning. On my walk to work this morning, I took my gloves off when I got downtown and put them in my pocket. I guess one fell out. A gentleman saw it, picked it up, and started going into shops seeing if he could find its owner. It was right about exatly 9:00 and the streets were pretty dead, and I guess he figured that he'd find the person who owned the glove fairly quickly. So thank you, kind stranger, for finding a random glove on the street and actually looking for its owner. Insanity.

Anyway, it was a beautiful morning for a walk. Blue sky, wispy clouds at the mountain tops, and a generally nice -5 degrees. I couldn't help but think, as I was walking, about this time of year at university. Exams would be coming up right around the corner and so would the warm weather. I see from Mom on the last post that it's warm there right now, as it seemingly always is this time of year. 1st year, it was so hot that were all laying around the dorm in our underwear and having beach parties on the riverbank out back. Out here, I walk to work in the morning and can see my breath. It's pretty nice. The warm weather will come soon enough, for now it's nice to be cool and crisp.

Bonnie and I went skiing on Sunday on another beautiful day. Nice temperature, fresh, soft snow. She's getting pretty good! We went down not one, but several blacks and she managed herself just fine. I'm so proud! :p What was really nice was that there was plenty of powder to find (she's also becoming something of a powder pig). And no ice. Hot. Hot hot hot. While it's technically still ski season for about 6 more weeks, I imagine once May hits Bonnie and I will be hitting the rock, instead of the slopes.

Finally. Bonnie got a new fish. And it died the next day. Crappy fish. Certainly no Snug.

Bonnie may be an Olympian, but I just 1-upped her

Well the snow came back - a little. We did get a few days and, while the snow on the gorund down in town has largely melted again, it at least refreshed the hills a little bit. Bonnie and I are going out on Sunday - should be fun. Getting in to pretty late season now and, while it's been "Spring conditions" already for about 2 months, it's now time where you have to expect less-than-ideal skiing.

In other news, I, Noah Borin, am a world champion! It's true! A guy in town has spent a few years developing a traditional style board game he calls "Par-K". It's sort of a mix between chess, checkers, and connect 4 and is one of those games with simple rules and complex strategy.

Anyway, he showed me the game a few months back here at the internet cafe and it was pretty enjoyable. He since gave me a copy of the game and invited me to the world's first "Par-K Tournament" to be held here in Banff. Since he was supplying beer, how could I say no?

Well, I'm excited to say that I went a remarkable (and unprecendented!!) 7-0 at the tournament. The final game was amongst the longest played all afternoon and it took a trick move to pull out the win over my opponent (who I vanquished with said move).

Unforuntately, there was no cash prize. However, I do get my picture on his website. Heh. Oh, and the title of WORLD CHAMPION.