2 and 4 makes...40?

RIP Spunky

2009-10-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'm still a bit shook up about this myself, so I figured I would just pass on an e-mail my mom sent out in memoriam of our family dog, Spunky. We rescued Spunky from the SPCA in 1994 when he was 13 months old and 1 day from being put down. I was 10 when Spunky joined our family. 15 good, long years later, we let Spunky go. I'm sure wherever he is, he's in his prime again.

You were a good boy, Spunky
September 1, 1993 - October 15, 2009

We are sad to relate that Spunky is no longer with us... after his major seizures and infection on Tuesday morning, he was not doing well. Prospects of recovery were small and he was unable to navigate the stairs down in the house and needed to be carried, fell over easily and was having problems with his bowels. On the plus side: his last day was a "good day" for him, and he was able to get around and notice things again most of the time.

His last day with us: We made his favourite meal: liver and Kraft dinner...which we hand fed him, and he enjoyed. We brought out his favourite ball and he caught it in his mouth for a few seconds and wagged his tail. He made it into the back yard for a few pictures with us. Bonnie arrived from Banff and cuddled him, and he really liked that. We all got some private time with him to tell him what a great dog he was, how much we loved him, thanked him for 16 wonderful years of trips, ball games, family events, runs, walks, dog games, and being our best dog-friend ever. I went to mass in the morning, lit a candle for him in the chapel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and asked Jesus to welcome him into heaven to meet Amy, Rex and Ursus, and to wait for us there, where we will meet him again.

His appointment was at 2 pm, we were home by 3 pm. The lady vet was very very kind and gentle, we had lots of time with him, and then about 15 minutes after she gave the sedative he was gently snoring although his eyes were open. The actual final shot worked within the minute.

We have arranged to have him individually cremated, and will receive his ashes in a cedar, sealed, box within 3 days. At first we were not going to do this, but I felt he deserved it after 16 years, and plus, I wanted him to be with us here in our house...it was all he ever asked of us, to be near us and to share our lives.
We are going to miss him so very very much.

I think I have personally gone through one whole box of Kleenexes. So far.
The house feels very quiet and there are so many little things I keep expecting to see him part of already, which of course he is not.

Once his cedar box arrives, I plan to place it in his favourite spot (under our bed) for a few days, with his collars. Then we will choose a more permanent place, and know we still have him near us.

Maybe this all sounds silly and overly emotional, but he was not just our pet, he was our daily friend and a good member of our family, who always gave us unconditional love and joy. We shall miss him forever. We know it was the "best" thing to do for him, but it was the "hardest" thing to do for us.

Thanks for sharing our sorrow with us, and please keep us in your prayers. It feels, to me, like someone has beaten me up, and sometimes it is just hard to breathe.

Nathene & Rick

Summertime, and the living was...

2009-09-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Time to get this going again.

How were your summers? Ours was ok. Kind of boring. You know, all we did was... well...

More photos to come :-)

Bonnie

I have a new nick-name: "The Finisher"!

2009-05-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Bonnie here; long time, no blog! Before you get concerned that I've been a mafia hitman, don't worry, it's not the case. Yesterday, I raced in my very first "try-a-triathlon"-- a small-scale triathlon for those interested in them, but not in the crazy distances done at, say, the Olympics. There are 4 levels of triathlon, apparently. The one I did was:

- 500m swim (20 lengths in a standard pool)
- 16km bike (10 miles)
- 3km run (just over 2 miles)

The distances vary depending on the location / triathlon club running the event, so I can't quote exact numbers for what qualifies a "sprint triathlon", which is the next level, but I do know that an Olympic Triathlon is 1.5km swim (60 lengths) / 40km bike (25 miles) / 10km run (6.2 miles). Yeesh!

So, what made me get into this mess?

It began about 12 weeks ago, when I really hit a stride with my weekly swim. I noticed that I had more than doubled my speed, compared to when I first started swimming weekly again last year. Hints of spring were in the air (although they were false hints), and I thought about getting my bike out... then it was announced that a co-worker had signed up for an Ironman.

If she could do an Ironman... I could do a try-a-tri.

I found one in Calgary, signed up, then convinced my mom to sign up with me :-)

Training was interesting. I've been taking spin classes for the last year and a bit, and I enjoy swimming, but running... it's not for me. I've never run unless forced to by a phys ed teacher in high school, or to get out of the way of fire, flood, or the wrath of god. But I began to run, and once I got some decent shoes and good music, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Don't get me wrong-- it was still horrible. But tolerable!

Those hints of spring I mentioned earlier? They were incorrect hints. It has snowed in Banff at least 3/7 days a week since then. So I never actually got my bike out until race day! That was an interesting change!

The race itself went great. There were a lot of really supportive staff, and a lot of just-as-nervous-as-me first timers all hovering around. Definitely a great experience, and something I would consider doing again.

And the nick-name? That's what was on the medal that they gave out to everyone who crossed the finish line. Akin to the "participant!" ribbons that every kid in the science fair got, yes, but I still got it!

Anyway, that's what I've been working on for the last 12 weeks. Here are some pictures from the event, c/o our photographer, Noah!

Transition! Finished the swim, heading for the bike

Getting my bike off the racks

Off to the races!

Finishing the bike segment...

Heading into the finish line!

My Mom and I, FINISHERS!

A Music-y Post

2009-04-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Bonnie failed to mentioned something important! We got her piano moved to our place here in Banff!

Add "musical entertainment" to the list of perks in that brochure!

We have been happily playing and practising away. It's so nice to be able to do that after not having a piano for 2.5 years. In fact, without a "Real" job, I've been practising about 2 hours every day. A couple friends heard me playing, and I tossed around the idea of doing a recital, which was met with enthusiasm all around! So, Bonnie and I are having a recital/potluck night for friends.

The program I've put together is particularly multi-cultural , so we thought it would be fun to have people bring food to match the cultures of the composers that make up the program. If all goes well, we'll enjoy some great music, good friends, and food from French Canada, China, Germany, Austria, Poland, France, and Russia!

Unrelated to Banff-news, I got a forward in the mail that I actually read (Yea, it happened). I wanted to post it here. It's long, but well worth the read.

Ciao!

--------------------------------------

Welcome address to freshman class at Boston Conservatory given by
Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at Boston
Conservatory:

"One of my parents' deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would
not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn't be appreciated.
I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and
math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an
engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician.
I still remember my mother's remark when I announced my decision to
apply to music school-she said, "You're WASTING your SAT scores." On
some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the
value of music was, what its purpose was. And they LOVED music, they
listened to classical music all the time. They just weren't really
clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit,
because we live in a society that puts music in the "arts and
entertainment" section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind
your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever
to do with entertainment, in fact it's the opposite of entertainment.
Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works.

The first people to understand how music really works were the
ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said
that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy
was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent,
external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships
between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of
finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls
and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me
give you some examples of how this works.

One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the
Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier
Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the
war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of
1940, sent across Germany in a cattle car and imprisoned in a
concentration camp.

He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him
paper and a place to compose. There were three other musicians in the
camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist, and Messiaen wrote
his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in
January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison
camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

Given what we have since learned about life in the concentration
camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy
writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good
day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to
escape torture-why would anyone bother with music? And yet-from the
camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn't
just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why?
Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the
bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be,
somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without
hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect,
but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part
of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is
one of the ways in which we say, "I am alive, and my life has meaning."

On September 12, 2001 I was a resident of Manhattan. That morning I
reached a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the
world. I sat down at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as
was my daily routine; I did it by force of habit, without thinking
about it. I lifted the cover on the keyboard, and opened my music,
and put my hands on the keys and took my hands off the keys. And I
sat there and thought, does this even matter? Isn't this completely
irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what happened in this
city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless. Why am I
here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a
piano player right now? I was completely lost.

And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the
journey of getting through that week. I did not play the piano that
day, and in fact I contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to
play the piano again. And then I observed how we got through the day.

At least in my neighborhood, we didn't shoot hoops or play Scrabble.
We didn't play cards to pass the time, we didn't watch TV, we didn't
shop, we most certainly did not go to the mall. The first organized
activity that I saw in New York, that same day, was singing. People
sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang "We Shall
Overcome". Lots of people sang America the Beautiful. The first
organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later
that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The
first organized public expression of grief, our first communal
response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the
beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured
the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in
particular, that very night.

From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is
not part of "arts and entertainment" as the newspaper section would
have us believe. It's not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from
leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass
time. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the
ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express
feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things
with our hearts when we can't with our minds.

Some of you may know Samuel Barber's heartwrenchingly beautiful
piece Adagio for Strings. If you don't know it by that name, then
some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the
Oliver Stone movie Platoon, a film about the Vietnam War. If you know
that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack
your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you
didn't know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to
get at what's really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.

I bet that you have never been to a wedding where there was
absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there
might have been some really bad music, but I bet you there was some
music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get
all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there's some musical
moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or
plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if
the quality isn't good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people
who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the
music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those
big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that
we can express what we feel even when we can't talk about it. Can you
imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the
dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just
the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start
crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the
movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn't happen that way. The
Greeks: Music is the understanding of the relationship between
invisible internal objects.

I'll give you one more example, the story of the most important
concert of my life. I must tell you I have played a little less than
a thousand concerts in my life so far. I have played in places that I
thought were important. I like playing in Carnegie Hall; I enjoyed
playing in Paris; it made me very happy to please the critics in St.
Petersburg. I have played for people I thought were important; music
critics of major newspapers, foreign heads of state. The most
important concert of my entire life took place in a nursing home in
Fargo, ND, about 4 years ago.

I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We
began, as we often do, with Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was written
during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland's, a
young pilot who was shot down during the war. Now we often talk to
our audiences about the pieces we are going to play rather than
providing them with written program notes. But in this case, because
we began the concert with this piece, we decided to talk about the
piece later in the program and to just come out and play the music
without explanation.

Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near
the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man, whom I later
met, was clearly a soldier-even in his 70's, it was clear from his
buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a
good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd
that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of
that particular piece, but it wasn't the first time I've heard crying
in a concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.

When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided
to talk about both the first and second pieces, and we described the
circumstances in which the Copland was written and mentioned its
dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience
became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium. I honestly
figured that we would not see him again, but he did come backstage
afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.

What he told us was this: "During World War II, I was a pilot, and I
was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team's planes was
hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open,
but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine
gunned across the parachute chords so as to separate the parachute
from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean,
realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many
years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory
returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I
didn't understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you
came out to explain that this piece of music was written to
commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle.
How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those
memories in me?

Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships
between internal objects. This concert in Fargo was the most
important work I have ever done. For me to play for this old soldier
and help him connect, somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect
their memories of their lost friends, to help him remember and mourn
his friend, this is my work. This is why music matters.

What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year's freshman
class when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I
will charge your sons and daughters with is this:

"If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student
practising appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously
because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going
to waltz into your emergency room and you're going to have to save
their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to
walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a
heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out
whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.

You're not here to become an entertainer, and you don't have to sell
yourself. The truth is you don't have anything to sell; being a
musician isn't about dispensing a product, like selling used Chevies.
I'm not an entertainer; I'm a lot closer to a paramedic, a
firefighter, a rescue worker. You're here to become a sort of
therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor,
physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they
get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with
ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.

Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master
music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of
wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of
mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it
will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no
longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which
together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If
there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an
understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit
together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what
we do. As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the
artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal,
invisible lives."

Happy Spring!

2009-04-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since we posted, and I was looking through the camera today, and realized that the majority of our pictures were either of:

a) the great outdoors
b) the dogs
c) us and friends

And decided that it was time to update the blog with a few pictures of the advertised animal companions that will keep you company should you come to stay with us here in Banff!

Before this though, big shout out to DANIELLE who is the first person to book a flight out to visit us solely based on our amazing Christmas brochure! We are eagerly anticipating your arrival!

Alright, onto our animal companions: enjoy :)

Noah and the Monsters

Gus at Christmas

Cassie is Noah's Favourite

They're ALWAYS touching.

Playtime!

Sleepy! But always watchful.

Wintry Round-up

2009-02-19T15:39:00.001-08:00

Well! Let's get this out of the way right off the start. 124 Beaver Street, Unit 5 had its first guest since being turned in to a veritable Bed and Breafast. Thanks for stopping by, Betsy and Justin. We hope you had a great time here and make sure to tell everybody how awesome it was. Unforunately, I don't have a single picture of the event, so that's pretty lame! I do, however, have lots of other pictures.

Before I get into them though, I'd like to use this blog to once more rant about something. 2 things, in fact.

I've been on several hikes lately and some things that people do are really starting to get on my nerves. First, trail-cutting. It would be an understatement to say that many trails in the area have a habit of going up and down. Naturally, the trail designers did not think people would appreciate going straight up and down the mountainside, and so they built in switch-backs to easy the process. It drives me crazy when people cut the switchbacks for the purpose of getting up or down more quickly. Why? Because it destorys the land around the trail - especially when people go down. Each footstep going down a steep mountainside takes with it a significant amount of dirt, not to mention any small plants that are unlucky enough to be growing there. In fact, I'm sure many people would be surprised at the amount of damage even 1 person trail-cutting can do. To make matters worse, as soon as 1 person does it, a faint trail forms and it gives others the idea to do the same, widening the trail and eventually causing the damage to be permanent (or long enough that it won't fix itself in any 1 person's lifetime). On Tunnel Mountain, the most frequented path in the park, the mountainside is quite literally a spiderweb of non-trails, dirt, and bare rock, where there should be a relatively lush forest. It aggravates me not only because of the damage that it causes, but because of the trivial gains that this trail-cutting gets hikers. Check out this picture.

It may not look like much right now, but all that tramped down snow in the foreground is caused by trail-cutting. The ground underneath is most likely stripped of vegetation and dirt. If you look in the background, you see the actual trail switch-backing around. As you can see, these people cutting here are skipping about 10 feet of trail. And the kicker is that this shortcut, like most, was probably actually harder to use given the jump at the bottom (often they are much much steeper) and that it is likely that they didn't save any time at all since they would have been moving more slowly.

Ok topic #2: Graffiti and other "I WUZ HERE" crap on the trails. Here's another picture.

I admit, I don't know the people responsible for this, but odds are they were in Banff and on this trail to enjoy the natural beauty. No matter how much they may or may not love God, putting up this kind of crap on the rocks is not only destructive, but also rather ironic given that they're ruining, purposely, the very landscape they came here to see. It's really sad how much of this stuff is out there and how many trails are marred by people leaving permanent marks like this. Unfortunately, what is in the picture is the aftermath of what was originally put there. The spray paint used to write it stained the rock, and although the paint was cleared off, very little is shown for the effort on the part of the cleaners.

Stop coming into one of the world's most beautiful places and screwing it up, people.

ok then. /rant over.

I've run out of time, so I'll have to simply post my remaining pictures.

This one is looking West from Banff from a nice viewpoint on the Sundance Canyon trail, right near Banff. It was about a 6 mile loop that featured quite a few different landscapes, was right near town, and was definitely worth it. I'm shocked it took me over 2 years to get out here.

Next is another picture from the same hike. This iceflow completely engulfed the trail at some points as it meandered down through the canyon.

Next are 2 shots from Bonnie and I enjoying a magnificent morning at Mt Norquay. They offer an hourly rate so Bonnie and I went from 9am until abotu 11:30am, since she didn't have to work until late that day. It was the kind of morning that you live for out here on the ski hills.

And finally, on another morning, the view off our balcony of a Mountain I don't think I've posted picutres of before - Mt. Brewster. Enjoy all. I hope everyone is well. Remember the door is always open here at 124 Beaver Street!

Wedding Invitations!

2009-01-29T07:46:00.000-08:00

We shipped out our wedding invitations last week, and news is streaming back that people are actually getting them! Amazing!

Unfortunately, we made a rather large typo.

So, please note that the DATE of the wedding is:

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

and not, in fact, on a Sunday.

Apologies! We'll be sending out e-mails shortly (and again closer to the date) to remind people of this fact, and it is also stated on our website.

Looking forward to wedded bliss,
Bonnie & Noah

POW-POW-POWder day!

2009-01-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

Got out for my first real powder day of the season today. The hills have gotten 2 feet in the last 2 days, and it's still snowing like you wouldn't believe outside. Also, today was the first day of the season that I didn't hit a rock!! My skis are thrilled, I'm sure. So...

I took this first shot at 9:05am from near the top of one of the mountains. Please feel free to note the lack of tracks in front of me. Yes, that's well over a foot of untouched, pristine powder in front of me and all the way down. Oh yea...that was a solid run.

The guy in the picutre is Will, whom I met on the chairlift. He's a good guy. Yes, I went down first - didn't want him to track out my powder :p It's a good thing I'm faster than most. Hehehe.

The run goes down into a tree-lined road, almost, that's great fun, and the finally into a creekbed that is more like a ski cross than a ski hill. About 3/4 of the way down, there's a cliff. After hucking it (ie. going over it), I noticed how pretty it was around there, so I took a shot.

After a few runs, I met up with Dave, who had gotten up very early to go out yesterday and didn't feel like going for first tracks today. We did a few runs and ended up on a glade run. It's a nice, long run with lots of trees on it, but plenty of space to move too so you can get a nice rythym going. Here's 2 shots of that. Starting to get tracked out, but still lots of fresh!

Dave and I split up, since he wanted to practise some stuff and I still wanted to chew up some powder, and eventually I stopped for lunch. I took these next shots from the lunch spot. I liked especially the top one, because of the barely-visible rock wall of the mountain in the distance.

After lunch, I was very pleased to discover that not only was Freefall open, but that it was mostly free of rocks!! Freefall is a near top-to-bottom, straight run that just keeps getting steeper until you're almost at the bottom. Was the first double-black of the year for me and I took this shot from just before the steepest part because I thought it was a pretty good shot of just how steep (and hence, awesome) it gets!

Not many people had gone on that yet, so the snow was a little tracked, but still nice and loose and awesome to ski through. Did laps of that until my legs gave out, which left the ski out. I took the alternate route to the parking lot and stopped for a break and grabbed this last shot.

So, solid and beautiful day of skiing out there for sure. Best of the season yet!

We're slowly but surely getting everybody's addresses together for our wedding invitiations, which we should be starting to make up next week (if Canada Post ever gets its act together). Very exciting. Music lessons start back up this week too, and those are always fun. Guess that means the holidays are over and it's time to get back to the grind.

Until next time!

More Snow Pictures

2009-01-04T14:08:00.001-08:00

Bonnie and I took a quick hike today at one of the final Banff "touristy" places that we hadn't yet been. It was pretty short and the longer hike that we wanted to do would have been highly unpleasant thanks to the -25 windchill in our faces for most of the way.

Anyway, the short loop trail we did take was set on the hot springs that caused the whole Banff thing to start over 100 years ago. Going to be mostly pictures today, as I took quite a few and liked most of them.

Here's what you'll be seeing

-Snow
-Hot Water
-Marsh
-The Vermillion Lakes (Frozen of course)
-Algae-covered rocks

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

2008-12-29T16:55:00.001-08:00

Well back from Ontario. Was great to see everybody and get to hang out, celebrate, and be the craziest/best family there is for a week. Bonnie and I have said several times since returning that we were very lucky. About 2-3 hours after each of our flights, the London airport was hit with 60-80 MILE per hour winds. Bonnie brought up that I was trying to get flights that were slightly later for a better sleep pattern and, odds are, we never would have had those flights. Whew.

So we left the balmy 13-degree Ontario and landed into a snow-covered (and still falling) -10 degree Calgary. Was nice to finally get home after a quick stop with her dad, home-cooked food from her parents, and a snowy drive through the mountains. We had a pretty low-key day yesterday and ended up both in bed by 10:00, which was something new (but had plenty to do with waking up at 3:30am in a different time zone, I'm sure)

Anyway, my friend Lila was in town over Christmas and house-sitting for us for the week. She's leaving tomorrow and so today she I went out for about a 3.5 hour hike on the Hoodoo Trail, which goes along the Bow River in a place you can't see from town for a while, before rising up on a large....I don't know..hill...thing...(not a mountain) before going back down to the actual "hoodoos". By the time we got to the last possible turn-off before the hoodoos, it was too late to make it to them and back before dark, so unfortunately, we didn't get to that. But here's somebody else's photo taken of them so everybody knows what I'm talking about. They're these large sandstone/shale things that inexplicably thrust up out of the land around here

So, as you can see that's clearly not now in the dead of winter, but you get the idea. On to the pictures I took and how things went. First of all, all the winter gear is great! Outside in -15 for over 3 hours without a jacket and I was just fine. In fact, at times I was too warm and considered taking some things off, but since I didn't have any layers, this probably would not have been very welcome. I guess we'll start with a shot of Lila and Mount Rundle

Taken lots of shots of Rundle since it's right next to town and rather big, but this one should be from a different angle. Still, things never seem to stop being new and beautiful around these parts.

Saw something that I Haven't seen in 2 years of hiking out here too: another reminder that we live in a very wild place. Not once, but twice we passed the dead and half-eaten carcasses of animals. One an elk or deer, the other a coyote. Both gruesome and unexpected, as well as directly on the trail. We were puzzled at what would have killed and eaten a coyote in the winter (other than aliens and bigfoot of course). Anyway, as not nice as it was, it was nice to be reminded again that we are very much visitors here.

As I said before, the end of the trail goes up out of the valley. Here are a couple shots to the south and east from 2 different lookouts up there. I like the one with the 2nd one where you can see the sun peaking out through the clouds next to the tree.

And finally, the first 2/3 of the hike go right along the riverbed, much of which is frozen solid and able to be walked on now (much easier than the rough trail, to be honest). So the last 3 shots are all of the Bow River in the winter and my favorite 3 that I took today. Enjoy! Was great to see everybody over Christmas and we're looking forward to hosting a few more guests at 124 Beaver Street in the near future.

December has arrived!

2008-12-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

And so has our Christmas stuff!

Enjoy our photos of Noah's and my very first grown up Christmas tree together :-) Special thanks to my Mom for helping us out in this department!!

2008-11-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Snow? Check
-10 degrees? Check
Sun? Check...ish...sort of.

The scene was perfect for a great first day of skiing. Got out there late this morning for a few hours and, although it was definitely pre-season conditions (read: rocks and limited terrain), it was nice to get back after. After all, it had been just over 6 months since the last time I skied - far longer than should ever happen. Only in Canada can you ski for, quite literally, half the year (slightly longer, in fact).

Was good to get back on the ol' Recons (I ride K2 Recons. They are as pro as they are made out to be). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could get right on them and go; there was no period of awkwardness during which I was wobbly or the good girls wondered why I had ignored them the last 180 days. Ok there is one thing I seem to have forgotten - how to go slowly. Was great fun to tear it up out there.

I took a couple pictures this time around. The first 2 are reminders that it is, indeed, very early in the season and also that a lot of people put a lot of work into making these ski hills ski-able for us.

There is one constant at 9,500 feet : wind. At Sunshine, the wind blows across the mountain faces and, unfortunately, it blows in the direction of the gigantic cliff, rather than the slopes. They lose a good deal of snow up there because, as you can see, there isn't a lot to collect it. So what do they do? Snow farms!!

Right now, this is pretty crappy. Soon though, very soon. I really can't imagine being on the trail crew at these resorts. The poor folks trudge through alpine snow and scree all day long and pound stakes and snow fences into the ground in sub-zero temperatures, only to go up, take them out, and move them slightly further downwind once they've collected enough snow. And there are a LOT of them; in the early season the whole hill is littered with snow fences. Good thing they go away eventually.

On to the good stuff. I went up a chair I rarely go up (because the runs aren't very good) to get these shots today, since it was a nice day. Enjoy these incredibly clear shots due south into British Columbia at Mt. Assiniboine (the Matterhorn of the Rockies, apparently), and a couple other iconic mountains in and around Sunshine.

You know how sometimes you do something very average and normal, and it ends up in something completely unexpected? I wanted to have a shot with me in it to send back home and what not, and so I got off the lift and approached 2 gentlemen who were standing around doing what appeared to be nothing. People asking one-another to take photos is is a frequent happening around here, so I thought nothing of going up and asking these guys to take one of me.

Oddly, they seemed somewhat taken aback by the request. I was about to ski away when one of them said he would do it. They proceeded to take this shot.

I went back for the camera, and they asked me to take one of them - a perfectly normal request. They then brought up a small baggy of what looked like sand and said "this is our buddy. we're dropping him off here," and their eyes starting tearing up. What I had interupted was immediately clear, and I felt about as akward as one could feel.

They held the remains of their friend up and posed for a shot, and then, strangely enough, they invited me to stand with them and say goodbye to this person who I had never known, or even known anything about. (I don't even know this person's name) . Oddly enough, the wind wasn't blowing at all in this spot, which was otherwise wide open, and I stood in silence while they each said "goodbye", opened the bag, and watched what remained of their friend drift down to their final resting place almost 10,000 feet up, 1/2 in Alberta and 1/2 in British Columbia on the continental divide. It made me wonder how many other people have been strewn around up there, that we don't know about, and ski by without thinking. I know I'll never go past that spot without thinking again.

I'll leave you with a couple more shots I took. The light was very interesting and I took the opportunity to snap a bunch of photos. I think these are the best.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

2008-11-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

But not nearly frightful enough to go skiing. Poor Noah's ski's are all shiney and ready to go, but the snow just won't stay put!

All is going well out here. We spent our Canadian Thanksgiving at a friend's wedding (no turkey!), and now American Thanksgiving is fast upon us and... still no turkey! Noah and I are alternatingly working all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I might make a little something anyway though, we'll see.

We had some guests staying this week, none other than our friends Katie and Eric out from Stratford. We had lovely weather and I got to show them around Banff and where I work, as seen here:

Other than our guests, we're trucking along, getting ready for Christmas. We're looking forward to our impending 7 days in the Eastern Time Zone!

Now if only it would snow...

Goodbye Summer!

2008-09-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the important bit: new wedding date. Wedding will now be August 22nd, 2009. We bumped it up a couple weeks to accomodate many members of Bonnie's family who couldn't make the Setpember time. No real difference. Plans are coming along. She's going to a bridal expo in Calgary next weekend and I am going in to hiding. A place in Bayfield has been booked, as has Dad's backyard up at Grand Bend. All that remains to be decided is how much free booze everybody gets and voila! instant party. Right?

We're really enjoying our new place still; all that extra space is quite nice. We've even used our *real* fireplace a couple times. Here's a shot from last night. We got a bottle of wine, started the fire, and did some wedding planning (sort of). Ok, mostly we just watched the Food Network. Anyway, I think this photo is all cozy and Banff-like

Next up, a couple shots from our porch. Yes, we mostly see a bus parking lot and the backside of a rather ugly building, but you can also see some nice things too. The first one is our "front yard", Bonnie's car, and more proof that the animals in this area make no distinction about whether or not they are in town. The 2nd is the top of Cascade from our porch. The snow is fresh and always looks so good on the mountains.

In warmer days, we have been walking the dogs about a block down the street to a little beach on the Bow River. The current is quite strong here, but the curve of the river creates a nice, calm pool at the edge. Just like at Sauble, the dogs love the water and we love getting outside and enjoying the sun (when it is actually out). Couple of pictures of one time out there.

Finally, as you may have read in my title, summer is pretty well finished out here. Hopefully it'll put in a few last gasps but truly, for the most part, things are looking pretty fall-like and wintery. The next 2 are the scene when I woke up on Sunday morning....that's Sunday AUGUST 31

2008-08-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well for those of you on the edges of your seat (ALL OF YOU....both of you), we've set the date for September 12, 2009 and the wedding will be in Grand Bend/Bayfield, Ontario. There's a small chance that date may still change, but it seems unlikely at this point. More details as we get them.

I took the dogs (yea, we've got the dogs all moved in at this point) on a walk on Sunday and I'm glad I brought my camera because I was once again struck by the beauty of this area and how much can be found within 15minute walk from home. They *love* to go swimming, ever since we went in the lake at Sauble, and so I took them behind Tunnel Mountain (the stupidly small one right next to town) to a little beach on a winding bend of an offshoot of the Bow River. Was very nice.

In other news, aren't the Olympics great?

All good news, I promise

2008-08-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

So, as Noah mentioned, the last few weeks have been exciting ones for Noah and I!

First of all, as Noah mentioned, we got a new apartment! There are pros and cons associated with this endeavour, however. Here are a few:

Pro: 2 times the space!
Con: 2 times the rent

Pro: Real BBQ on the deck!
Con: Having to pay for our own power

Pro: Tiny view of Cascade!
Con: Mostly a view of the bus parking ot

Pro: We have a fully furnished guest room and a wood burning fireplace!
Con: We traded our private forest backyard for a downtown locale

Yes... no where is perfect. But this place is close. There is so much space for us, and it's pet / piano friendly, so my two little monsters have finally made the move to Banff to live with Noah and I. We're in the works to get my upright piano moved out here, as well, but that's a bit harder to move than 2 20-pound dogs.

Also, as mentioned, we have a fully furnished guestroom, and we really hope that people feel free to use it. Vacationing in Banff is hard to do for some, but hopefully our having this lovely mini-hotel will help you make the right decision and COME SEE US!

Here are some pictures of the new place:

Next, the other big news: Noah proposed on the last day of July, and I said... sure. Apparently. I recall saying "Yes!", but it's all a bit of a blur. I guess Noah decided to do it after I left Ontario to come back to Alberta without him; he bought the ring (and picked it all by himself), and was waiting for the perfect moment, but having it hidden in the house was apparently a lot like the tell-tale heart in the room; everytime he looked at his underwear drawer, he was SURE i knew that he was up to something. So he invited me to hike up Tunnel Mountain after I finished work one day, and dropped to one knee (after scaring me into thinking that he was going yell at me; this was not the case). Attached is the picture after the big event happened!

That's about it for me for now. Everything is coming together right about now, and as we get closer to figuring more out about the planned nuptials, we'll DEFINITELY let you know!

Finally! Back in the swing

2008-08-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

What a few weeks! Just amazing! I have been so busy that posting a new blog has just been the last thing on my mind. Never fear! I, obviously, am doing one now!

The vacation was just amazing; 5 weeks was a great length. Makes me not want to take a short 1-week vacation ever again :p The thing was, it took a few days to just get into vacation mode. Usually, in 1-week vacations, this is about 1/2 your vacation time. Can't wait to do it again.

So I returned to Banff with Bob and spent a couple days re-adjusting to being in Banff and attempting to find out what went wrong/didn't work out/flooded/exploded while I was away (for the record, nothing did!). Then I drove him to the airport in Calgary far too early in the morning, came back, and started up with moving.

Yep, if you haven't heard, Bonnie and I got a new place; she found it while I was still in ontario and we are now living in it. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of cleaning to do in the old place (isn't moving-out the worst? moving-in is fun, but moving out..ugh) Anyway, it definitely wasn't very big so it shouldn't take too much longer.

Hey, speaking of Bonnie, if you haven't heard, we're engaged! Funny how that happens. We've set the date for sometime in September '09 and the wedding will be taking place (hopefully) in or aroudn Grand Bend, Ontario. Bonnie's got an entire post in the works about this event and the new place, so I won't spoil any more about it here.

So life is returning to normal (and rapidly moving away from "normal" at the same time) and, overall, it's good to be back. I've got a huge backlog of pictures (as you might expect), so I'll just be putting a bunch in for the next few posts. These are all pictures in Ontario and credits go out to Aaron, Andy, and Pratik for some of them. Enjoy!

Disaster!

2008-07-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

But Noah! This is your time that you are supposed to be backpacking the Bruce Trail with your friends for 5 days! Why are you posting?

Well, almost immediately after the hike started, my right hip started bothering me. Towards the end of the day, it had gotten rather painful. I woke up this morning with the same problem and while favoring that leg anyway, sprained my right ankle. The combination of the 2 problems was much more than I was willing to hike on the extremely rocky, slippery, and challenging terrain and so when we hit the next town I called for a pickup. The other 3 guys are continuing the hike. The dream will have to wait at least one more year I guess.

I left my camera with them for extra pictures so I don't have any to post at the moment. They will have to come later. The ~30 hours I did spend on the trail were awesome, despite the pain in my right leg, and I look forward to the time where I can actually finish it.

Gus and Cassie: Water Pros

2008-07-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

I introduced Gus and Cassie to the lake on their first or second night here, but the waves splashed them and they weren't fans. Last night, however... the lake was beautifully calm. I carried each one of them out and reintroduced them to the water, and after a bit of encouragement...

Pictures!

2008-07-08T06:26:00.001-07:00

Me again,

Ryan worked some wonders at the cottage and we now have wireless, albeit painstakingly slow at times... which means I can get our pictures off of my laptop and onto the web!

I'm going to edit my 2 previous posts to have pictures included so as not to break up the timeline.

Cheers!

My how time flies!

2008-07-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm down to a week of vacation, and Noah still has like... 3?! Not fair! Alas, paying the bills does sometimes have to involve doing things other than sitting around, tanning, and enjoying cold drinks. So I hear, anyway.

Last week was loverly. Hard to believe that we've been here so long! I would highly recommend long summer vacations.

When we got in last Friday, we moved in, visited, and passed out. Deb's getting a lot of work done on the cottage, and it looks great. She even found this really nice carpenter who is SUCH a hard worker, he spends the night so that he can get up early and keep working. Right Deb?

6 of our friends drove in to spend the weekend, arriving on Saturday and staying until Sun/Monday. It was awesome to see so many familiar faces; we had a lot of fun on the beach with some baseball and body surfing, plus lots of tanning and excellent wine thrown in for good measure. Katie and Eric had to leave Sunday evening, as Katie had to get back to the real world and "work"... a very sad evening. On Monday we took Pratik, Joe, Danielle, and Mark climbing in the Old Baldy Conservation area; the 5.8 that was in the book was definitely NOT a 5.8 by our standards! It was a cool climbing area, with pretty cool rock, but the route was also a lot newer than the more established TABVAR routes in Banff. Noah pulled off a rock about the size of his chest that could have done some serious damage if it hadn't been a controlled throw. Noah also had his first lead climb fall-- it was from right up below the anchor spot, so he didn't ground fall, but it was a long drop. He fell about 25 feet, and I was yanked about 6 feet up... yeesh! Mark and Pratik had to leave a bit early, but Danielle and Joe joined us for dinner afterwards, then had to head back to Toronto.

Noah and I stayed at Sauble Tues-Thurs around lunch, then drove down to Grand Bend to see Jim and Jan, where we enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets, a lovely bonfire, and excellent food and company. We went to a new pub in Bayfield and looked around their main street for awhile (Erin and Jessie, you would have bought the place out).

On Saturday we drove down to Detroit for Ryan and Christina's wedding. We made it to Jenni's house with just enough time for everyone to change, get all the dogs crated, and get to the ceremony. They looked gorgeous, and very happy; then Christina's family hosted a reception at a nearby backyard, and we made it back to Jim's house pretty late.

Sunday was devoted to figuring out when to leave based on when the wait time at the border crossing was the shortest. We wound up sticking around for most of the day, doing some shopping and having lunch with Jim and Jan at a nice little Italian place. When we did cross the border, around 7:30, there was no wait to get into Canada, which was awesome, but the line to get into the US was at least 4 miles long... ouch.

Now we're back at Sauble, and aren't planning on leaving until Noah has to drive me to Kitchener to catch my flight back to Alberta. We'll be doing a bit more climbing, and attending a few more wedding celebrations for Ryan and Christina up here... it's going to be a rough week, I can tell :-)

p.s-- Dad, they're not ratdogs!

Ahh... the beach.

2008-07-01T07:57:00.001-07:00

So, Noah and I had all sorts of plans to post each night of our roadtrip from Banff to Sauble Beach. We were going to post pictures... talk about crazy things we saw... it was going to be awesome.

Alas, it didn't happen. On Tuesday after I worked until 4pm, we drove from Banff to Cochrane to pick up my dogs, then on to Medicine Hat, where we spent the night with my Aunt and Uncle.

Wednesday was looooong. We were out of the house by 6:30am, and made it to the Wild Horse border crossing into the US around 7:45. We had to wait for the border guards to open shop (precisely at 8am), and they proceeded to take as long as possible to check our car; not because we were threatening, but because we were probably the only people going to cross at that location that week. We were cleared, the dogs were cleared, but their dental chews almost didn't make it across-- the smily face on the front "looked like arabic writing", so we exited the car while they looked through the back. Lovely.

Montana was a long haul, filled with many exciting locations! Noah and I played a game where we had to point out things outside of the car following the alphabet. It's harder than it sounds considering the only things we had were the road itself, the sky, and the fields (Asphalt! Bovine! Cattle! ............... the rest took us awhile).

We were nervous about the first few hours in Montana because that was our only time not on the interstate in the US, but those little roads were actually great. Traffic free, 70mph on a perfectly straight, flat road as long as the eye can see... lovely.

We finally made it out of Montana and into North Dakota. The first 40 miles were beautiful, the badlands a lot more dramatic than in Montana. Unfortunately, the next 300 miles looked a lot like the same boring little bit between Edmonton and Calgary (or London and Sarnia) over and over and over. We stopped at a city just before Minnesota for dinner, then made it to our goal destination of St. Cloud, Minnesota around 11:30pm. If we don't use Onstar again all trip, using it that once to call ahead, exhausted, asking for a pet-friendly hotel on the interstate in St Cloud, having a reservation made, and exact directions (exit 171, take an immediate left, look past the home depot and it's on your right...) was worth the $20 it cost extra this month.

We passed out right away, but the dogs sure didn't. They had been in their crates for about 16 hours and were wired.

On Thursday morning, we met up with Andre, a friend of ours from university who is a choir conductor in St Cloud now. It was a great start to the day, which was shaping up to be a good one: breakfast with a dear friend in the morning, and the promise of home cooked ribs with another friend, Lori, if we could make it all the way to Kalamazoo that night. Fortunately, we did, despite the brick wall of traffic we hit in Chicago. We actually left the interstate in favour of surface roads and went through a pretty harsh neighbourhood, but it was great because we were actually Moving.

Lori and Kevin hosted us that night at their gorgeous home near Three Rivers and the ribs were everything she promised and more. The dogs got some good outside time, too, which was nice for them (and a lot of lap time with Kevin). We slept in on Friday, not getting on the road until about 10, because... we were almost there.

We made it to Sauble around 5pm, and it was wonderful. We got out of the car, took out the dogs, changed into swimsuits, and ran into the lake. It was cold, but good. The dogs had a noticeable change to them; they instantly -settled- like they hadn't done while we were travelling. They get along well with Eddi (Noah's mom's dog), and we took them for an awesome hike while rock climbing yesterday.

So, 2200 miles later, we made it, and have spent some wonderful quality time with friends and family. Vacation is awesome. I highly recommend it.

If I can fix my laptop to accept Noah's camera card, I'll post some pictures later!

Pictures Ahoy!

2008-05-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Lots of pictures this time around. I looked at my camera this afternoon and realized that I had quite the backlog on that thing.

What's the brief skinny? Things are going on as usual out here. We had our May snows, our week straight of May rains (yep, 7 days straight), and now it's nice again. Work is the same and the town is much the same except that it's getting busier by the day.

Banff Refreshing, the redo of main street that began last spring, is back in business. They've got 2 of the 3 main intersections all but closed off, making driving downtown a total hassle and apparently the weather delayed the construction for 3 full weeks, making the new completion date just a few days before I get back from out East. That makes it about 9 months late overall! Well done!

First up on the pictures are some of the snow we got virtually overnight about 10 days back in mid May. Ah the May snows. These are both of our stairs and walk going down to our door.

Naturally, I couldn't not go skiing with all the fresh snow, so I went out. I got there late, much to my chargin, but was extremely pleasantly surprised that even at noon it was still impossible to NOT ski in powder that was a foot deep or more. NOthing like a mid May powder day!! Huzzah!!! Anyway, while driving there I was talking to mom on the phone and took this photo. Those little guys love the salt on the road.

Next up, a brief diversion just to assure the folks at home that we are, in fact, eating well and right. I tutor a neighbor's son in math and when i got home yesterday, Bonnie had this all laid out on the table. Mmm. And look at those keen dishes! We have so many nice things and love pulling them out all the time. Thanks everyone!

Moving on, we went on a spontaneous climbing outing yesterday evening. It's light here until almost 10:00 right now, so there's plenty of time after work for this kind of thing. This was also our first "Real" climb of the season, since the last one we spent more time fording the river than climbing.

So this time around, we went to the backside of Tunnel Mountain (the fake mountain that town sits on). We only got one route in for fear of it getting dark on us (that means 2 climbs for me, since Bonnie forgot how to clean routes) and we had some stuff to remember. Also, the route we chose was a rather lengthy and sustained 5.9, if you know what that means (Hi Erin!). So here's the shots

Bonnie getting lowered

Bonnie at the top

Me setting up the anchor

About 1/3 of the way there...

Bonnie took this shot while I was setting the anchor up, so this is from the bottom of the climb (the top was almost 30m higher). Pretty good!

The walk to this rock was through a nicely forested and (thanks to the 7 days of rain) newly green valley floor. It goes along the Bow River (which is, of course, raging right now) and that was all you could hear for the walk.
It wasn't nearly this dark when I took this photo. I should have turned the flash off and done it again.

And finally, on the way out we stopped to take a look at Bow Falls.

Mission accomplished! All pictures accounted for. With that, I'm signing off. Cheers to you!

The 100th Post!

2008-05-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yea, that's right - 100 posts. How about that!

Let's start off with a moment of silence: the ski hills are now, officialy, closed. I didn't go up much at all in the last month; the warm weather really makes me disinterested in skiing. So I've finally packed up the ski gear and put it away for the season. But that's ok! Since I've brought out the climbing gear! Woot!

Bonnie and I made it out this past weekend to Cougar Canyon near Canmore. The rock was great, but the conditions could definitely have been better. The water in Cougar Creek was, as you'd expect, quite high, and the canyon itself was quite narrow and we had to ford it a couple times to get to any climbs at all (and the climbs we got too weren't that great). We would have loved to go in further to the wall we had initially planned on climbing, but couldn't stand the notion that we'd have to cross the raging torrent of ice-cold water more times.

In any case, it was great to get out and discover that I do, in fact, remember how to rock climb. Here's the obligatory pictures

Bonnie is holding my pants here. I took them off because I couldn't roll them up high enough to matter. By the time that we took this photo, Bonnie had given up with staying dry and was wearing her sneakers and not rolling up her pants

Finally at our climbing spot (or our substitute climbing spot), Bonnie wanted a picutre taken of how wet she is. She definitely fell in but your heroic author was there to save the day.

And speaking of your author, here he is ready to climb and looking uber.

In other news, I've now grilled a couple times this spring on our little patio thing and that's been great. Nothing better than grilling with a beer in hand. In downside news, the road is under contstruction again, including a giant hole right outside the internet cafe complete with constant machine-sounds and banging. Awesome....Can't believe it's going to stay under construction until our trip home.

Finally, the long weekend was crazy. You get lulled into this false sense of "Banff is a small quiet town" over the winter and then BAM it's full up and you can't walk down the sidewalk anymore. Just crazy. So glad i'm leaving for July

2008-05-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day last Saturday and Bonnie and her parents had all left the house in Cochrane to do various things, so I milled around a little bit and then decided to take off for Banff. Since I was in no hurry and it was, as I said, gorgeous outside (about 15 degrees and mostly sunny), I decided to take the old Bow Valley Trail back to Banff instead of Highway 1 (trans Canada). It was definitely beautiful and amazed me how much seeing the same mountains from different angles so changes their appreance.

The road winds out of Cochrane and through the "Old West" for a while, before heading through the Indian reservation. There are no shoulders, to speak of, for almost all of the drive, so all of these photos are taken by just blind point-and-click out the window as I drove. I think they mostly turned out rather well. Here we are then, the inaugural pictures from my new camera!

Leaving: Cochrane. Entering: The Wild West

There are some horses at the far side of this little lake

Mt. Yamnuska in the very first range

More of Ol' Yam

Don't know the name of this one, unforutnately.

Sort of make you feel 19th century, doesn't it?

This happens more often than I can describe. Thought I'd try for a picture this time

Another mountain of which I don't know the name

I was trying to shoot something else and ended up with this. For some reason, I like it

These next couple are mountains across Lac Des Arc, which is much nicer from this side when your view isn't marred by the cement plants.

This one is back east, out of the mountains

The 3rd sister never gets any credit. I thought this was a unique, rarely phootgraphed view of a commonly pictured mountain.

SO what else is going on? The usual. It is definitely spring - haven't skiid in a couple of weeks at this point; my thoughts are turning to climbing and hiking as they did last year at about this time. The warm weather is just intoxicating.

This week we're getting the closest thing Banff gets to spring - couple days of cool rain. It's actually been nice; we haven't seen rain in about 6 months, believe it or not. The smell here is simply amazing too.

So a couple more shots. The first is of Cascade Falls. It's a waterfall fed high up by a natural spring that only recently has started running again. I pulled off to try to get a quick shot of it

And finally, the ol' home with my new toys. That huge TV and monitor. The computer is brand new too but you can't tell because, well, it's a picture of a computer tower.

And finally, I'll leave you with this. I put my back against the window in the picture above and took a shot. You've seen it before, but I think it's worth putting out there often. This is what we get every day :p I did about an hour of yard work since taking this photo and it looks great out there now - all raked and swept. Only in Banff do you rake about as many deer pellets as you do leaves of dead grass.

Non-Sequitor'd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Upgrades!

2008-04-26T16:44:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-16T10:25:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-04-08T13:27:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-04T09:05:00.001-07:00

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.

Nothing, nothing, nothing

2008-03-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well i've been getting the ole' "OMG WHY AREN'T YOU POSTING?!?!" stuff again. To be honest, there hasn't been anything to report. Life has been pretty routine for the last month - which has been nice.

I'm just finishing up a 9 days in a row stint at work, because Tom wanted to go visit family in Vancouver. He's such a great boss for so many things that I, of course, don't mind. I also don't mind the paycheck at the end of it. Of course, it finally started snowing again this week - when I was working everyday. So that's 100% bogus. Snowed a whole helluva lot today too, too bad it's Saturday and I am FAR too snobby to go to the hill today. Should be able to get out Monday, however.

I haven't been out skiing nearly enough lately and it'll feel good to strap the old boys back on and get back to breaking the sound barrier. It's not exactly a winter wonderland out here but at least it's something. Getting late on anyway and can't expect too much anymore. Just get out enough times to go "ok...i'm cool with this season now" and move on to other sports.

You know - this is reall yquite tough. There just isn't a lot going down right now and, Bonnie and I don't have a camera, hence the lack of pictures. I think I'll go out and buy us one this month so we can get back to posting awesome pictures up here again.

Well - at least everybody knows I'm not dead, which most of you seem worried about far too much.

Summertime, and the living is easy....

2008-03-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yep! It's summer out here. It's now been a solid month of temps between 5 and 10 degrees (Celsius) with barely any snow what-so-ever. Bogus. However, all the warmth has gotten me thinking about my trip this summer, so that's been fun.

(Aside: I feel scummy posting this after Bonnie's post about her fish. Make sure you read it. As far as fishes go, Snug was a good fish.)

Anyway, the warm weather has gotten me thinking about hiking and climbing and all that good stuff. Time to post the goals for you all. We'll start with my targeted mountains (click on the names for pictures, etc!):

Mt. Fairview

Castle Mountain

Mount Lady McDonald

Mount Bourgeau

Just a starting point, I'd hope to get more. However, given my 1-month trip in prime scrambling time, who knows.

So then, mountain Goal #2: Hike a Mountain, any mountain (though I'm thinking Mt. Rundle) and camp out for the night. Take in the mountain sunrise from 10,000 feet.

Then we come to mountain Goal #3: Lead a 5.10 climb. Any 5.10 will do. For the non-climbers:
Climbing routes are rated 5.X where a higher X means a more difficult climb. It goes from 5.5 to 5.15a (they start adding in letters). 5.10 is, really, the first rating that isn't "beginner" climbs. You've got to have some skill to be able to do them.
"Lead" means that I want to be the first one up the climb - the one who sets the route and places all the protection. It's harder because of the headspace required, since you don't have that reassuring tension coming from the rope above you. So anyway, that's goal #3.

Then finally, goal #4, and this one is in relation to my trip. In case your'e still out of the loop, Bonnie and I are coming out this summer. Bonnie for 2 weeks and me for about a month. Penciled in "on or around" dates right now are June 24 - July 21. That'll mean we're out there for Canada Day weekend, and Ryan's wedding, and me for a few weeks after that. In that time, I want to hike the Bruce Trail from Owen Sound to Tobermory.

I need a partner for this so, if you're interested, let me know. I expect the hike itself would take about 4 days.

So finally, no post like this would be complete without the necessary comment that I have updated my MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-Op: a Western Canada sporting goods store) wishlist with things for this summer. Should you be in the mood to drop some cash on Bonnie and I, check it out!! :p I know, I'm so subtle. Bonnie and I have labelled the various things with who has requested it.

the website is MEC. You can search for our wishlist from the upper right. Finally, you'll need a member number to buy stuff from them, you can go ahead and use mine. 27155571. There are no perks to membership other than the ability to buy stuff from them (since it's a co-op)

Cheers!

i'm taking over this blog!

2008-03-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

hello again!

a few new pieces of news...

#1: i got the job! come april, i'll be a program coordinator/desktop publisher for leadership development. tomorrow, i'm sitting in on the interview for my replacement, which means that very soon, we won't be understaffed anymore. thank god.

#2: i upped my swimming again! i started only being able to 1 front crawl before i had to switch to back crawl for a rest... and today, i did 4 sets and 9 and 1. very exciting.

#3: it is with great sadness that i report the death of my long time fish companion, snug. he outlived his brother, titus, by about a year, and accomplished a lot in that time. snug lived a good, long life, and saw more sights than a lot of people i know. he accompanied me through 2 houses in london, and took the occasional vacation to sauble and grand bend. snug spent a summer in michigan, and then drove across the continent with noah, all the way to banff. snug was always frail, and i like to think that he's finally eating as much as he likes without choking, like he always did.

rest in peace, snuggles.
2004-2008

Titus, Snug, and I getting ready for Formal in 2006

Mom's Worst Birthday Present Ever (Titled in Hindsight)

2008-03-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

First off: Happy Birthday Mom.

So Aaron and Diana have gone back to Michigan, the house has been cleaned up, the beer is out of my system, and things are returning to as close as things can get to normal in this everyday fantasy camp.

It was nice to do all the "tourist" stuff again. Went up to Lake Louise, Johnston Canyon, Bow Falls, etc etc. All that stuff that Bonnie and I never do for the same reason that people living in Orlando never go to Disneyworld. All were, of course, spectacular. We also dined out way too many times, at some restuarants that were just too fancy for us. Good times all around, however. You too, can enjoy the mountains, teh fantastic weather, the good food, and the great company. *nudge nudge*

I also managed to drive my car into a ditch and decimate one of my skis. Let's talk briefly about these.

The car thing was my fault. Aaron was trying to take a picture on the way home from Sunshine so i tried to stop the car for him and drove onto what appeared to be the shoulder but was just snow. My car sank in to it and that was that. Luckily, we had a 6-pack of beer in the trunk. We looked pretty awesome standing on the side of the road next to my car that was probably at a 45degree angle or better drinking beer and looking unconcerned. Why unconcerned? Because we were using Onstar to call for a tow. Worked great!! By the time I got off hold with them, a guy who worked at Sunshine had already been called by a passing bus driver and came by with his truck to pull us out. Then I couldn't get off hold with the girl who was still trying to get me a tow, so I called up Onstar on my cell phone to tell them I was on hold with somebody else. And that girl put me on hold. Solid.

Then the skis. I don't think ths was my fault - entirely. Of course, I was "driving" them but my doom could not have been forseen. I was going down some double-blacks and ducking the "ski area boundary" fence (oooooo rebel), as I had been all day. Great snow, miles of powder, lots of small cliffs to huck off (that means drop). Good times all around. Lots of rocks too. Rocks tend to come in a few varieties on these runs:

1 - the kind that just stick out of the snow
2 - the kind that cause the snow to form a lump above them
3 - the kind that hides underneath the snow with no visible markings, except that they are near other rocks that fall in to one of my previous categories.

I hit kind 4: the kind that hides underneath the snow with no visible markings, including other rocks nearby.

So I flew through the air and rolled down the hill and rolled so more and noticed a fast-approaching rock getting missile lock on my kidney and pushed myself to the side and eventually came to a stop a good distance away from where I had started.

First shocker: I still had 1 ski on. Cool! Less hiking!
Second shocker: My 2nd ski had come to a stop only a couple feet from where I was sitting. No hike necessary!
3rd shocker: my ski binding was in several pieces and scattered around the "Crash site"

Well now...THAT is interesting.

Since I was out-of-bounds at the time, I thought I would just do the full inspection when I got back but...how to get back? I had 1 ski and was easily 2 miles from teh nearest station. Crap. Well there was no way I was going to miss out on the powder stash that cost me, at the very least, a binding. So I tucked my busted ski under my arm, put my binding fragments in the backpack I was thankfully wearing, and rode down that powder stash on one ski. Smooth.

I then proceeded to go down a length, black-rated creekbed on one ski.

Confident now, I started doing tricks down the cat track back to the station. I fell, all in all, probably about 4-5 times, including rest breaks for my screaming right leg. Of course, there was bid motivation to not fall. Usually, when I fell, I droppde my broken ski that no longer had a binding and thus also had no breaks. That thing sailed down the run until it hit a tree everytime I dropped it. Sometimes quite far.

Back at the station, I had time to assess the damage. Aside from the previously mentioned broken binding (which literally exploded on the underside), I had:

-a 170cm long "core shot" down the underside of my 175cm ski
-a quarter-sized hole in the tail of my ski

Aw crap.

Took the poor thing around town, made a few people look like they wanted to cry (i have nice skis. very nice skis), found a binding replacement for 1/6th of the purchase price for an employee not worried about the karma from ripping off his store for a little cash in his pocket, and ultimately gave it to the ski tech in town who used to tune the skis for the Canadian National Ski Team (I don't fool around). He grimaced and said "3 days".

For ski tunes that usually are done overnight, that's a long time.

I am, however, pleased to report that not only are my babies fixed, but they were "suped-up" by this guy as well and that I, miraculously (despite a binding exploding under my foot and hitting a rock hard enough to puncture my ski), escaped completely unscathed. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture of the carnage.

So there's my 2 stories of me breaking things. Sorry for that 2nd one, mum :p

In other news, the boss OK'd my trip home in the summer. So Bonnie and I are fully confirmed for July. me for a month, Bonnie for 2 weeks. Looking forward to it!

bonnie, bodacious banffite

2008-02-22T17:09:00.000-08:00

yes, it's me again! long time no chat, so i figured i'd make a post and reassure deb that not only is noah alive, but that i am, too.

i hesitated for a second writing "banffite". not because i'm doubting my 'allegiance' to banff or anything, but because i recently found out that people who live in our neighbouring town in the bow valley, canmore, are called "canMORONs". seriously. now i'm afraid to ask what people in banff are called. "banffdiots"? who knows.

anyway, things are going well for me! i'm hitting my 6 month anniversary at work come march 5th, which means my long awaited probation period is over, and i'll get an extra $1.50/hour. on top of this, we just voted in a new payraise, and i've just applied for a slight promotion, so hopefully i'll almost be making as much as i was with my government job!

the promotion that i applied for is a combination of the job i do now (program coordinator) and the addition of desktop publishing. we have been looking for someone for this spot since november... but back then i was a bit too overwhelmed. i was a green 3 months into a new job with a new company, doubling my workload with 3 people having quit in a 1 month period, and effectively becoming the "most experienced" program coordinator responsible for training the new people starting the next week.

with the new job, i would have 3 programs to run (instead of the 8 i have now) and 3 programs to desktop publish-- which is the formatting and styling of all printed materials that are sent to a course. this appeals to my nerdy, computer-loving soul in ways that are kind of embarrassing, and even if it were for that reason alone, i hope i get it :-)

in other news, i've started working out 3-4 times a week as i'm trying to get my asthma under control without a silly little puffer... so i've started swimming. the first week, i could only do 1 front crawl before i had to switch to a rest stroke... and now i'm up to 7! i also just finished a 6 week spin class (bikes with weights), and it was pretty intense. glad i'm done, but at the same time, wow was it effective. i might sign up for the next one, which runs in april. i don't really know that i have a goal, "numbers wise", but i do know that i would like to be able to do a few simple scrambles with noah this summer without having to fight my asthma every hundred feet.

other than that, things are status quo. i'll finish up the post with a few pictures from the "Arthur Family Murder Mystery" that noah and i participated in a few weeks ago. noah was "Norm Boring, sleazy agent to the stars who mysteriously was carrying a gun and could identify bombs". i was "Beebee, pop singing sensation that everyone wanted a piece of... but no one could be That dumb for real... could they?"

Jupiter belongs to earth now!

2008-02-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Gorgeous, clear night and a great view of tonight's total lunar eclipse from my little basement job (ok I also went outside and looked)

Couple friends and I were watching it out on the sidewalk and one of em says "It looks like jupiter" and then another says "Take that jupiter! You belong to earth now. hyah!"

Cool stuff

Proof!

2008-02-13T13:59:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas, we gave Jenni a picture of Castle Mountain. She asked if it was just some random, pretty mountain, or a mountain that we actually saw regularly.

As I said, everytime we drive to Lake Louise (or in this case, to Jasper), we see the mountain. It is absolutely unmissable from the road. So Jenni, if you're reading this, here's the proof!

Back from a winter getaway

2008-02-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, Bonnie and I took a quick trip up to Jasper. For those unfamiliar with the area (I'm assuming most of you), here's a map!

View Larger Map

The road up is called the Icefields Parkway and, I'm told, is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Unfortunately for us, it snowed the entire drive both ways so, we didn't see that much. However, the drive was still beautiful. It's a small, 2-lane highway that travels along - and across - the continental divide. It's an amazing road through mountain valleys and across peaks (reaches as high as 7,000ft), and even across the tip of a Glacier at the Columbia Icefield (hence the name). The pictures don't begin to do it justice, what with the weather conditions and being taken from a car, but I'll post a few anyway.

The average look of the highway. If it didn't look like this, it looked the same but with tighter trees and/or mountains

At the Columbia Icefield. Weather conditions just like we were on top of a mountain (oh wait, we were) - windy, cold, windy, windy, and formidable

One of many. We even saw a couple people climbing a couple of them. Looked fun! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_climbing

And finally, who wants to go camping?

My good friend Dave works at the Fairmont (Banff Springs) here in Banff, and he hooked us up with a room at the Jasper Park Lodge. It was something of a mix between some kind of kids camp and a ranch resort. Single main lodge with a whole bunch of surrounding buildings, each with a couple hotel rooms (and a bunch of cabins for rent for families and groups or extremely rich people). We had a room not too far from the main lodge. Nothing too fancy, just a nice hotel room.

Most of the trip was spent relaxing. They had a great lounge with a huge picture window out into valley and a large, roaring, real-wood fireplace. We spent a long time in here playing cards, board games, and, of course, drinking cocktails.

And here's Bonnie standing on the deck just outside the window

What time we didn't spend in the bar, we spent walking around the town (which is MUCH smaller and quieter than Banff, largely due to the fact that it is 4 hours from the nearest 'real' city or airport), or enjoying other amenities at the resort:

Ice Skating:

Outdoor Pool (yes we actually swam. this sign is just pretty funny, we thought)

As we were leaving, we learned that you can also rent some snowshoes, which we would have loved to do but learned too late. Next time, I guess.

And for some final shot at breathtaking scenery (which this blog NEVER shows :p), here are some pictures of Athabasca Falls in Jasper. We made a brief stop on the trip home.

An Old Town in a Modern World

2008-01-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

Dad phoned me the other day when he got back from the Cayman Islands (a beautiful place, to be sure). He said it was around 90 degrees every day. Convert that to Celsius and you're at about 30 degrees. Right now it's -26 here in Banff with windchills forecasted for tomorrow as low as -55. That's an 85-degree difference - you could almost boil water in the temperature difference alone!! Whew!

Just how cold is -26, anyway?

Well for starters, windchill starts to mean both more and less at the same time. You get a light breeze by a passing car in -26 degree weather and your windchill plummets you 10 degrees or so. So having a windchill of -55 doesn't really mean that there's a strong wind - just that it's FREAKING COLD.

Walk outside and the fluids in your nose freeze your nose shut (seriously!)

Walk outside, take a deep breath, and be welcomed by a coughing fit as the fluids in your lungs temporarily flash-freeze.

They shut down the ski hills. Yea! They did! 2 reasons here. First is, naturally, safety. THe hills are well into the -30s because of their altitude, and remember what I said about windchill at cold temps? Now do the same thing at high skiing speeds and I'm sure you're looking at absolute zero all over your face. Secondly, the runs you go on in between the mandatory hot-chocolate break after every run aren't even very good.

You see, skiing and boarding rely on a small film of water building up between your skiis and the snow - it negates a good deal of the friction. At these temperatures, it's too cold for that to form. Secondly, the shape of snowflakes change into little barbed things that grip your skiis when you ski. The final result is that you simply don't move out there. (Ever wondered why snow squeaks when you step on it once it gets cold enough? Same things)

So long story short - it's really cold. Tomorrow is set to be even colder with windchills of nearly -60. It happened very quickly. Bonnie and I went skiing yesterday. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera (again), but it was a great day. Lots of fresh powder (a foot over the last 2 days) and pretty good visibility. When we arrived at the hill at about 10:00, it was -6. When we left at about 2, it was -17. By dark that night it was beneath -20 and by bedtime we were down to -26. Woke up this morning and it was -36 BEFORE windchill. I'll tell you what, my car did NOT want to start. I think it had given itself up for dead.

With the cold, you get some pretty neat things though. The sky all day today was an odd light blue color, that almost looked like it was frozen. All the trees are iced over, of course, and the sky, though cloudless, looked somewhat cloudy from the ice crystals in the air (yea that water vapor in the air freezes too). And then there's just that there is very little movement outside. People don't like to go out there because, well, it's freaking cold, and the animals just seem to stay put as best they can. Awesomely quiet all day, though.

I stepped in to the little coffee shop next door to the internet cafe to pick up some pastries to munch on through my ship. It's a quaint, old-style place with a little bar by a large front window like that kind you would expect to see in old Christmas movies. The name is printed in arched, gold type right on the window and is completely wood-framed. The door is right next to it, an old wooden door with those little wooden crosses in it. The constant opening and closing of the door caused the shop to be fairly chilly, so everybody was sitting in there with hats and jackets on, and clouds of steam coming from every drink in the place. It was 5:00 in the afternoon and nothign was moving outside the window, and, despite the noise of the conversations, the place was entirely peaceful - like an old-tyme family coming home from work and school, taking off their boots, and sitting down for coffee in front of the fire. When you least expect it, this town conjures up these special little moments that just keep you saying "what a place to be"

3 non-mountain pictures? Wha?!

2008-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

It hasn't snowed at all lately. An inch here or there on the hill, but nothing to speak of down here in town. It's also been unsually mild, which is an odd occurence after near-record lows through November and December. Forecast has some double-digit minuses towards the end of the week though, so maybe things will get back to normal around here. Need a good dump of snow big time!

Sorry to the non-music folks that read this, but I had to post it for those who are musically inclined. AS you know, I teach music history on Friday evenings - RCM Grade 3. We had our post-christmas review class this past week and one of the things i did was put on the 1st movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and told them to, as a group, put sonata form on paper. They could diagram, draw, write, or anything they wanted. Here's what they came up with:

Sorry for the quality there.

As for the other 2 promised pictures, they unfortunately have to do with last week's post. I was browsing news sites, as I often do at work, and found the same information on both sites. The bias is unmistakable

Site 1:

Site 2:

The first shot is from the CBC webpage. It's got a huge focus on data and I can't even begin to speculate about how they ordered the candidates at the bottom. It seems entirely random to me. Here's a question though: by this photo, who is winning? Who is most important? Heck I don't know.

The second shot is from the CNN webpage (yea, CNN). First of all, where are all the candidates? Guess about 1/2 of them didn't even make the cut. Secondly, did you notice that Mike Huckabee looks confused, John McCain looks old, and Mitt Romney looks like a paragon of human virtue?

I promise this is my last politically involved post, at least for a long while. I just had to show this as it relates to something I spent a good while posting about last week. Next time we'll be back to your regularly scheduled mountain and snow pictures and news about life in good ol' Banff

Consider this title a pre-emptive apology

2008-01-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

Well, back from vacation. There was a certain degree of...excitement upon landing here in Calgary but you will all be happy to know that 12 hours later, everything is worked out except our 3 missing bags.

Yea that's right - 3 bags didn't make it.

Looks like it's back to the grind for now. Thing haven't changed much, and they don't appear to have gotten any significant snow over the break, which is too bad. Still waiting on the best runs to be decent.

I'm going to take this no-real-news opportunity to do something I usually try not to do. I spend a lot of time at work reading up on world news, but lately I've been following American politics very closely. Frankly, it's disturbing. Canadian readers: it's probably best if you just stop reading now and wait for the next post.

To my family and friends in the states,

It's an election year and far be it for me to suggest who you should or should not vote for, or even which party to vote for. (Heck, they're both pretty much the same party anyway.) However, do me the favor of giving me your ear for a moment.

Winston Churchill is credited with quite the quote. He said, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." When I watch newscasts and debates, I can't help but agree with the man. How many questions about gay rights, abortions, gun control, and religion in government do we really need, and how many times must we ask them before we realize that the answers to these questions never change. If insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, how many times must we ask a presidential candidate his or her views on abortion before we declare ourselves insane?

It's not that the topics are unimportant, it's that their nature does not provide a grounds in which opinions can be changed, or an argument can be won. Somebody who believes in right to life based on religious dogma can find no common ground with a somebody who believes in a woman's right to choose. Remove the conversation from a conversation with friends over a drink to a political stage and you have even less chance for enlightening conversation or debate.

Yet so much of every debate is tied up in these issues that have no resolution in a presidential political forum. They are certainly valid and important issues, but given that the answers today are the same as they were yesterday and will be the same tomorrow, it seems like time would be better spent by simply asking for "yes or no" answers from each candidate and moving on. Late-tuning voters can look up the answer for their favorite hot-button issue later. There are so many huge, multi-faceted and urgent issues in the world now that spending so much time discussing these dead-end arguments is almost as much of a crime as the amount of time the major news networks spend telling us about celebrity birthdays, babies, and eating habits.

Of course, the major news networks don't help. They decide what to air and how to spin it. Yes, spin it. Find me a major, American news network that doesn't spin a news story and I'll simply point at you to show you somebody who agrees with the news network. A right-leaning person finds no bias in Fox News, because you agree with them. A left-leaning person finds no bias in NBC, again, because you agree with them. If you don't believe me, spend a few weeks watching and reading news from several news networks, and include BBC in your list (the British-based news network specializing in world news). You'll never look at Fox, NBC, CNN, or any other American news network the same again.

And how many of you are comfortable with the news networks deciding which candidates have a chance before you do? It's an amazing world when simply reporting polls on a daily basis has an impact on those poll numbers the next day. It would seem that bandwagon fans aren't relegated to solely sports teams; everybody likes to vote for a winner. How comfortable are you that your neighbor may vote for Obama simply because he won in Iowa? Or, alternately, that he may vote for Hillary simply because Obama won in Iowa?

As an onlooker in Canadian elections, I have noticed that most candidates in this country live by the maxim "he who puts up the most campaign signs wins". While Canada is strangely fixated on campaign signs, it is true that a large part of campaigning is simply name-recognition. If you can stand up and talk and wave your arms more than your opponents, you stand a better chance of winning or, at least, being taken seriously. With this in mind, re-watch some of the debates and think about how much chance candidates like Biden, Dodd, Paul, Tancredo, and the like were given by the news networks.

If Joe Biden is allowed, by the moderator (always an employee of the news network), to speak 10% as much as Obama, is it really that much of a surprise that Obama is ahead in the polls? Now before you get all in a huff, consider further that Fred Thompson got more airtime on major news networks for contemplating announcing himself for the presidency than existing candidate Ron Paul. Again, are you comfortable with the news networks narrowing down the candidates for you?

This is getting much more long-winded than I intended, but I have one more thing to say. A plea, if you will. The US government is designed to be slow and inefficient; it is designed so that no one man can wield a disproportionate amount of power. That said, I challenge you to name three significant actions the government has done over the past year. Slow and inefficient doesn't even begin to describe it when the most newsworthy bill the government passed was one condemning that paragon of 3rd Grade Wit "General Betray-us" advertisement. Is this a government you can really be proud of? One where a day doesn't go by where our president doesn't threaten to veto a bill and our Congress doesn't respond with "we will not cooperate with you"?

While one man can't bring about well, anything, on his own, the President is still the single most important political figure in the government. When you vote, vote smart, with real issues in mind. I hear so often that people like certain candidates because they are good looking! We have contests where looks are the deciding factor - they are called beauty pageants. Is the US presidential election a beauty pageant? Would you debase this action of voting, that has taken on near-ritual status in the United States, by voting for somebody because he is more handsome than the other candidates? My response to these people is usually, "do me a favor. please don't vote"

Do the research, find a candidate that epitomizes your beliefs. Don't be a sheep, recognize platitudes when you hear them, and force candidates to be accountable to the questions asked them and the answers they state.

That is all

Merry Christmas

2007-12-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I get these gentle reminders that I need to update my blog. Usually they're in the form of "NOAH WHERE IS YOUR NEWS!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Very gentle and subtle.

Before I start, I'd like to congratulate my grandfather, Bobba, for successfully navigating the intra-web and posting a comment on my last blog. *smattering of applause*

So it's December 21st today - shortest day of the year. It was dark before 5:00 today, which was..interesting. Didn't get light until about 9:00 too. Hehehe.

Town is in full Christmas-gear now and all that's left is to wait for the hordes to arrive. Christmas lights are up all over town, we have the world's ugliest town Christmas tree, and the weather is back to substantially below zero, instead of just a little bit.

As far as those holiday hordes are concerned, I deal with them through a wonderful method that I choose to call "duck and cover". Stay out of their way lest I get trampled and left for dead. People are cut-throat when it comes to vacationing.

Me? I'm hoping for a fun/relaxing vacation next week and I'll trample anybody who stands in my way.

Merry Christmas all!

3 Feet of Fresh Powder? Seriously? Oh yea

2007-12-09T12:33:00.001-08:00

You you heard me. It snowed solid for FOUR DAYS last week. We are, officially, buried out here with no sign of warming up - though the snow has at least stopped for now. Overnight we went from "kinda cold looking" to "full-blown Christmas wonderland." We also went from pre-season skiing conditions to ZOMG LOOK AT ALL THIS SNOW.

Was out with some friends on Friday. This is a groomed run, but I had to take the shot to show the scenery. Powder shots in a moment

It was one of those days that happens well...almost never. Not a cloud in the ski, not too cold (but also not too warm), powder everywhere, and no wind. It was so good that they were able to open up Goat's Eye Mountain for the first time this year. Sunshine Village has 12 lifts. Goat's Eye is almost as good as the rest of the lifts combined. We're talking runs down of 2 miles or more and, because it was the first day, we're talking nearly 2 miles of powder. Some of the flatter areas were groomed, of course, but wow there was powder everywhere for the poaching. Check it out!

That ski you see is being lifted up to get some perspective in there. Just try to find the other one :p

And finally, here we are up top of Goat's Eye. Or rather, here I am, looking pretty dumb. Just look at everything else.

In other news, taught my music history students about Handel's "Messiah" this week, and, as luck would have it, the Calgary Philharmonic was playing it the very next night. So I took them to see it and, much to my surprise, all of them loved it. I knew most would, but I expected at least 1 to say "not my cup of tea". It was a fabulous production of it too with 4 strong singers (including one countertenor - read "male alto"). Guess who their favorite voice was? The guy that sounded like a girl! Good kids, all of em. Definitely some good kids right there.

Big December inc!

2007-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

(For those of you who aren't up on the lingo on teh_intraweb (the internet), "inc" means "incoming"

First off, I got all the files and information transferred over to me for my new position, and I am now the Executive Director of the Alberta Music Education Foundation...and more than a little overwhelmed. What a lot of stuff!!! This is going to be quite the ride.

Woke up this morning and stepped outside and said "hrm...it's kind of cold". I then scraped off my car (as I've done already 2 dozen times, at least), and turned it on to that oh-so-familiar whine of protest. This was interesting; Jazzy (my car, thanks to the JZY in the liscense plate) hadn't complained yet this year when turning her on. A numbness creeping into my fingers and a quick look at the thermometer gave a very quick explanation why: it was -25 degrees. Holy hell.

While walking downtown, I made the mistake of taking a deep breath. Oh how I'd forgotten that lovely "lungs freezing" sensation.

Been out skiing about 1/2 a dozen times now. The hills are really starting to get into good shape. More lifts are opening every day and the snow keeps falling. Yesterday I went out with Dave and it was just a spectacular day. Some fresh powder on the ground, no wind, and not a cloud in the sky. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. There's really something incredible about skiing at 9,000 feet and looking around to see nothing but mountains and blue sky. Was a nice, crisp -15 or so up there. Cold, but not too cold, and cold enough that you don't start sweating.

Bonnie and I decorated our place for Christmas last night and it looks great. I'll try to take and post some pics tonight. Until then...

Woot!

2007-11-19T14:17:00.001-08:00

Winter is definitely here. If that snowstorm last week didn't convince you, it'll be today's balmy temperature of -12 Celsius (about 10 Farenheit). Just check out this weather report!

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/caab0016/

Nice and cold.

SO 2 big things to report. First, Sunshine opened up last Thursday, officially starting the ski season. A couple runs had been open here and there, but with Sunshine we actually had a full hill and some good snow conditions. Let me tell you, my new skis are just incredible. Good buys! Good buys!

Got up before 7 (for the first time in forever), had a nice Breakfast at Melissa's, and headed up to the hill. We got there at 8:30 and were skiing right at opening. Huzzah! Do you know what the first day of skiing on a ski hill that has had snow for over a month looks like? I'll tell you what it looks like : beautiful, fresh, wide open expanses of completely untouched powder.

We had full runs where the powder coming off my skis was hitting me at waist height or higher. How about that!! Here are a couple of photos for you

Maybe now I'll start to hear about some travel plans. You can't pass this up!

As we were sitting at the lodge having beer, we had a funny thought - we had been in that same lodge after a day of skiing less than 6 months ago. How about that? Didn't really feel like we'd left.

I actually tried to also take a picture of the powder going over my skis, to show you all just how deep it was, but alas, there was too much and it just shows up as a white picture. (how's that for pain and suffering?)

The other news is that I've taken my first "real" job. I am going to soon be the Executive Director for the Alberta Music Educator's Foundation - a registered charity in the province that promotes solo study and teaching of music in all forms. Hey! Cool! Should be right up my alley and I'm excited to tell everybody what the job entails as soon as I know myself. What I've gathered so far? I'm pretty much running my own business here - only it's already set up. Should be a great experience.

White for 6 months

2007-11-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

Winter has been flirting with us for a while out here, but it has finally arrived. The first sign? The ski hills opened!! And I went skiing!

Ok so, it was kind of a joke, but the point is, I had my skiis on my feet and snow underneath them, and the snow was inclined at least enough to get me moving.

Let me tell you, that felt good. What's even better is that the snow, in the thin strip of available skiing terrain, was good enough that I could bring my new skiis and try them out. Dang are they ever nice.

Before I build this up too much, here are the pictures. Went up to Norquay for a couple hours after work. It's pretty laughable.

Kind of a snow road down the mountain. It was actually pretty busy though - line up at the lift about 3-deep the whole time. And everybody had a great time and was just happy to be out there.

Definitely funny to look to your right and see all that grass.

However, that's all changed. It snowed for about 8 hours straight yesterday and it looks like we might done with grass for the forseeable future. Check out these pictures, taken this morning. It's pretty windy so it knocked it all off the trees, unfortunately

Sunshine opens up on Thursday and things are looking great. check out the webcams at

http://www.skibig3.com/onmountain/webcams.cfm

The bottom picture is exactly the same location that I took one of my skiing photos from. What a difference!! Amazing.

Still waiting for all these ski-trip bookings :p

2007-11-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Bad news: despite the recent snowfall (2 days of it), we may be looking at a slightly post-poned ski season this year. Tragedy!! We've had snow on the ground for about 3 days now. Not a ton, but definitely a nice covering. It's nice to see the mountains looking like this again

Finally bought a winter hat and coat yesterday. I, for one, had no idea that coats are so expensive - it was quite a shocker. Now i just need some new goggles. *hint hint*

Anyway here are the pics that I took on my way to work this morning. Some standard type shots, but things never stop being beautiful around here

October is bo-ring

2007-11-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

The threats have finally scared me into making a new post on this thingy. I apparently have a ravenous reader base that gets antsy when there is nothing new posted. Here you go. I throw this blog into the blog-o-sphere in the hopes that I don't get hurt.

Why haven't I written anything? Because nothing in happens in October. It's too cold to climb or hike, it's too warm to ski, and there aren't any tourits. Actually, it's blessedly slow. 5 months of people who left their brains at home and went on vacation is enough, thank you very much.

So what have I been up to? Well, not much. Just counting down to ski season, which the website tells me is precisely 6 days, 19 hours, 7 minutes, and 43 seconds away from this moment. Hey! That's pretty short!

It's next Thursday and you can bet your ass you know where I'll be at 9am that day. It's starting to feel quite a bit more like winter. It's below freezing every night, and 2 of the last 3 days we've woken up to snow. A lot of it melts during the day still, but it's lasting longer and longer. This morning I slid down the street on my way to work too - a winter driving on Halloween.

For those of you thinking of coming out here for the ski season, here are some webcam photos for you of how things are looking.

http://www.skibig3.com/onmountain/webcams.cfm

Not bad, not bad.

In other big news is that they took down the blue construction fences on the main street yesterday. The end is in sight!! After spending the summer in a cage we can finally enjoy our main street again. Sure, it's still under construction, but it's all details now. Hopefully they'll be out of here in a couple more weeks.

The only other bit of news also happened yesterday: the internet cafe is open for 4 hours less each day until January. That means instead of working 8 hours/day, 5 days/week, I'm going to be working 12 hours/day, 3 days/week from 11am to 11pm and have 4 days off to ski and otherwise be a bum. Hooray!!! The best job in Banff just got better :p

So I have to say - my little scheduling book that's filled with all your vacations to Banff is....less than filled. Let's start getting that fixed :p

Thanks, Q!

2007-10-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the big news: I've finally tricked those cheese-eating librarians at the Banff Public Library to fork over a library card. I know it's been months since I last talked about them and, honestly, I haven't been trying either. However, I recently learned that the Banff Centre has a fully-functional music library on campus, and that they allow you to check out CDs. That catch? You need a library card at the Banff Public Library first.

This new intelligence gave me no option but to launch an "Ocean's Eleven" type masterplan to break into the Fort Knox that is the BPL. And it's done!! I know have 1000s of scores and CDs at my fingertips again!

And not a moment too soon, either, because I'm teaching music history in Calgary this fall, and will add in theory to that come winter. Huzzah!!!! You'd be surprised how difficult it is to teach people about music history without....music. NO longer a problem! I can search their catalogue online and go 'up the hill' (ahahahah UWO joke that is still relevant, if opposite) and pick up the CDs/scores when Bonnie and I go up there anyway to climb.

At least twice a week, Bonnie and I are going up to the climbing gym at the Banff centre as part of a workout. We've each made up some pretty elaborate routines and are sticking to them pretty well. The climbing gym is a phenomenal place to go for workouts because it doesn't feel like a workout - it feels like goal-oriented fun. Only at some point you eventually go "holy crap-on-a-stick i can't possibly hold on to one more hold". We're starting to get pretty darn good at it too, i think.

Finally, the 'getting back into music' bit goes a little farther: Bonnie and I joined a choir in Canmore. They're a community choir and at a significantly lower level than we're used to, but everybody is just there to have a good time and it's just fun to be there. Definitely not breaking any records. And hey! I got a solo on my 2nd day (that should tell you something).

I'm still anxiously awaiting trip plans :p

Today, October 3rd...

2007-10-03T19:16:00.001-07:00

...it looked like this outside my door.

Note: Those white dots all over are snowflakes

2007-10-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

So let's see...what's up?

Hey! We get carpet this week!! Won't that be amazing!? Will be so nice to not be living on sheets and towels anymore and to finally be able to actually finish unpacking everything.

Also, we've gone through our 3 days of fall out here. Those 3 days are as follows:

Day 1: The day when all the leaves change
Day 2: Fall
Day 3: The windy day that knocks all the leaves off

It's quick, sure, but that 1 day was REALLY pretty. Now it's on to highs of 4 and 5 (about 40 Farenheit) and lows in the night of -5, -6. Looks like the mountains are set to have snow until next summer now too - crazy.

I've also realized that exactly 1 year ago, Bob and I were driving out here. Time flies! We're 36 days from Ski seaons too. Huzzah!!! (btw, it appears to be snowing/raining outside right now)

So in other news...

ONTARIO PEOPLE!! You've got an election on the 10th and in that election is a referendum about electoral reform. Read up on it at

http://www.yourbigdecision.ca/en_ca/default.aspx

It's a big change to how elections are done currently, and I think a great one. What's the biggest way it will affect you? How many times have you gone to vote and had to vote for somebody you didn't like because you supported his/her party? Or the other way around: like the guy but didn't support his party? The system promises to get you out of that Catch-22 and a lot more. Ok /politics off

I hope everybody is doing well. I'll repeat the shout out for people to come and visit and/or a high-definition TV for Christmas :p

2007-09-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking lately. SO here comes one of those mish-mash posts that has a little of everything in it. First off, here's a picture of Bonnie's dogs!

Cassie is on the pillow. Gus is on Cassie. She sure does love those dogs.

People have been asking about the condition of the house. I am sad to say that while the house is liveable, the work is not yet done. Hey! I found a theme for this post (you'll see).

Work finished drying the place and replacing the drywall about a week ago and we moved back into the place. The drywall still needed some sanding and the workmen chose to sand and re-mud the same places over the course of FIVE DAYS. They came in for about an hour each time. Fail. Then they finally painted it and said they were done and, guess what, that place they sanded for the last 5 days was completely rough. Not only that, but the paint job was terribly sloppy.

Some highlights of the job include:

-broken razors on the floor
-nails on the floor
-socket covers put on the wall even though they were broken
-drywall dust left everywhere instead of being vaccuumed
-paint on the baseboards
-paint not on the wall above the baseboards
-paint over top of unsanded mud (or the worst sanding job ever)

That about sums it up! Glad I'm not paying for those guys. So, I dutifully told the landlord and a few days later he had a friend come in and fix the sanding/mudding at least. So then we had a splotchy wall, but at least it was smooth. Then today the original guy came back and said he was going to finish the painting. So what did he do? He started sanding again. But hey, guess what? This time he took his shoes off and brought a shop vac with him. I haven't seen the finished product yet - i'm not optimistic

To continue with the epic saga (why does minor issue in my life turn into an epic saga?), the carpet people said that unless they wanted to work on Fridays or weekends (god forbid!) they wouldn't come in until October 4th. So we're living on concrete floor nails sticking up around the edges of the room! But have no fear! I have remedied the situation by putting bedsheets and towels down around the place so we have "Carpet" for now and the place is surprisingly livable. Took some pics of the height of the disaster:

It no longer looks like that. Don't worry :p I organized the whole place in exchange for the meals bonnie is cooking.

In other construction news, the "Banff Refreshing" is done!! It's the construction that they're doing on the main street that I've posted a few pictures of.

Wait.

It was supposed to be done. In fact, it's far from done. About 1/2 the sidewalk still needs doing, and the entire road surface, and the landscaping, and the detail work. Hrm....(see the theme now?) These workers are SSOOOOO great. There's been a couple mornings where it took serious acrobatics to get into the store (including one morning where i couldn't even figure out how to go about getting to the door in the first place). The other morning I couldn't even open the door because of the barricades in front of it. Here's a shot of one particularly accessible night

It's supposed to snow tonight. That'll speed up these guys. I've got a friend who says "In Toronto they would have laid and begun operating a subway in the time it's taken them to repave the road".

Finally, this weekend was the "last hurrah" for summer and tourists in this town until Thanksgiving (after which the town practically closes until Christmas). It was Melissa's (a restuarant/bar) Road Race!!!

WTF? How is that special?

I don't know!!

Anyway it's a HUGE event. 22km marathon (1/2 marathon?) around town and what not. I asked and this year there were 4,500 participants. HOly hell! What's the prize? NOTHING! What's the cause? NOTHING!

Ok. That's a lie. It's meant to be "the greatest road race in Canada" in that it's fun and open to everybody at no charge. It's just surprising that so many people show up for it. So some pictures of it that i took on my way to work

Finally a new Christmas wish in my ongoing effort to stave off the perpetual "What do you want for Christmas? You're SSSOOOO hard to buy for" comments that get thrown my way.

Get together out there and get Bonnie and I a nice high-definition TV. Nothing too big or fancy (we have a small place). We've got both Best Buy and Future Shop out here so we have full access to all the TVs you have access to.

Also, make your plans to come out for ski trips. Really! We want LOTS of ski trips this winter. I'd say "rooms are going fast" but...they aren't. UNless you mean the hotels in town. If you mean them, then they may in fact be, depending on when you'd want to come out.

What Happened To Summer?

2007-09-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's definitely over. Been able to see my breath for most of the day the last few days out here. Pretty crazy. Also regularly waking up to snow on the mountains. It usually melts (but lately has gotten a little more stubborn), but everytime there is new snow, it's a little farther down the mountain. It's well past the treeline now. I remember coming out here last year and a few of the firs tmornings Bob and I were here (first week of October) we woke up to snow on the ground. Crazy. Definitely coming.

In other news, ski season starts exactly 2 months from yesterday. Huzzah! Book your ski vacations now :D With Bonnie's new job we can put people up at the Banff Centre for not very much money, but you'll have to get the details from her.

Still living out of the hotel and the work continues to progress on the place. We should be back in shortly. The timing wasn't great (the day before Labour Day weekend) and the landlord is really making sure to do the job right, so it's taking a little longer to get finished. We're really looking forward to moving out of the hotel though - it's getting kind of old.

Dave and I went up Sulphur mountain the other day on the Gondola. I'd hiked the trail up the mountain last winter (the one where i was fortunate enough to find that artist on top to draw a picture of me) and I was pretty unimpressed with the hike itself. It constnatly crossed under the gondola line and was thickly treed the entire way. Just drudgery with no reward.

We had a different kind of plan though. WE took the gondola up and then walked along the ridge to the far end of the mountain (a few k on the ridge at least). Even though the top of the mountain is something of a tourist destination, they all tend to stay in teh actual tourist areas leaving us alone to scramble from peak to peak.

This was one of the better hikes/scrambles I've done. ALl reward, no drudgery, some fun trickier bits to climb and get over. The ridge was frequently quite thin and sharp, but also frequently treed with what looked a lot like the trees of the Bruce Penninsula. THe view was also pretty good the whole time, even though Sulphur Mountain is a pretty small mountain around here (barely above the treeline usually)

Was also pretty cold, and when on the windy side it was fairly rough in general. We even got caught in somethign of a snowstorm - pretty weak one, but snow none-the-less. It snowed fairly constantly while we were up there but usually not enough to really notice and it didn't stay long on the ground.

Definitely the highlight of the trip was on a break we took on one of the peaks. We were sitting there having some water and a couple mountain goats passed by within 10 feet and hung out for a while. Definitely cool. Seen a lot of them around town and on the roads and what not, but this was the definitely the closest I'd ever been, for the longest time, and not in a vehicle of some time. It was also the first time Dave had seen any at all (talk about bum luck)

Finally, a couple shots from the actual summit of the mountain. not bad!
These are actually taken along the ridge, so you can see what we were walking on the whole time. fun stuff!

(not as good as others, I know. too bad. wimpy mountain)

Greetings from... Bonnie!

2007-09-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is I. Noah tells me that I haven't been too great at letting people from our Eastern Time Zone homes know what I'm up to... so here I am!

As most of you know, I have worked for Forest Protection with the Albertan Government for a very, very long time. Over the 5 years of time I spent there, I have worked under a plethora of titles (ok, 4) in 3 districts (5 towns!). They are really the only employers I've ever had. However, things just weren't going well anymore... I wasn't as satisified with the job, or as self-motivated with my work. Plus, Noah and I were only an hour apart, but working through a long distance relationship...

So, 4 weeks ago tomorrow, I gave my notice with Forest Protection. I didn't have a job lined up yet, but I knew that it was something that I had to do for my own happiness. It was hard, and nerve-wracking, to leave the only employment I really know. Upon walking out of my boss' office, I felt at peace.

I applied to a series of jobs in a variety of fields in Banff. I got 3 of them! I was hired at Lush Cosmetics, Silver City Mercantile (shiny things!), and the Banff Court Libraries. In the meantime, I was interviewing with another job at the Banff Centre. This was a job that Noah found a want-ad for in the paper, as a Program Coordinator for Leadership Development at the Banff Centre. I almost didn't apply, but heard such great things about the Banff Centre as employers that I decided... sure. Why not. I was applying everywhere else in Banff, why not there?

I was invited to an interview, stage one, over the phone. Since it was a phone interview, and I was going to be using my cell phone, I had a little bit of liberty deciding where I wanted to be... so here's a picture of me, a minute before the interview began:

It was definitely one of the most relaxing locations I've ever been in for a job interview (although visiting Nana in Arizona is a close 2nd)! I was reading over the information they provided about the position, and suddenly realized... that I was made for this job. Every job or volunteer position I have worked in the last decade provided me with a great background for it. I felt it. I was perfect. And I told them so. I think that they liked that.

I got a 2nd interview, this time in person. The interviewers were 3 fantastic women, truly passionate about their work and happy with their jobs. It went great... and without really knowing what the job was, but knowing that I would be great at it... I got the job.

I have since found out that the Banff Centre Leadership Development program is a pretty elite organization. They primarily cater to the upper management of different companies or from the community, and have some pretty amazing programs. I'm not talking about your typical "motivate your workers" weeklong-getaways... every program has an artistic aspect ranging from molding clay to improv to dance, as well as an outdoors experience ranging from rock climbing to hiking to cross country skiing. There are 20 people in the department spread out over 5 modules, and I will be working in Custom Programs... we have 12 corporate clients ranging from Oil and Gas Industrial Giants to Financial Institutions, and even a Non-Profit Organization... our clients are based primarily in Western Canada, although one or two are from some Western States. Each of these clients has worked with our Organization to create a unique program for their employees based not only on their vision and corporate ideologies, but with specific goals in mind that change annually, even monthly.

My place in all that: as a program coordinator, I will help to develop what goes into each unique program, and from there, ensure that the logistics of each program is established so that the clients have as smooth and pleasant experience as possible. Parts of the job are heavily administrative, parts are "being a pleasant hostess"... it's very fluid and versatile, yet clearly definied, which I really appreciate.

I've only worked with the Banff Centre for 1 day, but I'm excited. I'm excited for the next couple of weeks of training, and the next few months of watching our programs get off the ground and into the conference rooms. I'm excited that I get to wear business clothes again, and high heels. I'm excited that I have my very own office! and that when I first looked out my window, there were 2 young deer grazing on the lawn. This is a fantastic opportunity, and I'm pretty grateful for it.

In regards to the rest of life, how things are going... Noah and I are still staying at a hotel waiting for the flood damage to be cleared out from the apartment. That does mean that yes, we will both be living in our tiny little rental... what was previously cozy just might be pretty cramped. We'll see what happens once we settle into our routines :-)

Anyway, that's a pretty long post for my first. I hope that all is well 2 hours ahead of me, and look forward to seeing you all soon... whenever that may be.

Much love,
Bonnie

p.s-- thanks for the pen, Marvin!

Mystery Solved

2007-09-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

So the house-flood saga continues.

I spent Thursday morning moving all the furniture in the place onto the (very) limited non-carpeted floorspace. Big piles of stuff!!! Then after work yesterday I went home to help my landlord rip the carpet out. The water had been sitting in that place for upwards of 4-5 days most likely, based on their reports of smelling that lovely musty smell in their basement and not being able to locate it. So yea, that carpet was trashed. Ooo, here's a tangent for you:

The place has heating in the floor so, as I was leaving for work yesterday morning, I thought hell, why not turn the heat on and see if that dries out the floor any. Interestingly enough, he had the same idea and went down shortly after I left and turned the heat up (now to like, 30 degrees)

Got home and the place felt like I was down in the bayou. All that extra moisture stuck in the floor and 30 degrees of heat....oooooo boy. So pleasant!

Back on track now.

We ripped up the carpet, which was lovely, and then set to finding the leak. The situation was very odd in terms of what was wet and what wasn't and there was no obvious source or even a spot that was "more damage" than others. About the only thing we could really agree on was that the source was somewhere in the bedroom. WE move outside and started inspecting the outside wall as best we could, but that didn't make much sense because the fall-line goes very drastically away from the house. On a whim, we turned on a tap back there.

Woosh! Waterfall in my room. Hard to believe any water made it outside. Further inspection: pipe froze and cracked in the winter. fun stuff! What's interesting is that they never use that particular tap (it's really in a useless place) which means that somebody not only used their water, but flooded their (my) place in the process. The landlords are not at all happy about that particular bit.

I should also say that they have been incredible. I gave him permission to go in anytime he needed to work on this stuff, and he has been down there pratically non-stop working on it. He's also determined to not just fix it, but improve it too and isn't cutting any corners. Over the next couple weeks the place is getting:

New plumbing
New drywall (2 full walls)
New carpet (the whole place, not just the bedroom, which he could have gotten away with easily)

As well, while all the work is going on, he's putting me up in his hotel whenever he can (not tonight, for example, being Saturday of the long weekend).

So it's a hassle and I don't really have a "home", but i do have a roof at least. Bad timing too with the long weekend, no work can even get started and estimated until Tuesday and then there's 4 or 5 guys that have to go through and work so...yea...going to be weird for a bit out here.

As for the Wolverines, going to be weird for a bit in Ann Arbor too. Oh my...

Welcome Home!

2007-08-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

I got back into Banff at about 11 at night after spending time with Bonnie's family in Calgary. Opened my door and was greeted with that lovely "your house/basement has flooded" smell.

So now I don't have a place to live that won't get me sick until it gets cleaned up. Love vacations.

Pre-Trip Considerations

2007-08-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks!

Well I'm coming out in a week (August 22nd land in Detroit) and will it ever be well-deserved. I'm currently on day 15 of 21-days in a row working. Oooooooooooo boy. How I love Banff staffing!

Hey speaking of Banff staffing, Bonnie got a gift pack from a place just for showing up!! And she got another job without an interview. Hah! She's currently in the interview process for a GREAT job up at the Banff Centre (for the arts) too. It's got the word "co-ordinator" in it. High class!

Anyway I'm coming out in a week and my schedule looks like this, tenatively:

London - Thursday/Friday
Detroit - Saturday/Sunday
Sauble/London/Canada-in-general - Monday/Tuesday

As well, I would like to take this time to post the following "THINGS THAT I REQUIRE". Some of you may remember my incredibly crappy Christmas list a while back. This should make up for it. And since Christmas happens in November out here with the start of ski season, might as well count it all as early Christmas gifts!:

- A new computer/laptop (mine fried)
- Money towards my ski pass (not cheap)
- A winter jacket that can actually be used for sporty things (no more puffy coats. They don't work)

I am also adding on "THINGS THAT I WANT". Some of you may have noticed that the list of "Required" items contains, in fact, no items actually required for my continued existence, healthy or otherwise. So take the downgrading from "require" to "want" appropriately

- XBOX Games (NHL 07, Gears of War, Elder Scrolls. Lovin' this thing)
- Climbing gear (60m rope, quickdraws). This one's fairly long-term considering summer is almost over

Ok so the list isn't any longer, but it's at least more expensive. As Bonnie just said: "I'm pretty low maintenance"

See you all soon!

I must be taking crazy pills

2007-08-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm going to cut straight to the point.

I walked to work this morning, the clouds broke, and I saw this

THAT WASN'T THERE YESTERDAY

August 10th. Fresh snow. Must be in Canada. Can't wait to see what all the mountains look like. Still cloudy with veyr low-hanging clouds so it really cuts down on the visibility

And now I'm going to go on one of those tangents that seems designed to scare the life out of my parents and loved ones. I'll not comment on whether or not this is actually true.

This is Grassi Lakes in Canmore - huge sport climbing here. SO soso so many routes, and, obviously, some nice scenery too. Bonnie and I went out for some climbing. This is me climbing!

You'll notice that there's only a rope going up from the bottom. That's cause I'm going up first and "setting" the route. Fun! So you can see a coupel things in this photo. For instance, look at where the rope is attached to the rock. WHat you can't see are the secured bolts that somebody else has placed into the rock. YOu climb up along the route laid out by the bolts, attaching your rope to the bolts as you get to them. In this way, as you climb higher, your protection is getting higher with you. If you fall, though, you're not secured from the top so you actually do fall some distance (the full distance is dependant on how far above the last bolt you are. For the super-curious, the actual distance is: Double your distance above the last bolt plus rope stretch and pull on the belayer). Really gets the adrenaline pumping when you are "run-out" above the last bolt (meaning you're a good distance above it. Usually just before clipping in to the next bolt which is probably just barely out of reach).

At the top is great though. Get to hang out up there and create an anchor so that the next people up can climb and be top-roped (meaning that they are secured the entire way from the above). I have a personal anchor, (thanks Trace and Anth!) and attach it directly to the final bolt then it takes several minutes to do my work. All along, just hanging (quite safely too!) 20-30m above the ground and checking out the view. Good stuff!!!

This is me doing that. Hanging out, making the anchor, enjoying the sun.

Can i get some smelling salts for my mother on aisle 4 please?

What's up with that guy!?

2007-08-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

You can stop checking the obituaries, I am still here and well.

WE're finally getting some rain. I think it had been about 6 weeks since it rained for longer than 5 minutes - wow did we need it. Bonnie's been working long hours at forestry and there's been a complete fire ban for most of Southern Alberta. I imagine there were a lot of unhappy campers on the long weekend when they couldn't make a fire...at all. I mean, light/cooking aside, how do you entertain yourselves if you can't make a 20ft fire?

Climbed Cascade again because a friend begged me to help him out with his quest. At this point, if Jesus himself asked me to climb that mountain with him, I would probably say no. My favorite part is at the end which is not only UPHILL (after 9 hours of hiking, you get to go up to finish) but is also low, humid, and near a river so it's appropriately full of bugs. Imagine:

You stop to catch your breath and are instantly swarmed, IN THE FACE, by probably about 25 mosquitoes. Fun stuff. You literally can't see through them if you stop. If you think I"m exaggerating, I'll be happy to point the trail out to you and you can go check it out for yourself :D

In other news, the main street of town is fully closed off now to car traffic. This is actually less irritating to drive in than it was before the full closure but now is far more irritating to walk around since there are no crosswalks at the interesection and to cross the road you have to walk a block int he wrong direction, go around the construction, and then the block back to the main road. *sigh*

I thought I'd share some tidbits of the local economy/job market for you. I read an article in the paper estimating that in Alberta there are 100,000 available jobs. 100,000!! Seems impossible but i'll bet there are 1,000 or more in this town alone if you include positions that bosses would *like* to have filled but are managing to get by without. The whole town has been saying how this year, for some reason, is much worse than normal. Every year there is a staff shortage but something about this one is worse, apparently. So the tidbits for you:

--> A nice restuarant in town is offering a finder's fee of $45 gift certificate for the store and 36 bottles of beer for any staff member that brings in an applicant that makes it to the second interview.

--> Another restuarant is offering $150 bonus on your next paycheque if somebody you bring in stays to work for (get this) 2 weeks.

--> Many stores have altered their hours based on lack of staffing.

And in real estate news:

"Half Duplex - 2000 sqaure feet" ------ $475,000

Condo - 2300 sqaure feet ----- $669,000

And so on. Good market!!

Coming home for a week on the 22nd. Hoep to see you all then

2 More Mountains Sumitted

2007-07-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests, prepare yourselves for another slew or pictures. Did these 2 ascents this month: Cascade a couple weeks ago and Norquay just today. Greg was out here for Cascade and was his first hike/scramble - what a trooper. Took a picture of each mountain from the top of the other. They are right next to each other and form the "walls" on the North and West side of town. With these 2 mountains ticked off, I've now summitted every mountain surrounding our little village here. HUzzah!

Norquay is the one with the ski slopes. The interesting part about this photo of Cascade is the giant canyon (ampitheatre) that is visible from this angle (and only this angle). Otherwise, Cascade appears the formidable rock face that stares down Main Street Banff and greets tourists as they turn off the highway.

Before the photos, Bonnie made a comment that made me want to try to explain to everybody what summitting a mountain is like. First of all, it is an incredibly personal task in that we're usually talking about many hours of constant, unrelenting physical exertion (Cascade took 9 hours round trip). Down is no easier either, it just shifts what you're working. It's you against both yourself and the mountain and often degenerates into "one step at a time". Greg started going about 3 steps and stopping as we neared the summit of Cascade and you could tell even that was difficult for him.

Very often you're also dealing with a fear of heights or other complications that result from exposure (a mental thing where you feel more exposed to the elements, especially height. It usually causes you to feel "out there". This has nothing to do with sun-exposure or anything like that, though that happens too) and usually the ground is loose rubble ranging from boulders to fine gravel. Shortly after the treeline, nothing grows, eventually not even mosses, and the only things you have anymore are what you have on your back (and are probably causing you to sweat from the weight at this point). Of course, you're also getting more and more tired as you go, and at the same time the air is getting thinner - nice combo (this is one part that's much easier on the way down). Anyway, they're incredibly demanding goals, both physically and mentally, which just goes to make it more worth it when you reach the top. Getting there usually makes you feel like...well...this:

SO on to the pictures. Cascade first. Again, Cascade is "Banff Mountain" - the giant one in all the photos of main street and the biggest in the immediate area. It's apparently an incredibly popular scramble for these reasons (and that's it just a "walk" - no technical aspects at all), but this day we were the only ones on the mountain until we were over 1/2way down. I can't say enough about Greg who somehow made it up this 9-hour slog (marathons are 2 hours) his 2nd day in the mountains and his first real hike. The mountain is only 25 meters shy of 3000meters and was still quite snow-covered on top despite weeks of 100-degree weather. Went up with Greg, Tracey, and Matt (who i haven't yet mentioned in this blog).

We started at 7am and by 9am had hit the Cascade Ampitheatre. None of us had been here before, nor seen any photos, and wow, were we ever surprised.

Then it was up the long ridgeline on the arm on the left. Unlike some other mountains, you can see the summit for quite some time on this hike and i'll tell you, it's very often disheartening.

Towards the top it started to get snowy (as I said). The snow is an added bit of danger as it's not often very slippery for standing (standing on it is a bad idea), but it's also usually easily jarred from the mountainside in this weather and you'd probably plummet with it. Mom, forget this paragraph.

And here's me on the "crux" of the hike. Beneath me is...well....town. A long way down there.

And a couple photos from the summit. One of Lake Minnewanka and the other of Mount Assiniboine

And Greg heading down the slope with Banff in the distance

So then today Tom, Dave, and I did Norquay (of ski-hill fame). This summit could not have been more different from Cascade. It took us all of 5 hours round trip, going slowly, and of that very little wasy walking - most was technical scrambling requiring the use of your hands as well. As a result, I think it was far more fun.

The first 45minutes is hiking more or less straight up a ski slope (double-black diamond - very steep). At least you get a view though, and I thought the clouds on Rundle this morning made a nice scene, so we'll start you off with yet another Rundle photo.

Remember that bit about requiring hands? Yea, a lot of the 'hike' looked like this. That's Dave up there.

The hike can be divided into 3rds. The first is the grassy ski slope, the second is the rubble-strewn gully that Dave is climbing through above, and the final is a scramble along the ridgeline on the top of the mountain. Here's a photo of it back from the summit

And my climbing friends enjoying the view and their lunch

Tom used to be scared of heights. HE seems to have shaken that. Remember me talking about exposure? Yea...this is it. Big time

These are 2 mountains that are generally hard to see. They are tucked away in an odd part of a difficult-to-see mountain range. Mt Louis is on the left, Fifi (his dog) on the right. Impressive mountains, to say the least

And from just beneath one of the summits along the ridgeline, a view down 40-mile valley with an idea of what we were scrambling over (no, we didn't scramble over the bit in the photo, but we did go up just to the left of the photo).

So that's the story of my two latest summits. Well worth it on both counts with some beautiful weather and great company, and as always, the sense of accomplishment when you get to the top.

I'll leave you with this photo by Tracey at the end of the Cascade hike. It's 40-mile creek and can be seen from above in the last photo. I don't know how she saw this photo when we were being as assaulted by mosquitos as we were, but it's great that she did. It's the opposite of the jagged and lifeless rocks on top of the mountains; we've got everything here.

Banff if a funny town...

2007-07-15T14:46:00.001-07:00

10 months ago I packed up all my stuff, crammed it unbelievably tightly into my car, and drove out here with a job and accomodation already in hand. I have yet to meet somebody else that did things that way.

Everybody else came out here on a whim with whatever they could carry on their backs, stayed in the hostels/B&Bs/street until they found a job, preferably one with a place to live inlcuded in the deal.

That's how "Banff" starts for most people - it's a funny town, almost a reflection of what it must have been like to move to a gold-boom town back in the 19th century, except the allure here isn't money - it's snow, alcohol, "anywhere but here", or the promise of a nearly responsibility-free existence. Then it's off with a pile of resumes (sometimes) until you get a job, usually that day. Nobody really cares what they do. Sure, everybody wants to serve tables at a restuarant for the cash, but in the end most anybody will take most any job - and they certainly have their pick.

I remember a year ago when I visited here to scope it out and look at the job market, I remember telling Bob that it seemed like I could "stand on a street corner, wave a resume in the air, and magically land a job. I had no idea how right I was.

It's a funny town. While so many places are struggling with massive unemployment, businesses here have to raise wages to exceedingly high levels ($17/hour to host in one instance that i know of) and advertise incentive programs to not only get staff, but keep them once they get here. It's the ever-present managerial danger of "the other side of the dence". If you don't like your job, no sweat! You quit and get the same money next door. Same at that job, and so on and so on. There's a paradigm shift at work here. People trade in jobs like poker chips and hold on to housing they can't afford and can't stand because it's either that or on the street.

I have one friend who is living with his ex-girlfriend in a studio appartment and sleeping in the same room/bed still. It's that or nothing. Employment but no housing.

And since one of the points of this town is that you can be a "grown-up" here without doing any actual growing up, unexpected things happen all the time. You don't ask for a vacation, you take one, sometimes with no notice (another friend just bought plane tickets to New York for 3 days from now about 3 days ago). Others work 2 jobs to support their nightly drinking at whichever pub is giving the locals rate tonight.

That's the thing - living is actually cheap (not rent). You lower your standards a little because you're not here to make a career for yourself or put money into your 401k; you're here to do something else and your job just pays for that. Another paradigm shift: You don't care how long you've been at your job, or what your job is, or whether or not you'd do it at home, you only care that you have some semblance of cash flow to support whatever the real reason you're out here. Nobody takes a job oppurtunity here in the same way that you do when you get promoted to VP of your company and have to move to Texas; you move here because you want to and who gives a crap what comes next. Aside from rent and food, most people have no bills. The rest of the money goes to hobbies.

That's Banff for you. In the last 10 months I've held three jobs, lived in three different places, and have seen an entire generation of friends come and go (I'm currently on friends Mk.II). This is now the 2nd job I've held where I am amongst the most senior staff, and this time after 3 months of work (Tony's took about 6). I have been to more going away parties than my entire tenure at Universiy, and the only time I've ever met more new people that I could call friends (or at least acquanitances) was Frosh Week in Univeristy.

This is not a town for someone who likes stability, constancy, or predictability. This town keeps you on your toes and doesn't let you sit down. It's a town where you're equally likely to have an adventure on top of a mountain as you are staying down in town if you keep your eyes open (and sometimes if you don't).

And that's Banff for you.

This Blog: Scary-picture free since....this post.

2007-07-13T10:41:00.001-07:00

Just as I was sitting down to write a new post, I noticed a new comment on an old post calling me out for not posting. Here i am! I have not fallen off a mountain, plummeted over a waterfall, or any other kind of gruesome death involving rapid motion towards the ground from some high point.

And while I'm on the topic, I agree. The feet-dangling pictures do have to go. So we one-upped them. That's for the next post though.

For this post, I'm going to clear out some photos that have been sitting around for a while (and a couple recent ones I think as well). All the way back to Canada Day (which was a brilliant day, btw. This town goes all out). Oh, and as much as I hate talking about the weather...wow! has it ever been nice out here.
Canada Day was no exception.

They set up all these tents and what not in "Central Park" (lol imo...idk my bff Jill...roflmao....acronyms!!!) and had stuff going on all day. I worked 9-5 so I could only pass through in the morning for the setup and on my way home. I grabbed some photos though. What better place to spend Canada Day? (except probably Sauble).

Oh, and speaking of Sauble, there fireworks show here was awesome!! I'm sure it was helped by the fact that from my home on the side of the mountain they were bursting at about eye level for Bonnie and I. Very spectacular and fancy and incredibly loud - i don't think they fireworks were very far from us at all (my house is the same side of town as where they launched them from, AND we were at "explosion height")

I've never seen people get so festive for Canada Day - it was like July 4 in the states. People had painted faces, dyed hair, fancy clothing and the whole town was like a big fair with stilts people and marching bands and whatever else. I felt like Joshny on his first trip to the circus (if you don't know, don't ask. It's for your own safety

The river is actually turning away from this brown color now and into a nice shade of blue-green.

I also took some pictures that day of my walk to work so that everybody could see it. It takes me about 10 minutes and is mostly forest (which is amazing in the morning with the birds and the sunlight and everything else), but I also walk through Canada Place (administration building and park). I read in the newspaper today that they plant 50,000 flowers in their garden and I definitely believe it - so pictures of that too here.

Kinda makes getting up in the morning not so bad, and definitely beats rush hour traffic.

Doesn't the last one look like UWO? Heh.

The last good sight before hitting the traffic and construction and dust is this one, which is probably the one photo that every tourist goes home with and is on the cover of countless books and magazines. That's Cascade in the background there, dwarfing the town. HIked it 2 days ago, but will make a separate post about that some other time.

In other news, Tracey is finally leaving town to meet up with Anthony in Holland for a few months. She's been cramming in an incredible amount of stuff over the last week, and yesterday we finally got to do our take on the ever-popular Banff "going away party". Usually this involves going to your favorite bar with all your friends and getting plastered, which is odd to me because nobody remembers it then. But i digress...

There were 4 of us most of the time last night, and when we finally did get to the bar we were joined by a 5th. Nothing too big but tons of fun. We started off by going to the local watering hole, Johnson Lake, for a swim. Nice lake. Nice grassy knoll. Not too cold for swimming. And as always, good scenery.

Then we had a very long series of mis-adventures eventually culminating in the 4 of us going up to a little park by my place and having a BBQ. Hey! If you haven't heard I finally got myself a little camping-style BBQ. It's great!!! I use it all the time and it's so nice to have around. Anyway, here's the only picture on Bonnie's camera of that event that is any good. I'll go through my friends' cameras later and see if i can't find a better one - or one with everybody. BUt this was our spot at least

Then once all our meat and salad was eaten, we moved to the bar (naturally!) and probably drank too much (Banff style!). I won't bore you with the thousand pictures of people trying to make their arms look like but-cracks and blinding other people with the flash and all that nonsense. But here's one that's all right. I'm.....not drunk

That about clears out the photos for now. C'ya Trace!! Thanks for all the skis, climbs, hikes and generally good (usually dangerous) fun. Best of luck in Holland

Tomorrow or the next day I'll post on the Cascade Hike and what not - more great mountaintop pics!

'Lost' Ramblings

2007-06-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Bonnie and I just had our "weekend" that foolishly lies on monday and tuesday. Monday was one of those days that is really "neither here nor there" in terms of weather, and we wallowed it away in front of the TV, successfully watching probably the first 17 or 18 episodes of "Lost". We also successfully ate chocolate fondue, made a huge mess of the kitchen, and moved from the couch at least 3 times. Maybe 4.

Was a good day!!

I'm not usually one to talk about television, but "Lost" is good TV. Epsecially with no commericals and when you don't have to wait for the next episode. Rock on!

Today was exceptionally warm (as was yesterday, actually), and when I was walking to work I noticed something odd. Usually in spring/summer, you get those little white tree seed, pollen, floaties lazily drifting by all the time. I'm used to this. What I thought was incredible was the amount of them out here. It really gave some idea of what snow in 25-degree heat would look/feel like. I took a few pictures in an attempt to capture just how much was flying around, and this is the best one. That car means nothing. It's black. And owned by somebody I don't know. Hopefully the person driving it.

Yes. The picture is big. There are 2 reasons for this

#1 - I like it big. You don't have to open them in a new window to see all the detail. You should like it this size too

#2 - I don't know how to resize them and, while I suaully seek out new knowledge, this particularly bit of technical know-ho does not seem to be one that I am motivated to discover. Perhaps it has something to do with reason #1. So stuff it Jontan. When we got that divorce I meant it. You're not the boss of me anymore.

Anyway....

I've referenced the construction in town a few times now. Today I took some pictures. It's a pretty big deal around here and my work has been shaking on-and-off for at least a month now. Today they were doing some....banging...i guess...right outside the door here and I got so irritated with the noise I went up and closed it.

I'm also going to be sending some of you lucky folks some genuine "Banff Refreshing" squirrel buttons! Yes! We have buttons!! The town is giving them away to people for free as one of their many prorgrams to make Banff more cozy during the construction. Consider yourself extra-special if you score the McStiffy button! There are 5 to choose from so not everybody can be so lucky, unfortunately.

In any case, here is a picture taken each way from the main intersection in town. We're very close to them completely closing off this road. That should be even more fun!!!

Biggest Hike Yet ("climb" by some definitions)

2007-06-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

So!

Today was the day. Up Mount Rundle. Wowee... First, let's see if I can dig up a shot of this beast; I'm sure i've taken one at some point....

This one will do! It's an oldy, but a good-y!! Rundle is the one on the left

Let's see. Some stuff about Mt Rundle (talk about edutainment! This blog offers everything)

Elevation: 2950m (ooo!)

Mount Rundle is 12km long! Zomg! And has many "peaks" along the way

It's quite famous amongst Mountain Photographers (for obvious reasons) and geologists. The geologist part is actually pretty interesting:

You can quite easily see how the mountain was pushed up despite erosion (that has
changed many other mountains in the area that wer ebuilt the same way)

The rock on top is older than the rock on the bottom. Wrap your head around that one.

Anyway, before I say anything to the contrary, we didn't actually make it to the true summit. Like I said, there are many "summits" of the mountain and we made it the 2nd highest one. The highest is inaccessible without climbing gear. Man...gotta go back up there and build a huge cairn on top of our summt to fix that. Now THAT is a mission.

Anyway there were 4 of us set to go. One bailed and another called in sick to work..er...hike. So Tom and i went out. We hit the trailhead at 7:30 and were greeted by 6km of forested path, usually gently sloping but occasionaly some steeper switchbacks. The forest was nice, the bugs weren't so nice, adn the views weren't that much for a while. However, what was interesting was the continuing change in vegetation from very lush to very rocky.

Here's Tom. Otherwise this picture is pretty random

And a picture of the mountain across from us - Sulphur. Occasionally the trees would break like this and we'd get a view. They never broke up the mountain though, so we never really knew where we were or how far away from the summit we were.

Finally we got through "Part 1" (re: the easy part) of the hike and arrived at this gully. It gave us the first view of just how far we had to go. WE were dismayed. I checked our guidebook and they quoted that we were fortunate enough to STILL have 1125m in vertical-gain only to go. we were not impressed. But pressed on, persevered, and continued. And we kept going.

So the rest of the climb was...fun. Yea....fun. To say the route was steep would be like saying that mom's brand of stupid-food is "ok". It was also quite long. YOu can get a sense of the steep-ness in most of the shots.

The slope at the start

Long way up from that gully already. It hasn't gotten any easier

And our 1st break (same spot as the last 2 photos). Had some food here and a well-deserved rest. The slope is just unrelenting.

One of the more (or possibly only) interesting portions of the hike was this section over what's called "Dragon's Back". The pictures should explain why. The cliffs on each side were pretty big and the rock was fairly slippery because of all the loose pebbles on it. Exciting!!! Makes a good adrenaline-sport out of walking at .5 mph :p

No that last one i'm not outer space, but it's a cool camera effect!! Can't figure out how it happened.

So next up are a bunch of pictures taken from the summit. Definitely went 360-degrees up there. Was tough because it was FREEZING cold and the wind was nuts. I unfortunately failed in my role as king-gadget and left my uber-swiss army knife at home, so I was unable to get a temperature reading. But we figure somewhere between 2 and 4 degrees is accurate. Then there was an increidble amount of wind. It's a good thing that somebody was good enough to build a fort!! Alas, no verifiable evidence exists of my defending of said fort because I was on break

Tom up at the summit. ooo story...

So we're going up...and up...and up...and you get towards the top and you are walking right along the ridge...

And it's cool and somewhat scary and colder than blazes and we're exhausted and going "awesome! we're almost to the top!!!!!". So we turn 90-degrees and continue along the ridge (now the main, 12k ridge that runs the length of the mountain) and get to the summit and discover it's not, in fact, the top, and that we have to scramble another few minutes. *sigh*. Anywhere, here's tom at the highest accessible point

ANd some views of the summit from below. Man these pictures were disheartening. The "first" summit i talked about is on the left. The highest one we could get to is the one on the right (they both just look like little rock outcrops from here)

I was the first up to that high point by about 5 minutes or so and definitely stood there, threw my hands in the air and let out a huge roar. over 4 hours of steep, relentless hiking in progressively more adverse conditions. TOday's hike was one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done, but the accomplishment and the following views made it worth every step.

The peak closest to Banff. Not quite at the top here yet; at the top this looked so small

South to the sundance range

Southeast to Mt Assiniboine (the extremely tall one covered by clouds). Alas, you can't climb that mountain without a great deal of mountaineering experience, tons of gear, several days, and a good deal of weather-luck.

From the fort. Same direction. Definitely worth defending. Keep that swarm of tourists that we passed when we were going down. It's bad enough that they fill the town up and make me not want to come to town - they have to fill the mountain up too!

Down the slope. That's a lot of scree!!! (our route is 2 cliffs to the right)

Northeast through the Bow Valley to Canmore (and, on a clearer day, Calgary)

West over town to the Sawback Range (and a ski area)

Normally Cascade looks so big... (northwest)

Across the Bow Valley (North)

The North Face of Rundle is..well...cliffs. So here's a picture of that.

And a few pictures to sum up the rest of the trip. First, Tom being smart

Second, me being...less smart

And thirdly - what is quickly becoming a tradition

Finally, to soothe you from the last few pictures, something I shot while walking to work today afterwards. It's Cascade and the Bow River (which is still quite high)

2007-06-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

Life is continuing on pretty much the same way as it has for the last while. Finishing up my paperwork for the driving job and that should get going next week sometime. Yesterday I had a physical done and I'm healthy!! Not only that, but my blood pressure finally tested normal. Those little contraptions normally seem to stress me out. So "huzzah!" to that.

Yesterday Tracey and I went on scramble up a little (relatively speaking, of course) rock tower called "Tower of Babel". Creative..

Anywho, it was a great little day. Only about 1.5hours up and very fast down. The hike was quite steep and almost entirely scree slope. (Scree is the kind of slope that seems to be endless swathes of loose rock over avalanche slope. 2 feet up, 1 foot down with each step. Of course, going down is 2 feet extra for every step, so it balances out). Here's a picture of our route. It's more of a gully than a slope really, but you get the picture. Towards the top things got a little more interesting.

On top we were greeted with a large flat table and 360-degree views of the mountains in the Lake Louise area. The most spectacular direction was the Valley of 10 Peaks which was the subject of the backside of the old $20 Canadian Bill (check it out!) Here's what it looks like in techni-color, instead of that dreary green. This is actually (more or less) the same picture as was on the bill I think.

And a bunch of pictures of the view from the summit. First Moiraine Lake from up top (and no, there is no color modification in these photos). I guess it's largely subjective, but I don't see how anybody can think that Lake Lousie and its area of Mt Victoria etc is prettier than Moirane and the Valley of 10 Peaks. Guess the notoriety of Louise gives it that edge.

So here's us just out of the gulley. Feels a little colder :p

And at the top in this keen fort somebody left behind!!!

As we later discoved, that "fort" was actually this couch. There was also a "coffee table" and two "chairs" built up there by some group of hikers. All the comforts of home!!!

And let the 360degree view begin. This one is off back towards the Bow Valley. You can see Lake Louise ski area in the back left side and me sitting down at the edge.

One of the biggest mountains in the Canadian Rockies : Mout Temple. It's snow-covered year-round. The picture doesn't really capture just how big the mountain is not only in height, but in overall size.

The valley opposite to Moiraine Lake. That lake down there is still frozen!!

Heh. And finally some photos of us being dumb. Talk about vertigo! It was pretty overwhelming sitting on the edge, looking out over all that forest. The only man-made thing visible from there was the small road leading into the lake. Otherwise nothing but mountains, forests, and other lakes. And still enough to hear the roar of a stream 1000m below.

2007-06-07T12:11:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a week since I got the LASIK done and man...this is so cool. It's still sinking in that I'm not actually wearing glasses and am still constantly forgetting that I don't actually need to take my contacts out, or that I my glasses aren't sitting on my face, or that I didn't actually sleep in my contacts. It may be a bit early still, but I'd definitely recommend the surgery to pretty well anybody not only as convenient and liberating, but also as economical in the long run.

In other news it's my last day at Tony Roma's on Sunday. 75-80hour work weeks caught up to me and I was just constantly frustrated at my lack of free time. I chose to stay at the internet cafe full time instead of Tony's entirely because of wage and financial considerations: when I get paid the same amount to blog at a job with predicatble and fully flexible schedule, why would I choose the other one? I've really enjoyed my time in both places (as much as one can enjoy work) and felt that I've grown fairly strong in my position at Tony's. It's also been rather vindicating that a large number of staff have expressed regret to me that I'm leaving. AH well...business is business.

In replacement, I've picked up (and am still setting up because of conflicting schedules and eye surgeries) a driving job -- mostly to the airport and back. It promises to pay me the same as (if not more than) Tony's at a drastic reduction in hours. Looking forward to getting that off the ground.

In other news it's fully summer out here (nevermind yesterday's snowfall on the mountains) and we seem to have completely skipped spring over. The unusually warm weather in combination with the unusually large snow-dump on the mountaintops have combined to create some pretty awesome river swells and flooding in parts of town here and to a much greater extent in Calgary. Things weren't helped by the large amount of rain we've had lately (including the construction through town, which I'll chat about in a second).

Anyway here are some pics for you. They're from a morning walk to work a while ago as well as a stop I made yesterday to the Bow Falls to see it for myself. With the river as high as it was (flooding parts of town, like i said), i had to check out the falls for myself. For comparison, check how they looked back in October (i took some pics and posted them very early on in my blog here). The ones with the Lake and Mount Rundle were taken by Tracey and Dave.

So I mentioned construction...

The main street of town and the cross-streets for it are under construction for the entire summer. They are re-doing everything: pipes, road service, wiring, sidewalks, seating along the road, plants...everything. And yes, I said the entire summer. How great is this?

The bumping in the street has caused a pipe in the restuarants upstairs to break. Guess where the water goes everytime they use a sink? Oh yea...get to empty our buckets every hour or so at work here. I also like the dust and, even better because of all the rain, al the mud that is our main roadway. I'm actually almost looking forward to when they just close the entire street off (you can still drive on one side only) because it means that cars won't be throwing dust down the stairs into the iCafe anymore :p

As beauitful as I'm sure it will be when it's done, it's too bad that the summer that I'm out here the whole downtown area is something of an eyesore. Ah well...like i said -- will be great when it's done. Maybe I'll post some pictures of it to balance all the pretty ones I put up.

Oh! The humanity!

2007-05-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

It is definitely springtime out here. We got leaves on most of the trees and nearly every day is reasonably warm and comfortable. Took an afternoon nap today with all the windows open :D

Of course, we'll forget about last weekend when we had 4 inches of snow - that hardly counts.

Anyway I'll try to get and post some pics because it's really beautiful. Green and summery down in town, white and wintery up on the mountains still. I wish it would melt up there - a few of us are planning a long series of summits and we'd like to get started on it all. Most mountains still just have too much snow on top to seriously consider getting to the top still. Should be some awesome pictures from that. And good work-outs.

I go into Calgary tomorrow for LASIK - wowowow. Will update on that for sure after it's all done.

And finally, I have tried to keep the political commentary on this blog to a minimum with reasonable success but was informed of something by the Calgary Herald this morning about which I simply cannot keep quiet. There are certain basic, god-given and inalienable human rights that should never be taken from decent, contributing members of any society. Perhaps it should be no surprise that Sweden, with it's track record of abuse of the worst kind, should once again find itself square in the middle of a human rights violation the likes of which make Darfur and Abu Ghraib seem like children's parties.

I find myself unable to speak eloquently about this blight on humanity, so I will post the link and allow you to read for yourself about the unspeakable cruelty imposed on a poor group of Swedish inmates.

http://www.thelocal.se/7412/20070525/

An epic saga ends!

2007-05-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well roughly 7 months and 10 days after arriving here in Banff, I finally have my car registered in Canada. I am now a professional circus animal and can jump through more hoops than you can imagine. Please be kind. If you enjoy the show leave a tip.

Funny that it took 1/2 my time out here to get my car legal. *sigh*

In other news, my climbing fascination continues. Went out again today for a few hours in between jobs. Was a beautiful day that would have been absolutely baking hot if not for a nice wind blowing thorugh. I'm actually surprised i didn't get really burned out there. It's such a wonderful spring.

Also, I booked a LASIK appointment for the eye corrective surgery. It's on May 30 (pending the consultation on Monday). Shazam! Huzzah!! POtentially 14 more days as a glasses-wearer.

So there was a controlled burn less than a mile from town today. Bonnie called me laughing about it. It was taking place on the other side of the mountain we were climbing, so we couldn't see it and had no idea it was there and then we came around the face to go home and the whole town was covered in smoke and ash was blowing in my car and holy crap. That's close enough to a huge fire for me thanks.

And finally some more pics!!! Lovin' this large size

Spring is here - at least for now

2007-05-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

WoW!

2007-05-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

By the way. I changed photo storage sites and realized that the new one makes the pictures gigantic!! Awesome!!

The Climb

2007-05-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hi!

So that previously mentioned first rock climb went off well!! We went to a place in Kananaskis (just south of here). "We" in this case was myself and Bonnie and our illustrious guides: Tracey and Anthony.

It was SO COOL. I can tell this is going to be something of an addiction.

What we did is sport climbing. Picture the gym, and then take it outside. Somebody previously has gone up the rocks and put bolts in it with rings in them for threading rope through. Then somebody climbs up and makes the "route" and we all follow it within about a meter either side of leeway for exploring and picking your route and stuff. The climbers doing the insane stuff you see on magazines and what not are putting their own bolts in as they go (and clearing them afterwards). That's not for now.

Yet.

Anyway I did some research online quickly and discovered about a dozen places within an hour's drive of the cottage so...that's cool too!! Now I just have to learn all i can this summer, do it 100 more times, and be able enough to come back home and find a buddy or teach somebody else.

Of course I'd have to buy the remaining equipment too...but that's another story entirely.

Anyway, the pictures!!

We'll start with some gratuitous scenery shots

I'm not sure I like the fact that the only thing between me and death is that mischevious grin

Bonnie's first steps

Yea. So? What's up?

And my first steps...

What happened to gravity?

Ok that's all the pictures on the ground. The rest are....higher....
We'll start with some perspective

Feet ON the "ground", honey!

I'm already adjusting to the fact that what she is standing on is considered a "large" step

And some more perspective. This time with me!

hehehehehehe

Look at those calves!!

Check the foot placements again. So tiny! What a funny picture!

Going again on Friday. Can't wait

Time for a new sport!

2007-05-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well...

Bonnie gave me her birthday presents and guess what she got me?!?!

Cool house stuff, XBox games, and........

A CLIMBING HARNESS!! HUZZAH!

SO we went out and i bought some climbing shoes for myself and now I'm all set to go. Anthony helped her buy the harness and so, knowing i have one, Tracy and he set up a climbing outing tomorrow. So off to Kananaskis we're going to try some outdoor climbing!!

Going to be so fun. Huzzah!!!!

Will let you all know how it went and post some pics tomorrow or the next day

Lost in Translation

2007-04-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Anthony is a big fan of Star Trek and bought the entire series of "Star Trek: Voyager" on DVDs. While hanging out one time, I was perusing the set and started reading the summary on the back of one of the seasons. I am about to give you what is actually printed on the back of these verbatim.

It should be said that he bought Chinese copies re-translated into English. On a completely unrelated note, did you know that the Bible has been translated and edited more than any other book in history?

"Star Trek: Voyager
The Complete 2nd Season on DVD

"Headed by the woman captain precious Wei navigator number save before the 400 year from the 20th century for the earth woman boat person and team of her that E.T. kidnap at some galaxy of celestial bodies Person, can return to earth the peoples on it sleep 400year by the earth again?

"Crew that navigator have have, think feeling of house too once in awhile, uninteresting space life let, feel lonely losing each person, then crew decide to breed the future generation the ship; Crew's life and work become rich and colorful because of joining that a lot of other celestial bodies are biological, continue their immature mission in the space of the great writing brush.

*Capitals and punctuation also copied

The Run-Down!

2007-04-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Ok so!!!

The trip home was great. Lots of fun by all and was so GROOD to see people. Of course, being in "vacation mode" wreaked havoc on my wallet but that's what all this work is for! Next trip out will be a brief one in August for Aaron and Diana's wedding.

So I have some miscellany for you today:

"Sending the Mail"
Mom and Pop Thomas were good enough to get me a Canada Post "piggy bank" before coming out here. I have been putting all of my change into it every day and about once a month I pull it out, roll it up, and replace it with bills. It was a veritable bonanza this time around!! I turned a lot of coins into $145 worth of bills!! Amazing!!! It's like free money.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Day I Got Back"
The day after Bonnie and I arrived back in town, before I even unpacked, I was up on the ski hill. You see April 20th was a big time powder day!! We were in it up to our knees all day and the hill was empty. Most of the runs we didn't even see another person. Man what a welcome!! Was good to get back out there. Norquay is already closed (and melting noticeably more each day), Lake Louise closes on May 2nd or 3rd (but isn't really worth skiing anymore anyway. It's mostly a big......lake....at this point if you'll excuse the pun).

But Sunshine isn't scheduled to close until May 23!! Huzzah!! It's 10 or 15 degrees in town and sunny and still ski worthy up there. What a place this is.

Speaking of warmer weather, I haven't worn a jacket the last few days either, which is a shame because it's my Red Wings jacket and as soon as they beat the Flames it got warm out here, making wearing it unnecessary. Doing a lot of strolling and other fun outdoorsy stuff.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The State of the Town"
So this town is very under construction. The entire main street is torn up through downtown and rapidly coming closer to being 100% closed to driving. For now, the sidewalks are fenced off and they're working on it all day every day. Estimated time of completion? September.
Yep, an entire summer of a torn up mainstreet. It just isn't nice to walk on.

They also have construction crossing guards that are getting paid $18 to hold "Stop/Slow" signs for pedestrian walkways through the construction. Best job ever. Biggest waste of money ever.

Hear that everybody? You can come out for the summer, be outside all day, and get paid $18/hour to stand there. Best deal ever.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Internet Cafe"
There was a pigeon in here sitting on somebody's computer when I came in today. ON trying to get it out, it flew around, stirred up a helluva lot of dust, and proceeded to land on some other unsuspecting chap's computer. What fun!!

Balancing 2 jobs has proven to be easier than I thought it would be. And it's nice to be constantly changing what I'm doing. And it's nice to get more money. SPeaking of money, the best part of this whole setup is that each job pays on different weeks so I get paid every week. How about that!

I feel like I had more to say. Hrm...well i'll update again if I remember. Until then... Cheerio!

Coming Home!

2007-04-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently at my new job at the internet cafe that I spent so much money and time at when I first came out here. It's great!! I make as much hourly as I've been making at Tony Roma's, work more hours, and basically just relax at work. Sure, occasionally I have to do something but for the most part i'm left to do my own thing provided the needs of the business are taken care of.

As you can see, I can update my blog from work.

I'm also allowed to play World of Warcraft!! Huzzah!!

I'm also maintaining my job, with different responsibilities and fewer shifts at Tony Roma's.

In any case, the big news is, of course, that I'm coming home to visit on Monday! Huzzah!! Bonnie and i are definitely looking forward to seeing everybody and getting back over there.

See you all soon!

Shake-ups!

2007-03-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well a lot of things have been changing out here. Bonnie has closed up her project in Canmore and is now living in Calgary with her parents training to do a new job. She is working on getting 2 consistent days off that are NOT saturday and sunday - hopefully that works out.

More couldn't be different at Tony Roma's. For starters, I've picked up a 2nd job at the internet cafe that I frequented so many times when I first arrived here and I'm, at least temporarily, easing off my job at TRs. No details because they aren't completely finalized yet.

Spring is in the air out here, as it's been above freezing for probably about 2 weeks now. Of course, it's still snowing on the hill which is all that matters. I haven't made it out very much in those 2 weeks though - there's been some incredibly crappy weather up there and I've been working a great deal of day shifts. Alas and alack.

The one time I did make it out, i also definitely ran in to a tree. Pic of the war wound to come very shortly - it's very impressive!! I'm glad my girlfriend is in Calgary because I don't think she'd think I've improved my looks. I think I look tough.

Before my mother faints (any of you mom's out there), I want to say that:

NO doctor's
NO stiches
NO broken bones

It's impressive, but not that bad :p

Also you can all look forward to a ski video i'm making!! hehehe. going to be RoXXoRRing good.

Finally, I've bumped my flight home forward acouple days and my trip will now be April 9 - April 19. Looking forward to seeing you all.

I'm liking this video thing!

2007-03-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

I decided to take some pictures of my place today, and then had a better idea. So I dragged out the video camera and took this video of my place and street and what not. It was a beautiful day! Bonnie and I took a walk in some forestland without hats on! Sunny and generally spring-like. Now time for more snow for more skiing. Need more snow :p

Wow! videos!

2007-03-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Went skiing up to Lake Louise yesterday for a pretty full day on the hill. I've become quite a convert to the merits of Lake Louise. It's a much longer, more varied, and challenging hill than Sunshine - definitely top notch!

Before the pics and videos, some Canadiana for you:

Pretty funny lunch yesterday. We went to their ski hill outdoor BBQ. Yea. They had grills and umbrellas and condiment stands and everything else set up, and we ate outside on picnic tables with a bunch of other people all sitting there in the -10 degree weather without hats and gloves on. Nobody seemed cold. Canadians :p

Anyway the snow conditions were pretty hard-packed yesterday, so Tracy and I took to racing down a long, groomed run. When we discovered that we could get air off a couple of steep transitions on the hill, we decided to video it. Unfortunately, I went off something a little higher than expected. Best part: guy standing up with Tracy going "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!"

We got a little hungry for powder towards the end of the day, so we went into the backcountry in an area called the West Bowl. My picture site is currently down, so I can't post the clever picture, but backcountry is an area of the ski hill easily accessible from the lifts, but not in the ski area boundary. So it's not patrolled or avalanche controlled or anything. They're generally great spots because not many people know about them - you just have to be more careful. Anyway, here's a swell video of me coming down the top of the "run".

Enjoy! Pics as soon as my storage site comes back up.

2007-02-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

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?!

2007-02-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

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)

2007-02-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Back with a blast!

2007-01-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

So I'm all moved out of my place that I was subletting. All my stuff is currently in that staff acoom that I was in originally, but I'm not staying there myself. In the hotel with Bonnie tonight!

To sum up something else: everything about Paul (the guy i was subletting from) is a nightmare. Done and done.

Anyway here's the blast!!

I'm coming home in April!! Looking at April 16th for at least a week. With Bonnie. Make your plans!! :D

Where's Goldfinger when you need him?

2007-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

I went to the library today, as I have several days in the past. This time I was hopeful; I thought this time would be different. Maybe, just maybe, I would actually be able to check out books this time, and not simply walk in once in a while to chat with the librarians and gaze at the lovely late-70s architecture and decoration. Alas, it was not to be. Once again, I was denied a library card. This time I need proof of street address. *sigh* Last time it was a note from work. The time before that it was proof of residency in Banff (ie. a paystub).

I think I may give up on them. Their library cards are apparently made of government secrets.

In other news, I got a Post Office Box today! Wootness! My new address for all items is:

Noah Borin
PO Box 5002
Banff, AB T1L 1G2

I don't like the postal code - it's not as catchy. However I do like being able to check my mail whenever I like.

Big News!

2007-01-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

What could possibly be big news?!? Well first, I've been skiing twice in the last 2 days - excellent!

Yesterday I went for about 1.5 hours to norquay after work, which was just a nice oppurtunity to get back on the skis after a big break. Today Tracy and I got up at 7:30 to hit the hill for opening.

Tracy, for those that don't know, is Anthony's girlfriend recently back in town from Australia. Anthony, my ski instructor friend who I met at the internet cafe, has turned roughneck on the oil rigs up north and is out of town for a few more days. i think he's back on Thursday, actually. Anyway, we went up to Sunshine today...

You may remember my earlier rant about the misnomer that is Sunshine Ski Resort - what a sham!! Well today was my first sunny day out there and man was it spectacular. We actually were able to watch the sunrise from the top of the ski hill at 9,200ft. We've also had an incredible amoutn of snow (australians apparently call lots of snow falling "puking". Crazy aussies. Little culture moment for you all). ...anywya, we've had an incredible amount of snow and we had fresh powder to run through right through to when we left at about 1:30. Easily one of the best 2 or 3 days I've had on the hill so far.

Then I weent over to TRs (Tony Roma's) for a manager meeting with our newly formed, full complement of managers. Apparently, this store has never had a full manager staff in its 3 year history, so our bosses are pretty excited about the possibilities now. The meeting was several hours long and it was great to get a lot of stuff said and out on the table for everybody. I'm excited about a few things too:

1 - We have a plan and the capabilithy to execute it. Our business should be great this year.

2 - Trudy is ordering business cards with my name on them

3 - The odds of me needing to go to Calgary for 5 - 6 weeks are rapidly approaching slim-to-none.

4 - I'm going to be salaried soon! Probably within a couple pay periods.

So that's all cool....and stuff.

Happy New Year

2007-01-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,

One week in to January and, keeping up with the pace of life out here, many things are new and different again. Though one thing does promise to stay the same : it's still bloody cold and likely to get colder. It also continues to snow. Man...

Bonnie and I went for our mutual Christmas present on Wednesday: dog sledding! yes! i said dog sledding! Man was it great. We took a lot of pictures, but they're all on a disposable camera and so haven't been able to develop and upload them yet. Something to look forward to in any case.

I made my biggest mistake yet in terms of work today too (or so I think). I didn't do the beer order correctly and so we are now extremely low in terms of what we have stocked and I'm working towards and early delivery date. Ack! Hopefully we make it through the weekend. My boss just kinda smirked and shook his head. Otherwise, things are going quite well I think.

I haven't gone skiing in 2 weeks now. We're just finishing up the busiest time of the season and I didn't feel like going and waiting in lines. A few days ago Sunshine had a line of parked cars over 5km long. I'm not sure why you'd even go at that point. Not only are you waiting obscenely long to get on the lifts, but you have to dodge people all the way down. Sounds crappy. Looking forward to getting out there again.

Bonnie and I had a surprise for New Years. As it turns out, I finished my work that originally needed doing after close on new Years Eve in the morning, and so was able to take the night off. I drove in to Cochrane and surprised her, and then managed to squeak the 2 of us and her parents into a nice little cafe for a phenomenal New Years dinner full of great food and conversation.

On the bad news side, Rowan and I aren't going to be able to stay in the place we're in now. The landlord needs to let people on the waiting list take the room when the lease is up in February (we're currently subletting) instead of us. Makes sense - some people have been waiting nearly a year to get in here. Moving is just so annoying.

New Years Approaching

2006-12-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well it's been quite the week. Business is booming like you wouldn't believe and some troubles with the old resident in this apartment. But neither of those are particularly interesting.

I want to talk more about Christmas!

Had as good of a Christmas as can be expected given my situation with work here. I worked Christmas Eve from 6:00am until noon and not again until 5:00pm on Christmas Day, so there was over 24 hours off in there. I used it to go to Bonnie's family, who were wonderful and took me in for that small period of time. We had a pretty solid Christmas, and it was tough to go knowing that I was going to the zoo that was, and has been, work.

Anyway, some thank yous..

Mom - I haven't opened all your presents yet since I heard you're coming out. but for the ones I've opened, thanks! It was especially nice seeing my actual stocking in that one box :p I'll comment on the rest after opening them all :D

Dad and Jan - what a beautiful set! Bonnie and I are very excited to try it out. Also, we're 1/2 done with that season of "Rome" already, it's very good. Bonnie also loves her kazoo

Santa - I love getting tools (just ask my grandparents!). As well, I can't wait to go skiing wearing that balaklava and the gloves have already come in handy several times and have replaced my old gloves copmletely. Also, I've already almost got "Linus and Lucy" completley under my fingers. (whoops! Nathene gave that to me, how'd it get in here?!?) The biggest thanks go just for taking me in though

Everybody back in London - thank you again. That box was thoughtful and thoughtless at the same time. Still haven't tried the MSG....

Honey - ZOMG Swiss Army knife to the max! For those that don't know, she got me a 19 piece (17?) swiss army knife including altimeter and thermometer! What an invention!Also, we're going dog sledding together on wednesday. It should be great!

There are gifts I haven't yet opened from people back home as well in anticipation of my mom coming out, so probably more later.

So as the season draws to a close, Merry Christmas once more to everybody. And thank you again.

I was a good boy this year!

2006-12-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

So what'd I get for Christmas?

I got a bottle of MSG, a broken package of fettucini, and a string!!! You guys are the best friends ever :p

For those of you that don't know what i'm talking about, my friends back in London got together and sent Bonnie and I a package full of swag that included those three wonderful things! I can't wait to do a blind taste-test with the MSG tomorrow with Bonnie :D

Other things in the box of swag included 2 toy guns, a cap gun with tons of caps, a police badge, holster, and extremely cheap handcuffs that Bonnie has already broken (but don't worry folks, SHeriff Noah is back in town!), targets for the guns (including one shaped like a person!) and the NEW MEATLOAF CD! ZOMG!!

The "real" presents in the package were pictures from the party that I paid for for them, a picture frame to hold some in, and cards from everyone. THat was our favorite part - VERY cool idea, and very meaningful. I have Christmas cards for all of you too! I just haven't written/mailed them yet. I will work doubly hard at getting them out as soon as possible and they will have to be generic January cards.

Thanks everybody. Merry Christmas all.

It's been a while!

2006-12-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while, but a lot has happened. Or at least one big thing...

I got a place! Long story short - buddy/coworker had to leave town quickly for a great oppurtunity in Ontario and he gave me his place to sublet. So now Rowan and I are living here, with Bonnie here part time. Not bad! Pictures as soon as it's not a disaster.

To make it better, he left so quickly (under 24 hours) that we get to keep all his stuff for at least a couple months. TVs, stereos, brand new couches...man..paradise! No more internet cafe for me!!

The only catch is it *may* be temporary (few months only) in case he comes back. I don't think he will however. If he doens't, we'll just keep subletting and he'll ship his stuff back to Ontario or wherever he goes. If he does, people leave town in droves in Spring, so finding a place should be pretty easy. Just another move (grrr).

IN other news, Christmas is coming up and this town is getting busier. Actually getting stuff to do at work! Amazing! Unfortunately, I'm working a lot of day shifts that interfere with skiing time, so I haven't been able to go until today (been about a week). Today was a beautiful, bluebird day (no clouds) and a great temperature with about a foot of newfallen snow. It doesn't get any better than that. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go to Sunshine or Lake Louise after work, and had to go to Norquay. Norquay is basically Ontario skiing in bigger mountains. Solid ice, especally today. It's an extremely steep mountain, so snow doesn't stick as well, and it's lower in elevation than the other ones. I pretty much had to bomb all the runs today. Was great fun at incredibly high speed, just not what I usually look for. Nice to get out though, it felt great.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rowan has a couple friends in town and yesterday he decided that we should take them up Tunnel Mountain. Tunnel is a short hike on a small mountain right in town. In good conditions, I can do it in 25-35 minutes depending on where i start and how fast i want to go. Pretty simple. In all that snow it took significantly longer, but we did get some great pictures of Banff and the Bow Valley. Was another beautiful day yesterday as well, as you can see.

Thanks for your camera Bonnie!

2006-12-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

Huzzah! More pictures for you folks back home. Bonnie allowed me to carry her camera around the ski hill yesterday - a VERY risky proposal. You'll be happy to know the camera even survived!

In any case, I took a bunch of pictures. The weather wasn't so great (surprise, surprise for sunshine), but some of these are nice anyway. Let's get started!

This is my "Everest". I hate this run, yet i go down it all the time. I usually end up in a heap somewhere near the bottom and have to walk back up. Grrr...one day "Headwall"..1 day. In other news, there's a lot of snow in this picture!

This from about 1/2way down the "noob lift". That's the ski base down there, and the gondola going off in the distance. Banff is nowhere to be seen.

Goat's Eye Mountain - the tallest area of the ski hill. 9200ft lift station.

Lookout Mountain. This is the one with the cross-border ski lift. IN fact, you can see it faintly on the right

From the top of a 3rd mountain, Mt Standish. Weather looking....not so good. This is also looking in to British Columbia.

Well Mom, you asked what "Delirium Dive" is...it's in this photo. It's the bowl-like area on the right that is somewhat obscured by the clouds. I wont' tell you when i start doing it :p

I just think this is pretty. Sometimes it's tough to focus on skiing when your scenery looks like this.

So, when can I expect everyone for a ski trip?

2006-12-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Finally managed to get up to Lake Louise for some skiing today with Anthony. What a great mountain! I am so sore. 6 hours in today, and falls like you wouldn't believe.

Also, I took another step towards becoming a "True" Banff local today and picked up hitchiker at Lake Louise who wanted to come back to Banff. It's bizzare - it's really a socially acceptable, perfectly normal method of transportation around here.

Going to go skiing on Friday with Bonnie and Anothy again - he's going to give her a lesson and hopefully we'll all be going down the double-blacks at the end of the day. Er......

That's about it for now i think. Oh! I found my hat. Wootness.

Don't put Comet on your pastries. It never works.

2006-12-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

Spent the day in "ServSafe" training with the other full-time managers from work today. Expected it to be hellish but it wasn't as bad because the 4 of us were acting like rowdy high school children. There were also plenty of doughnuts and other tasty snacks. None of them had Comet on them. 1 more day and the big test tomorrow then I'll be certified in food safety. Shazam!

In other news, I'm doing a lot of skiing (as usual), and working (as usual). In fact, as Dad pointed out, it's something of a damn ordinary life in terms of scheduling, if not location and activities. Going to go up to Lake Louise with a whole bunch of people on Wednesday, and then it looks like off to Sunshine on Friday with Bonnie.

Good news! The Sushi train is still open! Huzzah! Was sad to see them in trouble. They don't even put any Comet on their food.

In other news, for whatever reason (the divine hand of God?), Rowan didn't end up moving into my palace. We both still have rooms of our own. I don't know what happened, and I don't want to ask in case it's a mistake.

SO you're probably wondering about the continued references to the household cleaner, Comet. Well, we heard a lot of "stupid kitchen anecdotes" today. One involved a bakery that stored their icing sugar and Comet in identical containers. You can imagine what happened.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

What follows is a very subtle public service announcement:

There are some of you (dad) who have said "I'll be coming out in the summer" and still haven't given me dates to book your hotel room. Dad. For those of you coming out in the summertime, it's very busy around here and hotels are already booking up full. Dad.

This is the end of the broadcast.

A real Christmas list

2006-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Well, we'll start with the crappy: Bonnie and I lost the apartment. Apparently, somebody put another bid in in front of the couple we were working with. Bogus. Enough of that.

Did almost all of my Christmas shopping today and I, unfortunately, spent too much money (as usual). In any case, I'm pretty thrilled with everything I picked up and can't wait to send it all out and hear what everybody thinks about it.

Doing this reminded me that I haven't posted a real Christmas list so...here one is in case you're still looking to spend more money on me:

-Digital Camera (nothing fancy, just enough to point, click, and upload)

-Gortex gloves

-Something like gortex socks (don't even know if they exist but something to keep my feet warm and dry. Thick socks will *not* work as they won't leave any space around the foot and will actually make my feet colder. Something thin and, most importantly, dry. Also, those little pads that you crack and then they create heat won't work because there isn't enough space in my ski boots.)

-XBOX 360 Games (buy them used from stores like "Electronics Boutique/EB". They're exactly the same game and usually 1/2 off or more). I'll probably like any game. one day i'll even have a TV to play them on.

-Money (i'm not even kidding)

-A block heater for my car

I feel like I'm forgetting some stuff....

Anyway, i'm sure most people have already spent $1,000s on me so it probably wont' matter anyway. Right? Right?

brrrrr.....er

2006-11-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

I want to start by thanking everybody for their kind emails telling me how warm it is back home - I hate you all. Today was the coldest day of my life. Skiied at -35 degrees on top of the mountain and got stuck in the gondola for proably about 20 minutes. who knows how long? it only got colder. Brutal.

Did I mention how cold it was?

In other news, it looks to remain cold out here and the couple with the apartment want Bonnie and I to move in with them. Now it's just a waiting game to see the place. I certainly hope that day comes soon because the projected move-in date is Dec 1. I also hope that comes soon because TRs just hired a whole bunch of new people and Rowan will be moving in with me on Wednesday or Thursday. As cool as he is, I don't want to share the palace with anybody and neither does he. We just figured that it would be best to go together instead of with some randoms (the average intellect of the new hires is...less than ideal, shall we say)

bbbrrrr......

2006-11-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

'Tis a big weekend in Banff. First off, Lake Louise is having some big ski race thing which I alas won't be going to, but seems cool to me.

2nd it's the "Winterstart Street Festival" this weekend, and this is even cooler. They closed off the main street and set up a big snow ramp and tents and a big screen TV and various firepits and everything else. Last night they had an amateur "Rail Jam" (pros tonight), played "how the grinch stole christmas" and other winter-y movies, gave away free hot chocolate, and a bunch of other stuff. It's pretty fun.

What's more, winter seems to have gotten the hint. Upset by its (apparently) slow start and probably thinking that the town of Banff is mocking it through it's festival, winter turned down the thermostat to -25 degrees (no typo, -25. In November). That's cold enough to make your first breath when you step out the door not work as well as it's supposed to. It's also cold enough to make me not want to go skiing. Poor souls up there.

So in closing, I guess it's really cold.

Smatterings of coherence...

2006-11-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

SO let's see

First off, some more good news from work. My boss rehired (or she just returned) the old Assistant Manager for Tony Roma's who has been there since day 1 in that role and knows...well...everything. I'd heard rumours about this for some time and got confirmation of it today not only when I saw the posted notice, but when she walked in at the end of my shift :p Naturally, this made me somewhat nervous as:

#1 - She and I had not been getting along for some unknown reason

#2 - The event didn't bode well for my own job

In any case, one of the first things she said is "I was concerned about coming back because I don't want you and Trevor to feel threatened. I'm not here to replace or override you, just to work as a complete, management team." Neat. Not only was that a great thing to hear, but it was more words than she'd said to me total ever, probably.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New news on the money front. My raise turned out to be not as big as I was forecasting (though still over 50% which is still nice) however...I am being made eligible for tipouts for now which is excellent. Essentially, all that money that I complain about having to pay out as a server is not going to start going to me. Wootness. Mine is going to be 1.5% of total sales while managing which, given the nature of the restaurant and the business volume easily will make it to $100 or so on any given day. ($6000 dinner, very very standard, tips me out to $90)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New news on the spending money front: I think I've found an apartment to live in with Bonnie (*gasp! a den of sin!!)

Ok now that the shock has resided, I'll continue the story...

I've been looking for a new place for a little bit now and responding to places with limited (read: no) success. I responded to an advertisement yesterday looking for a "couple" and met with the 2 people currently there today. They are extremely nice people and we seem to be looking for the same things in terms of atmosphere and living arrangements. What's more, the place is $1600/month, split between 4 people, including power, water, cable, and internet. I defy anybody in London to find a better deal than that.

When I questioned them re: the quality of the place, they coudln't say enough about how nice it is. It is also fully furnished down to pots, pans, and utensils with a great deal of brand new furniture (most notably, couches, beds, and mattresses). Apparently they know the landlord (which, apparently, goes a long way here!)

Of course, they've gotten several responses to the advertisement they put up and so couldn't really say anything right now without seeing other people, but i get the impression they were quite excited (as was I!) and I'm pretty confident this will work out.

I certainly hope it does because we've been doing a lot of hiring lately and I fear the day when I get a new roomate is rapidly approaching. As well, as much as I've grown to like my 2nd home here in the internet cafe, I'm tiring of spending all this money on internet. 3rd, it will be nice to REALLY unpack and have a home instead of a palace.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christmassy fun!

My loving and always one-step-ahead-of-me mother shipped me a big box full of christmas decorations! Huzzah! So Bonnie and I put it all up in my palace last night. Here are some pictures of the historic event!

awww....so cute. My own little Charlie Brown tree

I'm a cowboy!

Hungry? No thanks, I ate snow all afternoon...

2006-11-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

And did I ever! Only skied for 4 hours today but I'm more sore than any day before this one. I couldn't even wear my goggles (thanks mom!) after the first couple hours because i fell face first in the snow so hard that they were absolutely smeared with the stuff.

Also did some back-country skiing today which was cool and awesome and I'm not sure if I spent more time on my ass than on my skiis. All in all though it was pretty darn cool and, for the first time for me, it was actually clear at Sunshine.

This has actually been a point of contention for me: why name the place "Sunshine" if there's never any sun there? And in fact, it wasn't sunny today either, it was just clear and the landscape was just phenomenal. Up to today, I could never see more than about 20 feet in front of me but today could see...well...really far.

Sunshine, as it turns out, is actually build on the continental divide which is also the border between Alberta and B.C. Went up a lift today that, about 1/2way up has a sign on the post saying "Welcome to beautiful British Columbia" and then a few posts from the top has another sign saying "Welcome back to Alberta". Thought it was cute.

My plans are to go up to Lake Louise tomorrow and try out their hill. I'm looking forward to it for sure.

Hmm...upgrades...

2006-11-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

So I got home from work today (11 hours of managing, that went well, btw) after a weekend of both opening and closing shifts to a note on my table saying that i needed to clean up various parts of my palace. You see, a part of staff accomadation is that every 2 weeks they get to inspect my palace. It's done because a new person could move in at any time. Of course, a new person isn't moving into my palace and won't be moving into my palace because my boss (who pays for it) says so.

So as a result, it's just a pointless irritation for me. However, the price remains right so...

In any case, having now spent some time cleaning up the place, I have some pictures for you. Behold, THE PALACE MK II!!

Look at that! Room 216. Sure looks dark and scary...

Aw that's better. Huzzah for auto-focusing cameras!
What a beautiful bedroom. Check out that massive pile of change on the table - just one of the many perks of being a server. Also, please see the envelops and packaging material sitting on the table. It is for sending mail. Send me mail, and I will send you some back! (Offer not valid for my parents and email or for residents of Quebec). My address is:

Noah Borin
c/o General Delivery
Banff, AB T1H 1L1

Exciting! But you can't send independently shipped packages here (ie UPS, FedEx, etc). Only Canada Post or the US Post Office will do.

But i digress...

Look at all that cool stuff! And there's my ski equipment on the right. It's like my rec room!

This one looks across the room from the other way. What a dream kitchen!

This is my dining area!! Oops! There's my ski equipment again and a large collection of alcohol paraphenalia. Woot! (Missing from picture: The huge nearby bag of food given to Bob and I for the journey out here. I am still working on it)

In other news, I got a big raise today, a manager's key number for the computer terminal, and keys to the restuarant. Huzzah!!

Bonnie also moved to Canmore and is settling in there. She is not 10 minutes away - something I've already taken advantage of twice. Huzzah! I actually used driving my boss to Canmore (where he lives) today as an excuse to see her. He said "If you 'get together' with Bonnie, I get some credit for that." Cool boss :p

Now it's off to 3 days off and you know what that means : Skiing!! Sunshine tomorrow and Lake Lousie on Wednesday. Further huzzahs!

Short and sweet

2006-11-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

Go Blue!

More mindless dithering...

2006-11-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

So a few more days gone by, what's happened?

My buddy Anthony, who works at this internet cafe that i spend far too much time in, is a lvl 2 ski instructor and we went to the hill the other day. Ladies and gentlemen, I have done my first black run. Hoo-yea! I'm still alive. Even after we did several, nay, many, black runs, I am still alive. How about it! It continues to snow on a daily basis, especially up on the ski hills. I can't believe how wintery it is already.

Bonnie moves to Canmore on Sunday evening, which is sweet! She also bought a new car, some kind of SUV that is all plain-Jane and all. It's her first car. Awww, I'm so proud. In any case, when she moves to Canmore we'll be about 15 minutes away and each have a car. She wants me to take her to Tony Roma's for dinner. I think that's crazy but, the price is right (100% discount for managers) so, I suppose that I could survive it.

Speaking of managers, I am no longer on the staff schedule; my name has been erased from it competely. I am now only on the management schedule and have my 1st solo-managing shift on Saturday morning. unfortuntely, I have inherited the Saturday/Sunday opening shifts...6am...brutal brutal brutal. it does, however, mean i'm done early enough in the afternoon to watch the U of M vs Ohio State game this weekend. Excellent.

Tony Roma's re-opens tomorrow after our long hiatus. It's been nice but, I need more money. Will be nice to start earning it again.