We went on a cruise this weekend, and I asked Lindsey to marry me. She said yes and we've been riding the high since then.
Unfortunately Lindsey doesn't wear rings for me to know what ring size she is, so it doesn't fit so great right now. We're getting it sized tomorrow though, and then everything will be perfect.
I'd tell the details of the story now, except it's bedtime.
I realize that the last post was light on details, so here's the real scoop.
During the summer I was able to go help out at a local camp. And of course we get nifty camp names that may or may not have anything to do with who you are. I've helped out once at this camp before and I gave myself the name Pez. The week leading up to this summer's camp I thought that maybe Hammer would be better, because when I was a factory worker some of the guys would call me that. Sadly, I was stuck with the name Pez. It wasn't really a bad thing though, as most people I was introduced to were interested in talking about my Pez collection. 300+ Pez dispensers and it grows every few years by a few more. That's my Pez story, nothing to do with anything really)
Anyways, when I get back from camp my sister is sitting there and tells me...
"So, I'm pregnant."
I'm all, "Cool! I get to be an Uncle!" and then I'm all, "So does this mean you're getting married sooner?"
Yes, my sister is pregnant so she and her beau will be tying the knot on October 14th, 2007. Pretty much everyone knows now so it's safe to go blabbing everywhere about it. I'm excited that there's going to be a baby in the family, but I'm also wondering how I'm going to continue living here while my sister and her hubby are trying to start a family. I've been living with her for a few years now.
Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh. Do you hear that?
It's the winds of change.
....................~
................~
............~
........~
....~
Things have slowed down a little. To the point that I have a bit of time to post a brief update.
I'm still here.
I still love hockey.
Let's see if this dusty ol' blog still has legs.
Well friends, the time has come once again to blog. I know I haven't for a while, but times are busy. And when they're not busy, I'd rather be relaxing than typing up a blog.
Anyone who really WANTS to know what I've been up to just asks me anyways.
The same thing happened last summer. I just became too busy to bother with blogging because I would rather go out and enjoy the season.
Things have really picked up as far as work is concerned. I've trimmed my clients down to 3, but they are 3 solid clients. The workload is manageable, but the schedule is quite different every month.
I'm hoping to have a few vacations here and there, but that takes initiative and time. I'm all good on initiative, but I lack the time to sit at my computer and do up blurbs on my life. Besides, I'd much rather talk to you.
So, faithful blog readers, now is the time that I will bid you farewell for the summer. This blog isn't really a high traffic blog anyways. Most people have either moved on or forgotten.
I'll be back here and there, but not until life slows down a little more. For now though, it's full speed ahead.
It's my birthday. Woohoo!
I'm taking the idea given to me by one of my friends (thanks Holly!) to celebrate my Birthday all this week. Yesterday Lindsey bought me dinner at our favourite restaurant, The Frogstone Grill. She also gave me my presents, which were awesome. She totally spoiled me.
Tonight, my family is going to watch the Vancouver Giants play the Medicine Hat Re-Re's in the WHL finals. The series is tied 1-1. Now that the Canucks are out of the playoffs, this series should be packed with hockey fans.
Tomorrow night is cake night with Lindsey's family.
Friday we have dinner at our friends house.
The only day missing something is Thursday. Anyone want to do something for my birthday on Thursday? Actually, I'm busy. But 4 out of 5 days isn't bad for a Birthday Week. I usually only get one day of fun.
During our travels we ran into Bigfoot. He let us take pictures of his foot for proof. It's big.
It's the only way to live!
My dollar bet from Lindsey. We were waiting to get off the ferry and she bet me to down a single serving package of juice crystals. You know the kind that go into the 500mL water bottles? It was tangerine. My tongue was instantly orange.Yes... this blog sucks. I know.
Yes... it's been a long time since I last updated. I know.
Being a secret agent takes it's toll on the information I'm allowed to divulge. Which includes the secret joke behind the title of this post.
I know it's been a while since I last blogged because even my Mom is starting to get on my case about it. I guess this is where she updates herself on what I'm doing without having to see me.
Sometimes, life just gets in the way of extra cirricular activities. I'm doing a lot right now, including having 5 jobs. That's right. I currently have 5 jobs. I'm on the way out for one of them and I'm being trained for a new one. So by the middle of April I'll be back to 4.
I'm right in the middle of a busy stretch of life. In about 45 mins I'll be on my way to Vancouver Island for a rip roarin' good time at a wedding for Lindsey's friend.
I've never met these people, but I'm going to their wedding!
Of course I'll post a bunch of pictures when I get back.
I promise.
Yes, I've been an absentee blogger. Oh bla dee, oh bla da! Life goes on...
Music
- I'm currently listening to some a ccapella covers of Sufjan Stevens and Boy Least Likely To. They're rad. I didn't really know that a cappella was so fun. My first foray into this under-appreciated singing style was when my long-time friend MRW started an a cappella choir at the high school we both graduated from. Let me just say, that who knew making funny backgound noises in unison can actually sound so cool? The Sufjan song has an extended musical interlude in it. The folks singing it sans instruments are maintaining the original sound of the song and it's actually really good. For a more profane exposure to an a cappella cover, check out this Ben Folds Fan Challenge. But be forewarned, this is NOT for everyone (swearing)!
Hockey
- We were given Canucks tickets. I've never been given Canucks tickets before (other than from my Mom), so of course I am eternally grateful. It was a doozy. 6 round shootout!
- The other night we were all over at my parents house watching the Canucks (featuring Bobby Lu and Cowan the Bra-barian) beat the Coyotes (featuring... well, Gretzky I guess). It was a PPV game, and after the game the channel ended up being turned to American Idol where they were showing an elimination of some guy named Sundance (?!?). For his farewell song he performed a rendition of the song Jeremy by Pearl Jam. After some opinionated comments on his abilities by my Dad, I asked him if he even knew who sang the original.
His answer? " Jericho!...Purple Jam!" So hilarious.
Random
- Some peoples kids, honestly. There's a boy in our complex who obviously didn't get the "Stay off the Road when a car comes" talk I got growing up. During the Summer him and his pals will sit in the middle of the lane and play. We have a huge greenspace for the kids to play in, there's even a playground, but they insist on sitting on the pavement. The other day, as I returned home from work, he was walking with his basketball rolling in front of him. Somehow he decided that letting the basketball roll out into the lane was a good idea. Then he chased after it, right in front of my car. Seriously!
On the flip side, the other day whilst picking up kids from school I witnessed a little boy no bigger 'n a minute wearing this huge blue bike helmet, blue raincoat and blue gumboots. He looked like Toad from Mario Bros. But the best part was when he started one foot stomping in this mud puddle, just happy to splash. So cute.
Skiing
- I went down my first Black Diamond run while skiing last Sunday. It felt pretty good. I don't think I'm ready for moguls though. There are some things I know I'm just not ready for, moguls are one of them.
Trivia Night
- It's Trivia Night tonight! I'm looking forward to it, obviously. Last year's Trivia Night was the first exposure to the Church I currently attend. It's kind of cool to look back and see how different my life is since Trivia Night '06. This year my team should kick some serious butt, because this year I've got Lindsey.
There are many good TV shows out there, most of them could really be movies.
I remember a few years ago I was getting into the whole mafia movie thing. I watched Donnie Brasco, Casino, Goodfellas, Scarface, The Boondock Saints, Miller's Crossing, and even got around to The Godfather. Well, of course after the hype continued for The Sopranos I had to get on board and see what it was all about. I watched the first 2 seasons of it and then got too busy to make time for TV shows. Actually, I think that's when I realized that some of my favourite animated shows were on DVD and switched over to them instead of the violent crime dramas.
Anyway, the point I was making was that The Sopranos was a solidly written show. Because of the serialized nature of the story it would never work as a movie. Even though most of the story portrayed elements of what I had just been watching in all of those other mafia movies listed above.
Now I've caught up on most of the animated shows I love. Most have finished their network runs and the DVD sets are all out there to buy, and I've bought nearly all the series I wanted. These days the TV show landscape has gotten much better than in the past. Now there are 5 or 6 shows a week that have gotten me hooked into their storylines. Even if I don't end up watching them during the week, I'll still download them and catch up before next week. There are even shows that I know I can't even bother to watch, even though I'm missing some great story telling. One day I'll catch up on all of them.
One day...
The NHL's Northwest division is tough! Everybody put their Hockey Math jersery on and I'll explain this using mathematic principles...
There are 5 teams in each division, 3 divisions in the West and 3 in the East. The Canucks lead the Northwest with 70 points, the last place team in the Northwest has 60 points. A mere 10 points, or 5 wins, separate first from last place.
Comparatively the top team in the Central division has 81 points and the bottom team has 51 points. That translates to 30 points, or 15 wins. No team can mount a comeback that significant!
The Pacific division has the top team with 76 points, and the bottom team with 47. Again, a point spread of this magnitude (29 points) is insurmountable in my generation's NHL.
The Eastern conference divisions are spread just as greatly. The only one comparable to the Northwest division is the Southeast. The Southeast division has a point spread of 14 points, which is low for the East. But compared to the rest of the NHL, those teams just aren't as good as the West. Trust me, they don't win as much as people might think.
So, when compared to the entire NHL, the Northwest division is the hardest to beat. Every team in the Northwest has a Win record better than .500 (more wins than losses). And with a stupid lopsided schedule that favours divisional play, there's really no way to fix it. The NHL has to fix the schedule. It's stupid to play the 4 other teams in our division 8 times in a season, and only play 10 teams from the Eastern Conference once.
Who came up with that garbage?
Gary Bettman needs somebody to kick him right in the junk. Hard.
Woo! I haven't posted in ten whole days. Probably because I haven't made the time to sit down, collect my thoughts and figure out just what I've done that's worth blogging about.
A whole lot has happened in the last ten days. Here is a list in no particular order.
1- I went skiing for the first time in over 10 years. Turns out I still know how.
2- Linds booked us a trip to go to the Island for her friend's wedding. We get to stay at a freakin' nice hotel too. I don't even know these friends, but I know that this tag-a-long is soooo going to be worth it.
3- The worship Pastor at our Church stepped down and everyone threw him and his family a series of goodbye parties. I think he had around 5 of them.
4- The Adventure Girl and Camera Boy video we made was nearly a bust for a bunch of different reasons. It almost didn't show up on time, there were technical glitches in it, and as hard as we tried to avoid it there were still some badly lit shots. At least the music didn't suck! On the positive side of things, most people liked it and we were actually thanked by one church-goer for bringing a light hearted note to an otherwise emotional evening.
5- My sister and her boyfriend went away to Whistler and got engaged. It surprised most of the family, but only because they've been together for 7 years and we all thought this should have happened 3 years ago. Now we can look forward to their 10 year engagement.
6- We went out for dinner for a surprise party that didn't end up working out the way normal surprise parties are supposed to work out. At least the guy was still a little surprised. That's got to count for something, right?
7- Lindsey wrote and illustrated a story book for me for Valentine's day. It's titled "The Boy Who Saved Valentine's Day" and I love love love it. I'm not even going to mention what I got for her because it pales in comparison to the awesomeness of the story book. Really, it does.
8- Linds and I rented some movies and made the time to watch them. Here's a brief review of the both of them.
Science of Sleep - This was a great movie directed and written by the same guy who did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's so crazy and cool that I want to buy it. I haven't said that about a movie for a while. It's the story of a guy who's dream life blurs into his real life. It's kind of a love story, but it doesn't fall into any kind of conventional love story formula. I thought it was awesome.
Running with Scissors - Apparently the trailer for this movie decided it was a good idea to be better than the actual movie itself. It looked so promising! The memoirs of some dude named Augusten Burroughs do not make for a very entertaining movie. The characters were very interesting, but the story was just boring. Nothing could make me want to watch this one again.
So those are were the Main Events. Of course, there were all kinds of side events that I can remember too. I just don't make the time to write about them.
The weekend was far too hectic to relive. I felt more disorganized this weekend than I have in a long while.
Probably because there was very little time to stop and smell the roses. Every hour seemed to be taken up with something. Whether it was a worship party, driving around the Fraser Valley, getting a haircut, working, Camp Wannabe, driving to Mission twice to help a friend move, making a video, or going for lunch with my parents, it just seemed like a little too much at times.
Oh yeah, I'm not sick anymore. I did have to take a day off of work though. It's just not fair to make the kids I work with sick with a cold. But that's all over now, and I survived my first cold of '07. It's going to be a while before I get another one.
Tonight is a relax night, and I fully intend to do so.
I've got to stop and remember that I'm not invincible.
7 day a week schedules can wear on a guy. I've got a sore throat because it's happening again. Linds and I are saying yes to things when we should be saying No. I'm just worried she's going to get sick again. We both know that I'm a Virus Carrier. They try and infiltrate my hearty immune system and only 1 or 2 get through the defenses. The rest get passed on to everyone else around me through various ways viruses travel. I mean, that's how she got Mono, right?
So now I have to relax a bit and work through it. I wish I could just take days off and lie on the couch for hours at a time like my sickly little sister is doing right now. But alas, if I don't work I don't get paid, so I work unless my whole body shuts down to the point that even movement is painful.
A scratchy throat? Bah! I can still walk and talk normally. So I work.
I can still maintain the illusion of invincibility though. It's called the Suck It Up effect, and I'm able to do this when I fall ill. I just suck it up and stop whining about it, because I'm probably the one who gave everyone around me the same sickness that I have now, before I succumbed to it.
Rest assured though, I wash my hands thoroughly all the time. Especially when I get a little sick.
Even though I've got little to blog about today, I'm still going to because it's been over a week.
Some things I've been thinking about this morning
- Canucks are 9 wins and 1 loss in their last 10 games. That's pretty good considering they were mediocre for the first half of the season.
- I get pretty annoyed by Bob Cole and think he needs to learn that Toronto is not the center of the Universe. Too bad he never will. I mean, come on... it's pronounced Be-EK-sa.
- Eastern Hockey sucks compared to Western Hockey. Sidney Crosby should play in the West. The East can keep Ovechkin and Malkin.
- A lot of people I know need prayer, so I find it hard to accept that I need prayer too.
- Scheduling 4 part-time jobs can be difficult.
- Waffles are yummy.
All that and it's not even 11 o'clock yet. This is a lot to think about for guys. Comparatively, I know women think about 10 times more things as we do. Per minute.
Olli Jokinen.
Good ol' Borat.
Now, I'm not against NHL players who sport mustaches. Dave Babych, ex-Canuck, had a marvelous mustache. And he was part of the '94 team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final. This guy had an awesome mustache in his day, too. Who can forget about ex-Flame Lanny McDonald?
Now that's a mustache! You should see him with a full beard, too.
Basically I've decided that if you're going to grow a mustache, don't do it until you're over the age of 30, or work for the RCMP. Young guys just look stupid when they grow a mustache. Full beards and scruffy faces are okay, it just looks like you've been too busy to worry about it. But mustaches? Please, go big or go home.
The title of this post was taken from a direct quote by Saddam aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri to the Kuwaiti minister of state, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah.
2006 was a year of change for me.
I rang in the New Year with people I didn't really know, and whom I haven't seen since. That's weird.
Somehow along the way I lost a good group of friends from across the river. I used to see them all the time. Then it became some of the time. Then I got disinvited to somewhere and I let my feelings be known about it. Ever since then I've only known what's been happening through blogs. I haven't seen them for about 8 months and that really sucks. I guess we're just in different places, in all senses of the word.
I met some new friends this year, including a lot of families from Church. I can't believe how many new faces are in my life now. It overwhelms me when I start thinking about it.
The first part of the year I quit my stupid factory job and now work with kids. This was a change that should have happened long ago. Who cares now, because I love what I do.
The summertime was interesting. I call it The Summer of Mayhem because it was. I was out and about almost every single day. It's the busiest I'd ever been. Looking back, it was all leading to something great.
My Grandma succumbed to her lung troubles. That was hard. It is the first time a relative so close has died. That, and the last time I had a real conversation with her was when she told me that I was a disappointment to my Grandpa. That's when I was taking a break from blogland. But I came back!
A large amount of my happiness this year can be attributed to Lindsey. We met in April, came
together June, and haven't looked back except to remember everything awesome we've done together. She's the best.
That's it I guess. Everything important enough to review is all there. I'm probably missing something and may offend someone with an omission, but I just don't care that much to worry about it.
I haven't posted much yet in '07 because I'm still figuring out my schedule. It's hairy! I have 4 different part time jobs. Yikes!
Here's to another crazed year!
Team Canada has just won their 3rd World Junior Hockey Championship in a row.
Go Canada!
I had to miss the first 2 periods because of work, but it doesn't matter. They won.
The Vancouver Canucks have finally won more than 3 games in a row, the streak currently sits at 5 games in a row. First time that's happened in a long time. Tonight they'll try and make it six when they play the Oilers. It should be a good one.
PS - I don't care if none of you watch hockey. I do.
