And the Rain Goes On...

What's up? Well it is still raining. We did see a bit of sun and blue sky last week, but that was short lived.

Last Saturday, I attended the Vancouver Rowing Club Burns Supper with my family. My brother gave a great account on it in his blog, so I will let you read what he has to say about it: http://spaces.msn.com/pooley/blog/cns!DB6B19BECD846ADA!309.entry. I guess Colin and I must have a penchant for Scottish Country dancing, since we didn't seem to have a problem with them, and picked them up fast, especially the Eightsome Reel...

On Wednesday, also Robbie Burns Day, Colin celebrated his 31st birthday. I gave him his long awaited pair of hockey skates.

Thursday evening was an adventure: Colin and I were going to go skating, but his skates didn't quite fit properly (not wide enough), so I wanted to take them back before we used them. We decided to go out and see a movie instead. We headed out to Silver City Richmond for the 8 o'clock showing of Munich; however, there was a huge power outage all over Richmond, so Silver City was closed. We then headed to the cinema at Richmond Centre and to see if they had power.

It is truly amazing how drivers in this city don't know what to do during a power outage. Half of the people just sat at the lights and the other half just flew through them. Apparently these people have no concept of the 4-way stop procedure. So it was no surprise to us when we arrived at the intersection of Westminster and 4 Road, to see a major accident had just happened.

We arrived at Richmond Centre, in one piece, only to discover there wasn't a good selection of movies to choose from. The ones we were interested in seeing didn't have a 9/9:30 showing for some reason or other. But the power was working, so we decided to wander around the mall. Actually, we made a b-line for HMV to look at DVDs.

We have discovered Lost. Actually, I have seen a couple of episodes this season, but like 24, and even more so, you have to watch this series from the beginning. But instead of buying Lost on DVD, we decided to rent the first disc from the video store to see if we really liked it or not. Let's just say we headed back to HMV the next day to buy the DVD.

After only 18 months, Canadians headed back to the polls this past Monday, and for the first time in 11 years we have a new governing party - the Conservatives won, but only a minority, and Stephen Harper is our new PM. I think I will be keeping a very close on eye all the goings on in parliament this time round. Apparently, after not even a week of being PM, Harper already brought up the gay marriage issue, which he said he wouldn't, hmmm....

Last night Gavin, Jess and Travis came round to watch the hockey game. It was an excellent game, for the most part, and thank god Vancouver won.

Funny thing, though - the CBC feed cut out with only about 6 minutes left in a very close game. I guess Harper has started to make his cuts to the CBC... Gavin said that maybe the Avs fan that was getting out of hand decided to take out his (or her) anger on the CBC truck and blow it up. Well, the feed came back, but we were watching the Denver feed for a while, and one of the Denver commentators said the CBC truck exploded. We were pretty sure he was just joking, but considering it was our thought too, it was a little creepy.

I am currently reading Fall On Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald. This is a great book, very deep and intricate.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Actually, I see blue sky and sun right now - what's that? Lisa sent me a funny email this morning, and I think any Vancouverite will have to agree with this one... I think it perfectly captures what we are all feeling right now:

The Daily Show - Canada's Indecision

I haven't watched the Daily Show in weeks, but Colin and I tuned in to watch it last night. If you are Canadian, last night was a great night to watch Jon Stewart. He talked about Monday's election. Yes, it was Indecision 2006, Canadian style. It was so funny, and very different from Canadian satirical programming. I will have to watch again on Monday to see if he has any election coverage.

So far my favourite satirical sketches during this campaign have been Air Farce's Debate 2006 skit (Friday, Jan 13). In this sketch Harper is portrayed as a robot and melts Layton with his laser vision - if only the real debates were this interesting to watch. The other great sketch was 22 Minutes' (Friday, Jan 13) take off on the most recent Buckley's ads. Vote Conservative - it may tastes awful, but it works...

...And Win They Did

Wow! Last night's game was amazing. At first I thought it was going to be one of those nights where the puck just wouldn't go in, no matter how many amazing chances you had. But, it broke open towards the end of the third period.

Both Vancouver and Buffalo played a great game last night, and Auld looked good in goal, as he has for a while now. But we do need a viable backup.

I thought the first game Ouellette played, he looked good. The second game. Not so much. I don't think I have ever seen an NHL goalie cover his face/mask and duck as the puck is coming towards him. Somehow that doesn't exude a lot of confidence in your goal saving abilities.

Auld is good, but the guy will need a break some time...

The only time I worried about last night's game was earlier in third, and Vancouver appeared to be sitting back and playing a defensive style of hockey, which really isn't them. Hey, I was tired too last night, but I was allowed to be sleepy and relaxed, up in my cozy, little corner of the nose-bleeds of GM Place. I'm not the one playing hockey.

But they woke up, and scored, again.

The only thing I didn't like about last night's game - the hoards of people leaving with about four minutes left. Vancouver was only up by 2 goals at that point, and Vancouver has been known to blow and lead like that, with only minutes left in the game. Oh well, I guess the ones who left aren't true hockey fans (or were Sabres fans, there were a few of those at the game last night)...

It looks like I have a fun weekend ahead of me. Tonight Colin and I are joining Tina to go to her friend's birthday. It sounds like some of tonight's company will be a blast from the past for me, but I enjoy catching up with people I haven't seen in a long time...

Tomorrow, Colin and I are joining my family for Burns Supper at the Rowing Club. Yeah! My annual allotment of haggis.

On Sunday I am heading out to UBC for the Sororities of UBC alumnae open house. It will be neat to see what the other chapter rooms look like. I just hope they don't have the old DPhiE room open. It has been over a year now since the chapter closed, but I still think it will be hard to see the old chapter room, even though the chapter was only in there for a few months.

They Better Win

This post may jinx the outcome of tomorrow night's game, but the Canucks better beat Buffalo, goddamit. I am so adamant about this because I am going to the game tomorrow night. It is my first live Canucks game since Calgary beat us in Game 7, Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2004, and will probably be the only game I go to this year, unless I go to a playoff game again.

In other news... I don't know what the heck to do about this impending election. I thought I had it all figured out, but the last couple of weeks in Canadian politics have been inane. In the last 48 hours I have changed my mind from voting Liberal to Conservative to Green, back to Liberal, back to Green. Damn, we should chuck the lot of them out and start from scratch.

I might have an easier time voting Liberal if it weren't for the continuous scandals and the fact that my Liberal candidate is Ujjal Dosanj. Oh why did Elections Canada have to redraw the boundaries of Van Quadra and Van South? - I could at least stomach voting for Stephen Owen. I did in the last election.

It wouldn't be beyond me and what I stand for to vote Conservative, but Stephen Harper is just such a freaking weirdo, and I don't allign with his morals or values.

I won't vote NDP, I just don't know about Green, and the only other party in my riding is the Canadian Christian Party or whatever it's called - so you can just forget that.

I want to vote Conservative, but I sure as hell don't be responsible for putting Harper in charge of this country.

I've got 5 days to figure things out, and the politicians sure aren't helping any. I haven't learned anything from the debates or the adds other than that one party is worse than the other and that the party leaders are all a bunch of fools.

So on Monday this ship of fools sets sail.

Oh by the way I predict a Stanley Cup Final between Vancouver and Buffalo - here's the method to my madness: Vancouver vs. Islanders in 1982; Vancouver vs. Rangers in 1994; therefore Vancouver vs. Buffalo in 2006. However, should my theory be right, that would also mean Vancouver would loose another Stanley Cup... and it's about freakin' time we won one.

This week in Vancouver...

The biggest news floating around the Vancouver airwaves this week: Lions quarterback Casey Printers is moving to the NFL and will playing for the Kansas City Chiefs... in other news: Don Taylor can't get enough of saying Casey is moving to KC.

Also dominating the Vancouver news scene:

Mark Messier's jersey was retired at MSG... big news for Vancouver (note: sarcasm): While the Moose is an amazing hockey player, he captained the Canucks during their darkest days (and quite possibly made things worse).

It's been raining for 25 days straight. Or maybe it's 26 or 27 days now. I don't know. I've lost count. Maybe I should start building my ark...

Vancouver vs. Toronto

I know this a little late, but better late than never...

To all you Maple Leafs fans reading this entry: Leafs Suck, Leafs Suck, Leafs Suck. We beat you! Canucks Rock.

You don't know how long I, and so many other Canucks fans have been waiting to say that. And it seems ever since that game has been over there has been a real lack of Torontonian transplants around here to brag to.

Why is that whenever the Leafs beat the Canucks, the Torontonian transplants seem to crawl out of the Vancouver wood works and rub our faces in the Leafs win, but as soon as we finally beat the Leafs, there isn't a Torontonian in site. And with the new NHL scheduling, we probably won't meet up with the Leafs until the next millennium. Unless we face off in the Stanley Cup finals - you know that could probably count as Canada's first civil war...

Hence the cyber-gloating. And I know there are people from Ontario, and specifically TO, who read this blog, so hopefully I can jeer a few Leafs fans in cyberspace...

There is nothing more satisfying to a Vancouverite than to say those two magic words: Leafs Suck.

Actually, there are probably more satisfying things, but that is definitely up there... Leafs Suck.

Ok I'm done now.

Until we meet again...

(I actually have nothing against Mats Sundin, I just find this picture highly amusing)

interesting fact: there are 324,000 websites that make reference to the Leafs sucking; there are only 165,00 that reference the Canucks sucking (and I bet most of those are from disgruntled Canucks fans...)

Big Fish

A few weeks back Thalia and I got together for our semi-usual Friday night hang-out. After a Sushi dinner we went to Blockbuster and rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Watching the movie spurred three conversations: Roald Dahl, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, the latter of which is important to this blog entry.

Even after knowing each other for 20 years, we still discover new things that we have in common: the most recent discovery - we are both Tim Burton fans. Of course this discovery led to us talking about his movies. I have seen almost all of them, but one I hadn't see was Big Fish. Thalia and Todd own the DVD so Thalia lent it to me - I finally got around to watching it last night.

Not only is Big Fish now my favourite Tim Burton movie (sorry Beetlejuice), but is now one of my all-time favourite movies. It was based on a novel, so not all the elements of the movie were Tim Burton, but it was an amazing movie nonetheless. It was a little crazy (as Burton's movies are), but it all came together, and made perfect sense.

If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you do. And if you tend not to like Burton films because they are on the weird side, I still recommend this movie, as it is more mainstream than his other films.

Best movie I have seen in a while - this coming from someone who practically lives in the movie theatre/video store.

2006

Everybody's doing it, so will I... write a New Year's blog entry that is.

To start, I don't make New Year's resolutions - never have and I doubt I ever will. Actually, that's not true, I always make one New Year's resolution: don't make any New Year's resolutions. True, it is a New Year, but apart from writing 2006 instead of 2005, what's so new about it. I am not trying to be cynical, but think about it - January 1st is just another day, and in the case of this year, just another Sunday.

But I do believe in making resolutions and goals for myself (and yourself), I just make them throughout the year, as I see fit. I am always looking for new and interesting things, and ways to improve myself, I just don't feel like I have to wait until January 1st to "say" I am going to start working on those things.

So what of my end to 2005 and beginning to 2006?

With about three days to New Year's Eve, Colin and I had no definitive plans, so we decided to throw a small party. We invited a few friends over and I cooked dinner for everyone. We had just received our new, big screen tv a couple of days before that so we started the party at 3PM for anyone who wanted to come over early and watch the Canucks get decimated, yet again. I won't go there right now, that is deserving of it's own blog entry...

A friend of ours brought over his digital box, which also has HDTV, so we were able to watch both the Canucks Game and World Junior Canada-USA game in high def - now I'm ruined. Once you watch TV in high def, there's no turning back.

Once those two games were over and more people arrived, we kept on watching hockey, and a room full of Canuck fans sat and watched the Battle of Alberta. After hours of hockey (I think 6 or 7) we all turned our attention to the party. Later in the evening we broke out the board games and listened to an ailing Dick Clark ring in the new year.

At about 1 or 2 in the morning, we heard a lot of swearing and yelling outside our apartment. There were a few drunken teens outside. We didn't think to much of it, but kept an eye (and ear on the situation), and it was a good thing we did.

First they kicked over a couple of newspaper boxes. Stupid, but not detrimental. A few minutes after that, however they ran up to a car driving slowly by and punched the window. Right after that a stream of teens flooded out from the building next to us and began chasing the car. That's when we called 911. While waiting for the cops, a girl at the party was now standing below our window, arguing with a couple of the guys. It was starting to escalate and get physical, so we called 911 again.

Within minutes two cop cars showed up and were talking to the three teens for a good half hour. No one was arrested in the end, but we didn't hear a peep out of the culprits from the rest of the night. Mind you, by this time it was getting close to 3AM.

We returned to our games for a bit, then decided to pack in the party around 4AM.

All in all, it was pretty good way to ring in the New Year.

January 1 was unusual day, but a good one. On New Year's Eve we received a somewhat drunken phone call from a friend of ours who had come over from Victoria to spend New Year's Eve in Vancouver.

The next day we met up with Adam and our friend Jed for an all you can eat sushi lunch. Here we were after a late night of drinking, having serious, intellectual conversations about the state of the world, but of course this was interrupted by a moment of immaturity, as Adam just had to order the chicken knees. Why? Because they were chicken knees. I don't think he ended up eating them though.

On Tuesday, I had a great, Canadian experience. Yes I live in Canada and I experience it everyday, but not quite like this.

I had the opportunity to attend the World Junior Hockey Championships semi-final game between Canada and Finland. It was such an amazing and patriotic experience to be there among the red, white and maple leaf. And the fact that Canada won was doubly good.

It also gave me the opportunity to see Luc Bourdon in action... a Canuck draft pick. By the sounds of the game, I think the people of Vancouver have already taken to him. We could use someone good on defence right now...

So far that is my 2006. Not a bad start to the year...

I now just have to get my act together and start planning my 10 year reunion, because at some point last year I thought it would be a fun thing to do. Now I'm not so sure.

Ecological Foot Print

I saw this on Lisa's blog so I thought I'd check it out...

According to www.myfootprint.org, if everyone lived like me, we would need 5.6 Earths. That is a very scary thought...

But perhaps this is something we need to keep in mind in 2006. We saw so many natural disasters in 2005 caused by global warming (or many of us assume it was an effect of global warming), that we need to really open our eyes this year and try to make some significant changes to conserve the environment we live in.