Blogstain

The State of IceBakes

2012-05-15T16:40:00.001-06:00

A sad day. It is my great displeasure to announce that I will be boarding up IceBakes.

My hopes for the website was that it would be a bitchin' place for people to share funny stories / photos, learn a thing or two, and keep connected without resorting to the internet's back alley slum known as Facebook.

Twitter has seen a fantastic rise in popularity and is doing a pretty good job in terms of keeping us connected. On top of that, it's easy to catch up on, and up to the minute status updates are awesome. However, Twitter is not without its folly. Annoying conversations with unknown people, phony tweets, and the fact that you're only limited to 140 characters per post only further perpetuates our ever shrinking attention spans.

So what to do?

Well first I'd like to thank those individuals who agreed to write for IceBakes. I know it's hard. Real hard. Keeping up the frequency of posts while being interesting is something that even seasoned writers have a difficult time maintaining. So thanks for giving it the old college try boyos! If any of these authors do wish to carry on, their blogger sites are still active and can be added to. I will leave that up to those individuals should they attempt to continue.

All is not lost!

I have decided that I will carry on. Eventually IceBakes will redirect to a new site where I will be the sole blog author. I will hope to have a new shoutbox, same twitter feeds, and same old Ice yapping away about bullshit. I will also maintain links to other authors should they want it.

So chin up good buddy! One day soon you may be redirected to a new site with new material!

Thanks for reading!

Corgi in the House

2012-02-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

1 year old "Rosie".

The new sidekick in the Marsh house. We adopted her from a family who's mom was pregnant and had brutal allergies. Being that she was pregnant, she couldn't take any allergy medication resulting in making her very miserable. She's kennel trained, house broken, and doesn't bark. I'm sure she does bark, it's just that I haven't heard her bark yet, (even when the doorbell rings). Pretty much everything I wanted in a dog, and still young enough to bond with us and be able to train.

Here's hoping she stays healthy, and has a happy life with us.

What To Do During the Winter

2012-02-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Barely even saw December. Woke up one morning and it was January. What the hell happened?

Winnipeg
Got back to Winnipeg for 5 days to see my pop, brother, and the lucky gents who went to 4Play / the Jets game. Also was glad to see that the babs Charlie, Keane and Ryan were doing well. Was awesome to see my first Jets game and am jealous of how great the crowd is there. The Flames (who I still like, just 2nd now) could take a lesson on how your fans are supposed to act. I could compare the game in Winnipeg to a playoff game in Calgary. Something I appreciated was how there aren't as many kids in there. Everytime I go to a Calgary game there are like 10 kids in my swearing vicinity. It's not like I go there to sailor talk it up, but knowing that I might only offend a few parents rather than a whole bunch of them who might get me kicked out is a small comfort that I enjoy. SHIT! I SPILLED MY BEER! FUCK YOU ZETTERBERG! Etc...

Next game: Mar 9 @ The Saddledome.

Arizona
From the coldest place in the world to the hottest, Nat and I took a trip down to "Arizorna" (the name of the house) for the Christmas break. This was a great trip due to the food, the warm weather (+20s everyday), the golfing, seeing the family, and the mere fact that we had 2 weeks there. I love 2 week holidays. One week just doesn't get me unwound like a 2 week'r does. Some of the highlights were:

Visiting Giligin's bar twice. As seen on Drinking Made Easy. The bartender put the Jets game on for me and they had the rum I wanted. Not to mention some college dude ate 2lbs of ghost pepper hot wings and won the eating challenge. Was nuts.
New Year's Eve. Went for an awesome meal with the family, then over to... Giligan's block party! By the end of the night I was wearing too many hats. Nat said you can judge how drunk I am by how many hats I have on.
Desert Golfing. Managed to get a couple rounds in which was great. Rusty was I! Definitely played good shot, bad shot. Talking Stick golf course was the highlight for sure. The desert completely surrounds you here, so shanking your ball will often result in never finding it again. Simply because the plants are so harsh and for fear a snake will be hiding in the rough. Make sure you drink enough water! http://www.talkingstickgolfclub.com/
Ostrich Farm. The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. Voted one of America's best roadside attractions. Never fed an ostrich before, now I can say I have. Was hilarious until one bit my frigging finger. Graceful birds they are not! Hope to have a video of this place shortly.
Tucson. Took a quick trip down even further south to Tucson. Checked out the area, had a great dinner near the University. Unfortunately a few of us were a little under the weather so we cut the night fairly short.
Battleshots.

Took some photos and some funny videos while we were there. Look at them here!

Like Watching Me Shoot Stuff?
In my newest edition of Like Watching Me Shoot Stuff, I went out with some of the dudes to the shooting range. Managed to get my hands on some guns I'd never fired before. A whole bunch of hand guns and my faves the combat weapons! Watch the video for that (short) action:

Remote Car Starter
Finally got my car starter installed. Nat and family got this for me 2 years ago for my birthday. For the first little while I was just procrastinating about getting it installed because it was August (who needs it then?). Then we thought we might get another vehicle which I figured I might install it in that. Getting the Moho put the kibosh there. So finally, just before the coldest its been in Calgary in 2 years I get to start the car from the warmth of the house and laugh at all the idiots trudging out to start their ice boxes. #canadianproblems.

Now that's how you do a post you lazy IceBakes pussays. Late yes. But jammed packed full of Unicorn Shit!

Like Watching Me Shoot Stuff?

2011-11-25T10:29:00.001-07:00

Feel free to watch it here, however I recommend you hit the YouTube button on the video to see it larger and in better quality.

Motor Ho

2011-11-02T10:43:00.000-06:00

Sorry this post has been a long time coming. Isn't she a beaut? It's our home on wheels. Nat and I love camping but we've been roughing it in the Alberta wild for about 10 years now. Sleeping on the ground in your 20's is fine and dandy but by the time the 30's roll around you begin to feel like there has to be a better way. And now there is since the Moho has a nice comfy queen bed Serta mattress to sleep on!

We've taken it out twice this year already and hope to do a bit of winter camping (which was pretty much out of the question before). Has a full furnace, bathroom, shower, kitchen, wardrobe, dining room area, 2 sinks, and can sleep up to 6. More like 4 really comfortably. I just did the winterization on it so we can't use the plumbing in the winter, but that's ok. We will just have to go to a campground that has sheltered bathrooms.

It was a bit of a chore to drive it at first as I'm not used to driving a vehicle that large. But once I got a hang of the mirrors, it's almost easier to lane change with the Mo rather than the Vibe. I'm sure I'll have more stories and hopefully more photos of the Mo next year.

Here are a just few more photos: The Marsh Moho Photo Set

A Stroll Through The Kootenays

2011-09-27T14:45:00.001-06:00

Last month right after shaving off that beard of mine, Nat and I were lucky enough to get away for 10 or so days. We decided to explore what BC had to offer and took a leisurely voyage through the Canadian Rockies and Kootenays. Since it was also my birthday Nat concocted a plan where I had to get to certain destinations before receiving birthday gifts. As always I took photos of the journey and thought it'd be easier for you to just browse through those than me tell a long winded story.

Normally I'd put the slideshow for Flickr right in this post but found that I didn't like how small the photos were when viewing. Therefore I'd rather people just click the following link to see the photos:

Nat and Steve's Kootenay Adventure

Stops on our trip:

Banff - Rimrock Hotel
Glacier National Park - Loop Brook Campground
Halcyon Hot Springs & Resort
New Denver - Dome Quixote
Ainsworth Hot Springs - Ainsworth Resort
Nelson - Hume Hotel
Edwards Lake - Jenn and CJ's Cabin

Heavy-r Beard

2011-08-26T08:51:00.005-06:00

After less than a month, I had enough of that thing.

Here's 4 problems I had with growing a beard.

I don't have a beard trimmer, so keeping it tidy and having the whiskers roughly at the same length proved to be difficult.
50% of my beard was blonde, especially the moustache area. So while the beard was fairly full, it didn't look that way as it just blended in. (Just for Men)
Whiskers around mouth. I couldn't help but constantly bite at the longer ones.
People asking why you're growing a beard. There has to be a reason? I felt like that guy from the McDonalds commercial who had the new chicken sandwich.

Interestingly enough I did like the way the light beard looked somewhat. So I'm sure in the future, maybe 3-4 years I'll do another one. But I'm satisfied with the experiment for now.

I give my beard a C.

Light Beard

2011-08-08T16:51:00.003-06:00

Well I know I can't compete with the levels of beard that come out of some of our other IceBakes authors, but here's my attempt. It's going... ok.

Baby Squirrels

2011-08-03T15:54:00.003-06:00

Took a sappy video of some young Red Squirrels at the cabin last weekend. Warning, this shit is cute! Hit the YouTube button on the video to see it larger and in better quality.

Babs & IceBakes Header

2011-07-25T14:27:00.005-06:00

First off I want to say a formal congratulations to the Baker and the Stangherlin families for successfully adding a +1 to each of their conglomerations. May the new babs prove to be healthy and strong of back for yard work in their teen years.

Secondly, posting in the summer is hard. Doing design changes in the summer is harder. When I started making changes I wanted the site header to have a stronger focus on Twitter. Twitter is good for small, quick, up to the minute updates and considering 6 of the 10 IceBakes authors were already signed up for it, it seemed like a no brainer. Of course I didn't want to ditch the Shoutbox either as it still is quite useful for people who care not for the Tweet. Ultimately I want to make it as easy as possible to share information and I think the new header helps do just that.

So I've streamlined the design a little, added a couple new drop down lists (photos, extras) for things that didn't quite have a home before. And more importantly a place to put new things in the future. I'm sure this update will grow stale in another 2 - 3 years but that's the way the web goes.

You Know How We Do It

2011-06-13T11:11:00.002-06:00

We had a pro photographer come in to work to shoot some employee profile photos. May as well have some fun while everything is set up!

Shoot Rockets, Throw Discs. It's like Tron over here!

2011-05-18T10:00:00.003-06:00

Now that the weather isn't totally ass, I've been spending more time outside enjoying some new activities.

Rockets

Ever shot a model rocket? I hadn't. Was in Model Land the other day looking for a battery charger for my airsoft gun and noticed a whole wall of rockets. Intrigued, I started inquiring about the price and what it takes to actually fire off these bad boys. Turns out not a lot. 50 bucks for a starter kit that contained 2 rockets, launch pad... etc, and 20 bucks for rocket engines. The only downside (and hence why they're called "model" rockets) is that you have to build them! After painstakingly gluing and cutting tiny cardboard pieces, the 2 rockets were born.

The launch of said rockets was actually pretty awesome! Flew much higher than I thought they would (could barely see them in the air), and the wind didn't carry them too far away. The larger of the two rockets unfortunately didn't deploy its parachute and a fin broke off upon impact. Nothing some glue didn't fix. So all in all a bit of curiosity and minor labour turned out to be a pretty cool experience. Now I need more rocket engines, and bigger badder rockets.

Disc Golf

Admittedly while disc golf isn't as fun as real golf, it still has it's own appeal. Using specialty "frisbees" you essentially throw a disc at a target basket in as few throws as possible. It's funny how similar the driving aspect of disc golf is with regular golf. Until you get good at it, expect your shot to slice or hook just as your tee shot would. I hit so many trees that Terry started calling me "Lumberjack". A big bonus is that at the cabin there is an awesome home made disc golf course in the forest. Someone took the time to map out a course, make baskets, get rocks in which to write yardage and hole locations on, and actually have 18 holes. Cool shit and really cheap.

Big Dog

Lately I've been walking to work at least 2 - 3 times a week. At first I didn't think I'd want to, but now I've grown to appreciate the extra exercise and fresh air before hitting the desk. On this particular day I noticed a big dog laying in the grass up ahead in my path. I figured it was friendly as someone wouldn't leave a large aggressive dog to roam around. Getting closer and closer I noticed it was staring at me, not moving. I kept my eye on it. That's when I got close enough to notice it wasn't a dog, it was the biggest, furriest, coyote I've ever seen and it was now 12 feet away. It was hard to identify from a distance because it was lying down.

Immediately I started veering away from it. Knowing that coyotes rarely attack people I didn't sweat it too much, but it was a little too close for my comfort. I found it odd that it didn't move at all when I got close. Had I been a mother with a kid in tow I would have been slightly more freaked! I'm happy with the fact that there is this kind of wildlife in the area, I'm disturbed with the fact that it didn't act like regular wildlife and run away when I got close.

St.Pats, Nat the Canuck, Seattle, Poor Degu, Moose in Vegas

2011-04-12T11:47:00.000-06:00

This last month has basically been super fruity bonkers. Here I though it was going to be hard to top the previous month's activities. Success with a side of failure? This is going to be a long post so grab your popcorn.

St. Patricks Day

CJ and I decided to do this one up right. Got out of work early, headed down to the Ship and Anchor for 11am. The party quickly evolved into a slurry of beverages and green shit everywhere. Like my Halloween costume last year I didn't expect as much attention as I received. Tons of people wanted photos with me which I was happy to oblige! In the end we had to call it a day around 8pm.

Canadia - Nat's Second Home

After much time living in Canada with yours truly, Natalie finally decided to go through the process of becoming an official citizen. A test, a bit of money paid, a ceremony later and it was all done. Nat did mention that she thinks she aced the citizenship test as she remarked she was done in 5 minutes while the others around her struggled a little bit. It was a proud moment for me and I know Canada is one citizen better for it.

Seattle - The Design Conference

I had been eyeing going to An Event Apart, a design conference for a long time. Luckily for me they were having their next one in Seattle which is only a short flight from Calgary. Not wanting to bore you with too many details of that, I'll just say that it was one of the best design related activities I've done in the last 3 years. So much information, so many good ideas, plus there were parties every night! Since the conference was held from Monday to Wednesday we decided to make a vacation out of it. Nat came down on Wednesday night, I took a few days off, and we hung in Seattle till Sunday. Lots of walking and touristy type stuff. Gum wall, Troll under bridge, Seattle Aquarium, Space Needle, Experience Music Project, Monorail, Pike Place, shopping, eating seafood, and of course my favourite activity - pub crawling. For awesome drinks and a neat location I recommend Tini Bigs. Seattle has now become one of my favourite cities in America, and if I had to pick a U.S. city to live in it would be hard not to choose here.

R.I.P Degu

In a sad state of affairs our 6 year old Degu died quietly last week. He was the coolest little guy and by far blew away any previous rodent type pets I've had in the past. Right up till the end he still loved to be pet and will be missed. I've put together a slideshow in his small honor!

Moose in Vegas

As usual Vegas did not disappoint with the good times. I was glad to see the Winnipeggers experience it for the first time. I'm not going to talk too much about it in hopes that the other guys will elaborate on it more than I will. No camera was brought by me so all I have is this...

Heritage Snowboarding

2011-03-08T11:00:00.004-07:00

As Baker mentioned it was Heritage Classic time. So instead of writing out everything he said for a second time I'll just leave this video here showing some of the atmosphere at the game. The only thing I would disagree with what Baker said is that I probably would do another outdoor game as long as it was a little bit warmer! Just think if the Jets come back to town, and they have a Heritage classic...

No slowing down! The weekend after, we packed up our boards and headed to Sunshine Village for some snowboarding and the always fun Banff night. Since I'm never too far from my flip cam here is a vid of my buddy Terry attempting to launch off a ramp.

Funny enough the weekend before I thought that the Heritage Classic was cold. This was even worse! The coldest I've ever been in my life was at Sunshine Village around 10 years ago while sitting on the Standish chairlift. This is the top of Standish again, and goddamnit if it wasn't almost the same.

Cabin Fever

2011-02-09T12:51:00.006-07:00

We've been going to our good friends Jenn and CJ's cabin a lot in the last 2 years and this year has already started out no different. Sorry if you're getting bored of these cabin posts but I don't see us stopping going there anytime soon. It's just such a quiet, relaxing spot that it's hard not to want to be there every weekend. So here it was, the end of January, "let's go to the cabin!". I just want to reiterate the cabin = no plumbing, no electricity, no furnace. Wood burning stove though, and propane oven!

I really wish I had a video of this but on the way out there was a snow warning in effect for the Crowsnest Pass and wow were they not kidding. It was dark, blowing snow like mad, occasionally I'd see the white line on the road, and slippery as hell. At one point I was almost ready to turn the car around figuring that if it was going to be like this for another 2 hours then forget it! The cabin is fun, but not worth getting stuck in the ditch in a meter of snow. If it had not been for 2 things. 1. Catching up to a caravan of lights (cars) that I could follow, 2. and Jenn texting us from up ahead saying that it gets better by Sparwood (World's biggest truck).

Turns out it did get better by Sparwood and I could begin letting blood flow back to my knuckles. First thing upon arrival? Crack a beer. The area hadn't been hit with snow very hard so unpacking the car and setting up was easy. Once we were settled in, it was all good. The next night though wasn't as uneventful...

Saturday evening we noticed it starting to snow, thinking it wouldn't be too bad. Yep we were in for a surprise as pretty much I'd say 20cm fell over the course of the night. The weight of the snow was pretty heavy on the trailer awning, so much so that it dipped down and blocked the door from being opened easily. The snow didn't bother me at all though once we cleared some paths, got our boots on, and got the wood burning stove roared up. It was so quiet and kinda "Shining" eerie that made it super cool. Trees were packed with snow so the lightest touch would cause an avalanche to come down on you. I figured what the hell, lets throw a log at a tree:

Which brings me to the last quick story. On the Sunday night it was getting down to -25C. We were sleeping in the trailer when something odd happened. At around 4:30am, I poked my face out of my sleeping bag and noticed it was a little cooler than it should be. Got out of bed and looked at the temp, it was -15C in the room and getting colder. It seems the propane furnace decided to stop working! Anyway we grabbed our sleeping bags, got our boots on and headed into the cabin to get a fire going. We ended up using the pull out couch in the living room. No harm done. It was more amusing than anything as neither Nat or I were that cold in our sleeping bags, but how cold could we have pushed it?

Even with the wacky stuff, I can't wait to go back. I'm sure there will be at least 2 or 3 more trips this year.

What's upcoming? Since I (and Kenna) were lucky enough to grab Heritage Classic tickets, we will be doing that next weekend. My dad is coming out from Winnipeg, as are the Bakers to also partake in this event. I'm sure we'll think of some other fun things to do while they're in town. Go FLABS.

Anyway I've run on enough so that's all for now.

Skatemas in Winnipeg

2011-01-07T13:57:00.005-07:00

It was almost as if Santa himself had delivered us to Winnipeg on Dec 24. I'm pretty sure our plane was farting the same magic trail behind it that Santa always has when he's flying around. Shockingly Winnipeg wasn't the iceberg that I've grown to know when we arrived. Which was a plus. I've turned into somewhat of a cold dandy being away from it for so long. Although I imagine it wouldn't take me much time to get acclimated again. In any case it was nice to not have my ass frozen off the second we left the airport.

Pops, brother and everyone was in good spirits when we arrived and continued to be throughout our stay. The multiple rum and eggnogs probably helped. Kind of a shame that we didn't get out to see more people however. We still managed to do a lot of stuff though:

Manitoba Museum - Hadn't been here in like 18 years, so that was interesting. I can't believe how large it was. The corridors and rooms kept going and going. And I completely forgot about the ship! Cool stuff indeed.
Bodies Exhibit - We missed going to this when it was in Calgary, so I was a bit bummed about that. Good news is that it was being shown in Winnipeg. Pretty much everything was gross. Fetuses, veins, organs, brains, muscle tissue, dried wangs. They had it all! Glad I got to see it in the end.
529 - Fancy steakhouse night. Awesome food, neat location, great service - very knowledgeable. Definitely for the carnivores. Loved the tenderloin and those au gratin potatoes. Vin bon!
Skating - The land of 100000 rinks. It was time to get some skates on my feet and get some exercise. Took at trip over to Canadian Tire and picked up a couple of pairs for Nat and I. After initial shakiness it all came back to me, like riding a bike. Was fun! I look forward to continued skating in Calgary.
Spurs Toaster - Probably wins the award for oddest gift. Every piece of bread you stick in this thing comes out with the San Antonio Spurs logo toasted onto the side. Thanks Adam!
Hangin Out with Ryan - Got to hang with the Whitneys quite a bit and meet their newest little lady Ryan. Nat and I got her the exact same Motorhead shirt that Darryll wears, can see it in the photos above.

Overall a relaxing, fries and chili filled trip back to Winnipeg. Hope to be back sometime in the summer perhaps. Other trips are planned however so we'll see.......

Sombvember

2010-11-30T08:56:00.002-07:00

Movember has been a bit of a slow month in terms of activities but there have been a few gooduns to remark on:

Banff Night - Took a short trip up to Banff with Damo to just get out of the city and enjoy some fresh mountain air and cold beers. Stayed at the Banff Inn. With a name like that you'd think it was the most used and abused hotel in the area. Turned out to be clean, cheap and not too far from the main strip. Would do it again for that price. Next time though I'm eyeing the Rimrock Hotel.
American Thanksgiving - In the spirit of equality, Nat and I generally practice 2 Thanksgivings. This year was no different. Cooked a big bird, had friends over, and ate pumpkin pie til throw up came. Hot turkey sandwiches for all!
Punk Rock Bingo - Here was a treat. Punk rock, beer, bingo, hot wings, prizes. A combination of 5 things I really enjoy! Probably the most fun I've had on a Tuesday night this year and unfortunately probably the worst Wednesday mornings of the year. All said and done we walked away with 3 boardgames. Monster Mash, Frustration, and a Lite Brite (yeah I'm calling it a boardgame so what). The box set of Casino on VHS and a Def Leppard VHS tape as well. Such crap, but we didn't care. Was fun! I'm thinking Punk Rock Bingo would be a great addition to the Pemby.

That's all I have for now, hope to see you guys in December!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T13:36:00.004-06:00

Click to Enlarge

Ah yes Halloween again. One of my favorite times of the year. Scary movies all week long, creepy shit everywhere, evil kids taking all the candy off the front door step, and big parties where everyone goes nuts.

You can see from the photo Nat and I teamed up this year to take on the fast food duo of "Rotten" Ronnie and Wendy. That McDonalds bag sure came in handy as I smuggled beers and that flask into the Green Fools party without issue... "It's a prop!". I was happy to see that the Green Fools party had returned to its former splendor. Ever since the one they had at ACAD, I was rightfully turned off and was questioning whether it would ever be the same again. Renewed my faith in the Green Fools and will probably be hitting that again next year.

Speaking of Halloween I hope you all managed to see the first episode of "The Walking Dead" on AMC. You know I love zombies done right and this first episode of 6 was exactly that. Slow, relentless, decaying zombies that eat human flesh and just do not stop. That's what I'm talking about! You know it's going to be good when AMC stacks it up with Breaking Bad and Mad Men.

DVD exchange is rapidly approaching. Do you have your dvd set?

Gun Fun!

2010-10-13T11:33:00.004-06:00

It was pumpkin carving time at the Kountry Club last weekend. First we carved, then we blasted. Be sure to watch them in HD at youtube for the full effect (basically just click the youtube logo, then choose 720p).

Carving:

Blasting:

Jasper, Car Update

2010-09-30T10:56:00.003-06:00

A pretty light month in terms of news, the highlight being taking a trip up to Jasper with Nat's mom and dad. So many waterfalls, beautiful scenery everywhere you look and enough fresh air to choke the snuggle bear. Elk and big horn sheep peppered the outskirts of the town. Having not been to the top of Jasper in 22 years it was nice to get back up the gondola to refresh my memory. As expected, it was pretty damn cold at the top. The gondola operator mentioned that it was the nicest day they had in a while so I can imagine the cold and wind on a bad day.

Lots of excellent food such as the bison tenderloin at the Jasper Park Lodge which cracked my top 5 steaks of all time. I'm in love with bison.

A quick update on the car. Doesn't look like it needed to be written off so it's in getting fixed. Of course it's been 2 weeks at the shop so I've been driving a Nissan Versa rental car for the last month. I expect to get a call to come get the Vibe any time now. The fun never ends with insurance!

Birthday Smash

2010-08-29T20:32:00.008-06:00

It truly was a smashing birthday in more ways than one. The morning was quite typical. The fun didn't start till around noon when I took off from work to go get ready for a friend's wedding. It was an early wedding for a Friday (4pm) so I figured I'd stop somewhere on the way home and grab some food quick as I wanted to eat and leisurely get my act in gear.

After stopping by McDons, (which I rarely do - it was my Bday - Fuck it!) I started back home. Getting about 3 blocks away, some guy in a Saturn tries crossing the street right in front of me. Well shit there's no way I could stop and we ended up ramming into each other. A pretty good jolt, no one was hurt. The collision was at the corner of my car so there was no airbag deploy. His car was basically screwed as transmission fluid starting pouring out. The Vibe took it on the chin but was still drivable. 100% his fault. He did not enter the intersection safely at all, obviously!

Anyway now I'm in the middle of insurance fun, getting a rental car and all that. All I can say is they better not try to write my car off. Will let you know about that later.

After getting home from the Royal Rumble between Saturn and Vibe and scrambling to get ready for the wedding we finally arrive at the Wedding Pavillion (they spelled Pavilion wrong). Sweaty, a little soreness in my left arm, and irritated. Things started to turn around. Drinks and celebrating for the new married couple. Got to see some old co-workers I hadn't seen in a while which was cool.

The highlight of the night had to be when someone suggested jokingly that I take the centerpiece vase and fill it with booze. Well a good idea is a good idea! The bartender was not impressed with it at first and nearly denied the whole operation but in the end he was like "yeah ok that is pretty awesome". I ended up putting 7 beers in it. It could have held 9 or 10 but probably would have been brutal to carry around. 7 was plenty especially in that heavy glass.

By the way I got the photos from Torch Lake up. Click here to see them at flickr or just watch the slideshow below. Click on a photo to see the larger size too (preferred). Some amazing sunsets.

Torching the Summer

2010-08-11T10:00:00.001-06:00

Man the summer flies by. A stampede here, a redneck weekend there, and a visit to Torch Lake to recharge the batteries results in wondering where the hell the time went. Nat and I managed to get down to Michigan to spend some time with the fam. A pleasant surprise was had when Bakes mentioned that he and Ally could make it down as well. Of course Baby Keane was in tow.

If I had to rank them, this was probably my most relaxing visit to Torch Lake yet. Being my 5th or 6th time there the need to see everything isn't as critical. Now I know what my favorite things to do are and usually spend most of the time doing them (beers, horseshoes, dock, fires, golf). Still though a few new things were experienced:

Trip to Leland - A cool little folksy town on the coast of Lake Michigan.
Visit to the Family Winery - Nat's uncle, aunt, and cousins have decided to open their very own serious winery. This is no make a couple batches of wine in the basement type deal. We're talking 40000 vines and hundreds of acres of rolling hills. Very cool stuff here.
Double Tube Battle with Baker.
Walking in total darkness with Night Vision - Nat got me some night vision binoculars for my birthday, so I took a walk in pitch black. Removing them from your eyes in the middle of the forest is some freaky shit!
Golf - I've played golf here before but not at the revamped Bellaire golf course. Took Nat along and she shot a 55. For being her 5th time ever golfing that's pretty amazing.

I'm already wanting to go back and sit on the dock a few more times. Thanks to Dave and Kenna for the good times.

What's next for me?! Well I know I get to go to another wedding on my birthday! People just love getting married on Aug 27. Another redneck weekend is also coming up at the Barbier Golf and Kountry Club. Gotta get my fishing lures polished up. And lastly the Zorns are coming back to Calgary, wanting to take the trip up to Jasper for a few days in September. I think I can handle that.

Nerd Post - E3 Come and Gone Again

2010-07-12T10:25:00.003-06:00

Like clockwork the Electronic Entertainment Expo blew right by showcasing what is upcoming in the vid game world for this year and next. I'll skip the intros and just mention what I think will be the best stuff:

Dead Space 2 (PS3, Xbox) - Game Trailer
Twisted Metal (PS3) - Game Trailer
Gears of War 3 (Xbox) - Game Trailer
Rock Band 3 (PS3, Xbox) - I don't have a clip of game play of this but its going to have keyboards and insane new 102 button guitars for experts. Basically all frets and strings will get a button. Rock Band 3 Keyboard and 102 Button Guitar
PlayStation Move (PS3) - Basically it's a controller exactly like the Wii. Except that it's WAY more accurate (less flailing around like a dumb ass). Think of more precise shots and misses in Tiger Woods golf. And of course you'll be able to play games in HD. Half of the games and the presentation in this video link is like torture to me but there are some gems in there: Move Hype Video
Killzone 3 (PS3) - Game Play Video

The list is heavy on the shooter games. I just wasn't impressed by anything else really. Even Naughty Bear which I thought would be a hilarious game turned out to be a crock of shit ratings wise. - Naughty Bear Review

Bright Light City Gonna Set My Shirt on Fire

2010-06-14T10:45:00.000-06:00

Just got back from Las Vegas! Every time I go there it seems to get better. There are way too humorous stories so I'll just start by saying that it was a friend's 40th birthday, and we (11 of his friends) unsuspectingly abducted him from the street outside his office in a limo and took him straight to the airport. He had no idea. Even better yet was a friend of his from Ottawa was sitting hidden in the front seat of the limo who hopped into the back once we hit a stop sign. Basically looked like we were being carjacked. Once we made it to Vegas the party was pretty much non stop as expected. Hanging by the pool, gambling, drinks, sun, people watching, being in awe of the surroundings and rockin the club one night.

Boog organized a great trip and had us stay at the Wynn Encore and set up a fancy dinner at Sinatra. Sinatra delivered one of the the best steaks I have ever eaten in my life. Perfectly done, tender as a baby's butt and of course it was 65 bucks a plate, nothing cheap at this place.

Speaking of not cheap and mentioning rocking the club one night. One of us decided that it would be a good idea to get bottle service at Blush. One of the Wynn's night clubs. The benefits of getting bottle service are that you get in free, get a table and that your drinks are poured for you at the table all night. The downside is that you have to order 2 bottles of booze minimum. Click here to see how much each bottle (and our bill) was!

Our one buddy got so bombed this night his roommate decided to document his arrival back at the hotel room in an email. He promptly sent it to the rest of us that morning. Here is the email:

Dave had now moved to washroom and mr upchuck has come to visit, He moved very quickly with hand over mouth holding it in as it was coming out swallowing and then upchucking repetitively! He seems ok now as the awesome sound effects have stopped and he is now molly maid mopping.

Back in bed now saying "sorry man" over and over and over and over and over! I'm glad I had some peaceful sleep earlier, the only worry I have is that I am within reach of his projectile range, now moving to far side of bed just in case. The smell of our room is lovely, las Vegas baby!

Anyway this is getting long. I think I'm going to put Vegas on hold for a couple years and let my body recover. Who wants to go in 2012?

Redneckin' and Breathalizin'

2010-05-25T14:56:00.003-06:00

For the last month the sun has been shining so to rejoice in our star's offering Nat and I decided to get the hell out of Calgary for a couple weekends this month and head to Jenn and CJ's cabin in BC. While sleeping in a tent is perfectly fine for Nat and I, we were lucky to have their nice trailer to crash in. It's the kind of trailer that has a furnace, hot water, fridge and shower. So while this part isn't exactly redneckin' it, the rest surely is:

Drankin.
Fishin.
Burnin Wood.
Moustachin.
Fireworkin. - I recommend the Mighty Canadian.
Shootin Guns.
Breathalizin.
Makin Golf Coursesin.
Hootin
Hollerin.
Cussin.
Robitussin.

Of course some of those on that list are of the "what the hell is that" variety so I will attempt to clarify. Moustachin is the result of Nat buying fake moustaches and us wearing them to complete the look. Breathalizin is the result of me buying a fairly nice breathalizer (they have to have a fuel cell to be any good) and testing ourselves throughout the night. My favorite part was when I woke up in the morning (10am) still feeling kinda wobbly and used it. I blew a .046. Lucky me, I had a head start on the day. And lastly Makin Golf Coursin, what started out as "Just driving golf balls into the woods" became creating a nice level tee box in the hill with rock wall background and green. The yard is long enough so you get a good chip in so it makes for hours of golfing. This thing looked pro and is going to look even better with some grass around it.

Some may see getting the breathalizer as a waste of money for some random fun, but I see it as a potential cost saving tool and safety device. If it prevents me from driving that one time where I thought I was safe to drive from getting a dui then it has paid for itself 10 fold. Not to mention the times where you might think you're over the limit and take a cab, only to find out that you were under the limit and could have been fine driving. See the savings! The added bonus of being at a party and randomly breathalizing people for fun is just the icing on the cake. I'm still trying to devise the perfect breathalizer game involving targets, money and fireworks.

Anyway if you'd like to see a few photos from redneck month go here. This set will be updated in the future since we'll probably go back there this year 1 if not 2 more times.