vancouverstuff-dec.2006&jan.2007
Vancouver Stuff -
Dec. 2006 and Jan. 2007
First Day on the Slopes; Vball Starts
January 4, 2007
I found my new favorite quote:
"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."
How funny is that? And very, very true. This week, the New Year kicked off, and I suspect that it's going to be a very, very busy year. A lot of fun I hope as well, but I think it's going to be crazy. Tuesday night after work I had a bunch of running around to do, which made me notice that it was a surprisingly clear but warm evening. Looking up at the local mountains I decided that I was going to hit the slopes for the first time in three seasons. It's been a while - a couple of fluke injuries at the begining of the past two winters kept me off the slopes completely. But it seems that skiing is sort of like riding a bike - you don't really forget. After four runs on the green runs, I was right back where I was a couple of seasons ago. OK, well maybe not, but I felt good, and the form wasn't half bad. Rather than overdo it, I kept it to two and a half hours, and managed to get away without hurting myself. Happy days. :-)
Last night, the indoor volleyball season kicked off again. I passed on the fall season to focus on the marathon training, so I hadn't played ball since about July. And boy was I rusty. Even so, it was a fun night. Again, no injuries and the knees and ankles felt fine. This season is looking promising!
I know that I need to get some more Africa pictures and pictures from Christmas, and will hopefully get to that in the next day or two. We've got our "Winter Party" for work this Saturday night, and I'm thnking of going up to Whistler on Sunday. Now that I've got the skiing bug back again, i may be up there a fair bit...
First Snow Shoe Trip of the Season
December 18, 2006
After a two-year hiatus, Bill and I finally got out snowshoeing this past weekend. We've had a bit of new snow up in the mountains this week, so I decided that I wanted to try and get out once before Christmas. Bill was available, so we headed out Saturday morning. There was 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow, and other than one skier that we lost about 1/3 of the way up the mountain, we were making fresh tracks thanks to our early morning start.
It was a great day - slightly overcast, but the clouds were high and the visibility was good. We hiked all the way to the top of Black Mountain on Cypress, which gives you a really nice 360 degree view. The Lions (another local mountain) looked particularly nice as it was freshly coated in new snow.
Snow on the Lions; Early season at Cypress Mountain
Teddy Bear Toss
December 15, 2006
Yes, you read that right. Friday night I went to the Vancouver Giants (the local junior hockey team) game, during which they had their annual Teddy Bear Toss. Basically the concept is that everyone in attendance is supposed to bring a new stuff toy to the game, and when the Giants score their first goal, everyone is supposed to throw the stuffed toys onto to the ice. I guess they've been doing this for a while, but ti's the first time I'd heard of this.
Let me tell you - that was one of the funniest things I've seen!. The setting was perfect - a Giants penalty shot. The kid taking it played it perfectly, putting the puck upstairs over the goalie's glove hand - and the stuffed animals were raining down almost before as the puck hit the back of the net. There were thousands of the things, all destined for various charities. It was quite the sight to behold.