I am not sure who was more embarrassed

I come home tonight and go to change my clothes (stay with me here).

I grabbed a pair of jeans from my dresser drawer, put them on and thought, "What happened here?"

They were SUPER TIGHT!!!

So I think, "How could they have shrunk?  They are not new and they have been washed like 7869734867843 times".

I did up the button and then stuck my hands in my pockets.... but my hands would not go in.  WHAT?????

Then I realized it.........   I WAS WEARING MEGAN'S PANTS!!!!

Someone (likely me) folded them and tossed them in my basket in the laundry room.  I then put them in my dresser (without looking) and then I put them on today.

I gotta say..... they did not fit quite right everywhere.... but I thought I looked quite fetching in them.

Megan was HORRIFIED!!!  In fact, I think she took the pants and burned them (Unfortunately she will have a significantly harder time removing the image from her mind!)

And the good news......  my wardrobe just doubled (Maybe even tripled or more... Megan has way more clothes than I have).

Oooh...... maybe I can talk her into buying some pants with butterflies on them...... I like butterflies!!!!!  :)

Why it is wise to Listen to your Mother

(Editor's note:  If you see the word "motorcycle" and think "boring" and are tempted to move on.... please keep reading.  It is not as boring as it sounds).

With Sara and the girls gone for the weekend, I decided to turn the heat on in the garage and work on my old motorcycle (for those who don't know, I bought a 1983 Honda 1000 as a "winter project").

I have heard this bike run on 2 out of 4 cylinders (not a good thing) and it had a really loud knocking sound in the front of the engine. 

Concerned about that, I decided to do the logical thing and check the oil.  Pulled the dipstick.... no oil.  Like none.... none on the dipstick.... none to be seen in the hole.... none!

So I did the next logical thing..... I stuck my pinky in there.... still no oil.... could not touch anything.

Then I did the next semi-logical thing..... I stuck my index finger in there.  Now, it was sort of a tight fit mind you, but I shoved it in there anyway.

"Was there oil on my index finger?" you ask.

I had no idea because...... I COULD NOT GET MY FINGER OUT OF THE HOLE!!!!!!!

Seriously.... it was stuck in as far as it could go and it was not coming out.  I pulled.... nothing!  I twisted.... nothing.  I pulled really hard.... nothing.

Then I started to get a little worried.  I mean, if the blood was being restricted (which it was being such a tight fit and all) then my finger was going to swell and I was really going to have trouble getting it out.

Adding to the problem, I had placed the motorcycle by the overhead doors so that I could open them and get some fresh air if and when the bike started.  What this meant was that I was a long way from any sort of grease or oil that I could have put on my finger to lubricate it because all that stuff was on a shelf on the other side of the garage. 

By the way, the motorcycle weighs about 600 pounds and is hard enough to push around when I am standing up much less when I am hunched over with one finger in the oil filler hole.

Oh - and I hate carrying a cell phone (HATE IT!!!) so of course I did not have that on me so I could not call for help and the only other phone in the garage was across the room and on a shelf about 6 feet off the floor.

I began to think.... "I am in big trouble here!!!   No one is going to come looking for me until I miss church tomorrow morning because no one knows where I am.  Maybe they won't look in the garage and I will still be here when Sari and the girls get home tomorrow afternoon.  But by then I will have missed supper, my bedtime snack, breakfast and lunch...... who knows if I will still be alive??????  That would be an embarrassing way to die.  When the kids are asked, 'What happened to your dad?' they will have to say, 'Oh he stuck his finger in a motorcycle engine and starved to death'.  That is no where near as cool as 'He took a bullet trying to save the President' or something.  Poor kids!"

Then I did the next logical thing..... I PANICKED and YANKED my finger out as hard as I could.

My finger does not have quite as much skin on it now.  I lost some blood and it hurts a lot, but at least the girls will not have to find me dead in the garage.

"Don't stick your fingers where they don't belong!"   Good advice every mom has given their kids.... for good reason!

Sari in the Newspaper

Another short article about Sari, the work she is doing and the volunteers she is attracting to the school.  Similar article in the other paper here.

That seems about right :(

So earlier I was gloating that Tim Horton's was getting rid of "Cold Stone" in Canada (see post below) and now I read this.......

In an effort to eliminate items that do not sell well, Tim Horton's is deleting 24 items from its menu including Walnut Crunch Doughnuts.

WALNUT CRUNCH!!!!!   THAT IS ALL I EVER ORDER!!!!!!  D'OH!!!!!  WHY?????  WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN TO ME??????????

So I brag about losing Cold Stone and how Dairy Queen is so much better and this is how I get repaid??????  Super great then!!!  :(

Hey.... wait a minute.... come to think of it, this is not my fault..... it is YOURS!!!   The article said that Walnut Crunches were being eliminated because of lack of sales.... but I buy them all the time..... I am holding up my end of the bargain..... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??????

So - the only obvious solution is that since y'all owe me a bunch of Walnut Crunches y'all better start baking....... or go to your nearest Tim Horton's and buy all the Walnut Crunches you can (they said they would be available while supplies lasted).

I am emptying the freezer as we speak!!!

I am going to say it whether you like it or not!

Dairy Queen rules!!!!

There... I said it.

 Everyone around here is enamoured with "Cold Stone Creamery" but I like the way things used to be.... you know....  "old school" stuff.  Forget all these fancy, weird, "all loving no oven" things (That is an actual name of a Cold Stone something or another.  How can you order something when the name gives you no clue as to what you are getting????  It is ridiculous!!!!)

My mommy used to walk me 6 blocks to a DQ that looked something like this one.... and if it was good enough for my mommy it is good enough for me!  (Besides, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart LOVES Dairy Queen.... what more endorsement do you need than that?)

The battle is over though.  According to this article, Tim Horton's is pulling all Cold Stones from its Canadian stores.

Oh well!  No more paying $347690457905 for a little dish of ice cream.  :(

Bring on the Peanut Buster Parfaits!!!!!!!!   Woooooooooo!!!!!!

DQ..... DQ.......DQ...... DQ......D.... (Well, you get the idea)   :)

That was fun!

I like judging people!

What I mean is, I had a good time judging the "Royal Canadian Air Cadets speech competition" tonight.

It was really interesting.  Five kids got up and gave a 5 minute prepared speech and then we gave them a topic of our choice (the Olympics) for an impromptu 3 minute speech.  Each of them did very well and I actually learned a lot from listening to their prepared speeches (not so much from their impromptu ones).

The other two judges were teachers from Sari's school so that made it even more fun.

I don't know how you would ever get the gig (in fact, I hardly know how I got it) but if anyone ever asks you to judge a speaking competition for the Air Cadets - do it!

You may even get a bonus "Tim Horton's" card as a thank you.  :)

If we had a skyscraper in Estevan.........

From the website..... "A few weeks ago, daredevils Vadim Makharov and Ritaliy Raskalov were traveling through China. The intended pinnacle of their trip was to reach the top of the Shanghai Tower, a building only shorter than one other in the world. They planned their escapade to coincide with the Chinese new year, so that fewer people would be around and security would be lax. Sneaking into the building, which is still under construction, they climbed 120 stories on foot. At they top, they slept and waited for good weather. Then they clambered out to the very end of the crane that sits on the roof…"

Check it out........

Can We Agree that is Three Now????

On Tuesday we found out that we may have to spend a bunch of money on our SUV's transmission.

Last night, during Bible study, the city's sewer froze and backed up into the basement of the church building.  I was here until 10 pm cleaning that up.  The clean up and hassle continues today

Last night, after Megan had a shower, she left the lever on "shower" instead of "tub".  Not knowing that, when I turned on the water this morning, instead of it coming out of the tap, ice cold water shot out of the  shower head and sprayed all over me...... and I HATE ice cold water!!!

If bad things come in threes, can we call that three and be done?????  Thank you! 

Something to think About

 

The guy pictured about is named Steve Brynes. He is a NASCAR host/reporter. Even if you don't care about racing, read this article. His story and the insight he gained will be more than worth your time.

So you wanna be an Olympic Skier????

I realize it looks a little more bumpy b/c he is carrying the camera and it is bouncing around, but you also are not dealing with the wind, the cold and the burning legs as you watch from your chair.... so maybe it evens things out a bit.

That is the issue

What can happen when events are judged and not just won by points or time.

My Olympic-sized Complaint

When I was a kid, I thought that the drivers who raced against one another at the Indy 500 ONLY raced against each other at the Indy 500.  In other words, this race in May was their one and only time to see who was the best of the best.

When I got older, of course, I found out the Indy 500 was only one part of a larger tour and that these guys raced against each other every weekend for most of the year.

To say the least, that was disappointing.... and it made the Indy 500 something less than it was to me originally.

The Olympics are the same story.

As a kid, I thought that the Olympics were the only time in four years that these competitors saw one another.  I guess that may have been true when the modern Olympics were born and travel was much more difficult.... but of course now that is not the case.

In fact, speed skaters, figure skaters, bobsledders, snowboarders and almost every other sport represented there see each other many times in a year and some even train together.

It is sort of a joke, don't you think? 

I mean, "Big deal!" this week you are competing for a medal that has rings on it instead of a PetroCanada Logo (or whatever).  

So you are doing your sport in the same city that everyone else is doing their sport and we are calling you teammates with the rest of your country men..... WHO CARES????   Canadian figure skaters still have to beat the same two people named Evgeni and Svetlana that they had to beat in Ottawa last week.  SO WHAT????

The only exception to this rant are the team sports.... like hockey.  There you actually have something unique.  Guys from the same country - who never play together - get together and see if our country is better than yours.  Perfect!  That is different.... interesting.... worth watching even. 

Unless you are talking about women's hockey.... then it is even more of a joke because the Canadian and US teams play together all year and they play each other 4608496890 times per year.  Yay!!!   Canada vs the USA - the only teams who could win gold - are playing AGAIN!!!

Don't get me wrong.... I will likely waste a good share of the next week in front of the TV watching things I would never normally watch (Like Biathlon), but I still think it s stupid!  :)

Sure you can!

At the ski hill on Saturday one of the 20 year olds who was with the group (Lets call her Sally) wanted to go try out the black diamond runs (the hardest runs on the hill) but she was sort of scared.

"Come on" I said.  "I am sure you can do it."

And I was right.  Sally skied down the first black diamond very well.  In fact, the dude she was with (who was bragging about what an expert skier he was) was left in the dust (or in this case the snow).

After the first run I said, "See!  What did I tell you? Nothing to be scared of"

We did 10 more black diamond runs until I was confident that she knew what she was doing and would be ok.  Then I said that I was going to go back across the hill to the beginner runs and see how Megan was doing because I had not seen her in a while.  

The good news...... when they called from the hospital three hours later.....they said that they did not think Sally's leg was actually broken! 

Apparently, Sally decided that I was right.... she was a super good skier!!!  Then she decided that she was so good that she should try out some of the jumps that were on the course.

In reality, she tried "one" jump.... and it was more of a "splat" than a jump.

Apparently, too, her buddy boy had taken a different route (or he was so embarrassed by how much better she was than him that he took off), so when she wiped out she had to lay there for like 15 minutes before someone realized she was hurt. 

When she showed up back at the hall later that night she had a huge brace on her leg, but she was still smiling and did not seem mad at me.... but I did notice that her buddy stayed away from her for the rest of the night.

The moral of the story:  Encouragement is a good thing..... to a point!

Alternative moral of the story:  If you really want to impress a girl... do not ski off and leave her laying in the snow with a possible broken leg.

Alternative alternative moral of the story: (As Sari often points out to people - especially little kids when I am bugging them)..... The only time you should listen to Tim is in church!  :)

A Weekend of Good experiences (I have given up numbering these things because I am so far behind)

Our family does a lot of stuff together.  In fact, it is odd when we all go our own separate ways to do things.... so that made this weekend a little different - but good.

For example..... Katie stayed home by herself for the first time ever (at least for an entire weekend).  She has just started a new job and it was going to be hard to ask for time off, so she stayed and worked.  Many parents would worry about leaving a 17 year old home alone (parties, being irresponsible, etc) but not us.  We knew she would be a "grown up girl" and she was..... she even got up and went to church and herded all the little kids all on her own (That was not surprising given it was Katie.... but not normal 17 year old behaviour in many cases).  She was sad that she was stuck in town - and so were we - but she earned some cash for more fun things down the road.

The rest of us headed to Manitoba.   I was speaking at a youth rally/ski event(more about this later), so on the way we dropped Sari off to visit with her best buddy Laura.  It just so happened that Brandon was having a multi-cultural celebration thinger like Regina's "Mosaic", so they went and hit up the Scottish, Irish and German pavilions among others.  Seems that was not the only thing that got "hit up"..... apparently everywhere they went guys were talking to Sari, flirting with her, hitting on her...... when you got it you got it, right?  :)

Megan and I carried on to the youth event.  It was a lot of fun.  About 100 of us stayed in a hall in a small town near the ski hill.  Let me tell you, a large hall full of about 40 dudes sleeping is not a pretty thing to see or hear!!  I woke up at about 4 am both mornings to the sound of "snore.... wheeze.... sneeze..... cough.... snore..... snore.... cough.... snore......"   You get the idea.  But, other than that, we had a great time.  I did three lessons.... the kids were great.... I saw some old buddies that I had not seen in years (they brought their kids to the event)  Super fun!  (I have one good story to tell about this weekend but I will save it for coming days).

And Megan.... well she learned to ski this weekend.  Started off on the bunny hill looking like a baby giraffe walking on ice and by the end of the day she was flying down the hills.  It was incredible.  No real big wipe-outs and now she is hooked..... actually "now" she is sore..... but she will get over that.

Now that the weekend is over, we are all back home, safe and sound and together - as we ought to be.... but it was fun for each of us - though for different reasons.

Here are a few pictures from Megan and me..... Sari and Katie will have to post their own because I do not have them

(Ps.  Some of the pics are blue b/c my camera is frozen.... it was - 25 with a wind chill of -40..... and a much higher wind chill when speeding down the black diamond runs!)

One quick shot of the hall where we stayed..... set up for the next lesson.  Chairs and sound stuff were moved out of the way and this is where the boys slept (girls were downstairs).... if you look on the right you  can see some of the mattresses that we slept on..... about a 1/2 an inch thick!!!  Better than the bare floor.... but not much.  :)