Gymnastics

If you read the title of this post hoping to see pictures of me in a full body leotard, prepare for disappointment. This one is about how Lucy invited Emma out to Cochrane last Saturday for an afternoon of excitement at the local gymnastics facility.

For $5 your child can spend a couple hours climbing pommel horses, swinging on ropes, bouncing on trampolines, hanging from the parallel bars, and practicing their L-sits on the rings. The feature that interested me the most was the giant pit of foam cubes that the children can hurl themselves into. It brought me back to the days of dragging all the mattresses in the house down to the basement and playing "Sarlacc pit" with my cousins. Emma was all over that place, but I think she enjoyed the big trampoline the most. Naturally, it was the one with the longest lineup of kids in front of it, so we didn't get as much time on it as she would have liked.

We've known for a while now that Emma has an interest in athletics, and we've been tossing around the prospect of signing her up for something, and now we're thinking gymnastics is probably a good place to start. She has the energy and the bravado to try it around the house, but she needs to couple that with a little coordination. If she takes to it well enough, we may move on to Parkour.

After the fun at the gym, we went to Heather and Tyler's place for dinner and spent the rest of the evening there watching Madagascar. When we were getting ready to leave, we looked out the window and we saw at least 20 deer having a powwow on the front lawn. The deer had us surrounded and outnumbered, so they weren't all that worried about us when we went out to snap some pictures. Unfortunately it was pretty dark by then, so none of the pictures I took turned out.

Our thanks to the Williamsons for inviting us out for a fun packed day, and thanks to Tammy for deleting those pictures of me in my full body leotard.

Birthday Bowling

Thanks to our connection to the toddler scene (Emma), we were invited to celebrate Saydee Walker's second birthday at The Bowling Depot in Deerfoot Mall. Emma fancies herself a bit of a bowler here at home and makes good use of the Dora bowling set Santa brought her for Christmas, but watching her walk into that alley was a like watching some kid off the farm walking into Madison Square Garden. Welcome to the big leagues of five pin bowling. The sights, the smells...well maybe not the smells, the sounds perhaps, it was all so enchanting. The stakes were a lot higher than she was used to, the balls were ten times heavier than her foam balls at home, the lanes were at least five times longer than our living room, and a high-powered computer keeps a hyper-accurate score. Both Braysen and Saydee were no doubt experiencing the same sensations as Emma was, as it was their first time bowling at the professional level as well, but it wasn't until it was all over, that we realized that it was the parents who were in some serious need of coaching staff.

I've never thrown so many gutter balls in my life. I don't think I've even seen someone throw that many gutter balls in my life. When I wasn't in the gutter, I was a sniper with that ball, taking out one lone pin at a time. I don't think Tammy or Cheryl did that badly, but I don't remember Dave doing much better, I've seen hockey games with higher scores. I think I'm more of a ten pin guy anyways, bigger ball, more targets stacked closer together, greater chance of gutter balls actually rolling back onto the lane before they reach the pins, just all around better odds.

The kids blew our scores out of the water, but not without a few mechanisms to help them along the way. The staff raised the gutters for them, but I don't think they really needed them raised thanks to a make-shift steel ramp that the kids turned into a precision targeting device. It was pretty fun to watch them play and celebrate and learn what it means to take turns. After the game was done, we sang Happy Birthday to Saydee, ate cupcakes, and she opened her presents. We tried to hit Applebee's for dinner, but it was packed, so we ate at Wendy's instead, and then headed home.

We had told Emma about the party a few days before and she was so excited about the prospect of bowling with other kids, that she would ask if it was time to go bowling with Saydee after almost everything we did. Thanks to the Walkers for a fun night out.

Dog the Bounty Hunter

Dave Walker emails me last week, asking if I'm busy Wednesday night. Dave's always got something good on the go, so I was happy to say that I was available. He goes on to tell me that Dog the Bounty Hunter is going to be speaking at SAIT and that his boss has gifted him two free tickets to see the show, and he wants me to come. Besides the one I ran into on Ord Mantell, this would be the only other Bounty Hunter I've seen in real life, so I decided to go.

Dave's been a fan of Dog's for some time now. He even showed up at my house one night dressed in full Dog attire, complete with flowing blonde wig and chaps, so I could understand why he would be excited about seeing the guy up close and personal. I've yet to see an episode myself, as we don't get the "higher channels", but I don't pass up free tickets to anything, and I don't mind spending a night out with an old friend either.

When I attended SAIT, George Stroumboulopoulos came by and spoke in one of the theatres after school one day. A couple of us poked our heads in to the sparsely populated theatre to listen to his speech for a while, but it was about as exciting as a trip to Fanny's Fabrics, so we left. I pictured the same sort of turn out for Dog, but I was surprised to see that the line to get into the gymnasium seemed to wind its way around the entire Campus Center building, almost to the C-Train station platform. I had no idea this guy was such a big ticket item.

After about an hour of waiting in that line, and about a half hour more of waiting in a packed gymnasium, the Bounty Hunter emerged in full Apache biker/warrior gear. The crowd of students, Trans-am owners, children, and soccer moms, went wild. Dave tried to get a decent picture of the guy, but we were so far back by the time we got in, it became an impossible dream.

We weren't sure what to expect at the show, I mean, what do you expect to see at a Bounty Hunter show? Was he just going to tell tales of some of his most savage take downs, or was he going to do a demonstration of one of his more savage take downs? After seeing the presentation in its entirety, I still don't know what to make of it. Picture the worst testimony given in church ever, then picture your Grampa, dressed as Hulk Hogan, giving you a karate lesson, and it's somewhere in between the two.

I don't want to use this blog to publicly make fun of a guy I really don't know anything about, and you really had to be there to appreciate it anyways, so I'll just say that after 2 hours of seemingly embellished stories that never seemed to go anywhere, a couple of half-baked roundhouses, more than a few drug abuse confessions from members of the audience, and a Nirmalla Naidoo sighting, Dave and I decided to call it a night. After it was all said and done, the only thing that seemed more odd to us then the presentation itself, was how much the fans around us ate it up. Different strokes I guess.

I would like use this blog to publicly thank Dave however, for inviting me out and exposing me to a slice of life that I had not yet seen before. I'm trying to think of how I can ever pay him back for his generosity, and I'm seriously leaning towards a LARPers convention. Walker, be warned.

Easter 2007

I love a long weekend. The longer the better. I was given Good Friday off as a stat holiday, but I decided to treat myself and take Easter Monday off as well. We managed to pack a lot of fun and excitement into the 4 day weekend, and managed to sneak in some much needed relaxation as well.

Good Friday started with Kristie and Jodie and their kids, along with Kelly, meeting us over at the Church to play some basketball and games in the gym. We brought the Fisher Price net in from the nursery for the kids while the rest of us played some old-timers version of bump. After we cooled on basketball a bit, it was time for races. Keegan naturally led the pack each race, so he was given handicaps such as a stack of hymn books to carry, or a basketball between his knees. That evened things up a bit, but not enough. Most of the little ones just like to chase people. After Emma's nap that afternoon, we went over to my parents house for the Bourne family Easter feast, which doubled as a birthday dinner for Alison. The big Highlight was getting to finally see little Max Williamson for the first time. He was asleep most of the evening, but Tammy and I both got a chance to hold him and feed him and introduce him to Emma. After dinner the kids had an Easter egg hunt and a chocolate feeding frenzy. After the kids were settled, the rest of the night was spent playing HALO 2 with a couple networked XBOX's courtesy of the Trevor's. I'm not much of a gamer, and it showed, but I like to play in the big group settings when I get the chance.

We knew it would be a late night so we made arrangements to stay over and spent the next morning and afternoon hanging around with Gramma and Grampa. That evening was Kaylie's third birthday party, so we headed over to Kristie's for some BBQ, cake, and presents. Kelly and Dan took the older kids out swimming after the party while the younger kids decorated Easter eggs, and then everyone headed for home

After Church on Sunday, the Easter Bunny visited our house while Emma had her nap. She knew he was coming, so she awoke with heart pounding enthusiasm for the hunt. In a house the size of the one we live in, there are few places to hide an egg with the intention of allowing someone to find it. The combination of that and Emma practicing hunting eggs for the past month, made for a quick search. She had another small dose of chocolate and then we spent the rest of the night relaxing at home.

Monday morning we went to the Zoo to see some animals and construction workers. Tammy's taken Emma there a couple times, but this is the first time I was able to go with them. I hadn't seen all the new facilities they have before, so it was a whole new Zoo to me. A lot of construction is still going on so we weren't able to see a couple of the big time animals like the tigers, but we got some pretty good views of the rest of them. Emma also took a train ride while she was there, but if you ask her, the one thing she remembers most was seeing a gorilla eat another gorilla's poop. We had the Olsen family Easter dinner that afternoon over at Kristie's house, and that pretty much rounded out the weekend for us.

I won't go into detail here, but along with all the fun and relaxation, we also took time to recognize the spiritual side of this holiday. I'm grateful we live in a country where we're not only free to celebrate this time of year, but they give us time off work to do it. I hope everyone had a Happy Easter this year. Bring on the May long.

Dinner and a Mover

Joe and Erica moved out of our ward a few weeks back and into their new place in Saddleridge. It was nice having them around for the short time they were here, but they've got a better place now, with some added stability. After spending the better part of a Saturday helping them load Josh's stuff in and out of a moving truck, I headed to Priesthood session of General Conference with Tammy's Dad. After the session, tradition demanded that we go out for dinner with the men in my family, so we hit the local Swiss Chalet for a feast of chicken and ribs. Tammy was playing a game with her Mom and Kimberly when we got home, and it lasted until the wee hours of the night, so we were more tired for the next days sessions than we would have liked to be. We went to my parents house for both Sunday sessions and some monkey bread and spent the rest of the evening there as well. It was a good Conference weekend, with all of our Conference traditions upheld.

Modus Operandi

Work has been busy lately, so the last thing I've wanted to do when I get home is even look at a computer screen, hence the long dark silence for the past couple of weeks. However, after threats of violence from some readers, I've decided to end the apostasy with some fab updates. This restoration comes not a moment too soon either as the amount of posts I've been meaning to make was reaching critical mass, and I found myself on the brinks of never having enough time to ever catch up to current events again.

As far as work updates are concerned, the big news is that my friend/chauffeur Paul has decided to leave Modus and pursue other career options. I've ridden shotgun with him for the past 3 years in our relatively one-sided carpool arrangement, so climbing back into the drivers seat again, might take some adjustment for me. He lives just around the corner from us, so I'm sure we'll still see each other often, mostly due to our relatively one-sided lawnmower borrowing arrangement.

In other work news, we moved into a new office a couple weeks ago. There are no sign of bee infestations, exotic spiders, dead mice, and no trace of paint fumes, so on those points it's got our last office thoroughly beat. The biggest selling point however, is the indoor plumbing. No more outhouse! The new office isn't a perfect setup by any stretch though, I'm pretty sure it doesn't even meet the building code, but it's better than the last one. The biggest issue is they didn't put an HVAC system in yet, so its dang cold some days and oven-hot on others. There's no exhaust fans in the bathrooms either, so what goes on in the bathroom, stays in the bathroom - for a long while. Thank goodness for Febreeze.

A large oilfield project we were going to bid on fell through last week, so a lot of the work I've done lately has been for naught. It's nice to see some of your efforts come to fruition every so often, so I give you the Airdrie Francophone school. It's one of the first schools I worked on designing here, and it's now occupied by students and teachers alike. There is another one just like it down in Okotoks and there are plans for many more of them around Alberta. They're not much to look at on the outside, but they are faster to build, far more economical and energy efficient than a permanent school structure, and they're guaranteed to remain mould-free. I just wish sometimes that the powers that be at Modus would put as much thought into their own facilities as they do their product.

Emma's Slide

Emma and I have been feeling a little bored lately due to all the snow. We haven't been able to go to the park as much as we'd like to because it's so slippery outside, so I decided to bring the park to us.

I made Emma a "home-made" slide out of some folded cardboard boxes, the couch, and her Sesame Street ottoman (the ottoman is under the cardboard so it doesn't bend in the middle when she slides down). She LOVES it! I just wish I would have thought of this at the beginning of winter!