Digging This Snow

This is what every Sunday morning in March looked like. I would wake up for early morning Bishopric meetings to find that a foot or so of the white stuff had dropped on us during the night. I was often late and sweaty for that meeting.

Wrong Date Night

Our mechanical consultant at work came to me back on the 23rd of February with a story about how he couldn’t make the Flames / Red Wings game that night, and he wondered if I wanted to use his tickets in his stead. I said “sure” and “hooray” and gladly accepted them. He’s a season ticket holder and he usually passes them on to me a couple times a year. Most times it’s because he can’t make the game, the rest of the time it’s just out of pity. They’re pretty good seats too, in the players friends and family section, right in front of Craig Conroy and Jarome Iginla’s families.

Since most of our romantic life revolves around free stuff, Tammy and I decided to leave the kids with Gramma and Grampa and make a date night out of it. Date Nigheeet! With jerseys on we hopped on the train and headed down to the Saddledome. No one else on the train was wearing their jerseys, so we stood out a bit, but if any couple can pull off matching outfits, it’s us. After a half hour on the train we got off at the Saddledome with the rest of the fans, a lively group which consisted of a young man on a cell phone and an older Asian couple. We grew suspicious, but it wasn’t until we tried opening the locked doors of the darkened Saddledome that we knew something was awry. We checked the tickets and they were for Monday the 23rd, and today was definitely Monday the 23rd, so what’s the big idea? Had we stumbled into an alternate reality? Was this the Bizarro world? I mean come on, what gives?

Lightning struck as we read the tickets again and we came to the terrible realization of our horrific folly. We had arrived at the game a month early. Today was Monday the 23rd of February, and the tickets were for Monday the 23rd of March. YAAAAARG!! Our disappointment was almost as overwhelming as our embarrassment. We must have looked like such fools! Taking off our jerseys and quickly stuffing them into Tammy’s purse was the first order of business. Tammy was worried about the frigid temperature, but I thought it better to brave the cold night air rather than continue to brandish our gross miscalculation, and risk further humiliation. It was only a couple of seconds before a train came by heading back to our end of the city anyways.

We wondered as we rode, how so many people that we had shown the tickets to could have missed the bold MAR in the date line. We also wondered if the fellow who gave me the tickets in the first place was going to want them back now. After a half hour of consoling ourselves, we were back at our car. An hour on the LRT doesn’t make for much of a date night, but I did have to work in the morning, so we made a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for some Timbits and hot chocolate, and then went home.

The good news is that we got to keep the tickets (thanks pity!) and we did attend that game together. The Flames won 5 – 3, which was an added bonus, and the kids survived being babysat by my younger siblings, which was also an added bonus. It was a month in the making, but we got our date night and a story to tell that may help others who suffer from "month confusion". Date Nigheeet!

Badlanders

We're slowly moving our way through the events of last year. Here are some pictures from our trip to Drumheller back on the first day of Spring.

This was Emma's second visit to the badlands of Alberta and Ashley's first. Emma was no less afraid of of the bones this time as she was last time. Ashley wasn't all that bothered.

Again the globes turned out to be one of the only things that Emma wanted to get within biting distance of.

The reason we made the trip was because the first day of spring also happened to be cousin Max's 2nd birthday. We met up with the Williamsons in the museum and let the kids explore for a while. Emma was a little braver with her cousins about. If you're going to get attacked by a giant skeleton, it's probably good to have some back up you can rely on.

We made a quick stop at the worlds largest dinosaur statue on our way out of town and then headed straight out to the outs of Cochrane for a some cake and partying for young Max.

I don't recall how long we ended up staying out there that night, but I'm sure it turned out to be a pretty full day for the little ones. Despite how tired she was, I think Emma had a hard time sleeping that night. I blame this guy, the "Lurkasaurus".

31 Flavours

I turned 31 this day. The girls were very excited for me and made me some special birthday cupcakes. They also gave me Disney's Pinocchio on DVD. It's November when I'm writing this, so I don't remember much else about the day sadly, but I'm sure I was feeling pretty special.

This video has nothing to do with anything except it's one of my favourite dance sequences ever, and they mention the number 31 in the song. The phone is ringing in the video, so don't get up, unless you gotta dance!