So from Chris and I, JC, Mindy, Ethel and Hermie, here's wishing everyone a safe and Merry Ho Ho!

Or maybe I’m just a miserable SOB who enjoys throwing his own pity party.

As most of you know our fridge recently died a slow, painful death and we were forced to live out of a mini-fridge for a couple weeks until the new one arrived. It’s amazing how much you take certain things for granted. When was the last time you gave a second thought to grabbing something out of your fridge?

I figured the compressor was probably shot and that it’d probably be stupidly expensive to fix – so we might as well get a new one. Because it was stainless steel I knew it would stick out like a sore thumb compared to the other white appliances. So I said screw it and got all new appliances J

I’ll summarize my experience getting everything installed by saying that it was complete and utter hell. Then again my ridiculously low patience threshold might have had something to do with it.

So now that we have shiny new appliances the rest of the kitchen looks like shit. Sigh. It’s a slippery slope from a new fridge to a complete home renovation.

Thanksgiving was good this year. We went up to Edmonton to visit my parents and had a yummy dinner complete with Turkey, stuffing and so on. It was a bright spot in an otherwise crappy past couple of weeks.

We weren’t going to have a Halloween party this year but as someone once remarked Halloween is Chris’ Christmas. We’ve also been buying up some cool new items and it’d be a shame to waste them. Most notable is ‘Halloween Guy’ who is life-size, talks, breathes, and his eyes move around. He’s very cool.

The turnout will likely be small compared to previous years as it seems most of our friends are either new moms, expecting to pop, are overseas, or simply have better things to do (yes that’s a shot). Still I’m sure it will be spooktacular!

Back when it was nice, ie. the Labour Day weekend, Chris and I were in the lovely city of Regina for my cousin’s wedding. It was nice being there for a happy occasion, as previous visits were to attend funerals. It was also the first time Chris met any of my family outside of my parents. She made sure to take pictures of everyone as proof that I indeed have relatives...The wedding was great fun and congrats to Dori and Jason! Here are some pix of the event:

Last week I was sick with what I’m guessing was the flu. There were a couple days where I felt like absolute crap – pounding back the Nyquil with a few shots of Rye for good measure. I even had to take a sick day – something I almost never do as I’m rarely sick (knock on wood). I blame the stupid guy that was hacking next to me on the flight back from Regina. Damn you!

My favourite summer TV shows are now over - Rock Star (Dilana totally should have won), Big Brother (Janey should have won) - and the fall season is starting. I’m looking forward to watching CSI (in Hi-Def), Battlestar Galactica (not in Hi-Def – boo!), Lost (on Digital), and Holmes on Holmes (not on Digital – boo!) again.

I’m probably not going to watch Race-vivor although I did catch the season premiere. There’s got to be something more productive to do other than zoning out in front of the TV every Thursday night. Still, I find the controversy about this years show somewhat amusing. I don’t see what the big deal is. As much as we’d like to live in a Utopian world where we’re all the same, race is and always will be one way we define our uniqueness from other people. You can be damn sure that if there’s a tribe swap whereby someone ends up being the only Caucasian on the tribe that ‘whitey’ will be the first person going home. Now THAT’S reality television! Enough said.

Prior to our trip we went to Deb's wedding. As Chris & I are getting married next year we paid more attention than usual to everything that was going on and made little mental notes about things we liked or didn't like. It was a beautiful ceremony and a big congrats to Deb & Chris - not my Chris, the male Chris, who's in the military Chris - (Ya I know, it gets confusing sometimes). Wow almost everyone in our circle of friends is now married.........who's left? Oh ya, Chris and I :) Pictures can be found here.

The morning after the wedding we dragged our asses out of bed, hopped in the car, loaded up on coffee and proceeded to the Shuswap. So how was our adventure? Again it was an unique experience and I'm glad we did it. But unfortunately not all was bliss. As with anything there was some good and some bad. First the good:

• Coming up with names for the Captain (Alpha), the Co-Captain (me), and the Co-Co Captain (Kim). Our names being Captain Swallow, Number One, and Commander Nipples respectively
• The kids all got along really well and looked like they had a blast - whether it was swimming in the lake, catching minnows, or roasting marshmallows
• Maneuvering the boat to pick up objects we'd spot floating in the water. I dove in and rescued a beach ball while Alpha burned about $50 in gas just so we could grab a beer can
• The numerous water fights. Especially when Hailey sneaked up on Alpha from behind and dumped a bucket of cold water over him
• Meeting up with Deb & Chris for a day and watching Chris almost kill himself doing flips off the boat into the water
• Setting off copious amounts of fireworks. Receiving a warning from the authorities and still setting them off the next day :)
• Conversing with an owl while I was sitting on a beach. No really, we had a grand 'ol conversation going. He was my buddy, I named him Owlie.
• Watching Hailey & Jayne become quite the entrepreneurs as they made approx. $200 fetching everyone drinks (at $1 to $2 a drink)
• Having our picture (well just the girls) taken with the two guys who worked at the floating store
• Never having driven a boat before, it was a fun experience piloting and docking the houseboat. I still deferred the more intricate maneuvering to Alpha however
• The marathon session of Jenga we played - thankfully I wasn't the one who eventually knocked it over
• Riding out a severe storm in the hot tub while getting pelted with torrential rain
• The two couple's lovemaking sessions which somehow got turned into a contest. Our final score was 3.5 while Alpha & Nancy's was 4 or 5? Remember Alpha, it's quality not quantity.
• Spending quality time with Lindsay. It's been much to long since I saw her last. I still can't get over how grown up she is, she's simply beautiful.

And the bad? While the boat itself was in good shape and any maintenance issues were quickly resolved by Bird Dog (the maintenance boat), I had issues with the bathrooms. There were two bathrooms which we named Ethel and Fred. Ethel was the larger one near the front of the boat, and Fred was the smaller one near the rear. Unfortunately the walls are really thin on the boat, so you can hear absolutely everything - from people snoring, to people getting it on, to yes, people taking a crap. In addition to the noise sensitivities, there was also the smell. Although they had small windows which were always open, there were no fans in the bathrooms. So if someone laid a particularly nasty S-Bomb in there the stench would quickly make it's way outside and waft through the boat. Once someone had slaughtered Ethel shortly before I walked in there and I actually gagged it was so nasty. Frankly I got tired of smelling other people's shit. Tracy, you would have had a field day with your issues :)

The other issue which everyone knew was likely to pop up at some point was the clash of personalities. When you're stuck in an enclosed space for a week little things that you would normally blow off tend to aggravate you more and build up over time. And so five days into our trip we had a big blow out. I won't go into details (in hindsight it was really stupid) but Chris ended up arguing with Alpha, eventually I went and put my two cents in, and things quickly escalated to the point where Alpha suggested him and I go outside to settle things with a round of fisticuffs. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and by the next day all was forgotten - well at least set aside for the sake of everyone else.

Here's some pictures of the fun.

I also want to say a big thank you to Leanne and her clan for watching our cats while we were gone. Apparently JC was quite the bitch and bit her several times. Bad kitty!

What to do while she's gone? Oh ya, clean the house. What fun. Oh, and update the news! Lucky you.

So we've booked our honeymoon vacation. Even better, almost all our close friends who we asked to come with us are going! I thought maybe one or two would end up joining us, but it's simply awesome how many are going. Punta Cana here we come! The only thing that will suck is we'll end up spending 12 hours traveling to get there. Ick. Oh well, I'm sure once we arrive and the rum starts flowing we'll forget all about that ordeal :)

Let's see what else? My other pinball machine, The Road Show, showed up and with Chuck's help I finally got it downstairs. It's in perfect shape, the only issue is the right flipper is messed up and I have to rebuild it. Still, all things considered I'm ecstatic with it. I also bought another arcade game, Marble Madness. Unfortunately it's been stuck in Seattle for the past three weeks as the lazy Calgary truck driver can't be bothered to go pick it up. Hopefully it will be here soon. This is definitely my last one - no really it is. I simply don't have any more room for additional games. Maybe I should just get a bigger house? Then I could also have Tron, Satan's Hollow, Dragon's Lair and on and on...(I'm imagining Chris giving me a dirty look as she reads this part).

We're going over to Alpha's tonight for his big renovations wrap up party. I'm sure I'll be all jealous with all the cool things he has done to the place. As for us, I still really want to get hardwood put in the main floor - it's just a matter of saving up for it. But after seeing Tracy's parent's newly installed flooring and marveling at how nice it looks, I know that we will definitely get it done soon. After that I don't think we'll be doing much for awhile. We'll be in Wedding mode and trying to save up as much as we can for it and the honeymoon.

Finally, we are one week away from lazing away the days on a houseboat on the Shuswap! It'll be good to get away from everything for a much needed break. We're going with Kim, Hailey, Alpha, Nancy, their two kids Phoenix and Jayne, and I'm going up to Sylvan Lake on Friday to pick up my daughter Lindsay whom I haven't seen in quite awhile. I'm sure I'll be shocked at how much older she looks. Hopefully we'll all have a blast and I'll be sure to take a bunch of pictures to share with everyone when we get back.

Until my next update, considering all the crap going on currently in the world, I'll leave you with this sage advice:

Make Love Not War (it's much more fun)

Actually we went down to the grounds last night and had a pretty good time. Dennis and Fran had two spare tickets to the Grandstand Show and invited us to go with them. We watched the Chuckwagon races and then later on the big show and finally the fireworks.

Was it really the greatest outdoor show on earth? Maybe not, but I have to admit I was pretty impressed. Sorry to say it, but it killed anything I ever saw in Edmonton at Klondike days. It was also cool being right where the fireworks were going off, we were so close you could smell them. A big thanks to Dennis and Fran for taking us!

Before the big show we all wandered around the Midway, eating Corn Dogs and staring at the plethora of um, scantily clad cowgirls or as Kim referred to them - skanky hussies. Chuck & Tracy showed up a bit after we arrived and they were going to go see Nelly Furtado at the Coke Stage. But I guess it was so crowded and hard to see that they finally gave up. Damn you Nelly Furtado! Your music sucks anyway!

Here's some pix of the show as well as Hailey and Christian having fun on the rides:

For Canada Day we had a BBQ and invited a bunch of people over. It was pretty much a boys affair however as most of the wives happened to be out of town. Still, lots of beer was consumed and we got to see the fireworks from the comfort of our deck. Chris definitely tied one on and made sure everyone knew her state of sobriety as she'd frequently exclaim "I'm Drunk!". Her and Jamie also shared a special 'I love you man!' moment. I was a good boy for a change and was the one telling Chris to have something to eat and making sure she drank lots of water before going to bed - instead of the other way around.

The next morning we woke up and looked outside to see large patches of dead grass in our back yard, causing me to ask 'What the hell?!?!?' Alpha came by for beers a couple days after and we tried to figure out what had happened. In the course of our conversation it was mentioned that he had sprayed bug spray on people while they were out on the grass. So I thought maybe that was the culprit. But of course Alpha couldn't just agree with me and said that there was no way bug spray was to blame. To prove his point he grabbed a can and sprayed a circle on the grass. Well gee, wouldn't you know it, the next day there was a nice round circle of dead grass in the middle of the lawn.

Normally I love it when he's wrong (which is often) but now our back yard looks like we have crop circles! Oh well, if you ever want to creatively vandalize your neighbors just grab a can of 'Off Deep Woods' and spray some obscenities on their front lawn at night while they're sleeping. Go out the next morning and wait for the hilarity to ensue.

Yippee Kayay Mo Fo's!

Well it looks like my prediction that a Canadian team will never again win the Stanley Cup continues to stand. I'm sure the Hurricanes win will be mentioned in their local paper somewhere after the Weather section. It's a joke that a city who's populace pays more attention to some college basketball player taking a shit than they do to the sport of hockey would win the Cup.

Hockey is Canada's game? Oh really. Strange how those American teams keep winning it...

Oh well there's always next year. Ya, you cling to that. Be in complete and utter denial just like the Leafs fans who for the past 40 years have been saying the very same thing.

At least we have the CFL right? Yes a joke of league that can't field more than 8 teams in any given year. A league who's best athletes are suspended NFL drug abusers.

Well what about the World Cup? Oh that's right our Canadian team didn't even qualify...

Let's face it, when it comes to professional sports, Canada is a complete joke of a nation.

On May long weekend Chris went to Vancouver and visited her Dad, her step mom Lori, and her sister Carlie. It was Carlie's going away party with her friends as she's leaving to teach English in Taiwan for a year, possibly two. Apparently everyone had fun and pictures of the frivolity can be found here.

While she was in Vancouver I went up to Edmonton to visit my parents. It was a good trip. Unfortunately I didn't get to see my Dad much as he was working nights, but I got to spend some good quality time with my mom. It was also cool being in the city which was taken over by Oilers fever. And no, I didn't take part in any of the riots. I'll save that for when they win the cup.

So not only did Carlie get a going away party in Vancouver, but she also came here and had one as well. Talk about spoiled :) Chris and I were tickled that Jim flew into town just to come to our party - it made us feel all important. It was also fun watching Chris' mom get more than a little bit tipsy; the highlight being her holding her cup out, shaking it side to side and yelling 'More squishy drink!'

Oh! The big news for us is that Chuck & Tracy are having a girl. Congrats to them! Kim came up with a name for her and Chris & I think it's the best name ever - Petunia! Yup, we've all decided that's going to be her name and her parents don't have any say in the matter :)

Anyways, I'm off to watch a movie. I will definitely try and update the news more than I have been lately.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, I'm now officially old. Ick.

A swack of people came over last night to help me celebrate my birthday. It was a fun night and a big thanks to everyone who came out, I hope they had as much fun as I did. And in portentous sign of my old age, I didn't even get drunk! Next stop is the retirement home methinks.

Here's a few pix that Chris took of the fun...

My best pal Jay also came down which was pretty cool. It was the first time he's been down here since we got our new place - I mean, he does live all the way up in Edmonton - so I can understand why it's been two years since he last visited....(that last sentence was dripping with sarcasm for those who couldn't tell). Oh, I almost forgot, apparently he's jumped on the baby making bandwagon! Congrats to him and his wife Betty. I'm looking forward to corrupting their offspring for years to come.

Speaking of Edmonton, how bout them Oilers? I was ecstatic watching them beat Detroit. I was sure we were going to lose but Chris ever the optimist said that they'd be able to do it. Thankfully she was right. At my party I was wearing my newly acquired Oilers jersey - much to the chagrin of all the Flames fans. Hee :)

I'm not sure if they can beat San Jose, but even if they don't they still did better than the Flames! Go Oilers Go!

I finally got my Pinball machine downstairs. It wasn't quite as hellish as getting the arcade game down there, but it was still a huge pain in the ass. Thanks to Chuck and Jay for helping and thanks to Brent for letting me play with his Dolly :)

Here's a pic of my burgeoning games room...

I've been on a bit of a vacation for the past week or so and it's been a much needed break from work. I just can't wait to go back and go through all the crap that I'm sure is just waiting for my return. Sigh. I didn't really do a whole lot while I was off, but I did manage to do some home handyman stuff. The one upstairs bathroom fan was never hooked up to the vent, so one day I crawled up into the attic and while choking on fiberglass got it all hooked up. Maybe I should star in my own home reno show? Maybe call it 'James on Homes'?

I just got back from living in Grande Prairie and Fort St John for the past two weeks. I was up there installing new servers and switching them over to a new email platform. While I'm sure the people who live there are quite happy, it just makes me thank God I escaped that environment when I fled Fort McMurray.

Grand Prairie actually isn't that bad but I was faced with the prospect of having to spend the weekend in Fort St John with nothing to do as some server parts I needed hadn't shown up in time - so I didn't even have any work to keep me busy. I was actually freaking out a bit over how I was going to cope and I knew my liver couldn't take much more abuse...

So late Friday night while I was complaining to Chris we hatched the brilliant (some say crazy) scheme of flying her up to Grande Prairie so that I could spent the weekend with her. I booked the finest room at the Holiday Inn, set my alarm, and went to bed giddy as a kid at Christmas. Thankfully she called me when she was on her way to catch her flight as I totally forgot about the stupid time change between the two places - she would have been waiting for a good hour for me to show up otherwise.

Her coming up was the best money I've ever spent...we hung out in our suite, toured the city, and just enjoyed each other's company. Even though I'd be home again in three days we were both unbelievably sad at having to part again Sunday night. While there's not a whole lot of interesting things to see up there, I did manage to take a couple pictures. The one is a street sign informing people which way Alaska was and the other is Chris standing in front of the world's largest beaver in Beaverlodge, a small town just outside the city.

I was a nervous wreck watching the Oilers play Anaheim last night...............but thanks to our win and San Jose beating Vancouver we are in the playoffs! With their loss the Canucks are out and as it was Vancouver that knocked us out of being in the playoffs last time I can only say......how does it feel? Have fun watching the rest of the Canadian teams play this spring! Losers!

I've always had a grand plan of wanting both an arcade game and a pinball machine. Last year I got the video game, and now this year I've bought the pinball machine. I know Alpha and Brent are probably muttering to themselves, but they can rest easy as apparently it should be much easier to get downstairs than my Ms. Pacman/Galaga game was.

The game I got is Funhouse by Williams which was made in 1990. Why this game? Well I actually agonized several days over which one to get. The manufacturer was already a foregone conclusion - anyone who's played pinball will tell you that Williams made the best games during the golden age of pinball (late 80's to mid-90's). This game is notable in that it has Rudy, a talking, moving animatronic head. Rudy taunts you while you play and his eyes move and follow the ball around. It is one of the first games to have two plungers, one of the top rated games of all time, and it's relatively hard to find (only 10,000 were ever made).

I remember spending countless hours as a kid playing this and other Williams games such as Fish Tales, Whirlwind, and Road Show. Although I loved to play them I was never very good. Especially when playing with my best friend Jay as he would routinely kick my ass and end up getting free game after free game.

The game is still in the States and I probably won't actually have it until mid-May. Right now I'm busy getting all the customs paperwork done and arranging shipping.

Chris and I have finally set a date. We'll be getting married on May 19th, 2007. We found the perfect venue for us. Something unique, cool, and quirky - just like us. The ceremony will be at the top of the Olympic ski-jump and the reception will be across the highway at the Four Points Sheraton. Oh, and after the ceremony Chris & I will take a zip line down to the bottom of Canada Olympic Park (COP).

The coordinator at COP said that the zip-line will be a new attraction that they're scheduled to start building in a couple months. We figure it'd be a very cool thing to do right after getting married and we're hoping everyone in the wedding party will join us (and anyone else brave enough to go).

The only thing we still have left to figure out is where we're going to go and get our pictures taken. We've looked at Devonian Gardens, and while it was ok it didn't really blow us away. Several people have suggested various parks but because it will be in May we're not sure how nice they'll be.

Still, we're both very excited and relieved to have finally picked the date and location.

Work-wise things are starting to enter what I like to call the crazy phase. I'll soon be headed up north for a couple weeks to finish off our email migration as well as implementing a new systems management system to manage all our desktops, laptops, and servers. So I'll definitely be a busy boy for the next little while.

Normally I’m not a fan of Chrysler, but let’s just say when they called me to tell me my car was ready I didn’t want to give it back. What did I like about it? It’s roomy, unlike with my Grand Am my head isn’t brushing up against the ceiling. And whenever I get in a different car out of habit I always push the seat all the way back. Well with the 300 I actually had to move the seat up afterwards. It’s also stylish. It’s one of those cars that people either love the look or hate it. I happen to like it’s quasi-retro look. The car is also rear wheel drive, which due to all the snow on the ground was fun, fun, fun to drive. Donuts! I could do donuts……….oh joy and bliss!

Chris even liked it. Enough that I’m pretty confident it will be our next car. Of course I’d want to spring for the 450HP V8, 20” wheels, fancy, schmancy version. Anyone want a slightly used Grand Am?

This week at work has been pretty hard. I found out that the security guard’s wife died of cancer. He’s a great guy who always chats me up whenever I go in on the weekend. He's one of those wizened older guys who’s been around and seen everything and more than willing to tell you what he thinks about any given topic. Then today I found out that the person who died yesterday skiing at Sunshine was the guy who worked three offices down from me. It was just yesterday that I saw and chatted with him. As the network administrator I also had the morbid task of disabling his accounts…

I guess it really drives home the whole concept of living for the moment.

I just finished watching Canada win the gold in women's hockey. Way to go!

Here's a suggestion, perhaps they should play for the men's team. We'd probably do much better.

I checked the medal count from the 2002 Winter Olympics, and so far we're doing better (in terms of ranking) than we did last time. Hopefully we'll finish ahead of the States.

The long weekend was a nice break. Didn't really do a whole hell of a lot but that's ok. Maybe next long weekend we'll actually be productive. Ya, not likely.

Friday night Chris & I just hung out and watched movies. Saturday was Alpha's Bday party. The theme was 'King of Vegas' which was basically a gambling tournament consisting of various games - Blackjack, Roulette, Poker etc. Whoever had the highest ranking at the end of the night was the winner, which turned out to be Nancy. It was a fun night and we didn't get home until 5 or 6 in the morning.

Oh! I just have to tell everyone about our brush with fame...Later in the day Deb gave us a ride to grab our car from Alpha's. Feeling a bit peckish Chris and I went to BP's for lunch. We went in, got a table, sat down and across from us was non-other than Channel 7 news anchor (and total hottie) Nirmala Naidoo. She was there with I'm assuming, her mom, hubby/lover and child. Apparently she's a bit of a boozer as it was only minutes past noon and she was already pounding back the wine. In some sick way that makes me like her even more :)

So far I've run into Nirmala, Su-Ling Goh, Gary Bobawitz(sp?), Tony Tighe, Jebb Fink, and Darr MaqBool. Maybe a higher power is trying to tell me I should go into television broadcasting....you think?

Sunday night was Ethan's Bday party and we got to watch the little dude open his presents. Tracy and Kim made yummy salad and Lasagna for dinner and a swack of friends and family were there. Unfortunately Chris and I were still recovering from Alpha's event so we weren't the most lively of party goers and ending up going home early.

Chris has been putting the waffle maker I got her for Christmas to good use. She found a terrific recipe and the resulting waffles have been heavenly. I'm sure we'll probably be having waffles at home at least once every weekend from now on. We might have to stock up on syrup :)

I just got my T4 from work, so I plunked in the numbers into my 2003 edition of Quicktax. Now I know things have changed for this tax year, but I'm hoping that the numbers are for the most part fairly accurate. Regardless, I should be getting money back which is a huge relief. As I made quite a bit more this year than last, I was worried that I would suddenly owe the government a bunch of money. That would be horrible...right Alpha?

Ah, another day another accident... Although Chris’ mom did her best to remove the bad mojo from our car, we only went 8 months before it got smacked up again.

We were entering a parking lot and some lovely young girl in a Neon was backing up. We stopped for her, but she backed up turning towards us. We figured she’d see us and stop. She didn’t. We honked the horn figuring she’d hear us and stop. She didn’t. Crunch! 

So we’ll wait for the estimate, but seeing as I’m getting to be somewhat of an expert at damage to our car I’m figuring about $3000 worth of damage. All told repair costs have almost equaled what we paid for the car originally. Basically every single portion of the car body except the roof has been replaced.

Maybe I should get a Hummer?

On Friday Chris and I are going to go scout for wedding locations. Some of the places in Banff that we looked at online or in brochures are really, really nice – but they are super expensive. I know it’s supposed to be our special moment and all that, but we’d both feel guilty putting our friends and family through that kind of expense. So we’re leaning towards having it in Calgary.

I really don’t want the wedding to be in a hall of some hotel. The last few weddings we went to were like that and while they were great I just want something different. But what? We’ve thought of maybe the Zoo, Devonian Gardens, or Heritage Park but we still have to find out what the deal is with each of them. We’re also open to other suggestions.

Chris was named acting office manager at her work after her old boss left. They also offered her the opportunity to become the permanent manager. She thought about it a lot, but ended up turning them down. Having had a taste of everything it would entail she decided it wasn’t worth it. Things were so stressful that she actually had to take a couple days off. They’ve now hired someone to take that position so hopefully things will return to normal for her soon.

Lastly, I thought I would let all my non-Albertan readers? viewers? visitors? see what all the fuss is about with our so-called ‘Ralph Bucks’. As most of the country has been griping about, each and every resident of Alberta gets $400 as a bonus for our province being so stinkin rich. I won’t get into a big rant on what I think of others complaining about our Premier's generosity (perhaps I'll post something in my Commentary section) right now. Suffice to say that $400 isn’t exactly a windfall, but it’s a nice bonus anyway. What will I do with mine? I’ll probably end up putting it towards my MasterCard bill.

Damn my being responsible!

Last weekend Chuck, Chris and I went to the home show at the RoundUp Centre. Yes, we wanted to see all the latest and greatest home reno ideas and toys, but the real reason we went was because Mr. Mike Holmes was giving a presentation. Amazingly some people have never seen his show - Holmes on Homes. For those that haven't, it's easily the best home renovation series out there. Essentially he goes in and fixes all the screw-ups that others have done.

We wandered around the show floor for awhile and not much caught my eye other than finding out that Direct Energy will come in and do a home energy evaluation for a couple hundred bucks. I also got more information on tankless water heaters. After ours leaked and made a mess in the basement I'm definitely thinking of getting one of them. Chuck got some info on these new furnace attachments that draw air in from outside and automatically shut off the airflow when it's not needed to prevent cold air from coming in. I foresee some new home improvement toys in both our near futures.

As for Mr. Holmes' presentation, the place was packed and for the most part he seemed like the hard working decent person that he portrays on his show. He definitely got worked up when discussing what's wrong with the renovation industry and what needs to be done to fix it. Chris was just itching to go up and ask him a question (in reality she wanted a hug from him) but in the end she chickened out. She also took a bunch of pictures but they didn't turn out very well (taking a picture of someone in low light who's wearing black and standing against a black backdrop gives digital cameras fits).

Later that evening we hooked up with Deb, Alpha, Dennis and Fran at the pub in Beddington mall. Dennis highly recommended the band that was playing there that night - Snake Oil. We didn't think it was going to be a late night, but as usually happens we ended up partying hard and closing out the place - well at least Deb, Chris and I did - the rest took off earlier in the evening. We spent most of the night people watching and laughing at the coordination-challenged people on the dance floor. It's amazing how some people either aren't self-aware or simply don't care. We also ended up hanging out with the Bass player. He was a pretty cool guy and it was fun watching him get progressively more intoxicated as the night went on. He was also into Deb especially after he found out she had been in Australia (where he was from). I was infatuated with some young girl who was clearly baked. After last call when everyone was leaving I got Chris to go and get her picture taken with her.

My root canal saga is finally at an end. I went and got my permanent tooth installed yesterday. Four dentist trips and approximately $800 later it's all done. I always thought people who had gold teeth looked dumb, but now that I have one I think it's pretty cool :) Maybe I'll get my front ones done as well............Flavor Flav!

Yesterday we also went furniture shopping and Alpha came along for the ride. We looked at a bunch of stores on furniture row but didn't really find what we were looking for (new kitchen table). By the end everything started to all look the same. As it was a rare Friday that both Chris and I were off we felt like playing so we went to the strippers afterwards and took in some um, very talented dancers. Then we went to the casino and proceeded to lose $200 in about 10 minutes. Seeing as I had already spent so much money that day we figured what the hell and went and joined Nancy and Jane at Madison's for a fancy dinner. Hmmm lobster.....

It's scary how time flies. Looking back 2005 was a pretty good year. Here's hoping that 2006 will be an even better one.

Of course the big, big, news which I'm sure everyone and their neighbor knows about by now is that I finally proposed to Chris. She must have been delirious because she said yes. It wasn't the way I had hoped it would happen - mostly because we were both sick as dogs at the time (thanks Hailey), but like I told Chris perhaps it's appropriate seeing as we're both so dysfunctional. Right now we're tentatively targeting May of 2007 for the actual wedding. So mark that on your calendars!

Christmas was good and everyone came here this year. However it really sucked that it was the first Christmas that Chris & I hosted in our house and we were both sick and feeling like crap. Add to that my being quite emotional (the whole proposal thing) and I wasn't at my best this year. I think everyone still had a good time, but I feel like I should apologize for not being myself. It was also painfully evident to me that I need to get the basement finished as things were rather cramped with all the family members being here. One thing that was pretty cool was Jay, my roommate from back when I lived in Fort McMurray dropped by Christmas Eve. He happened to be out here this year visiting his sister. Unfortunately he was only here a few days so he didn't get much of a chance to tell all my friends about the crazy stuff I used to do in Fort Mac - and that's a good thing :)

We always joked that when I got Chris a ring I could get the big screen TV that I've always wanted. Well on boxing day I went out and got one (kinda). I've done a bunch of research and while the really large screens (55" or 60") are nice, I found that even with the brand new Sony SXRD's that the quality is lacking. For those in the know, tube TV's without a doubt give you the best quality image. Their main drawbacks however are size (34" is the largest widescreen) and weight (over 200 lbs). The model I had my eye on is generally considered to be the reference system for HDTV. It is simply the best quality Hi-Def TV ever made. However when I found out that they are no longer being made and had been discontinued I rushed out to grab one before they were all gone (in the end I had to settle for the floor model as the factory didn't have any new ones left). Overall I'm very happy. DVDs look amazing and the Hi-Def channels are simply stunning. There's nothing like watching a hockey game or CSI in high definition. Normal channels however are merely OK. I would NOT recommend a Hi-Def TV for watching regular shows on. Once I get the media room built in the basement it will go down there and mostly be used for watching movies or shows in Hi-Def.

New Years was also good this year. The theme was 'formal toga'. Basically you wore a toga and then a bow-tie for the guys and a tiara for the girls. I had expected someone to wimp out and show up toga-less, but everyone went and put in the effort which judging by Chris was a pain in the ass. It was pretty casual, nothing overly wild happened, yet somehow we managed to stay up past 4am. One lesson we learned was not to try and figure out how to play a complicated board game when you're not sober. The next day I had a slight headache but otherwise none the worse for wear. Thanks to everyone who came!

Pictures of Christmas and New Years can be found here.

Lastly, my Mom became a Canadian citizen a few weeks ago. She was born in England, in the rubble of her house that had just been bombed by the Nazis. She moved here to Canada when she was quite young and grew up in Saskatchewan. I always considered her to be Canadian, especially since she's lived here so long. But apparently in bureaucratic circles that wasn't the case. Unfortunately I couldn't make the ceremony as it was during the week, but she told me all about it and was even on the evening news. Apparently she was quite the hit with the judge and the veterans. Here's a picture of the moment: