Another year is almost over.

Looking back this one was pretty good.

We got a bunch of work done on the house. We replaced all of the windows and while I had hoped it would have been finished by now the garage is almost done. Probably within the next week everything will be wrapped up. I'm glad we started with the garage before diving in on getting the basement done. It's been an interesting experience and going forward I'll know what to expect.

This was also the year that I got my heart back in rhythm. For awhile there things were looking pretty grim. I've had a few missteps so far but at least I know things are controllable. This is also the year that Chris recovered from her accident. While she'll never be the same, through her hard work at physio and hopefully from my being supportive and helping her she's managed to also overcome adversity.

We managed to squeeze in no less than three trips in 2010. Our trip to Tofino was by far the highlight. It was one of those absolutely perfect moments in time. While it had a number of great moments, or West Coast cruise also had some down ones. I'd definitely go back to San Francisco and it was a terrific experience watching Chris get her tattoo in LA. You'd think that our Caribbean trip with its exotic destinations would have been the best but unfortunately my being sick ruined it. However, hopefully we managed to make future cruisers out of the Nott and Sigurdson clans.

Tonight is probably going to be pretty laid back. But sometimes those are the best nights.

Happy New Year everybody!

I just realized that I haven't updated the news in awhile...

Now that winter is here I'm in hibernation mode - don't really want to do much of anything. And now that Christmas is almost here I definitely don't want to have to do much running around until next year.

Chris & I went and did a bunch of that this past weekend and that was enough for me - long lineups at the post office, long lineups at any given store, retarded drivers in hurry etc. No thanks. I'll venture out again come January.

Our garage still isn't finished. Most of that's my fault with me wanting a number of changes. I went and hired a thermal imaging specialist to come in and scan our house to detect cold areas, air movement, low insulation and so on. For only a couple of hundred dollars they scanned everything and did up a report detailing any problem areas. One of the issues found were gaps in the sprayfoam they sprayed under the bonus room floor. The contractor offered to have those areas touched up, but I was impatient and went ahead and bought a can of insulation at Home Depot and did it myself. Here's a hint, when the directions say to wear gloves - you should really wear gloves. It took me days to get that crap off my hands.

One other thing the scan found was cold air coming in the closet of Chris' craft room. I had already known that as you could feel the temperature difference (I measured a 6 degree difference between the closet and just a few feet away) but this was a visual representation of exactly where the air was coming from. The imaging specialist figured that maybe the vapour barrier wasn't sealed to the base plate and that all I had to do was take the baseboards off and lay down some acoustical sealant, press the vapour barrier onto it and then put the baseboards back.

Well I tried but there wasn't a big enough gap for me to see what was going on - so in a fit of 'hey, I'll do some demo work like they do on those home improvement shows' I ended up ripping out all the drywall in the closet. To me it looked like they had insulated properly, but obviously there's an issue there and more importantly I now have a huge hole in there (Chris wasn't impressed). So I'm going to have the closet sprayfoamed which will hopefully seal it and stop any more drafts. Here's some pictures of the scans:

All of this led me to realize that despite having things insulated to the max, the room above the garage will never be as warm as the rest of the house. So I'm now looking at having the garage heated. Which is why a month after work started it's still not done. Now I'm just waiting for them to get a permit drawn up and hook up a new gas line. It'll be worth it in the end right? Right?!?!?

Health wise things are good. My overdose of pills kicked me back into rhythm. Having been able to do this a couple times now, I'm more reassured that at least my issues are manageable. I just have to be extra vigilant and try not to get stressed out and no more hard partying for me. I had another ultrasound done recently so I'll be curious to see the results and hopefully see a reversal of the damage that was detected during my first ultrasound.

That's it for now!

Well Halloween has come and gone and as is usually the case we had a blast!

A bunch of friends and family came over in costumes and we partied it up, we even threw in a few games of beer pong near the end of the night. I really liked my costume which was Mort's cousin Eddie. For those that don't know, Mort is our life size scary Halloween butler that breaths and talks :) Chris looked awesome as a scary clown. Ok, she might not have meant to be scary, but let's face it, all clowns look scary!

On Halloween itself we gave out candy. We had a good turnout this year at around 50 kids. However Chris said that she saw a bunch of kids not come to the house because of our spooky decorations. Oh well, their loss. Still, we might tone it down a bit next year.

The contractors came last week and did the first initial steps in getting the garage done. They found out why the floor in Chris' craft room has so much movement. Apparently when the builders built that room they laid the sheeting parallel to the joists instead of perpendicular. So the one seam runs the entire length of the room and is right between two of the floor joists. I know I'm not a contractor, but it would seem that such a basic thing as how to lay sheeting would be obvious.

Now on to the bad news...

I met with my heart specialist today and found out that I'm no longer in rhythm. I've felt pretty crappy the past few weeks, so I suspected as much. So I'm going to try taking a massive dose of my medication and hopefully shock my system back into normalcy. Considering it worked once before (albeit after several tries) I'm somewhat optimistic that I'll be back in rhythm again soon.

Anyways, here's some pictures from Halloween:

This has been a crazy busy month.

What had turned out to be a nice and somewhat relaxing year at work has gone out the window now that we've bought out another company. So for the remainder of the year I'll be running around like crazy as we integrate their systems. In addition to work I've been busy with renos and planning for the basement.

Regarding the house we now have new windows. It was interesting watching them get installed - I watched them like a hawk to make sure they didn't screw up or scrimp on insulation etc. Half way through the process I was somewhat horrified at how everything looked, but on the final day when they did the cosmetic touch ups they cleaned it up really well and now everything looks terrific. We now have a window in our garage! From the outside it looks really cool. Overall I'm really happy with how things turned out.

Yesterday I booked our hotel in Barcelona for our Europe trip in April. I spent hours going through Trip Advisor and reading all the reviews of the various hotels before I decided on this one. We also nailed down our itinerary for the land portion of our trip. In total we'll spend three days in Barcelona, one day in Zurich, two days in Milan, and two days in Rome. I usually don't get excited about one of our trips until just before we leave but I'm practically giddy over this one. April can't come soon enough.

Chris has to meet with a couple of people in the next week or so to do a final evaluation of her recovery from the car accident. Once that's done the lawyers will start proceedings for us to get a settlement. The past year has been really hard on both of us as a result of that accident and while money doesn't make up for what Chris went through it'll be nice to finally be able to put this behind us.

For Halloween we had decided we weren't going to do a party this year. Chris had thought we'd go to an event at a local pub instead but no one else seemed interested. Everyone knows Halloween is her Christmas so it wasn't much of a surprise that we somehow ended up at a Halloween store this weekend. After buying a bunch of new things it was obvious that we'd have to do something. So we're now having a Halloween open house. We'll decorate and wear costumes and if our friends drop by then great. If not, then Chris & I will just carry on without them :)

Stay scary!

Nothing like relaxing to the sound of crashing waves... Feeling slightly guilty of the previous nights excesses I just got back from the jogging track where I walked three miles. Chris & Kim are at the Cruise Critic meet 'n greet, I just ordered room service and am enjoying a Cappuccino. I saw dolphins playing in the ship's wake this morning which was cool - it was only last night that I was complaining I've never seen any dolphins or whales on any of our cruises.

Yesterday was fun. I was expecting Astoria to be somewhat crappy and the weather did indeed suck in morning. However we went on an 'Ale trail' in the afternoon and had a great time sampling all the local brewed beers. We even got to drink straight from the steel vat they use to make the beer in. The people were all super friendly as well. As we approached Astoria there was a huge suspension bridge and I was intrigued when I found out that on one side was Washington state and on the other was Oregon.

Last night we were all pretty bagged so we turned in fairly early. We did play Bingo and on the final game Kim was only one number away from winning. Can't remember what else we did although I know we did manage to drink a lot :)

Vancouver was fun although I was disappointed with our hotel. We stayed at the Fairmont which is super fancy. But unlike when we stayed there a few years ago the windows didn't completely open. I asked why and besides the obvious liability issue of people falling to their death apparently they had to many issues with birds flying into the rooms.

We also got to see Carlie's place which was pretty cool. She made us dinner while her friend Hunter plied us with exotic squishy drinks. Her house was tiny but very hip. Just like her.

Getting on the ship was the usual shit show but because we had priority boarding it wasn't that bad. We were docked at Ballantyne instead of at Canada place which is where I figured we'd be at. Frankly it wasn't the best spot and a number of people were grumbling about it. The lady at the hotel had told us there were six ships in port that day which she said was unheard of. Which also explained why we weren't at the nicer pier.

Chris had managed to upgrade Kim and the girls to a balcony cabin and although Kim knew about it, it was a surprise to Hailey & Erin. However I got a huge surprise when I saw our cabin. I was expecting the regular suite we had booked but Chris was sneaky and got us upgraded to a two bedroom, two bathroom penthouse suite - one of only a handful on the ship. Words can't adequately describe how awesome it was and the pictures I took don't do it justice. Being able to shower while looking out a floor to ceiling window at the ocean passing by is an incredible experience. We also had four TV's and an Espresso machine as well as our own Butler and Concierge person - in addition to the usual cleaning person. Instantly NCL jumped to the top of my favorite cruise lines :)

The night before San Francisco was pretty crazy. It started with a Martini tasting event where we learned about the history of the Martini and sampled a number of drinks. That whet our drinking appetite and later that night when we found out it was 2 for 1 Martinis, Chris, Kim and I spent the rest of the night consuming them. Which in hindsight was a very stupid thing to do as we had to be up early when we docked. Needless to say we all felt like shit that morning. Thankfully I started to feel better by the time we had our excursion which was a tour of the bay on a Catamaran. I had a great time hanging outside while we sailed past Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate bridge. We departed from Pier 39 so while we waited for our trip to start we got to hangout and watch all the Sea Lions. They're fun to watch, but they smell awful.

When our tour was over the girls stayed behind and shopped at all the funky stores on the Pier while I walked back to the ship. Like in Vancouver, we somehow ended up at the crappy dock which was farthest away from everything. I definitely got my exercise that day. I wanted to at least see some of downtown so on the way back I detoured into it. I wandered around for a bit and got to stand at the bottom of the famous (pointy) skyscraper and take some pictures. When I got back to the ship I showered and Chris & Kim showed up and we sat on the balcony and watched the people boarding down below.

I really enjoyed San Fran and wished we had more time there. We all said we'd like to come back some day.

Today was our last sea day. I went and played Bingo with Chris & Kim and as usual we didn't win. From there we went to the art auction. I saw this one painting by some famous artist I really liked - it sold instantly for almost $14,000. So while we didn't get that one we did win a set of smaller paintings signed by the same artist for only a few hundred dollars. It was fun being at an art auction. It was something I hadn't experienced before. We're headed off for our last fancy dinner and then some bowling before getting all our luggage ready.

Flying home now. I will say that LA was nothing if not interesting - full of highs and lows. First the good. Probably the highlight was Chris getting her tattoo at LA Ink. We've both watched the show from day one and it was a bit of a surreal experience being there. While Kat wasn't there, several people from the show were and we got to chat with them. It was also cool watching Chris get inked as I've never watched that process before. I love her Jack-o-lantern and I'll humbly point out that I helped a bit with the design...

It was also neat seeing the Walk of Fame and other famous landmarks such as the Chinese theatre, Chateau Marmont, Beverly Hills sign etc. The couple of nights we spent hanging out in the pool were also enjoyable. Our last night was fun as well. We drove to Santa Monica and walked along the famous pier and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant there. It was a relaxing end to our trip.

As for the bad, I had a horrific time on Saturday. We just happened to arrive in LA while they were experiencing record temperatures (it reached 114 degrees the day we left). It was in this heat that we spent the majority of our time sweltering in at Universal Studios. Due to a screw up on their part we had to wait over an hour to even get in. This coupled with heat put me in a foul mood and while I tried to shake it off and enjoy myself I just couldn't.

Still, it wasn't a total loss. I really enjoyed the Jurassic Park ride and The Simpsons ride was a pleasant surprise. It was also interesting going on the studio tour where we saw things such as the Desperate Housewives set, the house from Psycho, and the plane crash scene from The War of the Worlds. It did however suck that we just got to drive past it - we couldn't get out and walk around.

By the end of the day I was burning up and when our ride didn't show up to take us back to the hotel I was about ready to lose it. My short temper, not feeling well, and my travel mates getting on my nerves all combined to make for a miserable experience that day.

Overall it was an enjoyable vacation. I'd definitely love to go back to San Francisco. As for LA, I'm not so sure. It was crowded, dirty, hot, and stressful. If we had a couple more days there it wouldn't have been so rushed and I would have got to see a number of things that I didn't get a chance to. Perhaps then it would have been better.

In any event that's it for this year. Now we have our Europe trip in April to start getting ready for...

We took well over a thousand pictures this trip. A small sampling can be found here.

Well September is here. That means we had summer right? Or did we? I think I missed it.

Let's face it, outside of a couple days where it was nice this summer has sucked pretty bad. Oh well, at least we still managed to do a number of fun things in the last couple of months.

This past weekend I got dragged out to Sylvan Lake to go camping. Shockingly the weather sucked and while I didn't think I was going to die like I did that one year in Kananaskis, I still froze my ass off. Still, despite the cold we managed to have a pretty good time. Chris & I, Kim & Hailey, and Chuck & Tracy plus the kids all hung out, roasted marshmallows, drank bevvies, and relaxed. At one point we also ran into town and got to meet Lisa's family at their 'cabin' which was pretty cool. Because the weather was crappy we didn't take many pictures, but here's one of George hanging out on the cooler :)

When I got home from work today I almost did cartwheels when I went to get the mail. Let me explain. There's been a piece of crap, red neon, parked in front of the mailbox for a few months now. Several people have left notes on the windshield politely asking them not to park there. Days later the notes would be gone but the car still there. So finally people starting doing things such as egging the car and leaving garbage on it. Obviously buddy just didn't give a shit.

I contacted the Calgary Parking Authority to see if I could get it towed for being an abandoned vehicle. But because it was registered to someone in the area they said they couldn't tow it. And because there weren't any no parking signs they couldn't do anything about it. Then one day I noticed that the plate on the car had expired back in May. Apparently you aren't allowed to have a vehicle without current registration parked on the street. So I called back, informed them of this new information, and when I came home today the car was gone!

I'm fairly sure that the guy who owns this vehicle is the same guy who's kid was racing up and down the street on a Quad a couple years ago after midnight. They were having a party and when I told the guy that if his kid didn't stop I was going to call the cops he yelled 'Fuck you!'. Well you know what buddy? Here's a hearty 'Fuck you' right back at ya! Enjoy paying to get your piece of shit car out of the impound lot - asshole!

Regarding the house we've signed all the paperwork to get the windows installed and the installation date is scheduled for around the 28th. In addition to replacing the front and back windows and doors they are also installing a new window in the garage. Once that's done our contractor will be able to start work on finishing the garage.

We've met a few times with our designer and each time the plan has become clearer. At our last meeting we picked out materials (flooring, tile etc.) that we liked. She's convinced me to go hardwood instead of carpet. I hate carpet generally so I like that aspect but because of everything I've read about hardwood in a basement I was a bit leery. However this stuff is engineered hardwood and apparently (which I've double checked) fine for below grade use. I also went and met with a company that specializes in Home Theater installations and got a quote from them. So things are finally starting to come together.

Stay warm!

Well we just got back from our trip to Tofino, on Vancouver Island.

When we first planned this trip the idea was to go and meet a bunch of the family who were camping there and spend the weekend. That plan soon turned into Chris, Kim, Hailey and I staying in a nearby cabin and spending an extra couple days there.

I have to say I was absolutely blown away by how beautiful that part of BC is and I found myself thoroughly enjoying my visit. So much so that I really didn't want to return home. We were even joking that maybe we could find jobs there and not bother coming back.

As always it was great seeing George & Lori and Carlie and her new boyfriend Rich. It sucks that we only get to see them once a year or so. They were camping along with Michael and Lisa and the puppy dog. Speaking of which, I've finally figured out the trick for me to enjoy camping - I just spend all day in someone else's campsite and then at night head back to a nice, cozy, cabin with fireplace, shower, and non-stinky bathroom.

We spent most of the time hanging out at the campsite and exploring the beaches. I was quite the beachcomber and loved seeing all the weird and bizarre things exposed by the retreating tide. I even found my own island and although I was initially tempted to swim out to it, I instead decided to walk to it during low tide and claim it (unfortunately I didn't have a flag to plant). We also got to see Carlie & Rich do some surfing which was something I've never seen in person before. Honestly I don't get what the big deal is. You spend hours floating in the water for that one wave, then when it comes you finally get up and then last all of 10 seconds before falling into the water again. Maybe it's something I need to try to appreciate it.

On our last night we headed into Tofino and had an enjoyable dinner at an outside patio which overlooked the harbor and we hung out there as the sun set making for an idyllic background. The next day we met up with Michael & Lisa again and hung out on the beach at Qualicum where they had a sand sculpture exhibit going on. We then went into Coombs to see their world famous attraction - goats on a roof. Basically a bunch of goats who lived on top of a roof. Cheesy? Yes. Fun? Also yes. Plus they had really yummy ice cream there.

From there we headed back to Comox and on the way stopped at Cathedral Grove which is an old growth forest with some trees older than 800 years. It was great walking around in the peaceful quiet while dwarfed by such massive trees. Our flight from the airport was delayed due to bad weather in Calgary (surprise) but eventually we got home around midnight and crashed being thoroughly exhausted but still having had an amazing time.

Pictures can be found here.

So I work all week and always look forward to the weekend so that I can sleep in instead of having to get up at 6:30am. So what happens today? I wake up at 6:30am! Sigh.

I'm not sure why, but I just haven't felt like updating the site lately. Maybe it's the relaxed days of summer taking over. Or maybe I'm just a lazy bastard. In any event I figured it was time I update everyone.

A few weeks ago we went to Chris' stepsister's wedding. Now normally I hate going to weddings, however they are a lot less stressful when they're not your own. That said we both had a great time. It was held at a farm outside of town which at first glance might seem like an odd choice, but once we got there we saw how beautiful it was - and the farm had sheep and llamas!!! Congratulations to Jaime & Dwight.

On Canada Day I had a momentary lapse in judgment and ended up smacking the car into the tool box in the garage. I was horrified to see that I put a couple of big dents in the front bumper. So I took it to the autobody shop and they replaced the front bumper and also repainted the hood to get rid of all the bloody rock chips I'd accumulated. Even worse than the sticker shock however was seeing Chris less than impressed at my stupidity.

Regarding the house, we've decided on which company we're going to go with to do the basement. We met with their president and we both really liked her. She was very thorough in explaining the process to us, we liked the fact that they'd also do smaller jobs and even stage the work if necessary. Plus out of all the companies we interviewed they were the only one to show us their insurance certificate (Mike Holmes would be proud). As a final bonus, Chris used to work with someone from that company.

We've told them that we want to get the garage finished. Spray foam insulation, drywall, paint, epoxy floor (maybe), installation of wall organizers, slat walls etc. The main reason for doing this is because I'm tired of the bonus room above the garage being cold every frickin winter therefore we're going to get it properly insulated. The other reason is that with all the cabinetry and things being organized we'll both be able to park inside. Something that Chris has been wanting for awhile.

From there we've indicated we want to meet with a designer and get floor plans drawn up and get a final costing to finish the basement. Depending on the cost we'll either go ahead this fall or wait until spring. The other thing that we're doing is getting all the windows in the front and back replaced. Partly so that if we hold off on the basement that we've still made some improvements and partly so things are cozier come winter (we'll be doing gas filled, triple paned windows).

After agonizing for months over how I want downstairs to be I think I've finally come up with the ideal floor plan. We don't have a lot of room and so realistically we couldn't have everything we wanted, something had to give. I've decided that something is the exercise room. It's been forever since I've used the weight set, and for 3/4ths of the year I go outside for walks. It's only during the coldest months that I use the elliptical and I can always go to Cardel during those months.

While it's a simplistic drawing, it is pretty close to scale...oh and the bathroom will also have a urinal :)

Holy humid Batman!

As I sit here feeling like I'm in a sauna I figured I'd better update the news, especially since it's been almost a month since my last post.

Today's word of the day is 'Travel'. In the span of a couple of weeks I will have travelled to Vancouver, Edmonton, and Fort McMurray. Not exactly the most exotic destinations, but it's always good to go on the road every now and then.

I spent last week in Vancouver on a course. The course itself was pretty good. I learned lots of stuff that I'll try and apply when I get back to work. It was fun learning while in arguably the most beautiful city in Canada. I went with a coworker and we enjoyed taking in the sites downtown and shooting the shit over drinks. While there I also met with my friend Kelly whom I hadn't seen since my 10 year high school reunion. It's funny because I always expect people I haven't seen in so long to be different. And yet after the first few minutes of awkwardness things soon go right back to the way things were - as if only a weekend had passed and not a decade.

One thing that I did while there was to walk the entire distance around Stanley Park. Including the distance to and from the hotel I probably walked around 15km. I've always wanted to say that I've done that, and one night after training I set off determined to do it. Of course half way into the trip I realized the enormity of how far I had to go, but where I was along the sea wall I had no choice but to keep going onward. I was extremely proud of my accomplishment even if I could hardly walk the next day.

In a happy coincidence of timing I also was able to meet up with Chris' dad George, sister Carlie, and her new boyfriend. Chris was jealous that I got to meet him before she did. He seems like a great guy and Carlie is obviously happy. We spent most of the night at a funky restaurant in Gastown before parting ways.

The day after I got home Chris and I hopped in the car and drove up to Edmonton to visit with friends and family. It was good to see my parents again as I hadn't seen them in quite awhile. While visiting Chris' Mom and stepdad we got to see the newest addition to the extended family - Riker - who is our step sister's baby. He was a cutie even if he was easily startled by loud noises.

Next week we're jetting up to Ft. McMurray to see Lindsay's graduation. I can't get over the fact that she'll be 18 in a few months. Typical teenager that she is, she didn't bother telling us she was going to the last minute and we had to scramble to try and get flights and a hotel. Hopefully while I'm watching the ceremony I won't be bawling like a baby, proud of her accomplishment and yet sad that my little girl is all grown up.

On the topic of the basement development, we're meeting with one more renovation company tomorrow and then we'll decide who to go with. We'll also crunch the numbers and determine if we're going to do it now and borrow the money or hold off until March when I'll have the cash in hand. I'm worried about whether or not we'll be able to practically freeze our spending until things are paid off and I'm also worried about the potential for scope creep. We won't have a lot of margin for unexpected costs.

Ah. Relaxation.

I've done pretty much nothing this long weekend and it's been great. I've never understood the desire of people to rush out every long weekend like a bunch of lemmings.

You do all the prep work for camping, head out on clogged highways, spend a bunch of time setting up a tent, endure rowdy campers next to you, likely put up with crappy weather, unpack everything, rush back on clogged highways, unpack everything - all for at most a few hours of relaxation. I've long come to realize that the best way to spend the long weekend is to just stay in town and enjoy the peace and quiet.

That said Chris and I did do a bunch of running around on Friday, which I had off. We went and saw the Ultimate Renovations Showhome. They are one of the companies we're looking at to get our basement done. What they've done is gone and bought an older home and completely renovated it from top to bottom, interior and exterior. It serves as their showcase for the quality of the work they do. We met the president and he showed us around the house and we were very impressed with what we saw. Everything was very high end and gorgeous.

At this point I'd say they're definitely the front runners.

The meeting with my heart specialist went well. All my blood tests came back good and the dosage I'm at isn't enough to cause toxicity. I've actually been self medicating for awhile now to a lower dosage and he agreed it was fine for me to keep taking that amount. He wants me to be on it for at least a few more months at which point he mentioned possibly switching to a different drug which wasn't as dangerous.

Probably the biggest consequence of all my issues is that I just can't drink anymore. If I have more than a couple of beers my heart will feel like it's going to pound out of my chest later that night and I'll feel like absolute crap for several days afterwards. And it really sucks. Anyone who knows me knows how much I like to have a good time and cut loose. But it appears those days are behind me. The worst part is that I tend to drink when I'm stressed out or depressed and not being able to do that anymore is itself stressful - making for something of a vicious circle.

Chris went and saw another shoulder specialist to check on her recovery. He said that she won't need surgery but was concerned that she's still having issues. He presented an alternate course of treatment but after discussing it decided that she'd continue with her Physio. She's definitely making great progress but she's still far from being back to normal. We've talked to our lawyer who's occasionally called to check up on her and the plan is to continue waiting a year from the date of the accident before proceeding with the litigation.

So that's the latest with us.

All this typing has been exhausting. I think it's time to go relax some more :)

Happy Birthday to me!

Yup, I've hit the big 3-9. I keep telling myself I'm not old until I hit 40, and then when that happens I'm sure I'll tell myself that I'm not old until I'm 50.

I had a terrific B-day this year. Chris & I took off for a weekend in Banff. We spent Friday there and then on Saturday Kim & Hailey came out to hang with us. We stayed at the Fox Hotel & Suites which is located not far from the downtown strip. It is a pretty neat hotel and we'll definitely stay there again. In addition to having nice rooms including loft suites, they have their own hot springs!

The hot springs are in a man made cave type environment (think Playboy grotto) which is open to the outside air above. We had hoped it would have snowed while we were there so we could sit in the water with the snow falling on top of us, but sadly the weather didn't cooperate. Because the hotel is close to everything I was able to park the car as soon as we got there and not have to drive anywhere until we left.

It was an expensive but fun weekend getaway.

On the basement front there's finally been some progress. The one company came out last week to meet with us, find out what we were wanting, and leave their portfolio with us. The guy seemed very knowledgeable and we got a good feeling from him. The other company is coming tomorrow night to meet with us and the third company contacted me and gave me the lowdown on how they operate. If we want to move forward with them they'll arrange for us to tour their design studio.

Health wise I have a meeting with my heart specialists on Friday for a follow up. They'll have the results from my latest blood test and hopefully there's been no damage to my various organs. I also want to find out how much longer they think I should be on my medication.

Here are some pictures of our fun filled weekend:

Ha! Told you so.

Just when thoughts of warm summer days, BBQ's etc. start to fill our heads, we get dumped on. Oh well, by all accounts we need the moisture. Plus it'll be nice to be able to have a fire outside once all the fire bans get lifted.

This morning I awoke to find a note from Chris saying that our flights to Europe have been booked! She's had to get up at 5am for the past few days to try and book our trip on Aeroplan points. So we'll end up flying direct from Calgary to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Barcelona. All in first class. For free :)

Next April will not come fast enough.

I've been pretty worn out the past few weekends. Chris and I are in full blown purge mode and we've been getting rid of lots of crap, er valued treasures, in a spring cleaning frenzy. Actually it's more than just spring cleaning. I'm planning on getting the basement developed soon and as part of that I've been getting a bunch of stuff out of there. Yesterday they had an electronics recycling round up at the local community center. So I gathered up a bunch of my old gear and dropped it off. Hopefully it gets recycled properly and doesn't end up in China getting stripped with acid by some poor kid - but either way it's out of my house.

The funny thing is when I was at the roundup I of course saw all the old computers that people were throwing out and instantly started thinking 'Oh, that's a perfectly good Mac they're disposing of, I should take it'. And then I had to remind myself why I was there in the first place. Sigh. On Tuesday they're coming around for donations as well, so we'll get a few more boxes of stuff out of here.

As for the basement, I've contacted three SAM Award winning developers. One hasn't gotten back to me, the other one keeps playing phone tag, and the third one was supposed to come here yesterday to do a quote - but never showed up. Last week I also had a furnace company come in to do a quote about relocating a bunch of duct work, but I haven't heard back from them either.

It's very frustrating. I want to give these people my money - you would think that one of them would maybe be professional and actually meet with me. At this rate it'd be faster for me to go to SAIT and get certified as an electrician, plumber, framer, interior designer etc. and do it myself.

I can't believe it's April already.

Today it's supposed to get up to almost 20 degrees. I just hate when this happens because it's really just a big tease. Everyone gets their hopes up that summer is here and then -wham!- mother nature dumps a tonne of snow on us.

Speaking of mother nature, it's with growing fascination and horror that I watch the chaos in Europe caused by the volcano explosion in Iceland. Almost all air travel in Europe has been shut down as a result. The scary thing is who knows how long this will go on for as it's an active volcano. Had this occurred at this time next year Chris and I would be stranded in Europe. Not the worst places to get stranded I suppose :)

We still haven't made up our mind whether to stay here or look for a new house, but I've decided I need to do SOMETHING with the basement before then. I've had one company come in for a quote to do framing, a subfloor, drywalling, insulation etc. for what would be the TV room, the furnace room, and the stair well. I've also had someone come in to do a quote on relocating a bunch of duct work.

So now the decision is do I go ahead and get essentially a quarter of the basement done with a number of things I'd still have to do afterwards - painting, carpeting etc. - or for a little more than double the cost just get a top tier company to come in and do the whole works. Next up is to arrange for some quotes for the whole basement.

If we do everything I'll have an area which will be a games room. Unfortunately there won't be space for the air hockey table which Chris loves, so I thought I'd placate her somewhat by getting a Foosball table instead. But she doesn't really want one. So that's given me the green light to get yet another arcade game. But considering past struggles with getting the stand up ones downstairs this one will be a cocktail cabinet (sit down).

If anything, the chance to have a finished games room is pushing me towards getting the entire basement done. Having my own arcade would be a slice of geek heaven.

Tonight is Chris and Hailey's half birthday? 2nd birthdays? Basically Chris' accident last year threw a damper on their celebrations. Chris wanted to go bowling last year but obviously couldn't because of her injuries. So later today that's what we're going to do. She still can't do ten pin as per doctor's orders, so some of us will be doing five pin instead. After that we're going to come back here and have a BBQ. And that leads me to my first point which is that it's supposed to be super nice out. Now that I've come full circle I'm outta here!

Yay! Spring is here!

The sun is shining, birds are chirping, life is good.

Or is it? I had a bit of a scare last weekend. Chris & I were watching TV when suddenly I felt really crappy and needed to go to bed. My heart had dropped out of rhythm. I know that was the case because I felt exactly how I used to and as my left ear still hadn't popped from the trip I could hear my pulse which wasn't right.

The next morning I still felt like shit, to the point where I didn't even dwell on the fact that I was better for less than 3 months as I was to busy trying to deal with just functioning. I ended up popping a bunch of my pills during the day and thankfully by evening was back to normal again. I went and got an EKG yesterday just to verify, and while I haven't heard back from the experts yet I took a look at the chart and it all looked good.

So it was a frightening reminder that my recovery is still very much tenuous.

The good news is that my stupid ear FINALLY popped earlier in the week after being messed up for a month or so. However it still occasionally closes up and I have to force it open again by pinching my nose and blowing. This is twice now that I've had this problem, the previous time was coming back from Vegas a few years ago. I think I might end up getting Earplanes which a number of people swear by. If I'm flying and I even have the slightest of sniffles I'll put them in.

We've barely been back from our last trip and we've already booked our next two cruises. Do you think we have the travel bug??? Our next one is in September and we go from Vancouver down to LA with stops in Astoria (Oregon) and San Francisco. We'll also spend a few days in LA before flying back. It's pretty neat to think we'll essentially have travelled from Alaska all the way to LA by ship.

The second cruise will be in April of next year and we'll be going to the Mediterranean. This will be a blowout, no expense spared, vacation to celebrate our 40th birthdays. We go from Barcelona to the Canary Islands, to Morocco, and back to Spain. From there we'll take the train and go to Zurich, Milan, and Rome. We're both really excited about this one.

In other news we got two new crabbies! Sadly one of them (Bluey?) didn't survive the molting process recently and we were down to just Brutus and Hidey. Crabs can get very lonely as they're used to being around large groups and we felt bad for them. So Chris went to Cross Iron Mills mall and got two more. Their names are Fan, which is short for Fantastic 4, and Flash. Fan got his name because his shell looks like the Fantastic 4 logo and Flash got his because after we put him in the terrarium quick as a flash he had changed shells.

I just love the little guys.

Well we're back from our cruise.

Our latest adventure was on board the Carnival Freedom and we visited Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Antigua, British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas.

Unfortunately the trip got off to a bad start as I was getting over a cold and descending into Toronto and Ft. Lauderdale almost made my head explode. I spent the majority of our vacation not being able to hear out of one ear and as I type this I'm still having issues. We also almost missed our connection in Toronto. Chris was concerned that we only had an hour after landing to get to onto the other plane so she called Air Canada the week before and they assured us we'd have plenty of time. Well they were wrong. In fact if it wasn't for good 'ol crappy Canadian weather which delayed the incoming flight we wouldn't have made it.

The fun didn't end there. Because our flight was delayed we almost didn't make it to our first excursion which was a tour of the harbor on a paddle boat. The hotel also screwed up our shuttle and had to order us a taxi while they called the tour company to see if they could hold off leaving until we got there. The cabbie even ran several red lights as he tried to get us there in time. Chris & I joked that it was like we were in The Amazing Race. Thankfully we go there in time and saw lots of expensive houses, million dollar yachts, and some wildlife while we unwound. Afterwards we went to the beach to hang out for a few hours. On the day we were to leave Chris had arranged to pick everyone up in a stretched Hummer. The look on Chuck's face when he saw his ride was priceless. It was also neat watching the people on the street point and take pictures of us as we drove by.

Getting on the ship was painless as Chris & I had priority boarding due to our staying in a suite. Once onboard we grabbed a table and proceeded to down some squishy drinks while we waited for everyone else to show up. As we left port everyone hung out in Alpha & Nancy's cabin which had a huge deck and drank a bottle of Cristal that Alpha had brought. Yup we were living it up pretty good :)

San Juan wasn't that great as we didn't show up until after dark and only had a few hours there. We did a typical bus tour and saw both the old part and new part of the city. But because of the lack of sunlight a lot of the pictures didn't turn out very well. We thought about hanging out at Senior Frogs, but decided to turn in early instead.

St. Thomas was gorgeous. Simply a tropical island paradise. The morning saw us at Magens beach where we swam, snorkeled, and walked around. I would have liked to have stayed longer but it started to get very hot (34 degrees) and very crowded as more and more people from the six cruise ships that were docked there that day started pouring in.

The next day saw us in Antigua which I also thoroughly enjoyed. We spent the day on a pirate ship which took us out into the ocean for some snorkeling (or beach time for those who didn't snorkel). At first I had issues as the choppy water kept cutting out the air in my tube but after awhile I got the hang of things and was able to swim over a shipwreck and see the fishes peeking out from the skeleton like ribs of the sunken boat. On the way back we drank rum punch and listened to music.

From there we went to Tortola. This time I decided to stay on the ship while everyone else went ashore to go on their various excursions. I was feeling pretty down at being sick and the unfairness of it all and just needed to be alone for a bit. So I spent the day walking on the jogging track, updating my journal, and just relaxing. Kim Nott & Hailey went and swam with the dolphins, while Chuck & Tracy were scuba diving, and Alpha, Nancy, & Jayne checked out some cool looking rock formations.

Our last stop was in Nassau in the Bahamas. Our scheduled tour guy never showed up, or at least we couldn't find him, so we took a tour from one of the locals instead. Our driver's name was Kevin and while at first I was thinking it was going to be another crappy bus tour he turned out to be a really great guy and we all had a blast seeing the sites. We checked out some of the richer areas, a few forts, stopped to grab beers and sample rum cake, went through the poor part of town, and we ended the day at the Atlantis resort. That night a bunch of us went to the fancy restaurant and gorged ourselves on lobster and filet mignon.

Overall this was probably our least favorite cruise. While Chris & I tried to make the best of it, our being sick (she came down with a cold) definitely put a damper on things. However we did see some amazing sites and it was awesome seeing many of our friends experience cruising for the first time.

Some pictures can be found here.

Wow. Almost a month since my last update.

Screw it, I'll just get it out right away…..my last EKG came back showing that my heart is in a normal rhythm once again! After almost two and half years of feeling like shit, being afraid to go to sleep for fear of not waking up, not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without almost passing out etc. etc. I'm finally back to some semblance of normalcy.

Now we haven't popped the champagne just yet. Part of me still doesn't believe it and I'm going for a follow up test tomorrow. Assuming it also comes back good then I'll finally be able to relax. I'll also have to meet with the specialist and figure out where we go from here. I do know that I'll still have to be on Amiodarone for at least another year. But I'm hoping I'll be able to cut back on the dosage.

Although things have never looked better, getting here during the past few weeks hasn't been easy. When I had my test at the beginning of the year I was feeling good and taking a page from Chris, I had a positive outlook and was sure I was better. Well when I found out that wasn't the case I started to get down on myself. I couldn't believe it because I was so sure that I was fixed.

When I had this last test I wasn't feeling overly great that day and after I was done I asked the technician to see my chart. What I noticed was that the first two readings were all over the place and not normal. At that point I felt utterly defeated and got extremely depressed. I honestly didn't think I was ever going to get better. I had essentially given up and was just going through the motions to function.

So why did they say I was better when to my eyes my chart didn't reflect that? Well I'll find out when I see the expert, but the only thing I can think of is that it takes a few seconds before the machine gets calibrated and returns accurate results. So I shouldn't have looked at the chart to begin with as it would have saved me a lot of grief. But it's ridiculous that it takes over two weeks to hear back. Waiting for that long without knowing is excruciating which is why I demanded to see the chart.

So ya, things are finally looking up.

Chris & I went up to Edmonton this weekend. Part of it was so I could tell my parents the good news, and part of it was so we both could see our families before we go away on our cruise. We really had a good time and other than the crappy roads there (seriously brutal) it was a perfect trip.

The next few weeks will hopefully fly by and then we'll be relaxing and enjoying my new lease on life in the sunny Caribbean!

Thursday morning around 3am I woke up violently shaking because I was so cold. From there I bee lined it to the bathroom where I starting throwing up.

Yup, I had food poisoning.

So I spent all of Thursday throwing up and then come Friday it started coming out the other end. I honestly can't remember the last time I was this sick. Of course you try and figure out what you ate that caused it, but based on the varying times quoted for how long it takes for symptoms to appear it could have been anything. Even now I'm still having 'gut issues'. Sigh.

What makes things even worse is this is the weekend I'm supposed to take another 'overdose' of pills. My heart specialist finally got back to me, and as I suspected I'm still not in normal rhythm. But he's pretty sure I'm right on the edge...so he wants to attempt one more try.

Earlier in the week Chris & I went and looked at some showhomes in a neighboring community. I honestly don't know why I do this. I'll get the urge to go look at these homes and then I always come away depressed when I find out the cost. And I get frustrated when here I am with a great wage and I couldn't even begin to conceive of paying a million dollars for one of these homes (which is what we were quoted) and yet you go through the neighborhood and people who drive taxis are living there. I just don't get it.

I keep alternating between wanting the dream home and fixing up our current home and using the money saved to continue vacationing or possibly buying property on the coast. Either way we've committed to spending the next 2 years paying off our debts and then we'll go from there. It's funny because as I get older time definitely seems to fly by faster, but in other aspects things can seem like an eternity.

I can't remember how many days away our cruise is (Chris would know) but I'm starting to get excited. It'll be good to get away from my current stresses and just relax. The end of February can't come soon enough. I've also just started toying around with the idea of us going on a second cruise this year as well. Chris and I will have to sit down and figure things out.

Now excuse me as I have to run to the bathroom.

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that 2010 is much better than 2009. Because honestly, 2009 was probably one of the worst years I've ever experienced. It can only get better from here on in right???

We went up to Edmonton to spend Christmas this year. During the morning of the 24th we went to my parents place where we visited, opened presents, and had a yummy dinner. Then Chris & I went with them to church. I haven't been to church in so long but I know how much it means to my parents so I figured what the heck. I hadn't been to that particular church since my high school graduation so it was interesting to go back there again. Thankfully I didn't burst into flames as I walked in.

That night we all went to Karen & Jim's place to celebrate Christmas eve. I had a lot of fun, although I don't think I'll be drinking any cheap wine for awhile. In the morning we opened presents and had yet another yummy meal for dinner.

I'm glad we flew instead of driving. Michael had to delay coming home at one point because the highway was closed due to a major accident. I think this might be the start of a tradition when we go up there.

New Years was pretty good this year. It started out with Michael, Jamie, Dennis, and myself going to the Oilers vs Flames game. Of course the Oilers lost but it was still fun to go to a game for a change. Afterwards we went back to Jamie's place where we rang in the new year. It was fairly tame this year and it sucked that Traci couldn't go due to Sophie being sick - but at least I didn't feel like crap the next day.

After trying the overdose of pills to get my heart into rhythm I was hoping to be able to say that the New Year has brought good news. Well I can't say that just yet. I was hoping to have had an EKG last week, but they hadn't faxed in the paperwork. So I'll be going for one tomorrow instead. Keep your fingers crossed.

Here's some pix of the festivities: