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so i am now married.

 

met my significant other from this site in fact.

 

joined this site just to track down a picture that a friend had of me.  little did i know that a snowboarding site would turn into a matchmaking site.  guess i shouldn't be too surprised as all it did was bring people together who had some similar interests.

 

anywho, kendrat and i *met* on here and began chatting.  we realized we had more than just snowboarding as a common interest.  our backgrounds were similar, many of our views were alike and our hobbies and pastimes were similar enough to allow great conversations.  after finally meeting in person at whistler, we hit it off and now, here we are.  just back from our honeymoon and lucky for me, 4 days worth of sitting in a car with me and a week sharing a condo hasn't changed how we feel about each other.

 

to those of you who have shared all the fun times with us over the last 5 years, thanks.  you are all awesome!  hopefully there will be many more memories made!

 

thought i'd include a few favourite photos from the wedding....

 

 my new sister known as westcoastfvckup on here and oddity. eryn decided to see if the water in lake ontario really was as dirty as she had heard.

 

  i'm pretty.  i have flowers to prove it.

 

my beautiful bride's dress... very kendra.... and somehow made her look even more beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's an old saying:  "Time flies when you are having fun".  Since I'm flying and having fun I'd like to know where the time is actually going.. Especially since I'm not seeing it fly by me when I'm in the air.. I know I know.. That's a bit corny on my part.. However it seems the older I get the faster time "flies".. As a kid I couldn't WAIT to get older and would constantly wish time would just hurry up.. I was having a lot of fun then too.. Now that I'm older I'm constantly wondering where the heck my time is going (since I never seem to have enough of it).. All that to say I wish time would slow up a bit now! 

 

Now that I've got that out of the way on to the flying part.. In 2 more weeks I'm officially going to have my heli license!  2 weeks!  That is if I pass the final test.. I better pass as HOLY SMOKES have I worked hard for this.. I thought flying a heli would be a whole lot easier than this.. However it has proved to be challenging in the most unusual of ways..  In fact hovering has proven to be the hardest.. You'd think not but let me tell you it is alot like standing on a beach ball balancing while patting your head and rubbing your stomach while reciting the alphabet, all at the same time... My brain goes you want me to do WHAT!?!?!  And for some reason every now and again while I'm practicing my left foot gets a twitch in it and presses just a wee bit harder on that pedal.. I think every now and again it has a blond moment.. Laughing.. The first time I got full control of the heli I thought I was going to pass out from one part fear,  one part adrenaline and one part pure pleasure.. All in all I am having the best time..

 

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring as much as I am enjoying mine.. And CONGRATS to Mike and Kendra on their wedding!  I'm so psyched for you guys!  May you have a long full happy marriage ahead of you! 

 

so  here it is, march 28, and in southern ontario it's still snowing. apparently this is unusual?!

 

for my first season here, it went pretty well, all things considered. of course i miss being out west on the real hills, but at least i'm not somewhere where i can't ride at all. we had some pretty wild storms this year, which helped appease me. the season managed to start at the end of november, which i have no real complaints with. and it's still going now, so hopefully i can get another day or two in before heading to whistler! it's also snowing today so i guess that's alright.

 

 

i've sampled a bit of what ontario has to offer by way of ski bumps, and managed to find something to keep me occupied at all of them, with the exception of chicopee. sorry to any who call that home, but ouch. i didn't make it to glen eden, mslm, or tremblant. leaves me something to do next year! this year i did get a hot new onesie, which is fanfreakintastic.

 

 

so here's where i went this year.... complete with pictures now since apparently i should always include pictures! in no particular order..

 

 

 

made full use of my 5x7 pass. it was nice to stand at the top and see water, reminded me of riding mt washington at home in that sense. i pretty much lucked out on the days i went, had one icy day the entire year, and that's not so bad. taught a couple friends to ride here, and it was still fun. broke my helmet overshooting a landing. glades weren't too bad, they had snow again the other day so i was happy. figured since i'm in ontario i should check out the park, but definitely wasn't ready for the big air/big rails of the real park, so it was nice to have a couple beginner options. not that i used them much, i was too busy hip checking trees!

 

 

 

 

for the first day of the season it wasn't all bad. pretty tiny, they only had one lift open and a couple runs, but it was enough to say "winter's finally here!". it was great to get a feel for my new setup, it felt fantastic from the moment i strapped in.

 

 

 

 

having a free place to stay in huntsville made this more exciting. easy to get bored here though, not a lot of challenge on the main runs. had a decent park for beginners though, so i got to pretend like i was a real ontario rider and hop on and off rails.

 

 

 

 

we went for $10 tuesday, thinking damn, can't beat that deal! and so it was insanely crowded (it was also march break). their idea of a black diamond is about half a second of steep incline followed by flat. the park was poorly designed and there was no park etiquette to speak of. in fact, no mountain etiquette at all.

 

 

 

if only it were a more impressive list... but i guess we make do with what we have! and being in dundas is actually pretty good, since we're right on the escarpment. when there was snow in town, it made it easy to find at least little hills to ride on.

 

the dundas valley conservation area was my favourite though.

after the disappointment of chicopee mike and i went to the conservation area, built our own mini booter not 5 minutes from our door, and spent the rest of the day practising hitting that. i finally figured out how to pop and grab, and it turned into one of the best days all season for me.

 

sure ontario doesn't hold a candle to out west, but i figure, for ontario, this season wasn't half bad. i can't wait to ride some real glades in whistler, hike a couple bowls, and ride some runs that last for more than thirty seconds. 

 

hoo-ray for telus!

so mike and i are officially in ontario. and how. we got to drive the whole way (well, mike drove while i took pictures and sang), only got lost four times (two of which i still maintain were not our fault!), never ran out of gas, and still made it to ontario in time for thanksgiving.

 

 

we started it all off with the def leppard and styx concert in vancouver. it was everything i'd built it up to be, complete with middle-aged groupies and lighters waving in time with music. both bands actually put on a surprisingly good show, and although there's nothing better than watching a band perform in the prime of their lives, watching them perform throughout middle age is one of a kind.

 

 

our next stop was whistler, where mo was kind enough to throw us a goodbye party. it was awesome to see everyone, and thanks to all who came out. wish we could have stayed longer, but as always, it was onwards and forwards the next day. we had a long drive through to calgary. went the wrong way on the reserve north of pemberton, and again in lilloet. but we were pretty good at correcting ourselves, and didn't go too far out of our way! in lilloet we stopped at the tourist info centre, which doubled as a hunting museum. it was a little eerie asking directions under the glassy-eyed stares of the counter girl and multiple elk, bighorn sheep, deer, and moose heads.

 

 

we got through the rockies while it was still light out, and the views made it all worthwhile. the highway we were on was in desperate need of repairs for the most part... in fact, just outside kamloops we actually got caught in construction! not that we really minded, i mean, toyota paseos are built for offroading right?? well, mike thought so anyways. it wasn't until we went over the railroad in alberta that my poor little car got its first taste of flight.

 

 

we finally chugged into calgary, having made surprisingly good time after all. something about men drivers and stuff... anyways, we had talked to kyle and he was willing to put us up for a couple nights in exchange for my questionable talents as a model and makeup artist. so, with misplaced faith in googlemaps, we turned left where we should have turned right (the map said slight left! so really, we were following directions perfectly!), and got lost in hidden valley. the thing with calgary is, every little section uses derivations of the same name to demarcate itself from the rest of the town. so we were faced with the choices of hidden valley road, hidden valley crescent, hidden valley heights, hidden valley close, and so on and so on. for how easily we found it, it damn sure wasn't hidden well enough! in the dark, we trundled back and forth until mike said "oh, i think this looks familiar... let's go this way..." and suddenly we were on the map again. whew! i think we were both quite relieved when we found the address we thought was right, and kyle answered the door, instead of some irate old lady in a housecoat. or worse, a happy old man asking if we liked popsicles.

 

 

the next day, kyle graciously showed us around calgary, and the weather cooperated (there were a lot of clouds in BC), so we had a fun day. we'd booked the photo shoot for 5, and after two hours of having my hair pulled out by the roots, i was able to slap on some makeup and get the real photos started! apparently my hairdo was worth $300 or so... it looked fantastic, but my only masochistic tendencies involve ink and needles, so i was rather happy that my $300 wasn't necessary, and i can put it to much better use! as for the shoot itself, you'll all just have to wait for the calendar to see the fruits of our labours!

 

 

the next morning we were off to drumheller, to look at dinosaurs. mike was making every dinosaur joke under the sun (and then some...), which i didn't find very amusing after the first five minutes, let alone the next three hours... but the museum made up for my frustration! i felt a lot better once we got inside, because bones don't talk, and they definitely don't make jokes about "ooh, dinosaur crossing! we have to be careful not to hit one, or they might go extinct again!" once we'd had all the dinosaur bones we could take, we went off to find our hotel. mike was pretty excited when he saw a hotel advertising "WATERSLIDES!!"

 

 

and so we stayed with the waterslides. mike had way too much fun with that... he would go up the stairs, and throw himself into the slide, emerging at the bottom giggling like a little schoolgirl, having almost cracked his skull open on the opposite side of the pool. i went once, but really didn't get the magicalness of it. oh well. we were joined in the pool by an older, rather large man, and seeing mike having such fun, he decided he just had to try it too. i was scared he was going to get stuck, but no, he made it through fine and plopped into the water, also giggling like a little schoolgirl. must be a guy thing.

 

 

the next morning we stopped off to visit the largest t-rex ever, which for a minimal fee, we could have climbed up to look out over the town of drumheller. we adopted the "lets not and say we did" philosophy, and took a couple pictures to satisfy our inner tourist, and hopped in the car, heading off to saskatoon.

 

 

we'd planned to stop in tramping lake along the way, where my grandmother was born. our directions (again, google maps), specifically told us to go left on highway 21. we found highway 31, and thought "oh, it will be soon!". miles of fields and a few dirt roads later, we found ourselves at highway 4. shi*t. we'd gone too far. but we hadn't seen a single sign indicating which dirt road was highway 21. so we doubled back a bit, trying to find a street sign, any street sign, which would tell us where the hell highway 21 was. or highway 656, that would've worked too. we knew we were supposed to be driving over a lake, and when we drove over a ... pond ... mike said "that might have been it!" he nearly had me convinced, when we passed over another, larger pond. "oh, i bet that was it" he said. after the third "lake" we crossed, i stopped listening to him.

 

 

we never did find it, and eventually admitted defeat, continuing on to saskatoon. i guess finding a community of 20 people is a little more difficult than it should be.

 

 

the next day was saskatoon to winnipeg. a lot of people will say the prairies are boring. i agree. sort of. growing up on an island in the pacific ocean, i definitely didn't have much exposure to rolling fields of grain, so i found it interesting. there was always something to look at, and a lot of ramshackle old barns and sheds, which i quite like. winnipeg turned out to be quite the treat, believe it or not.

 

 

we decided to stay at the holiday inn, since i was paying, or so mike says. when we checked in, we were offered a suite, a fancy room, or a kids room. being cheap, we went for the kids room, and man did we ever make the right choice! as soon as we got on the elevator, mike was already getting giddy, talking to the fish in their aquarium. as soon as the door opened, the first thing we saw was a pirate mural. mike started giggling. we stepped out and looked to our right, where there was a huge jungle gym with another pirate walking the plank. mike giggled some more. we walked down to our room, and there was a treasure chest on our door. mike ... well, you probably have a good idea by now what he was doing!

 

 

in essence, a kids room is a glorified playpen. inside our room there was a queen bed (supposedly for the parents), and a whole separate room for the kids, complete with bunkbeds and more pirate murals! the kids also had their own TV and PS2, which we did not use becuase we spent too much time in the 'play room' right outside our window. we played foosball, went swimming in the kiddie pool, and got attacked by a shark named jeffrey (his mother was quite content to let him chase us around the pool). as usual, onwards and forwards the next day, we pushed into the dreaded ontario, and saw one of our only sunsets on the trip (lots of clouds).

 

 

thunder bay to sault ste marie the next day, we really wanted a hotel with a pool, so we asked around, and since the best western (mike REALLY wanted to enjoy its waterslide, unfortunate for him) was playing host to three tour buses, we opted for the quiter option, which turned out to be not all that quiet in the end anyways. we did get to enjoy a thunderstorm that night though, which i found pretty exciting!

 

 

ontario was where we finally decided to get out of the car at real rest stops, not just pulling onto the shoulder for thirty seconds of waving cameras around. i figured since i'm going to have to live here, i might as well make it worth my while!

 

 

the thunderstorm followed us all the way home the next day, and i was a bit scared that the power would go out right at the end of the canucks game, but it managed to hold together and i got to watch the canucks win in overtime, so at least my first night as a resident of dundas was exciting!!!

 

 

and now i realise i've written way too much, as usual. oh well, i guess that happens! mike and i have been settling in (or back in, in his case). it's been a whirlwind, but i think things are finally starting to settle down. our internet is finally up, which means i can actually start applying for jobs. yay! hope everyone is well and you guys didn't miss us too much!

 

so screw january first, it seems like september's the time of new beginnings. and a new beginning it is for me; mike's finally convinced me that ontario will be a-ok, and so we're leaving my dingy little one-bedroom for his two-bedroom-one-and-a-half-baths condo. i know, i know, the usual migration for boarders is east to west, not west to east, but can't a girl follow her heart as well as the snow sometimes?

 

what on earth am i going to do in ontario, you may ask... well... um... yeah. here are my options:

 

a) collect cans from people's bins at 4AM on recycling day and return for refund

b) shovel snow for little old ladies

c) be a snowboard instructor

d) be an artist

e) stay at home mom

f) collect EI and sit on my duff

g) make home movies

 

and after a lot of thought, i came up with reasons why i couldn't do any of them...

 

a) because people in ontario are terrible at recycling

b) snow? what snow? it's all ice dammit, and i don't own an ice pick

c) see above, minus ice pick

d) i have no artistic talent whatsoever... whoops

e) not pregnant, too broke to be preggers

f) i quit, so therefore no EI cheques

g) no camcorder, no one would want to see a time lapse of how fast my hair grows anyways.

 

 

 

in all seriousness, though, i'll probably end up looking for work in my same field, care. i'm contemplating going back to school, too. the horrors of last go round of university has worn off some, so i feel like maybe i could handle more school, this time for a masters of psychology. masters degree = more job opportunities = more money in the long run. but, masters degree also = staying in ontario for at least two years. decisions, decisions. i have until december at least to decide if i want to make the enrollment deadline or not.

 

as for right now, i'm bloody sick of packing. we've used up every single empty box we own, and even a few we don't own (they showed up in front of our door this morning magically), and now we're on to garbage bags. what can i say, we're classy movers. tomorrow's the big move day, luckily my parents have lots of storage at their place (once i reclaim my room anyways), so we can store it all there for when we can finally move back. it's amazing how much stuff gets accumulated after a year and a half... and how much i'm not allowed to give away!

 

so, in other news, mike and i both quit our jobs at the end of august, with the intention of taking some time to actually enjoy ourselves before we leave. and it's worked out pretty well i might say! we went sailing for 5 days, which was awesome. visited a few of the gulf islands, and even though the weather didn't cooperate at first, it turned lovely and we had some great sailing weather (we actually got the sail up this year!).

 

we rested for a few nights, then went off to tofino (green point campground) for two nights and three days of the best weather tofino has likely ever seen. we really lucked out, it was gorgeous. lots of sun and sand, with another day we might have had time to rent surf gear, but we had to be home to pack and move. in the near future we have a three day trip to ontario planned, for mike's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, then another camping trip to strathcona park, and then it's the big drive to ontario. really looking forwards to the drive, should be great.

 

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNND... so here i was, making all these plans for the drive, working on the 27th being the day to leave, heading up to whistler for a night, blahdy blah blah... and then i find out that my sister's bought me a ticket for def leppard on the 27th in vancouver as a birthday gift! and mike's got us a hotel room 400m from GM place or something, and styx is opening for them, and yadda yadda yadda! definitely going to be an awesome birthday celebration, that's for sure! and so totally worth pushing back the departure by a day! i'm so impressed the two of them kept it quiet for so long (eryn bought the tickets months ago)!! super super stoked, i can't wait (THANKS GUYS!)!

 

so all in all, a super exciting month i'm having, it can only get better from here!

so as most of you have noticed... the site was/is having some difficulties.  whether its log-in boxes popping up all the time, the site being 'down for maintenance' or just odd little glitches popping up, it has definitely been annoying.

 

no matter what happens from now on, i'll be ok with it.  this site has provided me a place to go and just get away from everyday problems and boredom and to meet many cool people at the same time.  many of you i have actually met... some i have yet had the chance.  hopefully, if something does happen to the site that is more long term, i won't lose contact with all those people on here that i consider my friends.

 

over three years i have been a member of this site and an active member of its forums.  from my start, i was told i "wouldn't last long" and basically told i wasn't one of the 'cool' ones on there... fine... i wasn't too worried.  after all... its just the internet.  but then i started posting more, getting to know peoples' on-line personalities and they started to get to know mine.  i know that on-line, i am really no different than i am in real life, so in the back of my mind, i thought maybe some of these people that i got along with so well on here would be people i could befriend if i was given the chance to meet them.  that first chance came in montreal over two years ago... i was able to convince a couple of my "real" friends to join me and we went on a road trip and met up with dammitj, jc_the _mad_hatter, mr.king, glorytory, seb (forget his old handle on here) and a couple randoms.  we all got along great and it made me realize i would be happy to call some of these "on-line" friends, my "real" friends.

 

 

from then on, i became a very active member in the forums becoming the forum clown i guess... constantly joking and never really taking it seriously. (as i had said.. much like i am in real life).  i got another chance to meet a bunch of members on a trip to tremblant in april 2005.  there, i was able to meet and befriend more members who would become my sb.com ' family' as well as some great friends whom i hope i am able to stay in contact with for years to come.  meeting the infamous joe made that trip one to remember.  it made me realize that even though the person you talk to on the internet isn't there in front of you, or even within 4000kms, with world travel the way it is, you can still befriend them and know that it is nowhere near impossible to get together every once in a while.

 

 

for the next year or so, i went on multiple little meets with the east coasters from both canada and the US... cazza, zee_in_the_snow, dammitj, jc, o-henry, revived_suicide, funks_hybrid, rawstylus909, chrisjur, shreddinchef, soccerdiva, casualty, theoak, cdnmade and i'm sure more that i am forgetting. (later on, addictiveescape and jr. barns were to be added to our east family as well as a few that i have still yet to meet such as atomicsnowqueen, sixteen12 and others).  also, i was able to visit more members accross the country when i was travelling to alberta with a friend.  though most of those i have minimal contact with now, there are a couple that i talk to often and hope to see again soon such as kyleweevers...

 

 

 

 

this brings us to THE big meet... sure, i had been to meets before with almost 20 people... but this one was something special.  members from the east coast of canada, the states, the west of both countries, england, switzerand and more were all coming to whistler bc for the telus ski and snowboard festival.  i was lucky enough to share a condo  for different amounts of time) with moselle, robvalentine, board_stupid, rawstylus, cazza, dammitj, kendrat and our numorous visitors.  it was during this trip, getting to ride and party with all these great people that i realized how great that some of these people were... sure, they were all great, but some.. i was starting to feel like i had a connection.  something more than just an internet friendship... in fact, more than just any type of friendship.  after that trip, i kept in constant contact with most, but one member in particular... kendrat.

 

 

after chatting on sb.com, msn, and the phone for a couple months... both of us realized that there was something worth investigating between us.  we started to date long distance and visit each other in our respective provinces... after a while of this, we both realized we couldn't handle the distance.  after much discussion and to the dismay of my family and "real" friends in ontario, i made the decision to move accross the country and give our relationship a try.  we have now been living together for 8 months and things are great... we are planning another move soon and can't imagine being apart...

 

whatever happens to this site, it has provided me with more than just something to pass my long hours at work, or to keep me busy during long restless nights... it has improved my riding, it has allowed me to travel accross canada to meet over 75 new friends, it has given me people to party with, people to really talk to, insight on things from all over the world, fellow riders to share a lift with and allowed me to meet the woman that i love.

 

i'd say thats a lot to stem from one website community.  no matter what happens, thank you all for being here and i hope to catch up with you in the future!  if you read this whole thing... kudos!  hopefully it helped you remember any good things that you have gained from this site.  cheers!

 

 

so ever since third year university, when a proper east indian dude fixed me proper east indian chai, i have been in love. with chai lattes that is, not the dude. if i miss my breakfast chai latte, the day just isn't the same. it makes a delicious refreshing beverage on the hill, and it makes a tasty time-killing companion. up until now, i have been buying the tetley chai tea bags, chucking a bag in a mug of milk, and nuking the hell out of it.

 

WELL. all that changed. someone, who shall remain nameless and faceless, lured me down the path of Starbucks Lattes. like throwing money into a bottomless well, so have Starbucks chais sucked me in. so delicious, so soothing, so incredibly naughty. because, at almost $5 a cup (sorry, a grandiventiloolipapa, or whatever the hell they call them), i was buying into one of my least favourite chains. but, like any addiction, so hard to stop once you've started. and then, i discovered Starbucks ginger cookies. oh. my. god. so tasty! and nothing goes better than a Starbucks chai latte than a Starbucks ginger cookie. nothing.

 

so here i was, being sucked in to the vancouver lifestyle (minus the non-fat-soy-extra-foam-caffeine-free-sugar-free crap) head first, kicking and screaming all the way. ok, well, not really kicking and screaming, more like drooling and smiling, but you get the drift. anyways. i have found my salvation.

 

the other day, cruising through costco, mike and i stumbled upon 'tazo chai latte base', the very stuff Starbucks uses! at a fraction of the cost, we picked up three boxes, and now, five mugs later (at about 30 cents a mug), i am happy as a pig in mud! AND, i'm not watching my money prance away down a long, dark, hallway with a bright white light at the end of it.

 

now all i need to do is find a ginger cookie substitute...

 

in conclusion, screw you starbucks! i don't need you any more!

 

so my dog has been running away recently... my parents said that she would run away and not come home, even to eat, for hours and hours. she'd leave her breakfast, dinner, behind, which is so unlike her. but, she was still full of energy, communicative, loving. anyways, my mum took her to the vet today, and the vet thinks her liver may be failing. she's staying at the vet's overnight for observation and blood tests, but the vet's not giving a very positive outlook. my pup's 9. tomorrow we'll know what's wrong.

 

 

in the meantime, the canucks are playing again tonight, and if they don't step it up, they're out. i thought they were doing well after the second on tuesday, but then they just let it all go to hell. eh well.

 

and i finally put up my telus pictures in a gallery, check 'em out!

 

so i figure it's about time to take my boobs off the front page of my blog (sorry konk) and say a big all around thank you to the wonderful people who made telus this year so awesome. i had a kickass time, boarded every single day i was up there (and more than one run i may add!), met some great people, and re-met some old favourites. of course, there were some noticeable absences this year too, but we tried to fill the gaping void you left with too much alcohol and weed.

 

oh wait, we were planning on having too much alcohol and weed anyways, so..... yeah.

 

cheers all! i'll put pictures up as soon as i'm not feeling lazy.

 

don't hold your breath.

 

and by the by, coldMD actually does work!

telus last year was the first time i had ever

been to whistler... or bc for that matter.  i had a great time and made some great friends... (and maybe some who are a bit more than friends!)  basically, i had a great time...

 

 

 

this year, i was a little worried that it wouldn't live up to last year.  lucky for me, it was a great festival.  it was quite different than last

year but in no way worse.  got to meet some great new people, saw some members i hadn't had a chance to see for a long time, plus a couple friends from ontario were able to come out and visit and enjoy the ski and snowboard festival...

 

 

the riding was great... i was worried because last year, the conditions were great... i mean really... who expects powder days in april?.. surely not an ontario kid... now that i've had them two years in a row, i'd have to say its almost common! 

yeah.. nice powder...

 

this year, there wasn't the same parties... wasn't the same night sccene with the photo comps, all the different bar nights and such, but we all managed to have a great time pretty much every night anyway... at the begininning, it was obvious that i hadn't been drinking much lately... had a rough next morning (when i didn't make it up the mountain without having to stop and uneat my breakfast at the mid-point of the gondola ride)... but by the end, i was quite capable of holding my own amongst some of the drinkers... still don't want to come near a jagar bomb in the near future though...

 

 

 

this year a few people weren't able to make it (rawstylus, board-stupid, robvalentine, lakia, coco, poser, barry, etc...) but a few new ones were able to make an appearance.  it was great to finally get to meet a few of the regulars who i had been eagerly awaiting meeting. (cusano, meggo, reachben, mowgli, matti_non_swede, cp_safety,  pink_daizy, et all...)

 

 

 

 

so to all who were there, thanks for the memories, or loss thereof.. and to those not there... what the hell are you waiting for?

 

 

 

cheers to everyone that was there!!!!  and alright fine... even to those who weren't...  already looking forward to next year.

 

 

Edit:  as a note to some (tom!) two of those pics were from last year... showing a couple things that were different... 1) kendra and i just friends, and 2) going to the photo comp with mo and kendra... there ya go!

so my boobs grew again. i thought they were supposed to stop after puberty?? hell no, apparently. as if bra shopping wasn't difficult enough as it was, finding the one 34D left at the store was like finding a million dollar bill lying on the ground. and stupid me managed to rip my favourite bra, meaning it needed replacing. so off i go, with my trusty sidekick, and lo and behold, none of the bras fit. they all give me quadruple boob action, which, i'm sure, is super sexy and all, but i would always feel like i needed to grow another pair of nipples to match. actually, then i'd have an excuse to get some more piercings, so it wouldn't be all bad... but i digress. turns out the mammoths have grown AGAIN (which actually explained the occasional extra boobs in my old favourites). bah humbug. godzilla tits strike again.

 

 

and yes, i wish they breathed fire. at least then they'd do useful stuff like roast marshmallows and stuff.

yesterday a good friend (and coworker) of mine was brutally attacked. her fiance tried to kill her with the closest object to hand: a samurai sword. thank god it was dull, otherwise we would be without one of the best people i know. i still can't get my brain around it; it's completely out of left field, or whatever the saying is. totally unexpected, he always came across as a nice guy. and i know she wouldn't have stuck around if he was routinely a shi*t, she's such a strong person and would never put up with it. i can't even imagine what she must be going through right now... 

 

i barely ever hear of stuff like this happening in victoria, let alone to someone i respect and care about... it sucks.

I'd like to thank everyone for the awsome birthday wishes AND presents that I got. I would specifically like to thank Shayboarder for the core membership, and Tooscoops and Kendrat for that kick ass box of goodies they sent me. It was an awsome to be had, with lots of funny actions to be said in chat while having some drinks. Thanks again everyone!

and man was it amazing. i had such an awesome time, met so many great people and relaxed my ass off. ate delicious food (and some not so delicious food... damn misleading buffets!) every day, enjoyed the sunshine and the BEACH. oh man, the beach.

 

 

miles and miles of sand and sun and more sand. and pretty much deserted, as we were at the only resort within the area. there were coral reefs just offshore, and so we spent lots of time snorkelling around them. saw some interesting corals and fish, and we even met a spear fisherman trailing a long line of fish, strung through their gills. every morning after breakfast we'd walk along the beaches... through the mangroves, and wading through the shallows, swimming whenever we felt like it. there was always a game of beach volleyball going on that we could join in, then at noon it was time to learn the merengue on the beach.

 

 

after merengue lessons it was aerobics time, when we got to watch muscly men in spandex shorts run on the spot and hump thin air while we ran on the spot and humped thin air right along with them. (this was before we discovered stretching class with eryn's favourite perv-recipient)

 

 

after lunch, it was nap (siesta) time. i don't know who the brilliant person was who invented siesta time, but i owe him/her a HUGE thank you. with the siesta i was able to play volleyball and swim all afternoon, and last all night on the dance floor.

 

about five times a day, we'd hear the resort theme song, and be coerced into dancing the choreography to the song. the entertainment staff (some of the cutest girls and boys i've ever seen) was great at convincing everyone we really wanted to dance, and not only dance, but sing along with the song. by the end both eryn and i had the choreography down pat, even if we did miss a few of the thrusts due to bad timing. what can i say, uncoordination runs in the family.

 

 

speaking of the entertainment staff, they are the ones who kept us going, and who made our stay so amusing. eryn and i would walk around the pool, and as soon as one of them saw us, they'd shout "SEESTERS!" and we'd be talked into a round of bocce ball, sandal flipping, volleyball, ping pong... you name it, we did it. and at night, the whole family would be out, and we'd get called up as "seesters and mami and papi!". made it like one big family. and i am proud to say we met an italian man named fabio! what a fantastic name! we'd never met a fabio before... fabio. he was a good dancer too. and almost as crazy as eryn and i. and without further ado, may i introduce the one and only, FABIO!

 

 

for the first three days of our stay it was sunny and warm and beautiful. for the fourth day it was rainy and warm and beautiful. day number five was mixed sun and cloud and warm and beautiful. days six and seven were more of the same. are we seeing a pattern here!? warm and beautiful!!!! it was great. even on the cloudy days we could wear bikinis around, which i'm sure the old men at the resort appreciated.

 

one of our days we spent on a "jeep safari". we took an open bus through the backroads of the dominican, into the interior. we saw a lot of the dominican people, their houses, their ways of life, their children. most of the people travel by motorbike/dirtbike. quite a few by donkey/horse, and more by SUV/4WD. makes sense, since the roads are pretty crappy. we did a lot of bouncing around in the jeep, and seatbelts were useful and mandatory. we stopped at a rubber production ... house. there was rubber hanging everywhere to dry, and a press to thin it out. the children gave us flowers and wanted to be in every picture we took. i had one young boy so intrigued by my camera that he spent ten minutes watching the display screen and comparing it to what was really in front of him. and whenever i went to take a picture of something, he ran to be in the shot. after that, we travelled through the jungle some more, through streams and over hills, to a farm. there we sampled the local produce, and my god was it delicious. fresh fruits, cocoa beans, coffee, coconut... i'd never had fresh fresh coconut before, and man was it tasty. i could've eaten that and nothing else for the rest of the trip, but then i'd have been pooping constantly, because fresh coconut is probably the best laxative out there. i mean.... girls don't poop. right. anyways. we had hot chocolate made directly from cocoa beans, i dont know what they put in it, but i felt like i was in heaven. then it was bananas covered in grated cocoa and honey made from coffee flowers. damn, i'm drooling just writing about this. ok, time to move on... let's just say, dominican food rocks!

 

after another drive, we stopped at a ranch for lunch, where we witnessed a cockfight. now, the roosters just pecked at each other, and the ranchers didn't let them kill each other, but it's a national sport so to expose us tourists to the culture, it was deemed necessary. i thought it was interesting, my dad was disgusted. there ya go. our tour guide warned us not to eat too much at lunch, because we were off to the beach next for a walk and a swim. it was an awesome beach, full of volcanic rocks and even more sand. plus the surf was up high, so it made for some fun wading around as we had to wait for the wave to recede before we could get around the rocks! after the beach it was on to the waterfall, where most of us enjoyed a short walk (i heard one of the older ladies complaining - she was rather large) to the river. we all cooled off in the water under the fall, and a local boy jumped into the pool from 40 feet up a tree. finally it was time to return to the resort, after a long day. it was an eye opener to be sure, seeing more of the less well-off areas of the island. the one thing that stuck out for me was how happy everyone was. not just the children, but the adults smiled and waved as the bus went past. there didn't seem to be any resentment towards foreigners, and i thought that was pretty special.

 

on the day we walked to the closest town, las terrenas, it poured rain on us. during the downpour, a taxi stopped in front of us, offering us a lift. as we only had enough for the taxi ride home, we declined, but he insisted he was going to las terrenas anyways, and he would take us there for free. i thought that was pretty cool of him, he wanted to chat and practise his english. eryn and i met another man like that on our very first day. he was sitting on the beach above the high tide mark, and he beckoned us over. initially i thought he was a beach vendor, but he just wanted to "talk english" with us.

 

at the resort, the entire staff was also very friendly and helpful. i know the entertainment crew were paid to be so, but it wasn't just them, and everyone seemed genuine in their happiness to be with the guests. every night at dance time, the staff would walk through the seated guests, picking them at random to dance with. it encouraged everyone to get up and dance and practise their newly learned merengue moves. eryn even graciously accepted me as her steady dance partner! we had fun with it, and other guests told us how much they'd enjoyed watching the two of us dance together. whether that was just the fact that they liked seeing two girls dancing together or whether we actually pulled off dancing as a couple, i don't know. either way, it was fun, and i'd go back any day! i just wish it wasn't an 8 hour plane ride to get there.

 

 

PS to anyone thinking of going there: sunscreen and lip balm are your friends. your bestest of best friends!

Three buxom blondes and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White descended on Vail Mountain this week. Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends, Holly, Bridget and Kendra, took a break from the Playboy Mansion to learn how to snowboard for an episode of their show — the E! channel’s “The Girls Next Door.”

White, fresh from a silver medal win at the X Games, said he was happy to give the girls a few pointers.

“I thought they’d show up in fur coats and fur boots,” White joked after a quick lunch at Wildwood Restaurant at the top of Chair 3.

It was the first time on a board for Holly Madison, 27, and Bridget Marquardt, 33, who were taught by Vail Mountain instructors Chris Sandoski and Dave Wilson. Kendra Wilkinson, 21, got a little more face time with White and instructor Tim Stuart, even practicing rail slides at the Lionshead terrain park.

Wilkinson fell the first few times she tried “the box,” White said.

“She’s tough though, dude. She got right back up and nailed it.”

 

Whistler, BC, February 7, 2007:  Showcase Snowboards and Sapient are pleased to announce that registration for the 10^th Annual Showcase Showdown is now open. Sapient Team Manager Aaron MacDonald has confirmed team riders Tim Orr, Craig Beaulieu, Kendra Scurfield and Laurent Gougain. We can look forward to the return of some of last years favourite competitors Dennis Bannock and Chris Wimbles. Also stepping up from Bakoda are Travis Williams, Molly Milligan, Nick Larson and Shayne Pospisil.

The Showcase Showdown, now in its 10^th season, takes place at Whistler Blackcomb’s Night Pipe February 23-24, and guarantees to be this years most innovative, entertaining and unique rider driven snowboard event of the season!

For more information, and to register, competitors can go to Whistler Blackcomb Guest Relations in person or call 1-866-218-9690.

 

so is there some sort of law that says the beginning of a new year has to be insanely busy? i feel like i've been on the go constantly... sure could do with some time off. but wait, what's that? i'm getting some? you don't say! my wonderful parents have splurged on a family trip to the dominican, so i'll be sitting on a beach doing absolutely nothing for an entire week. it's gonna be rad.

 

my job's kept me busy, as usual. the schizophrenic lady threw a birthday party for my aunt, but as my aunt's still in hawaii the only guests to the birthday party were me and mike. she still loved it, we ate birthday cake and cheesies and watched charlie and the chocolate factory. she liked the oompa loompa songs so much she got up and danced along. i took my other resident out to breakfast and bowling, and i lost spectacularly, i think my high score was 71. we won't talk about my low score.

 

in the other house, things are rocky. the old dude's on a med change and he has ringworm, so he's been testy and screaming lately. the young guy's becoming more and more unmanageable, throwing his bed around his room (yes, his bed. not his bedDING, his bed.), trying to eat through the glass on his window, pulling his penis out in the middle of walmart, trying to push TV units out the window... and from that he goes to laughing and happy in the space of about 5 minutes. and ten minutes later he's the resident from hell again. all because his parents refuse to allow ANY meds whatsoever, except for those which control his seizures. i'm not big on meds myself, but he can't function without them. period. his quality of life could be improved amazingly just by giving him a low level mood stablilzer. we've had to remove everything from his room except for his bed (we've taken the wheels and headboard off) and an armoire that's bolted to the wall so he can't pull it down on top of himself. it sucks. i can't imagine what he has to go through every day, with such extreme mood swings and a bare room. the good news is, the society's making inroads for him. they've set up a committe to meet with everyone involved (parents, caregivers, representatives from different societies) to address all these issues. i'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that something they can work something out for him.

 

since i kicked the cold that kept me sick for half of january, i've finally got together with amanda again... her new favourite activity has become "beating up mike". i find it amusing to watch a nine year old girl whacking my man with a pillow. call me sadistic, but i laugh my ass off. she's doing awesome in school, i'm so proud of her. she showed me some poems she'd written for her english class, and i know 20 year olds who write worse than her! so yeah, definitely a smart little kid. she's always asking me to explain stuff for her, last time it was how time differences work across the country.

 

speaking of kids, i've also interviewed for a part-time, hopefully weekday job working with a 5 year old boy who has autism and down's syndrome. it's a behaviour therapy program (ABA for any psych kids out there) and it's what i originally wanted to get into, back when i was starting to apply for psych-related jobs. the little guy is adorable, so sweet and he seems to really enjoy the therapy. i got to witness one of the sessions, and they invited me to run a few trials myself. it was great. i'd love for it to work out... hate waiting for the call!

 

january and february have been damn busy... still managed to get mike up to see the home mountain, aside from poopy snow it was awesome. stayed in a little hostel for a couple nights, boarded the days away... well, until he broke his baseplates that is! can't wait to get back up there, but if it keeps raining i'll be mad. really mad. i'm holding out for friday... snow snow snow!