MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

... Happy Hanukka, and a happy new year as well, of course!

Well, I hope everyone has been having a great, relaxing, safe, and joyful holiday so far! Christmas day this year was great. It started (for some...I slept in until nine) at around eight a.m. as people opened stockings, and it continued on until 10 pm.

There were lots of people around for the day--in our house for Christmas morning was me, Kate, my sister, her boyfriend Matt, Jamie's wife Dina ( Jamie had to work the day shift at the firehall), Mum and dad, and Mum's brother david, visiting from Ontario! at around 11 a.m., grandma, grandad, uncle rick, aunty bev, uncle pat, cousin dawn and husband Todd and their two boys all came over for brunchas well. we all (plus a few more) had dinner at my aunty Bev's place, by which time Jamie's shift was over, and afterwards the immediate family went back to my parents house to finish opening pressies now that Jamie was on scene.

Whew!

Kate and I have just had a 'second Christmas morning' with Kate's Mum and Marion as well here at our own house ( that's our tree in the picturwe! awww! ain't it pretty?), so there has been no shortage of gift giving / receiving in the last few days!

But now that Christmas is over, it's time to go full boar on wedding mode, the big event now just three days away!! The masses will be flying into Vancouver for the next few days--since the Pineapple Express has been blowing in from the Pacific Ocean for the last while, we certainly don't have to worry about snow holding people up, thank goodness. Sometimes 12 degrees and raining in December can be a good thing!

Okay, that's enough for now! By the next time I do a blog update, it'll be the New year, and I'll be a married man!!!! Looking forward to seeing those of you that are coming to the wedding, and as for the rest, hope to see you in the new year.

Here's to you and yours over the remaining holday season! Hopefully no one has to work too much, and you have time for a few cups of cheer!

In Memoriam: The Gipper 2002-2005

Today, I remember an old friend (to be read in slow, eulogizing style).

His name is The Gipper, my 1989 B2200 series Mazda pickup truck. My first car, bought when I was 22 years young.

Though made back in '89, he came to me in 2002. He needed a home, and I needed a vehicle for my move to Edmonton.

And so, with an exchange of $2,000, it was less a transaction than the start of a relationship. A love-hate relationship, that is.

If I had unlimited funds, I admit, I'd love to get you running again, but I don't have the resources, or the lack of sense to pump any more cash into that lemon. But seriously, I love ya, Gipper.

over the last few years, The Gipper has received a few costly transplants and upgrades. Most notably, a replaced transmission, the usual brake work and oil changes, a new bumper when some jackass rearended me. It cost a lot, but all is fogiven when I think of the good times on the open road, camping in the back of you, or the way the wind would roar through the cab when a kayak was tied to your roof.

I chose to ignore the shocks problem, and I basically learned to drive a standard with you, so the clutch had to be replaced somewhere in the course of our relationship. But our love can never be replaced.
You'd take half an hour to warm up properly, the Chernobyl-sized curl of black smoke finally reducing to a mere Three-Mile Island cloud of grey. But radiate in my heart you always will.

remember the time someone broke into you while parked outside the house on a cool spring night in Edmonton? Your locks were never the same, and the thief got 65 cents in loose change and a pack of gum--they could never take your soul though.
Never.

Oil still to this day leaks into the fuel line, and the battery is so weak from my monthly habit of leaving the headlights on (thanks to all of you over the years that helped me jump start the truck) that now, a jump start is the only way to get you going.
Yes,you had your foibles, as do we all. You were always good on gas though. >sniff<

But now, it's time to part ways. You've got a future ahead of you as a Kidney car, Gipper, and you're gonna do good things. The money the BC kidney foundation will get for your resale will go towards their programs. And, if they can't sell you (c'mon, who wouldn't want you), they'll strip you down and sell your parts--memories and
all--and you'll probably bring in even more money for the BC kidney Foundation than if you get sold as a whole vehicle.

And me, I'll be left with a $60 dollar tax receipt and the remembrance of our time together. The rubber ducky with the sunglasses has been taken off the rear view mirror, the dancing hula girl has been pried off her sticky pedestal on the dash, and the CD car kit ejected from your old school radio / tape player one last time.

You were a piece of shit, Gipper.
But you were my piece of shit, and I loved ya.
When the Kidney foundation tows you away this coming Tuesday morning, I know what I'll be thinking.

They say that you never forget your first one.
You haven't even left the car port yet, but you know what?

I already know that they're right.

well the weather outside is frightful....

... and the fire is not so delightful, thanks to our leaking chimney. We're geting it repaired soon...


Aaaanywho...this here is a view out the backyard from this morning; We awoke to a blanket of heavy snow which has since turned into slush. Once the sun came up, the falling snow turned to rain and..well, you get the picture... the front of the house looks much the same, except that we put up our Xmas lights a few days early (it was sunny and warmer on saturday), so it looks brighter out front!... okay, on to more pleasant things...

SO! I got to go to the Grey Cup on Sunday, and lemmee tell ya.. GOOD TIMES! the last Grey cup I went to was in Edmonton with Deb, and we were not treated to a great show then. Not only did the Eskies lose that one to Montréal, but the crushing crowd was so immovable that we missed all the pre-game fun leading up to the game, simply because people couldn't figure out how to move through the Commmonwealth stadium concourse.

This time, however, it was all good. Same teams playing, oddly enough, but with much different results. Edmonton took the championship by a field goal in the second overtime, and I saw it all from the 19th row on the goal line. SO MUCH FUN!! I went to the game on my own, having just gotten a free ticket the day before the game (thanks Marion!). Kate was at one of her three bridal showers that afternoon, and has little interest in Football anyway. So I had fun on my own. My only regret was not winning the $46,000 50/50 draw. yowza. I honestly didn't go in there expecting to cheer for Edmonton after they knocked out the Lions last weekend, but I licked my wounds and jumped on the Western division band wagon.

in other news, school is just two weeks away from being done for the semester, save one final exam on dec. 15th. It's a lot of papers and projects right now, but it's coming along. I should be able to put a few things to bed in the next few days... check that... HAVE to put a few things to bed. they're due this week...

Off to Kamloops this weekend coming up! Kate has her third of three bridal showers with my side of the family and friends, and I will go up to see the 'rents. Mum is fresh off report card-writing period, and has felt some releif as she always does, and dad's chemo treatments are going well, but as much as you hear it, it's always nice to see it for yourself.

okay, I s'pose that's about it... one month until the wedding--just waiting for people to respond to their invitiations now!(ahem)... plans are otherwise pretty much in order!

okay, musty get back to the homework... hope all are well out there! talk to you soon!

Mending broken wings a big success!

whoa... it's been like, a REALLY long time since I wrote on this. SO much has happend since my last post a month ago, most noteably, perhaps, our PR class event back on November 9th. Our fundraiser, 'Mending Broken Wings, one youth at a time' was a great big success, and we raised $9,000.00 for Covenant House Vancouver.

The evening was a lot of fun, though a lot of work for the whole class. We pulled it off though! And, as you can see from the photos, we all looked SO good in white ;) To those of you who could make it--thanks!! your donations really make a difference with this organization. And to those of you who couldn't... well, you missed a good night! I myself didn't get to partake in any of the eating--nor did any of my other classmates, really. we were too busy running around executing our tasks. I was the MC for the night, so I just had to make sure that I didn't fumble too much through my speeches, or swear into the mike or anything like that... My opener was a bit of 'ummm' and 'uuhhhh' But I recoverded after that!

Pictured here is Vancouver's outgoing Mayor Larry Campbell.
He was at the event to speak to the crowd, and to help us draw the grand prize for the evening, (a flight for two to Toronto or Las Vegas), and he otherwise generally just moved around the room bidding on all sorts of our silent auction items and being goofy.

Once the room cleared out for the night, we all had a chance to raise a glass ( we had some special martinis made for the night, and this was our chance to sample them...), relax for a few minutes... or strike a pose... and then it was time to tear down our setup and either go home and crash or go out for more drinking.

I was amongst those going home to crash. Not only was the week about the event, but in the Journalism half of my degree, I was busy with daily newspaper production which kept me and the rest of the j-schoolers plenty busy from monday to thursday.

so, with those two major things out of the way for the semester, it was time to focus on the rest of the assignments for the semester! ack! gotta go do that work! bye!

Japanese lantern with Fall colours.