So You've Finally Decided on Becoming Canadian Eh?

OK, for those regular readers, I know I have forgotten about the pictures from Christmas I said I was going to post. I will get to that ASAAAP, or As Soon As Assessments Are Past (we are in exam week at school and there is a lot of marking and report cards to get done; there is also a lot of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 to be played).

As the last vestiges of my Hippy-West-Coastisms are slowly rotted away by living in Ontario, centre of all things Canadian (just ask them), I'm reminded of the few things that my Vancouver up-bringing still encourages me to do: car-pool, recycle, buy Lululemon paraphernalia.... But the one thing that I can no longer do is claim that I don't really partake in any type of wintry sport. I understand that plenty of people in Vancouver love winter sports (duh, we are hosting the Winter Olympics), but I never really found the need for winter sports in Vancouver because you can basically do summer sports all year round there.

My curling league starts this weekend. I am a little nervous since I have basically only ever thrown about 25 rocks in actual games, bu the people who recruited me seem to think that I am not a total waste of time and are intent on winning this year. I hope not to fall too many times or break something important.

On another note, I would like to applaud all those people who have gotten married and spent countless hours on invitations and guest lists. Why can't we just invite everyone, and call them on the phone? Wouldn't that be a lot easier?

Speaking of easier, Donna has a string of 5 night shifts in a row coming up. Now if that doesn't sound like a good time I don't know what is. While she is doing that, I get to be sleeping. This is why some people are meant to be doctors and others aren't. Juts think about that the next time you go into the Emergency Department at your local hospital and start yelling at a Dr. because you dissatisfied with your level of care. Maybe they are dissatisfied with your level of patience/patients.

Stay Frosty.

Happy New Year!!!

As the first decade comes to close, it is important to remember all the things that have happened in the past 10 years. And the dozens of TV shows, magazine articles, and general web-crap will definitely ensure that we will remember all the stuff that happened. I saw 4 or 5 magazines that had tributes to certain members of the celebrity variety, and there have been so many top ten lists that my head wants to explode. So on that note, let's not add my top ten list. Sure there were lots of interesting things that happened (graduations, jobs, births, deaths, moves, mortgages, marriage proposals, wins and loses), but I have enough problems remembering what has happened in the last few weeks, never mind the last few years.

For the first time since moving the Kingston, I actually managed to get out of town, at Christmas, on an airplane, without any sort of delays or issues. I know I have jinxed myself for the foreseeable future just by saying that, but it is a pretty monumental achievement. Snow delays, mechanical delays, and personnel delays usually curtail my travelling plans and increase my December blood pressure exponentially. This year was awesome. Everything worked out, which is to say I got to Vancouver in one piece with my luggage, 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

The holidays were really nice. Vancouver was its usual mild-weather self this year, returning to normal after the freakishly terrible weather last year. I pretty much got to see and spend time with everyone I wanted to (Sonia, Iku and Jeremy... you have to wait till the summer), and thanks to my Mom and my future Mother-in-law, I was well fed and well looked after. It is amazing how fast things go by, and how much Vancouver has changed, especially with the Olympics just ahead.

I am still glad I won't be around for the Olympics. I am not sure whether or not Vancouver is really ready for them. I think it could be a debacle in the making, or everything will go off smoothly - I don't predict anything in-between. I saw the new Canada Line (rapid transit) and some of the the other infrastructure things being built, but I know its going to be a going show downtown. With no parking zones and no driving zones, commuting and travelling will be a nightmare anywhere near the downtown core. I hope SkyTrain is ready for the influx.

Boxing Day saw the annual Over-Under game played at Burnaby Lake, with the Overs finally winning after a because long hiatus from the victory ciricle. This coincided nicely with the fact that I played for the Overs for the first time, and as such, continued my undefeated streak. Several others also remained undefeated (Joe Lee, Ryan Neufeld, and Pat Riordan) and it did not hurt the overs to have 3 current or ex-Captains from team Canada playing (Mike James, Ryan Banks, as well as Pat Riordan). Some of the over 40's showed up as well, and despite the petty chirping from the Unders, it was a glorious day. Check out http://blrc.bc.ca for a full recap of the day, as well as lots of other cool stuff.

As aways, I got too much Christmas loot, and it was nice to have Donna around for the week. I hope next year is just as good. Except I hope the driving gets better. I forgot what the Metrotown parking lot is like during the winter holiday season. People need to get some patience, and they need to get some instruction on not only the correct driver courtesy, but traffic laws in general. I was lucky to escape with my life, and although Avatar was a pretty awesome movie (the reason I went to the mall in the first place), it wasn't worth almost losing my temper and attacking the driver in front of us.

Pictures to come soon.

Stay Frosty.

300 - Not Spartans, Cookies

Last weekend Donna and I decided that a little baking might be in order. I haven't had the chance to eat any of my Grandma's cookies lately, basically because she doesn't make them anymore and I am like 5000 km away. Anywho, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I was able to procure some of my Grandma's most tastiest recipes from my Mom within minutes, and make some delicious cookies.

It only took 4 hours, and we didn't actually make 300 cookies, but were able to make 6 batches of cookies, filling 4 cookie tins and various other storage receptacles. I took some to work, we ate a bunch, basically the Christmas eating has started early here in Kingston.

So far, the two kinds of chocolate-chip cookie recipes have been the biggest successes. My Mom's chocolate-chip slab cookies and my Grandma's chocolate-chunk cookies are both very tasty, so I can see why everyone likes them. Plus, how can you go wrong with a chocolate cookie variation? The filbert crescents were the next most popular and, although they taste like my grandma's, they didn't turn out like them at all. They were a lot flatter than my Grandma's (although mine were topped with whole hazelnuts and then I dipped the ends in chocolate).

We also made oatcakes and shortbread. The shortbread was good, but Donna did not like the candied fruit topping I suggested, then I forced her to put it on the cookies as decorations anyway. Apparently she is not a big fan of the candied fruit. I didn't really accept her position, especially since she decided that 4 hours of baking was too much and she decided to take a nap midway through the production.

The only cookies that didn't really turn out were Mom's candy cane cookies. She warned me they were difficult, and I am not sure what exactly happened, but mine ran all over the cookie sheet and I ended up with this big swirly mess of almond flavoured cookies. They tasted fine after I broke them up, but they never really worked out.

We also attended Donna's ER Christmas party last weekend. Lots of fun, good food (an actual full meal this time... turkey and roast pork) and then a ridiculous night of dancing and such at the Grizzly Grill. I had actually never been there before, but it was a good time had by all.

I am expecting a much more hectic weekend in a few days, as we are moving Donna's stuff back from Ottawa. It has been snowing here the past few days, so I am praying for a little bit of good luck. I'll keep you posted.

Stay Frosty

Wow... You really care.

So this is a bit of a shout-out to Nick. I have no idea who Nick is. I am pretty sure I do not know who he is. What I do know is that he read my blog.

Now I know I have several people who read my blog either religiously (like Donna's Mom who checks everyday for updates), regularly (various friends like Joe, Luke, and Chamyli, and various family members like my Mom), or infrequently (my brother thinks this is a colossal waste of time). However, I had no idea that other people might actually read my rantings and ravings. Now a couple of people have posted comments in the comments section who I don't know, but one of them was in Spanish and I don't speak Spanish, and the other one made very little sense at all (I think he thought he new me but actually didn't). Thanks to Nick I know this isn't true. Nick read my blog from the beginning and thinks it's OK.

Actually while I am sitting here writing this I just realized who Nick is. Oh well, my readership grows by one anyways. (Not sure why I write Stay Frosty at the end. I guess I feel I needed a tag-line and I guess it kinda refers to what I should do - stay calm - when something blog worthy happens. Usually it is something that has irritated me and I get angry or frustrated instead of staying relaxed).

The main reason I blog today is actually to get some pictures up. Here they are, in no particular order.

Ikea shopping is one of those things that is so good and so bad... all at the same time. The couch was on sale though for only $150.00 this was for Donna's Apartment... which we don't even need anymore, but more on that later.

The problem with Ikea shopping, is that it aways results in Ikea assembly.

This was my Thanksgiving masterpiece, before it went into the oven.

Here is me with the turkey post cooking. I actually still have a scar on my arm from the element. Apparently, basting your turkey while it is still deep in the oven is not such a good idea. The smell of burning human flesh s not as good as the smell of roasting turkey flesh.

Our Thanksgiving guests: You all know Donna (not really a guest), Jason, Mike, Hudson, and April. Plus food enough for 20 people... I may have gone a little overboard.

I think Hudson didn't get enough to eat at dinner.

Donna and I went for a walk at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area.

We tried to get through the entire trail, but ended-up having to turn back when the trail was flooded out. I offered to carry Donna across, but she didn't think much of my chivalrous proposition.

Sweet line-out picture taken at St. Catherine's, playing Brock University. Queen's wins of course, 32-3 I think...

This picture was taken at the OUA Final at Fletcher's Fields, as are the next few pictures. Donna took this one of a distraught Western player after Queen's had just scored. I love this picture.

It's a little far away, but this is the last play of the game. Queen's defended for 13 phases, all within our 5m line. Pictured here is the final ruck, which lasted 23 seconds before A. Clarke stole the ball.

The winning, undefeated Queen's Rugby team. I am on the left of the guy in the orange toque.

All the Queen's RFC players, from all grades, who made the trip down to watch the game and support the players. Thanks everybody.

Donna said the game was the best one she has ever been too. I would be hard pressed to argue with her.

These are the pumpkins I carved for Halloween. The problem was I couldn't find any large pumpkins on the 31st... whether they were sold out or what. So I carved 3 small ones.

Stay Frosty.

I feel like a winner

Before I go any further, I think it is important to acknowledge some of the hard work done by my fellow coaches these past months. Peter, who runs the operation, is the best coach I have ever worked with or played under, and his commitment to the team is stupendous. Luke who does everything under the stars to make sure everything goes right, and in 3 years basically everything has gone right. Gary, who's knowledge and experience have been invaluable to a young group of athletes. And Benny and John, new/old additions this season who have been invaluable helping develop and assessing our younger players. Fantastic year gentlemen. OK, now that that is out of the way...

Who ever said winning isn't everything, hasn't lost a few times and then won again. Let me tell you something: even if winning isn't everything, it sure feels really good when you do win.

The Queen's Gaels Men's Varsity Rugby team, of which I am an assistant coach, beat the Western Mustangs in the OUA final last weekend. The game was awesome, as Queen's erased a second-half deficit of 9 points to win 23-19. Even more impressive was the final 5 minutes, played almost entirely within the 5m before the Queen's tryline and Western being denied on the last play of the game. The final series involved 13 consecutive phases, and a 23 second ruck before the whistle was blown. Pretty fantastic stuff. For Peter Hugenbois, our head coach, the victory represents something extra special. It is his first championship in his 6 years as head coach, and he played on the last Queen's team to win the championship in 2001. He got mobbed as the final whistle blew, and almost lost his glasses as a result.

Queen's allowed an early try off a handling mistake by Mike Wong Jr. (no actual relation to me... hence why we call him Jr.), who otherwise played a stellar game. A score by semi-import winger Scottie Kyle made it 5-7 a few minutes later. Western then responded with another try and convert to make the score 5-14. On the last play of the half, Graeme Dibden cross-kicked into the corner and after a fortunate bounce, Zack Pancer ran the ball in for another score. We missed the convert and went into half time down 10-14. Western scored at the 50 minute mark of the second half, and things looked momentarily grim for Queen's. However, Scottie Kyle, Mike Wong Jr., and in particular Chris Barrett were able to find multiple gaps and decimate the Western backline, with Barrett making 3 huge gains, 2 of which resulted in tries. With Queen's now up 23-10 (an early second half penalty was also slotted by Ryan Kryune) the name of the game was defence, highlighted by the final stand in the dying minutes of the game.

Basically it was a fantastic day with many supporters in the stands, including many current and past players, as well as other alumni, family and friends. Donna even made the trip down, and despite her lack of enthusiasm for most rugby games, could also be found on the field celebrating with everyone else. She commented on the excitement of the game. Almost too exciting for me.

For all those people who say winning isn't everything, here's what I think. Try working exceptionally hard for something. Devoting hours each and every day for months, competing against other people who have done the same thing. Then, at the very end, when you know that despite a perfect season, the quality of the group of people you have been working with, and the colossal amount of support you have received from dozens of people, that you have still have to work extra hard in order to be successful, you try telling me it wasn't worth it or that winning isn't important.

I gotta tell you. I felt pretty good this week.

Stay Frosty.