Month: January 2009

Wednesday night’s jam went pretty well. We haven’t been together since November so it took a bit to get back into things. Reilly has a great writeup (and pictures) on his blog. http://www.jerkwithacamera.com/2009/01/29/band-jams-and-the-zoom-h4/

I’ve officially started the hunt for a place. There’s one place just off downtown that I’m going to check out first. It’s in a 3 year old concrete building so I expect it’ll be more soundproof than many of the older places I’ve thought about. Concrete means I can play my music at higher volumes and won’t have to contend with neighbors blasting Michael Jackson’s Thriller album like they did last night. Thriller is good in certain settings like bars where everyone’s smashed and bouncing around but in an apartment building, not so much.

Time for the gym, then work, then my flight to Calgary!

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather the past couple of weeks. Sickness has struck many of the people I know or work with and I’ve been trying to fight it off too. Lots of sleeping has helped as have my new dietary changes (lots of whole grains, fruit and veggies – much less sugar and white flour) so I’ve made it through without actually getting sick. Yay!

There’s a couple of posts I have half-written in my head and I’ll try and get these out either tomorrow or early next week. I’m in Calgary this weekend for my Aunt’s memorial and tonight our small band is going to get together and brush off the cobwebs. We haven’t rehearsed since last year so it’s long overdue!

Last night I got a call from an excited Shan who was trying to give away the last of four hockey tickets she got from work. I jumped on it and headed towards GM Place to meet everyone.

The Canucks got off to a sluggish start against the New Jersey Devils. By the fourth minute of play New Jersey had scored two goals and LaBarbera (the Canuck’s new backup goalie) had been pulled! At the end of the first period it was 3-0 for the Devils. Vancouver showed some  spark throughout the rest of the game, but the three goal deficit was too much to overcome and they handed New Jersey a 5-3 victory.

It was loads of fun to watch. I probably say this because I’m a Calgary fan. I find it hard to root for Vancouver because every year they squeak into the playoffs and then get knocked out. There’s always a big shake up afterwards and a sense of “next year it’ll be different” but it rarely is. I’ll stick with the Flames. Besides, Calgary has way better uniforms!

Shortly before Christmas my Aunt Julia passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. She was one of the smartest and most curious people I’ve ever known and I’m saddened to know that she’s no longer with us. I am glad I had the opportunity to visit Julia this past summer but it’s a shame it was the last chance I had to spend time with her.

I’ll be in Calgary on the January 31 weekend for the memorial. It’ll be good to see everyone but it’s unfortunate it had to be under these  circumstances.

The weather has warmed up in Vancouver and the huge mounds of snow in the parking lot at work have started melting. During the day there’s runoff all over the asphalt which freezes overnight. I didn’t think about this until I found myself flat on my back while walking over the black ice towards our office. The two tomatoes in my pack cushioned my fall; however, when I opened up my pack I discovered tomato insides all over my stuff! My keys had flown into a snowbank during the crash and the apple in my other hand was flung into the parking lot somewhere. I never did recover the apple.

On my way home from work, Reilly phoned to let me know everyone was meeting up at the Black Frog. After fighting my way through the downtown traffic (an accident on the Lions Gate had backed everything up) I rolled into the pub to see how everyone’s week had been. Miranda and Reilly are gearing up for the Indie I Do wedding show that they’re putting on next Saturday. It’ll be a refreshing departure from the usual wedding stuff and I’m curious to see the vendors there.

I thought about going snowboarding today, but honestly, I was feeling a little wiped and figured it was best to have a laid back day. I did get a bunch of things scratched off my list. The list had been growing all week and I was beginning to feel swamped. Now things are back under control.

Last Saturday I learned how to connect my turns on a snowboard. It’s much easier on your legs when you know how to move your weight around properly. Having so much snow on the mountain made it nice and soft for crash landings. Fortunately I’m able to stay on my feet most of the time so the crashes were few and far between!

Coming down from the mountain was a little dicey. The road was covered in ice and I had to chain up my tires to get down. We passed a jeep in the ditch shortly after leaving the parking lot and later we discovered that a bus had gone in the ditch shortly afterwards. That explained all the firetrucks that raced up the hill. The chains made my drive pretty easy and I was surprised I didn’t see more people chained up.

The rain we had this past week iced up the hill but there’s some new snow today. I really should be up there now but I’m not particularily full of energy today so I’ve decided to skip it. I’ve got lots to keep me busy anyway. There’s this list of stuff I haven’t touched all week and I’m cranking through it right now.

On New Years Eve I hopped over to Reilly and Miranda’s pad for a New Years party with the gaggle of people that had come over. I was introduced to “Friendmas” where we exchange cool presents between friends. This rad shirt that has a working set of drum pads on the front was gifted to me. People can whack you in the chest and hear drum sounds! It’s one of the strangest but coolest things I’ve ever seen. I got a couple of other neat Threadless shirts too.

Kimli busted out some Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets which are pills that dull the “sour” tastebuds on your tongue. When you eat something sour, like a lemon, it tastes sweet! It looked like a scene out of a Hollywood drug movie when we popped back these pills, let them disolve, and demolished the plate of lemon wedges, limes, and cranberries on the table. The cranberries tasted like apples and the lemons and limes were remarkably sugary! Strange, strange pills.

It was 3am when I finally got home and I wasn’t able to get up early enough in the morning for a full day of boarding on Cypress. I was kinda tired anyway so I skipped snowboarding and took care of a long list of things needing attention around the house.

When I was slacking off on my house things, I finished reading Black Postcards,  the autobiography of Dean Wareham who is the main guy behind the criminally underrated band Luna. Great book! It’s interesting to hear what it’s like being in a small touring band. What’s unfortunate is they never made it very big despite having released critically acclaimed albums.