Day 87 (March 28, 2010): CHICAGO!!!

OMG, I was so excited for today's activity!  Today we went to see the musical "Chicago".  I have always wanted to see it so when I heard that it was coming to Edmonton I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale for Ken, Audrey and I.  This was Audrey's 30th b'day present from us.  Aud and I went dress shopping last week and bought pretty dresses to wear to the show so that made the day even more exciting.  The show was amazing.  It was just as exciting and glamorous as I thought it would be.  I knew alot of the songs from the movie but with the live orchestra playing them they were better than I remembered.  I was not supposed to take pictures during the show but I snuck in a couple.  Here they are!

This is from one of the first scenes where they introduce the ladies on the cell block.  This is where they sing the "I didn't do it" song.

This is where they introduce the sleezy lawyer.  This picture doesn't do justice to the amazing visual art of this scene.  Also, see the orchestra in the background??  They were so good!!!

We went to the 2:00pm show.  The show was 2.5 hours long.  We made reservations at Murrietta's, a wonderful restaurant in our neighborhood, for 5:15pm.  The food was excellent, as usual.  Audrey and I also ordered some very delicious white wine with our dinner.  Ken had chocolate milk........don't laugh, chocolate milk is just as exciting for Ken as a great wine is for me!  THEN, we decided to skip dessert at Murrietta's and go do DAIRY QUEEN!!!!  YUMMY!  Audrey and I split a pecan mudslide, my favourite item on the menu from DQ.  Ken had a mint-oreo blizzard, which I also nibbled on!  My diet got blown today but it was so worth it! 

Here are some pictures of us all dressed up:

Day 86 (March 27, 2010): Shooting Clay Pigeons and Photo Editing

Today Ken went with a buddy of his to shoot clay pigeons. They bought a hand thrower for the clay disks and went to a spot in the countryside where it was safe to shoot. They also had a campfire and roasted hot dogs which made me very jealous! Ken said that they had alot of fun and it was nice to spend some time outside of the city, enjoying nature.   Here are a couple of pictures of where they were.

I decided to fiddle around with some of our wedding photos and other pictures and do some photo editing.  I am very new to this so I thought that I would try out a couple of different programs.  I have Corel Snapfire Plus on my computer.  I find that some things are easy to do on it and some are hard.  I also played around with Photoscape which was a bit easier to navigate.  For those of you who have more experience with photo editing I have a question for you: Is there a simple way to resize a photo to a perfect 4'x6', 5'x7' or 8'x10'.  Alot of the frames that I have are in inches but some of the photo editing programs are in centimetres or I can't even figure out how to size them to print.  The reason I am asking is because I had cropped some of the photos but when I went to print them they said that they were "incompatable" with the size that I had picked to print them in.......grrrr.  It was kind of a waste of time to do that cropping when I couldn't even print them!  I wish I had more time to devote to playing around with these programs OR more time to actually take a photo editing class.

Day 85 (March 26, 2010): Watch a foreign film......sort of....

Our activity today was supposed to be to watch a foreign film.  Ken went to Blockbuster and looked through the foreign film section.  He found a movie that looked interesting but it seemed like a documentary so he wasn't sure if it was in the correct section of the store. He asked the person at Blockbuster if it was a foreign film and they said that if it was in that section then it was.  The movie was called "The Devil Came on Horseback".  It is a documentary about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.  The movie is based on the experiences of an American photographer who spent some time monitoring the cease fire in Darfur only to discover that there wasn't really a cease fire but instead mass genocide was happening. He talks about his journey to bring light and support to what was really happening in that region.  The movie was informative and interesting also quite gory and heartwrenching.  However, in my definition it wasn't a foreign film.  We might have to try the foreign film activity again in the future.

So, if this wasn't a foreign film then what made it a different activity than the documentary that we watched last Friday??  Well, for one it was about a world issue that we were really ignorant on.  So, we learned something new.  It was also something "different" than I would have ever chose to watch had I known exactly what it would be like.  As well, it was "different" than the activity that we had planned.......so there you go.  Sometimes you just have to "go with the flow"!

Day 84 (March 25, 2010): Random act of kindness

Today we decided to do a "random act of kindness".  Ken helped a lady put groceries in her car.  I held the door for two people (I would normally do this though).  I also let someone go in line in front of me at the store.  Ken and I both tend to do things like this quite frequently but I think it is still a good idea to be a bit more purposeful about it.  Hopefully they pay it forward!  It is interesting that we decided to do this activity today because on my way to work this morning I heard a guy on the radio talking about how people don't use manners as much as they used to.  I agree!  He was talking about how he had some people over for dinner and then he got a "thank you" card in the mail.  He was surprised to get it because people don't really do that sort of thing anymore. 

Day 83 (March 24, 2010): Snowman and Sportscentre

First of all, our new nephew was born today!  Yay, so exciting!  Unfortunately he is a few provinces over so we won't meet him for awhile.  Hopefully sooner than later.

My activity today was to watch a full hour of Sportscentre on TSN.  I usually watch the news in the morning before I go to work.  Well, I don't really sit down and watch it, I have it on the background while I'm running around the house getting ready to go.  Ken decided that I needed to switch up my routine and watch a full hour of Sportscentre.  I like sports so I thought it would be a good idea.  I was hoping to actually sit down and watch it but as usual I was running around getting ready for work while it was on in the background.

Ken made a snowman.  It snowed a bit today so it was a good day for this activity. We thought that since it was a bit warm the snow would be great for making a snowman.  Unfortunately it wasn't.  The snow was "sugary" and didn't stick together very well so he just made a small one.  It was kind of cute because he put it on our balcony so I would see it when I got home from work. He said he had fun making it.  Here it is, tee heee heee, it is so cute!

Day 82 (March 23, 2010): Pedway

Today we walked the pedway system in downtown Edmonton.   We downloaded and printed the pedway map from the City of Edmonton website then went for our walk.  We only live 10 minutes from downtown but we rarely cross the bridge and visit the downtown area.  Edmonton doesn't have a really extensive pedway system but we did discover some things that we weren't aware of.  1) There is a food court in almost every high rise downtown - no wonder people are overweight, they can walk 10 steps from their offices to get fast food!  2)The University of Alberta's school of business is located in one of the highrises.  I did not realize that.  I thought the school of business was located at the main campus.  3) There are actually some neat views of the city streets from the pedways.  I am disappointed that I forgot my camera at home:(

Day 81 (March 22, 2010): Message in a Bottle

Today we sent a message in a bottle down the North Saskatchewan River.  We wrote that we were doing a 365 day project where we do a different thing every day.  We wrote our blog address as well as our email addresses.....we will keep you posted to see if we get any responses.

Day 80 (March 21, 2010): Seedy Sunday

Today we went to "Seedy Sunday".  Some of the members of our community garden are involved in organizing this event so we heard about it through them.  Here is a description from the website: "There will be a seed swap, seed vendors, displays, a kid`s table,a gardening book and magazine exchange and a Seedy Café.".  As mentioned earlier in our blog we have the seeds for our garden for this year already so we didn't need to buy or swap any seeds today.  We just went to the event for interest sake.  We looked at the displays and vendor tables. We picked up some brochures and pamphlets about upcoming events and things that peaked our interest like the "guerilla gardeners" of Edmonton.  We kind of got there at a weird time, between speakers, so we didn't take in any of the seminars but we will definitely plan better for this event next year.  It is a free event, if you don't buy any seeds and it has lots of cool information on gardening and environmental issues.  Looking back at our events of this weekend it has been kind of an "environmentally" themed weekend. 
If you are interested in knowing more about Seedy Sunday, here is a link:
www.aenweb.ca/events/edmonton-seedy-sunday

Day 79 (March 20, 2010): Edmonton Boat and Sportsman Show

Today we went to the Edmonton Boat and Sportsman show.  We found out about it when we went to the Wholesale sports store the other day.  We decided to go in the late afternoon because it was being held right across the street from Rexall place where we were going to watch a lacrosse game at 7pm.  Our friend Audrey came with us.  We wandered around through the displays and got alot more information on camping, fishing and hunting in Alberta.  I really wanted to get a new fishing rod, but I just don't have the money for what I want right now.  The highlight of my day was definitely watching the demonstrations of the retreiver dogs.  They are so cute and smart. I wanted to take them home!  I think that Ken's highlight was the triple decor ice cream cone that he got, mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream!  I'm not sure what Audrey's highlight was......maybe she will post a comment and tell us about it....hint, hint.  After the Boat and sportsman show we wandered over to Rexall to watch the Edmonton Rush lose badly in what I can say was definitely their worst home game this year!  BLAH!

Day 78 (March 19, 2010): Documentary

We wrote "watch a documentary" on our calendar for today so Ken stopped at the movie store on the way home and picked one up. He brought home "No Impact Man".  It is about a man who decides to try live without making an environmental impact for one year.  The catch is that he is married, has a two year old daughter and lives in New York City.  He needs to get his wife on board with his plan which includes things like cloth diapers, home made shampoo and laundry soap, a worm compost bin in their apartment, no food that has packaging (no coffee for her!) and eventually no power to their apartment.  Rather than just start living with no impact all of a sudden one day he came up with a plan of phases for living impact free.  They took power away from their apartment around the 6th month.  It was a really intersting documentary. I would recommend it to anyone to watch.  You don't have to be interested in environmental issues to find this movie interesting.  The family is really likeable and you find yourself drawn to them because they truly struggle through the year.  You often feel empathy for them and root for them to keep going and not give up. He blogged his experiences throughout the year and the media really jumped on board to what he was doing once they found out about it so there is tons of info on the internet about the "no impact" project if you are interested in learning more about it.  If you google it you will get 68,900,000 hits!

Watching this movie made me think of our own 365 day adventure.  I think that their project was definitely harder!  Both projects take alot of creativity but ours leaves more room for fun. This movie gave me more motivation to keep our project going.  They suffered through a year to meet their goal.  We can have fun throughout the year to meet our goal.

Day 77 (March 18, 2010): Good Life Fitness

Today was the grand opening of the new "Good Life Fitness" gym that I signed up for.  Ken used to be a member of Good Life when he lived in Ontario so when his membership is up at his current gym he is going to come over to Good Life too.  For now though he had to settle for the Grand Opening Event.  Because I am a member I got to "bring a friend" to the event.  They had a tour of the gym, lots of free giveaways (exercise balls, yoga mats, gym towels, pedometers etc.), snacks and displays.  Two of the Canadian Men's Gold Medal Curling Team were also there signing autographs. I was very excited to see them as I am a huge curling fan.  The new gym also has a tanning salon and they were giving really good deals so I got a tanning package.  I don't tan much but I like to go for a few minutes a couple times a week just for relaxation purposes.  I always fall asleep!  Another thing that excites me about this new gym is that they have a dry and wet sauna, all of the classes are free with your membership (except the hot yoga), and the classes look really fun.  I am looking forward to getting started when my back is all better.....it's getting there.

Day 76 (March 17, 2010): Wholesale Sports

Ken and I are both outdoorsy people.  Alot of our interests have to do with nature.  That is why we picked today's activity. We decided to go to Wholesale Sports.  This store is the ultimate place to shop for an outdoorsy type person.  It has camping supplies, hunting and fishing supplies as well as sports equipment.   We spent about an hour in there just looking around and dreaming about all of the "stuff" that we wish we could buy.  We also picked up some free magazines that gave us some ideas for our camping, hunting and fishing adventures to come.

Day 75 (March 16, 2010): Colouring Book

On the weekend I bought a Sesame Street Colouring book at Zellers for $1.99.  Our activity today was to each colour a picture from the book.  I find colouring very relaxing and therapeutic.  Not to mention that, like the kite flying, it sort of summons your inner child.  Ken found it a bit frustrating.  The colouring book had come with four crayons, we don't have crayons, markers or pencil crayons at home to colour with so we had to use those four colours only.  Since I had coloured my picture in the morning before I went to work by the time Ken used the crayons they were round and "dull" on the ends. I had the fortune of using them when they were sharp and pointy.  When I got home tonight he told me that his colouring sucked.  When I looked at the picture it looked fine to me but I could see the areas where he struggled with the dull crayons.  I think that is the reason that he didn't like it.  I remember experiencing the same thing when I was a kid with my crayons.  I was always jealous of my friends who had the large crayola pack of like 72 crayons that had the sharpener in the back.

Day 74 (March 15, 2010): Feed the Meter

Today we decided to each feed a strangers parking meter.  Ken had to go downtown to the bank so he put money in someone's meter downtown and I walked down Whyte Ave before work and put money in a meter there.  When we talked about it later we noticed that we both experienced feeling a bit weird doing this activity, lol. 

Day 73 (March 14, 2010): "Go Fly A Kite"

My mom used to tell me to go fly a kite when I was bothering her or she wanted me out of her hair.  Today we went to fly a kite just for the fun of it. It was a beautiful day with just a bit of wind, perfect for flying a kite.  We walked down the block to a school yard in our neighbourhood and flew the kite for awhile.  It was quite muddy and wet but we still had fun.

There is our "Gecko" kite, high up in the sky!

Crash!!!  We had a couple of crashes but our "Zellers" kite survived!

Day 72 (March 13, 2010): Reading other people's blogs and ideas

Today we decided to do a bit of research for our 356 day project and at the same time view some other interesting blogs.

Here is what we found:

http://www.dayzeroproject.com/  (this is a really cool website)  "A place to record your goals, discover new challenges, and gain motivation to achieve them."  On this website you can make a list of 101 things that you want to do in the next 1001 days.  We "creeped" a few of the lists.  It was interesting to find other people from Edmonton and see what their lists contained.


http://www.wikihow.com/Exercise-an-Open-Mind  This one had some cool ideas about how to stimulate your senses and train your brain.  We saw some things that we might try for our 365 day challenge.

http://www.grantthorpe.com/  This guy is a life coach.  He has a list of 100 things to do before you die. One of the things that he suggests is to spend the whole day naked.  Ken wants to do that........I might just spend the day in my PJ's because I am always cold!  Anyway, you might see some of the ideas from this list pop up in our blog.

We also spend some time today actually going through our calendar and writing down what we will do each day.  As I said before we are coming up to a time in my work schedule where we won't see each other a few days a week so we thought that it would make things easier if we planned ahead.  I am feeling really rejuvinated since we did this research and planning.  We have some exciting things planned in the next few weeks so stay tuned!

Day 71 (March 12, 2010): Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, MMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Since I met Ken he has been saying that he wants to try “Chicago Deep Dish Pizza”. There is one in our neighbourhood and every time we walk past it or drive past it he makes a “mmmmm” sound and says that we need to get that sometime. Tonight was the night. Ken ordered a “Mr. Universe” pizza from Chicago Deep Dish. It had a few kinds of meat and lots of veggies. It was sooooo good! We totally pigged out. I have been on a diet for awhile now and have lost over 20 pounds and 47+ inches….tonight I blew my diet out the window, LOL! It was worth it! It kind of sucks because my back is still screwed up so I can’t even work off the pizza with exercise. Oh well, I will just have to work harder when my back gets better.

Day 70 (March 11, 2010): Shoe Shopping and Mini Spa Day

Today my back was so incredibly sore that I called in sick to work and went to the doctor first thing in the morning.  The doctor says that he thinks it is a muscle injury but he sent me to the lab to get tests to check for a kidney infection as well.  He also gave me a prescription for some muscle relaxants and sleeping pills since I didn't sleep at all last night due to the pain.  While I was waiting at the pharmacy for my prescriptions I was browsing through the cosmetics aisle.  I decided that since I can't walk, stand or sit in any one position for an extended period of time that I would need to find something to do for my 365 day activity that I could do at home.  I bought some mud masks for my face and hair, a new bath pillow, bubble bath and a relaxing foot soak.  Since I knew I would be stuck at home today I decided to pamper myself. 

My hair "defrizzing" mask, my relaxing foot soak and my "anti aging" face mask.

This one shows my new bath pillow and bubble bath too!

Ken also spoiled himself a bit today.  He bought a new pair of shoes.  His everyday Adidas runners were getting a bit worn out so he bought some new kicks.  This might seem like an everyday kind of thing for other people (buying shoes would be normal for me!) but for Ken it is definitely a different thing.  He actually took some time to figure out what he wanted and put some thought into it rather than just buying the first pair that he saw that fit him.  He bought some cool red and black DC skate shoes.  I don't love the colours but he likes them and he has to wear them so whatever......I'm just happy that he put some thought and effort into buying them.

Day 69 (March 10, 2010): Strathcona Rail Community Garden 1st Annual General Meeting

Tonight we attended the first ever “Strathcona Rail Community Garden Annual General Meeting”. I am the chair of the group so I had to do a report from the chair on our 2009 season. I was fine with the report because I had prepared it ahead of time. However, throughout the day today my back started to get stiff and then the stiffness turned into pain. By the time our meeting was to start I could hardly walk. It really sucked because I was trying to concentrate on the task at hand: Chairing the meeting. I am used to standing in front of people and speaking, because of my job, however, I was still a bit nervous about this meeting. We had “annual elections” on the agenda and I didn’t want to screw things up or forget the proper procedure and look like an idiot. Honestly, I haven’t used proper meeting protocol (making a motion, seconding, abstaining, motion carried etc.) since high school. I am involved in some other meetings and groups through my work but we don’t use those formal procedures.  I was also distracted by my back pain. Despite my nerves and pain, things went quite well. I made a couple of small foibles but our group of gardeners is very understanding and patient so it wasn’t a big deal. I got re-elected as the chair of the group. Even though there were no other nominations for my position, it is still nice that I got re-elected. It validates that I did a good job as the chair for the 2009 season.

Day 68 (March 9, 2010): Crossword Puzzle :(

Tonight we did something that I hate! I am using that word in the strongest possible sense! We did a crossword puzzle. I hate crosswords so much that in order to do this activity I put down some ground rules before we started. First, we are only spending a limited amount of time on it. Second, we are not allowed to “research” any of the answers. I think that is cheating and it annoys me when people do that. We decided that we would put our heads together on the puzzle for 10 minutes and see how many answers we could get in that amount of time. The puzzle had 70 clues “across” and 62 clues “down”. In 10 minutes we guessed a total of 27 clues. We got 12 correct answers in the “across” clues and 7 correct answers in the “down” clues. That means that we got 8 wrong answers out of the 27 that we guessed. I also had one more correct answer but I didn’t write it down because I was second guessing my answer, shoot!
Anyway, this activity was as painful for me as I thought it would be. I still find crossword puzzles very annoying and I always feel stupid afterwards when I look at the answers. I love other types of puzzles like “Sudoku” but crosswords are not for me. Oh well….at least I tried. It was nice to spend the 10 minutes with Ken and laugh about some of the possible answers that we came up with.

Day 67 (March 8, 2010): Cardio & Opinion Column

Ken and I did separate activities today:

Ken wrote an opinion column on "Bodychecks in the NHL".  Here it is:  Today I was watching some sports highlights and I saw a player (Matt Cooke) lay out this other guy, Savard. Everyone is making a big deal because he suffered a grade 2 concussion. The media and league want suspensions. I however do not believe that anyone should be suspending him. Savard was not paying attention and took for granted his position and got knocked on his behind for it. What kind of defensive play would teach someone to leave yourself vulnerable when you are attempting to make a play. Well maybe they should just play women’s hockey and call the whole hitting in hockey off because they are not seeming to stop with the hitting from behind and now “blindside” hits, hits to the head, and next it will be a bodycheck that was laid to hard and hurt the other player. If people want to see scoring why do they not watch lacrosse where you get the best of both worlds. I hope they do not change that sport. American/Canadian Football is getting bad with all the rules against playing defense, maybe we should all play sports like the pansies who play soccer.


Today I did 1 hour of cardio in the morning.  I usually go on my treadmill for either 20 or 30 minutes depending on the morning.  I didn't need to be at work until later than usual so I decided to do a bit of an extra workout.  Phew!  The extra 20 - 30 minutes that I spent on the treadmill today kicked my butt!  After I had completed 20 minutes I felt ready to get off, after 30 minutes my knees and hips started to get stiff, lol.  Finally at about 45 minutes my body was adjusting and I felt better and I was fine by 60 minutes. It is so interesting though that my body was ready to quit at the usual time that I finish my workout.  I guess that shows that it is good to switch up your routine a bit.  Tonight I am ready to go to bed though.  Hopefully I will have a great sleep since I that extra exercise today!

Day 66 (March 7, 2010): Listening to the birdies

First of all, I am happy to say that Telemiracle raised over $4 million!  I don't know the exact total but it is somewhere in that neighbourhood.  YAY!  Thanks to everyone who supported it.

Our "different thing" today just presented itself to us first thing in the morning.  When we were starting to wake up Ken asked me if I could hear the birds chirping so I listened for a moment and there they were, softly chirping song birds outside of our bedroom window.  We decided to lay in bed for 10 or 15 minutes and just relax and listen to the birds.  This was a luxury for us.  We usually have to jump out of bed and get ready to go to work or get something done on the weekend.  This morning was very peaceful and serene......until a big magpie let out it's screech.  We both laughed out loud at that.  It only screeched once and then took off and we got to listen to the song birds again.  What a nice way to start our Sunday morning!  After that it was a ususal rushy morning, we both had dentist appointments (Ken to pick up his nightguard and me to get fitted for mine) and then Ken went off to help his friend finish the hardwood floors and I had some shopping to do and then watched the end of the Telemiracle telethon.  Now I have to make supper and lunches for tomorrow.  Why does the weekend always go by so quickly?  I'm glad we took a few minutes to enjoy it this morning.

Day 65 (March 6, 2010): Hard Wood Floors and Telemiracle

Today Ken helped his friend install bamboo hardwood floors.  This is the first time he has ever installed hard wood floors.  He has installed laminate click flooring before but not hardwood.  They got alot of work done today and hopefully they will finish the project tomorrow.

Today I watched the Telemiracle telethon.  For those of you who don't know what telemiracle is here is a quote from their website: "Celebrating 34 years this weekend, Telemiracle raises money to assist people with special needs and those that require assistance accessing medical treatment."  Telemiracle is a Kinsmen fundraising activity in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.  All of the money raised stays in the province of Saskatchewan.  The community that I grew up in, Sturgis,SK, is very dedicated to this cause.  We have our own radio-a-thon every year, called Mini-miracle.  This year was the 30th annual Mini-miracle in Sturgis. As a child I did fundraising and our elementary school sang at Mini-miracle every year.  They still do now.  My family and I always donate money to this cause.  My brother is a Kinsmen member and he helps with the fundraising efforts. So, as you can see, this is a cause that is deep rooted in my community and family history.  In fact, while I was watching the telethon today I saw my cousin, Cheryl Walker, answering phones.  CTV is doing a live stream to the internet so eventhough I am in Edmonton, AB, I am able to watch Telemiracle this year.  For those of you who read this over the next few hours if you want to watch Telemiracle the link is: http://watch.ctv.ca/clip271908%23clip271908#clip271908.  If you are interested in seeing the presentation from my home town, Sturgis, it will be done between noon and 2pm Central Standard Time tomorrow.  I would also really appreciate it if any of our blog readers would donate to this cause. Unfortunately, there have been families from my community who have needed to access this money for medical treatment for their children, so this is really close to home for me.

Thanks!!

Day 64 (March 5th, 2010): 80's Theme Surprise Party!!!!

Tonight was the big night.....the surprise 30th birthday party for our dear friend Audrey.   We had been planning this for weeks so we were so excited that the day was finally here.  As you know from our previous post we planned some great 1980's themed activities.  We also planned our outfits, decorations, food etc.

Here are a few pics from the party......

Here is some of the 80's gear that I bought for myself and Audrey. I wore the black lace glove and the green leg warmers.  I used the belt and the pink stuff to dress up the b'day girl.

Amanda brought a disco ball, gimp (to make bracelets) and multi-coloured nail polish.  You can also see some photographs on the table. We all brought pictures of the b'day girl throughout the years.

Her mom bought this shirt and we all signed it. It said "30 years of Heros and Friends" on it.  We all wrote a name of one of our 80's heros. Mine was Astro Boy.

"30" streamers

HAHA, my husband's 80's workout gear!  He's gonna need to work out after eating all of that dip in front of him!

Heather and I.  She has a great side pony tail with a multi colored scrunchie that matches her plastic earrings.  I am wearing my neon green, bare shoulder shirt, leather jacket, jean skirt and black leggings.  I also crimped my hair with my real crimper from the 80's.

Audrey opening up her 80's wear gifts.  She got the most awesome white star earrings from Amanda.  They looked great with her "Jem" t-shirt.  I also like this picture because Audrey looks cute in it.

BAHAHAHA!!!  This was my favourite moment of the night.  This is Audrey's "Get in Shape Girl" impression.

Cool sunglasses that Heather got her!

Rainbow Bright Ice Cream Cake from Heather

I had to include this photo because it shows Laurie's awesome 80's outfit!!!  Only a very loving mother would put herself through this for her daughter!

Blowing out the candles

Day 63 (March 4, 2010): Change of plans, a couple of times

Today Ken and I both got off work a bit early and it was our intention to go sliding or crazy carpeting because it was a beautiful day out.  Unfortunately it has been a bit too nice out.....all of the snow is melting.  It was actually quite muddy at some of the sliding hills.  This makes me a bit sad.  We still have quite a few "wintery" activities that we wanted to do before the snow melts.  I guess it is possible that we will get another snow storm before March is over.  This is Alberta afterall......

Anyway, we went to the sliding hill in Mill Creek Ravine only to discover the water running in little streams down the hill to a pit of mud at the bottom.  I just want everyone to know that we are not completely oblivious to our weather; we did know that it had been warming up and things were starting to melt.  I took my snow pants with me, not to keep warm but to keep me dry.  However, I really did think that on the hills in the ravine there would be a bit more snow than on the plowed streets.....

........I was wrong

See the mud pit at the bottom?

In this picture it looks like there might be enough snow to slide in some parts but it is a bit deceiving.  When you step on it, the snow is melting underneath.  It is so wet and soggy that when you walk your feet just sink down to the sloppy ground underneath. 

So after we discovered that we couldn't go sliding we decided to go for a walk in the ravine. We had never been to that part of the ravine before. We started to walk North down the ravine and noticed some firepits and picnic tables. I suggested to Ken that we could come back there in the summer time for a picnic because it was such a nice spot. Then suddenly I smelled something foul in the air. We looked over to see this structure and sign:

The sign says "MillCreek Spill Containment".  YUCK!!  It wreaked!

So off we went, back south. It was really a nice day but my feet were getting soaked eventhough I had boots on. We decided to leave the ravine for a dryer spot. We were close to one of the discount sports equipment stores and we wanted to see what they had in stock so we went there next. Particularly we are looking for snow shoes or cross country skis for next winter. We found some snow shoes that were quite a good price so we are thinking of picking those up for next year. However, they are the metal frame type. I was kind of thinking of getting the wooden ones. If anyone knows anything about snowshoes feel free to give us some advice!

A bright sunny day!

Eventhough our day didn't go as planned we had a nice afternoon and on the bright side we can still use sliding as one of our 365 different things on another day!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I changed the settings on our blog to allow comments from anyone, not just blogger users. So anyone who reads our blog online can now leave us comments even if they are not a member. We look forward to hearing from you!

Day 62 (March.3, 2010): Free online programs and apps

Today we found an article on msn.ca called "the best free stuff online". It was intriguing to me because I am not very tech savvy so I wouldn't find these things on my own.  Basically the focus of the article was free programs and applications that you can download for free from the internet.  It had all sorts of things from photo editing programs to antivirus programs, audio and video programs, social networking sites and some really cool applications for phones and computers. I particularly liked one of the desktop dowloads.  You can download a program to create a 3D desktop. It looked really cool.  I am still thinking of downloading it but so far I haven't.  What is holding me back is the fact that my laptop is sometimes slow so I don't know what will happen if I put more stuff on it..........as I said, I am not very tech savvy!  It still amazes me, all of the stuff that you can do on/with the internet.  I wish that I had more knowledge about it because it does intimidate me from time to time.  I know there are programs out there that I would find useful but for now I am sticking to what I know!

Day 61 (March 2, 2010): Learning about water droplets

Ken's mom actually sent us this link in an email. It is kind of cool.....one of those little things about life that we would never know if we didn't have modern technology. It makes me wonder what else I don't know about our world.

http://www.flixxy.com/water-drop.htm

Day 60 (March 1, 2010): 80's Music and Game

Okay, so previously I couldn't tell you what we did today because it was part of the planning process for a surprise party that was going to be held on Friday March 5th for our friend Audrey.  I couldn't put the info in this blog because she reads it! So here it is:

Today I had to work late so in the morning before work I searched the internet for all of the top 10 songs for every month from 1980-1989.  Our friend Audrey is turning 30 on March 4th and we are planning a surprise party for her on Friday March 5th.  Since she was born in 1980 we decided to go with an 80's theme.  My job was to find out the song names and artists that we wanted to download to make a cd for the party.  When Ken got home in the evening he did the downloading and made the cd's.  We also made a "Name that 80's TV Show Tune" game.  I searched different 80's tv shows and cartoons and made a list.  Ken downloaded them so we could play the game at the party.  It was really fun finding all of the tv shows that I grew up watching.  "Who's The Boss", "Perfect Strangers", "The Facts of Life", "Magnum PI", "Hercules", "Gummi Bears", "Alf", "Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers", "Fraggle Rock"  etc. etc. etc.  We made sure to include cartoons as well as sitcoms.  We got a ton of good ones.  I am so excited for the party!