Day 179 (June 28, 2010): Canada Celebrates Hockey and the Military

I was extremely excited for today's event.  We got tickets to go see the Canada Celebrates Hockey and the Military event at the Colliseum in Edmonton.  The event consisted of the Canadian Men's and Women's Olympic Hockey Gold Medal teams and the Canadian under 18 Girls World Champions.  It also was a tribute to the Canadian Military and the difference that they are making acround the world and especially in Afghanistan. I was really looking forward to seeing some of my hockey heros, which includes the Men's Gold Medal Executive Director, Steve Yzerman.  He is my favourite hockey player of all time.  I grew up watching him because a relative of mine played with him and then coached him with the Detroit Red Wings.   I have met him before in passing but I was still looking forward to seeing him again.  Anyway, the event was at kind of a weird time.  It was at 5:30 so I had to leave work early (I changed my schedule that day from my usual 9-5 to 8am-4pm).  That was the first thing that I thought was weird about the event.  The next thing was that hardly anyone was there.  It was put on by hockey Canada and eventhough they obviously had to contact the players awhile ago to get them all to Edmonton for today, the event itself only started getting promoted in the last few weeks.  I only heard about it 2 weeks ago.  The was only a few thousand people, which in the Colliseum looks like about 100 people because it is so big.  I felt sort of embarrassed for the players and the military that more people did not show up to honor them.  But with the timing and poor promotion it is no wonder.  People from out of town can't come to an event on a Monday at 5:30pm.  My next disappointment from the event was the fact that they didn't introduce all of the players individually.  They introduced some of the key players, the captains, the game winning goal scorers for each team etc. but for the rest of them they just said "here are your Olympic Gold medal forwards" and then the forwards would walk out, they did the same for the defence.  I thought that was kind of a poor way to introduce them.  They all did such a great job that they deserve to hear their individual names cheered for.  Anyway, here are some pics from the event.

This is the stage they had some local bands play before and after the presentations.

They let everyone go stand along the "aisle" where the players walked in.  We decided not to because the line up was about 10 people deep on each side and we wouldn't be able to see anything anyway.  At least in our seats we could see it on the big screen.

Hockey Canada Sign. Notice all of the empty bleachers?!?!

The white tunnel is where the players walked out on to the field from.

Part of the marching band.  They did a great job.

These are the cadets bringing out the huge Canadian flag.

Our Men's Team Captain, Scott Niedermayer, he rode in on that tank.  Our Women's Team Captain, Hayley Wickenheiser, also rode in on a tank but she was on the other side of the field.

There he is still on the tank.

The only mounted military troup left in Canada is from Edmonton.  They try to preserve the tradition of the mounted military.  I loved the horses.  They were so well behaved!

After the interviews and presentations to the players people got to tour the military vehicles that were around the stadium.

My hero, Steve Yzerman, on the big screen.

You can sort of see how they had the players sitting on the stage.  They had all three teams on there and they called up a few notable players/coaching staff for interviews.

They also interviewed some of the high ranking military personnel about the effect that the gold medals had on morale for our troups in Afghanistan.

Day 178 (June 27, 2010): Edmonton Turkish Festival

Today we went to the Edmonton Turkish Festival. It ran all weekend long but today was the first time that we had time to check it out. We watched a couple of dance performances and a musical performance where a guy played a drum and 3 other people played, what looked like, wooden spoons. They had food and jewelry vendors. I almost bought a really cool necklace with a glass pendant but I couldn’t decide on a colour or design so I didn’t get one. I liked all of them! Anyway, here are some pictures and a couple of videos.

This is the guy with the drums and the others with the "wooden spoons" that I mentioned earlier.

They said that this style of dance is from a certain type of Turkish people that are likened to gypsies.

This is the first time I have uploaded a video....hopefully they work:

Day 177 (June 26, 2010): Reuse-It Fair

Today we went to the annual Reuse-it fair at our community league. They had some stuff that you could take for free and some stuff that you could swap things for. They had all kinds of environmental demos and displays like composting, recycling etc. They had free flower give aways for kids. I got a free skipping rope, which will help me with my endless quest to get in shape. Ken got some used golf clubs. We are not really golfers but these will be good to maybe get us started. I also got a free seed kit for a Norway Spruce. Perhaps I will plant it near our community garden some day. It is a really neat event. The organizers did a great job at getting other community organizations in there to provide additional info and activities.

Day 176 (June 25, 2010): Edmonton Oilers Draft Party

Today was the NHL draft for 2010. Since our Edmonton Oilers did really bad this year, last in the league, we got the first overall draft pick. The Oilers organization and fans were really excited about this. They have never had the first overall draft pick before. So the Oilers organization planned a draft party at Rexall Place. Tickets were only $5.00 each. There was a free BBQ, chances to win prizes, free giveaways like silver pompoms and of course the atmosphere of watching the draft with thousands of other Oilers fans. It was really fun. After the Oilers picked Taylor Hall as their 2010 first round pick they gave away 100 Taylor Hall Oilers jerseys. Unfortunately we didn’t win one:( As an Oilers fan it was cool to be there for that moment.  Here are some pics from Ken's Blackberry of the moment!

This is while we were waiting for the announcement.  They gave out silver pompoms to everyone.

Everyone was cheering because TSN was showing us on TV.

The big moment.  You can see the streamers that they shot out from the sides of the screen.

Look at all of the streamers!  How exciting!!!

I just wanted to add in here, for all of my friends who are thinking “Mel is a Red Wings fan and Ken is a Canadiens fan, why were they so excited about this draft?”, the Oilers are still my second favourite team to the Red Wings! Ken also cheers for the Oilers from time to time as long as they are not playing the Montreal Canadiens.

Day 175 (June 24, 2010): Practical Joke and Watching Slow Pitch

Today I went to watch Ken play slow pitch. He started playing with this Rec. league team a few weeks ago. A co-worker of his is on the team and they needed another player so Ken joined them. I was supposed to go play one night but I wasn’t feeling well so my friend Ashley played instead. Tonight I just went to watch. It was fun to watch them. They had a bit of a rough game. It was their last game of the spring season and they didn’t play as well as they usually do but it still looked fun. At the end of the game they had a discussion about whether or not they would join for the summer team. They had enough people to make a summer team and so they decided to register again for the summer. They asked Ken and I if we would play and we said yes. I was a bit nervous to play before but after watching the game and seeing that it really is just for fun, I am excited to play this summer. I will blog about my first game in a few weeks when it happens. It will be the first time that I have played baseball since I was a kid.  Anyway, after the game we went out to the Canadian Brewhouse for a beer and snacks.  I had a really yummy big beer.........I haven't had one in quite awhile. Sometimes eating healthy sucks but it sure was a nice treat.  Over our beer and snacks I heard about Ken's thing for today:


Today while I was slaving away at work I spoke to another employee who has had the wits scared out of him by our co-worker Tom. Tom drives truck for our company and he has an annoying habit of blowing the horn at us when we walk in front of the truck. Every time he does it to me it scares the crap out of me. Anyway, while we were discussing pranks he said that on the rigs the guys used to turn the heat on in the loaders and cats in the summer time so the drivers would get really hot when they got back in. On a whim I decided to do the same thing to Tom. While he was unloading the back of the truck I snuck into the cab and turned off the A/C and turned the fan and heat up to maximum and left it on until he went back into the truck roughly 1.5 hours later. When he went to go move the truck and park it for the day he came back and was sweating profusely. He was very upset in kind of a joking way because he knew that he got a prank pulled on him. When I asked him about playing baseball that evening he said he wasn’t sure if he would be able to because he would probably still be sweating, lol.

Day 174 (June 23, 2010): Meeting the author

First of all I just want to say hello to some of our new followers.  We would love to know how you heard about our blog.  Feel free to leave us comments!

Today we went to Audrey’s Books, it is a privately owned book store in downtown Edmonton. We went there to see a talk that was being given by a local author named Rene Cormier. He was discussing his book "The University of Gravel Roads: Global Lessons from a Four-Year Motorcycle Adventure" . He used a slide show of photos to tell us about his motocycle trip that spanned across many countries in North America, South America, Africa and Asia.   It was an intimate setting in the basement of the book store and about 20 people were there.  After the slideshow of his adventures we got to ask questions about motorcycling, travel or whatever we wanted.  I mentioned our project to him and asked if he had any ideas for us.  He said he would probably do something on the river in Edmonton like canoeing or kayaking.  We have been thinking about that so you might see that on our blog one day soon.

As a side note, we really enjoy going to the privately owned book stores in Edmonton.  We have quite a few of them in our own neighbourhood.  We have talked about going to Audrey's before but just never made it there. It is really cool.  Unfotunately we didn't have time to browse in there tonight so that might be another thing that we do one day for our project.

Day 173 (June 22,2010): "Making a scene: Landscapes Then and Now"

Tonight we went to the U of A for a free lecture on landscape photographers. It was really interesting. The person who was giving the talk (Maria Whiteman) is a professor in the Fine Arts department there. She discussed her favourite landscape photographers from around the world, what she enjoys about their photos and how they inspired her. She also showed some of her work. She used a slide show to do the presentation. The talk was actually really inspiring for both Ken and I. We left there thinking about what our next “photo project” should be……not that we are even photographers or anything. She did mention in her talk though that she thinks all people are photographers and that we should not be intimidated by it. That gave me a bit more confidence. She showed us some really cool pictures that she took with a 3 megapixel camera which also made me think that I could do more with my camera. Some of the photos that I enjoyed the most were the ones that documented the change in the landscape when industry comes into an area. It made me think of the rail yard that we mentioned last week when we went to the City of Edmonton’s community consultation. Perhaps one day we will go take some photos before they get started on all of the changes. Anyway, here are some photos by the photographers that she highlighted that I got off the net.

Bernd and Hilla Becher from Dusseldorf, Germany:

I really liked alot of their collections.

Andreas Gursky from Leipzig Germany:

Allan Sekula from Erie, Pennsylvania:

Thomas Struth from Gelden, Germany:

People viewing art.

Jeff Wall from Vancouver, Canada:

This is actually the photographer and his wife in a staged photo.

Edward Burtynsky from St. Catherines, Ontario:  His photos were some of my favourite. He documents environmental impact.

These are the nickel tailings ponds by Sudbury Ontario.

Alberta Oilsands

Sally Mann from Lexington, Virgina:

She photographed her family alot and they were often controversial photos.

Catherine Wagner from San Francisco, California

Last but certainly not least I thought I would include a photo by the person who gave the lecture, Maria Whiteman.  I could only find one of her recent ones.  It is a picture of dog's paw.  She is really interested in photographing animals right now and is doing a collection on taxidermy but I couldn't find any of those photos online. Also, she showed us some really cool landscape photos that she took in Ontario but I couldn't find any of those online either.