FYI

Just to clarify, Stacey has been to three less games than Cred. Uh O, Cred is not going to like this post, hahahahahahaha.

Enjoy the weekend all!!
JP

10 and 1, Not Too Shabby

The Band-Aids have lost their fist game of the season. It was a barn burner the whole game ending in a 13-12 final. It was great to have a such a close game that every at-bat counted. Even though we lost to the number two team in the league, with one girl short we can came very close to a win. But oh well, it's just a game. Shout out to Cred for pounding two dingers, he also made it quite adamant that he is now ahead of Stacey in the homerun standings. Cred it's too bad you can't catch me! haha. Ben, great catch in centre field to help close the inning and Gackle awesome display of defense on the hot corner!
Now for a recap on the week.
Tuesday,
Man did I get spoiled today. My Golf Depot boss took me golfing at his course Priddis, located southwest of Calgary. ( www.priddisgreens.com ) This place is one of the most plush courses I have had the privilege of playing on. Awesome scenic holes, top notch greens and fairways cut so you would think you were hitting off a Calgary city course green. Thank you very much Rob, I am open any day to go back. I was very happy with the outing I had, a solid 84 was my finish. I did say my handicap was around 18, after I birdied the first hole I was called a sandbagger for the rest of the game. I still beat those two yahoos in the end, but I can't touch Rob's 71. Maybe they should stop calling themselves a 10 and 15 handicap and up the shots a little more. Hey boys? haha. To start we were delayed about an hour due to lighting in the area, the weather the system this club has was pretty impressive. Any kind of storms that may produce lighting in a 5 mile radius will cause a horn to go off, once the storm has cleared the area the horn sounds again and play resumes. Everyone must stop their game and walk back to the clubhouse. You have to get out of the cart and walk it. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. The night turned out to be a long one, we finished the round plus two holes at 10:00 pm, I didn't get home till after midnight.

Tank Top City

Well, well, well. I'm going to have to jog my memory to come up with a good posting here. My life has kinda slowed down by not having a wedding or wedding type function to write about.
I guess we can start on last Wednesday with our baseball team smashing yet another team in the league. I think the final was 22-9 for the Band-Aids with a hand full of homeruns by Stacey, Gukes, Cred, Jeremy and myself. It was a great night for ball and once again Ben impressed us all by rolling up on his sweet motorcycle, keep the surprises comin' Ben.
Thursday was Golf Depot and haircut night. That's all I have to say about that, I do give myself haircuts with clippers, it's very easy to do and inexpensive. I think I paid $25 for my clippers and I have been using this set for three years now, at 1 hair cut every two weeks, this turns out to be approx 8 cents per hair cut. Try and beat that. It would cost more to burn my hair off by using gasoline, but that doesn't sound very safe to this cowboy.
Friday, Stacey and I took off after work to my parents house in Sylvan Lake. This was our first trip up since the summer started. It was a beautiful weekend with great weather ranging from 30-33 degrees celsius. Friday night we had BBQ steaks on the deck with all the fixin's and a few bottles of wine. We ended the night with fruit pizza and a BS session on the bottom patio.
Saturday morning we were up early and off to the golf course, Sylvan Lake Southside Golf Course. If you are looking to give yourself a little confidence boast on the distance of your drives, check it out. The fairways are hard as a rock and the ball roles for miles. I even had a couple of 300 yrd drives, but the ball must have rolled seventy yards, it still felt good. Greens were soft but a little slow. The best part of the course is the dress code. I was worried about shorts I had for the weekend because they had a pockets on the legs, eg. cargo shorts. We showed up and I saw nothing but tank tops as far as the eye could see. The best was one guy had his wifebeater on and his cowboy hat with beach shorts, what a beauty! All in all Southside is great little course and lots of fun to hit with the family or friends.
After hitting the linx we headed to the beach. It was sardine city, thousands of people lined the beach. To make things worse there was a triathalon going on and beach volleyball tournament as well, I think. So we found a small area with wet sand and under a bush. It worked well since the heat was almost unbearable but the lake was cool and that did the trick.
The rest of weekend we ate a bunch of wonderful food, gloved again Sunday morning.
My highlight of the weekend is the purchase of a table saw from my parents neighbor, Victor. What a deal, I picked up a $400 table saw for $150. What a steal this was. I can't wait to rip the kitchen out and start a new design. I think I better ask Stacey first before I start with the sledge hammer. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
Anyway, that brings me to the end of today's lunch break. Time to help some people out and put some money on the books.
Have a great day.
JP

The Hitching Post

After countless hours of prep work, numerous phone calls, hand fulls of emails and continuous planning, we have Ryan and Regan Domes. Congratulations to the both of you on your new life together.
This last weekend was full of laughs, tears and a couple of mean sunburns. The weekend started of Friday morning @ 11:00, Ryan invited me to golf with his groomsmen, MC, Father, Father-to-be and his new brothers. What a blast! I was in a foursome with Doug, Rogan and Ryan Hennie. The round was filled with a bunch of laughs and a hole lot of swearing, not eachother but at that little white ball that seems to not go where you want it to go. Regans dad Doug is a hoot, this guy made me laugh throughout the 18 holes, he has a lot to say, all hilarious. I do have to mention that I did almost kill him on the third hole. Doug has a tendency to walk infront of people when they are about to hit. I did see Doug, he was about 150 yrds infront of me and to the left. I figured it would be OK to swing away thinking if anything I will slice that ball and not hook it. Well, I hooked it. As soon as my head popped up I new we had trouble, the ball was going right for the middle of his back, I yelled FOUR, Doug looked back and the ball whistled pass him. He did a little jump and follow up with a big laugh and yelled, I'm guna kill ya, ya SOB. It was all good.
Throughout the round I hit Cred with my drive and landed one within a foot of the groom. By the end of the round I was not the most popular guy, but I was the winner with a solid 83, five birdies, two doubles, a triple and a bunch of pars. The track we played was Turner Valley Golf Course, nice course, really reminds me of Lacombe G & CC, wide fairways and the hazards are not that hazardous.
After golf we headed back to the Domes' house and got ready for the dinner after the practice secession at the church in HR. Gukes and I stayed around the house and cooked a BBQ full of potatoes, I thought I was going to burn the suckers but from I heard or lack there of, the potatoes were fine. Throughout the night we played a few games of Bocce Ball and sucked back a couple of drinks. I was in bed by 12:30 so I would be fully rested for the big day ahead of us.
Saturday morning I got up with my parents and had a hearty breakfast of Bacon, eggs, toast and oranges. We stayed in a camp ground called George Lane Memorial Park / Campground, I do not recommend this place. It is run as tight as communism under the Third Reich. One thing that was different than any other campground was even though my parents paid for the night, I guess you have to pay for additional people, they tacked on a three dollar charge per head. I have heard of this in hotels but in campgrounds??? So, if you have three kids, the charge was $25/night plus three dollars per head, so now you are looking at $34/night. How this works? Not with me. We put our duds on and we were in the church at 1:45 for a 2:00 start. The wedding was very fast, about 30mins. Everyone did a great job, the guys looks a little wobbly standing up infront with all the heat. Stacey was absolutely beautiful and did a great job standing up with her good friend Regan.
Next we went back to campsite, picked up the trailer and headed out to the hall for for the reception. My parents and the Gukerts hauled out the trailers to camp right outside the hall. Cred also had his sweet orange van and he spent the night in that unit.
Before the dinner the trailers hosted the party. We had a few drinks till the start time of 7:00pm.
Melanie and Jeremy were the MC's for the evening. They did a hell of a job with the organization, kissing games and feeding all the people. I was at a table with Millar, Matt, Tyler S, Deb (Al's wife), Laural W, and Lisa Sz. We were tucked back in the corner and a good thing we were cause Millar had some choice words throughtout the night. LOL.
The dinner was awesome, beef, veggies, perogies, three different salads and buns, eat till we could eat no more and it was time for speeches. All the bridesmaids did a "Top ten reasons we love Regan" it really explained the kind of loving person Regan is. Good job ladies. Cred was the best man, his speech was bang on, the stories involved and the message he gave summed up Domes as good as you could, kudos to you Cred.
After all that crap was done (hehe), clear the tables cause it was time to cut some rug. Regan and Ryan had a live band, first for me at a wedding. These guys could really rock the stage. They played all types of music and the riffs they laid down were perfect. Later in the night I jumped up on stage with Deb and we a couple of songs with them. We both got tamberines and a mic to share. What an experience to go up on stage and rock out with a band. I hope I can do this again someday!

The rest of the evening was great, sooo many laughs. Here is some point-form to make it easier on my fingers.
1- Bartending for a half hour and dropping a full beer bottle on Kevin Lee's toes. (ouch, sorry man)
2- Telling Gukes, "Come on, it's not that stiff of a drink there's only one ounce in it" little did he know, there was three, hehe
3- Everyone telling me how awesome my parents are, but already knew that!
4- Matches eating yet another moth
5- Continuous pictures being taken, I think I took 150.
6- Melanie entertaining us for the last three hours of the night.
7- Pam Walker yelling, Ï need somebody to take a picture of my cleavage!!!"So we did.
8- Stacey and I catching thebouquete andgarterr.
9- Cred tieing his hair back with thegarterr, get a friggin' hair cut!
The list could go one for days but this entry is getting long.

I hope you enjoyed this, I sure did, I have not stopped laughing for 45mins.

Till next till fellow readers and bloggers!!!!

JP

Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo!!

The weekend was full of events. Things started off early Friday morning @ 6:00. Stacey and I got up to joined our friends in their annual Stampede Parade Kick-off Festivities. By 7:30 we had a Beergaretta in our hands and a plate full of turkey bacon, potatoes, eggs and fruit. After a couple of drinks we ordered cabs and headed down to the St. Louis Hotel. The St. Louis is a hotel located behind city hall in Calgary.


This is Ralph Kliens old stompin' grounds and the place where he gained the reputation of being a big wine drinker. They have pictures of him on the walls and an old gentlemen thats been around the Louis since 1979 showed us where Ralphy sat. He was quite interesting to talk to.
We waited outside for about an hour, we got to the pub at nine and it opened at 10:00. The bouncers didn't even bother ID'ing people, the doors opened and everyone rushed in to find a set. With in minutes this joint was packed, Stacey made me laugh by commenting on the lack of evacuation routes incase of a fire. Man she was right when Stacey said "This is a friggin' death trap down here". Have a look. It was a basement pub to boot.














Our good friends Melanie and Jeremy is whom we got the invite from, or we invite ourselves, it doesn't matter we still had a lot of fun.





























We hung out at the Louis for a couple hours, jugs were $14 and the company was free. The main tradition of the Louis is when the parade is finished, this Scottish marching band comes into the pub and plays a couple of songs for all the patrons. It was pretty cool, even though I couldn't see anything, it still sounded great.

After the band came 12:30 and it was eatin' time. So we packed up and headed to a bar by the name of Coyotes. Here we grabbed a bit to eat. Stacey got a chicken wrap with fries and I had the Chicken burger. We stood there for a couple of minutes watching them construct our meals. I was so hungry that I thought the beef burger they cooked looked like a chicken burger. He added cheese and bacon, I thought this was weird, having cheese and bacon on a chicken burger. When I told the guy that the burger was mine, Stacey looked at me said "I don't think thats a chicken burger"and I replied "sure it is, it looks just like chicken". 'Well Jeremy got the chicken burger and it had three individual strips of chicken. The only conclusion I can come to is that I was sooo hungry I was hallucinating that everything was made of chicken. I might have to ask a doctor friend to took into that for me. www.wedmd.com

Lunch was over and it was time to go to the Stampede grounds, we figured that we should hit the grounds that afternoon and get it over with. It was piping hot and the grounds are located on a huge slab of asphalt. So it was sweat city, good thing we had a bunch of beers in us. (always remember to drink lots of water when at the Louis!) Stacey, Mel, Jer and me took in some of the games and got a bunch of Mini Doughnuts. These little suckers are only around during Stampede and they are so good. If you ever go, get a bag of them.

The time was 4:00 and time to go home. We jumped on the C-Train, Matt picked the four us up and we all went home to bed. What a day!

Saturday, we had our annual Culd-de-sac Stampede party. Our neighbor's Gary and Dawn hosted the party. We had burgers, hotdogs, salads and bunch of other fixin's. We have great neighbor's, lots of fun and not afraid to have a couple drinks or stay up all hours of the night. We brought a friend of ours, BMO, if you know BMO, after a couple of pops he starts to swear. My lord, he knows how to turn a couple heads! We stayed around till 1:00 and hit the hay, not BMO, he was fillin' up his drink and was off to help keep the party going.

Sunday was the Golf Depot's employee tournament. My team ended up second, we shot a 62 (par72) and the winning team took home that championship with a 60. It was a lot of fun, tourney was at Wintergreen G&CC www.wintergreengolf.com great course and the price is affordable for the Calgary area. During the day had a huge hail storm, I thought my car was toast with the size of the hail stones. The only damage was Stacey's garden ball in the backyard. It's too bad cause it was a cool backyard ornament.












The ride was terrible out to and from the course. On the way out I was tied up on Hyw 1, a 18 wheeler was on it's side and across the whole road. The Highway was at a stop, it took a good 1/2 hour to get through the mess. On the way home I had to drive through a wild lighting storm. Lighting struck right across the road from me. The force of the crack felt like it push my car sideways about half a foot. Good thing I am professional driver or else who knows what could have happened. Anyway, I got home at 11:30 and that ended the weekend. Time to sleep.

The funny thing is that I woke up with Strep Throat, not too cool now.

Thank you and happy stampedin''
JP

Baseball Guy was Awesome!!

Once again the Band-Aids rose to the occasion and laid the beats to the most not-so-cool team in the league. The opposition came out strong in their first at bat and scored a total of four runs. I thought we were going to have a game on our hands. We followed up with a six run inning and the momentum was on our side.
Cred started the game out with a bomb over the left fielders head. I'm suprizes LF didn't throw his glove up in the air to chase the ball down. ( I heard this technique makes you run faster, I guess we will have to ask Bryce if this rumor is true) After the first dinger, the homers were flowin' like wine in Napa Valley. Stacey was next, a shot to the left side of the field. I went yard to the same guy. Gukes went over the centre fielders head and Josh, my lord, longest ball of the year, hit to right field and sent the poor bast**d running. Nice work Josh, deepest ball of the year so far.
Rob, you had your longest ball of the year as well. You are starting to peak at the right time.

Other notables, we almost had our first triple play of the year. Runners on 1st & 3rd, Gukes took a sharp hit up the middle, touched second and gunned it to me on 1st, I bobbled the ball a bit and just missed the out at home plate, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

This team was full of sweet dudes. There was "Baseball Guy" after "Baseball Guy". Lets start with the first basemen. He had his first basemens glove with two ankle braces and sweet Oakley M-Frames. Along with his two batting gloves, this guy pulled the ultimate move, I was at bat and hit a chopper right at the pitcher, pitcher throws to first and this guy was talking on his cell phone, what a stud. I have a pic of him, so I will try and zoom in so you can have a look. Next guy was "I like to round the base and try to get the other team to throw the ball away" guy. According to him he was invisible to all other humans. He rounded first one time and Gukes and I should have had him but the ball made a wierd bounce over Gukes' glove. The ball went to Cred and tried for the out, we missed him by a 1/4 of a step. I told him he was a little too close for comfort on that play. He looked at me with the expression "you weren't even close!" haha. It was funny.

Tomorrow brings the Stampede Kick-off parade. Jeremy and Mel are going to pick us at @ 6:45 in the morning and we are off to "The Louis". There we will have a couple of drinks and watch the parade. In the afternoon we are going to take in the Stampede Grounds, walk around and see what is new this year. I will keep you updated on the events.

Thanks!
JP

Wow, what a week.

Wow, it's been quite the week. Lets see, it involved the dentist's drilling in my head, traveling, camping, a little booze and a lot of fun.
Here is an update by the day.
Thursday - Worked all day, this included a four hour stint at the Golf Depot in the evening. These days are hard to get any type of action for a blog posting. I spent most of day thinking about camping on the weekend. Camping is definitely one of my most favorite things to do. I grew up around a camp fire, whittling wood figurines and lighting fires in the morning with just the coles leftover from the night before.
Friday - Started off early, I was back in the dentist chair at 7:00 am. I had a couple of fillings to take care of. The dentist started off with the freezing. By the time I was ready for the filling, I think my whole head was numb, this is much better then drilling a nerve and passing out. Dr. M was great again, they put a rubber dam in my mouth so I wouldn't choke on the variety of tooth and cavity products used in the repair. Here's a pic of it.













If you are looking for a new dentist, these ladies do a bang up job'(website is posted in an earlier posting). She even took my picture cause I forgot Stacey's camera. Thanks again Dr. M!

Off to the job, I went into the office for the morning, put out any fires that were burning and was back home by 1:30 to prepare for the weekend. Stacey had a list of supplies that we needed and a list of various camping items for all the food we planned on cooking. We had Banana Boats and bannock that we took to cook for everyone, they were a hit. If you are wondering what a banana boat is, it's a banana with a slice cut out lengthwise, you then insert a couple squares of a Caramilk bar, cover that with small marshmallows and wrap it up in tinfoil. Put this unit over the fire for 5 mins and you then have a delicious campfire goodie to eat. This was a recipe my Mom made up, nice work Mommy!

Stacey and I headed out to Kimberley, BC by 9:00 Saturday morning. The drive was great, we saw a black bear cross the highway infront of us. Stacey was driving and I was the navigator/picture taker. I missed the bear, I fumbled the camera twice and by the time I was ready the bear was already up in the woods, maybe next time. We also spotted lots of deer. They were all over the place I think we saw about 6 on the way up and 1 or 2 on the way home. We arrived at the campsite around 1:30 ( http://www.kimberleycampground.com ). I fully recommend this campsite, the host really makes sure everyone is taken care of and insures people enjoy their stay. He sure was popular with the ladies. Everytime he came around the girls got all giggly and started play with their hair, haha. It was funny to see. Kyla referred to him as being "dreamy" Have a look at the website, great place for kids, they have a pool, v-ball courts, long jump pits (hey Kyla, haha) and great washrooms throughout the campground. That evening we had a jam session with the guitar and lots of B.S.ing, enough to make a Purdy reunion a little jealous.
Sunday brought the sun and a mean burn to my upper body. I like to start the summer with a good burn and work from there. It is painful to walk, jog, ride a bike, stand, drive, and sit by a fire but I knew this and still burnt myself. We hung around the pool for the majority of the day with breaks to eat and suck back a much needed cold beer. In the evening we played catch, a little bocce ball and feasted on big steaks. Sunday also brought my birffday. I turned the ripe old age of 26. Stacey had a couple awesome surprises for me. Things started out with white cake cupcakes for everyone, they were sooo good, I think I ate about ten of the little suckers. So I had a sugar buzz for the rest of the night. Then Stacey brought out the Silly String, I renamed it "Not so Silly String". The good thing is that I got to spay it for the first time in my life. That was awesome! Note of safety, this stuff is flammable so do not spay it at someone that is about to blow out a cake full of candles. Nothing says happy birthday like permanent burn scars on your eye lids.
Thanks for the great birthday Stacey, you're the best girlfriend ever!!!













Monday we were up early. Packed up camp, said or good byes and jumped on the busy long weekend highway. We took our time and enjoyed the trip home. For the rest of the day we did a little gardening and lazed around.
What a weekend!

Other points I would like to make.
Our buddy Chris Dickson ( http://dicky1689.spaces.msn.com/PersonalSpace.aspx )was in out for the weekend. He has been in Australia and South East Asia for the last 8 months or so, have a look at his website, lots of cool pics and ideas for traveling. It was great to see him and catch up in life's stories. Have fun back overseas Chris!

I talked with Stacey's Mom, Maureen, Monday night. The weirdest thing happen to them, Bill (Stacey's Dad) discovered crop circles in his backyard.
CSIS showed up and took a bunch of info and pictures. I'll keep you posted on the findings. Here is a picture of it.













Last but not least, Jake my brother finally got his hands on a set of real lawn darts( http://deadbeat4life.blogspot.com/ ) . Way to be persistent, can't wait to give them a try!

Thanks for listening,
JP