I’d like to think that we do our part throughout the year to help those less fortunate or at least donate our time (since we don’t have much money) to help others. You could say that John and I do that every weekend and I suppose doing all those fun runs (Run for the Cure, Run for Light, Science Fair Run [miss604]) also help out, but of course the need is much greater than any of that combined.

My office usually signs up for the YWCA Adopt-A-Family program [YWCA]. Last year we gathered clothing, presents, money and food for a single mother and her children. This year we’re participating in Basics for Babies, a program via the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.[FoodBank]

Basics for Babies supports families coping with the challenge of raising a young infant by providing them with needed food, formula and diapers. The program receives the generous support of the JRfm and Unforgettable 600 am Basics for Babies campaign with additional support provided through Save-on-Foods. [FoodBank]

The Union Gospel Mission, which supplies warm clothing and hot meals to those in need is also looking for your support and has a “ways to give” section on their website [UGM]. Christmas hampers, clothing donations and serving meals are just a few ways to get involved.

And for the 19th straight year, local radio station CFOX will be on location at Superstore taking your cash and non-perishable food donations as a part of the Santa Fox Food Drive. This is what sparked a blog post last year [miss604]. I figured the theme of the post (minus the moments at the dentist) was a good idea. A roundup of links to give you that extra nudge, in case you wanted to show some support this holiday season and didn’t know how.

There are so many ways to get involved this Christmas, as it is the spirit of giving – although we usually completely forget about these acts mid-summer when support is also needed. For those of you familiar with the title of this post (being a Matthew Good song) you can guess what I’m getting at…

The streets around our house are in perfect road hockey conditions, inspiring us as we cruise into Episode 9 of The Crazy Canucks podcast.

Our boys keep us going on a roller coaster ride only a true Canucks fan can appreciate. A win in Detroit, a disgrace in Nashville and follow up embarrassment in Colorado are all discussed along with the usual banter and opinions. Where we need improvement, what was Viggy thinking and various happenings around the league round out this week’s topics.

Record as of this podcast: 11-12-1 (4th in the Northwest Division)

We’re without Dave in this episode, which may be a good thing since Rebecca takes a little shot at former Canuck, Jovo. We’re looking ahead to a homestand and the return of Anson Carter to the Garage, which excites John to no end. Finally, JJ and Alanah share some controversy floating around the web about the NHL All Star ballot.

Alanah’s All Star Madness post

JJ’s Vote for Rory post

Run time: 41:04

Update: Metroblogging’s running post about all the “7 Gifts” from every Metroblogging City around the world!

My “for:Miss604” tag on del.icio.us is pretty full of articles and web bits that John’s been sending me lately. I’m just catching up on my reads and getting to some of my feeds this morning.

Something worth checking out is Metroblogging’s 7 Gifts.

For the next seven days, the Metroblogging sites around the globe will be unveiling seven gifts their cities can share with the world – one gift a day for seven days. [mbv]

There are 50 Metroblogging sites so it will be interesting to peruse them (every day) to see what their gift will be. We’ve posted two from Vancouver already: Flickr and Greenpeace [mbv]. You can easily browse other cities’ posts via our home-base blog city, Blogging.La [metroblogging.com].

In Miss 604/RadioZoom news, our last band interviewee, Sparta [miss604], will be on TV this week [punknews]. Wednesday, November 29th Sparta will be the musical guest on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson [CBS]. From John & Rebecca in the back of Richards on Richards to the main stage in late night television. That’s pretty freakin cool. If you haven’t already picked up their latest album, Threes, I highly suggest you do so.

I should also mention that we have another interview lined up with the East Coast Canadian group, Wintersleep. They’ll be playing a show at the Plaza Club on December 2nd. We talked about this a little on the latest RadioZoom podcast, and I can’t believe I didn’t make an entry about that episode. I’ll make up for it now [RadioZoom Episode #120].

I’ve added all the neat-o band interviews and special moments to my Best Of page. So far I have our interviews, the private Matt Good living room show special time and the post about the 2 year anniversary of my blog. Those are just some of my favourite posts, if you have one please let me know and I’ll add it in there.

Thanks to all those who helped with this redesign. John for being very very patient, and a couple friends who helped with the theme and logo creation (which still is not complete, tinkering is inevitable).

After blogging about how we don’t have “real” seasons in Vancouver anymore (just hot hot for 2 months in the summer then 10 months of grey wetness [mbv]) Mother Nature made me put my foot in my mouth as the Lower Mainland with dusted with several inches of snow this weekend [mg] [mbv].

It’s still coming down although it’s not as noticeable downtown. We took the Skytrain out to New Westminster this morning and as we headed East, the more snow there was.

There’s about 8 inches right now in Burnaby, New West and from what I hear, Surrey. Any place with an incline has either become the fun afternoon hangout for kids in snow suits armed with toboggan and crazy carpets, OR a skating rink for car with a driver freaking out about this white substance falling from above that is ruining their traction.

Luckily, we can rely on the transit system for now so John and I can just walk or grab a bus/Skytrain if we need to get anywhere. On the train this morning they had a message playing every 2 stops: “Skytrain is now running it’s Snow Plan. There is an attendant on every train. Due to heavy snow, there may be sudden stops. Please hold on at all times or stay seated, thank you.”

I’m pretty curious as to how the commuters will fare tomorrow morning, downtown may be pretty empty tomorrow without all those who don’t want to brave the trek in. One thing I have to mention is if you’re coming from the burbs and you have a foot of snow piled on top of your car, please make sure to scrape it all off. Nothing worse than driving behind someone with a foot of snow on their roof and WOOSH the wind catches it and you get clumps of falling snow either on the road right in front of you or smack dab in the middle of your hood. Please be careful out there and check out these traffic webcams to find out what your route might look like.

It’s a good thing I walk to work… or is it?

Here in the West End, the snow is piling up. We just came from Burrard station where the insulating concrete of the heart of downtown is keeping everything pretty liquid. I’m looking outside the window and I see trees covered in powder, not as much as in Burnaby, but there’s enough on the sidewalk to scoop up and mold into a killer snowball. So this one’s pretty easy, my next “cheap fun thing to do in Vancouver” is this: Build a snowman & have a (friendly) snowball fight.

This summer we enjoyed so many outdoor activities in Vancouver, that didn’t cost a thing except maybe bus fare if we wanted to venture a little further from home [miss604]. As the rain rolled in for fall and winter in the city, our beach time came to an end, walks are less frequent and we spend most of our free time watching hockey indoors.

Today, we discovered something (for under 10 dollars) that’s a GREAT way to spend a rainy day inside and get a workout. Ice skating [metblogs]

We’ve been meaning to go for a while and since I had the day off work and it was a Twonie skate at the West End Community Centre, we jumped at the chance. Lacing up the skates and getting out on the ice felt SO good. It took us a lap to get our skating legs into gear and we were off. 45 minutes later I was out of breath and just listening to the sounds around me. Ashlee Simpson on the loudspeaker, crunching snow and ice beneath the skates of school kids, tourists and old couples alike. Echos of young girls giggling when their friend would trip, the crunching of snow under the skates of the hockey star in the middle of the rink practicing his turns and stops. Man it felt good to get out there.

I was surprised that John did so well, although I shouldn’t be really. He comes from a climate where outdoor rinks would flourish in the winter time much more than they would here. He’s also got a lil hockey background. I felt empowered, being one of maybe two girls on the ice wearing “boy” skates although I think I lost my ability to hockey-stop. Regardless, we had such a wicked time.

On the way out of the rink, there was a display case mounted on the wall, just outside of the doors on Haro Street [view Flickr pics]. They were photos of Coal Harbour and the old Denman Arena. For those who don’t know – that’s the last place that the Canucks won the Stanley Cup in 1915 [read my metblogs post].

We’re set on going skating again, probably tomorrow. And I’m thinking of starting a new series of blog posts (since we’re kinda cheapskates) about things to do in Vancouver that are uber fun AND under 10 bucks. So let this be the first, and we’ll see how our season goes.

*View the YouTube video John took at the rink & my Flickr photo set.

The Vancouver Park Board Rinks: Britannia, Kerrisdale, Killarney, Kitsilano, Riley Park, Sunset, Trout Lake and West End Community Centres [VPB].

PDF schedule for all rinks in Vancouver.