What I have done with my first week of vacation: Not too much. But ya know, that’s okay. I realized I hadn’t had ANY vacation time this year. I would work extra shifts to get days off in lieu and I only took 2 days off even after I got married. No wonder I’ve been stressed out and wanting to throttle everyone in the office.
Yesterday Michelle took me out for dim sum at Kirin. She’s my superstar friend I’ve known since kindergarten. We used to run our high school and plot to take over the world and when I was in Boston, she was in London working for the BBC World Service. She’s been staying downtown this week so we met up and had a little catch-up time. She’ll be in a play on the 19th so we’re going to go see it, an updated version of Moliere‘s The Doctor in Spite of Himself. Just thinking about some of Michelle’s accomplishments (and being a little on the geeky side myself) I’m wondering why she doesn’t have a website. Maybe we should make her one.
Aside from that, did a couple podcasts last week and lots of blogging, including my open letter to a credit union, which sparked some great comments. Another open letter I’ve read recently is from Don to Radio:
Dear Radio,
Stop sucking.
Sincerely,
Don
I honestly mean that. I want to love radio. I want to tune in and listen. But if the best I can say about scanning through the dial over and over again while driving through a total of five states was that I caught the back end of an AC/DC song then radio is doing something wrong. There’s been a critical flaw in the radio business’s philosophy. They think people are turning away from traditional radio for other outlets like satellite and podcasts. That’s wrong. Radio is driving people away from traditional radio and towards other outlets. I’m going to try to make my show not do that [Blankbooks]
We’ve watched a couple movies recently as well, worth mentioning are Little Miss Sunshine and Prairie Home Companion.
Little Miss Sunshine is just so sweet and twisted at the same time, we really enjoyed it. Prairie Home Companion was something John wanted me to see. He remembers listening to the radio program when he was little, and I got a taste of how great it must have been. Although, I’m sure I didn’t get all the little inside jokes, it was still enjoyable – mostly because of the nostalgia factor.
Aside from such musings, I’ve just been enjoying the non-work time. This coming week I’ll celebrate a birthday and spend time with those closest to me… you know… because even though I haven’t heard of any concrete plans so far that must mean they’re all planning a big huge party in secret, right?… guys?…
All of us on the line for a FIRST in Crazy Canucks history… we only had WINS to talk about. Freakin’ sweet.
Episode 14 We all gather around for this episode, but Alanah has technical problems on her end that causes her to dip out early from the fun. You’ll have to ask her the full story, but let’s just call it a conspiracy by her furry friends of the four-legged kind.
Record as of this episode: 22-18-1
Northwest Division: 1st
Western Conference: 3rd
On a five game win streak right now, there is so much to rant and rave about. Edmonton, Calgary, and Dallas have all been our victims since the last recording. Linden’s hot, Naslund’s still struggling, and Burrows finally got that first (official) goal of the season. The rest of the team seems to be waking up, and fans are starting to love the Luongo. We also make some all-star predictions, dissect the mystery of the Northwest Division, and talk a little bit about the World Jr.’s.
We’re attempting to make it a six game win streak tonight, and I’ve had a bit to drink – I totally forgot to post this earlier and I’m making strange shout outs to the Canucks organization. Oh dear, don’t tell Alanah
These alumni games seem to be popping up all over the place and dang it, I’m going to attend at least one. The latest takes place January 14th at South Surrey Arena (I believe that’s smack dab in the middle of Softball City, where the Eagles play). 
96.9 JACK FM is proud to present the Alumni Hockey Challenge on Sunday, January 14th @ The South Surrey Arena (2199 – 148 Street). Featuring JACK FM’s Jeff Rechner; actors: Dave Coulier (Full House), Lochlyn Munro; Global TV’s Steve Darling; NHL Alumni Tony Tanti, Bernie Nicholls, Reed Larson, Paul Reinhart, Gary Unger, Wayne Babych & more AGAINST the Vancouver Canucks Alumni Hockey Team including Cliff Ronning, Garry Valk, Tiger Williams, Richard Brodeur, & more with actor Jackson Davies.
Net proceeds benefiting the Larry Ashley Scholarship Fund & the White Rock/South Surrey Foundation. Tickets are $20 for 4 people (2 adults, 2 youth). General Seating. Call 604.531.4625 (Surrey Eagles office) or the South Surrey Boston Pizza for tickets. [JACK FM][Canucks]
Uncle Joey? King Richard Brodeur? Pay-Per-View Ronning? Sweet! We’re so there. The person I’m most excited to see is Reinhart. I recently discovered I had his Canucks trading card and it would be wicked to get it signed [Flickr].
Back East, they’re getting our usual weather. I heard it’s 14 degrees above the yearly average in Toronto. Meanwhile in the Lower Mainland, we all woke up to this strange white substance falling from the sky. We’ve seen it before, a few months ago, but I haven’t the foggiest as to why it’s coming down now.
My father-in-law asked me yesterday why our weather is being called so ‘unusual’ this year. It’s not the rain, really, it’s the storms. Winds, LOTS of rain, floods, slides, and snow. Not like the snowy winters we used to have when I was little, more like when you least expect it, it’ll dump a couple inches, winds will blow in sideways, and everyone is caught off guard.
We’re nestled indoors right now watching the World Jrs but we’re heading out soon to take care of some banking in Surrey. We borrowed my mom’s car today just to get this errand done (which I blogged a bit about yesterday) although driving is probably the last thing I want to do right now. I think I’ll let John take the wheel this afternoon, as a good Midwest boy he should be more used to these conditions. Unfortunately, everyone else on the roads around here, isn’t.
BC Place after roof collapse this afternoon
Update: We drove by BC Place about 10 minutes after a tear in the roof caused it to collapse. This explains why I haven’t blogged about it til now, we were on the road.
Reports at first were frantic and panicked, after a press conference about an hour later it was revealed that due to the tear, management decided to pull down the roof. Regardless, what a mess – and yet another change to the Vancouver skyline [Canada.com]
Everyone and their dog has already blogged about it (say what? breaking news stories on blogs?) but Jeremy’s got some pretty cool footage on his post of the original tear in the roof, flapping in the wind [JeremyLatham].
We’ve done a couple video podcasts lately and I’ve failed to cross post the entries over here from RadioZoom. Our latest adventure is trudging through the fallen tree carcasses of Stanley Park, over 2 weeks after a storm raged through the area.
RadioZoom Video Podcast #10 – Run Time 20:06 Mins
(click here for direct mp4 link) Our leisurely walk turns pretty rough n’ tumble about 3/4 of the way through… just don’t laugh when I fall down in the mud…
Previous video podcasts are from the holidays, just us rambling while wandering around or out for a drive. They’re over on the RadioZoom site, either on the main page or under the category “Video Podcast” but of course if you’re a subscriber you won’t miss a beat since they’re also in the feed.
