Nanakaskis

Jasper's Christmas Photo Shoot

2005-12-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Tania and I got to take Jasper to Chad Johnston's studio for some pooch pics. Jasper was very excited but performed well, as we were in and out in about 3 min. We love our dog very much. Yay!

All photos are COPYRIGHT Chad Johnston.

Difference

2005-12-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a x-country ski trip with my father and brother. At one point we stopped and my dad said to me "you don't look like the way that mike and I look". First I gotta say that this weirded me out. My dad doesn't talk like that. He usually would have said something like “nah!” or “karbage”. Anyways, at that point my brother also looked at me and said “niet! Niet! NNNNNNiet! Nu du da terderfurter de frent frum de bigger-n-older uff us”. I thought, at least one of them is talking normal. We stood there for a bit then decided to take a photo of each of us at that exact moment so as to compare later that night. Here are the photos. All were taken on the same trip and within 3 minutes of each other.

I know.. pretty low quality post. whatever.

M

1st Day at Sunshine Village

2005-11-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mark Gervais and myself made the drive up to Sunshine Village on Saturday. We were both stoked to be going riding for the first time in six months, but not sure what kind of snow would be waiting for us. I was confident that it was going to be totally played out given the fact that it was the long weekend and the hill had already been open for the previous two days. Upon final decent into the parking lot we noticed a car was parked on the side of the road covered in a fresh layer of snow. This was indicating two things. The lot had been full the day before - a sign of how busy it had been (crazy for an opening weekend). Second, it was covered in snow!

When we arrived at the top of the gondola we headed straight for Standish. Things looked good. There was fresh snow everywhere and the sun was out. At the top we strapped in and headed down the middle. There were a few rocks but the snow was awesome while we made our way towards the western most chutes that drop into the easy-way. We found a sweet run that was basically untouched and slashed away with big first day grins.

Next we headed up Angel and cut way left (south) at the top literally stumbling onto an open powder field. We managed to make only two runs on this route before we were both tired and everyone else clued into our little discovery. We had some amazing turns that equaled the best of last season.

After lunch we were inclined to find a little jump and work on our skilz. The classic SSV wind-lip quarter off of the outside line on Standish was as good as it could ever be. We both had intentions of getting inverted and this jump was going help us out. You needed a tone of speed to get anywhere off of the lip and this made it difficult to gauge the run up. After MG did a nice backside alli-oop I committed to a front flip. My eyes were closed in the air so I knew I did not make it when my head hit the ground. Gervais had a go at it too and enjoyed a variation of the same crash. This went on for some time until I tried to just throw my body upside down in a random-sideways-backwards fashion. Boom! I was on my feet. In the end I had managed to land a couple of solid McTwists and Mark continued to land on his fat head. We were both done and headed home. VIEW THE GALLERY

VIEW THE GALLERY

Phew!

2005-11-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Bboooooom! Burning! Burning! Ok.. Ok.............LASERS! LAZERS! Iiiiieeeeeeeee! Ow. Ow ow owy owweeeee. Ne ne ne ne NOOOOOOOOOOO! Robot. Robot.... ............... ............................... ........................ ................ Snuggles!!!!!!!! Snuggles! Suggles. Ahhh snuggles mmmmm mmm mm Snugmmm Snuggles. Phew, Snuggles.

Pumkin

2005-11-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

My Oma had a dog named Pumpkin. My neighbors had a dog named Kissy. It was'nt pronounced "Kissy", it was more like "Kizzy". I think Pumkin and Kissy were the same kind of Dog. Here are some pumpkins Tania and I carved for Halloween.

Kids stole 2 of our pumpkins really late on Halloween night. They did not take Napoleon.

Nastics

2005-10-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was backing up some old files I found on my hard drive when I came across this video of Mark Gervais, Chris Payne and myself doing gymnastics. Its hard to believe it was taken way back in 2000. That’s like how a 15 year old now thinks its crazy that he was a 10 year old 5 years earlier. Or like a pelican biting down on a fork made of beak (well.. maybe not so much).

In the video you will see a synchronized flat land front flip, a jerry curl/mullet double front flip and some tweaking. Hope you enjoy.

VIEW THE VIDEO

1982 Wookie Costumes

2005-10-17T23:30:00.000-06:00

In lieu of the Halloween season I’m going to tell the story (or, at least my recollection) of Halloween 1982. Uh.. er.. Ummmm. I guess all I can remember is that most of the excitement that Halloween was surrounding the Wookie costumes my mom made for us. (I'm the smaller of the two wookies)

I know that Star Wars was almost the most important thing in our minds back then (at least #2 next to visiting the Indian trading post in Banff and looking at the freaky mermaid thing in the glass case [you got to check that place out now – they have all these 1/2 animals mounted on their walls that were salvaged from road kill - and they still have the mermaid!]). Anyways, Mike and I wanted to be wookies and my mom was gonna sew up a costume for each of us. I have a feeling that she did not use the official George Lucas or Industrial Light and Magic Wookie patturn for our outfits. I think she just expanded off of a standard baby jumper or onesie design, or she just winged it.

In any case we all drove to Fannies Fabrics in Franklin Mall to pick up some wookie fur. Surprisingly they did not have any wookie fur for us. Instead we took home the closest match which happened to be this whispy, itchy, molty, stiff, pylon orange colored fabric that I think might have been made with asbestos.

I think my mom did a great job considering what and who she had to work with. I’m sure I probably had a fit that our costumes looked ridiculous next to a real wookie. Let me tell you I liked wookies. I had this Star Wars book that came with a cassette tape that had this one scene where there was this crazy massive squid like alien attacking in this cave. And Han Solo and Luke are all like PziECrvv! PziECrvv! With their guns but the alien almost has them when Chewi just runs up to it and fricken grabs the tentacles and slams the whole fricken thing down into this lava pit! It was crazy! I got Goosebumps every time I listened to that scene.

So as I was saying I probably cried because my costume was the wrong color and had no wookie face. That might be why in one photo we are wearing Planet of the Apes masks. I must have really freaked cuz I don’t remember those masks at all. I know I didn’t wear one when we were out getting candy. There was one part of my costume that I did love. It was the cargo sash with real functioning cargo compartments. I was so stoked on it that when we went trick or treating I put the first piece of candy I got (a miniature Coffee Crisp) into the first cargo pocket. Of course the rest of the pockets filled up quick (there were only 3) and I moved on to fill up my Food City bag more than once over. When we were done and we had got back home we dumped out all our candy to survey the loot (and to look for razor blades and evil poison apples). I emptied 2 of the cargo pockets of my cargo sash when I got to the one with my Coffee Crisp. It was stuck in there sooooo bad. I don’t think even my dad could get it out. I cried, had a fit, went to sleep. I don’t know if we ever got that Coffee Crisp out but I do know that I liked Halloween way more then than I do now.

Have you ever noticed..

2005-10-14T14:41:00.000-06:00

...how bending a fork with your mind is actually much harder than simply bending it with your hands?
...that in movies about monkeys, the monkey almost never dies?
...how when you are introduced to a new person you immediately stare at his crotch to try to figure out if he is circumcised?
...the way boiling holy water in a microwave will cause Satan to appear?
...how men are, in some ways, different than women?

...that flying saucers always smell like urine inside?
...that there is nothing warmer than a suit made of tacos?
...how the elves in your basement run from sunlight, but not fire?
...that the type of waiters who keep the flatware stuffed down their pants are the same ones who tend to lean down and lick your food just as you're about to eat it?
...that there's always that one cannibal who goes right for the crotch?
...that if food could feel emotion, sausages would always be insane with rage?
...that Tom Hanks almost never plays African-American characters?
...that newspaper obituaries almost never contain the phrase "Dirty Sanchez?"
...that newspaper obituaries rarely contain the phrase "cream of the crap?"

...that some everyday phrases sound dirty but aren't, such as "we're about to launch the Pork Missile, Captain Balls."
...that airline food isn't as good as regular food?
..that newspaper obituaries rarely contain the word "turdfurter."
...how you try so hard to keep people from stealing your curling iron, but then you don't really want it back when it turns up again?
...that one of the hardest things to do in life is to paint a mustache on a bear, but that it almost never seems worth it afterwards?
...that some everyday phrases sound dirty but aren't, such as "the men are ready to parade their flesh lances, Rear Admiral Chubby Browne Rigidpecker."
...that love songs always contain the word "the"?

Crazy Alaska pics from my brother Mike

2005-10-14T10:31:00.000-06:00

My brother mike works with delinquent kids up in Alaska. From what I understand he takes groups of kids out into the wilderness and forces them to take responsibility of their own wellbeing. He has told me some pretty great stories of all the crazy stuff they get into. I will post some of them when I have the time. For now I wanted to post these three pics he sent earlier this year.

Here are his comments:
“Hi

Well I am off on another trip and as usual having my doubts about how it will all turn out, but that is normal. I found some photos from my staff training that I thought you would get a kick out of. I will see you all soon and I am excited for summer. Lets plan some really awesome trips I will be off from June 16 to Aug 22.
- The guy with the flare is my friend Matt, we were testing out all the flares we have.
- The gun is a 50 caliber canon.
- the scream is this log that we found that looked like that famous painting.

Mike”

And here are the pics:

Eliott

2005-10-13T14:09:00.000-06:00

When I was younger I wished that I had a friend who would always be there for me. Then I met Eliott. He was the greatest. He loved to do the same things I liked to do; like diverting small streams and making monkey farts with rocks not flat enough to skip. I thought I had it made until he got stuck in a tree in the boulevard across from my parents house. I tried for about a 1/2 hour to get him down before I gave up to go buy paper caps from the Woodwards toy department with my brother. It's cool though because I could still visit him up in the tree when ever I wanted.

Dog Park Safari

2005-10-13T10:23:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Tania and I met up with 2 of Jasper's brothers and their owners in Calgary. We walked the dogs up Nose Hill and took a few photos. After a closer look at one of my photos I think we were lucky to make it out with our lives (click the photo to enlarge).

Welcome to my new Blog

2005-10-13T10:01:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

I created this blog to share some of the goings-ons in my life.

I will try to keep it updated weekly.

Stay tuned.

M