Another Ski Day
Carter and headed out for our second ski day together at Cypress. It was warm and sunny so we couldn’t resist. Carter was awesome again and we were on the big green runs in no time. None of this bunny hill stuff. We had a blast and he was bombing around everywhere. I think the season is over now. I’m hooked and want to go again.

Raccoon Fun
Caught another raccoon in our cage. Packaged him up in a cage and tarp, secured it tightly so he didn’t get out and traumatize me like last time and disposed of him humanely 7Km away. Haven’t seen one around the house since.

Carnival Day
The carnival came to the mall and we all had a great time going on the various rides. Poor kids, they don’t get to do much. One trick to going to these things is getting the discount coupons from the mall. You can ride for half price with these coupon books. I like the pic of Carter outside the Rock N Roll house. Iron Maiden rules.

Movie Review: Shooter
Another movie last night – Milestones for dinner and then a bunch of popcorn and Shooter will Mark Wahlberg. The movie was OK – predictable but we enjoyed it. I like sniper movies – made me think of my raccoon issue. I thought of it as a modern day Rambo. I give it 6 MGDs. We went to Cactus club afterwards and spent a few hours there into the wee hours. Good times.

Raccoon Hell
We had another raccoon on the roof Wednesday night so I threw a few small pebbles at them to scoot him off. We set up our trap and within minutes we had one trapped and 4 others hanging out in the back yard. The others were just hanging out walking around picking fleas off each other and scratching themselves. Each time I would walk by the cage – the rodent in there would growl real loud and lunge at me with his teeth and claws. I would jump everytime – he was pissed.

So I do what I normally do and wrap the cage in a tarp and we head out on a 5Km trek to some other place. Driving along he is growling and ripping at my tarp which stresses me. The growling freaks me out and my tarp is (was) almost new. His claws were doing a number on it. I start screaming hoping to spook him and have him stop but that only antagonizes him and his aggression escalates.

The tarp starts to shake even more and I look in the rear view mirror and I see him. Big furry ears and a growling mouth staring back at me. Holy S**t !!! I slam the brakes on and fly out of the van shutting the door panicking on what to do next. I walk to the back and the coon follows me and then walk tot the front and he jumps to the front. The friggin’ guy was following me and wanted a piece of me. I was the one scared now.

A lady saw me running around my van from her home and came out to ask if I was OK. I told her I had a raccoon in my van and she was like “Why is there a raccoon in your van ??” “How did you trap it ??” “Why are you trapping raccoons ??”. This lady, older than me with booze on her breathe took control of the situation. She had one of the driveway gates that had wheels to open and close it. She had be stand behind the gate and watch her walk over to the car and she opened the passenger door and then ran back to the gate with me and we closed it and watched. The raccoon “I call him the rabid flea infested rodent” carefully walked across the dashboard and onto the door and down the front hood and into a bush. I was only a few kilometers away so there is a good chance he will find his way back to harass us some more. The sage continues.

Raccoon Crap
What do I do on a rare sunny Sunday ? I’m up on the roof cleaning loads of raccoon crap off the roof. A big bag of it. They like to camp out up there and dump all over it. They have to go.

Movie Review: 300
Decided to do dinner and movie with some buds – Cactus Club and Sammy Js and saw 300
This movie was a bit odd but great – same guy that wrote Sin City which was an awesome weird flick. 300 is a period movie dating back thousands of years which had the Spartans on Greece battling the invading Persians. The battles had a lot of CGI in them and were big violent scenes. The whole feel of the movie was unique and we really enjoyed it – 7.5 MGDs. We did however feel like fighting and killing after watching it – nonstop action.

Concert Review: Christina Is In the House

So I’m tired and had a long day at work and it’s time for a second concert in as many nights. Last night was Christina Aguilera Sold Out at GM Place. Linda and I started out at the Shark Club and had a great steak sandwich and some drinks before heading over to the show. We were an hour before start time – I’ve never done that before – I usually get there when the opening band starts half in the bag. Early was good though– we had time for more drinks and people watching. The first thing I noticed was how many attractive girls there was at the show. The next thing was how many girls there was and how few men there was anywhere. We’re talking empty mens rooms with 20 minute waits for women. At one point the girls started using the mens rooms because there was no one in them but security put an end to that. All the men in the whole stadium only needed one washroom, not 20. There were lots of young girls, kids, teens with their moms buying all the overpriced paraphernalia.

I’m happy that I filled up with all the testosterone from Sunday night’s Sabbath show to handle all the estrogen Monday. We had good seats on the side and waited for the show.

The Pussycat Dolls opened up – 6 scantily clad women singing and dancing around the stage. I don’t know about you but this is a good thing. I enjoyed their show – I like many of their songs – Don’t Cha, Stickwitu, Buttons and like the big screens focusing of them and their talents. I had binoculars and got to zoom in on Jessica (one of the Dolls).

When Christina came out, I was absolutely surprised at how loud 18,000 screaming girls could be. The high pitched screams forced me to cover my ears initially. I just came from a metal show and the high pitched screams would have drowned out any metal show. I’ve never heard a louder show from a screaming point of view.
Christina was way better than I thought she would be. She sang amazing and her voice and sound were brilliant. After each song she would take a minute or 2 to change and the stage would change. The stage was impressive. This was a full show as much as a concert. There was a big band playing jazz and blues, there were many dancers writhing around the stage and many stage props. The floor had an area in it where Christina would rise and descend into the floor and a staircase the moved forward and back.

She looked great as well and the big screens were really good to watch as well. She had different themes going on throughout the show, some Jazz stuff, blues stuff, circus stuff, cabaret stuff and general dance. My highlights were Beautiful, Fighter, Dirrty, Hurt. There really was no bad song or bad parts to the show at all. I can honestly say that I enjoyed it despite there being no screaming guitars or fancy pyrotechnics. The screaming girls added a different element to the show but that made it exciting as well.

Concert Review: Heaven and Hell

Black Sabbath rolled into Vancouver last night. This time the lineup was the band from 1980 with Ronnie James Dio singing the tunes. I first saw this lineup in 1980 for their Heaven and Hell tour and then again in 1983 for the Mob Rules show. They played only Sabbath songs which Dio recorded from Mob Rules, Heaven and Hell, Children of the Sea, Sign of a Southern Cross, Die Young, and 3 new tunes from the upcoming compilation CD and they finished with Neon Nights. They were surprisingly really good considering how they have aged. I didn’t know if Dio was going to be able to hit the notes but he did and he looked good there back on stage. He’s just a little guy probably 60 and rocked the house. Tony Iommi played awesome but didn’t move around too much. He hasn’t changed in all these years. They played for 2 hours and I could have listened to them for another 2.

Megadeth and Down opened up for Sabbath. Megadeth got ripped off in the sound department. Their sound was lame compared to Sabbaths and they only got to play a 45 minute set which is too bad.

I was in the mosh pit as usual in the front. It was tense at times with all the pushing and shoving and aggressive rockers but I held my ground. I held onto the rail with all my might despite people trying for my spot. The guy behind me must have been 6’4 330 lbs but didn’t bug me. At one time the moshers behind him hit him and his girl and he turned around and dropped the punk. I’m all for moshing but not for the sake of hurting people. It’s usually the same crowd – shirtless early 20’s and tough or wanna be tough guys. It was good see the big guy drop them and they were sure surprised.

I took tons of pics of the show but most turned out real blurry. I wish I knew how to take indoor shots of a band with smoke and lights around. The videos I took were good but the sound was all just static.
The weather was so rainy when I got there I was soaked. I didn’t want to bring my jacket down onto the floor so I “lost it” and brought it to the lost and found for someone to claim and then after the show I “found” it. I thought that was pretty clever.

Hung around the back of the coliseum for almost 2 hours meeting the members of Down and Sabbath. Couldn’t Dave from Megadeth anywhere. Tony and Geezer just walked by and onto their bus but Vinnie and Ronnie spent a lot of time with all of us. We were all shaking hands and hugging and getting autographs and pictures. I was glad I waited. Meeting Dave and Tony would have been awesome as well though.
Slept for 3.5 hours and back to work sore and tired. Christina Aguilera tonight !!

Casino Time
Went to the Casino with Mom. The Boulevard casino is really nice. CCR was playing the theater there but didn’t check them out. Spent time playing the slots and having dinner. We got lucky early which gave me a few bucks to play with. I played some blackjack for an hour – started with $100, went down to $20 and then ended at $100 again and quit. Watched the hockey game – Canucks won in overtime – that was fun to see. After 5 hours- left only down $20 so all in all a good night.

Soccer and basketball is over
Carter played 2 soccer games today. The rain just poured and poured and it was absolutely miserable out there for the kids. His team is great though and the parents make it fun to go. There was an end of season party with trophies and munchies and beer. I think next season he may focus more on basketball than soccer.
Basketball also ended with a couple of games and trophies and party. Steve Nash is a big sponsor of the basketball and I think it’s awesome that he supports it and gets all these kids out there and promotes it in our community. Go Phoenix.

What a long day for Carter.

Had the best weekend

It started with Carter playing soccer in a tournament in the rain – OK, that part wasn’t that good. We then took both kids skating. I was Carters second time and Haleys first and my first time in 20 years. It was a blast and Haley really liked it. Carter used a chair which helped him keep balance while he skated around. We held Haley’s hand and she loved it. – OK, that part wasn’t that good. We then took both kids skating. I was Carters second time and Haleys first and my first time in 20 years. It was a blast and Haley really liked it. Carter used a chair which helped him keep balance while he skated around. We held Haley’s hand and she loved it. I did OK for being away from it for so long – my ankles were a bit weak and my back was killing me from bending over holding the kids.
Movie Review: Walk the line – 7.5/10 – I liked this movie a lot and thought the acting and story was really well done. Reese and Joaquin were a great June and Johnny Cash. I put on my Johnny Cash’s greatest hits all day getting into it. That phase ended fortunately when I put on the New Daughtry CD (the guy from American Idol.

Ski Day
I’ve wanted to take Carter skiing for some time and decided that Sunday was the day he goes skiing for his first time. We went to Cypress Mountain and he took lessons from 10:30-12:15. We cut it short 15 minutes as he was tired and hungry. He wanted to go home at that point. The lessons were great though – they have this little 50 foot hill with a conveyor belt which brings the kids up and down. Lots of staff helping out. I was nervous about Carter wanting to leave as I just spent 2 hours watching him and I wanted to ski too.

We had lunch and relaxed for an hour and then I took him to the Chairlift.He rode the chairlift no problem and when we got to the top he was a bit apprehensive. This was a real hill now and he can’t turn or stop. Together we made it down and I convinced him to try again. This time I made him hold my poles and we went together me holding him and getting him to turn. That was great and we did it again and went faster and faster together and he loved it. Just like me, he loves the speed. He then went on his own and he was great. He turned and then bombed straight down the lower part and I was freaking out how he was going to stop but he pulled out his snowplow and came to stop just before running into people in the line. Afterwards he said it “Rocked”.

We stayed on the mountain and went up and down the hill about 40 times non stop until 6PM when I was exhausted. Skiing seems like it’s his thing and I can’t wait to go again.