Any Simpsons Fans Out There?

If you are a fan of the Simpsons then you need to check this out. It's the Simpson's opening except it is done with real people, not cartoons.

Check it out by clicking here!

Hockey Goalie Training Video

This is the funniest and best hockey training video I've ever seen. I can't link directly to it, but click here and it is posted on Dave Carey's blog. You'll love it, I promise!!

I think this is how the Calgary goalies train! Go Oilers!!

Fight Night!

I was at the soccer centre Sunday night and saw that Arsenix and Eclipse United were playing their game. I was there to watch Shiela play but I wandered over to the other game for a bit and watched. I obviously didn't stay long enough.

With 10 minutes left in the game someone received a yellow card. That player went to the box, but then two other players who looked like they were just goofing around suddenly slapped (or hit) each other and all hell broke loose! The guy in the box came running out and started throwing punches. Both benches were cleared. The Arsenix goalie came running down from the opposite end of the field to get involved and started throwing punches. Apparently there was some vicious moves as guys were getting their heads slammed into upcoming knees, etc. One guy for sure left bleeding with a badly ripped jersey. The game was abandoned and both teams left the field. But it didn't stop there! The Arsenix guys walked on the outside of the field to the Eclipse dressing room, grabbed one of the players by the throat and threw him up against the wall.

Someone eventually called the police ( I have no idea where SPI Security was that night) but I didn't see them talking to anyone so I don't know if anyone was laying charges. There were a total of 5 red cards given out and I'm sure they will all get 6-7 if not more game suspensions. They can pretty much kiss at least a 1/4 of their outdoor season goodbye.

And where was I during the fight? On the other side of the facility drinking my butter caramel smoothie from Tim Hortens and watching our Tauro FC girls clean up on yet another team. It was a great game, but definately not as good as a fight. Oh well.

UPDATE: The rumor mill is buzzing and last night I heard that one of the players actually punched the referee in the face! If that is true that guy will be suspended for a couple of years!

Yep, I'm a Goon!

For those of you that follow our Tauro FC Men's team you'll notice that we are on a new kind of streak...a red card streak. Yes, I admit it, I was one of the ones that got a red card. Actually, I received 2 yellow cards which equals a red card.

The first yellow card I derserved. The ref called a passback on our team when I clearly played it to our keeper off my thigh. Anyways, the ref made the call, I turned around and yelled "No way!" and then I kicked the ball away that just happened to be at my feet. As soon as I kicked it I knew I had a yellow card. After serving my 4 minute penalty I went back out there again with no incidence. But on my very next shift another player and I were battling for the ball along the boards and no one had possession. I flicked the ball past the guy but he shielded me and passed the ball about two feet away from the boards to his player. As his player went by I stepped out to try and steal the ball, missed, and hit the guys leg. The guy yells (but he always yells whenever you touch him) and immediately the ref gives me a yellow card. Again, I said "You've got to be kidding!" but then I just left it at that and left the field. I figured if I yelled at the ref I would probably just get an extra game suspension or something. So I'll admit that second yellow was a foul, but honestly, there was way worse stuff going on and it did not deserve a yellow card. Oh well, I had to miss one game in which we killed the other team 5-1 or something.

What a Great Day

My birthday has now come and gone and I've decided to do a blog of the day to show you how I spent it:

7:30am - Wake up and decide to go back to sleep

7:58am - Shiela wakes me up and brings me breakfast in bed. It consisted of pancakes, hashbrowns, bacon, eggs and V8 splash. It was awesome!

8:15am - I opened up a gift from Christy and John (no they weren't here, but they sent it from BC). It was a nice Canadian Olympic t-shirt from Hbc. It fit perfectly and I love it!

8:17am - I opened up my birthday presents from Shiela. She gave me a Coca Cola napkin holder (which I used as a money holder for my poker game that night), a coupon for a massage, a Dealer button (which I've needed for a long time) and a coupon that entitled me to buy the new Daniel Negraneau DVD that I wanted (she couldn't find it online, and actually I couldn't either but I know it's there, so I'm get to find it and buy it).

8:20am - I get up and shower

8:45am - I head to the computer to start "working" for the day. My "work" for the day was going to be playing poker online.

8:45am - I read the online birthday card from Kurt and Kendall...it was great!

8:48am - I read the birthday greeting from Janelle Baerg...thanks!

9:30am - My grandparents phone to wish me a Happy Birthday

9:45am - My mom phones to wish me a Happy Birthday and I find out that someone crashed their truck through the large window of the Hepburn Co-op! I thought that only happened in the movies!

9:58am - I log out of Party Poker where I've been playing Omaha high low all morning...I'm up $5.00.

10:00am - Shiela and I head out to do whatever we want...which is go look at the Olympic clothing at Hbc.

10:35am - Shiela loves all the clothing they have (and if you haven't seen it you need to check it out, it's really nice stuff) and I make a mental note for her birthday

11:15am - Make our way to Soccer Locker to spend the $60 gift certificate I received almost a year ago and haven't spent yet.

11:19am - Rob at soccer locker tells me they are just unpacking all their new stuff and so if I come back in a few days they will have a lot more stuff. He said not to worry about my gift certificate expiring since he knows me. I leave happy and will come back in about a week.

11:34am - Shiela and I are in Superstore to buy snacks for the poker game that night

11:57am - I drop Shiela off at home and go read the paper at the library.

12:30pm - I make myself some Chunky soup for lunch and head back to the computer to play some more poker

1:20pm - I've lost $25 playing poker online...I'm debating whether I should stop

1:21pm - I switch over to playing no limit hold 'em and buy in for $10.00

1:33pm - I've now lost that $10.00 and decide it's time for a nap

2:30pm - Larry phones to say he can't make it poker. I get up and play some more poker.

3:30pm - I just won a sit and go tournament and pocketed $17.50. I'm also playing in a free tournament but doing badly.

3:45pm - Decide to clean the house for the poker tournament tonight. I put my tournament status to "post and fold"

4:15pm - I play a few hands in the tournament and am knocked out. Oh well, its was free.
4:17pm - I enter another sit and go tournament for $5.00
4:22pm - I'm knocked out...not a good showing. I shut off the computer.
5:00pm - I head to KFC to pick up my birthday supper...I bought the Fun Bucket and yes, it was a lot of fun to eat.
7:00pm - Poker tournament starts and I lose a lot of chips to Shiela in the very first hand (what was I thinking drawing to a low straight). I'm worried I will get knocked out early.

8:00pm - I won a couple big hands and am back in the game.

9:00pm (circa) - Colin is knocked out of the tournament first when Ben Lim's King kicker was higher than Colin's as they both had a pair of Queens.

9:20pm - I forget the order of who was knocked out when, but in the end it was just Gramps and I.

10:00pm - Gramps and I are the final two...Gramps has few more chips, but it's pretty equal.

10:05pm - I'm getting nothing for cards and am losing chips. I win a couple hands but can't pull ahead.

10:15pm - I hold Jack, 7 and the flop comes 7, 10, 2. Gramps bets 400 and I raise 400 more. He calls. the turn is an 8. I know Gramps doesn't have the 10 so he either has a 2 or else some high cards. He bets 500. I count my chips and go all in. Gramps calls and turns over 2, 8 for two pair. The river is a blank and I'm done in 2nd place and win $10.00.

10:30pm - Everyone heads home and my birthday is done. What a fun day!

I'm really looking forward to the party on Saturday night!

It's Here!

It's finally here and it's already got off to an amazing start!! I won't blog about it a lot now because I'm going to post a blog tomorrow (hopefully) outlining my day. But so far Shiela brought me breakfast in bed and it was yummy!!!
And I can't wait for the big poker game tonight! (there are a couple seats left if you still want in!)

Big Day Approaching...Are You Ready?

It's only 2 more sleeps away. I thought I could just keep it low key and pretend that nothing was happening and it was just a normal day. Yah, right! That thought lasted about a milisecond. No way. I love birthdays and I can't wait to celebrate it!

This year I'm having a party on the Saturday after my birthday and we are going to do something that I love to do but am extremely bad at...curling! That's right, we are going curling and it will be a hoot! If you haven't been invited yet, don't worry...Shiela is doing the invitations and will be inviting people. She was actually going to do it this morning but got called in to work. So I figured I'd throw it up here on my blog to give some of you avid readers the heads up. So if you are my friend and we hang out on occassion, keep this Saturday night free as it's going to be a lot of fun!

Also, ON my birthday, that's Wednesday March 22,I'm going to have a poker night. It will be a tournament format that starts at 7:00pm and ends at 10:00pm (or really close to it). Texas Hold 'Em, $5.00 buy in but the fun is free! I hope to get quite a few people out so if you want to play some poker on Wednesday night leave me a comment on my blog and I'll save you a seat.

I've also decided what I want for my birthday, so if you haven't bought me a gift yet, feel free to choose from this list:

• 17" or 19" flat screen monitor for our computer
• Daniel Negreanu's new poker DVD (I think you can buy it at www.fullcontactpoker.com in the store section, but you might have to create a free account first
• a nice outdoor soccer ball
• Adidas casual shoes
• casual socks (not sport socks or dress socks...just casual socks)
• money to put towards my poker bankroll (feel free to transfer money online directly into my Paradise Poker or Poker Stars account if you want)
• nice athletic Adidas shirts at Athletes World (in Midtown Plaza they are in the back of the store on the bottom left hand side. I like both the white and the red ones)
• Tickets to any U2 concert
• A golf membership to a Saskatoon golf course
• new CD's (Christian bands would be great...not sure which ones...maybe a gift certificate would be good)
• Satellite radio (not sure why, but Warren has one and it sounded cool)
• Mike Caro's Book of Poker Tells
• Subscription to the magazine CardPlayer (it's a poker magazine)
• a Poker Tournament timer (probably need to buy this online)
• Gym membership to the Saskatoon Civic Centres (honest, I'll use it!)
• New VCR with remote control and the ability to program it (I broke our current VCR remote and so now we can't program shows and have to get up to fast forward the tapes. Ok, put away your violins but I'll keep the cheese)

Oh, the list could go on and on (actually, the truth is that it took me quite a while to think up all those things as I never really feel like I need anything)

That's it for now! I hope a lot of my friends can make it out to my party...Hurry! Hurry Hard!! (I'm going to be yelling that the entire time!)

I Met the Naked Man

I first received the email a few days ago. "I'm coming into the city on Wednesday. Let's meet somewhere." I read the email over again a few times. This man wanted to meet me. Alone. In the dark. No, wait, not in the dark as it will be in the afternoon. Phew. I emailed back,"Sure. Give me a call on my cell phone when you get into the city and we'll arrange a meeting." The plan was set.

I was out and about all day today cruising around and finding new places to put up posters to promote the best running event in the world called the Hbc Run for Canada. I was cruising down Arlington at around 1:30pm when my cell phone rang. I turned off the radio and picked up the phone, knowing who it was going to be. "Meet me at the corner of Louise and 8th at a place called Willy's." I didn't know which restaurant he was talking about and that gave me the willies, but I knew the location and headed on over there.

As I pulled up to Willy's I realized it was actually a place called Fajita Willy's. No problem, it was an open area, with lots of people, etc. As I stepped out of my car I glanced into the window and suddenly stared at the large "For Lease" sign in the window. The man was luring me to an abandoned restaurant. I quickly leaned back inside to find a weapon. Hmmm, what would work best. An old chocalate bar wrapper, an old coke bottle, or an old coke bottle. Ah, forget the weapon, how strong can a naked man be.

I was making my way up to the front of the door with the bag of "stuff" the man wanted. Suddenly a red truck screeched into the lot and came to a halt right in front of the door. I looked up just in time to see the man pointing at me with one finger and motioning for me to come into his truck. I was always told never to talk to strangers and DEFINATELY don't get into a strangers car (or truck), but what else could I do. The transaction had to take place and it looked like it was going to go down in the truck.

I got into the truck and the introductions happened quickly. I wanted to cut right to the chase, but the small talk started first. Oh, he was unaware that Fajita Willy's was closed when he asked me to meet him there. Phew. So this wasn't an elaborate plan to lure me to an abandoned restaurant. I finally made the transaction and handed him the bag I had. He took out some of the merchandise. "Not bad," he said. Then he reached into his bag and handed me the merchandise I was after. As I held it in my hands I could instantly tell his merchandise was not the same quality as mine, but I was expecting that. I mean, the brochures for our running event were made by a multi million dollar corporation and the brochures for his running event were made by a local community in a small town.

After the transaction was complete I talked a little more. "So you are from Eston," I began, "Were you one of the guys in the naked calendar?" Now for those of you who don't read the newspaper or listen to the radio or watch TV or take yearly vactions to the small town of Eston would probably not know that a bunch of older men decided they needed a fundraiser to raise money for a blood machine in their town. Every time someone needed certain blood tests done they had to drive an hour to Rosetown or Kindersley to get it done. So instead of that the town decided to make their own calendar of local naked men doing everyday things like riding a snowmobile, riding a riding lawn mower, etc. And yes, they were all naked.

"Actually, I was the one who planned the whole thing," the naked man informed me. I found out that this man initiated the whole calendar himself. He kept it very secretive the whole time and nobody knew they were even making the calendar until the day they released it to be sold. Even the men who were in the calendar did not know who the other men in the calendar were. So the entire town was extremely interested to find out which local men were in it. Word leaked out about the calendar and pretty soon it was all over the media, etc. and everyone knew about it. The naked man even said they were receiving money from people in the States who had heard about it. In the end they ended up raising about $29,000 for their cause which bought them their blood machine and a bunch of other things the town needed to.

It was pretty cool meeting the naked man behind all the other naked men of Eston. He is promoting an event in Eston called the Eston River Trek and is happening on May 13th. It looks like a great event and is actually very challenging...a lot more challenging than my 10K run. The Eston River Trek is actually a 40 mile walk along the river and surrounding landscape. You even have support vehicles, etc. to help you along the way. So click here to check it out...it looks like a lot of fun and if you live in Saskatoon and want a brochure let me know because I have some to give away for that event.

*P.S. At no time during my meeting with the naked man was he actually naked.

The Studio Experience

My big TV debut was about to happen and I didn't want to be late. I was suppose to be there at 11:45am for my interview and so I made sure I was early. I found a parking spot right in front of CTV and waited in the car until it was a little closer to 11:45am. So after about an hour and a half of waiting in the car I went inside (just kidding).

As I walked into the building I grabbed the door handle and pulled toward me. My arm shot back towards the door and I realized it was locked. I peered inside and saw a woman right there behind a desk staring at me. Our staring contest only lasted for about 2 minutes when I finally admitted defeat and looked away...luckily right to where the sign said that the door is always locked and needs to be opened up from the inside. I suddenly heard the buzzing and pulled the door open. This time it magically opened and inside I went.

I told the lady at the desk that I was there for the News at Noon interview and she told me to go down the hall and wait in the room until Jeff came and got me. Not being familiar with the building I started to venture down the hall looking for this "room" that I was suppose to "wait" in. I figured the first room I came to must be the one and so when I saw the first room I walked in. As I looked around I realized it was about as big as an airplane bathroom. "Man, hopefully there aren't a lot of other people here for interviews because I'm not sure how we're all going to fit in this room," I said to myself as I glanced around. I finally came to my senses and figured this can't be the room. As I squeezed on out the door I decided to walk a little further. Ah, sure enough, now this was more of a waiting room.

I walked in (there was no door) and sat down on the loveseat (do you still call them loveseats in a waiting room...seems a little too cozy for two strangers). About 1 minute later the room was getting pretty full as 3 people from a Native theatre company came in. I tried to make small talk but they pretty much all but ignored me. I was kinda surprised, but they just talked among themselves. "Oh well", I thought, "I've got better things to do," and I went back to staring at the wall. Finally another girl came in and her and I chatted until they came and got us for the interview.

As they brought us into the studio for the show I was surprised at how small it was. There was just one camera guy and the little stage where the interview would take place was right beside their anchor desk. It' funny how different things look on camera. Jeff wasn't there so it was Jennifer doing the interview and Trish was also there to do the news. We all just sat against the wall and watched it all until it was our turn. I've already blogged about the interview so I'll skip that part. It was very nerve racking up on the mini stage which is part of the reason I stumbled over my words in the beginning of the interview. I felt like I did a terrible job and as I drove home afterward I wished I had told no one about it. Howver, over the course of the next few days people who saw it emailed me and said it looked good, so I felt a little more relieved.

The scary part was that my boss in Toronto wanted to see it. Now you have to understand that she has never even seen me before. I only interviewed with her over the phone and it was another lady from Calgary that actually interviewed me in person. So now she was going to see me on TV for the first time in an interview I was not proud of...I could feel the words "You're fired!" about to be thrown into my face again. I delayed getting a copy of it made, but on the day of our local snowstorm I decided to venture out and get a copy made. After nearly spinning the tread right off my tires and rocking to get out of numerous spots where I was stuck I finally shipped them the video so they would get it Friday morning.

Friday morning came and my boss didn't say anything. Friday afternoon came and went and I still hadn't heard from them. "Hmmm," I thought, "they probably are trying to figure out how to fire someone over the phone after they watched my interview." I forgot about it over the weekend and when Monday morning came around I waited some more to hear the feedback. Monday passed and I still heard nothing. "Ok, this is crazy, " I thought, "surely they've watched it by now." Finally, Tuesday afternoon I got my first feedback...they LOVED it! She had even shown it to the President of TrojanOne and he liked it too and wanted to be sure they showed it to the Hbc executives. Pheww! I wasn't going to be fired.

So everything turned out great. I've even spoken to some of the top Hbc guys/girls and they told me they liked the interview a lot too! All that worrying for nothing. Well, I really wasn't worried. I just expect so much of myself and so it would take a lot for me to believe that I did a really good job (there's a little inside knowledge into the world of Sheldon for you!)

I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry

Ok, so it's been a long time since I've blogged. I'd like to tell you it was because I was working on a huge project that will make me millions or I was off on some exotic location, but the truth is I've just been busy. Busy with what you may ask. Well, I don't know.

I'm not sure what I've been busy with. Maybe it was being at the CIS Track and Field Championships this past weekend. Maybe it was helping out for many many hours doing evaluations for the Eastside Soccer Association. Maybe it was finding out I'm going to have to have surgery. Probably a bit of everything. Needless to say I've felt very busy...but it sure has been fun.

I'll be blogging a lot more now as I try and catch up with the last couple weeks of my life on here. So stay tuned!