Grey Cup Hangover

I'm finally back home again after having an amazing time at the Grey Cup parties. Unfortunatelyl I had so much fun that I completely drained myself and now I am sick. I've got a cold, runny nose and I somehow bit my tongue while sleeping and it hurts all the time now. My boss (who happened to be in Winnipeg for the Grey Cup) said it was Grey Cup hangover (even though I wasn't drinking) when I emailed him to tell him I was calling in sick today so I could get better. And that's a good description...the Grey Cup festivities and excitement is so amazing that you literally are hung over afterward.

I'll post more on the Grey Cup later, but for now I'll just leave you with a picture of some of our Brand Ambassadors we had for our Frank's event at the Argos party on Friday afternoon/evening. Anyone know who the guy is?

Partying at the Grey Cup

I'm in Winnipeg now for the Grey Cup Party. Notice I didn't say the Grey Cup game. That's on purpose for two reasons:
1) I don't have tickets to the game
2) I'm realizing that the game iteself is just a small part of the Grey Cup.

I flew in a day early (Friday morning) because we ended up doing a Frank's RedHot event on Friday night for the Argonauts party. Now unfortunately it wasn't just a bunch of Argonaut players, but rather for fans. But not just Argonaut fans, there were fans there from everywhere...and nobody cared what team you cheered for. i now realize that it is irrelevant which team is actually playing in the game...it's more about the atmosphere and the party.

The party on Friday night was awesome. There were three different sets of cheerleaders there...Toronto's (obviously), Winnipeg's, and finally....SASKATCHEWAN'S!! It was cool to see them. The coolest part was that two of the Rider cheerleaders worked for me in Regina for a Frank's event and so i chatted with them for a bit and we talked about the Grey Cup, etc. They were having a lot of fun. Each group of cheerleaders put on a big and long dance routine and they were literally amazing. I feel bad talking about it because people are going to think I'm just obsessed with cheerleaders and good looking people, but that's not it. The routines these girls did were amazing. I fogot that my camera can take video so all I have are some pictures. I was trying to get a picture of the girls doing their cartwheels and backflips, etc. and trust me, this place wasn't very big so they didn't have a lot of room. I'm going to devote an entire post just to the cheerleaders where i analyze the three groups, tell you who was the best and I'll throw in some pictures. Not just because they are cheerleaders, but the routines they did were great and it almost made me think that maybe cheerleaders are athletes? (what do you think?)

i also got my picture taken with a few celebrities. First off, Kerri Joseph was there and i ended up getting a picture with him. i also got a picture of him with my four Frank's girls so maybe I'll post that one since that may be more interesting. Then the next person you probably all could guess if you put two and two together as to where I was. That's right, Pinball Clemens. i shook his hand and briefly talked to him when he arrived, but then he was swarmed. It was impossible to get a picture so i went outside and waited for him to leave. Sure enough, he came out and although his "handlers" were trying to get him inside the vehicle to leave, he was willing to get a picture taken still and was extremely classy. Of course the stranger who took the picture cut off part of my head, but since Pinball is shorter i got all of him! I'll post those pictures when I get back home on Tuesday night.

Well, it's off to go party some more. i need to buy a Rider shirt for the party on Sunday so i fit in. Wearing business casual at these events makes you look like an idiot. Then it's off to the parade after a visit to Riderville and possibly the Lions Den!

It's Basically Official

Shiela and I are now property owners. We have purchased a townhouse, the mortgage has been approved (they just need to verify some documents) and we are excited!! Our original possession date was January 8, 2007 as the previous owners needed time to find a house. However, they found a house over the long weekend and asked if we could move the possession date up to December 8th!! So we are going to be in our new place in less than a month. The people we are buying from are really great too. They were very helpful as we made the offer on the house and they are just very nice people.

We really feel that God gave us this place. When this house was listed on Saskhouses I phoned her immediately to go and look at it. I phoned so fast she didn't even know it had been listed yet! We went and looked at it at 8:00pm that night and were the first ones there. The lady told me she had so many phone calls about the place that she pretty much had to turn her cell phone off at work. They let us look around and figured we weren't going to buy it since we were just the first people to look at it. We had spent some time looking at other houses and townhouses and we knew exactly what we wanted. We loved it and went upstairs to chat with them. I asked them what their bottom price was and then offered $10,000 below that! Just kidding...I offered them what their bottom price was as it was right about what we wanted to pay and said ew'd buy it if we could sign the papers right away (because I knew if we didn't get a deal done right away we wouldn't get the house). They were shocked that they had sold it so quickly and were very happy to sell to us for the price they wanted.

Not having a clue what we were doing, we made the offer and signed the deal...but we had left our cheque book at home and so we couldn't make a deposit. So we went home to get the cheque book and then came back. When we got back a realtor was there and the owners told us later that he had told them his clients would pay above the asking price for their place. They told him sorry, it was already sold.

I had wanted to view it on Thursday night because on Saskhouses they were advertising an Open House for Sunday. Shiela and I had made plans to go to Calgary for the weekend and we knew this place wouldn't last through the weekend. As it turned out, if we had waited one more hour before buying it we would never have got it as the realtor would have offered more and we couldn't have gone that high. When the realtor had said his clients would pay more for the place, the owners son thought they should have a bidding war on it, but the mom was adamant against that and was just really happy they had sold it so quickly. We found out later that during the open house there was one man who really wanted to buy it. He was telling the owners he would write them a cheque right now if they would sell it to him. They told him no, it was already sold. These people weren't even worried that other people were offering more than us...they really liked us and wanted to sell their place to us. They had already phoned their neighbors to tell them they had sold to a really nice couple!

So Shiela and I are very thankful for this place and praise God for his work in this process and how he worked everything out. Now we just need to try and furnish it somehow LOL!!

Go here to see some photos of it: http://www.saskhouses.com/listing.php?id=6409

My Video Biography

It's pretty rare when you find your own video biography on the internet. But I saw it this weekend. Once I sue them I should be collecting royalties for life! No more work! Let me know what you think.

**Update:
Does anyone know what ROTFLOL means without googling it? Here's a hint: If you aren't ROTFLOL after watching that video I'd be surprised!

Did That Really Happen

I think Shiela and I just bought a townhouse...am I dreaming? Somebody better pinch me (ok don't unless you want my fist in your face (inside joke)). Guess we'll wait on that financing...stay tuned.

A Helping Hand

Last night our LIFE group (that's just another name for a small group for all those who may attend other churches with your own lingo) went to the Canadian Food for the Hungry International. The plan was to help them fold linen that will be sent overseas to hospitals in other countries. Judy, the lady from CFHI, started off by giving us some background information on the organization and what they do. Basically, they send containers (like the really big ones you see on barges and railcars) full of medical supplies, medical equipment, beds, machines, linens (like the ones we folded), etc. to these other countries to help the doctors there provide care for needy people. It's an amazing organization. Judy was a great lady! She has basically devoted herself to this organization and she does amazing work there with adminstration tasks, tracking all the shipments, arranging for medical supplies and pickups all across the province, etc.

With Christmas approaching, CFHI has produced a Gift Catalogue. This catalogue is really cool. It allows you to buy gifs for people in other countries. Not regular gifts like Ipods, cell phones or jewellery, but useful gifts that will greatly enrich the lives of these people. Some gift ideas are a pig, fruit trees, a wheelbarrow, etc. Now that may sound weird, but here's two exerpts from the gift catalogue:

The Gift of a Pig
"Pigs are a favourite animal because, in return for disposing of kitchen garbage as food, they produce manure for the farm, and new piglets each year which can be sold for income or used as a source of meat. A pig can greatly add productivity to a family's agricultural and income-generating activities"

The Gift of a Wheelbarrow
"In hilly rural Rwanda, a wheelbarrow can be the deciding factor in the success of agricultural production. Farmers often live as far as 15km from their fields, and since they travel by foot, carrying a fertilizer or other products in large quantities is next to impossible. Consequently, their farms and their incomes suffer."

I would highly recommend going to their website and browsing through the catalogue to find a gift you can buy this Christmas.

If your LIFE group (or other small group, group of friends, co-workers, enemies or even yourself) want to do something to help out other people, give CFHI a call and Judy will gladly accept any help you are willing to offer. And for you guys out there that like machines, they could really use some help with fixing up some old medical machines (one of our guys in the group calibrated a few weigh scales, I helped him with one) so there is something for everyone.

Another One Day Trip

Looks like I'm taking off in about 1 hour to go to Regina just for the day. Unfortunately I don't get to fly and have to drive there and back. I honestly can't believe I'm even going. The reason for the trip is I have to pick up the ballots from the promotions we did while we were there. That's it. Drive to Regina, pick up the ballots and drive back home. Silly if you ask me. Oh well, at least I'm getting paid for it.