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Showing posts from 2010

The Edmonton Oilers: Not in last place, but ...

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The Oilers have managed to crawl their way into 28th spot in the NHL, but are still five points behind the Calgary Flames...who yesterday parted ways with their GM .

Post-Christmas hangover

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It's the last official day of my Christmas holidays, and I'm suffering from major post-Christmas hangover right now. That's in large part due to things like this:   Giant perogies! As well as stuff like this: Homemade chocolate truffles! So, yeah, I basically entered a food coma over the weekend. Plus, we've had four different incarnations of turkey already: the roast turkey for Christmas dinner, shredded turkey nachos, a delicious turkey-tortellini soup, and a three-cheese turkey casserole. The good news is that up until yesterday, I was being very good at exercising every day, attempting to keep my weight gain to a minimum. The bad news is I've come down with some kind of head cold, so I'm not feeling terribly great right now. Either that or my sinuses reacted REALLY badly to the three hours of swimming we did on Sunday night. Whatever the cause, Neo-Citran is currently working wonders. But, on the whole, it was great hosting Christmas this year

Sunday afternoon humor

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The Christmas Story

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And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

The Digital Story of the Nativity

There will only be three responses to it: love it, hate it, or really don't "get it."

Winter Wipeout!

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Finally, a reason to be excited about winter.

Survivor Nicaragua Finale Recap

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SPOILERS AHOY! It's the series finale of Survivor, which is the longest 3-hour program in the history of television, particularly the 20-minute "remember the fallen" Survivors montage. The only thing anyone cares about is who wins - and this season, no one could possibly care who wins this season. Dan: the useless rich guy with bad knees. Holly: who flipped out and wanted to quit. Chase: keeps burning his alliances. Sash: Lucky more than good. Fabio: Goof. CBS tries to spin this as the "improbable journey" of the five finalists. I call it the least inspired finale in a long, long time. Bring on the next season of the Amazing Race, please. Fabio came from behind and won the first immunity challenge of the night. Useless Dan was finally voted out. The final immunity challenge was also won by Fabio, and suddenly he's on the miracle run. And the final member of the jury is Holly. So the final three for the million: Fabio, Sash and Chase. At this point, I think

Sunday afternoon humor

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Christmas Tree Ornament Fail

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Anthony Pettis Superkick

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WEC's final fight ever features one of its greatest moments ever. A fitting way for a great little promotion to wrap it up.

The Newsroom: Now Mobile Friendly!

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The good folks at Blogger now have mobile templates available for all of us using their service. That means The Newsroom now looks far more presentable on your iPhone or BlackBerry or other mobile device. A huge upgrade!

Survivor Nicaragua Episode 14 Recap

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On last week's show, which I didn't review, someone named "Benry" was eliminated. Which can't possibly be true, as it would mean someone named their kid "Benry." So there's six Survivors left and the finale is Sunday, so that makes this the penultimate episode. "Penultimate" is such a great word. And if you think I'm stalling so I don't have to actually, you know, review the show, you'd be right. This has been such a horrendous season of Survivor. And I really don't care who wins. Tonight was "loved ones" visit night. So there was the requisite crying. I thought it would be funny to have the producers swerve the Survivors by bringing in other peoples' families. "Dan, here's Bobby, the second cousin of our camera man!" Chase and his Mom won the reward challenge. He chose Sash and his Mom, and Holly and her husband to go along. Fabio had a meltdown over it. And Dan got all high and mighty about how

Palm Springs videos

Some videos from Palm Springs that we haven't otherwise posted:

The Amazing Race Season Finale Recap

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Nat and Kat won becoming the first female team to do so. Next season is going to be fan favorite teams and looks to be a hoot.

Palm Springs Day 4

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Today was relaxation day, which included several hours sunning ourselves at the pool. If the pool looks deserted it's because the resort is probably only one-third full right now because it's a slower time in the tourist season. Everyone we meet here tells us it will be super busy here in 2 weeks. It's been a great few days away. We loved Palm Springs, the weather was great, and it was really fun to spend some time together as a couple.

Palm Springs Day 3

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Today we headed out of town to the Joshua Tree national park, which was like Banff national park if Banff was in a desert and the evergreen trees were replaced by Joshua trees. In other words, beautiful but in a different and desolate kind of way. The rock formations are nothing like I've ever seen before and as we quickly discovered, quite conducive to rock climbing. No, that's not us. You couldn't pay me enough. But the scenery throughout the park was spectacular. There's even a place where you can see the San Andreas fault (below). All in all, quite the adventure. Gigantic thumbs up. Then it was off to MEAT ON SWORDS at Picanha , a Brazilian BBQ. The concept is simple: the waiters walk around with various meats on long skewers and feed you until your stomach explodes. And that's pretty much what we did. We ended up eating 11 of the 12 meats on the fire (we missed out on a Parmesan pork). I tended to line the beef varieties while Char enjoyed the chicken variation

Palm Springs Day 2

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We started Day 2 in typical fashion - being awake ridiculously early. But we made ourselves breakfast in our room and then went exploring the grounds of our resort. We took the morning to go to the Living Desert Zoo, which is a really fun zoo that's all desert animals. Char got a chance to feed one of the giraffes, which was really cool. I've got video that will be uploaded later. The highlight was the hummingbird/butterfly enclosure, which provided some great photo opportunities. They also had a neat petting zoo, and who doesn't love those? The best part of the petting zoo were the cows that came with their own weaponry. (No, you can't pet them.) And I totally loved this little guy. After nearly four hours of checking out animals we headed out of town to the outlet mall to see if we could get any deals. (The answer was "yes" on several fronts. We bought shoes. We have carry-on luggage. This will be interesting.) On the way down we passed a massive windmill fa

Palm Springs Day 1

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Our trip down to Palm Springs was, thankfully, much less eventful than our trip to Hawaii. Our plane from Edmonton was slightly delayed due to a luggage issue - apparently there was luggage on our plane that didn't have a matching passenger on the plane so they had to search through the luggage to get the unmatched bags off. But we made our connection with plenty of time to spare and made it to Palm Springs without incident. Our decision to take only carry-on luggage bought us a lot of extra time all day. Palm Springs is beautiful. To us, it looks like a cross between Kananaskis and Maui. Palm Springs is in the middle of a heat wave right now, and the daytime highs are in the high 20s. The Shadow Ridge resort where we're staying is enormous. (We got lost trying to find our room for the first time - lost by several miles. Really.) After settling in it was off to find food, which tonight came courtesy the Haus of Pizza, a little local joint which we picked more or less at random

Off to Palm Springs!

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My wife and I are off to Palm Springs today for our 20th wedding anniversary. We'll be updating from the road as we can, as we'll have wireless Internet at the resort where we'll be staying.

Christmas at the Alberta Legislature

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I took some pictures of the Legislature early this morning before I started my shift. It looks so pretty at this time of year.

Survivor Nicaragua Episode 13 Non Recap

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I was out at my younger daughter's band concert today and missed the early feed, and I'm not likely going to be staying up to watch the regular Edmonton feed at 9. So, was it any good?

Twenty years ago today....

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Twenty years ago today, I married the most beautiful girl in the world, and this was our wedding theme song. When you look out of your window late at night Whisper a prayer for the friends you made in life Do you remember the ones who helped you make it through? Are you ready to lend a hand when others need you too? Hand in hand, we walk together Hand in hand, we'll serve the Lord forever, hand in hand Our only treasure that won't rust or fade Are friendships that stand on love given away So love one another and love the Lord with all your heart 'Cause that's the way that friendships last And the place that we should start Hand in hand, we walk together Hand in hand, we'll serve the Lord forever, hand in hand Love one another and love the Lord with all your heart 'Cause that's the way that friendships last And the place that we should start Hand in hand, we walk together Hand in hand, we'll serve the Lord forever, hand in hand We walk together, ha

Surfing Santa Starfish!

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Part of our Hawaii-themed Christmas this year. Isn't it fabulous?

The Amazing Race Episode 11 Recap

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It's the penultimate episode of this season and after what seems to have been, like, 17 non-elimination legs, someone (read: Nick and Vicki) better be going home. Nick and Vicki, with their six hour penalty, fell further behind when they didn't get on the same plane as the other teams and ended up more than nine hours behind. So there really wasn't a whole lot of drama here. Brooke and Claire came first but were penalized 30 minutes for taking a taxi instead of a subway. So Jill and Thomas finished first. B&C were second. Nat and Kat were third. Nick and Vicki might still be wandering South Korea. So... we have two all-girl teams in the final 3, yet I can't shake the feeling that Generic Team No. 1, Jill and Thomas, is going to win instead of one of the girl teams. Next week: Um, I'm out of the country and not sure if I'm going to be able to watch the finale.

Putting a little Starbucks on the Christmas tree

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If memory serves, we bought these half-price on Boxing Day a few years ago in Saskatoon on our way back from family Christmas in Manitoba.

Sunday afternoon humor

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All a-Twitter 2

Back in the summer , I noted that I was using 9 different Twitter clients/apps over 5 different computers/devices. For whatever reason, I decided to revisit that list today. HootSuite Twitter for iPhone Twitter for BlackBerry HootSuite for iPhone HootSuite Lite for iPhone (Yes, I use both on my phone. One is personal. One is work-related. So there is no possible way of me accidentally posting from the wrong account.) TweetDeck (very occasionally) Twitter website (even more occasionally than TweetDeck) So I'm down more to a core group of apps - HootSuite and the Twitter mobile clients. Despite some growing reservations about HootSuite dividing their services into free and paid components, it's still overall a better solution to me than TweetDeck as it's web based and more portable for me across computers than the hard-drive bound TweetDeck app. And TweetDeck for iPhone is long gone on my phone. One difference between now and then is that I'm now using text

Our new Hawaii inspired Christmas tree

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We decided a while ago that having vacationed in Hawaii this summer that we'd put up a palm tree for our Christmas tree and have a Hawaii themed Christmas. And it's awesome!

Video: Alberta Legislature Christmas Tree Light Up

New video: Hallelujah (Light Has Come) by BarlowGirl

A hauntingly beautiful song.

Survivor Nicaragua Episode 12 Recap

Naonka and Purple Kelly both wanted to quit at the reward challenge, but Jeff made them think about it and give him their final decision at tribal council. Holly, who wanted to quit at the beginning of the game, made her best effort in talking Kelly into staying. Holly also forfeited her spot on the winning reward team to give everyone a new tarp and more rice. There was no immunity challenge, which was odd given that both of them could have changed their minds and no one would have had an actual immunity necklace. At tribal council, Naonka quit. And so did Kelly. Crazy. And Jeff just buried both of them. Well, the good news is Naonka is finally out of the game. But my wife was pretty angry that they're both on the jury despite giving up. Next week: The final 7 scramble.

Oilers Update: Not in last place!

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When we last left our heroes , they were firmly in the NHL basement. Now, as the accompanying screen cap shows, they've scratched and clawed their way into a tie for 28th place. Pity the New York Islanders. Of course, there's a line of thinking that suggests the Oilers may actually be worse than last year's team, which finished dead last overall. So don't go planning the Stanley Cup parade route yet.

The Amazing Race Episode 10 Recap

We have family over, so we're not doing a big recap tonight. Nick and Vicki basically gave up and took a six hour penalty rather than finish their last task. But was another non-elimination leg, so they're still in it - albeit way behind and with a speed bump to boot. Most undeserving team ever. Next week: North Korea

Sunday afternoon humor

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Survivor Nicaragua Day Late and Dollar Short Episode 11 Recap

As noted last week, I had a social function last night so I couldn't recap the show. And as it turned out, it was a "special episode" dealing with the final 9 (read: It's Thanksgiving in the US and no one is watching anything other than football.) So, I skipped this one entirely. Be back next week with a real show.

Bonus Monday morning humor

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The Amazing Race Episode 9 Recap

It's Double U-Turn night on TAR, a twist in the game that will no doubt have the Internet fan boys up in arms. The teams made their way to Bangladesh. Jill and Thomas got there approximately 2 weeks ahead of the other teams. Jill and Thomas used the U-Turn on Brook and Claire. Nick and Vickie were second to the U-Turn but declined to use it. Nat and Kat U-Turned Chad and Stephanie. Chad and Stephanie finished last and were eliminated. We wish them well in their future endeavors. Next week: Grey Cup in Edmonton! And race drama!

Sunday afternoon humor

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Where to watch UFC 123 in Edmonton and Calgary

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There's a UFC PPV this weekend, and despite what the poster says, the real main event is going to be Hughes-Penn 3, and I hope that Matt wins handily. Here's the link on where to find a bar to watch it .

Survivor Nicaragua Episode 10 Recap

It's the much-anticipated "Day From Hell" episode of Survivor: Nicaragua. The TV guide preview helpfully tells us that the camp burns down due to an unattended fire. Apparently, no one thought it was a bad idea to leave the fire unattended surrounded by wooden chests to keep it protected from the rain. Although, frankly, the entire scene played out on less time than it took you to read this and was never mentioned again. The show-long storyline was folks plotting to get Brenda out. But Chase kinda blew the plan a bit by telling Brenda. Meanwhile, Jane won immunity. At Tribal, Sash declined to use his hidden immunity idol to save Brenda and the cute but evil queen was was voted out. Now there's no reason to watch this show. And Naonka is still in this. Blergh. Next week: I'm out at a social function and won't be recapping the show until Thursday at the earliest. Oh, and surprise! Naonka is still crazy.

The Amazing Race Episode 8 Recap

I'm really tired tonight and absolutely do not want to be doing a long recap of this show. Although if I had to predict an elimination, I'd say Chad and Stephanie because both the onscreen TV guide and the actual CBS preview of the show notes Chad proposes to Stephanie. Err, nope. Fake out. Chad and Stephanie finished first, although only because Jill and Thomas incurred a time penalty for paying a cab to lead them somewhere. Gary and Mallory came in last and were eliminated. Next week: Double U-Turn!

Sunday afternoon humor

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Yogurt Fail

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