Film Festival

Last night we went down to Keyano Theatre to take in the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour -- and it was awesome! They showed 7 incredible films all about different aspects of mountain adventure and culture - all very inspiring with a splash of crazy. My two favourites were A Life Ascending and Fly or Die. The first follows the life of a back country ski guide in B.C, five years after an avalanche killed 7 of his skiers. The second was about this crazy mountain climber who climbs solo, without any ropes, but wears a parachute so if/when he falls he can fly instead of die. The footage is just unreal and a little sickening too!
The other films included mountain biking, downhill skateboarding, wildlife, more rock climbers and even one about building schools in Afghanistan.

I highly recommend you check this out if you get a chance. It's coming to a theatre near you, so get tickets if you can!! The schedule can be found here.

Lady of Leisure

Oh to be this cat. She has a pretty content life which consists exclusively of sleeping, attacking dust particles, clawing the carpet on the stairs, grooming herself and demanding attention from others. Here, she practices her lady-like posture (which will be used later to earn praise from Special K.) 

If you have a cat, you have to watch the “Simon’s Cat” videos on YouTube. He gets the ‘cattitude’ bang on!

Food Shortage!! Please send celery!

One of the downsides to living 5 hours from Edmonton on a rather crappy two lane highway, is that occasionally the grocery trucks get stuck. This was the produce selection at Extra Foods on Tuesday!

Proof that no one, even in desperate times, likes brussel sprouts

Cross Country Skiing

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – there are some great trails in this town! The Birchwood Trail system was fun to bike on this summer, and in the winter the local xcountry ski club even track-sets them. So today I took out last months Kijiji purchase (nearly new xcountry skiis) for a test drive. And I only crashed once!

Happy New Year

Well another Christmas season has come and gone. Here’s a quick recap of what we did:

Attempted to visit as many friends and family as possible (It was great to see everyone but still missed a few – next trip!); stuffed our faces with turkey, ham and salmon (at the same meal); rented the curling rink for a Sackett Xmas Bonspiel; went snowshoeing in Water Valley; watched the Flames beat the Oilers in Edmonton; celebrated New Years (a little too heavily) with dinner and dueling pianos; Special K went sledding for 3 days in Revelstoke (a good time despite a bent up sled and speeding ticket!); was spoiled heavily by Santa; and to top it off, two of my cousins had baby boys!

Snowshoers

Christmas Trees

Well I tried to set up Special K’s Christmas tree - which had been sitting untouched in the basement for 3 years - but it was just too big and awkward, so instead I put it on Kijiji! Haha! But first I scavenged three loose branches, wrapped the ends in a dish cloth and stuffed it in a glass: and voila, three mini-christmas trees are born. We have the red & gold tree, Kirt’s Christmas past tree (decorated with ornaments made for him over the years by his aunt), and the burned out lightbulb tree.

The light bulb decorations turned out pretty good actually and it only cost me a can of spray paint. You have to use your imagination a little bit, but picture a full size tree full of gold painted sparkly light bulbs with gold ribbon and twinkly lights. Next year, when I have more than 6 light bulbs I am going to try that! 

Sunset

Here's a lovely little photo of the sunset taken from the upstairs window just moments ago...AT 3:40 IN THE AFTERNOON!

Santa, you better be bringing vitamin D supplements.