Finally some warmer weather

The outside temperature has made quite a swing in the warm direction the past couple of days. My sweet wife and I were lucky enough to have a completely kidless evening (not that I'm not crazy about my wonderful children, but when you've got 3 of them under 5, there is very little time for us to just hang out, without dealing with the minor crisis that seem to make up daily life with children) and we took advantage of it. When we left the movie in Calgary, it was a balmy -6C (21.2F) but when we finished the half hour drive to our house in Strathmore, it was -28C (-18.4F).Ah, the wonderful effects of a chinook. Today, it was 7C (45F) and we finally got out on the backyard skating rink. This was my very first attempt at building my own ice rink and I learned a lot. I'll do things very differently next year, but I did manage to get this one to a state that isn't all that bad. Certainly it'll help my oldest practice his puck handling skills and some of the finer points of ice skating. Skating backwards, sharp cornering and hard stops. All those skills that make a big difference in a hockey game. The boys and I were out for about 2 hours today, and I even stripped down to just jeans and a t-shirt.

This weather is supposed to hold for a while, and I think I might just head out for a warm weather bike ride tomorrow. Maybe drop the pressure right down on the KM and see how she does on some of the old canal trails I rode during the summer.

Cheers.

Beard Stays!!!

Please, don't make me shave tonight!

In true hockey fashion, I shaved the day my team The Calgary Flames, played their first playoff game. No shaving until they win, or are out. This is called the playoff beard.


Tonight they play game 6 against the San Jose Sharks, and their down a game. IF they loose, their out. If they win tonight, the winner of the next game goes on.




GO FLAMES GO!!

For sure

Delta Sucks

On my way to a measure in Kansas City, MO today, and Sarasota, FL tomorrow.

UP at 3:30am to be able to shower at work (living in the RV right now and showing there would wake up the family) only to get in to SLC (Salt Lake City) at around 8 in the morning. Flight out was to leave at 10am. Flight canceled. Re-booked through St. Paul, delayed(bad weather there apparently). Doug, was there actually bad weather, or was it a little white lie from the airline? Ended up hanging out at the airport (just cause it's the cool thing to do ya know) until around 3 and then got a hotel. Thanks for something Delta.

I was able to hook up with Patrick, a great contractor that's done a fair bit of work for me in the last while. He and his wife and my co-worker enjoyed some Mexican, but before that, I scored big on a bike light.

Dicks sports had some pretty nice headlights, and I picked up one for my winter cycling and running (yeah I'm getting back into that now). Petzl TIKKA. Uber bright. They also had the Princeton TEK EOS LED as recommended by Vik on Brol, but I decided to go with this option because while reviewing the literature on the packaging, I noticed the Petzel has a significantly higher battery life, was 15 lumins brighter and was 10 grams lighter. Not a big deal, but I may as well try something different and if it doesn't work, I'm sure there will be more of the princtons available.

Checked out the Target (checking out something for my wife that's not available in Canada) and headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, conf. call @ 7 am, flight @ 9:30, arive in MCI around noon. Measure, catch the 5:30 to SRQ and hopefully get that job measured up also. If not, first thing Thursday morning. Hope to be home Thursday night. At latest, Friday afternoon.

Friday I am planning on checking out the Calgary home & interior design show for some ideas/products for my house before heading to a Hitmen game. This will be the first hockey game that I am taking my oldest son to, so I'm pretty stoked. He's a hockey fan like I am and I think he's going to love seeing it live. I've already got a few pairs of tickets to some Flames games this season, so who knows, maybe he'll be checking those out also if he can actually sit there that long.

End on a beer note: I went into a gas station while my host was filling up and saw this Full Suspension Pale Ale by Squatters Brew Pub. Unfiltered style. Not too bad. Support for the biking themed brews. Actually the only reason that I chose this one over others that were available. It's a little spicy, definatly reminds me of the SNIPA, but a little tamer.

Peace all. Ride your bike, cause right now, I can't.