1st League night of the year

Well, our team - "Under the Influence" - played our first league night for the new 8-ball pool season.  I was pretty stoked to get out there and show off all the practice I had been doing over the summer.  I had been playing pool fairly regularly on Friday nights during the last 4 months and my game had been steadily coming up. Sadly it was all for naught last night.  I played dismally. :o(   Out of a possible 40 points I only captured 22.  I got blown out in one game 10-2.  yikes!  In my last bid to win a game I accidentally pocketed the 8 ball before it was supposed to go down.  *sigh*.  It looks like I need more practice.  I think my excitement and nerves got the best of me.  I know I'm a better pool player than that I just have to show it!  Ok. Next week will be better.  At least I got that crappy shooting out of the way and no one really cares what you do in your first game of the year anyway.  It's the last games of the year, when you're in playoffs that really matter.

September Long weekend at the Lake

Long weekends during the summer are my favourite!  This past weekend I was out at Buffalo Lake with friends again and despite the weather we had a great time.  For me it was particularly enjoyable since it was the first time out with my new (to me) tent trailer! :o) Man what a treat compared to setting up my old tent.  I'm really looking forward to camping next summer.    We had a blast playing cards, poker, dice.  Some of the guys ended up going golfing and Dezzy picked up this funky hat with the frosted hair.  Doesn't he look like Guy Fieri from the "Minute to Win It" show?

Now that September is here I don't imagine that I'll be doing much more camping, but it was still nice to get out in my tent trailer at least once this year.  I think I'll have to make a couple more modifications to it too.  I foresee an additional rack bar getting mounted on top so that I can accommodate some kayaks on top.  I'll probably end up getting a new water pump to replace the manual one, and I may investigate the cost of replacing the ice box with an actual refrigerator too. I'm really looking forward to next year now. :o)

Here's Dez with the cool hat/hair combo












And here's Guy Fieri from "Minute to Win It".

A bit of catch up!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything on here and I've been getting some feedback that people actually do read my blog and are interested in what I've been up to!  Huh?  Go figure! :o) So with that in mind I guess it's time to play catch up and give a bit of an update!

Camping:

The weather has been pretty crappy this summer so I've only been out a couple of times.  I managed to head out to Kananaskis with some good friends of mine - Dez and Steph.  It was awesome being in the mountains and I even managed to take my Kayak out to do a little paddling around on the upper lakes. :o)

Then at the beginning of August I was invited out with my friends Darren and Lori to go out to Buffalo lake and spend some time at the cottage that Ken and Michelle have there.  I did a bit more Kayaking and even managed to get a fish up to the side of my boat too!  Finally some success!

This weekend I'm heading out again (Sept Long) and will be going out to the cottage again, but this time I'll be rocking my new tent trailer!  Finally, no more sleeping on the ground.  I'm happy with the time I've spent tenting and it was a great time, but I'll be so happy not to have to shuffle camping gear in and out of my house any more and to be able to sleep off the ground for a change.  Awesome!






Motorcycle Trips:

None.  Shitty weather. Nuff said.

Kayaking:

I've actually managed to get out quite a bit on the kayak this year.  I took it out July Long Weekend out to the Upper Lakes in Kananaskis.  Then I spent a few days out on it enjoying a leisurely float down the Bow River.  Man there is nothing like floating in the sun with your fishing rod hanging off the side, and good friends next to you and the occasional bite on the line.  Did I mention that I took the Yak up to Buffalo Lake for the August long weekend too?  Yup.  Love my Kayak.



Expenses:

Well, I was on my way up to the Mac to visit my mom and help her with the house when disaster struck!  Yes, my sunroof exploded!  Wow.  I was in shock when it happened.  Sounded like a huge rock thrown by a big hay truck coming the other way.  I think it ricocheted off my roof rack cross bar and down into the sun roof.  A huge bang and then shattered glass and a hole in my roof.  *sigh*  Luckily I wasn't hurt but it did punch me in my bank account.  It felt like someone hauled off and kicked me in the nards.  $800.00 bucks to replace it.  ouch.  So I decided to get my windshield done at the same time and of course an oil change just to put the cherry on top.  A thousand bucks later and I'm crying myself to sleep.  Darn it.  Needless to say I didn't make it up to McMurray to visit my mom since it was supposed to rain on the weekend (big surprise) and they didn't have anyone up there that could fix it for me.  Grrrr.

Also decided to sell my tonneau cover and get myself a nice little roll-n-lock cover instead.  That was a few bucks too.  I only snagged a couple hundred for the old fiber glass cover and the new roll-n-lock cost me close to a grand.  At least that was an investment I was happy to make.

Toys!:

Well, I had to do it.  I had been planning and saving for a long time.  I replaced my iPhone 3G with a new 'factory unlocked' iPhone 4 from Apple.  Wow what an improvement.  Lightening fast, awesome screen resolution, and full iOS 4.02 functionality.  I love it. I sold my old phone for 200 bucks believe it or not.  Amazing.

Also just picked up a new ipod connector for my truck.  This fun little toy will let me control my ipod music right from my steering whee controls and the display track and song title via my radio.  This is going to be a handy little toy!

Trauma.

Well it looks like the "powers that be" at my condo board want to take away my Softub.  I've had it for 2 years now and they have decided it has to go.  The by-laws recently changed and they now state that a hot tub is not allowed anywhere on condo property.  The new by-laws came into effect in May.  They sent me the letter at the end of August and I've had my softub since Aug 2008.  I think I have a good chance of keeping in some sort of grandfather clause but we'll see.  The board meets on Wednesday to decide.  I'll keep you posted.

Ok.  That's most of the good stuff.  If I think of more I'll let you know.  Until then here's a recent picture of me.

Ciao!

PS: don't forget to follow me on twitter:  http://twitter.com/Smudged :o)