Bad Moon Rising

Looks like Halloween is just around the corner!  I really like this time of the year but unfortunately I haven't done anything in the way of prepping for it yet.  So far, I have yet to get a costume, buy a pumpkin or get any candy for the kids that might knock on my door on Hallow's Eve.  I'm not sure why I'm being such a stick in the mud this year.  I wonder if it's because it seems like none of my friends are doing anything for Halloween and as such I have no where to go this weekend?

Last year, a bunch of us headed over to the Classic Q on Halloween and played pool all night, ate pumpkin shaped cookies, and marveled over some of the costume choices that the other patrons made.  It was a fairly decent way to spend the evening.  I managed to enjoy some good company, and shot pool for free all night!  The Q brought out munchies for everyone to enjoy and near they end they had their costume contest.  The down side was that there were so many people that most of the tables were taken up and that left 8 or 10 of us trying to get time on the one we did manage to secure. 

This year I put the word out to see what everyone is doing and have received nary a response yet.  I wonder if I need to change my cologne?  I shower every day so hopefully it's not an odour issue!  Perhaps it's a personality issue!  Yikes.  That's a little tougher to fix.  I'm guessing that people already have other offers on the table and are hedging their bets to see which one seems like the most fun and will jump on that.  Otherwise I'm sure my friends would be comfortable enough to tell me that they already have something going on.   

I had been contemplating doing something at my place.  I had thought I would invite some people over to carve some pumpkins and just hang out.  Unfortunately no one seems interested in doing anything, let alone pumpkin carving.  It might even be too late at this point to get things going for a night of carving pumpkins.  meh.  The upside is that I won't have to worry about cleaning up pumpkin guts after.

In any case I think I'll at least carve a pumpkin for myself this Saturday.   It can be a tedious process but I do enjoy the results.  I'll make sure to take some pictures and post them here.  I might even pull out a scary movie, pop a batch of my infamous Nacho Popcorn and just chillax.  

In the meantime, here's a couple of links to some nicely carved pumpkins.  I'm not sure that I'll be able to crank out anything so spectacular though! :o) 

Pumpkin Masters Carving 2009 winners: http://bit.ly/aOOf1b

Some Amazing Pumpkin Sculptures: http://bit.ly/aubybT

Some Pop Culture Jack-O-Lanterns: http://huff.to/9q6L5y

Mid October Update

Well, I'm not sure who reads these things, but I figured it was time to post an update and to get myself back in the habit of writing.  :o)  


I know I posted the title as a "mid" October update even though it's already the 20th but heck it still feels like the middle of the month to me.  I guess that's probably because I just got back from a week in McMurray where I spent some time with my mom during Thanksgiving.  It was a nice visit, but I went up there to give my mom a hand with the house again.  There was more work to do in the basement and lots of little chores around the house that mom needed my help for.  It was fairly productive I have to admit.  I managed to help take more stuff to the dump, painted part of her basement, cleaned up her computer cables and tv cables, did a bit more yard maintenance, and even got around to painting a fence.  I think my mom was fairly happy to have some help with that stuff.  


On the way back from my visit in McMurray I managed to stop into Jomaa's Pizza and picked up a couple of pizza subs for my friends Darren and Lori.  Darren had made a request for one so I figured it was the least I could do since they were checking in on my cats for me while I was away.  I had contacted Lori to see what kind of sub she wanted and she figured I was goofing around when I offered to bring her back a Jomaa's sub.  So she played along and put in her order.  Was she ever surprised to find out that I was serious and did in fact pick up a sub for her and Darren.  Priceless! I have to say it was torture driving down to St Albert with 2 freshly made subs in the backseat of my truck!  They almost didn't make it and I was sooo tempted to pull over and satiate my craving!  I do have some discipline though so they made it intact.  


I decided to spend a couple of days in Edmonton though and stay with my sister and her husband in St Albert.  It was nice to visit with them and it gave me an opportunity to hook up with some old friends that live in the area.  Unfortunately not all of them could come out and play but maybe next time when I'm up we can arrange something.  All I can say is that the ones that couldn't make it missed out on a fun night of Karaoke and watching the Flames beat the Oilers! Yaaah baby!


Oh did I happen to mention that I have finally achieved some measure of resolution regarding my Softub?  Yup.  They said I could keep it - on several conditions though.  I have to keep it locked up when not in use - which is not really a big deal.  I just have to get in the habit of doing up the straps.  I also have to submit proof that I'm insured in case of damage or injury.  That bothers me a bit but I guess I don't really have much choice.  It's not that I'm worried about my insurance, but more concerned with the invasion of privacy in having to provide this documentation.  It would be similar to asking every driver on the road to prove to you that they have insurance before you'll drive on the road with them.  meh.  It sticks in my craw but what are you going to do?  I'm not going to "Lawyer up" just because of that.  The last couple/three stipulations basically revolve around the idea that they can revoke my privilege at any time for whatever reason they feel like - giving me only 30 days to get rid of it if they don't want me to have it.  I'm guessing that if I don't rock the boat, then I shouldn't have any trouble in that area.  In the meantime, I'll just finish my reno's and get the place ready to sell so I can buy a house and be done with condo boards!


Something interesting that happened this week was the civic election.  Calgary managed to elect their first Muslim mayor into office.  Personally I could care less what his religion was as long as he had my best interests at heart and helped the city to prosper.  I guess it's still an issue for some people though.  I'm not sure who exactly since he captured over %40 of the vote!  It was also a great year for voter turn out too.  Over ~%50 of eligible Calgarians turned out to vote. I guess that means 1 out of every 2 people cast a ballot!. wow.  That's impressive considering that in 2007 we only had ~30% voter turnout and in 2004 we had less than ~20% turnout.  


Mayor Nenshi ran a good campaign though and I think he deserves to take a crack at the top job.  I hope he does well. *fingers crossed*  Maybe he'll see fit to lower my taxes.  A guy can hope right? 

On the horizon looms Halloween.  I'm thinking of hosting a pumpkin carving event at my place again.  I wonder if I can get anyone interested in coming over to try their hand at a sculpted creation.  I have lots of patterns to take a shot at it with!  I'll let you know if this actually goes ahead.   If you happen to have any links to some good pumpkin carving patterns, please let me know, I'm always looking for some good ones!  Maybe this year I'll figure out how to use my dremel to do a pumpkin like this Monty Burns one! ;o) 

Kayaking on the Bow

I have to admit when my friend Darren asked if I was interested in Kayaking on Sunday, I was a little concerned that the weather might be a little shitty to be paddling around on the river in the cold and rain.  Luckily I have faith that anything Darren thinks might be fun, usually turns out that way.  So despite the forecast for being overcast with a chance of rain, I hustled my ass and rounded up all my kayaking gear so I could join him and his wife out on the Bow for a day of fishing and floating down the water.  It turned out to be a pretty nice for being out in my Yak.  We enjoyed +17 despite the fact that it was overcast most of the day.  In fact as we crossed under the bridge at 22x, the sun started blazing.

It's amazing how the look of a river can change so dramatically as the seasons change.  It was really something to be out there and see all the fall colors out in full force.  I really wish we had more red in our trees to offset some of the overwhelming yellow's and oranges that we get, but that's not to say our fall colors lack anything in the beauty department for a lack of red.  It was so nice just to float and take in the scenery around me.  The river did most of the work and carried me along while I was gently bobbing along in my kayak.  For an hour after I got off the river, I still felt the gentle rocking motion of the boat.

Luckily the river was kind to me yesterday and finally rewarded me with a fish!  Yes that's right!  After casting my line out over a thousand times over the summer I finally caught something!  Oh wait.  I caught a fish when I was at Buffalo Lake at the beginning of August but that one didn't put up much of a fight compared to this one.  This trout was a beauty, at least 12 inches and I had it jumping out of the water on the end of my line!  I pulled it right in to the boat and as I was reeling it in, it slipped the hook and swam free.  Ah well, I'm ok with that.  Yesterday was about catch and release anyway.  I wasn't planning on taking him home with me, although I'm sure my cats would have loved that! :o)

Now that we're deep into Autumn and I've had my last taste of the water for a while, I'm already eager for next year to come around.  I have a few more modifications I'd like to do to my kayak and then it will be a great recreational fishing craft!  The most important change will be the addition of drain plugs at either end.  I'm tired of the hassle it takes to try and get all the water out of my yak when I come off the river.   This little green fishing kayak of mine has been a great learning experience.  I'm sure at some point I'll upgrade to a newer model and hopefully by then I will have figured out all the features I really enjoy and want in a kayak. ;o)  Till then, I guess I'll have to enjoy my winter hobbies!

Oh and before I let you go, here's a link to a little YouTube montage of all the pics and video I took while I was out on the river!   Enjoy! http://bit.ly/9vsK64